-
The Fighting Cock is a forum for fans of Tottenham Hotspur Football Club. Here you can discuss Spurs latest matches, our squad, tactics and any transfer news surrounding the club. Registration gives you access to all our forums (including 'Off Topic' discussion) and removes most of the adverts (you can remove them all via an account upgrade). You're here now, you might as well...
Latest Spurs videos from Sky Sports
Toby and Sanchez have complimentary skill sets, and Sanchez plays well on the left - same place he tends to play for Columbia.
Toby and Dier have the same characteristics except Dier is just worse.
That was a real tactical clusterfuck from Mourinho. From the get go it was deeply flawed. You're moaning about the lack of fitness of Doherty but you play him instead of Aurier. You play Doherty, a player used to playing as WB in a back 5 in a back 4, ask him to push up but play him with two slow, cumbersome CB's.
Whichever midfield pairing picked for Mourinho's CM2 was going to struggle, because....you know....WE DON'T HAVE ANY CM'S WHO ARE GOOD IN CM2's - none of them are voracious, dynamic, busy cunting footballers. And Everton played a 433/CM3. But that was probably the best "2" combo of the options available in terms of match fitness/energy/footballness etc
Where Mourinho's initial selections had just resulted in a festival of insipid meh, at least it had been largely safe, his half time tactical sub turned meh into a fucking nightmeh (fuck off I'm trying). Alli had bumbled away plenty but what that game didn't need was swapping him out for an even more technically atrocious footballer and putting the equally inept and even more pea brained Moura into the pivotal ACM remit that suits him much less than a wider one. Instead of improving one position it weakened two, considerably.
The second tactical sub/change absolutely killed us. They had just scored, we needed more control and ability to move the ball, not less, but what does Mourinho do, he swaps Bergwijn for Winks and moves Sissoko to the even more pivotal position of CM. It absolutely fucking killed us, just when we needed some direction and control and ability to move the ball we actually lost the ability to even receive it. At one point (66 minutes) I even saw Toby looking for a pass out of defence and Sissoko just turned his back and ambled away from him.
Neither Alli or Winks were great, but both were better than the solutions Mourinho replaced them with.
As I said back end of last season, we are now living with the omnipresent Hobson's choice of the tedious slog of Mourinho getting it tactically ok, or the fucking abomination of when he doesn't.
The argument of the end ("trophies") justifying the means just doesn't cut it for me - unless it was the league and even then a) it would be very reluctantly and b) it's not going to fucking happen - I'd rather watch us try to play good proactive, aggressive football every week and win fuck all, than have to watch us play negative reactive shite for 38 weeks and have one great day out at Wembley.
The horror of this situation is there are no easy fixes. Even a simple change of head coach isn't going to solve everything.
We need a root and branch overhaul. A new - proper - DOF, a new strategy and some direction from the top as to what we want to be and how wee are going to be it, and it needs to be an ethos fans and players (and fucking punters and sponsors) can buy into, new recruitment people and methods, and obviously new players that fit that that philosophy.
It should have been done when Poch went (shouldn't have been ditched before). Now we've installed the 15m a year bionic Pullis and promoted head of whippet breeding to DOF it seems even less likely to happen any time soon.
Whichever midfield pairing picked for Mourinho's CM2 was going to struggle, because....you know....WE DON'T HAVE ANY CM'S WHO ARE GOOD IN CM2's - none of them are voracious, dynamic, busy cunting footballers. And Everton played a 433/CM3. But that was probably the best "2" combo of the options available in terms of match fitness/energy/footballness etc
Where Mourinho's initial selections had just resulted in a festival of insipid meh, at least it had been largely safe, his half time tactical sub turned meh into a fucking nightmeh (fuck off I'm trying). Alli had bumbled away plenty but what that game didn't need was swapping him out for an even more technically atrocious footballer and putting the equally inept and even more pea brained Moura into the pivotal ACM remit that suits him much less than a wider one. Instead of improving one position it weakened two, considerably.
The second tactical sub/change absolutely killed us. They had just scored, we needed more control and ability to move the ball, not less, but what does Mourinho do, he swaps Bergwijn for Winks and moves Sissoko to the even more pivotal position of CM. It absolutely fucking killed us, just when we needed some direction and control and ability to move the ball we actually lost the ability to even receive it. At one point (66 minutes) I even saw Toby looking for a pass out of defence and Sissoko just turned his back and ambled away from him.
