Yet those sides often make little sense. Playing him alongside Winks the middle or out on the wing, for example. Putting him in a midfield three with Ndombele also didn't work. The 4-0 v Sheffield Utd was an example of using him sensibly, for me. He was used deep with Hojbjerg, which is fine, because Utd are not going to have much of the ball. It also worked against Wolves, but didn't against Leeds or Man Utd. Playing him as an attacking midfielder worked against Arsenal and City (from the bench). His injuries and corona absences have made his appearances patchy, at best. He's not going anywhere soon though and our midfield is a mess, so we need to get what we can from it. We've got a lot of games and not enough good options. Winks is one of the others...
Anyone reading this would think we’ve got these superstars who will emulate their best seasons at their former clubs but all our managerS keeps on getting the tactics wrong thus nullifying these blockbusting talents such as Ndombele, Dele, Lo Celso.
I know you’re being cynical but this isn’t far wrong. Aside from things managers do which mean they aren’t playing in the right position: - Tanguy can’t be arsed - Gio is always injured and has been unavailable because of issues around playing for Argentina - Dele wasn’t pulling his weight in training for ages which set him back There’s plenty of players in this squad besides those 3 who could be better if the manager played a different formation. And there’s also plenty of other reasons, some because of the players, some which they can’t help, which mean they’re performing well below their best. The judgement call that has to be made is if we think they’ll ever reach their potential with us or, If not, it’s better to let them go.
A mate who is a season ticket holder just called me because they can have an extra 5 tickets for Sunday .... that says a lot about the club at the moment and yes I am going because I will never learn
I genuinely don't see him surviving a loss to West Ham. From the outside looking in it seems like you are in the same place as you were in 2013/14. Even a Poch 2nd spell looks a better alternative than Nuno at this point.
If we lost to Villa I think everyone’s in a bind. You’re right that it won’t look good for Nuno but as myself and others have said, it would stick as a bit unfair to sack him so soon under the circumstances and doing so would make prospective managers think again about the job, as if they wouldn’t be already - we’re clearly a mess. Expecting instant results was always a fool’s errand, we’re seeing the culmination of years of mis-investment in the squad and the rebuild needed on and off the pitch at the end of last season was huge. The win against City was gritty and deserved and then we rode our luck a bit in the next two games. The 3 opening wins have clouded perspectives a bit, mine included.
One of my big criticisms of Mourinho (especially post-Madrid) is that good results and crap football isn't sustainable. Fans aren't as stupid as football pundits would have us believe, good football and winning is realistic and achievable which is pretty much why Mourinho, Allardyce, Pulis are done at this level.
It does have to be said that, if the axe is going to fall, realistically it has to be Paratici who delivers the coup de grace He stuck his neck out (pun not intended) to bring Nuno in, so realistically he has to take responsibility and pulling the trigger would go a long way to that - especially when the alternative is the sort of cowardice we saw from Comolli when he decided he was bigger than Martin Jol
I’d disagree a bit - I think the majority of fans are willing to look past it if you’re winning the league every season. But there’s definitely less patience for when things go wrong when the football isn’t entertaining. Good football and winning is certainly achievable and is the goal but I doubt Leicester were complaining when they won the league. Counter attacking football can be entertaining if it works, and winning trophies, especially the league, is always fun. There’s a good article in the Graun that sums it up for us quite nicely IMO. Myself and others have been drawing comparisons to the start under Poch, but at least there it was clear to see what he was trying to implement, even if it was taking some time to settle in. The issue with Nuno is that he doesn’t seem to be making much of a tactical switch from Jose, and the results aren’t coming. Even allowing for mitigating circumstances I don’t think he’s doing enough. Edit: link https://www.theguardian.com/footbal...s-no-identity-nuno-espirito-santo-daniel-levy
Yeah I didn't articulate that well but that was my point about it not being sustainable. Blips and bad form happen in football and so does natural decline. Poch, Pep, Klopp and Wenger (apart from the last 2 seasons) can at least buy themselves time to offer good football even if they don't win. Under pragmatic managers there is no margin for error.
Teflon Dan's not going to want to let any criticism reach the boardroom. He'll jettison Nuno and anyone else he thinks will save his arse. A mate told me that there are 40,000 less members this season than last and that significantly more tickets aren't being picked up on re-sale through the ticket exchange than previously. As Alfie said, ST holders can buy 5 additional tickets for a w/e PL game against a decent team, in Villa. That's only going to get worse if performances and results don't improve. The problem is .. 'Who the **** is coming in to turn this around?' Which manager, who is a shoe in to make a go of it, would see us as a good career move right now, after we've sacked 3 experienced PL managers in 2 years and spent and done very little to help them? Nuno was the barrel being scraped close to the bottom...WTF comes next....?
