not one of those threads (honest)

[SA_Spurs]

Good post and some very valid points. It's hard to feel excitement for any spurs games these days when you see how disjointed our play is. I though Poch looked very frustrated yesterday ....and I'm speculating here but i think he is concerned by our lack of application during matches. It looks like the training ground exercises are not taking effect yet and we all have to be patient - if we're this frustrated, can you imagine the coaching staff & players??

Our players all look for the easy way out. Watch against besiktas & see that our players are mostly static - i.e. they are waiting for something to happen, rather than trying to initiate it. This is why the entire squad looks a yard off pace.

We suck at set pieces - period! It seems players either don't practice it or can't be arsed to remember what they practiced on the training ground. There is almost no point winning a free kick in a dangerous area when you know we have no setpiece play. To me, its an issue of attitude. It seems a lot stems from attitude which is preventing the right application during our play. See how Ade came on last nite (during our best spell) and then jogged about the pitch making zero effort - does it mean he was tired? Did he not want to come on? Did he feel he didn't need to harry their defence? See...attitude...his lazy attitude meant he couldn't care less about what he did or did not do. He chose to rather let the defence 'do their job' and then hope to run around applauding the crowd at the end when spurs won 1-0. Most of our players take the easy way out ..to me its a club culture. So many different managers yet results & play seem the same for past 3 - 4 years.

I've struggled to see who is DCM & who is ACM is almost all the games ...it seems we just congest the centre. Most infuriating is watching our play constantly dragged infield (not by opposition!) but by our own lack of desire to push for the byline.

Show pony is accurate. I agree the lad is only 19 and will learn ...but he is the prime example of a player who plays safe ...his modus operandi is receive ball, take 2 steps forward, stop, turn and pass backward or square. I dare you to watch him in all our games & see him do this 90% of the time. he slows our play up just like Dembele slows our play by hanging onto the ball too much and andros does by kicking into row Z. Its not talking about his talent or potential ...he is been given far too many chances and most times gets a good rating for 'doing the basics'. I'm sorry, this is not about basics anymore...we need someone who shows a desire to take the game by its balls and show some risk. I'd rather we lose possession trying to get it fwd than lose it with nothing square passes.

I think the time has come to drop the poor & inconsistent performers (Ade, Lennon, Bentaleb, Townsend, Chiriches (don't even get me started on that) and play hungrier players with more to prove. I would immediately bring back some of the squad we used in pre-season, it cannot get any worse than now. Its time to teach the prima donna's (Ade, Lennon, Chiriches) a lesson about teamwork & playing for the badge and its time to let Bentaleb & Townsend play league cup matches only. The rest should form the spine of our BPL & Eufa cup squads and be played consistently.

I want to be positive about this weekend ...but I'm afraid...very afraid! COYS COYS COYS ...COYFS!

 

[Ironskullll]

this is not one of 'those' threads.
who to sell. Who to buy. Fuck levy. Fuck enic. Poch in. Poch out. Go 442! Go 433! Its none of these.

watching spurs these days is pure frustration more often than not, and it seems regardless of the manager, the players or the system, 'classic' spurs make the same technical, tactical and mental errors and it infuriates me. Im sure it bothers most of us. I had a trial with a current premier league club many moons ago and maybe its the bitter 'failed footballer' in me but i find it staggering that such consistent ineptitude and mediocrity brings such adulation and wealth.

anyway, what i hope to see less of in future.

playing with back to goal - too many of our players have this as their default setting. Relying on a safe pass, rather than receiving it on the half turn and having the option to go both ways. Bentaleb doing this tonight allowed him to attack besiktas, feed Kane and assist our goal. Too many times we lose momentum and pass back, often under little pressure.

wasted throw ins - we have been hopeless at these forever. Worse than schoolboy level. One tonight went in and straight out again. Id love us to offer the thrower more options and think about.....

