Pool always get the benefit of doubt from referees, which is nothing new, they have done for years, referees of a certain age and all that. You very rarely see Pool on the wrong end of a bad decision, they rarely have a player sent off and rarely have penalties awarded against (Saints game being a prime example). At the same time they enjoy being gifted endless non (or soft) penalties (Leicester game a recent example) and benefit from cheap free kicks which helps pull the flow of a game in their favour etc. The majority of referees always give Pool the benefit of doubt, which makes a huge difference. It is the complete opposite with Spurs sadly, as we have seen over the years, endless bad decisions going against us that cost us points, I doubt it will change any time soon.
We finished 6th last year and trophy less. Yes we can talk about projects and the new era of Poch building something but football is a results business. I really hope I'm wrong but to me it's painfully obvious we aren't good enough for a top 4 finish, that's why I said 8th and no trophy.
Football is a results business, but results are not all that matters. Spurs fans may care as much about style as anyone. Our style has improved this year. We have an identity. We play aggressively, with flair. We know what we can do and what we can’t. We can score (top in the PL in 2015) and we can’t defend. We can overcome deficits but can’t hold leads. I’m happy with the progress made this year regardless of where we finish because we’ve become much closer to what Spurs should be. We’ll find out how good we are in the next 10 games. After our worst start in years, we’ve improved a great deal. Recent history is that top four contenders don’t drop many points in the run-in. We’re three points out of fourth, plus GD, so we will probably need more points than almost anyone thinks we’re likely to get. Two games ago I thought we needed an eight or ten game undefeated streak at least, and still do.
Not sure I'd say it's painfully obvious. We've beaten Arsenal and Chelsea at the Lane while getting a point at the Emirates. A harsh score line defeat against Chelsea at the Bridge where had we finished two good early chances it'd been a different game, dominated Utd at home but couldn't get the breakthrough and had some of the worst luck at the Etihad. Pool is the only top 4 rival to do the double over us, at home we were terrible and away it was one of the games of the season. We've also beaten Soton at home who are an outside contender. Everyone has shown they can beat anyone at the moment though, we may not be favourites for top 4 but we're still in a strong position to finish there.
I agree completely. However i'm certain we will fall short and miss out on CL again. One off against the top sides are good to win but on a consistent basis we look weak at the back. Yeah we might be playing better football than last season and have an identity now but it still remains of you can't defend them you won't do very well. Only 5 teams in the whole league have conceded more than us, for a side with top 4 aspirations that's a shocking statistic. Sorry if my realism is mistaken for negativity.
Stats and lies. If we carry on at the current rate we'll concede 53 goals this season, 3 more than the team that finished 2nd last season. The only difference is that we're on course to score nearly 40 less. So using that stat our attack is the problem
How many teams conceded less than 53 last season? Liverpool had Suarez and Sturridge to bale them out and hide their defensive problems, we have Kane and Chadli/Eriksen.
I'm not sure I agree. For example a team that won 30 matches 2-1 and drew 8 1-1 would have conceded 36 more goals than a team that won 30 matches 1-0 and drew 6 0-0 and 2 1-1. But the first team would win the league on goals scored. Given that successful football is to some extent a balance of attack and defence I can't see that looking at the defence stats by themselves tells you very much. Apart from anything else you really ought to throw caution to the wind when losing with little time left so you should expect to lose some games by a wide margin while trying to get a point.
I think that King's right about our defence. It definitely needs work. Our attack was problematic early on in the season, but we look dangerous in most games now and are scoring regularly. The depth still needs to be addressed and our strikers need replacing, barring Kane, but Pochettino's improved it as we've gone on. We still look consistently shaky at the back, though. Lloris is a very good keeper, so we've got a strong base to build upon. Yedlin has the potential to be decent backup and competition for Walker and I'm relatively happy with our left-backs, but the centre's weak. Kaboul needs to go and we need to bring in someone who's better than what we've already got. Vertonghen needs to be pushed and Dier needs somebody to learn from, though he's looked very composed at times.
"So using that stat our attack is the problem" There are various statistical traits that define a PL team that finishes in the CL slots. And on the GD and GA traits, Spurs have been found wanting (getting the CL slot in 2010 was courtesy of exhibiting another of the traits) .
But they are all likely to be correlated with the fact that our players are not as good as the ones in the top 4 teams!
Battling for a top 4 place with no confidence that you'll get one is getting nail biting already. A lot more interesting than romping to the title
"But they are all likely to be correlated with the fact that our players are not as good as the ones in the top 4 teams!" As there is no objective measure of "as good as" , difficult to generate an measure of the minimum overall "good" value exhibited by the PL teams who get the PL slots.
