Spurs going down under to play Sydney on 30th May. Who plays? Anyone left standing? All the leading clubs do this. Clearly a few quid and raising a club's profile overseas is more important than having players able to perform at their best at the tail end of the season. With the WC last summer and umpteen games in the EL , many players need a substantial period of rest , not a meaningless friendly 6 days after the season ends.
In the age of premier league football money is everything...and as we will get millions from playing there and will get a chance to "expand into the austalian market" it is seen as been anything but meaningless by the clubs bean counters!
I have agreed with many things you've said previously apart from MP...I have no idea if he'll make a success of it or not but I think that we must give him time...we can't keep swapping and changing...he needs to get his own players in this summer and be given at least 2 more seasons...keith burkingshaw had 4 seasons ( relegated, promoted, mid table dross, mid table dross) before he made that great 81-84 team I really hope MP is given time and he proves to be a success but I fear that in 18 months or so I will be telling you that you were right. For the sake of spurs I really hope you are proved wrong.
I really cannot make my mind up about Poch. True, I didn't want him at the club - I thought it was far too soon for anyone to make a judgement on him. I wanted Koeman, and I am not surprised that he has done a magnificent job, given the fact that almost everyone wrote them off at the start of the season. That said, I can see what Poch is trying to do and that he doesn't have the raw material to achieve his aim. We have far too many expensive donkeys in our side, and too many players who appear to be prima donnas. My fear is that Levy won't put the faith in him to permit him to get in the players that he would like to get in (and I don't think they necessarily have to be "world class" players). I'd give him another season, but I must say that the jury is still "out" for me, at the moment.
Is he ever going to get the players he wants? A little birdy told me , " Not on your Nelly " Poor Poor Porkychino .
That has to be one of the worst away games I've ever been to. It's up there with the 7-1 by Newcastle, 6-1 by Bolton , pure crap. Wrong tactics used, wrong substitutions, woeful game plan and a lot of shocking performances. I sincerely hope that we never see some of these players wear our shirt again, they are not fit to wear it. As we've all said, a lot of the current squad are simply not good enough or vastly over rated. A clear out of the squad is long over due. The only good thing about yesterday was that I was able to flog my ticket for Everyon away!
I think it really is in our interests to give MP more time and allow him to build his own squad, otherwise what was the point in hiring him in the first place. Football is an art not a science but you can use scientific methods and MP has on the balance of things done enough to deserve another season, at least. For me he has shown that he is prepared to change according to circumstances, he has utilised our youngsters well and has adapted the squad as best as he could. IMO he gives players a chance to show what they can do and does not go in for too many knee jerk reactions in adversity. The only way for Spurs to stop treading water is to allow a manager to have the time to develop a team, MP is a good as any IMO and he is the man in situ.
Just seen the lowlights on MOTD. It's hard to know what to say, where to start. The defence - or lack of! Is this some sort of deliberate attempt to set a goals conceded in the most clownish manner, record? If not, Chiriches, Dier, and Vertonghen all seemed to think it must be. What is a walking liability like Chiriches doing at a so called top premiership side?? Apart from the keystone cops defending, which has now conceded 53 goals in 36 games, the performance was inept, clueless, and worst of all, gutless!
Vlad and Fazio,both out of their depth,and need to go,the rest of thedefence,surely it is not hard to sort out
What concerns me is we have regressed this season and yesterday we looked at the level of QPR and Burnley who have now been relegated. We looked a rabble and this isn't the first time this season we have looked a total shambles at the back. I do agree with some of what you say here as there is a calm logic, but Poch is not the "best there is" IMO. I don't understand his tactics, his team selections, his use of substitutions and I don't care for the way he has used his squad throughout the season. Recent performances have been reminiscent of the worst days under AVB and the man seems incapable of coaching any sort of reasonable level of defensive duties into our central defenders. I remain of the opinion the guy is out of his depth at this level.
