ginola99
Well-Known Member
- Sep 4, 2005
- 684
- 1,421
As we all know Spurs' form against the top four teams has been abysmal and most probably the worst to date. Whilst it's been well document that our form against the 'bigger teams' needs huge improvement and a lot more thought we have taken our eye away from our form against the conundrum of old, the smaller teams.
In the 24 league fixtures (against teams not in the top 4) our form reads.
P24 W17 D4 L2 F38 A17 G 21 Pts 55
To put that into context we've averaged 2.29 points a game, 1.58 goals per games and 0.7 goals against. If you held this form throughout the course of a season then you'd end up with this.
P38 F60 A27 PTS 87 GD 33
Since the Premier League became 20 teams back in 1995 only once has a team finished 2nd with as much or more points than 87: Manchester United in 2012 with 89 points. To put it simply that's enough points to win the league in 18 of the last 19 seasons.
When you look at the form against the top four again it contradicts any positives derived from this season.
P8 W0 D1 L7 F2 A27 Pts 1 GD -25
It is without doubt the most baffling conundrum we've come across. In the past it’s been pretty easy to explain Spurs’ stagnation or decline. During the Sugar years we bought badly, during Levy's time we haven't bought enough or good enough as a result of stubborn wages cap. But this defies all that I have seen before and simply begs the question:
How can a team be title contenders for three quarters of the season but then be relegation dead certs for the other quarter?
With Tottenham you always get the feeling of being so near yet so far but to me it's obvious that this club can challenge for the league title. There are two things holding us back, firstly is of course not having the right manager but above all else is the mentality. That mentality goes right from the top to very bottom, it's also eating away in the fans' minds like wood worm. Tottenham Hotspur Football Club is like a stunning masonry building filled with beauty, flair, history, grandeur and character on the outside but on the inside the timber frames are barely standing, on the brink of collapse as a result of such an infestation.
When challenging for the league title you have win, at bare minimum, half the games against the four teams around you. If we had managed to get 12 points more in those 8 haunting games than we did then we'd be on 68 points, three points off the top and depending on who we'd got those points from we could actually be top. Whilst our defence has been leaky against the top four we still haven't scored much over all let alone against those 4 and this shows up another problem we have, goal scorers.
This season our top five goal scorers are:
Ade: 11
Soldado: 11
Defoe: 10
Eriksen: 8
Paulinho: 6
And that's over the course of the whole season, God only knows how bad it is in the league alone as I don't believe we have a single player on double figures.
I honestly believe that this club can challenge for the league next season. I know many will understandably argue that ship sailed a long time ago but whilst we're not an obvious candidate we're roughly 3/4 of the way to being one. We need the right manager, we need to know our first team, we need more goals and above all else a stronger mentality, in fact a winners mentality.
I feel we have enough talent, who are to still develop or at least appear/turn it around (Paulinho, Soldado etc) to be able to achieve this in one summer. Find the right man to hold the reigns (ala Van Gaal) and you'll be amazed at what you can do. Also we need a star player someone who scores lots of goals although we may not have buy that player as we may already have him in waiting.
There's problems, we have them in abundance but I honestly believe that if we solve them then we'll be in a far better position than most think. The first of which is our squad, as my neighbour said to me a few weeks ago
"my old man used to say - the stronger your reserves, the weaker your firsts will be".
Edited: spelling and grammar.
In the 24 league fixtures (against teams not in the top 4) our form reads.
P24 W17 D4 L2 F38 A17 G 21 Pts 55
To put that into context we've averaged 2.29 points a game, 1.58 goals per games and 0.7 goals against. If you held this form throughout the course of a season then you'd end up with this.
P38 F60 A27 PTS 87 GD 33
Since the Premier League became 20 teams back in 1995 only once has a team finished 2nd with as much or more points than 87: Manchester United in 2012 with 89 points. To put it simply that's enough points to win the league in 18 of the last 19 seasons.
When you look at the form against the top four again it contradicts any positives derived from this season.
P8 W0 D1 L7 F2 A27 Pts 1 GD -25
It is without doubt the most baffling conundrum we've come across. In the past it’s been pretty easy to explain Spurs’ stagnation or decline. During the Sugar years we bought badly, during Levy's time we haven't bought enough or good enough as a result of stubborn wages cap. But this defies all that I have seen before and simply begs the question:
How can a team be title contenders for three quarters of the season but then be relegation dead certs for the other quarter?
With Tottenham you always get the feeling of being so near yet so far but to me it's obvious that this club can challenge for the league title. There are two things holding us back, firstly is of course not having the right manager but above all else is the mentality. That mentality goes right from the top to very bottom, it's also eating away in the fans' minds like wood worm. Tottenham Hotspur Football Club is like a stunning masonry building filled with beauty, flair, history, grandeur and character on the outside but on the inside the timber frames are barely standing, on the brink of collapse as a result of such an infestation.
When challenging for the league title you have win, at bare minimum, half the games against the four teams around you. If we had managed to get 12 points more in those 8 haunting games than we did then we'd be on 68 points, three points off the top and depending on who we'd got those points from we could actually be top. Whilst our defence has been leaky against the top four we still haven't scored much over all let alone against those 4 and this shows up another problem we have, goal scorers.
This season our top five goal scorers are:
Ade: 11
Soldado: 11
Defoe: 10
Eriksen: 8
Paulinho: 6
And that's over the course of the whole season, God only knows how bad it is in the league alone as I don't believe we have a single player on double figures.
I honestly believe that this club can challenge for the league next season. I know many will understandably argue that ship sailed a long time ago but whilst we're not an obvious candidate we're roughly 3/4 of the way to being one. We need the right manager, we need to know our first team, we need more goals and above all else a stronger mentality, in fact a winners mentality.
I feel we have enough talent, who are to still develop or at least appear/turn it around (Paulinho, Soldado etc) to be able to achieve this in one summer. Find the right man to hold the reigns (ala Van Gaal) and you'll be amazed at what you can do. Also we need a star player someone who scores lots of goals although we may not have buy that player as we may already have him in waiting.
There's problems, we have them in abundance but I honestly believe that if we solve them then we'll be in a far better position than most think. The first of which is our squad, as my neighbour said to me a few weeks ago
"my old man used to say - the stronger your reserves, the weaker your firsts will be".
Edited: spelling and grammar.
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