ball by the touchline - tonight was a great example. Often from a throw in, players were isolated and pressured into losing possession because we have nowhere to go with no out ball. We need a quick ball into the middle so we can open up the play

no 10 dropping beyond the dcm - Kane only did this twice that i can recall tonight, but we had less of the ball than many games we play. When eriksen and holtby before him do it they don't have the range of passing like vdv had to start attacks from there. Meaning if they play the ball square (often the case) they aren't able to receive a return in an advanced position or if it goes up to the striker they are often isolated and struggle to retain meaningful possession

floated square pass - this absolute winds me. Bentaleb is the current showpony doing too much of this for my liking. It takes too long to reach the target and has to be near perfect otherwise the full back is put under extreme pressure to control it and move it on quickly as the hangtime allows a quick press. Why not drill it to feet? Or better still, pass forward somebody!

underhit passes - not just Lennon, who seems to underhit or mishit everything. Too many times in recent seasons simple square or forward passes are underhit, losing possession or forcing the recipient into an awkward position to try and maintain possession. It also reduces the flow of any move we might to build. I haven't seen any team do this as often as us. Its embarrassing really for any half decent player.

Townsend to go outside more. Moreno sussed him, broke and scored. Besiktas had him taped. Everyone knows he is coming inside. If he goes outside too, the defenders wont be able to shut him down as quickly. Then if he does come inside it will be more effective.

so come on people, this is based on one pair of eyes. perhaps you agree or have other things that spurs teams consistently do that are ridiculous and counterproductive. Id like to think in not the only one who cannot understand the decisions these top professionals make on a far too regular basis.

thanks for reading!

This is one of the best posts I've read for a long time. And it highlights how hard it is to make sense of modern Spurs teams, because a lot of these players also display positives. It's what makes watching them so frustrating, the feeling that they can do better "if only". I do wonder whether it has something to do with continuity of coaching methods and personnel. Not just the manager/first team coach, but the whole coaching setup.

 

[nicdic]

Add corners to the list. I can't remember the last time we looked like scoring from a corner.

QPR at home we scored from a corner.

 

[Lilbaz]

QPR at home we scored from a corner.

Knew someone would come out with "FACTS" to ruin my argument. Just fucking typical.

 

[Kendall]

Completely agree. Complained about all of these (and more) on various occasions. Some people will say you are being pedantic but when you do literally 100's of little things poorly it leads to bigger problems and disjointed performances. Some of them are technical deficiencies, but some are due to lacking attention to detail tactically.

This is definitely it.

It's been a long time since a large proportion of our team was genuinely Ghaly.

You look at liverpool last year, they had a couple of players that started really well and it dragged the rest of them up a level. They were all Ghaly for most of the season.

Spurs seem to go the other way, a couple of players aren't Ghaly, and it drags the rest down.

 

[Hazardousman]

If you think that FDB would have come in and made an iota of difference you are absolutely off your head. We have problems with our players that will take time to iron out, doesn't matter who is managing the team and you have to be prepared to wait it out I'm afraid.

No one has any patience anymore and none more so than our fans it's really pissing me off.

I do agree with you on FDB coming in making no difference, as a matter of fact, I don't think any manager coming here would make a difference because we have a problem at board level.

I do however take issue with the bolded part, I agree most of our supporters are pissed off, but considering our chairman is the most impatient man in the world and the fact we pay champions league ticket prices for midtable dross football I think we have a right to be impatient as well.

I am pissed off with the way the club is being run, we were in a position a few seasons ago to really push on and cement ourselves as a top four club, the decision was clearly made at board level to not invest and push forward, instead sell our best assets but keep the ticket prices high and give the impression we are still "fighting" for the top four.

I don't want to start a ENIC/Levy argument but all I am saying is, I think our supporters have had enough and I think that shows on match day, I think many want to get behind the team but are sick of watching us at the moment and sick of all the false dawns.

I have supported Spurs over 27 years now and I must say over the past few years some of the football has been dire, maybe that's because of how good we were when Harry was here because of the quality of player he had at his disposal and it just feels like a bigger drop than it actually is, or maybe our football just really is that poor, losing at home to a WBA side that couldn't score and were rock bottom and only registering one shot on target is simply unacceptable.

