I was shocked at how poor the bench was against Leverkusen, Leverkusen had a much stronger bench with a team built on a fraction of the costs of Tottenham. Obviously the farsical english market means you dont get much value for money but still think they have spent poorly. Leverkusen got Baumgartlinger for 3m and he had a massive influence in the two games vs Spurs.
Spurs have gone Pete Tong since April last season. Appears to be complacency in my opinion. And the worst culprit is MP. He thinks he's the bee's knees and is too one dimensional. He needs to get back to basics.
Yes but for some reason MP decided to play Trippier and Wimmer on top of having Dier in for Toby Alderweireld. In front of that scratch defence, we played a formation that we just don't play. Add in no leadership and there are some hard facts to face.
And that is what I fear. A manager cannot be your friendly uncle when you are playing like that. Who there can you imagine Pochettino teling that another individual performance like that and you're playing with the U21s with an Academy player in your place ??
I think he threw the towel in. Honestly and truthfully. Looked at our previous 4 games, looked at the state of the squad and at how unlucky we've been with injuries, and just said '**** it, there's no way we'll get beyond the last 16 anyway so why bother?'
Look this was a poor performance which wasn't helped by a very poor ref and a crap pitch. It takes a while to to learn to cope with the cynical tactics of some European sides when you have weak refs. Read about Spurs in the 60's when we had a truly great side, nothing has changed. We still have a young side who are doing well in the PL despite hardly being able to score a goal from open play. We cannot continue to play this badly.
Seriously, everything about this CL campaign has been bizarre. The way poch set ourselves up for games in terms of team selection and formation (where as fans we've said it was all wrong before the game's even started). The subs that haven't happened early enough. The subs that have been completely wrong and not what we need at that particular time. The general half hearted play and not giving a toss. It's not like any team in our group have outplayed us, it's just that we've been utter **** and gifted nearly everything. Defensively we've been non existent except for Hugo, and we've managed 3 goals in 5 games at the other end. - again, non existent. i know our premier league performances haven't been good either, but we've not been all over the place like we have in Europe. we've got 24 points and despite our performances leaving more to be desired, we seem to care each week, even if it's not quite coming together. We all know that football is about money, and there's only about 3 teams that are gonna win this competition, so in a way, what's the point? We've had prize money. We looked attractive to sponsors. Now we go again to try and offer the "holy grail" of CL football again next season by finishing at least 4th and rake the money in again. In the mean time there's another forgotten cup which was once prestigious that we can have a stab at. I hate to think this could be the case, but I could see this being the club's stance right now. In a way it kind of makes sense as we've got a young squad who are learning, the CL is out of our reach, (as with many clubs who enter it) we reduce the amount of games we have going forward, we can focus on 1 more cup and a league which we're well apart of, and hopefully bring the revenues into the club again. Just need to lose to CSKA Moscow now so we're not in the ropey!
I will definitely go to see the last game because I support Spurs whatever happens. If you don't turn up you should be ashamed of yourselves. Yes were were bad tonight but we have been worse and true fans still go back and watch. I have spent a lot more money than most of you going to the games atWembley and I don't regret it all. Not an excuse, but UEFA should really sort out the referees. I don't think that any of the five so far have been of a good enough standard for the premier club competition in Europe
He did have a buyout clause, though. They've definitely done some good business, but they're struggling in the league, IIRC.
I'm surprised you didn't manage to get through that group. I think there were two issues. Firstly, playing home games at Wembley was a mistake. It gave up home advantage. Your opponents were motivated by playing at the national stadium. Secondly, there was no big team in the group. It looked like an EL group and was approached by the manager as if it was one. Last time, you got Inter and played every game like a cup final. There was no thought of easing off because one slip up could be fatal. This time it seemed as though there wasn't the same intensity - as if one bad result could be compensated for in the next game. But it wasn't.
I'd be happy for us to go into the Europa, gives the youngsters more game time and also presents the possibility of beating Mourinho in Europe (if they qualify ). On a darker note, it might also be the only way we can secure CL football for next season...
Then he may have to go. The last 16 of the CL is months away. This week the minimum was win today, not lose against Chelsky. Given everything known about the Monaco team, today was not an MF or back four selected to do that job, injuries or not. Tis now looking like today is Pochettinos' 'Arry 2011-12' moment. You have written off a UEFA tournament this early. The revenue from that has gone. Now you will have to qualify again for the CL via a top 4 slot in the PL.
Before anyone shouts 'knee-jerk reaction', but after 3 months of doubts left over from last season slowly percolating in my mind, tonight was the first time I found myself wondering about life after Pochettino. There, I've said it.
I don't think you're alone but it's far too early for managerial change talk. This is just a sticky patch and we owe it to him and the team to be patient and give them the chance to turn it around.
We need to support the best manager we have had for years not start on him at the first failed hurdle.
