Our run of results from last March (our last 22 games) reads as: Last season LLDLLWWLWLLD This season WDLDWLWLDL WON 6 DRAW 5 LOST 11 23 pts 29 for 27 against 4 clean sheets 6 fail to score We have played: Arsenal twice...2pts Liverpool twice...0 pts City twice....1pt Chelsea once...1pt Leicester once...0 pts West Ham once...0 pts United not played That's 9 games against top 7 rivals and we got 4 points. Lost to ... West Ham, Southampton, Leicester, City, Liverpool (twice), Bournemouth, Newcastle, Brighton, Chelsea, Burnley. Wins against Southampton, Villa, Palace (twice), Brighton, Huddersfield, Draws with Arsenal (twice), Watford, City, Everton. Points lost from winning positions: 13 Southampton 3, Leicester 3, Liverpool 3, Arsenal 2, Everton 2 Points gained from losing positions: 6 Villa 3, Arsenal 1, City 1, Watford 1 We have an unbeaten run of 2 during that run and have knly won 1 out of the last 5 games. There is a massive issue with the team and the results. Rose and Aurier were both told to find new clubs (unsurprisingly they failed) yet start most games. Eriksen and Alderweireld want to leave yet continue to be played. This means that over 35% of our starting lineup are players who have no future with the club and who are all playing poorly. I am not in favour of Pochettino going but something needs to be corrected quickly as we have been displaying relegation form over the past 22 games. For a comparison here are the stats for Ramos's last 22 matches. 07/08...DWLWLDWLDDDDWL 08/09...LLDLDLL WON 4 DREW 8 LOST 10 20 pts 28 for 33 against 5 Clean sheets 3 Failed to score Remarkably similar imo.
I think the best way I can describe it is we’re a car heading for a tree but instead of trying to swerve or brake, Poch is putting his foot down on the accelerator.
I actually think the Liverpool performance wasn’t as bad as I was expecting but we’re still pretty ****ing broken. I was concerned before but now Poch is really worrying me.
Very. We used to have an organised and well drilled defence, a midfield that protected it and an attack that defended from the front. None of that is true any more. I wonder how much of it coincides with Pochettino's book? Did that damage his relationship with the dressing room?
Another interesting stat... Almost exactly 2 years ago we beat Liverpool 4-1 and it could have been 6 or 7...in the 75 league games since then Liverpool have lost 4 times...we have lost 4 in the last 10!
It’s probably fair to say that was the turning point for them. We battered Pool, Lovren was subbed on 30 mins, Alli done a disgusting nutmeg to Emre Can to showboat and take the piss and it looked like one team was going places and the other would languish as a ‘nearly side’. They since plugged the defensive gap with van Dijk, added a superb keeper, added a brilliant DM and it changed their whole outlook. We on the other hand rested on our laurels and now find ourselves wondering what direction we’re heading.
One minor difference is that in 2008 we lost in the last sixteen of the UEFA cup in the middle of that run whereas last season we got to the Champions League final.
The team being picked very often make no sense to the majority of us. Yesterday being a prime example. As DH says, Klopp rarely changes his starting eleven unless it’s an unimportant game or he’s forced too. With continuity comes familiarity. Nobody at Spurs seems to know who’ll be playing from one week to the next. The defence is shot. Both full backs and one CB need replacing. Midfield of Winks and Sissoko has never worked and probably never will. Dele needs to regain form rapidly or be benched. The new players Ndombele, Lo Celso, Sessegnon need to be assimilated as quickly as possible. For that they need to play as regularly as possible. A settled side that know and understand each other’s game will prosper.
Add a DM to the list: Wanyama's decline was terminal a year ago and he's added playing like he doesn't care to the charge sheet, Dier is so far off match fitness due to injury and illness ravaging last season, and Skipp's at least a season away from being a viable starter - which is why I cannot understand why all the midfielders we're linked with are 8s or 10s when we clearly need a 6
There is no doubt we have problems, the biggest one of all being Levy. Aurier and Rose are just not good enough, they were at fault for both goals yesterday, up until their errors we were defending reasonably well, and most of Pool`s chances were from long range, they had the lions share of the ball but they were hardly tearing us apart. Pool got lucky in the end, our calamitous full backs gifted them the points. They were lucky we did not go 2-0 up, Henderson`s shot came off his shin and could have gone anywhere, and Aurier`s foul was completely accidental and the kind that would have been ignored if it was a Pool player on Kane. So with a bit more luck (or decent full backs) we could have claimed a result away at Klanfield. I think Poch keeps rotating to keep them all motivated to play, the problem is some of them are not up to it and others don`t care anymore, it`s a bit of a catch22 until Levy can sort the squad out. We need as a priority over the next two windows, a quality RB, LB, CB, DM and proper backup for Kane, over to you Levy, you charge enough for tickets.
We also won a trophy and beat Arsenal for the first time in nearly a decade...yet our form in the league went over a cliff...last year, the further we went in the CL our form got worse. My point in posting this was that no one disputes how we needed to get rid of Ramos and that it was as much to do with the previous season's ending as that season's start yet when they are compared they are remarkably similar. I am not in favour of getting rid of Pochettino but do have some huge concerns regarding his continued reliance on out of form players over those in form and tactics that are not working (the diamond for example). We are not being unlucky, or receiving terrible decisions we are playing poorly. We played 2 good 90 minutes this season...Palace and Red Star... 2 good games in 14 or in the league 1 in 10. Our season vould be rectified but not if Pochettino continues to make the same choices he is doing.
They also benefited from having their best players being virtually indestructible, with their front three seeming to be almost always injury free. I've even heard pundits give Klopp credit for this, as if he can magically stop a misplaced tackle from an opposition defender. They have also had a massive amount of luck in terms of opposition keeper errors and the like. Plus of course the big one, which is the "benefit of the doubt" from the man in black. Please don't bother to tell me that doesn't make a difference, it makes all the difference. Yes I hear all the comments that we need to be better than that, we shouldn't have to rely on pens to get in the game against Newcastle etc, but the difference is that Liverpool don't have to. They do play badly from time to time, and following a late penalty or keeper error in their favour, the all-knowing pundits simply say "it's the sign of a good team to win when they're not playing well". No it isn't, it's a sign of luck and ref bias.
More their fullbacks, who play virtually every game and they don't have quality cover for. Alexander-Arnold was rested for their two domestic cup games last season, for example. That's why they only had two.
They absolutely get `the benefit of doubt` from the officials, (or maybe its just plain old bias) countless penalties given for dives and accidental handballs, free kicks given for dives, players let off red cards and second yellows etc. Then you`ve got the refusal to award a penalty against them (see Son at Wembley last season as a prime example) even when the referee is looking straight at the foul etc. It took 39 minutes for Spurs to be awarded a free kick at Klanfield last Sunday, which was well on the way to eclipsing the 52 minutes Michael Oliverpool waited to award us a free kick against Leicester last February.
It's a bit difficult for their players to be clattered by an opposition defender when they're already halfway through a triple pike when the defenders are five yards away
