Have Your Say – How Spurs Have Fallen, It Looks Bleak To Me

Writer: Loz

Well well well, how Spurs have fallen.

Let’s get straight and honest here. Our performances since Jose Mourinho’s arrival have been average, poor and some odd moments of good. Has he improved things, point-wise maybe but a lot of them have been gained by luck. Apart from the initial few three games when players had the ‘new manager’ boom and in awe of him, there has been nothing to get excited about.

Daniel Levy believed Jose could do better with these players and win things, more than Pochettino could, even saying he was so happy with his squad. Really? Since then in 3 months, 3 players have gone, 2 were starters. It’s looking like Vertonghen will go as well, that’s 3 starters, just under a third of the first team starters that Jose was surprisingly happy with and believed in. Come the summer that might increase.

So let’s look at who he has dropped. Toby is his latest victim, Vertonghen and Dier and Dele not as much but have also had time on the bench. Hmm that’s more first team starters, yet he was happy with the players.

My point is Poch knew for some time the squad needed refreshing and players were no longer good enough, that is why we won nothing, along with a lack of investment for a season and leaving White Hart Laen to deal with Wembley. So this idea Jose could do better with this squad and him saying he is happy with them isn’t looking likely to be true. So what now, spend to give Jose what he wants, and see if he can deliver? If next season he starts badly, is Levy going to sack him and we see another transitional season?

Next, is Jose improving players, well I can’t see it. Is he bringing anything on to the pitch that we can see as progress, nope. Oh, that’s right we got injuries. So he saying we are a two man team?

Ok, its harder without Kane and Son but what has that got to do with some of the tactics and performances. Are we saying we can’t pass a ball, create some good performances without these players?. Do Son and Kane mean we can’t make a pass forward, or Aurier can’t defend, or we can’t stop leaking goals, or Dele can’t stop doing stupid unproductive flicks, that Moura cant take a shot, or…come on, losing Son and Kane doesn’t change all that. The point is Jose needs to take blame.

Wednesday night’s game, he plays Vorm, no one understands that. Plus he continues to utilise Aurier as an offensive fullback/wing back and let’s him get away with murder when it comes to defending, time and time again Aurier gets caught out. What has this to do with Son and Kane not playing?

Under Poch, Ndombele was playing, now he isn’t fit enough, well I agree its an issue but he was playing well under Poch even though he was still trying to find his fitness. Whats happened to Sess, no confidence, whats Jose doing about that. What about Dele who looks miserable. But the biggest problem is his tactics. He wants us to defend deep, hold on to a 1-0 lead and try and catch teams on the counter, yet time and time again it’s not working. Its frustrating, draining, and boring to watch.

Then there are his press conferences, hardly making players feel good, so negative, apportioning blame from himself onto injuries or anything else but him.

The truth as I see it was Poch knew 18 months before things got bad, that he saw Toby and Vertonghen were on the decline, he wanted them out especially Toby, then this season Vertonghen. He knew Eriksen was going and we needed a Bruno. He knew Aurier was crap and with Tripps going a right back. He knew Moura was no better than a sub or more suited to CL than PL and wanted a striker, Dybala. He knew he needed a rebuild long before he got sacked and it didn’t happen. He had taken these players as far as they could go.

For me, Jose is doing worse, none of the players look happy. If it wasn’t for Winks’ love for the club, Lo Celso’s attitude and quality, Lamela’s determination when on the pitch and Mouras work ethic, I think things would be worse. Things are bad.

Fans want trophies and bringing Jose in may deliver that, but expect it to be at a cost as to how we play. Personally, the obsession with trophies bugs me. IMO it contributed to Poch’s sacking which I was fuming about and still am. I prefer to watch good football, have stability, have a philosophy to work towards and some smiling faces, happy faces and get CL every year rather than win a silky domestic trophy. I still think Poch would have delivered one anyway.

This negative football, the negative press conferences, are draining me and I have no desire to watch Spurs, but I endure it because I love the club.

For me, there was no need to stop playing attacking attractive football to such an extreme. If Jose wanted to shut up shop at the back, why not play Foyth or Tanganga at right back and even Vertonghen or Davies at left back and let the offensive play continue, making the middle as strong as he could. Anyway, there was no need to suffocate our play – as soon as we get a goal we stop playing offensive football.

Liverpool don’t have a target man. They play good football. Let’s be honest, before Kane and Son got injured we were not playing great football. It was starting to get negative even then.

We have lost our soul, been sold, no identity, no nothing. It’s a shambles and now it’s a shambles off the pitch. Press conferences are negative. Now Parrot has been dissed. Dele facing a charge, now Dier. Ndombele has been ridiculed, Sess has been put down, not encouraged enough. Players need encouragement, they need to know they are valued, they need a bit of love, rightly or wrongly. No one wants to be dissed in public.

Time for Levy to have a rethink. Personally I wouldn’t trust Jose next season, but my gut says Levy will have little choice. I felt for a long time Poch needs to come back but I think that isn’t likely now as Poch will have mentally moved on and so have the players. Maybe when this squad changes and new players arrive in the future then Poch coming back might work but it’s likely to be too late, he will be plying his trade elsewhere. So I don’t know where we go from here other than grit our teeth and grin and bare it for the next few months and see if anything changes next season.

I don’t think we will get top 4 unless those around us seriously mess up more than we have and that’s asking something. I don’t see us going any further in the CL, but you never know, and if we do, and get Kane, Son and Sissoko back, that might bring about change, but under Jose, it feels and looks bleak to me.

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