PL : 1. General Without seeing a single Spurs game this season and going solely on the significant KPIs very common for a PL team that finishes in the top 4, Spurs were right on/near the mark : - GD >= 30 : 29 - GA < 40 : 40 - Won > 8 away games : 9 - 20+ goals from a player : 23 (Son) 2. Season compass In terms of the "season compass" , Spurs finished 9 pts better, but with effectively the same GF and GA. The devil (as always) is in the details. Nuno had pts = +6, but the football was getting increasingly dire. Conte had pts = +3. Under Conte, the swings were drastic, and IMHO speak volumes about the mentality/backbone of the squad : Pts gained = 18, pts LOST = 15. 3. Style of play Under Nuno, other than the Citeh game it never looked good. Under Conte, the attacking play has been much better.
Cups : League cup : SF. FA cup : R5. Getting to the SFs again was done methodically, but the confidence of the squad was at such a low point that Chelsky were never realistically going to be overcome. The defeat in the FA cup to Boro was a blow, and was indicative of the on/off performances in a fun of games in the second third of the season.
UEFA land : The performances in the EL2 gtoup stages were a shambles. It may have been a blessing in disguise, as if KO stage games were on the schedule, the squad low morale + Conte winter clear-out may have impacted badly on the PL campaign (which was close enough at the end as it is) . Similarly not making hay on the UEFA ranking pts seems as if Spurs may potentially escaped CL draw pot 3 by the skin of the teeth.
https://kassiesa.net/uefa/seedcl2022.html So the Russia league champions were participating, and the Poool lose the final, Spurs would have been in pot 3. Am extra ranking pt would have made it a non-event for Spurs.
I don't think so. The Russian League Champions could only have been in Pot 1 if both the CL winners and the EL winners are top 7 national champions.
I said it at the time and I think I’ve been proved right. Not playing in Europe towards the latter stages of the season was a huge benefit for Spurs.
Getting rid of Dele, Lo Celso and Ndombele for no money just to get them out was a big change of direction by the club and a resl sign thst Conte was being trusted. The improvement in our football is very clear. Our attempts per game have gone from under 10 per game to over 14. Our football is more enjoyable and weve been the highest gosl scorers this calendar year. Players such as Dier, Davies, Docherty and Sanchez have all hugely improved due to good coaching. But it is important to remember.... arsenal were 6 points ahead (witha game in hand with just 12 games to go... we lost 2 and drew 2 and won 8 of those games...arsenal were also 4 points clear with just 3 games left...so tbh they threw away 4th spot. This is important for the club to recognise so that we do not kid ourselves that this squad is good enough. Our bench is beyond weak imho. We need to seriously strengthen in order to stand still, let alone push on. But tbh I think that 5th would have been a very good season so I am overjoyed at 4th.
When Conte was appointed, I thought that we would finish 6th or 7th. Without signing Bentancur and Kulusevski, even Conte wouldn't have got us 4th place. There's no secret to it. Appoint a top coach, give him decent players, ones who he wants and will select, allowing the fans to hope and cheer for success.....and you've got a chance. Now, we just need to repeat it next season...and the one after that. It looks like Conte gets the club, now Levy has to show that the club wants him to take this further.... COYS!
Definitely been a very good second half of the season. It’s no secret morale was extremely low by the time Nuno was fired, it was low long before he was appointed too, the club had been a mess for nigh on three years and it only looked like things were getting worse after some disastrous displays and results. The wins were unconvincing and the losses were brutal. A home drubbing by a **** Man Utd comes along and the fans inside the stadium really turn on the hierarchy for the first time, that then prompts them to swiftly act and in comes Conte. Whilst it hasn’t been all plain sailing, there’s been huge improvements thanks to his coaching and tactics but it’s no secret he’s (we’ve) been heavily aided by the additions of Bentancur and Kulusevski in January - who as Brian has said, without those two we don’t finish where we have. They’ve not just added their own individual quality as upgrades on other personnel but they’ve managed to bring more out of others and in doing so we’ve clawed ourselves from seemingly obscurity to 4th place and qualification to the Champions League and can now look forward with a lot of optimism to the summer and 2022/23 season.
