http://hereisthecity.com/en-gb/2015...e-the-most-in-terms-of-distance-cover/page/1/ It appears there is method to the madness. Now to tighten the defence…..
It showed towards the end of the season, as various important players seemed to burn out. If we continue to play in the same manner, then we need to use the squad a lot better and have more players that the manager has confidence in. The main starters need to ignore the early stages of the Europa League, too. Leave them out entirely. Interesting to see that Southampton have dropped off on that stat so much. They appear to have tightened up considerably at the back in this campaign. I wonder how much that's had to do with it. 13 less goals conceded and only 2 less scored.
The commentators were going on about what a great game Vertonghen was having against Everton. I know this seems like a non-sequiter. But I hope in the last few games Pochettino was getting the team to scale back somewhat on the running. Without so much helter skelter, Vertonghen was in a better position to play a good positional game, which he did. Pairing Dembele with Mason resulted in only gifting Everton one great chance, which is no worse than average and may be better. Yet our buildup was fairly quick, which has been an issue with Dembele in a deep lying position. Hope for next year? Increased fitness is a good thing. Working hard is good as well, but not to the point of burnout, which we reached this year.
I believe that when we truly have two trusted players for each position, burnout will become less of any issue. I like the fact that it seems Pochettino is attempting this without breaking the bank to acquire individual expensive stars, but carefully choosing players he can improve into playing a role in an increasingly solid team.
Not sure how important distance covered stats are. OK - so it suggests we are fitter than we were - but is there any correlation between distance covered and points gained? Who wants to be Burnley? ..... and are Southampton now a poorer side?
Being prepared to run throughout a game is in part what contributes to us scoring last minute goals, being dangerous right up until the end of a match. Also helps with not conceding late goals. I'm sure you remember we were prone to this a few seasons back. Hence this…..
If you couple this ground covered information with the fact that we had less injuries this season than for some considerable time it says something interesting about MP's style. Achieving more than the sum of the parts is what you aim for in any team game and it could be that MP has already done this by finishing 5th with a team with a poor defensive record and only one consistent striker. It strikes me that MP has a long term plan and we have not had that for some considerable time either. Once again an interesting new season beckons as a Spurs supporter. In fact you could argue that not since Keith Burkinshaw have we had a manager with a proper overall plan and strategy.
Its possible that previous managers we've had have had an overall plan and strategy but until now Levy has not had the patience or backed them sufficiently to fulfill it.
Or he wasn't convinced by it. AVB presumably had a plan but it didn't fill many of us with confidence. Redknapp had a fairly simple strategy but clearly no long term plan. Ramos?? Jol appeared to be a bit like Redknapp living from hand to mouth. Graham had a plan which we hated. Gross had a plan... of the underground. Francis had injuries, Venables didn't need a plan because he was a master tactician. Not sure about the rest. There have been a lot haven't there!!!!
It’s interesting that we also have a clearer identity than we’ve had, IMO: young, home grown players and attacking football. They both fit in nicely with each other and the need to build a new stadium. Meanwhile, Spurs have climbed, what four or five places to become the 10th biggest club in the world in the last couple of years. It almost looks like we know what we’re doing.
"Fixed?" Irving Scholar says : I think I am on the verge of finding the fatal flaw in your plan, Baldrick. That aside, the Spurs way of the 80s more or less was to have an exciting MF/attack, but with a defensive "soft underbelly" that meant we could never be league winners (even though I believed it in 1982 and 1985) .