I’ve long said I was happy to sacrifice style for substance and it’s why I was probably more open than many others to Jose coming in, regardless of anyone’s personal views of him or views on his style, the man had won it all so I felt I owed it to him to give him a chance and not be “anti-Jose” the moment he was appointed. Early signs were promising too but then as time went on, especially in the second season, it became pretty apparent to me that his style was only really successful when he had the perfect personnel at his disposal, and by perfect I mean some of the most expensive players around who were amongst the best in their position and realistically he was never going to get that at Spurs. Even though I’d wanted him gone beforehand, we were absolutely dumb sacking him before the final, his record for us against City was P3 W2 L1 and the man has an unreal record in finals. But all in all Jose’s style just wasn’t good to watch and it also wasn’t getting results, so we didn’t get substance for style, we just had no substance and no style. All of that is then why I was so against Nuno coming in. Nuno is a poor man’s Jose, arguably a very poor man’s version and so we sacked a guy to only eventually replace him after a clusterfuck of a summer with an even lesser version of himself. I’m not overly surprised that 10 or so total games in, fans are already calling for him to go. It’s nothing personal against the guy but he’s just a very, very basic manager.
I think Nuno’s record at Wolves was good and he’s a bit of a better manager than you’re giving him credit for, though I have no idea what he’s doing right now at Spurs tbh. Yes he had little excuse to not get Wolves up from the Championship given the resources and connections at his disposal but 99 points isn’t to be sniffed at. Consecutive 7th place PL finishes with that group of players was a great achievement and while they had a worse 3rd season, they’d sold key players and also lost Jimenez to a bad injury, so I’ll allow him a bit of a bye for that. Banking on him improving on a decent PL CV and bringing some of the more expansive football that he reportedly played in Portugal and Spain was probably the rationale for employing him, and obviously he wasn’t under contract and pre-season was about to begin, so our hand was kind of forced. The whole managerial search was a mess and that isn’t exactly Nuno’s fault. All the other candidates I’d have wanted stayed at other clubs, or moved to other clubs. What I don’t see is what he’s trying to do now. He didn’t immediately set out to play expansive football (an approach which got us early results and he then abandoned) and I can’t help but feel that if he wants to play with a solid midfield and exploit the wide areas in and out of possession then he should just go back to 343 because we have plenty of players who know that formation and have played well in it, and he obviously knows how to coach it to a decent standard. Instead he’s trying to do the same thing with a different formation which doesn’t suit our players, particularly the majority of our midfielders. IMO he should either be playing 343 or 4231 depending if he wants to be solid and counter or if he wants to try and have more of a possession game.
Wolves came up and spent pretty big though. In the three years they’d been in the Prem under him they had something like the 5th highest net spend. He wasn’t dealing with a typical newly promoted side, he more or less had a Prem-ready team in the championship and further added to it when they did come up. After a decent start with Valencia he resigned after poor form. He flopped at Porto and got sacked. Then spent big and utilised Mendes at Wolves and so more or less done par for the course in the end. Now at Spurs, he’s the first manager who’s struggling to even get something out of Kane and Son, let alone the rest of the team. In my opinion he’s massively out of his depth and we should look at rectifying the mistake of hiring him sooner rather than later.
Yeah I agree he looks like he’s floundering right now. Whether he can get his head above water, we’ll have to see.
Son's playing well enough under him and scoring goals. I can't blame him for anything Kane's doing this season, either. Plenty of other things that he's getting wrong though, in my opinion.
Like I said the other day, throw all the money at Conte and give him the control he wants, go big for Potter, or ten Hag. There’s wildcard options too like Terzic or even Thomas Frank. Manager’s that have a real style to their management, I don’t care if they’re a big name or not, just someone who knows how to play the right way and get more out of players. More or less anyone (within reason) will be better than what we’re seeing under Nuno, the bloke’s a painfully boring manager.
Son’s not playing well, he was terrible on Sunday but got on the end of Reguilon’s cross which got him a reprieve, Kane would’ve likely got on the end of it too had Son not been there. Kane has the same amount of goals as Son as well, his just aren’t in the league. We’re bottom on just about every offensive and creative stat list so both aren’t able to properly get into the game and are feeding off scraps.
