There’s no denying Thursday evening’s Group J Europa League clash with Royal Antwerp was hugely disappointing and frustrating for Tottenham Hotspur fans.
Riding high with some confidence from our good, attacking, showings in the Premier League (top scorers six games in), the lack of chances and creativity in the last match was very stark.
As fans mull the game over, yes there were plenty of changes, yes it seemed to stunt momentum – but even so, surely we can do better than that?
Sitting in 16th place with only one win under their belts, it should be a great time to face Graham Potters side – but that doesn’t mean it will be an easy game or a guaranteed win as they arguably haven’t got the points on the board their performances deserve – but they struggle to get over the line, and we have to use that to our advantage.
Three points to get the mojo going again and then we see where it takes us.
Brighton...
Win
Draw
Lose
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HT
Tried to fight the good fight in the last thread. With some support from PY and a few others.
There are those here who just see JM as the “Anti Spur” nothing will change this.
Just hope for a good league position and a cup win.
I still think we need a settled back 5.
I think Lloris, Doherty, Tobs, Dier(SANCHEZ), Regulon.
What’s your opinion m8.
It does seem most teams seem to have good games against us….might be because we always allow them to play…
A good 3 points but another poor performance thats 3 in a row even though we won 2 of them. We got some tough games coming up, we will definitely need to play better.
I think you have got something there Marky, we allow other teams to play naively thinking they will do the same but rarely do! 🙂
Perhaps off topic…. There has been a lot of opinions on Jose and his management methods. Dele has not been up to the levels of fitness and mental / physical efforts for about 2 years now. He has been distracted by injury / various social and media influences, hence the”are you dele or his brother / party boy” tag by jose. The reported “treatment” to him by jose of exclusion from squad selection is right, as many times we carried 2 passengers (unhappy with their contract / future ) in games over the last 2 years of poch’s tenure at THFC.
Jose is much tougher, and we should remember.. Bill Nic. was also a tough manager, as Cliff Jones has said…. if you were injured Bill would not speak to you until you were fit and ready to play. Spurs won League Title and trophies guided by Bill’s tough management. Jose’s management is of a similar method.
This is what we needed, as spurs have not won any PL league / domestic / European silverware 12 years now. So Jose’s methods has rekindled spurs football with exciting / fast moving / goal scoring has been seen this season, without the burn out (players had with high pressure game with poch,) and we have a good run of winning in all games played so far, and I hope this will see us win silverware this season. COYS
Brighton have been playing quite good looking football since the start of the season. But this means nothing if it’s losing football. And so not quite good enough. But I bet they’ll upset a top team or two this season, once or twice, even though they’ll probably not rise up the table too far…
Whereas with Spurs I can definitely see them beating some of our closest rivals this season whilst outplaying them too… And let’s face it, it could be so much worse after just 7 PL matches. We could be in the position we were in with Poch this time last season and, just before he was fired…
If we can carry on as we are, whilst in the process of building and progressing this new squad, then I believe we can only get better… There will be good football played by Spurs, and some bad football played. But that’s pretty much par for the course in the PL… In football! Swings and roundabouts!
BUT, if it’s (mostly) winning football?!
Marky – I don’t think Man U fans would argue that their team had a good game against us… or Chelsea in the league cup… Or Newcastle, a team we absolutely battered for 90 minutes before gifting them a draw… Or Southampton, who conceded 5 goals at home (despite being a very good team this year, as their current league position shows).
We have a couple of hard fought wins against teams battling for PL survival, and all of the sudden, the perception is that we have a naive approach to games.
I think we will always struggle against well organised teams, to a certain degree. But so do Chelsea, City, Liverpool etc. It is arrogance to expect smaller teams to just roll over when we play them.
TK – ” I’ll not forgive DL for buying more for JM than for Poch.” I’m pretty sure if you worked out the net spend you would find that wasn’t true, or is a £50m buy the same as a free transfer to you ? From what I can see Jose just has a more realistic attitude to transfer dealings than Poch, going for the best he can get in the positions that need strengthening rather than holding out for players that are out of our reach.
Two good posts there HT, BS.
I alluded to where we were last season in the last thread. We are in a much better position and going forwards.
Re Poch and player recruitment, we don’t actually know what he was offered player wise in his last few seasons.
But we are playing good effective /efficient football, not always attractive, but sometimes that’s also upto the opposition and how they set up. As some have said here there are games we easily bossed and played extremely well and entertained and for some reason came away with just a point. It says it all when the opposition managers are in shock at the results.
There are other games like Sunday where we were workman like and (for me) managed the game.
On the Dele Conundrum BS 100%, he was injured at the World Cup 2018 and failed to properly come back from it.
Perhaps a young man with too much too early. And can’t mentally find a way back. Who knows.
Looking at our squad on Sunday. 8 of the starters were at the club under Poch. Including Ndombele, our record signing. 4 out of 7 on the bench were also at the club before Jose arrived. Davies, Lucas, Lo Celso and Winks.
Of those 12 pre-Jose players. We saw, Son, Ndombele, Lo Celso, Hugo, Davies, Toby, Dier and Lucas that were all bought during Pochettino’s reign. The 2 Harry’s and Lamela were of course at the club before Poch..
BT & ND….two very good posts from you both there, realism and I get it.
