Bikes are. What model and year? Currently, I've got an MV 350B Electronica, although the recent onset of arthritis has meant no outings...
Did we get Ange just because he did something at Celtic. Heck,an idiot can pick a team at Celtic and win the league in Scotland.What was Levy thinking?Not much....as usual!
In all honesty, I do not hear any "Ange out" comments from those who sit around me. As usual the social media keyboard warriors are relishing the thought of causing further turmoil at the club and I certainly want to give him at least another season. I would also agree with the recent post from @Citizen Kane. above and in my opinion that midfield requires major surgery in the next 12 months...
Ange isn’t the issue but something is what is the issue? is it just a matter of time before it all clicks? I can’t be confident of that. To me the problem is that this feels like a movie we have all watched before and we all therefore know how it will end so what is the issue? What is our end goal through this process being led by Ange?
Problem with Johnson is that if he doesn’t score he’s absolute dog **** and anonymous. Stats muse highlighted his stats vs Ipswich, which sum it up: 0 goals 0 assists 0 shots on target 0 chances created 0 accurate crosses 0 duels won 0 fouls won 0 dribbles Completely backed out of even trying to challenge Szmodics for their opener too.
I’d say Ange is a part of the issue as I find his tactics and game plan so often naive, he’s been unable to improve a single player so far either which is something that allowed Jol, Redknapp and Poch to do well but the board choosing to barely strengthen a side that just scraped fifth is the bigger one. Teams around us improved their XIs and we’re now paying the price for such a poor window. As for our end goal? Probably just finishing top four, that’s a trophy in the hierarchy’s eyes.
The issue is the same one that's been around for decades. Players want to be paid the best rate and win trophies and we can't offer the best players either of those. That's partly because there have historically only been three big clubs in England and partly because two other clubs have had the benefit of dodgy money recently. The sixth biggest club rarely wins the league anywhere in the world. The only solution is to overtake two or three of the other five. That's massively difficult though and failure to do it doesn't reflect badly on those who try. While we have caught two of them on revenue they still have more expensive squads than us due to a higher ability to overspend against revenue. I don't think this can continue if we get back into the CL and Arsenal and Chelsea don't
Currently a Speedmaster 1200 ( my second one ) but I've 2 SE 865s, T 120, and a Speed Twin, arthritis is a sod but the Speedmaster riding position helps.
I’m increasingly of the opinion that (within reason) it doesn’t matter who the manager is. I like Ange and while I definitely question his decisions sometimes, I think he’s a net good for the club. What continues to mystify and frustrate me is the mentality of the whole club. It’s a vague way of describing it but I can’t think of another way. For a group of people who took such a meticulous, no expenses spared approach to the most transformational investment in the club’s history (the new stadium), I can’t understand the tone that seems to have been set for far too long, which seems to be a lack of the same ruthlessness and hard-headedness when it comes to success on the pitch. From “Lads it’s Spurs” to comments Tactics Tim made over a decade ago that are doing the rounds on social media today, to Poch’s tears, Mourinho’s “you need to be ****s”, Conte’s outburst…it’s always the same message. And over that period of time you have to wonder if the mentality comes from the top.
I'm sure if you could easily borrow £1b and spend it on players without breaking any rules, Levy would have done it. Turning us into League champions would increase the value of the club massively. We've had the sixth most expensive squad for years but we finish above sixth on average. How on earth is that evidence that we have poor mentality?
