Transfers, Liverpool, Worries and Hopes

Article by Lachlan Peters @loque91

Does anyone else always forget about the International Break? It feels like every season I am so ecstatic when the season starts, then we get a few games in and everything is great – boom. Break time. It really grinds my gears that I never remember it is coming. Anyway, with the break now over and the transfer window shut, lets have a little looksie at what has been happening in the two weeks since that draw against Liverpool.

1 - Vorm is going to be just fine

I always thought that it was rather strange how much Michel Vorm’s position in our squad has been questioned since he signed from Swansea. We did get him for a reason; he played very well for Swansea. Remember he is our BACKUP keeper; by all accounts he should be ‘marginally’ worse than our first choice - the best man between our sticks since Pat Jennings – Monsieur Loris.

When Loris walked off injured against Everton I think many of us started to worry openly, probably in an exaggerated fashion that we were already screwed and the season wasn’t even one game in. Michel Vorm stepped up, he seemed cool, he made a truly excellent save that kept us in the game at a really crucial moment, he did great. Against Palace he wasn’t really tested, against Liverpool however? He absolutely shone. Man of the match easily, saved us a lot of blushing before half time with a technically varied and brilliantly confident performance.

Having completed the move for a season long loan of Espanyol’s Pau Lopez, we seemed to be adequately covered between the sticks. Vorm’s performance against Liverpool would have done his confidence a world of good. Perhaps if you are feeling cynical you could suggest that his price would have increased if we were looking to sell him if Lopez seems to be a better prospect. Either way, we owe some thanks to Vorm and some respect.

2 - This transfer window was weird, not terrible

This may be a divisive opinion, but I thought we had an alright transfer window. I don’t know about you but I am still proud and expectant of the first 11 we put out last season, if there had been any real changes to that squad I would have felt weird about it. We need to realise that we are not the kind of the club that will go out and spend like the ones in Manchester. We got our big deals done early enough for them to compete in pre-season games, Janssen and Wanyama have gelled really well. The N’Koudou saga was unfortunate but not all the fault of Daniel Levy as some have been keen to point out. Marseille had a change of ownership before the deal could be completed and it complicated proceedings. Those were the areas that just about every fan and pundit could see needed strengthening.

Yes, every window we are going to be linked with some mega-star that we would all love come to White Hart Lane. That is the nature of journalism and click-bait at the moment. How true any of the rumours were for Goetze is hard to see, likewise any serious intent for capturing Isco was probably dubious. While it does annoy me that we don’t seem to get any favours from Real Madrid after supplying them with the players they needed to re-ascend to the height of European football, I guess that’s just not how transfers work.

So no, we didn’t do anything particularly flashy. We pulled a “Willian” on Everton in capturing Sissoko from out of their outstretched hands, which for me makes the transfer that little bit better. The signing of the French International appears to have divided Spurs fans down the middle, but I remain optimistic about any player’s potential under our amazing coach.

I think Spurs fans need to focus on the positives here. We kept our best players, there was not even any real rumours of anyone leaving. Our underperforming players were sold for very good amounts of money - Daniel Levy can squeeze pennies like a boss. We have strength in depth now that many fans were yearning for and we have a situation where the chairman is backing his manager with transfers.

3 - We continue to struggle against quality teams sitting deep

So it seems opposing teams have doubled down on their negative tactics against us this season. Not a great sign. I feel we gained a few good results by surprising a few teams with real quality last season (Dele Alli, Dier, Dembele etc) but once our tactics, methods and personnel are all known quantities, it can become very difficult to overcome a stubbornly defensive team.

Everton managed to deal with our possession and pressing quite well, producing a number of dangerous counter attacks that were poorly capitalised on (remember they didn’t have a recognised striker on the pitch). Crystal Palace proved to be easier to contain defensively, again without Benteke, but sat deep enough to frustrate our forwards and stifle many clear-cut chances coming to fruition.

Liverpool showcased this in perhaps the most worrying fashion. They were without their best defensive player; Emre Can, and had employed James Milner as a makeshift Left Back. It was assumed by at least a few that even if they were sitting deep we should be making in roads on their goal. This simply didn’t happen. The interesting question is whether this was due to their tactics, or down to a poor performance by our own creative and attacking players. Yes, we lost Kyle Walker early on and his pace on the wing is crucial to some of our attacking play, but I don’t think that really changed the game too much. We looked bereft of ideas going forward, Eriksen, Dele and Lamela couldn’t seem to pick the easiest of passes or complete a run forward. Harry Kane was not receiving productive service, but was also not creating any special attacking momentum of his own accord. Janssen did not seem to have the same impact as he has done in his previous two outings.

It is only my humble opinion, but I believe we were extremely lucky to have got a draw against Liverpool. Don’t get me wrong I was jumping about and cheering in the pub as much as the next guy, but even Danny’s lashed shot could have easily sliced off of his boot and into the side netting. We had only just survived a very marginal offside call that really could have gone either way, and as previously mentioned Vorm had produced a few wonder saves in the first half to keep us in contention at all.

I’m not exactly sure what needs to be fixed here, or how to fix it. Is this a case of poor transfer market strategy? Would N’Koudou have been able to make a difference, or some marquee signing like Mario Goetze or Isco? It is hard to say. Perhaps if our own stars were on form they would have made a better impression against a side that had just lost 2-0 to newly promoted Burnley. The worrying thing, as I said in the outset, is that our game seems to have been figured out and easily stifled by opposing teams. Maybe our pressing style of play will take awhile to kick into fifth gear and start producing stronger displays, as it did last season. Will we fare better away from home where the opposition will not be so casual about sitting relentlessly deep? Maybe – that has been the case in previous seasons. Perhaps now that we have a ‘Plan B’ in Vincent Janssen, we should also be looking for a ‘Plan C’ in the form of some kind of tactical or positional switch. Or maybe we are just missing Dembele.

4 - We shouldn't be worried, yet

I do not want to leave you, optimistic Spurs fans, on a negative note. So lets assess why the game against Liverpool could be seen with a more flowery tint. First of all, we didn’t lose. We remain unbeaten and our point tally is better than it was this time last season. We also only let in one goal, a pretty harsh penalty by any standard, against a team that put four past a certain other club that no one really cares about. We denied Mane, Coutinho and Firmino. Not an easy task. Some people even berated me on Twitter for not assuming we would have won considering Mane ‘should have been sent off’. We might get into a philosophical argument there about the way determinism works but that is slightly off topic.

Poch has come out and said that the squad is still in recovery mode and that they are ‘a little behind’. We keep coming back better in the second halves of games and these late rallies are saving us points, it is a very good thing.

At the end of the day, we managed to get a point, even though our best players all played 

rubbish. We had our hugely important wingback leave through injury in the first half, and his replacement set up our equalising goal. We avoided any red cards (although Lamela may face a ban following photos released showing him apparently eye gouging Lovren). Our new signings kept looking relatively good and Joshua Onomah looked lively upon his introduction.

We’ve had a string of rough results against Liverpool in the past so a draw doesn’t seem too bad seen within that context. Again, I wont mention them but yunno, another team you might have heard of was properly dismantled by Liverpool only a few weeks ago, and we survived relatively unscathed.

This result might be the kick up the arse that a few of our boys needed before heading into the international break.

What do you think? Am I missing something here? Being too negative or perhaps too optimistic? Leave a comment below or give me a shout at @e_spurs_aus. Look out for the e-Spurs podcast released twice weekly and look out for more articles, opinion pieces and news on a variety of social media spaces.

Come on you Spurs !

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