Neither Alli or Winks were great, but both were better than the solutions Mourinho replaced them with.
As I said back end of last season, we are now living with the omnipresent Hobson's choice of the tedious slog of Mourinho getting it tactically ok, or the fucking abomination of when he doesn't.
The argument of the end ("trophies") justifying the means just doesn't cut it for me - unless it was the league and even then a) it would be very reluctantly and b) it's not going to fucking happen - I'd rather watch us try to play good proactive, aggressive football every week and win fuck all, than have to watch us play negative reactive shite for 38 weeks and have one great day out at Wembley.
The horror of this situation is there are no easy fixes. Even a simple change of head coach isn't going to solve everything.
We need a root and branch overhaul. A new - proper - DOF, a new strategy and some direction from the top as to what we want to be and how wee are going to be it, and it needs to be an ethos fans and players (and fucking punters and sponsors) can buy into, new recruitment people and methods, and obviously new players that fit that that philosophy.
It should have been done when Poch went (shouldn't have been ditched before). Now we've installed the 15m a year bionic Pullis and promoted head of whippet breeding to DOF it seems even less likely to happen any time soon.
There are horrible overtones of the first half of last season about it. The players looked liked they'd given up before they'd begun. Have they lost faith in Jose already or are they pampered to the point of being spoilt? Incredible training ground and a fucking 5 star hotel and they put on that performance?
This.
It won’t happen but if I was in charge I would honestly just give Ledley the reigns as interim and bring in a proper DOF while we try and find a manager, but make sure the DOF is committed to giving us an identity and making everyone at the club sing off the same hymn sheet.
No more scattergun appointments, build for the long term, if the manager you want isn’t available then just let your interim see us through until The summer. Make sure the players we buy, the manager we choose and the coaches we hire are all hand picked specifically for the style of football we want to play.
Don't worry. We have signed no frills but settled difference maker's. They have lots of sparkly unknowns. May as well play guess how many pts we finish above them by.
1 game and you throw your toys out of your pram.
Last edited:
Pretty sure that outcome is different if Doherty can simply bury that cupcake put on a platter by Kane. With that said, Jose continues to show he’s lost the plot going with guys like Davies, Winks, Moura and even Dele who’ve played like squad players at best for any team who’s serious about top 4. And that Sissoko sub at HT with Winks and Hojbjerg on the pitch already was absolutely criminal. The game has clearly passed him and he’s too stubborn to admit it in the end.
It’s been almost a year actually, other then his first 5-6 games in charge (new manager bounce) I haven’t seen anything from him that makes me think he can have anything other than a negative impact on our club.
and the longer he stays the worse it will be for us long term.
New 'All Or Nothing' episodes drop in a bit... We can relive the FACup & CL exits and Covid lockdown to cheer ourselves up.
We had a pretty good semblance of this during Pochettino's reign. Say what you want about him but he did bring a sense of personality and culture to the club that we hadn't seen for a long long time. I think he had to go for sure, he was tired, worn out and had enough of working for Levy and ENIC, but he should have been allowed see out last season and a manager with a similar ethos and vision brought in to replace him.
Instead our brain dead hierarchy panicked, sacked him and brought in the sexy name that was available for nothing who has a completely different philosophy and vision of how a clubs should be run and how the game should be played. I genuinely believe hiring Mourinho could prove to be Levy and ENICs biggest mistake during their time here, and that's saying something. It genuinely could set us back so far it's scary.
Few observations:
10 months of Jose with 2 pre-seasons and we have no style of play and play atrocious football.
We will never play progressive attacking football.
Rose was right Jose has his faves dier, davies, sissoko, Moura etc which I think the other players have sensed.
I think his losing the player especially when they see sissoko coming on at HT.
We should never play 4 attacking players under the current system of play they never get the ball and we create bugger all chances and not dele and Moura . We lose the ball too much.
Never play sissoko again.
Sissoko HT sub was shocking we had Bergwijn ndombele and lamela on the bench to use but brings on a non footballer. I suppose that fits Jose’s anti football style.
