Today was my last match of the season and I thought I'd share. Today confirmed a few things I have thought for the past 5 or 6 weeks. 1) Mason and Bentaleb are a very good midfield partnership but are running on empty and have been since early April...we need cover for them so they can be rested during the season. 2) Likewise with Eriksen...maybe Alli was bought for that purpose? 3) I want Lamela to come good but his inability to pass the ball puts massive pressure on our defence and wastes so many good attacking positions. 4) Fazio should not be in the team...he is a mistake waiting to happen...in ever single game. 5) The players lap of thank you to the crowd had a real air of goodbye from Lloris about it...so we will need another keeper. 6) kane can not remain our only striker next season...he too looks shattered. I know some are down on the team (I ain't digging) but personally I can see some real improvements after 2 seasons of boring at the lane under AVB. Our defence needs sorting...keeping fazio from it will help enormously ... but even with our weaknesses we should not lose sight of getting to a final, battering chelsea, being unbeaten v arsenal, playing well v united and city at home, winning so many points very late on in games, having a lot of very good young players coming through and having a style of play (for the first time since redknapp). Pochettino does make mistakes but imo he's provided a lot more positives than negatives and has produced a season with some good high points without his players...this is a very important transfer window for him and the club need to fully back him.
The improvements have been the introduction of youth players, but the bottom line remains that we have regressed this season. I was bored rigid watching us under AVB, and apart from a handful of games, I have been bored stiff watching a Poch team. His "pressing game" is a myth, his squad rotation is pathetic, his plan B is non existent, his tactical knowledge is shocking and he is out of his depth at this level. Frankly, I fail to see the love-in over the guy. His failure to sort out our defence is woeful management and to have only a few decent displays in a season of 56 games, is just not good enough.
West Ham away after being down to 10 men after 20 mins, QPR at home, Sunderland home and away, swansea home Arsenal home and away, chelsea home, WBA away, Everton Home, Southampton home Newcastle away burnley home Forest cup...when they were flying high in their unbeaten start Brighton cup Newcastle cup 3 or 4 uefa games We were at least decent in all of those games imo...thats more than a few decent games. I don't think seeing positives means there is a love in with MP...I have said he makes mistakes but then again he is young in management terms. I do share your worries re no plan B though. I was and and still am unsure about him...I just think we have some positives which we haven't seen in previous years such as our ability to fight for the whole 90 minutes ... until the last 5 or 6 weeks when we burnt out. Mason, Bentaleb, Eriksen and Kane look knackered and have done for weeks...that they have not been rested says a lot about the state of our squad. He must be supported by Levy in the transfer window if he is to show us whether he is the right man to led us. Our defence was a joke last season under sherwood yet you gave him the benefit of doubt ... I think that nothing will change your mind About MP...
Sorry mate, I can't agree with your list of decent games there. I've made 49 games this season and I can only think of 3 good games Everton, Chelsea, arsenal all at home are the standout ones. The rest have been mediocre at best. QPR we put 4 past but the performance was average against a very poor team. They also spurned 4/5 golden chances we gifted them. Arsenal away was a case of score then hold out for the draw. There have been far too many crap performances Stoke, Newcastle, villa, WBA, Burnley, West Ham, Liverpool at home Stoke, burnley, Man Utd, palace, Swansea away. And there are more. There are positives this season, the emergence of the young players, the massive improvement of Rose, loris has been class, the cup final. The football has been better to watch than that produced under AVB. Like Spurcat, I'm far from convinced that Poch is the right man for us. No plan B, awful subs and his stubbornness are all worrying. But i do believe that if Levy wants him then he's got to back him in the summer and get the players that Poch wants, not the cheaper options. im not calling for Poch to be sacked, I can see the plan he's trying to implement on the team and hope he gets the players he needs for it work.
I'd reluctantly have to agree with O.S's assessment. Apart from the emergence of Kane, Bentaleb, Mason, there's very little to get excited about. We still lack the killer instinct going forward, and our defence is nothing short of a shambles. I was all for giving M.P. a good chance, and undoubtedly he'll get another shot next season, but I do now have serious doubts as to his fitness to manage at this level too.
