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The Problems at Spurs

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I'm a little bit skeptical of explanations pointing to the team being knackered because of the world cup, or, even worse, some sort of lack of inspiration or gumption or grit or whatever. Maybe those are right, but I'll echo those who have pointed to the following two concerns:

1) The midfield. It is our clearest deficiency compared to other top teams. You look at our defense, and Toby, Jan, and Sanchez would start or play for many teams. Up front, Kane, Alli, Erickson, Son, and now Moura are all lethal, and would get major minutes for most squads. Who in our midfield starts for another top teams? Dembele once would have been a choice, but not anymore. The talent level there (at least until Skipp develops, or Winks stays healthy and takes a step forward) is presently lacking, and it has shown.

2) Tactics. We've been shuffling through so many formations as Poch tries to get it right. But this diamond seems to be a clear failure: it's too narrow, and when our wingers carry the ball up wide, the space left behind them is too much for our midfielders (our weakness!) to cover. Davies has not been effective, and while Trippier delivers a great cross, he has been under pressure to race back. Moura and Kane have not worked well as the "2" up front. I'm with many others in wanting Moura to work from a wider place; I think a different formation that allows more width throughout the field (including in attack) is essential.
 
Nabil Bentaleb said:
Poch has been doing some dodgy tactics. But maybe that’s because we only have shit mids. And he can’t play like he wants us. And who should sign the players we want? The board. Who did the stadium fiasco? The board.

Whoever thought we didn’t need new players should be fired. Unbelievable. And one of the most mind blowing things I ever saw in the premier league.
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No. We have mids in poor form or fitness... Form and fitness often returns too y'know.

Aside from a chorus of "sell Sissoko" and a minority prefering to see Dembele leave there was no big call for a big CM clear-out in the summer.

As for the remaining conspiracy/"sack'em" rant.. Relax, mate... "No signings" wasn't a gameplan; it was a frustrating outcome that right now feels like as much of a PR/marketing-disaster as anything else.... Shoulda just signed any old cunt just to kill the headline, tbh.

...Then again, think we'd have heard the last of it? Of course not... We were cunted of by our own for last summer's window too even though we ticked all our boxes and broke our trf record along the way (and topped up with Moura in Jan too).

Besides, Poch is in the thick of our recruitment process - why should he get a free-pass?
 
Next summer we have to ship out Vorm, Rose, sadly Toby will go, Dembele will as well, Sissoko needs to go as does one of Dier or Wanyama, Nkoudou, Janssen, Llorente and worst case situation we need to accept a bid for Eriksen should he not sign a new deal. Realistically that's about ten players for different reasons we shave off of our books.

The club needs to splash out on good quality, it needs to be brave and throw substantial money at full back, defensive midfield, central midfield in a big way and for me I'd like another tricky player to complement our direct qualities with Sonny, Lucas etc. We desperately need one more offensive player with swagger. That's a whole lot of wedge we will be spending or we will undo about four years worth of growth due to stinginess.

From what I see in Ndombele he would add something nice but if I had the choice I'd go for a Lobotka, De Jong midfield, bring Denis Suarez in to offer depth and rotation and if Eriksen is to be sold I'd insist it's only a deal if we get a player back from Barca or Madrid in return.

I don't care about a lack of height, if we concede from set pieces it happens but I'd like to see proper class come in and there is definitely enough of it loitering on the fringes of good teams for us to make moves on. We simply have to ensure we continue progressing and I feel the team has become a little too reliant on the same key guys which is a disappointment as we had a unit that didn't do so.

Lloris, Vertonghen, Alderweireld, Eriksen, Dele, Lucas & Kane for me are the ones you keep in the starting XI, the others apart from Son, Sanchez, Trippier & Foyth we need to keep an eye on as all can be replaced with better quality for a team of our stature. I make that 11 players from a 25 man squad that I'm happy with, there's a lot of things we should be doing behind the scenes to ensure the number of real quality gets raised substantially over the next couple of windows and a lot of fringe players that need to step up or ship out
 
Gatsby said:
Liverpool bottle a 2-0 lead at home, but have the character to win the match 3-2. Spurs bottle a 1-0 lead with 7 minutes to go. I don’t care how much Liverpool have spent, they have addressed their issues, you have to admire that. They’re miles ahead of us this season.
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I don't admire them, but your are right they addressed their issues and have moved forward. We had many chances to have also done this over the last 3 or 4 years but imo have now lost that chance..we are playing catch up with teams that will always outspend us and show more ambition..
 