Our squad as it stands is wafer thin, ideally we bring in another top level CB, CM, RWB, CF and AM. Then depending on departures, a backup GK, another CB, another CM and another WF. Hopefully Levy does not balk at the idea of Conte`s demands, and Conte signs a contract extension. COYS.
1. Time will tell as to whether for Spurs 2019-20 and 2020-2021 will be looked back on as the 'Corona chaos' seasons. Getting back into the CL after only two seasons past the last stint is a good turnaround (for reference : it took Spurs 6 seasons after 2010-11 to return, them lot are will have at least 6 seasons out) . 2. On the financial side, Spurs are PL #5 in terms of financial power. So to finish at least 4th is a mild accomplishment. Correspondingly, 2021-22 is the first season of "full" attendances at new WHL, so by next April we will know the true value of the stadium on the bottom line. Fate may also have been kind to Spurs on this front, given that the Ukraine chaos may indirectly lead to Chelsky being financially reverted back to plain old Chelsea FC. 3. In terms of squad MF prowess, I do have some "what might have been" on GLC and NDombele. More so given the team needed some Denbele/Eriksen-esque stuff at times. Has it been primarily been their attitudes (to fitness etc) that has resulted in them being so poor, or were they doomed to be nullified in effect by whichever of Jose/Nuno/Conte were in charge ??
Due to family health issues I have not posted for a long time but have continued to view these threads when I can. But qualifying for the Champions League again was so joyful I had to come on. What everyone says here is very true. Conte has been instrumental in changing the mood around the club and 4th spot was an unexpected bonus - especially over who would otherwise have got it. But now comes the hard part. For us to progress as a club we need a lot more money - our squad is thin
It was from the end of the 18/19 season too, the miraculous CL run papered over some enormous cracks and our form/ style had nosedived so I wouldn't pin it just on corona, Poch was losing grip of things and by the time he wanted to make substantial changes it was almost too late, then spunking £130m on duds just compounded his and our misery and it's taken until now to begin getting back on track. I think the new stadium will pay dividends, though the club needs to be careful with ticket pricing. They've bought themselves another year because with CL football, Conte, Son, Kane, Kulusevski, Bentancur and Romero, they've got themselves a competition, manager and players that fans will be willing to spend big on but had the first half of the season maintained into the second, it's almost a certainty that many fans would've given up their ST tickets and general fans wouldn't be buying single match tickets at £60 a pop to watch a team that didn't look like it knew how to kick a ball. I don't hold much hope Chelsea will suddenly fall off due to the Roman situation. I think they'll have a new owner sooner or later and will continue to spend, it may not be at the same levels as Roman but I'd still expect Chelsea to remain a very strong side. I don't have any "what ifs" about those two any more. We had two and a half years of almost dire performances from both. I'd say they're good players but they're absolutely not good for the Premier League, the sheer fact the fatter and lazier of the two had better individual performances for Spurs says it all, and he could barely last 90 minutes. I just hope we're shot of them in the summer and we can move on, I'd rather focus on and enjoy watching Bentancur (and a potential new creative midfielder) rather than worrying about what may have been with those duds.
Turns out we were also the most-watched PL match in the USA of America this season please log in to view this image
It’s crazy how high the January lads are up on the lists. Massive impacts. Also shows how reliant we have been on Kane and Son for consistent attacking quality. Luckily Kulu seems to be a great fit for the 3rd in the trio.
...and in their first PL (half) season. Bentancur was carrying an injury in some of the later games. On the basis that we add Perisic and a RWB equivalent and a ball playing LCB, it's not unreasonable to think that they will improve on what we've seen so far. I was secptical about Paratici after his first TW, but I was wrong....soooo wrong.
