Serious relegation fears

[billyiddo]

Perhaps it was that simple. Or perhaps it was just that Adebayor wanted to play for Redknapp due to the way that he treated him. Remember that Adebayor also played very well for Sherwood (who treated Adebayor in a similar way to Redknapp - i.e. simply telling him that he is brilliant and to go out there and show it). I'm not sure that I would want to give my all for a manager who wanted to demean me by making me stand on a chair and apologise for something like AVB did with Adebayor.

Re: VDV. I think his own version of it was that that the manager made no effort to keep him and was more than happy to let him go. Again, I think he was one of those players that needed an arm around him. A good manager realises which players need an arm around them and which need a kick up the arse to get the best out of them.

I also think that Harry's handling of King is ignored when in fact it was a very brave thing to do. There aren't too many managers out there who would be prepared to let a player miss training all week and then turn up on Friday and decide whether or not they felt OK to play that weekend. For example could you imagine a manager like AVB allowing this?... He was the sort of manager that thought it was all about his coaching and organisation as opposed to realising that three quarters of the battle is having the best players on the pitch.

People think that the team Harry ended up with at Spurs (that should've finished 3rd at worst) was the team that Harry started with, but they were poles apart. Harry brought characters back to our dressing room, he strengthened our resolve and our spine, he brought in Walker, VDV and Sandro, he got the best out of Adebayor, he turned Ekotto from a failure into one of the best left backs in the league. Under his stewardship Modric and Bale changed from little boys lost to World class players, he got Lennon playing consistently, he got King on the pitch for most of our important games, he even managed to turn Gomes from a quivering, cry baby wreck of a keeper into one of the best goalkeepers in the league. Most of all though he made us the best team to watch in the league by a country mile. I can remember at away games in the pub before/after the game how often the fans of the other team would say how they loved watching us play and how they hoped that we would be the team to win the league. Sure he should've got us a 3rd place finish that season, but he was also the manager that put together the team that should've finished 3rd.

Perhaps it is a similar scenario this season with Pochettino?.... I wonder how many on here will criticise him about failing should he also end up missing out on a 3rd place finish? I hope that he gets us there so we don't have to find out!

Redknapp undoubtedly deserves a huge amount of credit for his role in building that team, it's just a pity he couldn't get the best out of it.

 

[90291Spur]

Redknapp undoubtedly deserves a huge amount of credit for his role in building that team, it's just a pity he couldn't get the best out of it.

It's a pity he allowed himself to get distracted by hiking his skirt up for the England job (saying it didn't impact the team) and then when he didn't get the England job told Levy he had to give him a juicy contract extension because it would impact the team.

 

[Lemonade Money]

Redknapp undoubtedly deserves a huge amount of credit for his role in building that team, it's just a pity he couldn't get the best out of it.

Maybe he did get the best out of it, maybe he didn't, we'll never know.

 

[El Guepardo]

It's a pity he allowed himself to get distracted by hiking his skirt up for the England job (saying it didn't impact the team) and then when he didn't get the England job told Levy he had to give him a juicy contract extension because it would impact the team.

Plus the court case. His head must have been as far from the job as possible on some days. Plus, it is possible that when we lost, he didn't feel the defeat so much because of the other distractions. I don't want to just speculate but it's far better having a manger who is fully focused on the job in hand.

 

[Modric THFC]

How on earth did we finish below Arsenal that season?

Lennon was out with a hamstring from Christmas onwards.
But it really all feel apart when VDV picked up an injury at the end of January.
This coincided with Saha coming in. Harry getting excited about playing 442 for a while.
When things weren't working he moved Modric out of midfield and tried to 'tighten up' by playing Parker and one of Sandro and Livermore.
By that stage the wheels had completely come off and he was picking different players every game hoping something would work.

 

[billyiddo]

Ouch, that run of form

 

[SteveAWOL]

How on earth did we finish below Arsenal that season?

I wish I knew what explains us throwing away a 12 point lead on them during latter part of 'Mind the Gap' as there are almost as many theories as for the assassination of JFK!

 

[El Guepardo]

Ouch, that run of form

I'm surprised, looking back, at just how poor our form was...3 wins in 14! Losses against teams that we had no excuse for losing against. I guess a slump in players' confidence can be added to the reasons from our fall from grace.