HT….You said “if we can carry on as we are, whilst in the process of building & progressing this new squad” how simple a sentence, great wording that is very true, I concur and like yourself I believe we can only get better.
The Deli problem, I agree since the World Cup and his injury he has not been the same, but I do believe to resolve the situation he finds himself in is down to one person…himself, simple, work hard in training, look at attitude etc, even his besty Dier basically said the same. COYS
It may or may not work out for Dele. Sometimes, players need a fresh challenge to rediscover their best form.
I really hope he can knuckle down and find the motivation to start a second chapter at Spurs. If he can’t, it’ll be a shame but that still doesn’t mean he’s become a bad player.
Either way, we’ll either have another very good player to pick from, or we’ll hopefully raise a handsome amount from his sale to strengthen the squad elsewhere.
Sooner or later, other areas in the squad (the goalkeeping situation, for example) are going to have to be addressed – and it won’t be cheap to do so.
I stand corrected. I’ll never forgive Poch for not being a special one.
Wanting my team to perform better regardless whom they play isn’t arrogance….arrogance is expecting to win every game regardless whom they play…I also don’t need to ask anyone anything if I’ve watched the game myself, and lastly I said it seems most not all teams play well against us….it was obvious I wasn’t including Man Utd Southampton….thats was all just a pointless response.
🤪
I would not count on Spurs getting such a good price for the sale of the contract of Delicate Alli. then again, DL will keep him for an extra 18 months to squeeze out a few extra bob.
What about the” Dele/ Isco ” swap.
As BS says Dele may need a move to re invent himself, and Isco is a good and can be a great player when on form.
I know it is probably media filling pages but it may actually suit both teams and both players.
Marky
I think we would all want that.
Our team playing well, performing better every game.
But sometimes it is like the W/Ham and Newcastle game where it didn’t quite come off.
Or like the Burnley game, where even the pundits said Burnley sucked the life out of it.
I would still argue on Sunday we were efficient and could have walked away with 4 goals.
Whilst our opponents got one (and wasn’t that a foul in the build up?).
Many people have said sometimes you’ve gotta win ugly and at times this year we’re doing it.
We are on a rebuild and it will take time to get to where we’re at but I think we are now going forwards.
Look at the acquisition of Hoj, there were a few on this site who questioned his credentials.
But I think he has been a good buy for us in a position much needed.
I do understand you wish for entertaining games and us playing well.
But maybe we are trying to manage games in a different way.
Not always successfully, look at W/Ham and N/Castle.
As some of us have said I’ll take efficient winning with a few entertaining games thrown in as long as we get the points.
I believe every successful team in history has been able to win ugly when they’ve had to. How often that is will depend on their situation. The gap in the Bundsliga between Bayern and the rest is much bigger than the gaps in the premier league, so Bayern will have to resort to winning ugly less often. Of course the lack of close competition also makes German football less attractive to a world wide audience so commercially they lose out. In the premier league no team is likely to be able to maintain a position where they are streets ahead of everyone else and can continually win games comfortably. So winning ugly is always going to be a necessary skill to have. The criticism of us in the past is when the going got tough we haven’t had a way to win, hence the lack of trophies, hopefully that is changing.
Marky – wanting your team to perform better, regardless of whom they play may not be arrogance, but it’s a pipe dream. You get what you can get out of what the opposition gives you.
Expecting free flowing football against a team parking the bus makes zero sense, for example. That’s a basic understanding of football tactics. And it certainly provides context for the Burnley game, for example.
Also, just because you have watched a game, and have a personal opinion on the performance, doesn’t make it a universal truth. You may think we performed badly, but a look at the stats from the Brighton game tell a different story. You’re free to share your opinion, but we are free to disagree with it.
Finally, we’ve played 13 games so far, across the EL, the league cup and the PL.
We had a wobbly game against Plovdiv in EL qualifying, flat PL performances against Everton, Burnley and Brighton (also mentioning that 2 our of those 3 games were wins), and a bad defeat in Antwerp.
For the rest, we’ve had pretty convincing performances (regardless of results).
So even accepting that those 5 games were below par, that’s still only 5 out of 13 games. So either you need to look up the definition of the word “most”, or it is your analysis which is pretty pointless.
And I won’t even go into pointing out that by definition, every Spurs fan wants the team to do well – if that is the gist of your original post, talk about stating the obvious…
I don’t think there is any doubt Hojbjerg has been a good signing, we are much more difficult to play through now when he is on the pitch.
Dele/Isco swap? I don’t think so, they can both be brilliant in one game then do nothing in the next few, would be swapping one problem player for another, neither plays consistently well enough. I don’t think we need a replacement if he is sold, we are well enough stocked in that area of the pitch so any incoming fee would be better invested in defensive positions.
Yes TQ
Agreed re Hoj. But you must admit that there were those in these pages who raised virtual eyebrows at what they saw as a bit of a bargain basement signing, similarly with Doherty.
But it does show that we may have been astute in our dealings this season.
And, were signings of this nature available to Poch who maybe didn’t take them.
It shows that it’s not all about marquis signings to turn a teams fortunes.
Re Dele/Isco I just felt that both players could benefit from new sorroundings and a new challenge.
But I agree our finances would be better placed somewhere in defence.
Toby ain’t here for ever and will need to be replaced soon, similarly Hugo may need replacing soon.
Not to mention the elusive LCB.