I dont have a problem with most of the line-up tonight, but we tried the starting formation on Sat in the first half and it was dreadful, then he changed to 4-2-3-1 at HT an it was a lot better. However he's gone back to the formation which didnt work tonight
Eh. There's a *lot* wrong with our European performances which I can't quite explain. It just makes me embarrassed that we've proven so, so poor against comparable opposition. When we were drawn in this group, I expected a tight six games with plenty of competition.
But we've just been utterly schooled in every game save for CSKA away, and there we were mostly turgid. Save for Toby and Lloris, *every* one of our players has proven utterly, irredeemably inferior to his continental counterparts. And Poch .... what have you done?
You know, one of the arguments about England's decline in European competitions is that the big clubs (United, Liverpool, Chelsea, Arsenal, City) not being there consistently has led to smaller clubs getting into the CL and embarrassing themselves and the Premier League in general. I never subscribed to that, and still don't (look at Leicester). But *we* have embarassed ourselves and the Premier League with our performances. Tottenham Hotspur has proven that it didn't deserve to be here.
And that hurts. Might as well have stayed in the fudgeing EL if that's the level we're comfortable with.
It isn't our youth. Monaco's team were hardly younger than us. Is it our quality? Is it our manager? Is it just that we're not as good as we think we are, saved by a few key players performing? I don't know. Like I said, there's a *lot* wrong with how dismally, abysmally we've collapsed in Europe.
But I do know that Harry Redknapp has now conclusively sh*t all over Poch in terms of how great he made us look in Europe. And that hurts too, because Poch brings so many other positives that Harry never brought - but where Harry's team thrilled and overcame massive odds to emerge top of their debut CL group while thrashing the CL *champions*, Mauricio Pochettino's team has humiliated themselves and the PL with how undeniably awfully, helplessly, brainlessly they've gone out against a group which we looked capable of at least competing with.
And this is on Poch, no doubts about it. He got the players he wanted, and got a net spend Harry was *begging* for in his last few years. Levy backed his man, so I don't have to make excuses for him. Poch failed, as much as the team did
I just....I dunno. It's hard to think about how inferior we've been. And it leads to some troubling questions which shouldn't have to be asked - questions that relate to how we did last season. I always maintained that, despite our relative overperformance, in absolute terms, we only finished on 70 points, which Redknapp managed in 2009-2010, AVB exceeded in 2012-2013 and which all our recent managers have more or less managed to hover at for five or six-odd years. Did we *really* exceed ourselves last season, or was it just performing at par in a season where everyone else underperformed?
It's a question that I've been open about, and which has lurked in the back of my mind. I hoped to dismiss it entirely. But it's difficult to do so after...after the sort of capitulation we've just seen.