Totally agree with this and it was certainly a very odd performance, but not taking anything away from Fulham who simply went for the jugular. I just find it very odd how the performance can change so rapidly. Especially after the excellent showing at Villa. I do suspect that the dressing room was an interesting place though after that debacle, Sonny looked very upset in the interview. As an aside I also blame the friends we were at yesterday for the day. They "sort of" follow the football although they are both keen golfers, but they always allow me to watch the game on Sky. I have noticed every time we go down (or they come up to us..) Spurs are on! After thinking about it I also believe we tend to lose every time!!
The problem is we need a player who is basically Hojbjerg and Bissouma rolled into one Hojbjerg has the workrate required, but is too conservative with his passing and isn't press resistant - plus his legs seem to be going Bissouma has the press resistance and can move the ball upfield as required, but his passing isn't incisive enough and he picks and chooses when to defend
The absolute cream is largely reserved for the City’s and Madrid’s of the world at the moment though, we just don’t dine at that table, hopefully we do some day but isn’t now. It’d be lovely to find more Modric’s and co but the chances of ever finding them is less 1%, generational superstars playing for your club is almost like winning the lottery. I don’t think Sarr and co will ever be at that level but that’s fine, we just need them to be at a level where they’d be ranked around the best six in their position in the league and I think they’re on course to doing that. We still currently need around 6-7 more Sarr’s/ van de Ven’s for the XI and squad, once they’re in place then we can try and dine with City and co because in theory a team and squad of van de Ven’s for instance should see us challenging at the top of the league and that’s when a £70m player or two will be the potential difference from 2nd to 1st.
Right now we’re not in a position to be thinking of improving on someone like van de Ven though. We’re looking at improving on Sessegnon, Emerson, Lo Celso etc plus one or two in the first XI. I don’t think these players need breaking the bank to improve on and I think the current setup has shown that there’s very good value if we look in the right places. Similar as I just said to Power, once we’ve built a team and squad with more Sarr’s, Udogie’s and van de Ven’s for instance, then we can look at trying to get one or two of those £70m calibre players that will push any one of those listed down a spot because that’s when we’d be appealing to that calibre of player too. As cliched as it sounds we need to walk before we can run and right now we’re probably at the baby steps stage.
8 points better according to @The RDBD season compass thread. We've scored a lot more and conceded three more. Seems pretty good to me.
It's all relative though isn't it? I'm not sure what you were expecting from this season. Perhaps you were sucked in by our opening run of games? What we saw there was nothing more than a new manager with new tactics bounce. Even Sheff Utd managed it under Chris Wilder! No one had seen underlapping CBs before and they caught the league by surprise. It took the rest of the league time to catch up with our new style of play, and our injury plague made it easier for them than it had to be, but at this level it is inevitable that opposition teams will study you and start to work you out. At that point, you have a plain choice: keep changing the plan, or increase the quality delivering it. Under Poch, we chose the second. I hope we choose it again under Ange as there is ample proof that the plan has more than enough positive points to deserve time and investment. There are certain areas of the first team that are still miles short of our nearest rivals. Midfield and attack in particular. We also lack anyone who is one of the best in the world at what they do. A game changer who grabs victory from the jaws of defeat. We don't have a Salah or a De Bruyne anymore. We sold him in the summer. Ultimately I think this season can only be judged in hindsight at the end of next season. I know that's a strange thing to say, but there have been so many lessons to learn and if they are learned, I am confident next season will be really good and in hindsight, this season will have been worth every inch of disappointment. Some of the lessons are blindingly obvious, like the fact that we need to treat cup competitions with more respect, we need better midfielders, better attackers, better squad depth at full back and centre back. Most of these can be addressed in the transfer window. Then there are the more subtle lessons like how to beat teams who park the bus and how to adapt in-game either tactically or from the bench to change the course of a game, and those will be on Ange to demonstrate progress in.
I can only comment on the season in general once it’s finished. So far I’ve seen some good things and some bad things. Yesterday was awful and things like not running etc are unforgivable regardless of how long the team has been together or how long the manager has been in the job. Spurs have accepted mediocrity for far too long and it’s seeped into the culture of the club. That’s my biggest worry.
The pass map explains a hell of a lot please log in to view this image Maddison not getting the ball to Son Bissouma not getting the ball to Son, Johnson, Udogie or Sarr Sarr not getting the ball to Son, Maddison, Kulusevski or Porro
Even Son admitted that yesterday’s performance was not acceptable I’m ok with however this season goes because it’s Ange’s first season…for once the owners should help the manager build a team in his vision…that is where the problems will occur for me and this will end up being another ‘project’ that got scrapped mid way and replaced by another one…having seen the way we operate as a club…that is my biggest concern…the past will back me up on this. We were poor yesterday, it won’t be the first time I’ve seen Spurs turn up thinking they just need to walk about and they will get the 3 points just because they had a decent result the week prior….it happens so often…it’s a mentality thing. its got to be a mentality thing…the same bunch battered Villa a few days earlier. It’s more mentality than personnel imo.
100% mentality. That’s why I’m critical. Win one game in a good manner and they’re acting like job done and like they’re billy big bollocks.
After the Fulham game I thought "bye Spurs! Good luck to Villa.!" I look at the table tonight and see we are 3 points behind Villa with a game in hand.Unbelievable. We are still in it. Villa seem to be screwing up as much as us! Both fans must be doing their nuts over there! Oh to be a manager!!!! Liverpool's thought United were easy meat and United's win may have saved their manager his job! Wonder what's on Arteta's mind?
It's really weird with Sarr: when we signed him he mainly played as a No6, but ever since he's been a No8 in his loan back season, under Conte, and now under Ange I get his energy and pressing further up the pitch is important to our style, but hopefully Bergvall coming in sees us use him in the deeper role - not least because Bissouma has lately been putting in performances that have people demanding Hojbjerg get back into the side
I don't think he's the answer. He's very much a box to box midfielder. We need someone whose first priority is shielding the defence when the full backs are 70 yards up the pitch and the CBs are on the halfway line. Bentancur is fine against weaker teams where we need more creativity (Bergvall will probably be his deputy next season and cover for inevitable injuries), but we need a proper upgrade on Hojbjerg/Skipp/Bissouma and I wouldn't be against selling all three of them to fund it.
He’s probably not the answer there but was just wondering if Ange can tweak him and coach him into becoming that guy. He’s got huge potential to become the main midfielder for Spurs
