Haven't read the rest of the thread today..... That 2nd half was unforgivable. It was just dire. Seemed like the plan once Kane went off was to hump it 60yds to chadli. Totally brainless. I saw the goals coming a mile off and by the end I was surprised we even got a draw. Walker was lucky to stay on. Does he even have a brain? What was that shoving nonsense even about? Nothing particularly bad happened to him. Couple of good balls from Kane, one fro mm Eriksen, some decent surging runs from Mason/Chadli/Davies and the goals made it a decent if not spectacular first half but the 2nd, dear me!
Update on Kane with Pochettino saying he wasn't injured. http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/harry-kane-lacking-fitness-not-6259964
Well the prat has just contradicted himself, because he was interviewed on Talksport after the game and he said he withdrew Kane because he had a calf injury.
Mame Diouf and Gomis are two strikers I talked up before the season started, the type of strikers we would view as not being spurs quality, but they have real character, settle in the league and produce when it matters. While if the club/manager kept Adebayor in their plans, we would have had a striker availible and yes I understand most fans want him sold and I haven't always backed Adebayor, yet I would rather Adebayor then no new striker or some random kid from the french league.
Our players have to start playing the same way after the ball goes into the net. Two straight games we’ve dominated the opening minutes, then gone onto the back foot after a goal. Spurs have always been unable to stand prosperity. Now they can’t endure adversity either. The substitutions were poor, and Pochettino deserves to be criticized for them. But the shift onto the back foot was palpable from the moment Dier scored. We were hoping and praying to hang on, but even another goal on the counter wasn’t enough to make that attitude work. No doubt Ireland gave their attack teeth, but it got time and space the moment we scored. The good and bad news is that the high press which had looked so vulnerable last year looks much more solid with Dembélé and Dier. But cowering back into our end, as we did for most of the game, looks as bad as it always has. I don’t quite understand what we thought we were doing on the right side of the box. It looked like defending one on one with most of the team watching, giving them plenty of space for a shot or a cross, and then praying it didn’t wind up in the net. On the left we didn’t look half as bad. Alderweireld made the crucial error, Walker was awful all game, but they should have had more help. Anyway, it is very early in the season, and we actually did a little less badly than in these two fixtures last year. I imagine I’m in the minority, but I think a see a good team in there, if only it can ignore the times the ball goes into the net. I also wish fan sentiment (not to mention management sentiment) didn’t preclude using Adebayor replacing Kane. But that ship has sailed, I think it’s safe to say.
In my opinion it is unforgivable to be playing games with only 1 striker in the squad...it is criminally insane for this to be the case during a transfer window and injuries not being to blame.
Only read the last 3 pages and AGAIN too much negativity. Stoke had nothing to lose and threw everything forward and yes we did take Kane off and I would have liked to see Pritchard coming on into the left position when Chadli went up front but I still think it is very early days and this is a game we lost last year. We scored from a corner-very unlike Spurs and Dier said we have been working on that. From what I have read here, no-one is mentioning the fact that we conceded after Bentaleb came on- maybe he needs some time resting.
Disappointing result but in a way glad that it highlighted to Dr Evil the glaringly obvious lacks up front. On the plus side, despite not scoring Kane was utterly superb. His hold-up play, movement and distribution were those of a player at least 5 years his senior. If he can stay fit this year, he's going to be immense.
Oh and Dier as New DM? I'm hesitant but he's only played two games there and IIRC everyone was eulogising the decision to play him at RB last year, until after a few games there it became apparent that he was actually quite good at it. I'd say leave him there and give him a chance until the City game. If he hasn't settled by the Palace game, rethink it or Toure and Silva will make a mockery of us...again.
And "doing well" with this squad will be finishing in the Europa places. This is "the next level" that we sacked Harry (a manager who knew the league and was happy to buy proven premiership quality rather than value-retaining/increasing youngsters and who let attacking players play) to get to. This squad is a shadow of what it was four years ago. Dembele on the wing, Lennon frozen out, a midfield made up of a rookie CB and a fellow rookie, no striking options because Ade has been frozen out and our manager seems to be happy to be told he can't have any others (and that a technically-dodgy inverted winger who can knock the odd goal in can be a striker). We are so lacking in craft, skill and flair it's ridiculous. We also can't defend and any midfield steel has to come from either Bentaleb (possible but why is such a promising youngster having so much pressure on him) or a young CB. Without Kane and Eriksen we would be struggling for upper mid-table. We are in a ridiculous position and it's been a slow car crash that started in the summer of 2012.
