Half Time in the Season

[heinsmit]

I think there are reasons for optimism in the second half of the season. Old Trafford is the only Top 5 club we have to go to. We've taken some points against good clubs away from home (e.g. Arsenal) and now look forward to welcoming them at home to try and take 3.

Couple this with our fitness work coming through and the players adapting to our new style of play, I think it's likely that we'll take more points in the second half of the season. What does everyone else think?

 

[Syn_13]

Still very much a work in progress, but some good signs. C+

 

[carpediem991]

Given our start, it was okay. We find our core and here and there we see slight improvement. Lots of work to do though and it is key to get two quality players in to be competitive for 4th spot. CM commander (Schneiderlin/ Cabaye) and pacey goal scoring option for the wings or central.

+ very few injuries
+ fitness level
+ general luck (referee decision are more in our way than last years)
+ late winner mentality
+ Harry Kane & Hugo Lloris
+ We have found our CB pairing and don't rotate them.
+ Adebayor and Kaboul nowhere near the team.
+++++ We could get a Wembley final

- Soldado, I have given up (Lamela could follow soon)
- As mentioned, missing an CM commander, lots of CMs but so many arent up to take it.
- Only one confident win in 19 games (v QPR). No matter what opponent, always close, disappointing.
---> Only once more than two goals in a game.
---> Only three players (Kane,Chadli, Eriksen) look like they can score a goal on a more regular basis.


I think C+ is a fair grade, keep working hard lads.

 

[TheChosenOne]

Spurs 30th match this season compared to Man Utd's 20.

 

[Larryjanta]

Agree that we'll be better in the second half of the season. Think 60 points is the lowest we'll get and 70 the top end. Suspect we'll need 70 to finish top 4.

 

[Shea]

Jan window could make or break the season

We're well placed to challenge for the top four and silverware in the cups but we're in need of strengthening in a couple of key areas and have a few pieces of deadwood that should really be removed

Soldado needs to go - it will never happen for him now
Paulinho too in my opinion

I'm still willing to give Lamela a little more time but I am doubtful about him and Chadli is at least a useful squad member.

Capoue I think needs to be sold so we can bring in someone of real quality in that area

We also need someone who can upgrade our striking options if we can someone offload Bobby and Ade and someone with some pace and quality in the wide positions would be very handy

If we can bring in someone like Schinderland, someone like Bony and someone in the J Rod mode while selling or loaning with a view to sell as much of the deadwood as possible we have a real chance of doing something now. More realistically though this will have to happen over two windows and we'll probably miss out on Top four this year but still have an outside chance of success in one of the cups but still hopefully continue to grow for next year and really start to shine once the deadwood is cleared and the required upgrades made

 

[Spursidol]

Much more optimistic than mid December last season as :

- We have most of the first choices for the team sorted out - a few where we have genuine alternatives (eg Davies/Rose at LB) but that's fine

- Good core to the squad with Lloris, Vorm, Walker, Vertonghen, Fazio, Dier, Davies, Rose, Mason, Bentaleb, Eriksen, Kane with Townsend improvement keeping him in that group and a few still to prove they are long term keepers including Chirches (who I thought was a certainty to go a month ago), Stambouli, Dembele, Lamela, Chadli (scores goals but often not involved enough).

- Much greater fitness levels, as shown by the majority of the team playing Leicester and Man U just 48 hours apart - and finishing the 2nd match much more strongly. That also means that we can reduce rotation when we play twice a week.

- Possibly related at least partly to fitness, but I cannot recall so few injuries at this time of year - usually it would be 6 players out from injury

- Still in all 4 competitions at Christmas, including a couple of points off 4th after a start bedding in a team and a new manager.

- We have a smatterring of youngsters who we could bring into the squad - Veljkovic, Carroll and Pritchard being the leading contenders, but the likes of Ball, Ogilvie, Onomah, Winks, Oduwa et al could all make a few appearances, probably off the bench.

- Poch seems to have shown he can manage the squad, something I was never sure AVB achieved.

On the downside,
- Lots of players in the squad who we could realy do with moving on, but if we move 4 or 5 of them on it will be good, but be only half complete. That group is probably Assou-Ekotto, Kaboul, Naughton, Capoue, Paulhino, Ceballos, Adebayor and Soldado. But most of the players we do not sell we need to re-integrate into the squad, as otherwise we could be short of numbers, and that by itself could be tough to do

- We have been over-reliant on Kane and Eriksen in particular to score goals - we need to bring in a goalscorer in January

- The likes of Mason, Bentaleb and Kane have taken their chances and done really well - but we need them all to continue to develop - but also to play, and that's tough to both improve whilst playing twice a week

- Other than a goalscorer, we could real;ly do with a good CM (we seem to have only Mason and Bentaleb....with neither Stambouli or Dembele really doing the job Poch needs and Capoue out of favour), and possibly a top class CB to back up Vertyonghen and Fazio, and a wing forward or AM . But I think a maximum of two in will be achieved - and no point in buying 'squad' players as we have seen - and with the youngsters we have coming through


With all that, it may still be a 'transitional' season but we could be well placed at the start of next season - espacially if we blood a few more youngsters, and the likes of Kane, Mason and Bentaleb continue to improve

 

[brasil_spur]

Spurs 30th match this season compared to Man Utd's 20.

Nice stat, shows how we're competing well across all 4 comps.

I've only seen the MotD highlights andf it looks like we were very lucky to get a point from the game, however we did get a point from it and i think a few weeks ago we would have lost that game by several goals, we just seem to have more resolve at the moment.

 

[TottenhamMattSpur]

I'll just be happy to get to the 40pt safety zone.

