Harry is recognised by most supporters as the complete footballer. I don’t think anyone can logically dispute this. He is in the Tottenham Hotspur team to score goals and he has proved capable of scoring with his left foot, right foot, and his head, on a remarkably consistent basis. That is indisputable, too.
But part of being a ‘complete footballer’ means he has many other attributes, too. He can defend, he can spot key passes, he can hold up the ball, he remains cool in possession, rarely panics, and he can read the game extremely well. Like all top players, he has a football brain and his thinking is often ahead of his colleagues. He has the ability to know what is happening around him before he gets the ball, much like Modric had (I’m not comparing them beyond this).
Playing a more defensive style of football, as we currently are, means that Harry is often isolated in a forward position and sometimes far less involved in the match. This often sees him dropping back to find the ball and get more involved. By dropping back he takes up the space that midfielders use and leaves a gap going forward when Spurs make a break. Not always, but it happens.
There is continual discussion among Spurs supporters about the need for a back-up striker, mainly in the event that Harry gets injured. But what would happen if Spurs did not opt for a back-up, bench warming striker, but went for a recognised target striker instead (for a name we would need to refer to Jod).
What would the team look like with a new number nine, and Harry playing as a number ten. In other words (to clarify for older supporters) a new centre forward and Harry in an inside forward position. We already have a nice choice of fast, tricky players, to occupy other attacking positions.
Personally, I doubt that such a shift in position would affect Harry’s goal scoring feats as he would continue to find himself with goals scoring opportunities. And, with more freedom to roam, I would imagine that his reading of the game and passing ability would lead to many more goals from the assists he could make.
Harry is certainly not old, but he is getting older and it could well be that he will need to drop back in two or three years as part of the natural order of things. Maybe it would be beneficial to both the team, and him, if this happens sooner rather than later. And it would allow his all-round attributes to come into play.
Once again, I am not advocating this, just throwing it out for general discussion. Gotta love football!
Good call B 108.
Geof… Jose’s track record of trophy winning in UK, Italy, Portugal, Spain has shown he is tactically astute, as when Inter won CL for example. So as he accepted the challenge set by Levy of turning around THFC from the downward spiral of last season, which showed he has still got his mojo and our players have bought into that.
What I expect now is Jose will have a plan for the schedule of games spurs have been landed with PL, EL, FA Cup. L Cup over the next 2 months. Now we are not playing the high pressing game, injuries of our players should be lower, and rotation of squad will also help.
I understand some fans don’t like the defensive set up Jose has used at other clubs, I would ask… Spurs have played this entertaining game for many years… What silverware have we won in 12 years, and beyond?
1 L Cup 2008 and before that ? no PL title a few fa cup wins. Its 1980’s and 60’s we were wining major european trophies… a lifetime ago. As someone on VS said, Danny Blanchflower statement about the beautiful game played by spurs was in the 1960’s and professional football has evolved into a highly competitive big money business now.
So while we all enjoyed poch’s 5 years of attractive football, the truth is spurs are the nearly club… semi finals.. lost.. (chelsea, portsmouth etc.) finals L Cup lost (man utd) final CL lost. It’s time we won something more than just the entertaining football title. COYS
But Jose hasn’t yet won anything with Spurs either…
Anyway, what’s wrong with us enjoying the football but not winning a trophy? Pochettino tried his best. The team tried their best… Good enough for me….
Now it’s time for something different…
Block, Ben Davies didn’t say that with Pochettino they played the same all the time. (And he’d be wrong if he did say it). He just said that under Mourinho Spurs are “a bit more tactical” and had more of a game plan for each match. And that under Pochettino we had a very specific style of high intensity, high press football… He was just pointing out the different methods, that is all. Not approving one over the other.
Really, this just means that Jose gives them more detail (maybe) of what to do for each game. Like who specifically needs man-marking. Or how they will do this that or that or the other and this is how you, him, the team will counter it. It doesn’t mean there will be great variations on the style of football being played. Or that plan a is then followed up by a plan b, c. d etc… How much can a player take in tactically for one game and still play decent football? How much does a player actually need to take in for just 90 minutes of football, anyway?
