Southampton vs Spurs - Match Thread

[Gassin's finest]

Scnthorpe are back in the relegation mire after a few shit results as well. Both my teams are ballsing it up now.

Football can do one right now.

 

[fortworthspur]

coulda been 4-0 at halftime we were so dominant. how we contrived to lose this game is beyond me.

 

[heelspurs]

Good thing about the Europa league is we may well get rid of some drippy fans.

Glass half full etc..

Can I quote this, if need be, after the 1st WHam game in our brand-spanking new stadium? Just saying, we do have that to look forward to. And it will be bigger that the 66 WC for them. Can you imagine the motivation it will be for them to taint our brand new digs? They will be like Hyenas.

 

[shelfboy68]

coulda been 4-0 at halftime we were so dominant. how we contrived to lose this game is beyond me.

Because we are not ruthless or clinical enough.

 

[shelfboy68]

Can I quote this, if need be, after the 1st WHam game in our brand-spanking new stadium? Just saying, we do have that to look forward to. And it will be bigger that the 66 WC for them. Can you imagine the motivation it will be for them to taint our brand new digs? They will be like Hyenas.

Unfortunately they probably be the first team to beat us there

 

[TonyK]

God it hurts and it hurts bad even though should be use to it! ? We are running out of steam big time and slap bang in front of two juggernauts in the Scousers and Citeh! We really will have to do something amazing to pull at least point from any of these two and to cling on for CL qualification.

What a time to crumble but so Spursy it is! Poch has been spot on with his assessment to be fair to him about perception and reality after today but the signs are there to suggest another dig at our hierarchy no funds , no chance. He has worked miracles on a shoestring to get us where we are and his and our frustration is having no financial backing to strengthen this. We have all loved every minute of his focus but maybe the lure of Madrid is stronger now particularly after another recent interview about his love for Spain. Psychologically like times before this is as damaging as it gets if we get thumped by the Scousers or Citeh then I'll know the wheels have well and truly fallen off but the start well fade at the business end is nothing new just a bigger pile ? for all of us to deal with from our rivals ?

But is Poch part of the problem? I’ve read numerous times that he had 70-80m to spend in the January window but chose not to as he was happy with his squad. If that’s the case, then he has a plenty of questions to answer!

 

[shelfboy68]

But is Poch part of the problem? I’ve read numerous times that he had 70-80m to spend in the January window but chose not to as he was happy with his squad. If that’s the case, then he has a plenty of questions to answer!

But did he really have that money to spend I find it highly doubtful what has transcribed today is normal procedure the team flatter to device then fall away nothing new or different really.

 

[SirNiNyHotspur]

But is Poch part of the problem? I’ve read numerous times that he had 70-80m to spend in the January window but chose not to as he was happy with his squad. If that’s the case, then he has a plenty of questions to answer!

Do you really believe Baldric went to Poch with an open checkbook for 80m? Come on mate, let’s assume for a second in the land of fairies and unicorns this happened, at the very least there would have been 100 stipulations and get out clauses inserted before spending, anyone that believes otherwise needs to go out in the yard and feed their unicorns.

 

[Dennism]

Can I quote this, if need be, after the 1st WHam game in our brand-spanking new stadium? Just saying, we do have that to look forward to. And it will be bigger that the 66 WC for them. Can you imagine the motivation it will be for them to taint our brand new digs? They will be like Hyenas.

At least they can get motivated. I really wonder what the hell it takes to motivate our players. Certainly Poch can’t do it.

 

[shelfboy68]

Do you really believe Baldric went to Poch with an open checkbook for 80m? Come on mate, let’s assume for a second in the land of fairies and unicorns this happened, at the very least there would have been 100 stipulations and get out clauses inserted before spending, anyone that believes otherwise needs to go out in the yard and feed their unicorns.

101 reasons not to buy you mean.

 

[heelspurs]

Considering Levy has not spent even a single penny in the last 2 windows, does anyone have any idea / opinion what our budget is likely to be this summer??

Well, it was purported to be 150M in the summer and around 100M for this January. But as we know nothing was spent since we couldn't find any player in the whole friggin world of football, anywhere, not 1, besides potentially Grealish (who we ultimately decided wasn't good value, late, etc etc etc) who could possibly improve this team since we have no weakness in individual players only mentality, bravery, and fight.