Yesterday was one of the only games where I'd put a lot of blame on Poch for the defeat. I think he's had a good first season with us, he's had to work with a squad where 50% are over-hyped, overpaid and useless and yet still has us in a respectable position in the league, having had fantastic wins over Arsenal and Chelsea as well as reaching the COC Final. But I thought the selection and his decisions (or lack of) today condemned us to a poor defeat and an awful one to watch at that. I know Rose suffered stick at the Britannia last season so Poch may have been trying to "save" him but considering Rose has been the only defender who's been pretty much consistently good for the whole season, I thought it was poor and cowardly to leave him out. Especially as it meant having to have Jan on the left and Vlad at CB, who is by far one of, if not the worst CB we've had in a long, long while. When he picked up the yellow, for me, it was inevitable that he needed to be subbed at half time because 60 or so minutes with that donkey on the pitch was only going to end one way. It does concern me at the lack faith Poch must have in Yedlin, he wasn't used at Soton where I thought he could have had a run out and then after Vlad's showing and Dier struggling at RB, I thought we needed to bring the two full backs on because the lack of pace really cost us. Vlad wasn't the sole reason for a poor showing though, all the back four were dog ****, Dier was given the run around by Arnautavic, Fazio is out of his depth and Vertonghen was just as bad. Then he started Mason again, who in the last month or so has been really poor, mainly due to fatigue and so it's been a hindrance having him in the side lately. The attacking players were ineffective for most of the game, I thought Townsend should have been used, especially when not one single player in that starting XI had a good bit of pace to them. On the whole just a **** day for a Spurs fan, capped off with seeing that mega-****, Charlie Adam scoring.
Yedlin has looked off the pace in the under 21's, so I guess Poch is looking more to next season with the lad. Which is fair enough I suppose.
I wonder what Hugo is thinking? I think our defence may have made a nervous wreck out of him,or very nearly! Couldn't blame him for leaving for a good team somewhere......
I think I've complained about this kind of thing before but I can't remember when(probably under AVB). On Saturay we started with our 2nd choice right back, 3rd and 4th choice centre backs and 3rd choice left back. Entirely forgivable that we had an awful defensive performance except for the fact that we had our first choice centre backs available and possibly our first choice left back too(not sure whether he had a knock and was just on the bench because we had no other defenders). We made it harder for ourselves than it needed to be. I'd rather see us start our 5th choice right back alongside our best centre backs than what we had yesterday. If you're just making one change then fine, push Dier to right back if needs be but instead of making 2 changes from our first choice back 4 we ended up with 4 changes! Even if you just look at the last game, Rose was the only absentee yet Fazio was the only one to keep his position in the defence. I don't know how that made sense to Pochettino and I can only hope that it's a lesson learned. Smacks of a manager trying to be too clever if you ask me. The substitutions were just a total write off. So far wrong it was ridiculous. I, like others, want to see Pochettino given some slack and more time but at the moment we're clinging to Capital One Cup Final and a good 8-10 weeks from November, the rest has been really poor overall. The first season was a chance for him to establish himself once he got past the early pressure of trying to get off to a good start. The way we're finishing the season he's going to have pressure on him to get results from the very start of next season. That's not good, it's clear there's going to have to be some significant changes in the summer and the last thing we want to be doing is making those changes with a manager that then needs to be sacked a few months later. If I'm being totally honest I'd sack him for Klopp in the summer if it were possible. The criticism's not all for Pochettino though, Levy really has to recognise where he's failing the managers too. When a new man comes in you've got to push hard for the players he wants and with our last 2 permanent managers(Sherwood doesn't count) that hasn't been the case. Moutinho, Hulk, WIllian, Schneiderlin, Mussachio, we missed out on all of them and bought inferior substitutes. Back when Redknapp took over in his first January Levy couldn't write the cheques fast enough. It's not just the players that have to buy into the manager's philosophy Levy has to as well. If we keep trying to take short cuts in the transfer market the only way is going to be down for us.
I think you've hit the nail on the head. Until Levy does this again, it actually doesn't matter that much who the manager is, within reason. Koeman has done well mainly because he has been backed to bring in exactly who he wanted. Would Levy have backed Koeman in this way if we had gotten him instead? I do think Poch should be slightly more flexible with the formations though. For example, I'd like to see Capoue shield the defence, like Matic does for Chelsea, especially when we don't have the first choice CBs in their positions. Even if it means switching to a 433 sometimes. I also agree that the CB positions should be cemented if possible, but I understand that Rose had an injury that prevented him from starting, and with Davies out too, I don't know who could play left back if it's not Vertonghen.