I did a bit more digging and while I very rarely look to statistics for answers or explanation, in this case what I see in the table below reflects what I'm watching on a weekly basis: - The fact that we are top of Corners won suggests that we spend a lot of time in and around the opposition box. - Our actual Assists is slightly higher than Expected Assists, which is good to see and usually reflects a situation where assists are popping up across the team often from random or unexpected players - we definitely see this. - Pass accuracy isn't bad but does need improvement. - The problems begin with the variety and type of passing... - I get that the system relies on playing out from the back, but we just spent north of £60m on a player who is excellent in the air and at holding the ball up. He is more often than not flanked by two extremely quick players. The fact that there are 39 teams in the country who have attempted more long passes than us is a joke and totally exposes our lack of a Plan B in our build-up play. Even City, who are about as anti long passing as they come, are well ahead of us, 19th in the country. - Big Chances Created needs drastic improvement. For a team that spends so much time camped in the opposition half, we should not be 13th on this stat. - Same for Attacking Passes. Why are we only 13th? I said during the Gala game and again on Sunday, so many of our forward passes are easily intercepted or just go out of play entirely. - For a system whose FBs spend most of the game on the opposition's 18-yard line and a team who - again - spent £60m on a player who is very good in the air, why are we 12th in attempted crosses? All of this suggests to me that the problem is less down to the system, more due to quality and training. We've all seen it. Whenever we start moving the ball quickly and with purpose, the opposition can't live with us. But we don't do it nearly enough. I think the midfield is where we begin fixing this issue. These stats don't reflect well on them. A team with 3 across the middle shouldn't struggle so much to control games, it's as simple as that.
I don’t want to come across as all “old school football man” about it but over a long period of time, people in the game, both part of Spurs and outside the club, have made similar comments. Players, managers have changed in that time. As recently as a couple of weeks ago Ange was calling out that the squad lacks “maturity and leadership”. It’s been quacking like a duck for long enough for us to have a sense of what it is. I know that we perform roughly where you’d expect us to based on what we spend on players (wages being the key metric). There’s an argument to be had about could we or should we spend more but that’s also kind of moot. But I think it’s clear from watching the team that we too often go into games undercooked and can look mentally fragile when things go against us. I actually think Ange has made us better at chasing games on the latter point, but hasn’t solved for the first issue. And that it’s persisted for so long as players and managers have changed means you have to look at the constants through those situations to try and diagnose the root of the problem. As you imply it mystifies me. Levy has a justified reputation as a hard negotiator and a shrewd businessman and I truly believe he wants what’s best for Spurs. And on average we’re where we should be as you say. But success on the football pitch isn’t won by the law of averages alone, it’s won also in showing up for the key games, and moments in games, and mentally we have dropped the ball in too many of them. There has to be a reason for that, and it should be discussed even as Levy works to raise the floor by increasing our average, as I believe he has done.
we moved to the new stadium so we can compete with the best, I thought. we don’t need an extra billion we need someone smart enough or just interested enough, you don’t have to be very smart, just know your football to realise that one Eze is better than a Werner and Odobert put together. so I don’t buy this ‘woe be us’ attitude due to the other big spenders in the league.
I’m in the “need new ownership” approach nowadays too. Touching on what Hudd’s been saying, too many people have spoken about the mentality of the club for it to not have substance. Poch, Jose, Conte, Lloris, Trippier and others have all made comments that essentially question the decisions and mentality of the people at the top. 23/24 years of the same ownership also feels quite stale. A fresh approach would be nice.
The simplest explanation, and I think, the correct one, is that the difference between the players we can sign and the very best is mentality. Since we have not had the best squad for 60 years it's hardly surprising it's a standard criticism
When was the last good first half at home in the league? Feels like it's been a while. Teams score the first goal, then have a little sit down and run down the clock. I'm incredibly bored with watching very small amounts of play in increasingly large amounts of time.
It seems to me that there is definitely an attitude problem within the club. But at the moment I believe that it's an arrogance issue, we turn up against City and Villa and win the games because we know that only maximum effort will give us a chance, we turn up at Palace and yesterday thinking that we are better them and just need to turn up to win. I know that is very simplistic and that Villa and City didn't sit deep and we all know that we always have issues when faced by a low block, but both Palace and Ipswich had a plan that we failed to cope with and both deserved to win.
Villa absolutely did sit deep. I think our fullbacks had a higher average position than their striker.