No matter how JM approaches a specific game and whatever subtle difference of tactics he uses for that game; His footballing philosophy will pretty much remain the same. Defend and counter. Give up the Lions share of the ball, defend, defend, defend, win possession, transition the ball quickly and catch them on the back-foot, with a swift counter or a long ball over the top to a target man or two… . This is over simplified of course. But we have very often seen this to be the case.
But Jose’s style of football is not THE right one and MP’s style wrong. Just different. I mean we could say that Jose is overly defensive in his general style. We could say that Pochettino was much more (or too) attack-minded. And yet for a couple of seasons MP’s defensive record was one of the best. Which is something that Jose would’ve been proud of. And being very defensive-minded as JM is, it doesn’t then follow that the attack can’t be very effective, either……. Whichever the style, the aim from both these guys is quite simply to win football matches.
AND… I don’t think that Jose’s football asks less of the players than Pochettino’s. In fact it could be argued that it asks much more of the players. So, if they got worn out under MP, they’ll probably get just as knackered under Jose, IMO… That’s if he is around for as long as MP was. In fact the may well get tired very quickly and mentally fatigued with JM’s ways, long before the 5 and a bit years that MP was given by Levy.
Who know’s the secret of the Lilywhite’s future success. Who knows what’s in store?
Spurs 5-0 Everton! But 1-0 may well have to do…
Sorry… did not mention PL title 2017 lost to Leicester…
HT.. you were writing your post at the same time I did the post 8.51 am page 10.
You have your opinion.. fair enough.. my views are as stated. All spurs fans want the club to win games and multipal silverware… we have tried with poch, and won games yet we failed on wining silverware… now we have to see how Jose gets on.
Of course, we all have our opinions. But you were wrong about what Ben said. And therefore wrong IF you base your opinion on something with a completely different meaning to what he was saying…….
After I pointed that out I just then went on a ramble with how I see it all. It wasn’t a critique of how you see it… Just a follow up from my perspective.
Come on, Jose, entertain me.
The one thing about JM being our coach, is that he alone has brought/breathed life back into VS, excellent, will we, wont we, will he, wont he, so many thoughts and opinions that are wrong to some and right to other’s, nearly back to the hey-day of VS, I am loving it. COYS
For me, what Danny Blanchflower said philosophically about the game back in the day and, also Bill Nicholson’s wise words. Doesn’t change at all because there is so much more money in the game.
Not when the most consistently successful clubs of all time and since Danny and Bill’s time have mostly been known for their stylish and highly entertaining football. And by that I mean there have been very different styles , tactical formations and manager philosophies that have played out since then and, the game has developed and moved on a lot. As it has always done and will do. But entertainment is still the key to the ultimate success of the game and sport as a whole.
A fine example of big, big money and the style and entertainment value of the game not being the enemy of one another, is when looking at individual star players within the game. And the ones that are hailed as the very best, playing for the very best and most successful of clubs.
Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo in the contemporary world are considered two of the best of all time. Not solely based on stats but on their highly skilled and entertaining style of play. And mostly with teams seen as entertaining and attacking in their style. Of course those teams had to be defensively sound too. But, never one or the other.
Messi earns well in excess of £500k a week. Ronaldo is on something similar. (And that’s just from the football income they get. (Add millions more from sponsorship and advertising contracts etc). They still play as they no doubt did when they were both young boys from poor backgrounds. It’s why they were spotted so young… It was because of their flair and skills as a footballer. The money followed suit…
The big money madness of soccer comes from its entertainment value not because Messi and his wealthy contemporaries have so many winners medals to their name or because the massive earnings they have made. We watch the football. We don’t stare at still life trophies or view them spending all that money…
Without the likes of them and if in general football at the very top was essentially dull. The worldwide audiences would dwindle and the money would dry up… At the other end of the scale, the smaller clubs would probably cease to exist and then football as we currently know it, fades away pretty fast…
At the end of the day, Jose wasn’t fired from clubs for not winning stuff. Obviously! He was booted out because of boring the fans and the owners with his pragmatic approach and stifling the flair of some of his star players. So the argument allows for both sides. You employ Jose as a winner and money-maker. But then you hopefully find the next “special one” who not only wins and makes the dosh but entertains the viewers and supporters as well. And, hopefully for more than just 1 or 2 seasons…
I’m neither knocking nor praising Jose here. He is what he is… But I’d rather Blanchflower’s and Nicholson’s way than his… And I can’t see what the money has to do with it. Spurs broke ‘money’ records with Bill by the way. Both in buying and selling… And we had some of the most talented footballers money could buy back then. It was just a lot cheaper back in the day, relatively speaking. But it was still about making money too… Soccer was also big business back then, as it is now. It just got much, much bigger.
