Is it just me or does it feel like this end of March international break has gone on forever. Never fear though, there’s only a few sleeps left until Tottenham Hotspur make the trip up to St James’ Park to face Steve Bruce’s battling Newcastle United side.
Unless I’ve missed something during my little Vital Spurs hiatus as I’m not a huge international fan, short of maybe some tiredness I don’t believe any players will return worse for wear and that should give us a decent chance to make it back to back Premier League wins again after yet another recent wobble in our form and performance levels that also saw us booted out of the Europa League.
Manager Jose Mourinho will be unable to call on Ben Davies, but we’ll have to see what the later injury update says when it comes to Son Heung-Min, Matt Doherty and Sergio Reguilon. Erik Lamela will return following suspension.
17th placed Newcastle might not have won in their last five, but they are keeping their heads above the drain and have proven tricky for plenty of sides this year, even if they aren’t exactly potent or that threatening on the attack.
As ever though, this is the sort of side that on paper we know we are capable of blowing away, yet we all season long it’s the kind of game that has been our Achilles heel and we’ve struggled to perform in.
All eyes to Sunday as we can still end what was once a promising 2020/21 campaign on a high and with something to cheer about.
My apologies to Seamus Heaney, whose words about pickng blackberries I here distort:
I always feel like crying. It isn’t fair
That all the lovely leads smelt of rot.
Each time I hoped they’d keep, knew they would not.
This season, all one goal leads turn to rot.
Sorry but I don’t see how you can blame Jose for this one. He picked the attacking team that won well at Villa and made attacking substitutions in the second half . It could easily have been 3-1 if Harry’s shot had gone in in the last few minutes. It all went pear shaped as a result of a stinker of a game by Sanchez with Tananga not far behind. And of course Newcastle played their best game of the season with attacking moves coming off for a change. The lessons are obvious. Sánchez (and Vinny) are definitely not up to it and Aurier must come back at right back. I assume that Toby would have played but for all those internationals. With Sonny getting up to speed, and Bale playing a bigger part in the remaining games we’re still in there with a chance, the Tottenham curse permitting of course!
This season’s Spurs leads are like agriculture in a season with far too much rain. We are like the farmer who puts so much hope and anticipation into the seeds we plant, we grow, we nurture, and the rains turn the harvest to rot. We leave the field with the hunger still in our gut. The rains turn the sunshine joy into tears.
We had to wait
April’s fools three days late.
left with an empty plate
that’s our fool’s fate
that’s all, there is to it, m8
The players showed little fight or passionmuch like their manager, stuck in his seat looking glum, rather than trying to gee them up from the sideline.
the malaise is deep within the team, so it seems. without spirit. Why? The man who is charged with providing motivation isn’t providing motivation. He seems to blame the players. Replace all the players and the manager? too much. replace the manager? yes, definitely, and 1/3 of the players whose attitudes have been soured playing under this manager. It will take some time to sort this out. and so soon after we were a team that got to the CL final, albeit with a bit of luck along the way. but so soon we fell. was it the stars or in ourselves? maybe it’s the fault of VS? Let’s not leak that. Mourinho will start deflecting the blame from himself to us. the toute puissant VS. the all powerful vital spurs commenters are to blame. kill us all. spare no one. the only one without blame is José Mourinho. so says his agent, I would guess.
Never mind, we have only done what we have done every season since 2008, namely gone trophyless in a sea of mediocrity. We lack quality in several positions, both in MF and at the back, and are incapable of dictating the results of games even with a lead. The really depressing thing is that nothing will change as we consistently refuse to invest sufficiently to bring in the quality required, and our recruitment policy is consistently poor as players like Davison Sanchez at £36M prove. Can somebody please explain what we gained by sacking Poch and bringing in Mourinho.
We were throwing away results under MP too. Mourinho may not be the answer but neither was MP. In fact he’s hardly pulling up trees at PSG despite ving one of the better squads in world football.
Stan, I love your optimism but we have absolutely no chance of making the top four. Newcastle played their best game because we allowed them to. Why is that, because we are a poorly coached team with no pattern to our play and a complete lack of intensity and desire. It looks like the players don’t want to play for the manager anymore.
Frank, it’s easy to say what we lost by sacking Poch and bringing in Mourinho.
Stan, we can blame Jose for not making the right subs. Any fool could see that the shakiness of the defence was giving them belief and momentum. We needed to park the bus when somehow we managed to get ahead. Even with Dier or Sissoko in the middle and the full backs holding their positions we could still nick another as they lost heart. Mourinho doesn’t know how to manage average players as he has been spoilt.
Jose has been slammed for parking the bus when we have been 1 up and is slammed here for not parking the bus. Make up your minds!
Lloris, past it. Tanganga, not a full back, Reguilon, rubbish. Sanchez, going backwards, Rodon, promising but green. Hoj OK, ND flatters to deceive, Gio, jury’s still out. Attacking options OK if we could just get Deli back firing.
Reguilon and Doherty both might make serviceable wings, but not FBs. Sanchez clearly seems far worse than when he arrived. We need a football mind to take charge of recruitment. DL’s track record is getting worse over time. My god, I’d trust Coopsie over who’s doing it now, and Coopsie’s picks were self proclaimed nonsense.
This type of performance has been going on all season, some we get away with and others we don’t. We are not well organised as a team, as a unit, again goes back to the, is it the players, manager, tactics. This was a great opportunity to give top4 a real go. Liverpool have the easier run. We have united next. We need a whole new back 4.
TK Re recruitment, almost exactly what I said in the last post, re Seamus Heaney Blackberry Picking yet another I learned as a teenager. Something about Late August plenty of rain the Black berry’s would ripen….
Stan I know where you’re coming from, I wrote my comments not knowing that Tobs and Aurier weren’t available, however why return from international duty so late, is there dissention in the ranks, when Bale says he is happier on international duty than at the club, and now others appear reluctant to come back. WTF.
Niall I read somewhere Aurier and Toby were in training on Friday, so what is going on?.
Looks like United are also suffering from an international hangover in the first half, a goal down at home to Brighton. Would be just typical of our luck that they drop points as well.
My prediction was right and i hate myself for it. These team cant even prove me wrong lol.. im starting to think its bcus of my wife cus everytime she watch wit me we always lose lol(sad laugh)
Sorry folks
Called away mid post. My issue with Mourinho was, as Alan says he did have a fairly attacking line up, however, I agree that there is just something wrong with Sonny who has been “misfiring” now for about 2 months also why bring Bale on with only 2 mins to go.
For me at 2-1up get Vinny off bring on Sissoko, Winks, Or Dier to mid field, then both Lamella, and Bale at 75 mins just to keep em busy.
I think managers of other teams know that
1 we are dodgy at RB
2 Sanchez just doesn’t like pressure on him, in the air, or attackers running at him when playing from the back. So when he is RCB with any of our current RB’s we are open to attack.
Fernandes is going to get a hunchback from carrying United, he represents everything we are missing from our play.
What an absolute sham….Brighton denied a penalty by VAR at OT when Maguire pulled back Welbeck to prevent him scoring. And people don’t believe there is a bias at OT!
Brighton have a right to feel agrieved, the have been robbed at VARpoint.