He's one season into the job using primarily a squad he inherited from a failed transfer policy of wasting money of overpriced, under average talent. Considering the squad we had 4-5 years ago, I think MP has done well to get us to a 5th/6th placed finish and come way with some great results against some tough opposition, most notably Chelsea on New Years Day. I don't think we can fairly judge hm until he's had at least 2-3 seasons in charge on the basis that he gets his players, and not Levy's cheaper sellable options. Let's see what happens this summer. No doubt, a lot of the dead wood will be offloaded (we hope) but who or what comes in is the important issue. I'd rather us just go for 2-3, maybe 4 max new quality PL signings and see where that takes us. I'm not expecting world class players because frankly, until that new stadium is built, we can't compete at that level on the transfer market but if I had one wish, it would be to get an inspirational, leadership figure at the back. Our defence is at sixes and sevens right now and if we could get a real leader to partner Verts, I think we could see a new Spurs next season. If I could be granted one more request, another decent striker would be nice too; hopefully one from a current Premier League team who is looking to join the mighty Tottenham. But no more midfielders please... not unless we ship some out. We're already overloaded! Overall though, I think this is a transfer window I'll be keeping a very close eye on but for very different reasons than usual. Not because I expect us to sign a major marquee signing, but to see if Levy will finally let his manager (and hopefully Paul Mitchell) do the job and get the acquisitions they want and finally realise, its not always about the sell-on potential. I'm not holding my breath though!
Pretty much agree 100% with flaspur. I like Poch, I think he's gradually improving our playing style (albeit we've looked ****ed in recent weeks) and he's managed to bring in academy lads to outshine those overpaid wasters. We have a good basis of young talent that just needs one or two experienced heads to help them. Providing we ship out a lot of dead wood, I think we could do with a CB or two, Shawcross would be my primary target and depending on Vertonghen's future maybe someone else (I've said Ashley Williams' name before). Schneiderlin is clearly someone Poch wants and if a deal can be done for him then great. A striker to relieve the pressure on Kane would also be ideal, I wouldn't mind moving for both Charlie Austin and Danny Ings, the latter has the speed and ability to play in a wider position if need be whereas Austin shows those predator instincts that we could really do with. If i was being greedy, I'd also like a new RB as I've lost patience with Walker but I'm not overly desperate as Dier has been really good there and hopefully Yedlin can settle down and push for a place. I'm excited for the future, there seems to be a good togetherness and a **** load of potential, just a bit of strengthening is needed and I'm sure next season will see vast improvement on this.
I agree with bits and bobs from each post so far. It certainly has been a disappointing season in the league and our showing in 2 of the 3 cups was poor too. It looked for awhile like we'd turned a corner after the Everton game, at that point Pochettino had done away with Adebayor, Kaboul and others and the players starting were able to work in the way that the manager wanted. Sure it wasn't all brilliant performances from then but the system worked, we were the better side in most games and won most of them with every disappointing result being at least matched with an upset against a top side, or a quality performance, like West Brom away. I said in that period that time will tell whether we were seeing the benefit of the Europa League being finished for the time being meaning we were playing the majority of our games against sides with a similar amount of preperation time going into the games and whilst it started to go wrong around the time we returned to the competition I doubt those 2 games were a significant factor. So we regressed again and have finished the season with a handful of decent performances and good results badly undermined by poor performances and really poor results. Whilst I don't think the Europa League cost us I do think tiredness is an important factor to appreciate with how we've finished our season. For Bentaleb, Kane, Mason and Dier this has been their first full season as a regular senior player in their career and I think it's shown in recent weeks. Eriksen's looked knackered too although I have a tough time explaining that one as he should be well used to the test of a busy season by now. Ultimately what's cost us is we defend like an attacking team but we don't score enough for an attacking team. You look at Real Madrid under Ancelotti and whilst at times they're all over the place at the back, that's the sacrifice they have for attacking with intent and numbers all the time. We still have far too many crosses going begging with one player in the box and too often the ball goes backwards without going forwards straight away because players in attacking positions aren't making themselves available. The things in the above paragraph are the things we need to address and fix this summer. The tiredness one's fairly obvious in how we have to fix it, those young players will come back next season better prepared but we still need to bring in more players the manager feels he can trust play as he wants. Frankly Levy has let Pochettino down in that so far and it's been a bit like one of Redknapp's seasons with 12/13 players key players he can rely on and after that a mix of squad players who can't cut it. In attack we need to be more dynamic, opposition defences will always counter good attacking players with defending in numbers so we need to stop allowing them to settle and allowing the game to fall into a pattern of we attack, pass it around, lose it and they attack the space we leave at the back. That's for the manager and coaches to sort out. Obviously the defence need a lot of work too but I'm not even sure where we start with that other than selling Fazio, Kaboul and Chiriches asap. Anyway, I still have faith in the manager and the core of young players in our squad but this was not a successful season and a lot needs to be addressed this summer. Never playing like we did against Stoke away again would be a big help too.