Even in the 90's I felt like we at least gave a good go in games, even if we got humped the football was semi entertaining at times, aside from the QPR game it has been pretty woeful under Poch so far.

I am not judging Poch, I know it takes a while to implement systems, it's not Poch I am worried about, its our players and our board that won't give him his first choice targets.

When you implement a system you are supposed to show gradual signs of improvement and we were to start with, I know we will have "blips" at times, but it feels like to me that not all the players (usual suspects such as Adebayor) are not fully on board and if that IS the case, Poch is fighting an uphill battle that he will not win unfortunately.

 

[Jimbo78]

No one picks up the ball in midfield and drives forward anymore.

The crazy thing is that Dembele has the attributes and ability to do it but he rarely does.

Also I hardly ever see our midfield even try a through ball let alone see it come off. This is also due to the poor movement of our strikers.

We dont move the ball quick enough either.

Also we are far too defensively minded against most sides at home.

 

[Gassin's finest]

this is not one of 'those' threads.
who to sell. Who to buy. Fuck levy. Fuck enic. Poch in. Poch out. Go 442! Go 433! Its none of these.

watching spurs these days is pure frustration more often than not, and it seems regardless of the manager, the players or the system, 'classic' spurs make the same technical, tactical and mental errors and it infuriates me. Im sure it bothers most of us. I had a trial with a current premier league club many moons ago and maybe its the bitter 'failed footballer' in me but i find it staggering that such consistent ineptitude and mediocrity brings such adulation and wealth.

anyway, what i hope to see less of in future.

playing with back to goal - too many of our players have this as their default setting. Relying on a safe pass, rather than receiving it on the half turn and having the option to go both ways. Bentaleb doing this tonight allowed him to attack besiktas, feed Kane and assist our goal. Too many times we lose momentum and pass back, often under little pressure.

wasted throw ins - we have been hopeless at these forever. Worse than schoolboy level. One tonight went in and straight out again. Id love us to offer the thrower more options and think about.....

ball by the touchline - tonight was a great example. Often from a throw in, players were isolated and pressured into losing possession because we have nowhere to go with no out ball. We need a quick ball into the middle so we can open up the play

no 10 dropping beyond the dcm - Kane only did this twice that i can recall tonight, but we had less of the ball than many games we play. When eriksen and holtby before him do it they don't have the range of passing like vdv had to start attacks from there. Meaning if they play the ball square (often the case) they aren't able to receive a return in an advanced position or if it goes up to the striker they are often isolated and struggle to retain meaningful possession

floated square pass - this absolute winds me. Bentaleb is the current showpony doing too much of this for my liking. It takes too long to reach the target and has to be near perfect otherwise the full back is put under extreme pressure to control it and move it on quickly as the hangtime allows a quick press. Why not drill it to feet? Or better still, pass forward somebody!

underhit passes - not just Lennon, who seems to underhit or mishit everything. Too many times in recent seasons simple square or forward passes are underhit, losing possession or forcing the recipient into an awkward position to try and maintain possession. It also reduces the flow of any move we might to build. I haven't seen any team do this as often as us. Its embarrassing really for any half decent player.

Townsend to go outside more. Moreno sussed him, broke and scored. Besiktas had him taped. Everyone knows he is coming inside. If he goes outside too, the defenders wont be able to shut him down as quickly. Then if he does come inside it will be more effective.

so come on people, this is based on one pair of eyes. perhaps you agree or have other things that spurs teams consistently do that are ridiculous and counterproductive. Id like to think in not the only one who cannot understand the decisions these top professionals make on a far too regular basis.

thanks for reading!

I agree with everything here! Especially the back to goal problem.

It's Kane's default position when collecting the ball. Bentaleb only controlled the ball on the turn twice to put himself in an offensive stance... once led directly to the goals, the other led to a break down the left. Otherwise it was always negative. Stambouli only faced up once, but that allowed him to carry the ball almost to Besiktas' D.

There were occasions where we simply didn't keep the ball moving. Fazio in particular just wouldn't shift the ball straight on the right > left trajectory onto Davies, and would turn back in... leading to the space rapidly disappearing and being caught in possession.

