Did you not see Zaha’s hand round Tanganga’s throat. That is a red card but Moss ignored it and allowed him to stay on the pitch. If he had sent him off it would have changed the game completely.
We've exchanged one defensive manager for another. We still don't have the pace or midfield to play on the break (without Sonny and Dele replacing him) and we sure didn't press them today. Basically, we're in for a season of transition and defensive football and that'll be half of Nuno's contract over. I'm ****ed if I can see the logic in any of it... probably because there wasn't and isn't any.
I agree with your last point tbf. But actually disagree re the luck. Players were being bought with a long term plan and with the team as a who in mind In the last 2 years (since July 2019) it is hard to pinpoint a single good signing but we have thrown away millions on; Ndombele (£55m), Lo Celso (£50m including his loan), Sessegnon (wasn'the around £30m), Jack Clarke (£10m), Bergwijn (unknown), Rodon (£11m) and Doherty (£14m). Not including wages that is £170m wasted. ...in just 2 years. Not one of those players has even remotely justified their fee ... most never get near the squad, let alone the first team. That ain't bad luck. That is a broken transfer system.
Calling it lucky is a disservice to the work the club done. We were always a team who generally spent well over the years but we managed to get a number of good signings in a short space of time and added them to a squad that was talented but not reaching its potential. We had Lloris, Vertonghen, Rose, Walker, Dembele, Eriksen and Kane all here before Poch arrived plus the likes of Mason, Bentaleb, Townsend and Chadli too. Poch added Alderweireld, Wanyama, Dier and Dele and they complimented what was already here. It wasn't lucky, just smart planning - something we've lacked for years. We had to sack Poch in the end because he no longer got results and he clung onto players whose use by dates had passed, whilst his signings after Son were generally poor.
Our entire recent history can be explained by us being a bit above average in both player trading and coaching but with the normal fluctuations in performance around the average. I used the word lucky meaning that we did much better than average over a few years and we've done worse than average recently. Poch was the same. Miles above average for several years then a bad patch. But in football bad patches are not allowed apparently. What we shouldn’t expect is that we can somehow continually make up for other clubs having much more resources than us. The only solution to that is to increase turnover. Levy is trying to deal with that but gets no thanks for it.
You can only deduce that if you can say what has changed between the two periods. One interesting thing is that we have had more money to spend so perhaps our ability to judge expensive players is poor. But I can see no way that we somehow lost an edge that allowed us to sign Dier, Dele, Rose and Walker for less than 20m between them. And even Dembele, Lloris, Vertonghen, Alderweireld and Eriksen for 70m between them is hard to repeat. While not denigrating the work of those responsible for those signings it is too much to expect it to be the norm.
I think there are so many issues with the squad that it was never going to be sorted after just one post covid transfer window. We’ve started from the back and that showed with the clean sheets the first few games then we had 5th and 6th choice centre backs today and can’t account for the South America shambles. You’ve got the 3 money clubs way ahead of us plus Liverpool who can whinge their way to anything so 5th/6th is where we would be looking this season then continue the rebuild next summer.
I'm not sure it was Poch doing to much of the clinging to be honest. He outwardly said he wanted and needed a 'painful rebuilt', 'new furniture' for the house that was built. It all went down hill after Paul Mitchel left and nobody suitable came in to conduct the team building matters. I think it was a combo of Levy not wanting to strengthen rivals with certain players, and nobody actually showing any interest in players that Poch wanted out. Poch, would do well with Paratici I believe, but he seemed to be reluctant to the DOF model after Mitchel. To think Mason, Bentaleb and Townsend came through the youth ranks, it's quite a stark difference in quality to who we have coming through now. Tanganga and Skipp are the only ones repping the youth development at the top level. The fact that we already rely so hard on them is quite scary. It's gonna be an interesting couple of months. Hopefully this new fella from Everton, Chris Perkins, can change that. It'll take time though.