We have been doing well at the top more likely because the other top teams have taken turns having wiggly or transition seasons.
Now Chelsea look like they are back in the heat yet again, while Woolwich and manure look a bit shaky
 
Nabil Bentaleb said:
Whoever thought we didn’t need new players should be fired. Unbelievable. And one of the most mind blowing things I ever saw in the premier league.
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If the final decision was taken by Levy and/or Poch then good luck with that one.

g3NGufa.gif


I really hope we have someone in mind to sign as CM. I'd have thought Levy would actually have been more keen to spend big in January to try and rectify the embarrassment at the end of the summer window - but unless we see someone brought in on/around January 1st then I'm pessimistic about him having learned any lessons.
 
Thin Lilywhite Duke said:
If the final decision was taken by Levy and/or Poch then good luck with that one.

g3NGufa.gif


I really hope we have someone in mind to sign as CM. I'd have thought Levy would actually have been more keen to spend big in January to try and rectify the embarrassment at the end of the summer window - but unless we see someone brought in on/around January 1st then I'm pessimistic about him having learned any lessons.
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as long the football team brings profit it's all good :levylol:
 
nigel6305 said:
I don't admire them, but your are right they addressed their issues and have moved forward. We had many chances to have also done this over the last 3 or 4 years but imo have now lost that chance..we are playing catch up with teams that will always outspend us and show more ambition..
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Sounds like the season is over after 5 games.....We´ll see if Liverpool have addressed their problems in May wont we. One injury away from Henderson back in the middle, or Lovren at the back.

Depth? nah mate, theyve had a great start, and the momentum is high. Salah looks worse than Kane though, so we´ll see what happens when the goals dry up and Mane gets his yearly bad ankle.

Our issues are our issues, they are not dependent on what Liverpool do or dont do. Liverpool have 4pts more than this time last season, and arent even top. They spent 260M for a win and a draw.

Oh dont tell me.....the seasons not over yet, we cant judge them on just these games.

Yes. Exactly, just like everyone has decided Spurs have failed already.
 


A few extra signings would’ve helped.

Seriously, there is absolutely no fucking excuse for the club not making ANY signing a last summer.

This whole shower of shite is down to one man only and that’s Daniel Levy. It’s absolute shambles.

I’m not saying he needs to go, but it’s time for him to prove that he can bring us to the next level and not giving our wonderful manager any signings last summer isn’t boosting his prestige.
 
Jakob said:


A few extra signings would’ve helped.

Seriously, there is absolutely no fucking excuse for the club not making ANY signing a last summer.

This whole shower of shite is down to one man only and that’s Daniel Levy. It’s absolute shambles.

I’m not saying he needs to go, but it’s time for him to prove that he can bring us to the next level and not giving our wonderful manager any signings last summer isn’t boosting his prestige.
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Fir
Jakob said:


A few extra signings would’ve helped.

Seriously, there is absolutely no fucking excuse for the club not making ANY signing a last summer.

This whole shower of shite is down to one man only and that’s Daniel Levy. It’s absolute shambles.

I’m not saying he needs to go, but it’s time for him to prove that he can bring us to the next level and not giving our wonderful manager any signings last summer isn’t boosting his prestige.
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First time i have posted since both our losses and i am gutted . But i will not give up on the only decent club in the PL.
 
I find it worrying when players start throwing out the "fatigue" line, because they are playing twice a week max.....

Training intensity is adjusted based on upcoming games, so when you have a run of 4 games in 2 weeks they'll be doing really light stuff to compensate.

They haven't performed, simple. Take ownership and move on.
 
Jakob said:


A few extra signings would’ve helped.

Seriously, there is absolutely no fucking excuse for the club not making ANY signing a last summer.

This whole shower of shite is down to one man only and that’s Daniel Levy. It’s absolute shambles.

I’m not saying he needs to go, but it’s time for him to prove that he can bring us to the next level and not giving our wonderful manager any signings last summer isn’t boosting his prestige.
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No quotes, not even "a source told us"
Just a completely fake statement.
 
Burko said:
I find it worrying when players start throwing out the "fatigue" line, because they are playing twice a week max.....

Training intensity is adjusted based on upcoming games, so when you have a run of 4 games in 2 weeks they'll be doing really light stuff to compensate.

They haven't performed, simple. Take ownership and move on.
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You should be more worried about a coup if that story is true, two days after Poch says they are fine and had enough rest.
Thanfully, its fake news, hence the lack of quotes, and not a single player named
 
Exactly, no quotes. Media rubbish as usual.

And the basketball example is a good one, they play 82 regular season games between October and April, travelling much further than Premier League footballers, playing a sport that is much more physically demanding.
 
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