Article by Lee MasonListen to this week's e-Spurs podcast here
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Are you bottom of the table? Struggling to score goals? Are your strikers goal shy or going through a scoring drought? Are you odds on favourite to lose almost every game you play? Poor away record? Are you a team worth less than Altrincham's over 90 Tiddlywinks team? Do you have a sloppy defence which struggles to keep a clean sheet? Then why not play Tottenham every week. Guaranteed success or your money back. We can assure you that you will be satisfied with our service. We can offer a minimum of 1 point and a maximum of 3 points. Come to our friendly ground and we will allow free reign in the middle of the park, we always recommend playing two banks of four at the back to stifle our play, but if you would prefer to play four at the back then we can also accommodate. And that's not all! Our fans will provide a booing service for you from the moment you score.
Yesterdays game v West Bromwich was incredibly depressing. It took until the 71st minute before we had our first shot on target. None of the expected pressing was evident. The progress shown from our friendlies in the US to the improvements made by the time we faced QPR suggested that we had advanced enough to be able to beat teams like West Bromwich at home. Against Liverpool you can blame fear, since we seemed to perk up around the 25th minute when we realised we were only 1 nil down, not that we had any cutting edge in the final third in that game. Sunderland we switched between high intensity to keep-ball. With the Partizan Belgrade game you could argue that the lack of pressing was sensible, we were away in a hostile atmosphere with a pitch seemingly built by an architect inspired by World War 1 trenches.
It's still early days but it's difficult for a Spurs fan such as myself to not feel like we've been here before. And I think the constant pointing of fingers wont help us either. 'Baldini is to blame for the buys', 'Levy and Enic are to blame', 'the manager is to blame', 'the over privileged mercenary players are to blame' or 'Latvian fiscal policy is to blame'. Realistically all these are to blame (even the Latvian fiscal policy if you look close enough and are unhinged).
It will still take time for Pochettino to impart his tactics to the players. It is a long term project (deja vu anyone?). But it is a long term project (deja vu anyone?). On top of that, Levy and co have not really busted a gut pulling in another striker, just an average run of the mill bog standard striker would do. Levy and Enic have made both positive and negative contributions to the club, but after 12 years in charge there does seem to be the feeling that Levy and Co are still dining out on the 50 million loan in 2002 and the judicial financial decisions made which have us seen as well run. But even if Levy had bought another striker would they have been able to do anything on their own when we have a team where half the players can't be bothered at any one time? Then there are the players who are willing to put in an effort, some are willing to show tenacity. But the emphasis is on the word some.
It is much better for us to make all these mistakes now, although if I am still writing that come May 2015 then that would be thoroughly depressing. What are we expecting as fans? For me it is to watch us play attractive football, win a cup, finish 6th or higher and move up the league over the next few seasons in sensible increments. By 'sensible' I mean not squandering money on pap, not releasing our best players and making sound decisions in line with our future stadium plans.
The next game against Nottingham Forest will be a strange one, will Pochettino rest ten or more players with Arsenal in mind? Will he play half the team that lost today against Forest to try and help them gain a winning mentality before the Arsenal game? Difficult decisions to be made.
It is a long term project.
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i cant say im suprised, its avb all over again. I dont blame Poch for this even tho i was dead against his appointment. I predicted hiring him would have zero impact on us and I stand by that. However, this is the players fault and the fans fault.
ReplyDeleteBoth thought we would just turn up yesterday and roll over West Brom no problem. Its mental weakness that the top clubs dont have. But then we dont have the top players so what do we expect? the atmosphere at the ground was appalling too. The players arent helping us sing but my god we arent helping them either.
We all need a wake up call and see what we are. We are not top 4. No chance, not on our budget. We need to prioritise the cups and to a degree treat the league as preperation for these cup games. Win a cup and the glory is yours. Try for 4th and you'll get nothing.
We are a cup team, always have been and the sooner we realise this the better. We put too much pressure on the team and they in turn wilt under it. Reality check is needed.
Agree with your post above (anonymous 10.34). I thought we could have tried harder for De Boer, but now we have Poch why not give him the players he wanted. Stambouli instead of Schneiderlin, Fazio and not Musacchio.
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Good article. Deja vu? At times I think it's more like Groundhog Day.
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