So, I don't know if you add those two up, follow the decreasing 50M 'trend', or the TW 'trend' of no signings. But apparently those conversations only seem to come about around impending TWs so I imagine we will have to wait until April before we hear whispers.

The difficulty is that we still have all the players from the squad that couldn't be improved upon. So it seems like a quandary. We may be stuck with 250M for some hot transfer action burning a hole in our pocket but with a squad with no deficiencies that can be improved upon, at least with all the garbage that is available in all-of-the-world-of-football.

Sure hope Grealish is available this summer. Otherwise DL is gonna be so disappointed to have to sit on all that QF CL cash. Shame Messi is >30 as he is the only other player that could possibly improve us.

 

[riggi]

Can I quote this, if need be, after the 1st WHam game in our brand-spanking new stadium? Just saying, we do have that to look forward to. And it will be bigger that the 66 WC for them. Can you imagine the motivation it will be for them to taint our brand new digs? They will be like Hyenas.

They will trash the bogs. 100%

 

[heelspurs]

Scnthorpe are back in the relegation mire after a few shit results as well. Both my teams are ballsing it up now.

Football can do one right now.

Can you not write that word out because of the filter or is it jsut a typo? Well, let's find out:

Spurs are a bunch of S****horpes, S****horpes, S****horpes today for losing to Soton.

edit: wow, that filter is harsh.

 

[BorisTM]

Brilliant goal

A brilliant goal would have been a volley!

 

[TonyK]

Do you really believe Baldric went to Poch with an open checkbook for 80m? Come on mate, let’s assume for a second in the land of fairies and unicorns this happened, at the very least there would have been 100 stipulations and get out clauses inserted before spending, anyone that believes otherwise needs to go out in the yard and feed their unicorns.

I read it but I didn’t say I actually believed it. But I’m not sure either whether Poch is Levy’s puppet or not. I wish I knew for sure though!!

 

[BuryMeInEngland]

Can you not write that word out because of the filter or is it jsut a typo? Well, let's find out:

Spurs are a bunch of S****horpes, S****horpes, S****horpes today for losing to Soton.

edit: wow, that filter is harsh.

If Typhoo put the 'T' in Britain, who put the **** in S****horpe?

 

[shelfboy68]

I read it but I didn’t say I actually believed it. But I’m not sure either whether Poch is Levy’s puppet or not. I wish I knew for sure though!!

Can't be many manager's who would be willing to go a couple of transfer windows without a single player in so must be very compliant at best.

 

[bozzaSPUR]

Fuck this shit. Off out for dinner and a film with the wife. Football can go fuck itself for a few weeks. Social media on sleep mode for the whole period.

