Statistics are not always reliable but..........

[mancman]

Our record in the premiership since our defeat of Newcastle on the 11 February is as follows :-
V Arsenal a 2-5 Man U h 1-3 Everton a 0-1 Stoke h 1-1
v Chelsea a 0-0 Swansea h 3-1 Sunderland a 0 - 0 Norwich H 1 - 2
v QPR a 0-1

P 9 WON 1 DRAWN 3 LOST 5 Scored 8 Let in 14 POINTS 6

POINTS PER GAME RATIO 0.666 recurring

WOLVES currently bottom 7 points behind the next team Bolton W (who have a game in hand) have played 34 with points 23 - a POINTS PER GAME RATION OF 0.67!!!!!!!

One major observation in most of these games is obviously a lack of scoring ability but what really disturbs me is the lack of goal scoring chances. Having 60%+ possession is only relevant if the possession is converted into real chances. The number of times i have seen our back 4 and midfield make 10 to 15 consecutive passes and get precisely nowhere is too numerous to mention. Irritatingly the usual result is that the ball gets passed back and is then lumped up field! All passing should have purpose and to create pressure.
What is worrying for me is that when LENNON is not playing the team relies totally on BALE to create real chances. MODRIC - VAN DER VAART - ADEBAYOR simply do not score enough goals. Specifically MODRIC & VAN DER VAART.

I could go on about Harry and the England job (the uncertainty is certainly a factor in our decline) and the lack of investment in January (Spurs are not short of money!) but really on this form Harry does not deserve the ENGLAND job nor THE SPURS MANAGER JOB.

 

[2bearis2do]

6 points from 9 - Sounds ominously like 2 points from 8.
That kind of form would have us on a 30 point season.
Relegation form and performances.
A sickening implosion for which Harry can still make excuses...I can't wait to see him go along with the band of OAPs he has brought into the club. He's a short term fixit guy - that is all he can do. No passion for any club and no desire to build a team.

Levy in a quandary though - Needs to get Harry to sign a new contract so that the FA compensate us...

 

[greaves]

6 points from 9 - Sounds ominously like 2 points from 8.
That kind of form would have us on a 30 point season.
Relegation form and performances.
A sickening implosion for which Harry can still make excuses...I can't wait to see him go along with the band of OAPs he has brought into the club. He's a short term fixit guy - that is all he can do. No passion for any club and no desire to build a team.

Levy in a quandary though - Needs to get Harry to sign a new contract so that the FA compensate us...

Very poor. But I don't think it's all down to HR, honestly, though I understand the need to find someone to hold responsible. The players need to demonstrate more fight and grab games by the scruff of the neck. We don't know what funds have been made available, what targets have turned us down (maybe because of our 'low' salary levels). Modric's form in particular I feeel is hitched to HR's uncertainty over his own future. I am convninced it was HR alone who got Modric to stay and I think this has been the crux of the matter. Modric was what made us tick. Now, nothing.

 

[2bearis2do]

I think we've missed The Hudd this season - he really does make us tick. Modders has a habit of not going forward and beside Parker - we often lack that forward impetus.
An interesting match report from the Telegraph - blaming fatigue...
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/fo...ngers-1-Tottenham-Hotspur-0-match-report.html
That's where the top managers can manage a squad and keep players fresh. Sir Alex obviously is the master of this - and what he does best is make players feel as though they are all equally important and they play many more big games (Clge) than we do. We have eleven burnt out players and no strength left to replace them with - So I blame Harry for that philosophy and his loaning out strategy.
Ultimately he needs to be able to recognize tiredness and the need for change - he doesn't and the players look spent. The buck stops with him.

 

[Locotoro]

I disagree with those saying that Harry is not entirely responsible. Harry, in my opinion is entirely responsible. Harry is the manager, he has overall control and responsibility for the tactics, the formation, the coaching and training regimes. He's responsible for final say on transfers and loans in and out of the club and for motivating the players and ensuring they are in the right frame of mind to get the job done.

It was quite obvious from the itk we were hearing that Levy has been itching to bring in a big player if only to prove to the likes of Bale and Modric that we mean business. Last season we could have had Suarez or Huntalaar. But Harry wasn't convinced. Harry opted to sell Pavlyuchenko and sign Saha. Harry opted to let Corluka and Bassong go and bring in Nelsen.

These are not criticisms of Harry as I think he has done a very good job since he came in buy since it has been obvious to the players that he will not be their next season their level of performance has been absolutely atrocious, specifically Modric. As has become clear to me Harry is all about number one and making himself look good. He is as much a mercenary as the money grabbers at Citeh and Chelsea. The only difference is that Harry's treasure is not gold but his ego and his name.

If anyone can find a single example where harry doesn't attribute a defeat to bad luck or spending power I will be the first to pat that person on the back.

To say Harry is not ultimately responsible is to completely miss the point of having a football manager.

 

[greaves]

I disagree with those saying that Harry is not entirely responsible. Harry, in my opinion is entirely responsible. Harry is the manager, he has overall control and responsibility for the tactics, the formation, the coaching and training regimes. He's responsible for final say on transfers and loans in and out of the club and for motivating the players and ensuring they are in the right frame of mind to get the job done.

It was quite obvious from the itk we were hearing that Levy has been itching to bring in a big player if only to prove to the likes of Bale and Modric that we mean business. Last season we could have had Suarez or Huntalaar. But Harry wasn't convinced. Harry opted to sell Pavlyuchenko and sign Saha. Harry opted to let Corluka and Bassong go and bring in Nelsen.

