They brought Keith Burkinshaw out onto the pitch at half time. If only we could turn the clock back and have him in charge again.
Mix in eleven players. Change three for no apparent reason. Let stink for ninety minutes. Then they're done.
This was a contest between two kinds of pressing. Stoke pressed in a very effective and highly organized way when we crossed the halfway line, so much so we were reduced to punting it hopefully down the pitch when we weren't making costly giveaways. We tried to keep a high line and press all over the pitch, did so in an ineffective and poorly organized way, and time after time left our defenders exposed.
I'm beginning to accept that Sherwood was unpopular with the players because he actually dared to put a rocket up their arses. If Levy had any ounce of gumption, he'd tell Poch to start laying down the law, that he'll back him to the hilt, and that if he gets any lip from any of the players, let him (Levy) have a list of names, and he'll see to it that heads will roll. Will that happen? God god, man! Of course it won't! And this is probably the last time you'll ever read a sentence with the words "Levy" and "gumption" in it.
Lloris is "deadwood" now? Because he was considering his options when Sherwood was in charge. When Kane was in goal against Asteras - because that gave the players a damn good reason to do what they should've been doing for the previous half hour.
I said on several occasions that one thing Sherwood did get right, was to tell certain players they were not bigger than the club, despite them thinking they were. There are some massive egos in that dressing room, there are several who are nothing more than complete prats yet whilst Pochettino continues to faff around them and basically treat them gently, then unfortunately, performances and results such as today's, will continue to occur.
I hoped that Pochettino would be a Sherwood in that sense, but with more tactical nous than the latter. On paper he seemed to have it all - Southampton players saying he worked them like dogs but that when it paid off they loved him for it, and in his first interview with us he promised triple training sessions all Summer until the players were capable of playing how he wanted. But, insistent on hard work or not, it really remains to be seen whether he is enough of a disciplinarian to sort our sorry lot out, he may like hard workers but right now he can't even seem to get 10 outfield players to give their all - has he got the backbone to fix it? I'm not asking for a team full of Spurs fans and youth products, I don't even really mind if players see us as a stepping stone (its the reality of modern football for a club in our position unfortunately) as long as they give 100% on the pitch and appreciate the support of the fans while they wear the Spurs shirt, but too many of our players seem unwilling to even pay that lip service right now. I'm holding onto the hope that Pochettino hadn't seen enough of the squad after the WC to properly sort the wheat from the chaff by the end of the Summer Transfer Window, but even if he wants to start pruning the squad in January, will Levy let him do it if it means too many players leaving at a loss? I hope that his giving Ade the vice-captaincy was part of a last ditch effort to get him playing as he would do all the time if he had any respect for the people who pay his wages, but this is clearly not working. Somebody has to stop the rot at Spurs and I hope (and indeed still believe) that Pochettino can do it. The trouble is that the rot is appearing to extend beyond on-pitch and recruitment affairs and into the boardroom - which means that I am fearful that no matter whether Pochettino is indeed the man to fix Spurs over the next few years or not, he may never be allowed to properly try.
I never mentioned Lloris but if he wasn't prepared to work with Sherwood then he needed shipping out too, I don't think taking Lloris out of that team would make an ounce of difference as the problems are in front of him As Hoddle said above it seemed as though the players didn't like being told the truth and its a lot easier to get rid of one man rather than the whole team. Im amazed nobody's mentioned it by now but here goes.....we are in danger of going down ps Lamela is utter garbage
I'm beginning to think that this may be part of the problem. We've got a lot more games than they had and we're not doing the same closing down, so the extra fitness looks wasted. We don't seem to be working on whatever system it is that Pochettino's trying to put in place. The 4-2-3-1 or whatever it is clearly isn't working. He needs to stop playing inverted wingers and go with something that suits the players available.
