This goes back to a lack of support around him. I think he was royally fudged by the boardroom shift (we saw that as we approached the Jan window) and a club which became a subset of VPs lacking a leader. For his part, he continually tried to say we were seeing things we weren't. I'd have had a whole line of dialogue he could've parroted to the press/in pressers which would've protected the players, protected him, and not tried to tell me I was seeing a rainbow on a black and white monitor.
As for that highlit line, it's pretty simple. Either play a pressing game and squeeze the lines so as you don't have 5 yard spaces for the oppo to play around pressure, or go into each game 5-4-1, sit low-block, bore the brick out of everyone, take the criticism and let the 'points' speak for you as you explain that there is building going on.
I go back to the profile of player we signed. I have always said a manager should get who THEY want even if it isn't who I want. He passed on Eze and Simnons early early in the window (don't ask but he did). We went in for MGW. That failed. We dingdonged around. We ended up getting him to agree that Eze would be good and fudged that. We then got Simons. You saw what the man plays; would Eze have been a fit for it? No! He was a fit for MY Tottenham, but not his. Ditto Simons, who subsequently was wasted on the left and arguable contributed to Odobert maybe not developing quite as fast as possible (he was starting to cook when he got hurt - I know you agree). So WHO kept on NOT getting him round pegs for round holes? Who didn't get him a left-winger? Or a left sidede FB/CB?
There are many points of blame for sure...I still maintain the whole thing was a mistake from the start, but he was not helped.