I realised after posting it's multiple choice: as well as Solanke playing DM, we also have Vicario completing almost twice as many passes as Johnson
DH knows ball, man. Said both him and Richarlison would make good ones, the latter’s just never fit to prove my theory. Their pressing off the ball is as good as any DM around.
Totally agree - and the lad has gone up in my estimation in the way that he not only confronted them, but handled it. Very professional for a young lad at a new 'loan' club. However...I'm getting sick to death of coach and players coming out with their 'sorry, we know that's not good enough and we'll come back stronger' bullshit. Once or maybe twice is acceptable...not 15 times a season!
Well guys I've finished this crusade and I'm moving on to the next. I will now hope you guys win something one day while I go after another club. Arsenal! I think I'll go after them.
Remind me how Arteta's first few seasons went and look at where they are now. He didn't have the CB issues we have. Obviously it's not a direct comparison, and he 'won fings' on the way, but many were calling for his head and some still are. What makes us believe that it should be a million, or even two, times smoother for us? Why? Especially with the injury issues. Make it make sense to me. Aston Villa and Newcastle got relegated in their dips prior to their rebuild. Our current dip is mild in comparison.
Hollow words from people who need to spout them somewhere else. It isn't getting better. I very much doubt that it can do, at this point. Yesterday’s 'performance' was abject and barring a few minutes of application in the second half, absolutely gutless as well. Any verbal backing of the coach is bullshit unless the players are ready to leave it all out on the pitch for him. That's the difference between this and 1977. That team had far worse player, far far worse...but I rarely saw them give up trying. End this ****ing nonsense, Daniel, Scott or whoever is supposedly paid to manage this **** show. Sack Ange and put the players on warning that thise who can't be bothered to try, between now and the end of the season, will leave or spend next season without a squad place. We're nannying these ****ers and it needs stopping. Play the kids...just stop offering up lame arse excuses for absolute ****. Rant ends.
And to cap it all off, Ange looked ready to lamp another fan when leaving the pitch, with Djed Spence having to usher him away
Brings us back to the 'stats v our eyes' measurement... We all saw how poorly the team played for most of the game yesterday, how many times they lacked effort or made bad decisions, but others (including the coach, apparently) and minimise the collective failing - especially amongst the more experienced of the players. We created a couple of half chances and a possible penalty in 94 minutes against a mid-table PL team. I can think of at least 6 names that if they disappeared off the teamsheet tomorrow I wouldn't shed a tear. Actually give a cheer. I literally cannot remember a time in 60 years of supporting the club that I ever felt like that.
I actually think we’re currently very similar to the AVB situation in which the dire management and coaching of the team is causing many to believe so many of our players aren’t good. Under AVB’s latter tenure, fans wanted Rose and Walker sold, whilst the likes of Vertonghen and Dembele came in for a lot of criticism due to performances and consistency. Fast forward to giving them to Poch for 6-12 months and they all ended up becoming some of our best and most loved players in the Prem era. There’s a crop of players right now who’ve both shown their quality either at Spurs, elsewhere or a mix of both that now suddenly look like they’ve won pub raffles to play for us. Almost every player has regressed… it’s beyond ridiculous. For as much as I like Postecoglou as a bloke - and I genuinely do really like him - I think he’s pound for pound one of the worst managers we’ve hired during the ENIC tenure. There is such an amateur, “rabbit in the headlights” vibe to him. A real shame in some ways, because he’s the type of guy you want to get behind (and partly why I think the players still like him) but this level of management and coaching needs to go back to the SPL.
Arteta won the FA Cup in his first season, that kept him in the job during their bad times. Their bad times weren’t as bad as this though. I’ll repeat it again, the injury issues are caused by the manager, so I have no sympathy for him there. He needs to learn to use the squad better instead of running players into the ground or expecting players to play every minute after being on the bench and not getting any game time. He finished 5th last year which was due to the first ten games, since then Spurs have been rank rotten in the league. This simply can’t go on for a third season. If he wins Europa then he will get the third season to show if he’s able to fix league issues.
I have to disagree with this analogy stretching to the players: for me it was just AVB that was the problem. I don't recall ever looking at the players then and thinking 'they can't be asked' or 'they're just ****'. That's the big difference for me.
Nah completely disagree, there was a huge roar from fans over the discontent with players like Rose and Walker especially. Loads of fans wanted them gone. Vertonghen and Dembele were also massively criticised, it even took Dembele a while under Poch to get back to his best, often found himself behind Mason and Bentaleb in Poch’s first season. We’ve got a lot of decent players at the moment that are being managed awfully, they’re nowhere near as bad as what’s being portrayed - we’ve literally seen what many of them are capable of.
