I think it's the lethargy of the performance which is upsetting people. No urgency and no desire and a lack of spark. Might be worth considering the effect the delay in returning back from International duty had on the players, as apparently the England players arrived home 24 hours late due to a technical problem with the plane. Lack of preparation time always hinders managers.
Apart from knowing who went where during the international break, I doubt all of the starting XI had logistic or comfort problems with the return to the UK.
Its only fair the manager receives blame, as if Sherwood was in charge of that team he would been slaughted for not having a clue.
What he should most certainly take the blame for is the farcical situation with Walker and his injury. That was embarrassing and amateurish. There's an air about Poch which I don't like and it was on show today. The final six weeks of this season are important and I hope he realises this, because he and the players, seemed "on the beach" today.
I think the problem is that M.P. has so few players that he trusts in certain positions that he's reluctant to give players who clearly need a rest, just that. Today was lethargic with an emphasis on defence which, given our record of conceding stupid goals, and the expectation that Burnley would be desperate for the 3 points, was not surprising. I agree with earlier comments that our squad needs a radical overhaul and rebalance.
He wasn't allowed to bring in many players this season because his predecessor spent £100M on 7 players. Overhauling the squad means more drastic spending and potentially taking a loss on a number of those recent signings. That isn't sensible management. The reality is that you are performing as you should be. It will be increasingly difficult to overhaul any of the 5 sides above you, although Liverpool are in a similar position; there are a number of parallels given that a star player was sold for big money and a host of players were brought in with the proceeds with limited success. Having some stability and not making wholesale changes is the way forward. The progression of some young players, not least Kane, has been a big positive. The squad, as a whole, is young and learning or adapting to the PL. Dier, Yedlin, Chirches, Lamela and Chadli will all be better for experience in a different and quite unique league. Marginal improvements here and there over time will yield long term benefits rather than looking for some magic fix. Spurs can't compete for the players City, Chelsea or Utd hope to sign. Hoping that a relative unknown or, alternatively, a steady, middle of the road PL performer will suddenly be a worldbeater in a Spurs shirt is wishful thinking. It's better to develop the players the money has already been invested in and look to improve the raw material. To most neutrals, Spurs look to be a team full of youthful promise, rather than a team in need of an overhaul. There may be one of two older players who are no contributing as they should, but the core of the squad is made up of players who should improve with experience - and the examples of Kane and Mason show the the environment is right for them to do so if they are given a chance.
Whilst I agree that the some of the young players will improve with time and experience, the fact remains that our squad overall is not good enough, and is lacking balance. We have no viable replacement for either Kane or Eriksen, especially. As has been pointed out, Walker is lacking confidence and in a very poor run of form, yet me have no adequate replacement. Yet, in midfield, we have so many players on our books, many of whom don't even make our bench, that I would struggle to remember them all.
I like to think I'm optimistic but even I can't see the bright side of the cleansheet It was a woeful performance, although our defence did alright, they didn't really trouble us apart from Mason's pass to set up Ings early on.
The problem we've been having for a couple of seasons now is we lack a player who can bring a certain dynamism in the middle of the park, and that was clearly on display today. We've got plenty of midfielders who can retain possession, such as Dembele and Paulinho, just as we have some who can break up opposition play, but what we need the most yet don't have someone who can dictate our game and unlock defences. Mason's the closest we have to that, but rather than being the player we need he's the best option in that role for the time being - and it has to be said that Modric was the same age in the 2009-10 season that Mason is now, yet was far superior in every single aspect of playing in that role. The thing that's so frustrating about this is we've attempted to address this for the last three seasons, but each time have messed it up: Moutinho was tied up in third party ownership, Paulinho simply failed to deliver what was expected of him, and Schneiderlin had a huge price tag placed on him by a club who didn't need to sell thanks to Man Utd, Liverpool and Arsenal being so generous with their transfer fees last summer. Also, it has to be said that the oft-repeated line about having a young team clouds the issue somewhat, as the team does need an injection of experience to aid their development like we had when Naybet, Davids or Parker were brought into the team for a season or two - but in that season or two they helped the players around them settle into their roles and improve as footballers.