I think that Eriksen's tired because he literally does more running than any other Premier League player, YV. He was top for that stat after 35 games, anyway: He always seemed to have more in his tank than our opposition in the middle of the season, but I think it's cost him towards the end. Having to run yourself into the ground in every game and often coming up with late winners seems to have caught up with him. Our system cramps him quite badly too, denying him space and time on the ball by forcing everything through the middle. I'd quite like to see him tried out in a deeper role in the pre-season, preferably alongside a proper holding player. That would also allow us to give Lamela a chance in behind the striker, which I feel is the position which he's best suited to over here. He's working hard and isn't afraid to try things, but having him and Chadli on the wings makes us far too narrow. As for the rest of the squad, I can see another clearout and another season of transition and instability. It's clear that Pochettino either doesn't rate or doesn't get on with about half of our players, which isn't a good sign, in my opinion. Our defence is a shambles, our options up top are virtually non-existent and the midfield's heavily unbalanced. Buying quality is always important, but we need to pay close attention to how each player fits into the plan, as a number of ours clearly don't.
Actually this says more about Poch's rotation policy and stubbornness. Why have we not seen more of Stambouli? When 2-0 down away at Stoke, why not take off a very tired Kane after 80 minutes and give him some rest? Yesterday he replaced Eriksen with Dembele and we didn't collapse-it can be done. At one time in the season Townsend was a regular starter, now Lamella (I appreciate he wants Lamella to get first team experience and to prove himself) but why didn't he alternate between them more?
Maybe I am being too much glass half full (never had that said about me on here before)but I just want us to stop hiring and firing managers and wasting millions of pounds and years being 'in transition'
Curiously symmetrical. We took two steps forward to one step back to get us to our peak against Chelsea and Arsenal as the year turned, then two steps back to one step forward to get back to the mediocrity we started with. Fatigue and a strange lack of rotation may play a part, but I think the problem is the players don't believe the way they're playing is the best way, or even a good way, of playing. Pochettino certainly has to get them believing again, and may have to tweak or change his system to do it. If the team is committed enough, as it was against Arsenal and Chelsea, the system works very well. But a lack of urgency is fatal to it--or, possibly, the tactically astute PL managers are too good at coming up with counterstrategies for the system to work over the long haul. In any case, whether the fault is with the system or the players, it's a chicken and egg problem that has to get sorted. The good news is that I think we've turned out to have a much better group of young players than I would have dreamed we'd have, and our long term plan for improvement is going along very well.
