Tottenham Hotspur V Aston Villa

[fernadez]

Last season it was not enough games
This season it's too many games

I just can't give Ange as free pass through this injury crisis as he's in some part responsible at his own admission and the admission of staff that have worked for him.

It's not just injuries mate, it's injured partly due to your training and tactics. You're a manager so are judged in all aspects, that includes squad management.

I have no expectations of the match. Whether we win or not solely depends if Villa take the high percentage chances that we'll give them and nothing else.

 

[Gazza]

This is a free hit, let's have a look at what our future team might look like.

It’s sad now that games like this are seen as a free hit … smacks of a lack of competitiveness and ambition

 

[Daisuk]

View attachment 18832

No wonder our guys never come back from injury with those weird ass crutches.

 

[glasgowspur]

Last season it was not enough games
This season it's too many games

I just can't give Ange as free pass through this injury crisis as he's in some part responsible at his own admission and the admission of staff that have worked for him.

It's not just injuries mate, it's injured partly due to your training and tactics. You're a manager so are judged in all aspects, that includes squad management.

I have no expectations of the match. Whether we win or not solely depends if Villa take the high percentage chances that we'll give them and nothing else.

Not defending ange but last season it was too few games with too large a squad he was still assessing.
This season it's too many games with a squad that has injury issues and they some players he doesn't trust.

 

[Muttley]

Not defending ange but last season it was too few games with too large a squad he was still assessing.
This season it's too many games with a squad that has injury issues and they some players he doesn't trust.

Not sure that tallies with Ange's use of subs last season. If he was assessing, it wasn't done so much on match days.

I'm not sure it makes much difference though. We saw very leggy Spurs teams after full weeks off last season. We also saw players finish the matches and then get training ground injuries.

I think Ange likes to get those player lungs hurting regularly to keep them in peak fitness. With that, there is an implied consequence of niggles and even injuries.

As for his trust issues, as I've said before he needs to cut that crap out. His contract is about working with what he's been given until we can change it between transfer windows. Injuries is an excuse. Not using fit and available players isn't.

 

[SpiderSpurs]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1888148701291438327

Yeah but nah it doesn’t count.

I don’t think we’ll win, but if we do I’m sure it’s because Aston Villa lost last week, Emery's tactics or some other miraculous intervention to help our clueless manager

This. What is most important is that we as a club and fan base learn from this season. If we don't then we deserve what we get in future.

Hooray some understanding of the situation, but Levy should have got more slaves in to do the rowing.

The price of 'success'... my heart bleeds for them.

 

[tommysvr]

Last season it was not enough games
This season it's too many games

I just can't give Ange as free pass through this injury crisis as he's in some part responsible at his own admission and the admission of staff that have worked for him.

It's not just injuries mate, it's injured partly due to your training and tactics. You're a manager so are judged in all aspects, that includes squad management.

I have no expectations of the match. Whether we win or not solely depends if Villa take the high percentage chances that we'll give them and nothing else.

Why can't there be truth in both of those things?

Are you saying the injuries to Solanke, Richarlison and Dragusin (the latest group) are due to his methods?

 

[Daisuk]

What's the deal with us and badgers? I've been on this site for over 10 years but this has gone over my head, must've missed the reason for not having the badger.

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but the way I remember it, it became part of the OMT superstition to post the badgers dancing from the old viral badger song - and whenever we did we supposedly won. So then everything was about badgers for a while, and still is. But it's a long time ago, so I may remember wrong.

Got me thinking how old is this place? It was reset or moved servers or something back in 2012, but it existed long before that too. Like 2006 or something? Even older? Anyone know? @scaramanga ?

 

[Chrissivad]

In that case

 

[fernadez]

Why can't there be truth in both of those things?

Are you saying the injuries to Solanke, Richarlison and Dragusin (the latest group) are due to his methods?

I would say the Dragusin one was normal in the course of the season and ordinarily wouldn't be an issue.

Solanke was waiting to happen with being run into the ground then he got injured and and Richarlison was thrust back in, tearing around closing space.

For me both of them are in part down to mismanagement. Solanke should have been rested and rotated more.

 

[Lemonade Money]

You're not a proper fan unless you've watched this from start to finish.

 

[Grays_1890]

MUSHROOM MUSHROOM

 

[Yiddo]

They have got a lot of attacking threat that will all be eager to impress.

 

[tommysvr]

I would say the Dragusin one was normal in the course of the season and ordinarily wouldn't be an issue.