 

[Jurgen the German]

I'd happily give him credit for assembling a great team if he was accountable for buying most of them

He wasn't but he got a team that was playing well that was under performing to the point where we were rock bottom and took us until January to get out of trouble.

 

[Jurgen the German]

Perhaps it was that simple. Or perhaps it was just that Adebayor wanted to play for Redknapp due to the way that he treated him. Remember that Adebayor also played very well for Sherwood (who treated Adebayor in a similar way to Redknapp - i.e. simply telling him that he is brilliant and to go out there and show it). I'm not sure that I would want to give my all for a manager who wanted to demean me by making me stand on a chair and apologise for something like AVB did with Adebayor.

Re: VDV. I think his own version of it was that that the manager made no effort to keep him and was more than happy to let him go. Again, I think he was one of those players that needed an arm around him. A good manager realises which players need an arm around them and which need a kick up the arse to get the best out of them.

I also think that Harry's handling of King is ignored when in fact it was a very brave thing to do. There aren't too many managers out there who would be prepared to let a player miss training all week and then turn up on Friday and decide whether or not they felt OK to play that weekend. For example could you imagine a manager like AVB allowing this?... He was the sort of manager that thought it was all about his coaching and organisation as opposed to realising that three quarters of the battle is having the best players on the pitch.

People think that the team Harry ended up with at Spurs (that should've finished 3rd at worst) was the team that Harry started with, but they were poles apart. Harry brought characters back to our dressing room, he strengthened our resolve and our spine, he brought in Walker, VDV and Sandro, he got the best out of Adebayor, he turned Ekotto from a failure into one of the best left backs in the league. Under his stewardship Modric and Bale changed from little boys lost to World class players, he got Lennon playing consistently, he got King on the pitch for most of our important games, he even managed to turn Gomes from a quivering, cry baby wreck of a keeper into one of the best goalkeepers in the league. Most of all though he made us the best team to watch in the league by a country mile. I can remember at away games in the pub before/after the game how often the fans of the other team would say how they loved watching us play and how they hoped that we would be the team to win the league. Sure he should've got us a 3rd place finish that season, but he was also the manager that put together the team that should've finished 3rd.

Perhaps it is a similar scenario this season with Pochettino?.... I wonder how many on here will criticise him about failing should he also end up missing out on a 3rd place finish? I hope that he gets us there so we don't have to find out!

Too much sense.

 

[Jurgen the German]

Plus the court case. His head must have been as far from the job as possible on some days. Plus, it is possible that when we lost, he didn't feel the defeat so much because of the other distractions. I don't want to just speculate but it's far better having a manger who is fully focused on the job in hand.

Didn't he also have heart surgery? Funny thing is, we still got good results during his heart problems and the court case, we all know the England job changed everything. All of a suddent we started winning again when Hodgson got the job. I can't let him off for the way we tailed off after the Arsenal game.

 

[Bullet]

I'm surprised, looking back, at just how poor our form was...3 wins in 14! Losses against teams that we had no excuse for losing against. I guess a slump in players' confidence can be added to the reasons from our fall from grace.

Gah it was horrible to witness wasn't it? 26th Feb 2012... 2-0 up at the Emirates... next thing you know we're 5-2 down and crying into our blankies.
Then losing to Norwich and QPR with a whimper.
Ugh.

 

[Pandy]

Personally I think it was his criminal mis-management of the squad. We played the same XI in basically every game that season, bar Europa group games.

We got burnt out.

This is where I think Pochettino's more squad-focused approach will pay dividends. Just hope Kane, for example, doesn't get worn out. Read in the Standard this evening that he has run the most out of all our players this year (hardly surprising)

 

[Finney Is Back]

Personally I think it was his criminal mis-management of the squad. We played the same XI in basically every game that season, bar Europa group games.

We got burnt out.

This is where I think Pochettino's more squad-focused approach will pay dividends. Just hope Kane, for example, doesn't get worn out. Read in the Standard this evening that he has run the most out of all our players this year (hardly surprising)

Does Poch have a more squad focused approach than Redknapp?.... I'm not sure he does? Lloris, Kane, Alderweireld, Vertonghen, Dier, Dembele, Lamela, Eriksen, Kane and Alli seem to be pretty much ever presents (injury aside). So far it's only been the two full backs that have had some rotation.

