Where did this season go wrong?

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harry7

A Great Start (5 wins, 2 draws)
Going into the first international break, we were 5 wins, and 2 draws. Confidence was high after thrashing Leicester 6-2.

Pre World Cup a disaster (2 wins, 7 Losses)
Back from the international break and we lose 4 out of 5 games - against United, Brighton, Newcastle and Woolwich. A last minute goal from Benencuar saves us against Bournmouth. Loss to Liverpool and a hard fought win against Leeds round off our pre world cup disaster.

Possible Cause
Romero plays a sick note to ensure he is fit for the world cup.
Richarlison, Kulusevski and Moura injured. We have no attacking threat from the right; with Emerson shouldering the criticism.

Post World Cup Hangover (1 win in 5)
1 win in 5. We came back after the world cup in woeful form.

Possible Cause
Richarlison still injured. Kulu struggling to stay fit and looks a shadow of his former self.
Conte complains players returning from world cup still in party mode and not ready to play.
Conte unwell.
Bentencaur and Bissouma out for season.


CONCLUSION
Yet again, key injuries fucked us.

Losing our attacking threat on the right hand side (Kulu, Moura) limited our attacking options. Son and Perisic were over crowded on the left as teams were wise to focus defence against them. Without a CAM, we were unable to thread balls through the middle.

WHO's TO BLAME?
We went into the season with Kulu, Moura and Richy able to rotate on the right. Was that good enough?

Once the transfer window opened, we did strengthen with Porro and Danjuma, but the damage was already done.
 
Every team has had to cope with that mid-season World Cup (of shame). Same for injuries, ref/VAR decisions etc etc.

So it all comes down to this at the end of the day: our club, from top to bottom, has let us down simply because our Board, coaching staff and players are neither good nor motivated enough. Period.

Only the fans...well, a vast majority of them at least...are blameless.
 
Furball man said:
Some of that & the club’s seemingly rudderless direction , complacency & confusion

Oh and Jermaine Jenas
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I'm not sure we had no direction. We had an elite coach and a pretty decent squad. Kane looking sharp and Son having just won the golden boot. It looked like Kulu was the missing piece of the jigsaw for our attack. We also added Perisic who just came off a great season in Italy with 10 goals and 9 assists and Richarlison.

On paper, we would have had the other top teams worried.
 
Jaynola said:
Every team has had to cope with that mid-season World Cup (of shame). Same for injuries, ref/VAR decisions etc etc.

So it all comes down to this at the end of the day: our club, from top to bottom, has let us down simply because our Board, coaching staff and players are neither good nor motivated enough. Period.

Only the fans...well, a vast majority of them at least...are blameless.
Click to expand...

Have other teams had such bad luck with injuries? Kulu, Romero, Bentencaur are very important players for us; and some of our 1st choice backups (Richy, Moura, Bissouma) were also out.

It is understandable how the players and coach lost their motivation once it was clear that the race was lost - Conte couldn't see the point in fighting to finish 4th, and the players are clearly disappointed that the season has once again turned out the same.
 
harry7 said:
Have other teams had such bad luck with injuries? Kulu, Romero, Bentencaur are very important players for us; and some of our 1st choice backups (Richy, Moura, Bissouma) were also out.

It is understandable how the players and coach lost their motivation once it was clear that the race was lost - Conte couldn't see the point in fighting to finish 4th, and the players are clearly disappointed that the season has once again turned out the same.
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Liverpool have had a lot of injuries to players that would have been in their first team I think, seems that way anyway, Matip, Keita, Diaz, Jota ...
 
for me there has been a couple of probelms
Son out of form but playing almost every game ( what must Richy have thought not getting a chance ?)
last season in the run in players were throwing their bodies in front of shots to block them this season they are back to turning sideways when a player shoots
Injuries also haven't helped, but players get injuried
 
Very poor recruitment in the summer , which have brought in players with little or none so impact.
Our January signings have not improved performance.
A restricted transfer policy that targets prospects , sell on value and transfer run downs.
A chairman who is incompetent .
A owner who can't give a toss
 
harry7 said:
Have other teams had such bad luck with injuries? Kulu, Romero, Bentencaur are very important players for us; and some of our 1st choice backups (Richy, Moura, Bissouma) were also out.

It is understandable how the players and coach lost their motivation once it was clear that the race was lost - Conte couldn't see the point in fighting to finish 4th, and the players are clearly disappointed that the season has once again turned out the same.
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can't agree with you, all players say they want to play in CL, so fighting for 4th is still something to go for, if its fighting for 5th-7th then yes I agree the players & coaches would only go though the motions

we had a manager who didn't want to be here, why ?
didn't he get the players he wanted ?
did he see a losers mentality around the club ?
 
1. Failure to sign a single top class CB, let alone 2 which was the target going into the window. If we had signed 1 and Lenglet on loan, things could have looked very different.

