Now that the season is over, we can do the objective post-mortem ... 1. PL Like for like with 2016-17 : Pts = -9 , GF = -15, GA = +10. So effectively Spurs lost three more games this season. 2. GF Definitely a result of the busparquet at Wembley. Reasons for not really overcoming that IMHO are : - not having the likes of both Rose and Walker in the team playing at 2016-17 levels - lack of CM creativity when Eriksen is not on form (Winks etc) 3. GA The GA suggests that the system played is more crucial in the defensive record than specific individuals (good as they may be) . That means that bar defensive player injury plagues, the team is not unduly affected. 4. CL Finishing top with 16 pts in the "group of death" was epic. The last 16 second leg against Juventus was a disappointing 45 mins. 5. Domestic cups The League Cup campaign was meh, culminating in that poor 2nd half against the Spanners. The FA Cup campaign was stuttering most of the time up to the QFs. The SF saw a team that seemed devoid of ideas at the key moments. 6. Team leadership That seems to be badly lacking on the pitch when things are not going well. Apart from my general belief that GK should not be captain, there is nobody who seems to rile and encourage the team to pick themselves up. 7. Squad management Average IMHO. We saw the boy Georgiou do a good pre-season, and KWP in the first PL game, to suggest there was more that could have been got from them. Moura has not been utilised well, even if he cannot currently last 90 mins PL pace. 8. Manager Spurs are now at the level where the number of opportunities for failure are low, but the margins of error are correspondingly fine. That most of us seem to be able to predict at what time Pochettino will make his first sub for non-injury reasons, is a concern. He has shown he does have tactical nous (Dortmund/Poool at home, Madrid away etc) , but there does seem to be a conservative mindset quite often. The Juventus 2nd leg and the FA Cup SF showed that he sometimes can be devoid of ideas when the pressure is on. Overall : If the season end as is was offered to me once the CL group stage draw was made, I would have taken it. That we are disappointed that things could have been even better is a measure of the continuing improvement and the reasonable raising of expectations that go with it. Similarly there is still a fair bit of improvement that can come from all of squad / individuals / manager, which makes me optimistic that the final step up is not beyond us.
One thing that our squad management has managed to make unclear is just how much depth our squad has Moura's obviously got quality, but we've only really had glimpses Lamela's a very up-and-down player, being the exact player we need for games against Arsenal or Chelsea but totally wrong for busparquet Sissoko does deserve praise for his professionalism, but how many times has he deserved praise for his performances this season? Llorente really hasn't shown anything, so unless h's mentoring the younger players what's the point of him being here? Foyth has shown a lot of potential, but hasn't really been tested as he's mainly faced third tier (or lower) teams in the cups KWP showed potential against Newcastle and Leicester, but that's half his starts from the whole season TO-B, Georgiou and Sterling had short cameos, but what next? We genuinely have no clue if Onomah or CCV have a place in next season's plans or not, let alone Edwards What about the likes of Griffiths, Shashoua, Duncan, Skipp, Roles, Markanday, Richards et al?
If you had offered most of us 3rd in the league in August, I think most of us would have grabbed it with both hands, add in the ECL group stage performance and we should be we pleased, so why am I looking back and feeling just a little disappointed – It cant just be the FA Cup semi final again can it? No it’s the actual players – how many matched or bettered their individual performances from the season before? Davies and Vertonghen for sure, Trippier and Eriksen (and Sissoko) probably did and Harry scored more goals but is not immune to some criticism. Dele, Sonny and Dembele had their moments and plenty of them, but not as consistently as previously. Dier was solid more often than not, and up to his injury Toby was great but has since struggled to get back in the side. Wanyama struggled with injury and has not looked any where near the player we had last season, though in his defence he played with Sissoko more often than he played with Dembele which may not have helped. Rose nothing to say that hasn’t already been said. Hugo was quite inconsistent some good saves and some poor mistakes. Lamela had a better season as he was fit but he still flatters to deceive. Of the new faces Sanchez was clearly the pick of the bunch, but he is not yet the finished article and could learn a lot from Toby. Aurier totally inconsistent, Walker-Peters looks a better bet to me. Lucas Moura could be a real talent and I look forward to seeing more of him next year. Llorente looked a good signing but wasn’t. Harry Winks had a some good games but needs game time and a loan to a Brighton or similar could be good for him. And finally the boss, I hope he stays but he is still learning too, he doesn’t make enough game changing decisions / substitutions during matches and we need more coaching in the dark arts of seeing out matches as Juve and Utd did in 2 of the pivotal matches of our season. I am delighted at finishing 3rd and being Londons top side particularly considering the Wembley factor and I was at the North London Derby for the first time which was fabulous as well, but could it have been even better?
Your sentiments are similar to mine (and probably others too) . Could have done better, based on reason and not our delusion. There is obviously still more to come from the on-pitch personnel, so optimism again based on reason and not delusion.
I think Spurs have had another very good season. I suppose the reasons why you fell short of being where you want to be are the same as last season - started too slowly - too reliant at times on Kane to score - squad depth lacking in numbers/quality in certain areas - poor results away to other top six sides, although the Chelsea hoodoo was broken convincingly - some tactical naivety or timidity on the part of Pochettino at times (especially the games v Juventus, which you should have won comfortably) Pochettino keeps saying it's going to be a difficult summer. Does that mean he is worried some players may look to move? The best business he could do is keep the squad together, including Alderweireld. Beyond that he will need to look at replacing Dembele sooner rather than later and finding a striker who fits in, scores goals and is content to warm the bench most of the time. Not easy. Kane wants to play every minute of every game - and score as many goals as he can. He wants to score other player's goals.The second striker is a reserve - there is no scope for rest or rotation as far as Kane is concerned it would seem.
