Teams like City/Utd have experience of handling expectation and delivering when it matters, much like their managers are experienced at dealing with being doubted and understanding nothing is won by november. Pochettino currently has no experience of dealing with expectation of delivering success. No one expected him to challenge for top four this year (in terms of being favourites) it was more hope, very little pressure on his shoulders, which is rare for a spurs manager under Levy as the dynamics have changed at the club, with an understanding that while we move towards a new stadium, bringing through youth must be matched with allowing the manager time without pressure to deliver top four. Its a great position for Pochettino to be in, as he has been handed a group of talented young players, fans demand very little of him (compared to previous managers). Taking aside my issue with aspects of his management, he's doing a fine job this season, much like when AVB was here, I had to put aside my issues with his management when he was doing a decent job (until he was out of his depth). The test for Pochettino is how he handles expectation and if he can deliver real success as there have been many managers (at various clubs) that have promised to deliver but in the end failed and remembered more for being a nice guy, then their actual achievements in the game.
We've got to get lucky to have a team that can really have a good chance of top 4. The last time we did even Bale and Modric plus an assortment of other quality players were not enough to keep us there. If you put Bale and Modric in the current team I think we would be a shoe-in for 3rd at least whoever was the manager We've got to support the young players and the young manager and then we have a chance of getting a great team.
Er, when did we hire Gary Neville to do our PR? http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/fo...ach-he-has-transformed-Tottenham-Hotspur.html Genuinely more positive and complimentary than anything any of us has said about him. I doubt that our own OS would even be quite so glowing in their praise.
As in all things time will be the arbiter of Pochettino's success.From where we are today I see a transformed group of plyers under his management. Kane is powerful and dynamic and he attributes that to training that Pochettino initiated. Eriksen is a workhorse who doesn't stand and watch others defending and drags markers all over the pitch. Lamela is transformed from the misfit he seemed to be. Dembele is unrecognisable. Last night I saw Vertonghen really communicating with Ben Davies, both encouraging and high fiving him when he cleared a dangerous ball. Pochettino inherited talent but has created a team of warriors. After the West Ham game Bilic was in shock as to what they had done to his team. This team isn't mature yet and we desperately lack back-up for Kane and Dier but the players Potchettino has brought in, especially Son and Toby have been excellent. If we retain our current players and Pochettino continues to improve them and we add 2 or 3 more then we have every good reason to expect improvement and greater success. I think we're well ahead of schedule and much, much nearer to our goals than anyone had a right to expect a year ago. Let's just enjoy our team and shout our lungs out for them.
I think Bentaleb can do Dier's role if we need him to. The main need is for backup to Kane, and a replacement for Fazio. I agree though, that Pochettino inherited some talent (and has helped develop some too), but he has forged a team.
Chelsea ... minus 2 points on last season West brom ... minus 2 points on last season Newcastle ... equal to last season Southampton. ..plus 2 points on last season Norwich...equal to last season (swapped with burnley) Watford...equal to last season (swapped with hull) That makes us plus 6 points on last season...brilliant in my opinion
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/35196466 So, His Eminence Phil Mcnulty, the man who knows a lot about football because the BBC says so, has us down as finishing 3rd so that's us f***ed I find it oddly arrogant that he has Leicester down to finish 6th. There's this common assumption going around in Journoville that if one of Vardy or Mahrez gets injured their season is screwed...conveniently forgetting that City without Kompany and Aguero, Arsenal without Ozil and Sanchez, and us without Dier, Alli, Toby, Jan, Kane, Walker, Lamela, Lloris, Eriksen and Dembele are also screwed. I'm struggling to think of 5 teams who I'd put money on now to finish above them. Arsenal, City, maybe us. Maybe Palace if they put together a good run. Liverpool are now 12 points adrift of them and miles behind on GD. If United finish above them a national day of public mourning should be declared. I mean who honestly is there aside from Leicester imploding who could deny them a CL place??
"I mean who honestly is there aside from Leicester imploding who could deny them a CL place??" The stats are on Leicesters' side. Highly unlikely that any of the PL top 3 on Jan 1 will finish outside the top 4 come May. As an outsider, I really hope that Leicester do not suffer an implosion akin to Spurs 2012 (unless them getting a CL slot would come at the expense of Spurs ) .
What worries me about Leicester doing so well this season is what will happen next season. Time and time again we've seen clubs that the press think are just cannon fodder for the usual suspects have a superb season and qualify for Europe...but their qualifying for Europe has a disastrous effect on their league form the following season. In the past couple of seasons we've seen Everton, Swansea and Newcastle have dramatic drops in their league form due to juggling the two, while a little further back the strain of balancing the two cost Ipswich their spot in the top flight. I'd hate to see that happen to them, partly because it's always awful to watch teams work so hard for something only to have it cost them dearly - but mostly because, if they do wind up finishing somewhere in the region of 12th or below next season you know the vultures will do what they did to Villa or Southampton in years past to make sure they won't threaten their positions for a long time.
"What worries me about Leicester doing so well this season is what will happen next season. ..." Indeed. The dangers of UEFA involvement with a weaker squad. But it depends on the competition. Europa participation would be very severe on them. But a CL foray could be like Spurs 2010-11 : be a breath of fresh air together with getting the publicity/exposure/cash to boot. And just like with Soton, it would be horrible to see them asset-stripped this summer just when they get there or thereabouts (although the new PL TV deal "allegedly" will make needing the cash less of an issue) .