2. Decision to go one more year with Lloris past his best. Individual errors in defence cost us every game. We have a relegation level defensive unit this season.

3. Conte's system created a disconnect in the dynamic between Kane and Son. He fucked with the one world class element in our squad and as a result only Kane could flourish. This even messed with Kulu because he's now playing as the build up guy instead of Kane, instead of just running at people and creating.

4. Injuries and fuckery. We lost a vital coach at a key point in the season, then lost Conte. Bentancur and Richy injured most of the season. Kulu got injured every time he found any form. We have had the worst officiating I've seen in 30 odd years I can remember watching Spurs.
 
The preseason training being too over the top in the summer. I think he demotivated a lot of players then. Double sessions even on days when they had matches, for example. And then the subsequent injuries we’ve had all season on the back of the preseason.

And changing tactics from last season which negated the strengths of our best players.
 
Lenny Hatchet said:
Very poor recruitment in the summer , which have brought in players with little or none so impact.
Our January signings have not improved performance.
A restricted transfer policy that targets prospects , sell on value and transfer run downs.
A chairman who is incompetent .
A owner who can't give a toss
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I'm not sure the summer was that bad. The forum rated it a 7 out of 10 (6.5 from yourself :) ).

We all thought Bissouma would hit the ground running and that Richy would prove to be a menace in the last 30 minutes of games. Perisic was coming off a fantastic season and Lenglet looked to be a sold CB to add to Romero, Davies, Sanchez and Dier.
 
Brian Fantana said:
The preseason training being too over the top in the summer. I think he demotivated a lot of players then. Double sessions even on days when they had matches, for example. And then the subsequent injuries we’ve had all season on the back of the preseason.

And changing tactics from last season which negated the strengths of our best players.
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The tactical change was forced on us due to the injuries to Kulu and Moura. Up until the first international break we were 2nd in goals scored, and 3rd in goals conceded.

We tried Richarlison with Son and Kane, but he is a finisher, not a creator and they ended up getting in each others way.

We tried an extra man in midfield, but none of our midfielders are attack minded and were too slow to move the ball forwards.

We tried pushing Royal further forward into the attack. This had some success, but his delivery was not up to par. Once he finally did find his rhythm; Porro replaced him.
 
harry7 said:
I'm not sure the summer was that bad. The forum rated it a 7 out of 10 (6.5 from yourself :) ).

We all thought Bissouma would hit the ground running and that Richy would prove to be a menace in the last 30 minutes of games. Perisic was coming off a fantastic season and Lenglet looked to be a sold CB to add to Romero, Davies, Sanchez and Dier.
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It was rated 7/10 until Conte happened.

Bissouma was the obvious Hojberg upgrade but Conte decided he was the holding CM and then dragged him in public for not understanding the defensive side of being forced to play a role that doesn't suit him.

We also assumed that Spence was an exciting signing that would improve the RWB position, with Perisic improving the left.

Lenglet didn't even get near the team for ages, we started the season with exactly the same defensive unit we ended the previous one.

We went into the window saying we wanted x2 top class CB's, we didn't sign any on a permanent basis.

Conte was already pissed off and instantly started talking down the prospects as soon as the window finished.

His negative spin on things started so early because there was obviously a disconnect between what the manager was expecting and what we signed for him.
 
I think stubbornness from Conte was a massive factor. Not changing formation when teams had worked us out. Last season the plan was to get Kane coming short turn and thread through passes to Sonny and Deki. This season teams just make sure there’s a centre mid in front of Kane and to stop the pass into him. Then the opposition defence can play high and kill all the space in areas where Kane wants it. Sonny and deki have stopped running in behind and we are so predictable. In the system Conte plays and the training regime,it looks like all the energy is sapped out of the players. I don’t think the players could keep that up all season and the world cup has played its part.
It would have been easy to freshen up to make other teams think but Conte not accepting that it wasn’t working I put the blame on him.
 
harry7 said:
Have other teams had such bad luck with injuries? Kulu, Romero, Bentencaur are very important players for us; and some of our 1st choice backups (Richy, Moura, Bissouma) were also out.

It is understandable how the players and coach lost their motivation once it was clear that the race was lost - Conte couldn't see the point in fighting to finish 4th, and the players are clearly disappointed that the season has once again turned out the same.
Click to expand...
Wow, some fans really are part of the problem.

And also...his name is Bentancur.
 
We are just so shit defensively and our wing backs have been largely ineffective, that’s been obvious to everyone yet our superstar
“World class” manager refused to tweak the formation to get the best out of or squad!
Playing 5 at the back vs a B team Sheffield was the final straw for me and I pretty much checked out after that game , things will get a lot worse before they get better that much is obvious if we are renewing contracts for clowns like Dier!
 
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