Assuming MP gets a bit more cash from Levy (not hopeful personally) what would you like to see us do with it, bearing in mind the players we already have.
On the whole it's been a great season. The last couple months had been disappointing as yet again our crunch game mentality was called into question - losing to Juve after being 1-0 up in the second leg and likewise with Utd in the semi final, the latter I won't deny being bitterly disappointed at as it was a great chance of silverware. That aside, we've had to play 38 away games in the Prem and yet finished above our two fierce rivals, also securing CL qualification for the third successive season, that alone is a huge achievement. We've had some excellent wins that while not trophies, will live long in the memory: 3-1 against Real Madrid, 3-1 (and 2-1) against Borussia Dortmund, 3-1 at Stamford Bridge, 4-1 against Pool, 2-0 against Utd having scored the second fastest goal in Prem history - impressive stuff. We can be immensely proud of the players and staff for yet again punching above our weight, though huge improvement in areas is clearly needed if we want to punch even harder - and I do believe Levy sees that too and expect an exciting summer from the club. If I were to grade the season, I'd give it an 8/10.
Just to sum up our season, I'll point out a silly stat. We only failed to beat two teams in the league in this campaign: Man City (1st) and West Brom (20th).
I hope Pochettino sticks with his policy on substitutions. Patience is under-rated in football. The reason we win a lot of games is because we stick to the game plan even when we don't score and that must be the right tactics. As I've said before teams have the ball at least 100 times during a match and scoring twice is a good outcome. If you've only got a one in fifty chance of success then 80 or more successive failures is not unusual. So why change your tactics if it happens?
I am going to disagree to certain degree, substitutions are not necessarily about changing tactics just the players. I would hope that the subs would be coached to play the same tactical match and as such I want Poch to recognise when a player is having a bad match and get the fresh player on sooner to give him the best chance of getting into the match and making changes earlier can be beneficial from that point of view.
I understand that up to a point but you've made two heroic assumptions. One is that you can tell if a player is playing badly and the second is that that is a good predictor of what will happen next. Son, Dele and Lamela are huge counterexamples to that. They all take lots of risks which mostly don't come off. That looks like a pattern but it actually isnt. We need them to continue being on the pitch taking risks whatever has happened previously. Son would have to go off at half-time in three-quarters of the matches he starts if he was judged like that.
Whilst we as supporters would like to think that we know when a player is actually playing badly, the people the club employ to manage and coach the team should be able to. I agree that the players you mention play a high risk style of football, but if things are not coming off for them after lets say 60 mins, why wouldn't it be sensible to replace them with one of our substitutes that has a similar skill set and see if when they try things they do come off.
I'm up for making changes earlier but it's not easy given the way that we play. There are a high proportion of matches where we are distinctly lacklustre in the first half. Normally, we start slowly and then are transformed in the second half. It's got to the point where I think that we're doing it on purpose - contain the opposition, let them blow themselves out a bit and then hit them in the second half by significantly upping our game.. This was the case against Leicester [H], Newcastle [H], Watford [H], Chelsea [A], Bournemouth [A}, Liverpool [A], Arsenal [H]. It's what sides like WBA and Leicester have done in recent seasons. It was often the position with United under Sir Ferguson. Such a tactic or collective first half malaise, makes it more difficult to see who should be removed at half time. However, there are games when earlier changes might make a difference or just not picking players whose form is clearly off or are carrying injury. The last half a dozen games saw Sonny's form fall off a cliff, yet he'd play 70 minutes before giving way to an alternative. Use the players that you've got. Should KWP have been used more? Yes, he should. If Daniel Levy and the players need to be brave, so does MP. We're not going to push on from here without doing it - all of us, including the fans. I was distraught to hear fans moaning at the final 2 games, especially at half time. Was that booing from the 'Park Lane Upper'? Be brave enough to cheer the team on, no matter what. Sing your hearts out, even when we're losing at home to Leicester. If we're to break the glass ceiling, then we all need to grasp the opportunity and go for it. All of us.
I'd also give the year around 8/10, while noting there were more highs and lows than usual. Two points which shouldn't be underemphasized: No home games. We got 10 points less at Wembley than WHL. We would have had four more points over the course of the season, and finished second again, if we won as many points at the former as at the latter. For the first time, we outplayed most of the best teams in the world--and beat more of them than anyone, maybe, at least if you count friendlies. That's a big step up from last.year, when the only top non-PL team we played handled us comfortably. But, as has been touched on, we were weaker at most positions. You could make a reasonable case we were only stronger at LCB and RMF. A CL spot, becoming London champions for the first time in a quarter century and finishing above Liverpool yet again in short order made it feel like a very good year to me in the end, despite some big disappointments.
I love the images on this. Some real iconic moments from last season. I'm particularly keen on Jan's strike, Dele's celebration against Chelsea and cheekily, VvD and Erik Lamela. Maybe they could have found space for these.....? please log in to view this image please log in to view this image