We were more than a bit above average, as proven by how we could compete with the big boys for many years from Jol to Redknapp to Poch to the point where Sky began using the phrase "Big 6". We bought and sold smartly and efficiently as there was a clear plan, there were duds along the way as with any club but our successes far outweighed our flops. Pochettino had more than just a bad patch, we'd been declining in the league since 2017 albeit not alarmingly but the real slump began around the start of 2019, between the end of the 18/19 season and the beginning of the 19/20 season where he was sacked, we had relegation form over the course of about 20-25 games. He had to go, he was largely responsible for hanging on to players that were no longer performing, refusing potential signings and then insisting we sign Ndombele who's frankly pound for pound the biggest flop in our history. The more we've spent the worse we've got so a bigger turnover and higher spend doesn't always guarantee the possibility to compete. As with anything you need the right scouting and right planning along with the right vision for a team. No one knows what our plan has been over the last 4-5 years, we've had a scattergun approach to the market and that's resulted in us having about 95% worth of flops brought in over that period. Excluding this summer's signings who we can't judge yet, Hojbjerg's been our only truly successful signing since Son in 2015. It's been shabby.
Poch also said about 6 months prior to that "painful rebuild" speech though that fans needed to believe in the team when it was clear things were taking a turn for the worse. It was him - not Levy, like the press tried claiming so - who was rejecting players/ not spending in the 18/19 window (partly as he wanted to wait for Ndombele - ) only to then talk of a painful rebuild just a year later. I think he knew he ****ed up the year before and then tried to put pressure on the board to spend to make up for it, he certainly got the spending from the board but the players signed were all duds and so it further added to our issues from previous seasons of a declining squad. Mitchell's importance to Spurs was also quite overstated. Not saying he was bad but I feel he got credit for other's work at times. Whilst he did bring one or two great players in, Son being one IIRC, a fair few of our successful signings weren't actually his, they were Pleat recommendations. It's hard to compare the difference of youth at the moment in my opinion. It's still too early for Skipp and Tanganga to be compared with Mason and Townsend as the latter two had more years in the Prem as well as with England. I have massive hopes for Skipp especially and I think he'll be a star but then I also did for guys like Caulker and Edwards (the latter still has the chance to make it big) so I don't wanna jinx anything, lol.
To be fair, two of our centre backs are isolating on a Croatian island and another went off injured early on International breaks are a dick
Way too simplistic to blame the problem from today on the international break. The lack of creativity was a massive worry for me and a lot of others coming into this season and so far I’ve not seen anything at all to ease those fears.
Me too, has been since Eriksen declined then left. Though it doesn't help when the manager is leaving the only creative players we had today on the bench either. He spoke in the post match conference about us facing numerous obstacles, he was one of them today with his selection, tactics and subs.
If - and it's a big if - he had had any useful support then his performance would have meant something. As usual, he worked his socks off and was the only remotely creative influence. What equals 'productivity' when you have no-one to work with and your name isn't Lionel Messi?
Son injured Bergwijn injured Skipp playing after picking up a groin strain Romero isolating on a Croatian island Lo Celso isolating on a Croatian island Sanchez isolating on a Croatian island No, it is not simplistic to suggest that the international break ****ed us
Productivity can probably be subjective to some but I think the ability to make things happen, even if your team aren't performing, is where the good/ average are separated from the great. Look at the times over the years where Son, Kane or further back with the likes of Eriksen, van der Vaart, Bale etc, could just hit a wonder strike or a wonder pass and bang, after a **** team game we have a goal out of nothing. Lucas rarely does that in my opinion, he puts in some real shifts and he can be enjoyable to watch but even when we're on top form there are times where I just feel he doesn't do enough despite having the talent to do so. If we saw more of the Ajax Lucas Moura then I think he'd be a £70m+ player but unfortunately we don't and if we sold him today (not that I want him sold for the record) we'd probably just about get our money back. That's why I don't think he necessarily had a good game today, for all his work and skill, nothing came of it, no major chance was created for a teammate or himself. It's not all his fault as the team were beyond gash today but I just don't think he was all that, despite a few nice runs. He was easily our best player but I still wouldn't class it as a good game from him - I'm obviously in a one man minority here though just ignore me if you like
Watching the "highlights" I noticed that they had the floodlights on during the 2nd half , take note for next weeks carbon neutral game
Nah - that's fair enough. But if he was a Bale, Eriksen or Modric he would be worth well north of £100m not £70m, so I guess that's a difference!