Anyway, show me a defender that earns anywhere near the same amount of money as Messi does… 😉
Or indeed, name a defender at the time that cost anywhere near the record breaking fee that Spurs paid for James Peter Greaves way back in 1961.
When we buy a record, we buy one that appeals to us; the melody, the genre, the lyrics, the artist, etc, but we don’t care that it did not top the charts or win an aria. When we watch a movie, we choose one that we can connect with …. the actors, the director, the power of the story; a movie that can make us laugh, cry, think, etc. It makes no difference whether or not the film won an Oscar. Sometimes, albeit rarely, you can have both. My favourite all-time movie is The Godfather which won an Oscar. But if it had not won an Oscar it would still be my all-time favourite movie no matter which film won. It’s the entertainment factor that dictates our choice. If we had won a trophy last season I would still have preferred watching Spurs under MP three or four years ago.
Hmmm, two very good thought provoking posts there, HT & Geof, cannot really argue with them or even add.
HT, Defender v Striker, purchase cost wise, very true, JG..£99,999 if I am correct, Billy Nich wouldn’t pay the £100k because of pressure it would put on JG, lol!
Geofspurs, my all time fave film is Zulu, with Michael Caine, excellent. COYS
Anyone know out about Harry McGuire getting arrested while partying on a Greek Island, word has it he decked a copper. COYS
HT… I am not wrong, The truth is poch had no real back up plan to deal with the tactical response of opposition players. Hence Ben saying we always played the same way.
PY you’ve just about nailed it there some great arguments.
I’m not sure that we lost but looked cool doing it is enough.
Don’t forget an old saying”The Victorious write History”or something like That.
I will go back to 2016/17 the Leicester year. Weren’t we brilliant losers that year.
I’ll say it again other than us Spurs supporters, who else remembers that we were the best team that year. But sadly we weren’t because another team beat us. And no one remembers just how good we played that year. Like the Netherlands team of the early 70s or the Belgium team of the last five years.
We looked good. But we were cool losers.
Re B 108’s argument how many times over the tail end of Poch’s reign when we were maybe 1-0 down 70th minute and could’ve brought on Llorente or Lucas as we’d as usual only used two subs, but, it didn’t happen.
I don’t have the answers.
But what I do have is the knowledge that Blanchflower, and Nicholson are sadly gone. Poch has moved on. Whilst I love the sentement and agree with much of what has been said re our style of play.
But now fed up being the best losers.
Let’s get behind JM, see what he brings to the table. Not every Eagles album was “Hotel California, Not every Fleetwood mac album was” Rumours but they still did some good other stuff with different personnel.
Let’s give it a season see how it goes. COYS.
Hi Everyone, it will be no surprise to you all that I am a fan of attacking, exciting football having started in the wonderful Danny Blanchflower era and Billy Nicks push and run. I will not spend loads of dosh taking my grandsons to watch boring, dismal, defensive football. I am not fed up with being almost rans. I love watching the skils and great goals that Spurs will score. Not the scrappy, boring 1-0’s that some are promoting. Poch nearly did it. I thank him for some of the fantastic results and great possession play. Wonderful, slick passing. Players with a smile on their faces. At the end of last season under Jose our players looked bored and bemused because our play was boring. Jose looked bored and bemused scribbling on his note pad. Silverware….at what cost. It doesn’t matter to me. I want to stand up and say we met fire with fire and we won a brilliant match against Liverpool, Man C. and ManU. (penalties and ref allowing). We also ran rings round Villa, W. Ham and Palace and we came back from 1-0 to beat Arsenal 4-1. By the way, i love Fleetwood Mac, )also AC/DC and Close Encounters of the THird Kind. COYS. AUDERE EST FACERE not boredom.
ND …. Not sure what other peoples’ memories have to do with it. We don’t live with other peoples’ memories. it’s only our own memories that matter to us. I don’t care if nobody else remembers the great football we played under MP. I remember it, and always will. And I’ll always enjoy that memory.