That's exactly what I feel like and tomorrow morning I will not want to get up and face the world ....and Monday I won't want to go to the gym and face all the tossers who support any other team apart from Spurs - but how pathetic is that. There are far more important things than football at the end of the day but at the moment it doesn't seem like it. I know that for 24 hours or more after a defeat I make my wife's life purgatory and after a win I am a polar opposite. But I love Spurs (almost) more than anything. An added bonus is that my son's a 'Yid' and I love time with him watching and supporting Spurs.
Unlike some on here, I have supported Spurs since the 60/61 season when I was 8; people often ask why (coming from Grimsby!) do I support Spurs. That is the reason right there - success and watching exciting football. When I first started taking an interest in football, Spurs were the glamour club. Much has happened over the intervening years, a lot of it disappointing, some of it exciting. I am by no means an expert but I know what I enjoy watching; free flowing football, great defending, brilliant saves and superb goals. For the past four and a half seasons with the present Spurs squad we have had all of that, so for the majority of Poch's reign I have loved every minute.
This season though things haven't seemed 'right'; excuses are liberally expounded on here and collectively there may be some mileage in them; World Cup fatigue, shortage of funds and concomitant lack of transfer activity (Poch's or Levy's fault) in the last two windows, injuries, inability to tie players to new improved contracts/heads being turned, no permanent home ground and and arguably the most important, lack of tactical nous by the manager. I am not disputing that any one of these or indeed all of them have had some part to play in this season's problems but I am reluctantly coming round to thinking that the biggest problem may be Poch - cue negative reps by the bucketful!
Any condemnation/questioning of his ability as a coach must be a generalisation because there are always exceptions; but is he tactically astute? There is no doubt that our players love him, he is a media 'darling', he comes across as being charming, polite and on a good day he sets up a Spurs team that is as good as any that I have seen over the last 55 years.
My big concern at present is, that the best squad we have had for a number of years faces the prospect of missing out on winning anything. I hope that I am wrong and we go on to win the CL and establish ourselves in the top 4 again this season, in which case my questioning of Poch's coaching ability will seem ludicrous but have we gone as far as we can go with him or is it a squad problem? I am very reluctant to criticise Poch and question whether he is the right person to take us to the next stage because when he took over the helm who could have predicted the success re. top four places and CL participation that we would have enjoyed since he's been in charge. As a coach he undoubtedly has ability; the second half of the home game against Dortmund is the perfect recent example of his ability to change things in response to the opposition's tactics/formations and there are others. Unfortunately this season there are seemingly many other examples of where he has come up short.
It is easy for us as fans to critcise his team selections but he is the one that sees the players every single day in training and can analyse their biometrics and as a consequence is privy to information re. their well being/fitness/attitude that we as fans are not. We have to trust that he selects his best side to face the opposition based on player's fitness/attitude and the tactics that he wishes to employ. Sometimes those tactics and his team selection will work like a dream but at other times they will not - it is then that the coach earns his wages and establishes and consolidates his reputation and it is this trait that Poch seems to be struggling with this season. In the early days of his reign he stated that players earn their wages to train and he then selected the team based on his assessment of their attitude in training. Fans must accept this but as a successful coach Poch must accept that his initial tactics will not always work; if this is the case then one presumes that there will be an ongoing dialogue in order to change tactics. Whether this change in tactics is needed after the first five minutes (another of his quotes is that he can tell if his tactics will be successful in the first five minutes of a game) or after five minutes of the second half, like today, a good coach should be able to change something to make a difference.
Our pressing game is nowhere near the intensity it was two seasons ago (we were winning so many balls in the opposition third and as a consequence, creating and scoring so many goals as a result of that). Now we fail to adapt to teams that press us, particularly in our final third and this is exacerbated by Lloris' (and presumably Poch's desire) to 'play out from the back' which puts defenders under a lot of pressure and undoubtedly creates chances for the opposition. I watched Leeds last week and they pressed from start to finish and won easily in no small part to that pressing - we used to do that. We certainly don't now. Why? If this is because we don't have players with the 'legs', the discipline or the motivation then that is Poch's fault as coach. If we don't have the players to carry out the coach's main philosophy, he should be able to identify and persuade Levy to sign suitable replacements.
His loyalty to his players is admirable (and is the reason that some will follow him to wherever he goes next) but is this loyalty at times misguided - is he ruthless enough? He can be stubborn it seems but stubbornness is not the same as ruthlessness. Lloris has made a lot of mistakes this season - on and off the pitch but his place in the side is seemingly not open to debate. The same applies to Eriksen and Trippier both of whom have had a poor season. The difference between the latter two and Lloris is that there does seem to be a possible alternative for Lloris whereas we are struggling with quality alternative full backs and creative midfielders. As a result of this lack of competition, are players in their comfort zone? Are they being challenged? Do they need a new challenge that only a new manager can bring? The manager's philosophy towards youth is admirable but if there are no suitable full backs or creative midfielders ready to be bloodied then our transfer policy should reflect the appropriate planning and forethought.
I am very aware of the saying 'be careful what you wish for' and I am certainly not advocating 'change for changes sake' but at the moment I do wonder if Poch has taken this squad as far as it can go. Whether that is a squad problem or a manager problem only time will tell but like many fans whose expectations have been raised in the last few seasons, I am very sad, that on the eve of moving into a fantastic new stadium that should surely provide the stage for a title challenge, CL football and exhilarating football, I have been left questioning everything that I love about my Spurs.

 

[TonyK]

Can't be many manager's who would be willing to go a couple of transfer windows without a single player in so must be very compliant at best.

Yeah that’s my main concern about Poch. He doesn’t seem to have the balls to be the best. He just comes across as too nice and not ruthless enough a lot of the time.

 

[UncleBuck]

Because we are not ruthless or clinical enough.

On a consistent basis, for all the attacking prowess we possess we don’t put teams away when we are in the ascendancy and we’ve been like that for quite a few seasons.