 

[Kendall]

No one picks up the ball in midfield and drives forward anymore.

The crazy thing is that Dembele has the attributes and ability to do it but he rarely does.

Also I hardly ever see our midfield even try a through ball let alone see it come off. This is also due to the poor movement of our strikers.

We dont move the ball quick enough either.

Also we are far too defensively minded against most sides at home.

Through balls have to be so precise when you play so narrow though. The issue with through balls, IMO stems from our lack of threat from the flanks. Teams are quite happy to pack the central areas of the pitch because they know 9 times out of 10 either the delivery from out wide will be non-threatening or the wide attacker will be cutting inside.

 

[HotspurFC1950]

The reasons why you couldn't are obvious....what are the reasons why you could?

Because I have managed many successful sides. Just know the game use commonsense and motivate the players. Instruct coaching assistants to take sessions to achieve what you want.

 

[dudu]

Because I have managed many successful sides. Just know the game use commonsense and motivate the players. Instruct coaching assistants to take sessions to achieve what you want.

Many successful sides of what?

 

[HotspurFC1950]

Many successful sides of what?

Football teams.

 

[Gb160]

Because I have managed many successful sides. Just know the game use commonsense and motivate the players. Instruct coaching assistants to take sessions to achieve what you want.

Are u trolling mate or are you a wingnut missing?

 

[dudu]

Football teams.

Suggesting that you have the ability to use commonsense doesn't really tie in with what you are claiming to be capable of in terms of Managing footballers at the highest possible professional level so ill leave it there!

 

[yiddopaul]

Sorry gp but I think it needs to be one of those threads, there has been no big revolution under Poch that everyone thought would happen, pressing high up the pitch, putting us on the front foot and attacking with flair and scoring more goals. None of this has happened.

At the start I was just hoping that we were going to be better to watch and look forward to seeing us play, but I am sorry to say this has not been the case.

I can honestly say I did not want Poch in and would have very much preffered FDB but was willing to be proved wrong. What I was looking for from him was his so called great man management skills to come to the fore and get some of the players busting a gut for him but this has been non-existent.

I know we have to look at Levy for not acquiring Pochs top targets but at the moment I am more inclined to be looking at him for picking the wrong for the managers job.

We are awful to watch, we are not creating any chances or showing any flair and I cant see Poch turning it round.

Is there anyone out there who can give me hope that we will finish higher than 8th or 9th this season because I just do not see it.

It's a cliche I know, but these things do take time. Especially when you consider the mess we were in last season. Poch has his work cut out! If memory serves me correct, Southampton only won one from there first 7 games. Also he was working, largely young players with less ego's. So they were more apt to listen and follow instructions more.

In theory, we have a far better squad than he inherited at Southampton, but it will take longer IMO. That's why I'm all for youth being given a chance: Mason, Kane etc. They look hungrier, want to impress, and they're pliable.

 

[RickyVilla]

Football teams.

Care to elaborate? If it is the Dog & Duck in West Wycombe, you shouldn't bother.

 

[CheeseGromit]

Why ?

If you really dont know then it would very hard to explain
Its like saying you could be a bank manager because you have an bank account

The real issue, in my eyes of course, but it has been said is that for what ever reason the players are a much of a muchness and there is no stand out game changer at the moment

Plus, confidence plays a huge part in the game. Just look how sides on a good run get goals in the later part of the game. It is being brave and believing you can do it. Manure are the absolute classic example and they blamed Moyes. Confidence rarely happens immediately it is built on things coming off like getting a draw when a defeat was certain getting a late winner or havibg a couple of easier games in a row ( not many of them in the prem)

There are so many factors to take into account and the above are only some of them

Do not believe there are simple answers to complex questions even if you think football is a simple game

 

[SlickMongoose]

I have also managed many successful sides, at the highest possible level. Just know the game use commonsense and motivate the players. I set my assistant to do the teamtalks and matchday instructions, and I tell my team to be attacking, pass short and use an offside trap. Oh, and I usually sign Balanta.

Using these methods I have won many major trophies including a champions league win in 2018.

