What would you have changed though Boss? It'll be like this every week until the end of the season because the squad is unbalanced. It all stems from the striker situation. I don't see how it can be changed either to be honest. The bench offers pretty much nothing. I understand if you're referring to certain players being dropped, such as walker, but tactically I don't see we have many options mate.
The dearth in creativity is by no means a Sandro shaped hole so I really think you need to look elsewhere in the midfield for that. I think the trouble was we weren't prepared to pass it around and frustrate Swansea in the second half, although you can understand that when you look at how panicky our defence has been lately and given how poorly we were defending yesterday I think it was warranted to concentrate on stopping goals rather than creating them. At the end of the day, 3 points is 3 huge points and no one comes away from the Liberty stadium with an easy win but we've stopped our run of losses too so I'm not overly concerned with the performance.
Spurs drew at Swansea last season, so that's two extra points won today that we didn't have in 2011-12. We're now just a point behind our tally from 31 matches last season and a win next time out at home to Everton will put us a point above last season's total after 32 games and set a new club Premier League Era record of 60 points from 32 matches. If you compare the identical fixtures against last season, Spurs are now a point ahead.... Tottenham Hotspur Premier League Points Won 1992-93 to 2012-13
Dawson is a great tryer, and an asset to the club. But, I have to say that, defensively, we have badly missed Kaboul.
I think we could look at Dembele rather than Parker. I'm not sure about his role in the team, is he? His forward runs can be devastating but we have seen little of them in recent games. I think his creativity is individual rather than inclusive the way Modric's was. Perhaps Bale has stolen his thunder in fact it could be that the excelence of Bale has unbalanced the whole team as often happens when you have a stand out player. It becomes the teams role to get the ball to Bale and this can result in losing the potential of other team members. IMO the team at the moment is LESS than the sum of its parts. In other words the lack of creativity and control must be laid at AVB's door.
What?? the best form of defence is attack and always has been. Also, I'm not saying the lack of creativity is only down to Sandro being out, I said, our defenders when given the choice of Parker or long, they go long, missing the MF altogether (including Dembele), so if they're missed out, they're not creating, or anything else for that matter. Its a contributing factor, not a sole cause....keep up!
What was annoying - yet again, is that we should have been prepared for Swansea upping the tempo in the second half. If you're the manager of a team losing 0-2 at home, at half time you're going to exhort your players to up their game - get stuck in, etc. if you know this is going to happen - and let's face, it doesn't need a master tactician to work it out - then you have to be prepared to up your own game, your own tempo to match that. Not for the first time, we failed to do that.
I agree with 80% Spurf says. I have never seen enough of Dembele in a game . He does his role but that's it. He rarely stands out and tends be unanimous for most games. Add,s so little to our flow. We have no choice regarding Bale. He has won us over half our games this season. Without him we would either lost or best be drawn. Striker's don't make a difference being injured or not , who plays in goal is not the end of the world, defence can be rotated, central midfield is best with Dembele but that's because there is no one else. I don't think you can blame AVB completely for a lack of creativity. It's a far deeper problem as the striker situation. The owner's will not put their money were their mouth is, so we constantly muddle through.
Sorry but that's not what you said, you were talking about a lack of creativity in midfield and how that's the poorest part of Parker's game so I pointed out that Sandro wasn't much of a playmaker either so the blame for a lack of creativity simply has to fall elsewhere. I don't think they do go long all the time, actually, just when we're under pressure and there's a switch of the balance from looking to control the ball and get forward to a more defensive "safety first" mindset. And Parker simply couldn't have been bypassed all game becuase once again he played more passes than anyone else in the team and as much as he can win the ball, he didn't win it that many times. Putting attack over defence when we're 2-0 up, away, against a good side and without strikers that are scoring would've opened AVB up for far more criticism and rightly so. I really can't see us ever agreeing on that, the result was everything yesterday and going defensive was the safest option. The "we'll score more than you" attitude might work or it might not but I think it's a very big risk considering our strikers aren't scoring and our defence has been creating problems for themselves in possession recently.
because playing poorly could cost us 4th spot DL. The league is too tight and we're making too many mistakes. we've been lucky to get as many good results as we have, but it can't last forever. Liverpool and Fulham got the better of us and we really can't afford any more slip-ups over the next 7 games. The way we're playing, doesn't exactly fill us fans with confidence.
Yes it is what I said, I wouldn't bother wasting my time explaining otherwise, if you want to dissect some tangent out of it carry on, in fact everything else you've pointed out is taking what I say to extreme. If you're going to start putting words in my mouth, you're right, we won't be agreeing, and certainly not on 'containing' halftime leads. Loada bollox, whether the strikers are scoring or not, attempting to, keeps the ball in the right half...away from our shaky defence you describe! Good side??...with cup win hangover getting regularly beat. Leave it out YV, your whole post is surprisingly rubbish for you.
There are a lot of positives in the club at the moment, DL, but there are some standing issues that were not addresses either last summer or in January. The results have been largely positive but in more than a few, some individual performances and general decent team spirit have papered over some alarming cracks. Those frustrations come to the surface after a game like yesterday, when for 20-25 minutes we were very impressive, but from then on looked all at sea for large parts of the match. The lack of any cohesive game plan (other than just retreating deeper and deeper) to match Swanseas improved play in the 2nd half was alarming. And central to this was an absence of creativity in midfield. I agree with Spurf, that Dembele. more than Parker, needs to provide more in this regard. Unfortunately he was MIA for much of the game yesterday. Holtby added some spark when he came on but little from a relative point of view. Key area to address at the end of the season - just hope that we can ensure CL footie to at least get the best possible options to consider.....
I don't think we are arguing DL we all pretty much agree that Spurs are not performing to their potential. We are just exploring the reasons for that. We are no longer happy just to be competing for top 4 we kind of expect it after the last few seasons. With Harry we often looked great but did not always get the right result now with AVB we often get the right result while looking poor. We just want the right results while looking the part. Not much to ask from people who are paid millions every year to entertain us.
Chelsea have only played 90 minutes of good football for 6-7 games all season (2 under Benitez). We just have to accept the quality of the league (generally) has depreciated. Spurs have made mistakes but AVB has been dealt a poor hand given the sale of key players and lack of funds to replace them. Bale and Vertonghen are carrying you like Mata, Hazard and Luiz for us but its all about riding the storm. Arsenal and Chelsea will run out of games eventually. You definitely have to beat either City or Chelsea no doubt about it, even Everton next Sunday is a must win given Chelsea and Arsenal are likely to win.
Perhaps DL, but you have a stronger squad with game changers on the bench. if you're playing poorly, there's quality you can bring on to make a difference. When our "Plan A" is struggling, that's it for us. We just have to hope. - not a good position to be in. I think this is why we want us playing better. There's been too many mistakes this season and an obscene amount of frustrating moments. Unfortunately, their too costly for us. We cannot have that at this point in the season, as now is when it really matters.
I think playing Everton, Chelsea and City will bring the best out in Spurs because they will know that they have to be at the top of their game to compete. It's the mid table sides where we seem to underestimate them and are constantly surprised by their resilience.
We cannot afford to lose any of those 3 games. We need to win 2 of them, or absolute minimum 1 win and 2 draws.
Attacking also leaves you more open and that's a risk we often run but, like against Inter and Fulham, if you don't turn possession into chances, or chances into goals and defend like twats then it doesn't take a great team to undo you. Swansea are a good side though, they might not have been as motivated as they could be on paper but I don't think that showed against us or Arsenal.
