africanspurs
Justin Edinburgh
agreed. see redknapp getting fourth and pushing top 2 teams for a title in same season as an example
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Andre Villas-Boas - Head Coach
- Thread starter Bale
- Start date
agreed. see redknapp getting fourth and pushing top 2 teams for a title in same season as an example
africanspurs
Justin Edinburgh
more staggering that you think what we have at our disposal is brick. that the same brick squad that in january were like third or something? no?
i also like your sample size...its after the Saudi Sportswashing Machine game that life as a fan for you comes into play / exists. anything before that appears to must have been irrelevant to you
JerusalemMan
Chris Perry
Sadly so.
For some, winning a trophy would be soured by the fact that they disagreed with the way it was done. or the person responsible. And so belittling would be witnessed, snidey little comments.
You could see it a bit with Harry.
Things get too polarised and it is the lunatics that lurk on the fringes.
BrainOfLevy
Michael Carrick
The same squad in January minus Adebayor, Parker, King, Rafa, Modric, Kaboul, and Assou Ekotto for significant parts of this season.
Some of their replacements have quality but they are young, settling in, and the whole squad is adjusting to new coaching methods. To be 3 points off 3rd at this stage is utterly fantastic I would say.
DHSF
Les Ferdinand
It is fantastic and that should give our lads some confidence and as I said in the expectations thread - if we can strengthen in January it would help in propelling us to top four. I thinkt he top two are sewn up already but the other two places are definitely up for grabs. The competitive standard this season has been poor and we really need to take the opportunity.
However; I have a feeling of an empty one and that it feels undeserved as we have been very lucky in games.
The trouble I have is that AVB isnt changing things tactically in game. Last night he must have seen us getting hammered and didnt do much to change it. I dont know what he could have done but then again im not a Premier League Manager. Proactive.
I'm one of the ones who's still on the fence with AVB but i've been encouraged by what i've seen down at the Lane in the last few weeks. He's got the players moving the ball quicker and the pace from the start is back which is key as often if we get the first goal we win at the Lane. For the first 5 home games we were pondouros and playing tippy tappy stuff at the back and not getting the ball foward quick enough and he's now got the 2 strikers playing closer together rather than Defoe being isolated on his own so i'm happier.
The main negative is the team dont know how to control a game and we're often looking to see a game out rather than just keeping better possession of the ball, last night for example from 30 mins on Allen and Gerrard dominated the midfield. This is why i still think we need Mourthino, because he'll give us that control in midfield that we've lacked since Modric's departure. I know some of you will say, 'where would you fit him in', well i'd play him with Sandro in the middle and push Demeble further forward or maybe play Moutinho with Dembele at WHL, or mix it up. We need more options in midfield and players will get injuryed during the season.
I think if Levy pushes the boat out then we have an outside chance of 4th. He's that key a signing for me.
The main negative is the team dont know how to control a game and we're often looking to see a game out rather than just keeping better possession of the ball, last night for example from 30 mins on Allen and Gerrard dominated the midfield. This is why i still think we need Mourthino, because he'll give us that control in midfield that we've lacked since Modric's departure. I know some of you will say, 'where would you fit him in', well i'd play him with Sandro in the middle and push Demeble further forward or maybe play Moutinho with Dembele at WHL, or mix it up. We need more options in midfield and players will get injuryed during the season.
I think if Levy pushes the boat out then we have an outside chance of 4th. He's that key a signing for me.
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africanspurs
Justin Edinburgh
not questioning his achievement. just the rubbishing of anothers is what i find disconcerting, especially when you need to do that to prop up your point / candidate.
our squad wasnt brick last year and it isnt brick this year. its a good squad......and its as settled as can be considering the people we play and the performances of the new players
another thing is that you say the players are adjusting to a new system. though i saw more of this earlier on in the season...now? i cant see what system they are adjusting to. what is it?
parklane1
Tony Galvin
And they have been doing it for years, thats what good teams do play poorly and come away with the points.
parklane1
Tony Galvin
And we all know why that would happen.
Jurgen the German
Willie Hall
We don't have a team or a manager that have a recent history of winning trophies and finishing in the top 4 like Emirates Marketing Project and United do.
Jurgen the German
Willie Hall
I would be delighted with 4th and reasonably happy with 5th. Not so bothered about the trophy this season, although it would be nice. Put is this way, I'd rather get top 4 (that's top 4 and no lucky team knocking us out before we enter CL) than win the Europa League.