 

[Coys300]

Does Poch have a more squad focused approach than Redknapp?.... I'm not sure he does? Lloris, Kane, Alderweireld, Vertonghen, Dier, Dembele, Lamela, Eriksen, Kane and Alli seem to be pretty much ever presents (injury aside). So far it's only been the two full backs that have had some rotation.

Indeed. Running our of energy at the end of the season and performances dropping as a result of it has pretty much been characteristic for Poch in his entire time as a manager. Last year he did play quite a lot of different people, but that was because he only really seemed to know his best 11 after a couple of months. I do think he now has the squad depth to avoid a burn-out (Kane excepted), but I'm not sure he is using it enough. He rotates the full-backs really well, but people like Dier, Kane, Lloris (not to bothered about this since he is a GK), Vertonghen and Alderweireld get used a lot, to much arguably. While the likes of Eriksen, Lamela, Alli and Dembele are getting close to it as well (in a certain way some of their injuries might actually have helped them, since at least they got a rest during that time...). Alli in particularmis very young and not used at playing at this level. Last year Mason in particular really suffered from it imo and got tired. The good thing is that we do have depth though, but we do need to use it more. Bentaleb once fully fit could really help to relieve Dier for example. Mason for Alli, Chadli, Son and Carroll for Eriksen and Lamela...

 

[Kandi1977]

Does Poch have a more squad focused approach than Redknapp?.... I'm not sure he does? Lloris, Kane, Alderweireld, Vertonghen, Dier, Dembele, Lamela, Eriksen, Kane and Alli seem to be pretty much ever presents (injury aside). So far it's only been the two full backs that have had some rotation.

That's just not right. If you look at minutes played, we're on par with most teams that are also playing in Europe. Eriksen hasn't played that many games. He was out for quite a few,and both Dembele and Lamela have been rested on quite a few occasions. Playing the same GK and CB is actually just fine and sensible. They don't run about too much. We've had some injuries that have limited the options, but I think all the squad will be utilised now that most are fit, and we will most likely add one or two in the window.

 

[Pandy]

That's just not right. If you look at minutes played, we're on par with most teams that are also playing in Europe. Eriksen hasn't played that many games. He was out for quite a few,and both Dembele and Lamela have been rested on quite a few occasions. Playing the same GK and CB is actually just fine and sensible. They don't run about too much. We've had some injuries that have limited the options, but I think all the squad will be utilised now that most are fit, and we will most likely add one or two in the window.

This.

As far as I see it, the only true ever-presents are Kane, Alder, Verts and Lloris. And out of those, Kane is the only problematic one.

 

[ledley's knee injections]

Exactly Pandy and Kandi.

Son, Chadli, Mason, Bentaleb - primarily the players who will rotate with their counterparts - have all been mostly injured at differing stages over the past few months. Not really much option for Poch to rotate.

Not sure how this is an issue - Poch has been rotating for LC, Europa and FA cup fixtures, with a (largely) fixed 11 playing in the league. He's doing a great job of it IMO. And it's also a really tough subject because you can't please everyone all of the time - as different people place different priorities on the competitions!!

 

[Modric THFC]

Personally I think it was his criminal mis-management of the squad. We played the same XI in basically every game that season, bar Europa group games.

We got burnt out.

This is where I think Pochettino's more squad-focused approach will pay dividends. Just hope Kane, for example, doesn't get worn out. Read in the Standard this evening that he has run the most out of all our players this year (hardly surprising)

Go look at the lineups and this isnt really true.

Redknapp rotated more than Pochettino in the League.
Poch has 8 of his players playing in over 90% of our league games so far this season
Redknapp had only 4 of his players playing in over 90% of league games that season.

 

[Bedfordspurs]

Go look at the lineups and this isnt really true.

Redknapp rotated more than Pochettino in the League.
Poch has 8 of his players playing in over 90% of our league games so far this season
Redknapp had only 4 of his players playing in over 90% of league games that season.

But at what point did Harry start rotating. For me it was when we started losing and he had injuries