It’s not just injuries. Arrogant Ange has just convinced himself (and some fans) that is why Spurs are struggling.
They are not playing in Europe and they have a much more even squad than us with little between their first and second teams. If you look at the League table only three teams are significantly (more than two standard deviations) away from their expected points outcome. Us, Man Utd and Nottm Forest. That's around the expected number. Man Utd are the worst outlier by miles...a one in a hundred year event. By any standards we are having a bad season. But Ange clearly plays a much more risky system than any of his predecessors. If it's twice as risky then we should expect twice the scatter on the outcomes which makes our season about a one in ten year event. That plus two good cup runs is nowhere near enough evidence to sack anyone.
It’s not really risky though, it’s just plain stupid. Everyone - Spurs and rival fans - can easily spot the flaws in his system let alone the actual clubs. That’s then on top of the fact almost every senior player has regressed under his (so called) tutelage. This isn’t just a bad season either, it’s been a bad 18 months now stretching back to December 2023. We’d lost 5 of our last 7 league games before heading into this very season and we’ve continued that form.
Wh I just don't get your argument to my post... So, Brighton, a club with no significant income streams or history of top level success, have had more injuries, with significantly more minutes lost over fewer games! If you are saying that they as a club has been better run and prepared for performing consistently in the PL due to having a better balanced and coordinated squad, then I really cannot come up with a better argument for sacking coach and owners...
They are performing close to as expected. They have a squad designed to finish mid table and usually achieve it. We are performing well below our normal range but there might be reasons for that which are not related to the owners or the coach. As I have said many times now it is quite sensible for the sixth best team to play a very risky system which will lead to both better and worse outcomes than we are used to. The point of my posts is to share understanding of how wide the spread of results is in a normal world and that making them even wider might be a good thing. I feel I enjoy watching Spurs more than most on here, which I think is partly down to the fact that poor runs of performance don't panic me.
I agree with the argument that Brighton had more injuries per minute than spurs but to truly understand this, you would need to delve deeper into where those injuries occurred. We pretty much lost almost all of our regulars, especially defenders at various points. Those injuries would have more of an impact than an even spread of injuries across the squad. I have no idea on which team’s injuries had more of an impact, but I just wanted to highlight it’s more nuanced than simply looking at “minutes”. But the real issue is how Ange managed the injuries/issues and this is where he failed.
We have only finished out of the Top 10 once in 20+ years. This season isn't 10th or 11th, it's 17th! And the results and standard of performance in all but a very few games has been in decline for 18 months. If now is not the time to panic, I'm not sure when is ...
Chelsea are also a very good example of why our strategy is doomed to fail. There are only two ways Ange sees success. The first is to totally change our league approach from the risky chaos you seem to enjoy to the more pragmatic approach we've used in Europe. Or, like Chelsea, we spend £300million in every window and break loads of rules when registering players. Neither of those things is going to happen.
Worth noting the talk of a break clause in his contract if we don't get Europe which was whispering away in February-March seems to have disappeared altogether
Probably, he would be mad to walk away from money. Being sacked and getting compensation for a 17th place finish with record defeats and less than 40pts is crazy.
He's gonna go down swinging. Next few weeks will be intriguing. Does Levy have the cojones to do what needs to be done?