Weren't Newcastle fans saying stuff like this the season they went down? The fact is we're 5 points off the relegation zone with just under 1/3 of the season gone and also playing crap football. It's all well and good people in this thread saying the deadwood needs to go but who's gonna buy them?
we are, we've been beat by 3 very average teams at home and murdered by Liverpool, Villa should've beat us last week and they're awful I watched QPR play City yesterday and they caused them no end of problems and they're supposedly a team in trouble, City beat us 4-1 a few weeks ago and if we played them today you would be looking at 5 or 6, I dread to think what Chelsea would do to us
Just as crucially, if Pochettino turns to Levy and says he wants say, Ade (who has as far as I know earned more than anyone else at the club save Bale for some years now) and Paulinho and Chiriches (some of the post-Bale players who were supposed to be such a big deal) - I'm talking the high profile players who the club has thrown a lot of money at - out of the club, then does Levy back this particular manager, hardly the first to have problems with Ade at Spurs or elsewhere, or does he once again look to avoid a true rebuild and the costs entailed, by sacking the manager and hopefully, if not avoiding significant losses altogether, at least putting them off. Getting rid of the dross is a 2 way process - yes we need to find buyers but we also have to accept the fact that we'll take a hit on the fees when we are pushing a sell, and that the players will have to be replaced by ones the manager actually wants. Levy will look at that and see that he would have to sell players probably at a loss, or at least for less that he could get for them, and then buy (probably) expensive players, hitting him doubly in the pocket. And its a pretty safe bet that he would rather fire the manager than lose money and face.
We are a shambles - all over the pitch. The players either don't give a toss, of have just completely lost faith in what they're being asked to do. Something has to change, and quickly, or we will be sucked into a relegation battle.
We're also a shambles off the pitch. Over 600 tickets available on Stubhub yesterday for today's game. Loads of empty seats in all four stands today and this has been the trend for all season. Hospitality is struggling to sell. For sure, the high prices have an impact, but the main reason is because the quality of football continues to be dire and there is no player for the fans to identify with. No star player and a scruff of a manager who has little personality to inspire. Over 3000 season ticket holders have failed to renew over the past two summers. People are fed up with side ways passing, backwards passing, no recognisable shape or organisation and watching players going out there and not giving an ****.
Prem performances West ham ... decent to good Qpr ... good Pool... poor...defensively awful Sunderland...decent to good...defensively poor Wba...poor Arsenal...decent to good Southampton...decent to good City...ok ish...defensively poor Toon...poor Villa...atrocious Stoke...atrocious We were beyond lucky with villa...imo we could well be dragged into a relegation battle...we are defensively weak...one strong attacker and we **** ourselves....hull, everton and chelsea will have a field day...our performances are getting worse and the most recent signing, chadli apart, are ALL appalling on the pitch.
The most straightforward change is for Poch to recognise that Capoue's been shirking his defensive duties during this run of poor form and that's been putting far too much pressure on our back for, with predictable results, and drop him for Stambouli for a few games. If Stambouli is more effective in that role, we'll soon find out how much Capoue wants his place in the team back, which (in theory...) should benefit the team from a defensive standpoint. There do seem to be a few players that don't look likely to be dropped in the team, for example Eriksen and Capoue have both been off the boil in recent weeks, yet their places in the team look as secure as a very secure thing. It may well be that Poch is looking for his core of players and has identified Eriksen and Capoue as two of them, but because you want to build a team around them is no reason to play them every week when they're in as poor form as the team.
L I don't know what the answer is. But, I do recognise a bunch of totally demotivated players when I see one. Can only deduce that that comes from not having any faith in the club hierarchy. Our erstwhile chairman has a flawless record of picking dud managers. He got both Jol & Redknapp by default. Other than that his record is 100% duds.
The problems at Arsenal and Spurs are almost identical, but whilst i am not 100% sure Arsenal would be better off without Kroenke/Wenger I am 100% sure Spurs would be better off without ENIC/Levy. Personally I think the ship has sailed for you guys now, you had a brilliant team that was on a par with any of the top sides in this league. I think your situation is akin to United's whereby it will require change from top to bottom and an overhaul of personel. Whilst Arsenal have problems at least the talent is there. In all honesty I don't blame Pochettino, the problem is and will continue to be Levy.
