Where did this season go wrong?

[Airfixx]

Affected everybody equally.

I haven't drilled into the player apps/mins etc(*).; but no; it certainly won't have affected everybody "equally"......

Some clubs had more players in the WC than others...... Some players played more than others.... Some players came back injured.... Some players pulled up injured quickly upon return..... Inevitably; some clubs got off lightly and some clubs suffered more.

(*Sure there was data floating about here at the time tho'.)

 

[StevenPL]

Circa 2018

 

[Nuts]

The season hasn't gone wrong

We are outperforming expectations as the 6th wealthiest club in the division

Whenever someone says that, I see this:

 

[harry7]

Think you should have simply asked the question as it's good.

When you think about our first 7 games and since, it is even worse.

We are a squad of players who have underperformed.

It is an accusation with context when you look at Liverpool, Chelsea and West Ham, but have fallen well short.

Conte and his system of play has certainly not helped in my opinion. Dogsh!t approach.

I do try to think what Conte could have done better with what he had available.

With Bentencaur, Bissouma out for the season. Richy / Kulusevski / Moura injured and Romero putting his feet up b4 the World Cup - what system would have been better?

I'm pretty sure, had we not had injuries to key players we would be having a far better season.

 

[Leondna]

The main reason for our failure:
“Levy-Paratici-Conte” partnership

This combination is doomed to fail at the very beginning. Why?

1) the misaligned vision for the club. While the common goal is the same, the path to get there is not. Conte wants immediate success and he sees that the current group isn’t good enough. Levy can tolerate failures as long as there is progress. He looks to build the club from foundation, slow and steadily which is totally different from Conte

2) Levy prefers to sign prospects and someone that still has “resale” value when it’s time to go. Conte wants proven players that doesn’t come cheap. Paratici was the middle man between them and he has a really difficult job that resulted in panic buying and inability to offload unwanted players.

What happened then was clear for all to see.

Just look at the numbers of RWB we have. Spence, Emerson, Doherty and now Potro! These players can be first choice for most teams in Premier league and are left rotting on the bench.

Look at our LWB. We let Reguilon leave. We have an injury prone Sessegnon. We have an old horse in Perisic who isn’t really a wingback. What have we done? Nothing this area!

Instead, we splurged on a Richarlison and Bissouma who doesn’t feature strongly in Conte’s plan. As best, they are first choice backup.

Conte cried for another defender in his 3 man defence but we can’t get any.

 

[daveyboy88]

start of the season we was actually playing well but son was a passenger. that dead weight eventually caught up and the drag became stress for everyone else. who knows what could of happened if we actually had a proper manager that demanded standards from everyone, and actually dropped players not performing. then you had the same clueless mug playing emerson religiously even though it was clear he was a hindrance to his pathetic little system....im so glad that piece of shit is gone now...although not completely as we basically have his same dumb ideas and system but without his ugly mug on the touchline..... bring on next season and cut completely away from these italian charlatans.

 

[bonaspur23]

7 noticeable factors that have affected us more than almost any other team

1. Injuries to key players
2. Fans not getting and inspiring the team and players
3. World cup break
4. Var decisions
5. Referee bias given to opposition teams
6. Too much pressure and toxic environment created by our fans
7. Other teams tapping up our main players. I.e. man u with kane

Didn’t realize this topic was for listing pathetic attempts for excuses.

 

[Redcoast]

Fans expecting bang average players to defend like champions.
No authentic leadership on the pitch.
Put in the shift then collect my check mentality.
Son's injury + awful form.
Players wanted to work harder in the world cup.
Levy being Levy.
Richarlison.
Relying only on Kane/Son to produce results.
Conte trying to replicate his previous success with the wrong squad.

 

[Richard Arlison]

IF NO CB'S MOVE ITS A GOOD TO ANY CLUB (DESPITE SEVERAL OTHE£R CLUBS WANTING CB'S) THEN IT CLEARLY IS NOT ONLY A SPURS PROBLEM.

Similar issue with RWB's last summer

Despite the best efforts of TFC the sum total of good RWB's ....... was Hakimi at PSG who might move for 80m ........ all other ideas knocked back by about 90% of TFC posters.

Hence Spence with 2 seasons in Championship (probably 4th or 5th best league in europe after PL, German, Italian and maybe French) with 3 FA cup ties against PL clubs Woolwich, Leicester and Liverpool, and not looking out of place, looked a decent prospect. Probably confirmed by being RWB with Rennes as they best PSG with Mbappe and Messi 2-0 in Paris.

Conte desperate for Porro (THREE times Spence cost) with same issues as Spence, being great going forward not so good tracking back or defensively. And we now know Porro is a work in progress as RWB.

Fact to take away - the transfer market is an illiquid market, not that many top players available in any window, and plenty of suitors competing with Spurs. So set your expectations realistically.

Maybe that window in isolation but it’s not that window in isolation. There is always a great excuse.

Why even bother with a very public chase of Bastoni if you haven’t bothered to make sure he actually wants to move?

Or Bremer if you haven’t bothered to check whether he wants to stay and get his passport sorted?

Surely there are other targets on your list? There fucking should be?
Unless those public pursuits are just massive excuses or delay tactics,

 

[Richard Arlison]

I get a "probably fair" and Mrs. P gets the apology?

You're a strange kitty this evening.

You need a cuddle?

 

[matspur]

7 noticeable factors that have affected us more than almost any other team

1. Injuries to key players
2. Fans not getting and inspiring the team and players
3. World cup break
4. Var decisions
5. Referee bias given to opposition teams
6. Too much pressure and toxic environment created by our fans
7. Other teams tapping up our main players. I.e. man u with kane

So basically nothing to do with having a manager less flexible than a lump of concrete but a lot to do with us fans?! Blimey talk about blinkered vision.

