Manchester City at Home - Thumped (ok we had players missing, morale low etc so we can excuse this one as it was first game of season) Manchester City Away - We went 2-0 down, somehow got back to 2-2 and yes we should have won, but did we? no we bottled it and gifted man city victory. Manchester Utd Away - See manchester city at home but still we got thumped. Arsenal at home - good victory but wasnt impressed overall by our passing but we got through it. Arsenal away - this was our time, top london club, trying to fight for the title and we should have finished wenger off but what happened? players just didnt turn up Chelsea at home - ok we should have won, got unlucky but again we didnt get the victory. Chelsea away - is anyone confident, even with there crap form as i just cant see us going there and winning, even though we have the better team. Liverpool at home - ok great victory. Liverpool away - ok another excuse, manager not there and yes that effects us but liverpool werent great and we had a chance to win the game through Bale, but what happens? again we just cant get the victory. Overall if you look at us in the big games, we should by right still be in the title race IF this team had real belief and just got the job done, rather then fell short.....whats the reason? is it just a fact that arry can only take us so far and we was never really in the title race, just threatening.......or am i being harsh and the fact is the opposition just had more quality on the day? Either way there is something in the "blood" with this club, in that when it comes to the league we just dont have that steel and belief to win them huge, defining games, the games which really give you success and it is bloody frustrating!
The ref had a hand in that, let's be honest... The game hasn't been played yet, so there is no point in bringing it up. Our attacking options were severely compromised for the match: Lennon was out, Van Der Vaart was out, Defoe was out, Saha had barely arrived, Pavluychenko had just left. We had two youth teamers on the bench just to make up the squad numbers. 14th April, 2010: Spurs 2, Arsenal 1 17th April, 2010: Spurs 2, Chelsea 1 5th May, 2010: Man City 0, Spurs 1 25th August, 2010: Spurs 4, Young Boys 0 2nd November, 2010: Spurs 3, Inter 1 15th February, 2011: Milan 0, Spurs 1 18th September, 2011: Spurs 4, Liverpool 0 11th February, 2012: Spurs 5, Newcastle 0 Yeah, we have a really bad habit...
No doubt we will roll over for Man Utd again on Sunday (or the Ref will have a major impact.....again).
Okay so 8 points from 6 games isn't great but that's just how it goes sometimes. It wasn't so long ago we'd get no wins and a couple of draws from these games so what if we have a bad season against them? We've come a long way in the last 5 years and as long as we're beating the lower teams there's nothing to worry about. Besides, United are the only team we haven't beaten under 'Arry and with the majority of the squad so I don't think there's any great underlying problems. You don't win every game as anyone will tell you.
humanbeingincroydon, you may be a tad confused mate as you have brought up games from last season when im talking about the title race and winning games which define our season, in terms if what we can actually achieve. We can list all the excuses we like but the fact is we have bottled it when it mattered this season in the big games and questions need to be asked.
Aye, that sort of talk isnt going to help us achieve anything as we all remember the days of when talk of champions league football would have been laughable but now were in a position were we have the quality to actually fight for the title but as always with this club, there is something missing. It could well just be experience and for us to oevrcome that we need to keep this set of players and manager and add to the squad and then we can look back at this season and say " we learnt alot from this and it has helped us get success" or it could well be a case there isn't the belief in this squad that we can actually win the title and beat our title rivals in a big game.
This is the very reason why I am not overly fussed if Harry does leave - provided, of course, that we replace him with a quality manager, which I am certain we would do. I don't want Harry to leave, and if he stays I'll be as pleased as the next Spurs fan, but it's not as if Harry cannot be improved on.