Luke, you, and others, mainly Pochettino fans, often tell us more "negative" fans, points that we already know. We understand we can't complete with the bigger clubs for players. We understand they are richer and in a stronger position. We also understand youth development is important for the future of the club. We also understand wholesale changes aren't clever. None of this is in question,yet when I question Pochettino, its not because I expect a different manager to have us comfortable in the top four (aside from Pulis), more Pochettino represents "the levy way", a way which I believe is flawed and will result in us never getting back into the top four. Pochettino may well be doing an OK job, but he is one striker (out of form) away from having us no better then Swansea, so he is cutting a fine line between being viewed as having an acceptable season and being a complete dud. My issue with our current position is how we have reached this level and you only need to look around and see we're going nowhere fast other then failing to catch the bigger clubs, while teams around us close the gap and yes its not a position to be highly depressed over. We have some talented players, some talented youngsters and we may sign the odd foreign star, fantastic However, next season there is more chance of Everton overtaking us, while Liverpool and Arsenal get stronger and saints and Swansea close the gap (on us) so you can argue that this is a position we just have to accept (if being realistic) yet you can also argue that doesn't mean we have to accept this position without questioning the decisions made by the chairman regarding managers, who he has trusted with signing players and the decision to move back to a system which I don't believe is right for us.
At the time I was reminded of what Pochettino said about Mason, when he went off injured earlier in the season. I think it was along the lines of needing to trust that his body can hold up to more punishment than he thinks which at the time seemed to be hinting that he was a bit disappointed with him being subbed off for what he felt was a minor injury. Without knowing the details I can only speculate but I guess Pochettino was trying to push Walker on to play through the discomfort until it eases up again. Obviously that backfired rather spectacularly. I'd actually be pleased with the "on the beach" assessment as to me it looked like some of our main staples of the side were tired, which would be a harder fix. Eriksen and Kane in particular looked a bit leggy at the end of runs with Kane taking a heavy touch before a poor shot from long range and Eriksen playing Walker the ball behind him when he was breaking into the area and then what looked like a tired swing of the boot when he shot well over in the second half. Rose had a short break and looked fine whilst Walker, who hasn't had a full season, and the others in defence looked far sharper. No idea what was wrong with Paulinho but he has no excuses, either he's unmotivated due to not getting games or he's just ****, the performance he put in today looked like the nervey, shy performances we saw at the start of the season from him. Eitherway Pochettino takes the biggest slice of blame today, it went wrong on all levels and he's got a lot to sort before next weekend.
I attempted to defend Paulinho recently as I remembered he looked pretty decent when first arrived but its coming up for two seasons since the "magnificent 7" and Lamela, Soldado, Paulinho have no excuses. We ****ed up by signing these three players as our club record transfers.
Same, there's a player in there but it doesn't look like we will see it from him in the Premier League at least. Lamela I still have hope for but I can't deny that I expected much more from him, even though he's young and still learning. I will not have you slag off Soldado though, he's due a hattrick any day now! Incidently I thought Lamela looked lively when he came on today. He had their left back all over the place when he played them in the home Premier League match so it was disappointing not to see him on much sooner, or even starting.
Out of the three, Soldado is the only one I have some respect for as no matter how ****e he is, how many chances he misses, he still believes he can score a hat trick and doesn't make any excuses for his lack of goals.
He certainly says all the right things in interviews. Better than having Balotelli strolling around doing **** all and then whinging about his critics on Twitter.
Full game stream and extended highlights: http://www.fullmatchesandshows.com/burnley-vs-tottenham-hotspur-premier-league-full-match/ Even the extended highlights might be 10 minutes too long.
He was pretty solid, had one nervey moment where he misjudged the flight of a ball coming into the area but apart from that he was comfortable and made a couple of decent saves.
city drop more points, utd away next and still us to play at the lane....if only we'd won yesterday, it was still on. anyway Paulinho, still cant believe he started, Dembele is soooo frustrating but surely a crap Dembele is still 20 times better than the copa America superstar Paulinho. We got absolutely mugged on that one
