Win or Just play well?

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Win or Play well?

  • Play well and get in Europe

    Votes: 10 40.0%
  • Win Trophies

    Votes: 15 60.0%

  • Total voters
    25
Also, I just saw this is actually a poll. And a terrible poll at that. "Win trophies" and "Play well and get into Europe." How are those the choices? WINNING is what gets you both trophies AND into Europe. "Playing well," as in playing attractive football, doesn't necessarily get you either.

Now in today's day and age, I think attractive football is more likely to lead to winning trophies and getting top 4. But it probably wasn't always so and won't be always so.
 
You didn't give us the obvious option of both so - I went with Play Well -

So winning the Mickey Mouse - Swansea, Birmingham, M'boro - all recent winners but?

How about the FA Cup - Wigan, Portsmouth - where are they now?

How about the big prize?

Blackburn won the EPL, played one dimensional football got found out faded away
Leicester won the EPL, played one dimensional football got found out faded away

So winning may give you a brief and glorious moment in the sun, but Playing Well and by that I mean in the Spurs traditions - attacking flair with the ball doing the work - always entertaining - all for one players and fans alike - then I go for the Spurs Way every time.

"Winning isn’t everything; it's the only thing" might have sounded good at some Californian college, or when nicked by Lombardi ... but it probably tells you more about what's wrong with US sport and why it's football that's still the game for the masses ... at the start of the season in the UK 90% of the fans at 92 professional clubs already know that their team will win absolutely nothing ... doesn't stop them going week in week out, just for those glorious days when they do play well and all is right with the world ...

Dippers fans are all full off "it's all about winning" and just what do we all think of them? Next season they will still be Dippers fans and we will still be Spurs fans ... does anyone here want to swap?

Spurs fans are all about the doing .... that said winning something would be nice .......................
 
The financial rewards for winning any one of the domestic cup competition in relation to the rewards for winning the European trophy competitions has changed my perspective on the importance of either the league cup or FA cup. The concept of Glory isn’t to me what it once was.

Playing good football is important but at times winning ugly is still winning and it’s all about not losing! Glory today is about winning England’s top prize - the premier league title- but ultimate glory is winning the European champions league as Champions of England.

To win the Champions league having finished not 1st but 2nd, 3rd or 4th domestically would be lovely,but winning the ECL as English champions wold be GLORY GLORY TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR!

Finishing outside the top four is for me failure; and if winning a domestic trophy, even the FA cup ,in a season that ends in us finishing outside the top four [that] for me would not be glory. This is not 1980/1 or 1981/2 , those days are gone and that vibe will never return.
Hate to agree but this is the nail on the head with regards to the modern game. Do I like it? No! Do I accept the reality? Yes reluctantly.
 
Or a Tony Pulis side 🙄
Him, Allardyce,Bassett and in the lower divisions John Beck have made a living out of playing the most negative tactics. But they have been successful in many ways. Weird really. Oh and some other points you need luck to win things. People dislike winning teams. And Man City and Liverpool get so much praise. I tell you what, They both can be VERY dirty. That Mane does a lot of cheap sly ones.
 
Thought we played pretty shit towards end of the season, injuries aside . Still got 4th and a final.
Full season at NWHL, with an injury free run (and a cheeky signing or 3) 19/20 will be a success.
COYS!
 
The CL final was a rather dull affair in terms of the quality of the football, and we lost. Are there actually people here who are saying if they could change one thing about the match, they'd have changed it to be a game of gorgeous football rather than a win for Spurs?

 
The CL final was a rather dull affair in terms of the quality of the football, and we lost. Are there actually people here who are saying if they could change one thing about the match, they'd have changed it to be a game of gorgeous football rather than a win for Spurs?


If we had played quality football like we have in the past then we were much more likely to win.
 
If we had played quality football like we have in the past then we were much more likely to win.

The point is that “quality football” is not and should not be a goal unto itself. The goal is to win. “Quality football” may sometimes be the best strategy to achieve the goal. And when it is, we should do it. If it’s not the best strategy, we shouldn’t do it. If we win a CL title playing “anti-football” I’ll be over the moon.
 
I think I would rather watch a good game where we lose than a rubbish one we win. I have always thought like this.

I thought when we got beat 0-1 by Man U was a fantastic game. I really enjoyed it and thought we played amazingly well. Watching De Gea play like that was quite something too.

Much better than, say, Burnley at home this year.

Having said that I was happy for us to park the bus against Dortmund and I don't care how we beat the south London team.
 
Here's how far I am in the "Win" camp over the "Play Well" camp:

When I saw this thread, I thought it was about whether it's more important for the team to actually win an individual game or perform well enough so that it SHOULD have won an individual game. i.e. is it better to get a win even though we played poorly through some luck or whatnot or to lose even though we played well. This to me is a legitimate argument because if you just got lucky, it means your team is not performing well and will likely lose future games.

What I can NOT get my head around is the idea that "playing well" means gorgeous, attacking football. I'm American and this mentality is just completely foreign to most Americans. In the most recent men's college basketball tournament (i.e. "March Madness") the team that won it all is the University of Virginia. While they had some offensive talent, their style of play was defense first. Many of their games were rather low scoring. And over the course of the whole season they won 35 games to 3 losses. None of their fans were saying "oh man, this low scoring, defensive style of basketball is soooo boring." They were loving the ride of being winners! American fans are completely supportive of getting the results however you have to get them, and if that means playing a grind-it-out style because your team can do that better than the other team, then grind it out and get those Ws, baby!

Just remember: winning isn't everything. It's the ONLY thing.
defensive football can be pretty. on rare occasions. I'm thinking Arrigo Sacchi's early 90s Milan.
 
The point is that “quality football” is not and should not be a goal unto itself. The goal is to win. “Quality football” may sometimes be the best strategy to achieve the goal. And when it is, we should do it. If it’s not the best strategy, we shouldn’t do it. If we win a CL title playing “anti-football” I’ll be over the moon.
If you score early like Liverpool did then yes you can just defend it but if you are a goal behind like we were you need to either have a bit of luck which did not happen or provide a bit of quality to score and get back level and score again to win it or rely on Penalties. I have no problem with defending on occasions and hitting a team on the break but that still needs to be quality.
 
Chelsea won the CL playing "anti-football" in 2012, and I'm sure their supporters cared not a bit about the quality of the football when they were celebrating into the night.
 
Chelsea won the CL playing "anti-football" in 2012, and I'm sure their supporters cared not a bit about the quality of the football when they were celebrating into the night.
I know what you're saying, but it's just not my Spurs you're talking about. If forced to choose between glorious football, or parking the bus for a win, I'd go with Danny Blanchflower every time.
 
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