Well it's not belief is it? As I just said, there's only one team that we haven't beaten under 'Arry. You're also premature in jumping to conclusions before we've even finished, we need to break the hoodoo against United and if we do that then I think we can be pleased with beating atleast 3 of the "5 big teams". We're not falling out of the title race because we've dropped too points against teams around us, but because we've dropped too many points full stop. Man United have won the league before without dominating the ties against the rest of the old "big 4", these games aren't the be all and end all. We're playing better football than ever and in the most part that's showing in our results so lets all smile
I don't like to make excuses for a manager, but I find it hard to be critical of Redknapp for most of these games. The first two games of this season were largely down to injuries and Modric having his head turned, unsettling the whole squad, as already discussed. We beat Arsenal and Liverpool at home, so they're not really worth discussing and he was absent from Anfield due to his court case, so that's pointless too, in my opinion. Chelsea at home was a dodgy one, for me. I thought that he got things wrong in this one and didn't take advantage of a vulnerable side, though he can bemoan the official's decisions again for a Chelsea game. Two holding midfielders doesn't really work for us and I wish Redknapp would realise that. The same choice cost us badly in the second half of our last game and I wasn't impressed with his tactics from the start of that one, either. Adebayor's ineligibility for the game at the Etihad was always going to cause us problems, but we dealt with it reasonably well. It's a tough place to go and we only lost in the last minute, after some controversial decisions went against us. We definitely need to sort our striking options out properly for next season, though.
It's a list of huge, defining games - games you said we never believe we can win. I was pointing out that we have on many occasions recently. As for bottling it, we didn't have a legitimate central midfield at Old Trafford in our first game - we had Kranjcar playing out of position and Livermore making his first ever start for the first team - so no wonder that game went tits up, because they were both knackered with twenty minutes to go. Going there to play for a point was a risky strategy we shouldn't have tried, but we didn't have the personnel to take the game to them due to injury, suspension, tapping-up and the fact we hadn't signed them yet.
Bottling it seems a little strong. Not being able to stand prosperity rings a bell, to me. There are limits to how much people and teams will let themselves succeed. The team is still trying to get its head around being nearly as close to the top as to fourth. If this season ends well, and there's a similar run of results against the Mancs next year, I could see calling it bottling it. The biggest problem I see with this team is that they play a high energy style and they've gotten more ragged as they've gotten tired and injured and the pitches have gotten worse. Their depth is okay, the problem is that the starters want to play even when they're not at their best. On the other hand, as LiL says, what's really changed is the enormous improvement against teams we're supposed to beat. The point about it not being the big games, but the little ones, that determine the league winner is well made--for the most part. This year it looks like the top teams may drop so few points that head-to-head results make all the difference.
Arsenal, man city, man utd, Chelsea and Liverpool all massively out spend us each season with either wages, transfer spending or both. NO ONE gave us a hope in hell of a top 4 finish so we are diing well to be 7 pts clear in 3rd. The idea of us bridging the gap to be champions was fanciful at best. Bale cost 6m, friedal, king, gallas cost nothing, walker 5m, ekotto 4m, Dawson 4m, rose 1m, modric 16m, saha nothing, Lennon 1.5m, Sandro 8m, ade loan, defoe 16m, parker 5m, vdv 8m,kaboul 8mniko 2.5m....now look at the other teams spendings. I honestly think weve done very well
We have done extremely well. I couldn't agree more. The Arsenal game was a matter of the wheels falling off, which happens from time to time in big away games. Things start going the home teams way, the crowd gets into it, and for whatever reason things go from bad to worse. Hopefully we'll react well, as I said the real surprise this year is how few really disappointing efforts/games there've been.
Boss...my point about money is that it is all relative. I think that the 18 or so player listed cost us 78m (just over 2 Andy carrolls or 1.7 Torres, 2.5 reos or 3 silvas etc.) You cant neccessarily catch up with the more established clubs like united or the super rich like city...but we have done well v pool, arsenal and Chelsea...8pts from 5 matches with only 1 (all be it a bad one) loss and 2 wins. City and united will not and never were going to be caught. our team have gained essential experience which will stand them in goo stead if (and its a very big if) we can keep the squad together long enough for us to benefit. It took city from 2008 til last yr to win the fa cup and til now to be serious title Contenders with all their money...thats how big the gap is in terms of quality and ecperience.
Big Games and we just cant cut the mustard. ...yet. All in good time. We are not at the level of the 2 clubs above us unless we're bang on it. So it follows that a good top4 head2head record is not likely, given that both Chelsea and Arsenal always raise their game for our derby's, despite being in the middle of the ****est form ever.
Precisely, and more often than not, we don't, and that is the point of the thread. As to why, after witnessing the worst white flag (it wasn't as much the defeat as the manner) for ages, I'm not best placed to be asked that.
