So spursy again today everytime we have the chance to show our credentials and put pressure on at the top we blow it.I am disappointed but I could see it coming with our injury list.but you have to give the mousers some credit they were the better side.
Pochettino: "We need to show more, in the end we will fight for top six but it's difficult to fight for the Premier League."
Has nobody at our club watched Bull Durham? Crash Davis: It's time to work on your interviews. Ebby Calvin LaLoosh: My interviews? What do I gotta do? Crash Davis: You're gonna have to learn your clichés. You're gonna have to study them, you're gonna have to know them. They're your friends. Write this down: "We gotta play it one day at a time." Ebby Calvin LaLoosh: Got to play... it's pretty boring. Crash Davis: 'Course it's boring, that's the point. Write it down.
We know this will happen but it's so disappointing when it does. I think Rose is a huge miss he brings so much fight that we missed very badly. Liverpool just had to harass with little to worry about, attack wise from us. Football is a fickle game if Son had taken one of his two early chances we would have seen a different game. Remember how this team completely outplayed Chelsea in the first half at Stamford Bridge but they managed to score at the death of the first half despite our domination, then came out in the second half to win. Games can change on very little and so much of football is in the mind.
Spurs have now played all the other top 8 away from home (which is a good thing now). But in these "six pointers", your record is W0 D4 L3.
Last summer we needed to buy some pace and goal threat for the bench. With Lamela's absence for the last few months, we have less than last year. Given that we have £100m less to spend than Liverpool each season, nearly £150m less than Chelsea and Arsenal and over £300m less than United, trying to beat those sides is not going to be easy. Gambling on young players with no PL experience isn't working and Sissoko had bad buy written all over him. Back to the drawing board or we'll need to raid the Academy for next season.
I'm not going to deny funds are an issue, but this team is good enough to win the league. But you've underperformed in some big away games and that is probably a mental thing. The solid defence has faltered badly at crucial times away at City, Chelsea, Utd and Liverpool. There have been times when the defence has looked as if it would be overrun by the opposition. This is a trait which separates the winners from the very good in many sports. Look at the England cricket team. They can play like kings with Cook or Root getting big hundreds, then collapse and lose half the side for no runs as soon as the wicket favours the opposition bowlers. I think what separates Spurs from being where you are and being where Chelsea presently are, is purely in the mind. If SAF was manager, you'd have won the title last season and be hot favourites this time.
Mane v Davies I said, and that was Davies put to the sword. Bottled it today, jelly legs got the better of us. We were clueless. Another opportunity to show how serious we are and another spanking. So long as we can plod through to get top 4. I want some glory...I want us to go for the Europa.
We bought pace...but GKN has hardly featured all season We already had a goal threat from the bench...but Lamela's lengthy injury lay-off thrust Son into a starting spot We bought another goal threat from the bench...but Kane's injury thrust Janssen into the starting lineup ahead of schedule, with disastrous results That's the point: we did address these issues (to a degree) last summer, but the implementation is where it went wrong. The plan was for Janssen to grow into the team over the course of the season, but when Kane got injured he was thrown in at the deep end and expected to perform ahead of schedule - and while this may have succeeded last season with Alli performing at a level above what we initially expected, Alli was the exception and not the rule. Similar can be said for Son, who as several posters have said on here all season long is a great option from the bench but is less reliable as a starter, but with Lamela out for so long and Janssen's confidence through the floor he's starting far more matches than anyone would have expected. And then there's GKN, who like Janssen was expected to be slowly introduced into the team, but due to the clusterfuck of epic proportions that was his transfer saga he was several weeks behind on training compared to the rest of the squad and was playing catch-up from there on.
No its not in the mind . Finance dictates 95% of the time . Coming from a privalliged advantage such as utd,city,Chavs sounds that your point is to justify your somewhat bought success. Out first 11 is a marvel and can beat anyone . What separates us is the threadbare back up . 2 class players out and the first 11 quality drops drastically. It's a fact ,we cannot maintain a level for a whole season as injuries will be our down full. The lucky ones can absorb, cup runs, champs league etc we can't .
**** me that game has changed the perspective! Sometimes I get the feeling Poch over thinks and ends up in a muddle and that transpires into the team. Another big away day, another **** up. Teams that play to their strengths beat Pool....Swansea, Hull, Burnley...today we played like cowards.