Solanke was waiting to happen with being run into the ground then he got injured and and Richarlison was thrust back in, tearing around closing space.

For me both of them are in part down to mismanagement. Solanke should have been rested and rotated more.

Solanke’s was from having a shot in training. I’m no expect but I’d be surprised if that was load based.

Richarlison has been very, very carefully managed. He also has a history of injuries from before Ange joined.

Like everything, there’s room for balance. Questions should be asked about rushing Romero and VDV back for Chelsea, but there is absolutely no way the sustained injuries — different sorts of injuries — every week is normal or something that can be adequately planned for.

 

[johnola]

You're not a proper fan unless you've watched this from start to finish.

I did five minutes just for the charm for today and I couldn’t help but notice there are eleven badgers.

 

[fernadez]

Solanke’s was from having a shot in training. I’m no expect but I’d be surprised if that was load based.

Richarlison has been very, very carefully managed. He also has a history of injuries from before Ange joined.

Like everything, there’s room for balance. Questions should be asked about rushing Romero and VDV back for Chelsea, but there is absolutely no way the sustained injuries — different sorts of injuries — every week is normal or something that can be adequately planned for.

He's a manager that had a high injury rate at his previous club and the two seasons his had with us the pattern has been the same.

That's 3 years of evidence that his methods in some form increase injuries in his players so I think that is something that can be planned for and managed.

 

[Robspur12]

Why can't there be truth in both of those things?

Are you saying the injuries to Solanke, Richarlison and Dragusin (the latest group) are due to his methods?

Richarlison and Dragusin are bad luck. Solanke suffered a twisted knee in training. I don't know enough about how it happened to say what the cause was. It might have been due to bad luck but with the info I have I cannot completely rule out it was not due to fatigue on the muscles and joints due to lack of rest. So for me, not enough info to support either case.

It seems to me that there are 2 positions, either the injuries are largely down to Ange or they are mostly bad luck depending on which side of the fence you sit on. The truth probably lies in the middle.

We know from narratives of his time at other clubs that injuries are expected in his first season and gradually improve by his second season. Except in this case, the second season was the one where the injury crisis really took hold probably because of the number of games played combined with the intensity in the way we play ( judged by the number of sprints graphic in the "Injuries" thread.)

At the start of the season, Ange will have known Spurs would play a lot of games with Europe as well as the domestic cups. So his strategy around squad management needed to take this into account and perhaps adjusted his system so the historical injuries that he has overseen in his squads were mitigated in a tougher league. This is where I think he has demonstrated his inexperience in the PL.

He may have been let down to a certain extent by the medical team, but he is the manager and he is judged on results as has always been the case. And in the league they have not been good enough. Even at the start of this season with a full complement of players available our results could be best described as inconsistent.

 

[tommysvr]

He's a manager that had a high injury rate at his previous club and the two seasons his had with us the pattern has been the same.

That's 3 years of evidence that his methods in some form increase injuries in his players so I think that is something that can be planned for and managed.

Ange has 30 odd years of managerial experience and a team of sports science people. They’ll get it wrong sometimes, but do you really think they all that dumb that they’ve just persisted like this for 3 months?

I mean we know they haven’t. We are absolutely not pressing as much as we used to, and lord knows you can’t train properly when you’re playing and travelling twice a week.

 

[tommysvr]

Richarlison and Dragusin are bad luck. Solanke suffered a twisted knee in training. I don't know enough about how it happened to say what the cause was. It might have been due to bad luck but with the info I have I cannot completely rule out it was not due to fatigue on the muscles and joints due to lack of rest. So for me, not enough info to support either case.

Ange confirmed it happened when he was taking a shot in training:

"It wasn't like it was even a challenge. It was just him trying to shoot and twisting his knee. It's just one of those things that, unfortunately, we're going through at the moment.

Solanke out injured 'for a few weeks'

Spurs striker Dominic Solanke confirmed to have suffered a knee injury in training

www.premierleague.com

You don’t give him any credit for wins, so it’s no surprise you blame him for this.

 

[Robspur12]

They’ll get it wrong sometimes, but do you really think they all that dumb that they’ve just persisted like this for 3 months?

The simple answer is they are not dumb, but they are inexperienced in this league. They have seen their strategy work elsewhere so believed it would be ok here too eventually. But then things have just got worse and worse. Plus he doesn't like to play other systems. He would rather persist with his preferred system. We saw in midweek against Liverpool we were not successful when he tried to play differently.