I would imagine Leicester fans are not worried about next season just living the dream this year as we all are with them .Hopefully we both qualify but it could be a stepping stone for us but probably a freak of nature for them ...no disrespect intended but ,with Pep and Jose in the league next year it will be totally different next season .Its a funny season ,now is the time to make something happen for all clubs up there because it might never come around again .
Just compared the current PL table with a year ago. Pts/GD totals of the top 7 are more or less the same, bar the top 2 who last season had a pts total in the 40s and a GD in the 20s. Spurs are in far better shape than 12 months ago on all fronts other than games won.
Before this season, Rebel, I would've agreed with this assessment. But now....I just don't know. The PL has become so unpredictable that hiring a manager really looks more hit and miss than anything, with clubs who chose carefully and thoughtfully often rewarded over those who go for the biggest name available. Teams like Leicester, Palace, Watford and even our beloved neighbours West Ham took relatively massive risks replacing pretty successful managers with what now appear to be well thought out and made-to-fit choices who have without question taking them all up a notch or ten. I'd even include ourselves in that list. No disrespect to Poch but I'd like to think we could've got a slightly bigger name in than him. But we chose wisely (for once) a coach whose approach to the game and philosophy would get the absolute best out of an academy that has become the pride of London, all the while keeping outlays low so as to save for the new stadium. And, despite being a relatively inexperienced PL manager, he has done superbly well in both respects. The PL is rapidly becoming a graveyard for big ticket managers. Mourinho's 2.5 year return to Chelsea yielded precisely 6 months of really good, convincing football. Van Gaal looks and sounds finished, Pellegrini has hardly shown a good ROI on the hundreds of millions he has spent. And whilst it's early days for him, Klopp looks to be struggling to get to grips with the PL beast, too. Would Pep or Simeone or Ancelotti mark II be able to just waltz in here and sweep aside all in their path? I don't think so anymore. TV money means that everyone is in the recruiting game. So, like managers, a club has to think really carefully about its transfer policy in order to be successful. Again, instead of just signing the biggest name going, it is crucial that - like the manager - players who fit the club's philosophy and style of play are signed. It took 75% of the Bale money getting flushed down the toilet for us to learn this lesson, but the likes of Alli, Toby, Son and Dier show that we've really turned a corner in this respect. To my mind, City and United in particular - followed closely by Liverpol and Chelsea - are still very much stuck still in the 'big name' mentality, and have wasted hundreds of millions on players who simply look lost and confused, coached by managers who often look the same. Meanwhile, the Palaces, Watfords, West Hams, Leicesters and Stokes of this world can now afford to drop £20m + per transfer window, and they are making every penny count.
One thing that I read recently is that, at this point in the season, our passing accuracy is 80% - while at this point last season it was 82% Taking those stats at face value, it would seem to imply that our passing is actually worse than it was last season. However, as always happens when you focus solely on quantitative data, it misses the point entirely: last season our midfield was often guilty of being far too conservative with their passing, deciding to retain possession with a sideways pass rather looking to play the sort of passes that would lead to a chance being created - but this season there is more willingness to play the sort of passes that can create chances, best exemplified by Dembele going from a student of the Ray Wilkins/David Batty school of passing that he was under AVB to being far more dynamic with his passing. If the trade off for more goals and a significantly improved goal difference is having a slightly lower passing accuracy, it's a no-brainer.
What can go wrong will go wrong has been true of Spurs the last decade or two. What’s stranger is that completely unlikely and trivial things turn into disasters. Why should a restaurant’s lasagna preparation be so important? What difference would an England manager quitting make? How about an obscure and previously little known provision of CL qualification? Also, quite aside from the strange disasters which seem to dog Spurs’ path, there is the very common problem of a rising team or player that repeatedly fails to cross some previously uncrossed threshhold. Add it up and nobody ought to be surprised if Spurs fall out of the top four. However, if there weren’t the negative factors of bad juju and a nearly team, Spurs prospects would look very different. They’ve been comfortably one of the top four this year, and as both the youngest team and the one with the steadiest upward trajectory, they would be solid favorites to stay there. Handicapping the title race (again, if we forget our team is Spurs) is interesting as well. Surely Leicester is the least favored. Ranieri said it best: for us to be there is a continuing miracle (or words to that effect). Their low GD indicates a team which has had a little luck on its side. Of the other three, Man City and Arsenal are favorites based on squad strength. But both have also shown promising signs of mental fragility. Spurs have certainly been the most consistent of the top four. Their GD is best. Their upward trajectory is clearest. They’re the youngest, and so the likeliest to improve. On the negative side, they have a thin squad compared to Man City and arguably Arsenal as well, and are four points behind Arsenal, and one behind Man City. But add it all up and the three are nearly co-favorites, I think.
Poch has steadied the ship, and made us difficult to beat. He's done something very un-Spurs-like, which is made us defensively strong, without overly compromising our attacking options. I am actually very excited about the potential for this current side. Levy has got to make it his mission to not only keep this side together for the next few seasons, but to strengthen in all areas. If it's true that we are going to be playing all of our home fixtures at Wembley for the next two seasons, while our new stadium is being built, I would imagine that that is going to be a fantastic incentive for our young players to stay with us, and to get in a couple of really decent foreign signings.
Fixed. "Man City and Arsenal are favorites based on squad strength. But both have also shown promising signs of mental fragility."
