The 'If You Still Need to Purge Yourself Of Ange' Thread

[BrainOfLevy]

But there is a difference between "not prioritizing" and "roll over and die"

This again is where we have differences of perception of what actually happened in league
- Did we really rotate that hard in league, or did we just protect Romero & VDV? e.g. Deki got injured in league in one of the most fudging inevitable things of all time
- Did we use the league to ensure the bench players were match fit to support main team? e.g. Spence and Moore for me didn't get significantly more time coming into last 2 months of season.
- Was there no consideration to momentum?
- Why didn't we use the EL formation more in PL to get team better prepared?

From my perspective, I think we protected VDV & Romero, but not much else, we didn't really use it to make us either have momentum or in anyway (player bench or tactics) be better prepared for final. I think it's more hindsight excuse than reality.

And since it seems to be necessary, none of the above takes away from cup achievement, it's a perspective on the league campaign that is relevant to the view of what could/would have happened moving forward in league.

I’ve answered a lot of your other points above, in admittedly posts that are way too long and probably make most readers want to rip their eyes out, especially around why he might not have used the Europa system in the league.

But on the point about Romero and VDV - I think it’s fair to argue that having the spine of your team injured, and particularly the two centre backs, is going to be the biggest factor in impacting results negatively. Which other teams had to deal with both first choice centre backs being out at the same time? How many had to deal with one being out? What were their results? What was the quality of the replacements?

The other thing I’d say I’d say is that typically it’s accepted that it’s harder to win after a European tie than it is with a full week of rest. I totally agree that we shouldn’t just accept that we will always lose those games, and typically in a normal season we wouldn’t. But…if we willingly entered into a cycle of European travel and then not playing our first choice defence, might that go some way to explaining the disparity in results?

 

[Raziel]

I’ve answered a lot of your other points above, in admittedly posts that are way too long and probably make most readers want to rip their eyes out, especially around why he might not have used the Europa system in the league.

But on the point about Romero and VDV - I think it’s fair to argue that having the spine of your team injured, and particularly the two centre backs, is going to be the biggest factor in impacting results negatively. Which other teams had to deal with both first choice centre backs being out at the same time? How many had to deal with one being out? What were their results? What was the quality of the replacements?

The other thing I’d say I’d say is that typically it’s accepted that it’s harder to win after a European tie than it is with a full week of rest. I totally agree that we shouldn’t just accept that we will always lose those games, and typically in a normal season we wouldn’t. But…if we willingly entered into a cycle of European travel and then not playing our first choice defence, might that go some way to explaining the disparity in results?

And I did read your responses, in the end (for most rational people)

- We can all accept that a squad that was thin in some areas, that had a ridiculous amount of injuries and prioritized (last 3 months of season) the cup, will have a direct impact on league results

The continued disconnect is the extent of that impact

- You believe (if I read it correctly) that it does explain 17th
- I don't, I think a dreadful season for Spurs in the league would have been 12th, explainable by the injuries, the prioritization, etc. The fact that 12th was still 10 losses less than us, 15 points more, and 14 goals less conceded shows the gap to what would have been an extremely poor league season, and that's my sticking point.

So we can agree to disagree ..