I cut AVB some slack as he has some bad injuries. I also don't believe the signings are necassarily his. But we are hanging on for dear life in every game in which we lead, even against West Ham the final few minutes would have been interesting had they got a 2nd goal. Admittedly, our squad is not the biggest and the subs aren't great, but he seems powerless to stop it, or he doesn't have the tactical nous to do anything about it. Arsenal away is a good example, we could all see that we were falling apart, but he waits until half time to do anything about it, when the game was pretty much over. I had the same criticisms of Redknapp last season during our bad run when he would say "I could see we were struggling/tired." Well do something about it then! Don't wait until we go a goal or two down. His negative style of play when we go ahead plays into the other teams hands as we can't defend. The natural instinct as a defender is to defend deeper and deeper, even though they know they shouldn't. I could see the merit in this if we had a great defense, but we don't, Spurs don't do great defenses.
As i said in my post earlier, it's mainly down to midfield. I think Scott Parker and Modric were key cogs in the team last year that almost got us 3rd place and when they were in the side our win percentage was up massively. Actually just having parker on his own in the side our win percentage was up massively. I certianly felt much more assured that we could hang on to win games when he was playing and there's no doubt he's been missed. He possesses the know how to kill games and just keep possession when we need to and not keep giving it away every 5 seconds like we did last night and in many other games this season when he hasnt played.
Problem with Scott is he's in the latter part of his career so we need some of the others to stand up and also add to the mix that we already have.. Sandro's had a pretty good season, his energy and work rate is fantasic but he doesnt seen to be able to keep the ball aswell as Parker. Dembele is better at keeping it than Sandro but he needs to work a bit harder..Neither of these two quite have the know how to see things out yet.
That's why i think we still need to buy Moutinho and then we can keep the ball better and also if we need to bring on Sandro for 30 mins to kill the game we can. He would bring us so many more options!
Problem with Scott is he's in the latter part of his career so we need some of the others to stand up and also add to the mix that we already have.. Sandro's had a pretty good season, his energy and work rate is fantasic but he doesnt seen to be able to keep the ball aswell as Parker. Dembele is better at keeping it than Sandro but he needs to work a bit harder..Neither of these two quite have the know how to see things out yet.
That's why i think we still need to buy Moutinho and then we can keep the ball better and also if we need to bring on Sandro for 30 mins to kill the game we can. He would bring us so many more options!
Spursalot
Jimmy McCormick
The Moonlit Knight
Banned
I'm so bored of that excuse. This Spurs team, even minus those players, is good enough to challenge top four.
DHSF
Les Ferdinand
This 'playing badly and winning' phrase - its not supposed to be applicable to EVERY game. You cant just use it for 38 games a season and go hey presto we win and doesnt matter cos we played badly yet won.
We havent played badly EVERY game bur more often than not I would say in summary that the performances havent been good
We havent played badly EVERY game bur more often than not I would say in summary that the performances havent been good
thfcsteff
Garth Crooks
thfcsteff
Garth Crooks
LOL...man sent off. Three clear individual errors. Who would he have subbed? Naughton? Hudd? Gallas? At that point he's simply going 4-4-1 to try and keep some shape and stability until HT, when he clearly wanted to go 3 at the back and take the game to them. We hadn't gone 3 at the back in 4 seasons. I think to spring that particular change in, say, the 30th minute, would've been suicide. Again, Mertesacker should never be able to score with a header from 16 yards, and sloppy possession play by Hudd in a danger zone cannot really be accounted for.
I know it seems like I'm always defending the bloke, believe me, some of his subs have not filled me with joy either, but I think this is a poor example in all honesty mate.
As for defending, well, last night is one of those wonderful moments where Adebayor off the bench would've been tremendous...
thfcsteff
Garth Crooks
For me, there is a clear, clear intent for our full-backs to be more like wing-backs and for our wide men to tuck inside behind the main striker whenever possible. Bale and Lennon have both been working the channels better than ever this season/cutting in at angles on goal when possible. The first goal last night is the sort of goal we've all been crying out for yet not seen for ages; Bales blisters, Lennon tucks inside off the back post for the chance.
I think there's a far greater emphasis put on retention too; Daws is certainly pumping long balls less frequently than I ever remember, and there is a general protection of the ball which (to my eyes) sees every pass considered in percentage terms and if there isn't a clean one available then the ball is kept/knocked around until such a time as space opens up. Dembele benefits from this as he usually ends up with space in the middle to roam providing we can keep the ball. That's our major issue right now, keeping it. Luka would be perfect. Moutinho would be good too.
And yes, there is an obvious premium on pressing the ball higher up the pitch/squeezing the out-space for the opposition. Problem comes, as King and others have said, when you hit the fatigue wall, and after 3 in 7 with that style played, I think we ran out of steam last night and rode our luck...
thfcsteff
Garth Crooks
Interesting difference here King/DH...I think it is precisely that we do not have a Luka Modric (or even VdV) who can hold the ball. Modric was more important than anyone seems to remember. Being without Dembele has cost us 6 points at least, he can hold the ball, but we still need a Luka...