We reach the halfway point of the season, so time for an assessment of the on-pitch regime ... 1. The system that Anger plays is good. The football has been for the great majority been entertaining to watch, The 10 game unbeaten run tells me the system is sound, and only injury plagues derail it. 2. Squad and game management has been good, Both starting XIs and subs (I can count on one hand the number of times I have negatively opposed either to date) . 3. Squad on-pitch discipline has been detrimental. The manager needs to deal with this, before player suspensions becomes as costly to results as absence thru injury. Overall ; pleasantly surprised and happy with things.
Style of football - brilliant for the most part. Will never take aesthetically pleasing football for granted again. Results - mostly very good. Fulham (cup) and Chelsea the disasters Signings - absolutely excellent, though Don Fabio needs credit for this as well. Squad management - average. It’s his weak point for me. Shows a lack of faith in youth whilst persisting with certain dross that don’t even fit his style of play, a trait Conte was also known for. I’d give him a 8.8/10 ranking so far. Hopefully Levy does his job next month and helps him out though otherwise we’re gonna tumble down the league table very quickly.
Thought I would add that at this point in the season, Spurs are ranked : - #3 on GF - #7 on GA So the attack appears to be objectively sound for a PL top 4 finish, but the defence is paying the price for player injuries + on-pitch discipline.
One thing that's been mentioned since yesterday: Ryan Mason is in charge of coaching our offensive set pieces Looks like he was paying attention to what Giovanni Vio was doing last season
I noticed that in PL terms we have symmetry around the vermin FC game, and so a sound before/after analysis is possible. So we have : Before : games = 10, pts = 26, GA = 9. After : games = 10, pts = 14, GA = 18. So you can see that the cost of the injury + on-pitch indiscipline plagues is to take half the pts and concede twice as many goals.
I don’t think the club officially did once they announced he left his role (could be wrong) but many journalists certainly implied it. This is the first time someone official from the club has mentioned Paratici since his supposed departure iirc. I’m just glad he’s sticking around in some capacity, his hit rate with transfers has been about 75-80% positive which is crazily good.
Which is due to any combo of : 1. Spurs are paying him decent money 2. He is committed to making happen what was planned when he was in charge
I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s a few brown envelopes containing cheques being deposited into a foreign bank account somewhere but I do also think he’s a man obsessed with getting results and that’s why he’s sticking around and doing stuff on an unofficial basis. I think he’ll want to see an end game to the good work he’s done so far.
From The BBC Website - Tottenham boss Ange Postecoglou, mischievously, on the transfer window: "Probably the only disappointing one for us yesterday was on where I felt there was a good opportunity for us, but the club didn't feel it was right. I was disappointed at that. But he ended up at Ferrari so we just have to cop it... "Look at you all eh?! Ready to type away! I think his [press officer's] phone was going to blow up. I got you all going there didn't I? I felt you needed something after a bit of a flat day yesterday so I'm trying to spark things up for you!"
Class interview, speaks very similarly to Paratici in my opinion. Very much a football man to aid Levy’s business man approach. Loved the “we want to be the destination for the best young talent” line, as well as reaffirming getting in players to fit the style of play the manager wants and the club is all aligned with it, we’re seemingly trying to become the English Dortmund and I’m absolutely here for it.
Ange is even odder in my opinion. Across the calendar year Captain Black and Moyes are both ahead of him (much as its pains me to say this).