 

[Notabadsquad]

I do try to think what Conte could have done better with what he had available.

With Bentencaur, Bissouma out for the season. Richy / Kulusevski / Moura injured and Romero putting his feet up b4 the World Cup - what system would have been better?

I'm pretty sure, had we not had injuries to key players we would be having a far better season.

Maybe but all teams, pretty much Woolwich apart get injuries

Conte's system of play was too rigid, too defensive and too-othless.

He showed minimal to no faith in certain players and for me he left nothing of note.

 

[harry7]

Maybe but all teams, pretty much Woolwich apart get injuries

Conte's system of play was too rigid, too defensive and too-othless.

He showed minimal to no faith in certain players and for me he left nothing of note.

Agree, the system of play didn't seem effective. We never pressed the opposition and sat back and gave them the ball.

A lot of coaches adopt this tactic. The logic being that when the other team has the ball you can maintain shape and disciple and control them. Unfortunately, our squad seems to be plagued by individual errors and losses of concentration.

Interestingly we have had good results against disciplined possession-based teams (e.g. City), but struggle against teams that aggressively press and play with high intensity (Chelsea, Liverpool).

It seems Conte's system works when the other team is playing a predrilled formation. Once the other team becomes unpredictable, and throws caution to the wind, we struggle to contain them.

 

[Kane you believe it]

It's the result of not listening to Poch when he asked for painful rebuild, then not listening to mourinho when he asked for some proper centre halves, then not listening to conte when he asked for some proper centre halves.

Why do we insist on neglecting that area? Is it because they're expensive and don't have much upside when you sell them. Not saying this is the case but I really don't understand the persistence with dier, davies, and sanchez

 

[Brian Fantana]

I haven't drilled into the player apps/mins etc(*).; but no; it certainly won't have affected everybody "equally"......

Some clubs had more players in the WC than others...... Some players played more than others.... Some players came back injured.... Some players pulled up injured quickly upon return..... Inevitably; some clubs got off lightly and some clubs suffered more.

(*Sure there was data floating about here at the time tho'.)

Woolwich had the least players and not only that their players there played the least amount of minutes there than any of the other top 6 clubs. So it definitely helped them as we are seeing.

It played its part with us for sure. With the biggest probably being that it gave our players an excuse to underperform.

 

[The Dealer]

If it's agreed a lot has gone wrong. How could that have been allowed to happen ?

Do all the wrongs lead back to Levy ultimately?

 

[Brian Fantana]

Something to note is the Southampton defeat last season where their players said they knew exactly how we’d play and had been preparing all week to play against it and once they were ready it was fairly straight forward to overcome. (AC Milan said the same this season fwiw)

That’s when the alarm bells started to ring for me.

 

[harry7]

It's the result of not listening to Poch when he asked for painful rebuild, then not listening to mourinho when he asked for some proper centre halves, then not listening to conte when he asked for some proper centre halves.

Why do we insist on neglecting that area? Is it because they're expensive and don't have much upside when you sell them. Not saying this is the case but I really don't understand the persistence with dier, davies, and sanchez

Poch's rebuild came at a time when we had reached the Champions League final and had moved into a new World Class stadium.

How much support from the fan base would there have been if he had sold our star players (Toby, Kane, Son, Lloris, Dele, Eriksen) to start the process again?

The club wanted results, and Poch wanted to start over.

Instead, we spend 120m on the squad and hired one of the most decorated coaches in football.

Lo Celso / Ndombele flopping and Dele Alli shitting the bed is the root cause of Poch and Mourinho losing their jobs.

 

[Sir Archibald Crooks]

Not buying the world cup as an excuse. We were rubbish before that as well, just that results largely didnt reflect performances. Also Lenglet, Emerson, Sessegnon, Bissouma and Kulusevski didnt go and they've all been injured and poor all season. Dier went but didnt play and been poor.

We lost momentum in the summer with a crap window and god knows what Conte did to them in pre season but it looked like we were running in treacle from Chelsea away onwards. It just got worse throughout the season and it was clear Conte had checked out during the world cup and thats when he should have gone. But as per the powers that be did nothing and watched the season implode.

 

[Ed Vanderlay]

IF NO CB'S MOVE ITS A GOOD TO ANY CLUB (DESPITE SEVERAL OTHE£R CLUBS WANTING CB'S) THEN IT CLEARLY IS NOT ONLY A SPURS PROBLEM.

Similar issue with RWB's last summer

Despite the best efforts of TFC the sum total of good RWB's ....... was Hakimi at PSG who might move for 80m ........ all other ideas knocked back by about 90% of TFC posters.

Hence Spence with 2 seasons in Championship (probably 4th or 5th best league in europe after PL, German, Italian and maybe French) with 3 FA cup ties against PL clubs Woolwich, Leicester and Liverpool, and not looking out of place, looked a decent prospect. Probably confirmed by being RWB with Rennes as they best PSG with Mbappe and Messi 2-0 in Paris.

Conte desperate for Porro (THREE times Spence cost) with same issues as Spence, being great going forward not so good tracking back or defensively. And we now know Porro is a work in progress as RWB.

Fact to take away - the transfer market is an illiquid market, not that many top players available in any window, and plenty of suitors competing with Spurs. So set your expectations realistically.

Cancel the contracts of players we neither want but cannot shift , especially if their attitude sucks. Take the hit , as per Woolwich with Auba , Willian and Ozil

Just takes the financial will of the owners, I think Willian might have been mutual