I get the worry and concern Lenny, but the fact of the matter is that Redknapp was very much in the right place at the right time when he landed here. Look at his record before and since his time at us - it doesn't come close to the record of the sort of managers people wheel out on here in their wish lists to take over from Poch. Harry's main strength has always been taking average to above-average clubs and getting them punching above their weight. He did it at West Ham and Portsmouth. He failed dismally at Soton and QPR because those were two clubs already punching above their weight and, in the latter's case, possessing a squad in serious need of a complete overhaul and rethinking of transfer policy. He inherited a squad with 3 of the finest players to ever grace the premiership in King, Modric and Bale - all of whom really hit their strides under his reign - but not at all necessarily because of his reign. Give MP players of that calibre and I'm sure he'd be doing a much better job (although he'd be playing Bale as an inverted winger on the right ). The fact is that we are neither big enough to retain such players nor to sign equal replacements. A like-for-like Bale replacement would've been someone in the category of Ribery, Robben, Di Maria (pre slump). A like-for-like replacement for Modric would NOT have been Moutinho even if that had happened, as the former is quite frankly on a different planet to the latter (although Moutinho would've helped AVB's cause tremendously). No, we're talking Pirlo, Xavi, Ozil (pre slump), Fabric Arse, David Silva. Are we ever going to sign players of that calibre? Definitely not for the next few decades at least. So whilst I was dead against sacking Redknapp, he - beyond signing VDV which was apparently more of a Levy initiative anyway - didn't do all that much to improve the team. He inherited a very, very good squad which was already blessed with 3 'elite' players (the most we've ever had at once in the PL era) in key positions. But because of our size, we were never going to make that last - their sales were inevitable all along; it was actually a miracle we held on to Bale and Luka for that extra season each. I think AVB was a horrific appointment but tbh I also think that Harry, who was no major tactician, would've struggled too without Modric, Bale and Ledley retiring. And he, like every other manager we've ever had and probably ever will have, wouldn't have had the money or the pull to attract adequate replacements.
Mentioning Harry often turns into fans discussing aspects of his management/career with a selective memory to suit their views, mainly him being lucky to have certain players, yet never a mention of the signed players such as Bassong/Crouch/Defoe/Palcious (to fix issues within the team), or Redknapps enthusiasm and man management (which gets overlooked) and the fact his style suited the squad. Another manager may have caused that squad to have been unbalanced, fell out with Modric and not played Bale and signed a striker that was a complete flop, you only have to look at our recent signings to see how difficult it can be to sign the right player for the team. Pochettino knows that himself by signing Osvaldo at saints, while we know that by the mistakes we have made in recent seasons, so you can be sure if that same squad was handed to any other manager then Redknapp, its highly likely the players signed wouldn't have had the same impact, as that squad needed premier league experience to help them progress further and while Harry was in the right place at the right time, we where fortunate to have him as manager. Discussing his failings at saints is a little off as they where practically relegated and when in the championship, Clive Woodward was appointed which caused an issue, while at QPR, issues behind the scenes, while before Hughes also failed to rebuild, thats two managers more then capable failing at the same club , which in itself tells me that club needed major changes from the top, before any manager could rebuild. But of course I accept Redknapp failed at QPR and he shouldn't have taken that job, yet he is an old man nearing the end of his career and I think accepting that Job was more him eager to return to management and I would guess slightly gutted after missing out on the England job and then leaving us. But this is about Pochettino, he has some way to go before he can viewed as being able to do a much better job then Redknapp. Poch has to show he can manage under that pressure, sign key experienced players and as managers all need a little luck, Pochettino is very fortunate to have walked into both saints and us, with talented young players, unless fans don't want to discuss him being in the right place at the right time? or him being sacked from his job in spain? all managers fail at varying points (unless we're talking true greats such as Fergie/Jose) but Pochettino is being viewed as some sort of special manager in the making, very similar to AVB and be interesting to hear views when he fails and how Pochettino would manage at a club which never had talented young players.
Harry got three clubs their best ever Prem positions. That fact alone shows that he knew what he was doing and was a very, very capable manager. But that aside there were many fans who provided much talk of this "next level" that he was preventing us from getting to. And now we are indeed at this next level. Absolutely reliant on two young players to provide all the attacking spark and basically, whoever is playing, all bar two of our eleven players have, for the last three years been basically defenders (inverted wingers keep possession more, right? That's the point of them, right? It isn't to create chances as far as I can see - not unless they're of a much higher standard than Dembele, Lamela, Chadli etc. And when we lose possession they are more in the thick of it to win the ball back). Harry did indeed make some very good signings for us and at least was not a yes-man who would allow the vandalism that has happened to our squad. When discussing the squad we would not be in the strange position of mentioning the chairman every other sentence. Also Harry could get attacking players playing, not just engage in timid attempts to keep possession by cutting inside and passing backwards/sideways. For the whole of the AVB/Poch eras we have lacked any creative freedom.
In many ways Harry was great, but he was instrumental in bringing in Adebayor whilst failing to get the best out of Pavlyuchenko, who in my opinion was potentially a better Tottenham player, just looks at the quality of the goals he scored for us, his goals compilation is actually better than VDVs and that the highest compliment I can pay him!
Lenny what you say is so correct . Very few chairman are admired,derived, hated , liked etc as our micro slaphead . One thing he dominates our feelings about our club , which should not be happening , so he has become divisive , which is not healthy , as his policy dictates if we will remain endlessly trophy less . The football has been largely crap to watch with players of not the quality to play this boring system . The "Next Level " on a net spend , I've got more chance of walking on water .
I think that Dier's shown a surprising amount of versatility and an excellent attitude. He looked woeful in the pre-season games in the middle of the park, but has shown a marked improvement in the opening fixtures. No public moaning about being played in an unfamiliar position, got himself a goal and looked suitably pissed off at the draw. I don't believe that he's good enough to be playing the holding role for our first XI, though. Having him as an option there is very handy, but as you've pointed out, the idea of him facing some of the better players in the league is pretty scary. We need someone in there that can inspire similar fear in opposition fans and he's definitely not at that level yet.