The emergence of young players - especially a striker who can score goals - is a big bonus and could save you millions in the transfer market. Or it could be the perfect excuse not to spend money on transfers given the seemingly greater priority of the stadium. That latter point puts you in the same bracket as Liverpool. Having a plan to generate a larger future income is important. But at present, the only way to bridge the gap to the top four is by buying a couple of top quality players. Speculating on promising players coming good has not worked too well for you or Liverpool. The difference between getting 65-70 points and 80-85 points needed to challenge is the contributions of the top quality players the leading teams have in every area of the pitch, particularly in tight games. You have a top 'keeper, but Terry, Matic, Silva and Aguero, for example, are players who, individually, can contribute an extra 5-10 points per season with match winning performances. Arsenal have one or two, Utd will buy one or two - Spurs and Liverpool need to find them too. You had Bale, Modric and van der Vaart. Can Spurs find any more?
It’s a difficult fix to get out of other than by throwing money at it, which we wisely, I think, aren’t doing. It can be done. Dortmund and Atletico show it can. But to judge from their examples, the prerequisite is the right manager. If a manager can’t get his team playing better than they "should", any progress they make will get erased by losing their best players, as happened to us and Liverpool. Without a superior manager, the big buys will not be as good as the big sells. Our buys were widely panned, despite two of them turning into two of the Prem’s most prolific midfielders, and another into our leader in assists. Liverpool’s were worse. I don’t think Pochettino has convinced most of us that he is or isn’t the manager we need. But next year he needs to show progress. I’m certainly wondering if we’re likely to do anything more than tread water till the stadium is paid for. If not, investing in young players as we’ve been doing is our best option, since it may help us pay for the stadium quickest.
The last two wins have brightened my outlook considerably. We finished above Liverpool, in fifth rather than eighth, and have a shorter season next year. Most important, we finished with two clean sheets, and looked pretty good doing it. Add it all up, and it does look like some meaningful progress. Lamela instead of Townsend adds a player who works harder to do what Pochettino wants done. Dembele or Stambouli buys some protection for the back four. At the moment I might like to see a 2 that had one of Stamboulli/Dembele/Alli and another of Carroll/Bentaleb/Mason. I also want to see either Dier or Yedlin at RB, though Trippier may be a good choice as well, if we buy him.
Cartilage Free Captain is ranking the various players' seasons. So far we have... Kane Lloris Davies I get the feeling that the one for Chiriches will be like something off Cinema Sins...
Present times are very much about hype. I think you could call this the Hype Age. Football is no exception and it all leads to heightened expectations of an unreal nature. Exciting as the game is, hence it's world popularity, most games are in fact pedestrian and even boring. These can be relived by the 'magic moment' which of course can be replayed over and over, but the reality is that most games do not live up to their billing. I therefore do not buy the criticism that we have only had 3 or 4 'decent games' this season that will be the same most seasons whoever is the manager. The fact that MP has managed the team to 5th place cannot be called failure, it is simply where our financial clout allows us to be, as a golfer would say, we have finished on level par. Take into account that this team was not created by the current manager then he has done quite well. flaspur and others have suggested we should back MP and give him more time to develop his team and I agree, what else should we do? There is no good reason to change our manager AGAIN and it rarely makes any difference anyway. There are many reasons to stick with MP and allow him to develop a team and foolish to do anything else IMO.
Pochettino did reasonably well his first year. He certainly deserves support for another. IMO, he checked most of the boxes: better results against the top teams, including four points against Arsenal, more attractive football, a breakthrough year for our Academy, and finishing above Liverpool. I am looking forward to seeing if our front four, who are both the youngest and the highest scoring, I think, in the PL, can continue to improve. I’ve followed a lot of teams in a lot of sports, and having a lot of good, young players may be the thing which makes a team most enjoyable to follow, IMO (except for a title winner). There are three things which marred the season: a weaker 2015, marked both by burnout and an odd decision to rotate very little: awful defending, which seemed a little inexplicable--what was so hard about making sure there was an actual rather than theoretical DM to protect the back four?: and too many points dropped to smaller teams. If Pochettino unravels, it will be a combination of the last two problems which gets him, I think. Does his style make it too easy for teams to hit us on the break? The first problem seems relatively easy to solve, but he has to come up with a solution to the last two I hope what we saw in the last two games, especially keeping a DM more or less playing as a DM, is a good start on that.
