I would much rather rid us of the board than sack Ange, albeit I’m so far from impressed by the manager that if someone offered me the choice to stick or twist I’d happily twist. A manager’s job is to get results, the inconsistency in ours is a reflection of his management. How many we win or lose by has little meaning in the grand scheme of things, it’s the simple fact we’re losing too many that’s becoming a problem.
If you want to get rid of the Board that is presumably because you think they have provided a sub-standard squad...it's slightly weird to also be sure that the manager is sub standard.
I stand by my previous statements that the coach's job is to get the best out of the players he has been given. Results are an outcome of this but are affected by things other than just coaching ability so are not by themselves a good measure of coaching performance.
I think they’ve failed to provide the tools for the manager to succeed with the way he wants to play, as has been the case for quite some time. We went into this season with 1 first XI signing when we needed about 3-4. We still need about 3-4 this January but we’ll likely sign 1, possibly 2 at best and knowing this club it’ll more likely be another Werner than a Kulusevski type of January addition. It’s not weird, the manager has shown an inability to improve any player, a refusal to alter tactics despite them clearly not working consistently enough and a poor level of management over his squad. He’s spent around 20-25 years in the B leagues and unfortunately it shows.
First half was even second half was all them. They let us have the ball and defended really well. I can't think of a single chance we created in the second half tbh
Feel like we just go round in circles every week. We know Ange isn’t changing and he is clearly ready to live by the sword and die by the sword, he’s not going to whinge about everything like our last couple of managers. Therefore we need to buy more and better players and the way we’ve backed Ange so far with players he wants suggests we will continue to do that and we will get better. We’ve had some shockers this year but shown we can compete with the best but also lose to the worst. A number of the games we’ve lost (like today) have been down to fine margins. Get those margins (including a bit of luck with the ones we can’t control) falling more favourably on our side and we’ll be much more consistent and the side we want us to be.
My point was we weren't slightly better. I am firmly on the don't sack yet another manager side of the argument. Ange needs to be given players he wants in January and must learn to use the squad in a better way.
The issue there is his squad management is what's got us where we are due to running certain players into the ground and exacerbating it by rushing certain players back into the team for a handful of games before they're out injured again The handling of the defence really stands out: he did get it right by rotating in the Dragusin/Davies pairing in the Europa and they were handling their business while resting Romero and Mickey Van...but Porro and Udogie would often play two games a week every week so they're looking knackered with half a season to go Also has to be said that panic does seem to be creeping into his selections, based on rushing Romero & Mickey Van back for the Chelsea game...well, some of the Chelsea game
Everyone talks about how awful Man City are currently doing but even they have secured one more point than spurs over the past 6 PL games. On current form (6 PL games), Spurs are 4th from bottom.
He’s not got the answers imo. Levy took a huge risk appointing him. It hasn’t worked out at all. Levy needs to sort this mess out asap or Spurs are heading for a relegation battle.
Compete with the best? Walloped by Liverpool and could have let in 10. Constantly lost to Chelsea and Arsenal under Ange too. Beating City and Utd is nothing to shout about this season as they’re both ****e atm. His league record since he became manager is nothing to shout about at all. Plus (another thing I have to keep repeating) he’s not a young manager who’s on the way up and learning. Ange is nearer the end of his managerial career than the beginning and he won’t be changing. There’s being optimistic but then there’s delusion too. Be careful which side you fall on.
I wish I shared your optimism (and I admire it tbh). I just see too many variables that need to line up in order for the turnaround you're describing to happen. Too many ifs. If Ange starts rotating the squad properly. If we stop rushing players back from injury. If we don't pick up so many injuries in the first place. If we sign actual quality in January instead of the usual half arsed attempt at pretending to be ambitious. If we get a bit of luck in games. If marginal decisions start going our way. Too many ifs for my liking.
Levy hasn’t got the answers either, though. All but 2 or 3 managerial appointments by him have been poor, for different reasons. I hoped with this appointment that Levy’d got lucky again, but unless there’s mass investment into the squad immediately, that luck isn’t going to come to fruition. As fans we’ve now discovered that Ange’s squad needs a very specific type of player in each position, and many clones of said player to deal with the footballing demands. Therefore you’d think Levy & co knew this and hired him based on what surgery would need to be done. So surely he can’t sack him if he hasn’t given him the tools? As you say, it was a huge risk, but with the same person sacking Ange that will be hiring the next one, it doesn’t bode well. As I said yesterday, it’s awful seeing us look so bad, but it’s certainly interesting awaiting what Levy’s next move will be. Has he ever been backed into a corner this much?
I can't see it getting that bad, especially once players return from injury. Mid table is where I see us ending up. Aside from maybe 4-5 players, our squad is full of mid table type players and in the dugout we have a mid table level manager (and that's being generous). As I've been saying all season, this stretch is giving me strong 90s vibes. Capable of the odd surprising result here and there, couple of quality players, most games impossible to predict and could end in defeat. It's my childhood all over again.
This table may explain where I am coming from. It's for the last 15 years since City started finishing top 4 and shows the mean finish and std dev Man C 1.93 1.28 Man U 3.87 2.29 Arsenal 4.27 1.94 Chelsea 4.27 3.20 Liverpool 4.53 2.36 Tottenham 4.73 1.58 During that period Spurs have always been the least wealthy of the six clubs measured by squad cost, although our revenue has caught up with Arsenal and Chelsea over the last couple of years. A few things strike me from that table. Man City are in a different class to anybody else. The other five clubs are quite close on mean league position. The two most consistent finishers of those five have been Spurs and Arsenal. We always finish between 2nd and 8th but never win the League. The other three are less consistent but get some very good seasons but more poor ones. Now look at this season. All of Man City, Man Utd and Spurs have underperformed. Over 18 matches you need to multiply the whole season std dev by 1.5 to get the expectation and a two standard deviation event is not very unusual. So it wouldn't be significant for Man City to be 6th, Man United to be 11th or us 10th. So we are very slightly outside the normal range. But Ange plays a much more risky system than any previous manager so the standard deviation of our finishes should be expected to rise. If our average finishing position stays the same (and why shouldn't it) the outcome will be that we come below 8th sometimes but win the league sometimes. Isn't that worth giving Ange a few years for?
it would be if we ‘sometimes’ did win the league we are very likely to come below 8th but there will be no winning the league ‘sometimes’ stats cant over rule the eye ball test
Yeah I don’t see how Spurs win the league with Ange (personally don’t think they win the league under any manager) but nothing I’ve seen under him suggests a consistent settled side that will do well in the league is on the way. Even if Spurs suffered no injuries, his approach is far too amateur and he lacks the attention to detail needed at the top level.
Levy isn’t going anywhere though. Personally I’d love new owners with a fresh approach but that won’t be happening so can’t really do anything about that. A new manager on the other hand is a lot easier to get. Agree the next guy probably wouldn’t be the right choice though.