 

[HotspurFC1950]

I have also managed many successful sides, at the highest possible level. Just know the game use commonsense and motivate the players. I set my assistant to do the teamtalks and matchday instructions, and I tell my team to be attacking, pass short and use an offside trap. Oh, and I usually sign Balanta.

Using these methods I have won many major trophies including a champions league win in 2018.

Well done.

 

[DEFchenkOE]

this is not one of 'those' threads.
who to sell. Who to buy. Fuck levy. Fuck enic. Poch in. Poch out. Go 442! Go 433! Its none of these.

watching spurs these days is pure frustration more often than not, and it seems regardless of the manager, the players or the system, 'classic' spurs make the same technical, tactical and mental errors and it infuriates me. Im sure it bothers most of us. I had a trial with a current premier league club many moons ago and maybe its the bitter 'failed footballer' in me but i find it staggering that such consistent ineptitude and mediocrity brings such adulation and wealth.

anyway, what i hope to see less of in future.

playing with back to goal - too many of our players have this as their default setting. Relying on a safe pass, rather than receiving it on the half turn and having the option to go both ways. Bentaleb doing this tonight allowed him to attack besiktas, feed Kane and assist our goal. Too many times we lose momentum and pass back, often under little pressure.

wasted throw ins - we have been hopeless at these forever. Worse than schoolboy level. One tonight went in and straight out again. Id love us to offer the thrower more options and think about.....

ball by the touchline - tonight was a great example. Often from a throw in, players were isolated and pressured into losing possession because we have nowhere to go with no out ball. We need a quick ball into the middle so we can open up the play

no 10 dropping beyond the dcm - Kane only did this twice that i can recall tonight, but we had less of the ball than many games we play. When eriksen and holtby before him do it they don't have the range of passing like vdv had to start attacks from there. Meaning if they play the ball square (often the case) they aren't able to receive a return in an advanced position or if it goes up to the striker they are often isolated and struggle to retain meaningful possession

floated square pass - this absolute winds me. Bentaleb is the current showpony doing too much of this for my liking. It takes too long to reach the target and has to be near perfect otherwise the full back is put under extreme pressure to control it and move it on quickly as the hangtime allows a quick press. Why not drill it to feet? Or better still, pass forward somebody!

underhit passes - not just Lennon, who seems to underhit or mishit everything. Too many times in recent seasons simple square or forward passes are underhit, losing possession or forcing the recipient into an awkward position to try and maintain possession. It also reduces the flow of any move we might to build. I haven't seen any team do this as often as us. Its embarrassing really for any half decent player.

Townsend to go outside more. Moreno sussed him, broke and scored. Besiktas had him taped. Everyone knows he is coming inside. If he goes outside too, the defenders wont be able to shut him down as quickly. Then if he does come inside it will be more effective.

so come on people, this is based on one pair of eyes. perhaps you agree or have other things that spurs teams consistently do that are ridiculous and counterproductive. Id like to think in not the only one who cannot understand the decisions these top professionals make on a far too regular basis.

thanks for reading!

I found this post funny, not in a bad way but I too am a bitter failed footballer. I didn't even have a trial or get close but I watch some of our players today and think I'm better at them at a lot of things. It frustrates me as I think they are professionals and have all the tools at their disposal to improve but they won't because the ridiculous amount of money they get paid, they've had it made since 17-18 and don't have the drive to get better.

I'll give some examples -

Lennon - The old fashioned winger that still can't cross with the instep while on the run

Adebayor - The striker that barely knows how to shoot, as crazy as that sounds. But apart from volleys or when in a standing position he doesn't seem like he is able to run and shoot with power at the same time.

Dembele - I'd love to see him once just beat a man and play a thru ball, just once god dammit

Townsend - An off the ball run wouldn't go a miss every once in a while, neither would a shot on target

I'm sure there are other basics from other players but these are the ones that spring to mind first so probably annoy me most.

I'm 30 now but still play football regularly, well mainly futsal now as I enjoy it more but if I was in their privileged position I'd try so hard to improve my weak points if that's what my job was.