That decision is enough for Jose to be sacked.
For £15m a yearall we have is the tactic of long ball to RB or the counter / error from opposition.
Levy knows about spurs style surely he can see this and must be another reason for appointing JM as it’s not for style of football.
Just bcos he has won trophies at other clubs this perceived confidence in him winning ya a trophy is misplaced. There is no gaurantee he can deliver based on last seasons cup exits.
He wanted the season to endi in March and jump to July when he would have all players back from injury. His had that and we are still crap, cannot create chances or keep oppp out.
We should play only 2 forwards and play AM behind them best suited would be ndombele and play 3 in midfield inclu GLC.
All this stuff about number of games if we don’t win the 2 EL knockout games or LC game it won’t be an issue.
Our choice of pass is shocking.
Levy/ ENIC have their faults but they don’t make the tactical decisions. What input do the back room team provide?
Too many other points but I don’t think we are getting VFM from a manager and his self appointed team fir what we are paying and the players look as if they have no faith in his tactics. Players want the ball not be running around for it especially at home for 90 minutes.
10 months of Jose with 2 pre-seasons and we have no style of play and play atrocious football.
We will never play progressive attacking football.
Rose was right Jose has his faves dier, davies, sissoko, Moura etc which I think the other players have sensed.
I think his losing the player especially when they see sissoko coming on at HT.
We should never play 4 attacking players under the current system of play they never get the ball and we create bugger all chances and not dele and Moura . We lose the ball too much.
Never play sissoko again.
Sissoko HT sub was shocking we had Bergwijn ndombele and lamela on the bench to use but brings on a non footballer. I suppose that fits Jose’s anti football style.
That decision is enough for Jose to be sacked.
For £15m a yearall we have is the tactic of long ball to RB or the counter / error from opposition.
Levy knows about spurs style surely he can see this and must be another reason for appointing JM as it’s not for style of football.
Just bcos he has won trophies at other clubs this perceived confidence in him winning ya a trophy is misplaced. There is no gaurantee he can deliver based on last seasons cup exits.
He wanted the season to endi in March and jump to July when he would have all players back from injury. His had that and we are still crap, cannot create chances or keep oppp out.
We should play only 2 forwards and play AM behind them best suited would be ndombele and play 3 in midfield inclu GLC.
All this stuff about number of games if we don’t win the 2 EL knockout games or LC game it won’t be an issue.
Our choice of pass is shocking.
Levy/ ENIC have their faults but they don’t make the tactical decisions. What input do the back room team provide?
Too many other points but I don’t think we are getting VFM from a manager and his self appointed team fir what we are paying and the players look as if they have no faith in his tactics. Players want the ball not be running around for it especially at home for 90 minutes.
Just don't waste your money on them. Not worth it.
To be fair no one would take me up on the bet. Just levy lovers saving face.Very early days I know, but who still thinks we will win something this year?!
Ref: recruitment plan/system/DOF-isms etc.
We'd been chipping away at a BVB-esque mode for some time before Poch and it got lost along the way.... (Much the same, fans got cold feet every time it meant selling someone and succumbed to some "they're bleeding the profits out" myth).
I also think Poch changed philosophy as the markers of true success came into view.... The aforementioned model originally suited his initial "let me at the academy kids" & "you're paid to train" etc. ethos, but he was visibly reluctant to trust his next wave of his squad.
There's also the ownership's shift in this aspect of things... We could have cashed in on a lot of individuals, but unlike a number of past situations, we didn't....
MemphisWill
makes a good post on that front:
We'd been chipping away at a BVB-esque mode for some time before Poch and it got lost along the way.... (Much the same, fans got cold feet every time it meant selling someone and succumbed to some "they're bleeding the profits out" myth).
I also think Poch changed philosophy as the markers of true success came into view.... The aforementioned model originally suited his initial "let me at the academy kids" & "you're paid to train" etc. ethos, but he was visibly reluctant to trust his next wave of his squad.
There's also the ownership's shift in this aspect of things... We could have cashed in on a lot of individuals, but unlike a number of past situations, we didn't....
MemphisWill
makes a good post on that front:
...not a chance - Richarlison could've had a hat trick on his own - we're lucky we didn't concede 5...
COYS