Sid this is the first post you've ever written that I've understood from start to finish, and I agree with it 100%.
Blimey, thanks matey , l do try but it usually goes tits up . Going for a ruby at the Kharzi of Kalibar , Suffolks finest . Keep smiling . A hungry Sid
I just think he's a bit lost for answers at the moment. We can talk about mentality and desire all we want but at the end of the day, it is the players who step out onto the pitch and for 90 minutes they are beyond his immediate ability to control. What a manager really needs in situations like this when the big players aren't on form is options to change things from the bench. Someone to give the opposition something to think about and set the cat amongst the pigeons, at the same time as raising his team-mates' spirits. To an extent, we had that against City having been played off the park for 45 minutes. He removed Wimmer and put Son on. Thanks to Hugo's 5 minutes of madness, we'll never know the true effectiveness of that move, but at least on paper it must have got the leaky City defense worried. But it was still a brilliant move as we created 2 great chances, scored 2 great goals, he got the second and we stole a point in broad daylight. Sissoko, Janssen, Onomah and GKN aren't those players. Six months into the season I think we can safely say that their total impact come May will be measurable in units of millimeters. I like Winks, but he is the type of player you bring on to steady the ship and settle the rhythm, not to find you a goal out of nothing. What wouldn't I give to look at our bench and see Chadli and Defoe stripping off, ready to come on! Look, Dier and Davies instead of Jan and Rose is a massive drop in quality and Liverpool channeled everything down that flank. In better circumstances, we'd have Jan and Rose with Lamela providing extra defensive cover if necessary. As others have said, our first XI is probably the best in the country. But beyond Winks, Son and Lamela, there is a massive drop in quality between what is on the pitch and what is on the bench. A number of posters on here believe that we need £millions to put this right. I just think we need more common sense.
There's a lot of truth in that, but it's true for the big spenders too. Take crucial players out and all teams are weakened. But Dier and Davies aren't makeweights - they're as good as any back-up players you could mention.
We had £65m worth of talent on the bench today. I doubt you'll find many PL teams who can match that. Our recruitment policy and market strategy is flawed, and has been since BMJ was manager.
Poch needs to be braver...we die anyway when it comes to the crunch games away from home, may as well die in style. Can't stand the tempo we adapt. Conte is brave with Moses and it pays. As someone mentioned above we should have played a winger as the wing back..he would have been more of a threat going forward and certainly not any worse than Davies was in defence.. he would also have kept Mane occupied a bit further up the field. Yes i admit hindsight is a wonderful thing but i knew Davies was in for a pasting.We played into their hands and gave Mane the freedom of the whole left side. We also strangled the life out of Walker's game in the procress..fuming. The devil is in the details...Poch needs to be braver. To me that was a team set up negatively for our standards and the way everyone had brain freeze kind of gives off the feeling that the players felt as though Poch does not have total faith and they obliged by turning into jelly legs. Still can't get over the Dier error. He behaved like it was a land mine, not a football. Let's go for the Europa big time. I want some glory or we will regret it when we look back.
We had players that cost that much. Yes, but Sissoko, Janssen and GKN were all expensive punts, no more. The latter 2 were understandable and affordable, we'd get most of it back if we sold in the summer. Sissoko's signing remains a ****ing mystery. His failure to adapt to PL football was legend but we made the rookie mistake of believing his form in a summer tournament for his country. That will cost us We spent a lot of money gambling these players could become top 4 players as did Leicester last summer. Do you see United. Citeh or Chelsea buying any of them? No, because they can buy with less risk - more mature and dependable players from stronger leagues. Even Liverpool, our nearest competitor in terms of revenue, could afford Mane when we couldn't. Also, they took Wijnaldum, who we wanted above Sissoko. Ours may come good, yet, but we buy potential and risk. Last summer too much risk, I guess.
Isolating Davies for criticism is surely missing the point. Most would agree that he is still the better LB defensively (than Rose) and he has performed well at International level. The problem as some have highlighted is that tactically we weren't set up to counter Manes strength down our left side. Davies was left isolated and that's not the first time we have been caught out that way. Yes it is possible that a more offensive minded LB might have made a difference by giving Mane something else to focus on, but there's no guarantee there. And too many of the team seemed off their game today. Just glad that Weatherspoons failing wifi prevented me from suffering the whole 90 minutes!!