 

[0-Tibsy-0]

Much more optimistic than mid December last season as :

- We have most of the first choices for the team sorted out - a few where we have genuine alternatives (eg Davies/Rose at LB) but that's fine

- Good core to the squad with Lloris, Vorm, Walker, Vertonghen, Fazio, Dier, Davies, Rose, Mason, Bentaleb, Eriksen, Kane with Townsend improvement keeping him in that group and a few still to prove they are long term keepers including Chirches (who I thought was a certainty to go a month ago), Stambouli, Dembele, Lamela, Chadli (scores goals but often not involved enough).

Not sure how Townsend makes it into that first group ahead of both Chadli and Lamela? Despite both blowing hot and cold they have shown far more productivity that Townsend, unless it's just personal preference?

Other than that, good post - although I have been a little disappointed with Bentaleb but thats the up and downs of a young age and is to be expected and understood for a while.

 

[dudu]

Not sure how Townsend makes it into that first group ahead of both Chadli and Lamela? Despite both blowing hot and cold they have shown far more productivity that Townsend, unless it's just personal preference?

Other than that, good post - although I have been a little disappointed with Bentaleb but thats the up and downs of a young age and is to be expected and understood for a while.

Agree with that - for me the jury is kind of still out on all 3 though i would say Chadli has been the most effective player of the 3 when given the chance.

Townsends performance yesterday was a step in the right direction - especially for periods in the first half but he still has a fair way to go before he can be considered a regular starter

 

[ThorntonSpur]

I think there are reasons for optimism in the second half of the season. Old Trafford is the only Top 5 club we have to go to. We've taken some points against good clubs away from home (e.g. Arsenal) and now look forward to welcoming them at home to try and take 3.

Couple this with our fitness work coming through and the players adapting to our new style of play, I think it's likely that we'll take more points in the second half of the season. What does everyone else think?

depends what you call top five. we have to go to Liverpool everton man utd southampton and stoke all tough away games, plus home form isn't great. plus Newcastle west brom and palace away who we all failed to beat at home. not an easy league. but I do think we will improve. 28 years ago we were 7th with 32 points after 20 games and we finished 3rd

 

[ThorntonSpur]

the key will be a settled back four which is looking like walker vertonghen Fazio and davies. will be interesting to see where yedlin fits in.

 

[TheChosenOne]

depends what you call top five. we have to go to Liverpool everton man utd southampton and stoke all tough away games, plus home form isn't great. plus Newcastle west brom and palace away who we all failed to beat at home. not an easy league. but I do think we will improve. 28 years ago we were 7th with 32 points after 20 games and we finished 3rd

.. And crucially it was all those lost home points that let us down in the end.

 

[Shea]

depends what you call top five. we have to go to Liverpool everton man utd southampton and stoke all tough away games, plus home form isn't great. plus Newcastle west brom and palace away who we all failed to beat at home. not an easy league. but I do think we will improve. 28 years ago we were 7th with 32 points after 20 games and we finished 3rd

the 1986/87 season where we finished third I have always heard talked about as the year we should have won the lot

I watched my granddads video of the match of the day and big match highlights from that season many times as a young kid and I remember we lost to Arsenal in the league cup semi and Coventry in the FA cup final so I see how we could have won both cups

But I;ve just looked up the league table from that year and while we were 3rd we finished 15 points behind Champions Everton - how were we considered to have come close to winning it?

 

[Kendall]

I think we've done 'OK'. Apart from maybe Swansea away, we haven't won any games that I've thought we shouldn't have. Annoyingly we've lost/drawn home games we should've won.

Played some pretty shite football, with the occasional good showing (Everton, QPR, some cup games) and I'm hoping we will start to click more consistently as a unit. We're fortunate that everyone seems to be a bit inconsistent.

This time last year we were 7th with 34 points rather than 7th with 31, but we were 3 points off 4th instead of 2.

 

[prawnsandwich]

Hotspur Related retweeted
Grant Baker @G_Man_Baker · 15h 15 hours ago
Vertonghen & Fazio have played 14 games together this season. Won 10, Drawn 3, Lost 1.

That is the most encouraging stat of the season.
Fazio has been great. Lloris even better this term. Harry has continued the progress he made last term and Eriksen's game is gradually improving. I like Davies a lot.
I am hopeful for Dier and excited about Yedlin so great business in the summer and so AVB can stew in his own bile.
I agree 90% with Spursidol about who needs to go and stay and the kids.
But the big disappointments for me this season are our performances (not very easy on the eye) and our pathetic EPL home form. We have scored loads of goals at home in the EL and cups playing 4-4-2. I am very disappointed another manager at Spurs cannot deal with Ade. I am keeping my fingers crossed that he can come back as Dier has at least to the bench. I think not having him as an option is costing us points.

 

[parklane1]

It was always going to take time and I never could understand the knee jerkers who were considering relegation as a outcome, and we are begining to see a improvement in our play. There is still a lot of work to do ( a new CM/DM is badly needed) but there are good signs of a decent side being built.

 

[St José Dominguez]

Sometimes to be a successful team and manager you need luck on your side, we've definitely had that this season.
I think the reason I'm positive is we've hit 30pts half way through and I don't think we're anywhere near clicking yet.
There's been brief glimpses but currently there's undoubtably issues within the side. Mainly this is due to players not yet quite getting it, but we're only 5 months in. I'm excited to see how we are playing in final months of season.
Still think Pochettino has some big decisions to make regarding formation and team selection. Sometimes you have to think of the team as a whole rather than is X player more effective than Y on an individual basis.

 

[shelfmonkey]

My main concern is the fact our defence has more holes than Blackburn Lancashire!! We can't keep riding our luck!!