These are not criticisms of Harry as I think he has done a very good job since he came in buy since it has been obvious to the players that he will not be their next season their level of performance has been absolutely atrocious, specifically Modric. As has become clear to me Harry is all about number one and making himself look good. He is as much a mercenary as the money grabbers at Citeh and Chelsea. The only difference is that Harry's treasure is not gold but his ego and his name.

If anyone can find a single example where harry doesn't attribute a defeat to bad luck or spending power I will be the first to pat that person on the back.

To say Harry is not ultimately responsible is to completely miss the point of having a football manager.

I agree with much of this - tactics of course, who he wants, but I am not sure how much control he has on keeping players that for financial reasons Levy wants shipping out. I don't know the facts but I think you can see there might be a tension there. I don't think HR is any more or less looking after number one than any or all of those involved in the profession. The whole loyalty thing is pretty worn out as a discussion - everyone has their price, from Campbell to Fabregas ad infinitum. I don't know about HR trying to look good or not either. Ego I guess has to be part and parcel of a manager's makeup as well as that of a player. Ego is arguably the quintessential ingredient of every Alex Ferguson and every Ginola and Ronaldo. The importance of 'number one'. Finally, what Harry attributes a defeat to publicly is likely to be very different to what is said 'behind the shop'. I don't know of course but I don't share your certainty either.

 

[greaves]

I disagree with those saying that Harry is not entirely responsible. Harry, in my opinion is entirely responsible. Harry is the manager, he has overall control and responsibility for the tactics, the formation, the coaching and training regimes. He's responsible for final say on transfers and loans in and out of the club and for motivating the players and ensuring they are in the right frame of mind to get the job done.

It was quite obvious from the itk we were hearing that Levy has been itching to bring in a big player if only to prove to the likes of Bale and Modric that we mean business. Last season we could have had Suarez or Huntalaar. But Harry wasn't convinced. Harry opted to sell Pavlyuchenko and sign Saha. Harry opted to let Corluka and Bassong go and bring in Nelsen.

These are not criticisms of Harry as I think he has done a very good job since he came in buy since it has been obvious to the players that he will not be their next season their level of performance has been absolutely atrocious, specifically Modric. As has become clear to me Harry is all about number one and making himself look good. He is as much a mercenary as the money grabbers at Citeh and Chelsea. The only difference is that Harry's treasure is not gold but his ego and his name.

If anyone can find a single example where harry doesn't attribute a defeat to bad luck or spending power I will be the first to pat that person on the back.

To say Harry is not ultimately responsible is to completely miss the point of having a football manager.

P.S. If I didn't say it, I agree the manager should carry the can, in a superficial 'professional' sense. Moral/ethical responsibility is i feel more complex.

 

[Locotoro]

P.S. If I didn't say it, I agree the manager should carry the can, in a superficial 'professional' sense. Moral/ethical responsibility is i feel more complex.

I agree with much of this - tactics of course, who he wants, but I am not sure how much control he has on keeping players that for financial reasons Levy wants shipping out. I don't know the facts but I think you can see there might be a tension there. I don't think HR is any more or less looking after number one than any or all of those involved in the profession. The whole loyalty thing is pretty worn out as a discussion - everyone has their price, from Campbell to Fabregas ad infinitum. I don't know about HR trying to look good or not either. Ego I guess has to be part and parcel of a manager's makeup as well as that of a player. Ego is arguably the quintessential ingredient of every Alex Ferguson and every Ginola and Ronaldo. The importance of 'number one'. Finally, what Harry attributes a defeat to publicly is likely to be very different to what is said 'behind the shop'. I don't know of course but I don't share your certainty either.

I understand and appreciate that, as you say there is quintessentially an element of ego in most successful managers, even a bit of arrogance to boot, and that could definitely be said of Fergie, Mourinho and Wenger. However, with Harry I feel that it comes at a detriment to the club. Comments like "before I came...", "as good as it gets" and " can't compete with x,y,z" have very limited value in analysing a performance post match and are thrown in to alleviate the manager of any blame. I doubt highly you would find many other managers making these comments. Even the whole " I knew we shouldn't play 442 buy everyone wanted to play it but I could see it was too open" desperately screams of trying to shift blame on to others and say I could see it was wrong but its not my fault it was wrong.

Harry, as you know has always pandered to the media, but following a chat with Steve Claridge I learnt Harry was really pushing to sell bale a few seasons ago. Harry thought he was useless. Then he was forced to play him through injuries and a fantastic performance later started taking the plaudits for keeping faith with Bale and giving the youngsters a chance. He is a class A bullshitter and everything he says has the main intention of making him look good first. The club comes a very distant second.

 

[Gaz_Gammon]

I do think that Harry has led us to play some cracking football over the past two seasons. I also think that the way that we have played (against the better sides) shows how inept he is tacticly. Our biggest defeats (including Real Madrid) have come when he is matched up against Managers with more than just a flying winger and good passer of a midfielder.

Many a return game Stoke, Everton, Norwich, to name a few have seen sides play us differently from the first time around. I have not seen this from Harry against any side that has beat us this season. Though it pains me to say this, the likes of Wenger, Mancini and Fergusson (plus a few others) have seen the way Harry set's out his team once too often and can nullify, suffocate and generally make us look second rate at best.

A Manager with more nonse, guille and knowledge of the game is needed at Spurs come next season. England are about to witness the same limitations as we have this season in my humble opinion.

 

[UncleBuck]

Correct, stats are not always reliable but here's another one, yesterday we had 20 shots with only 6.....yes 6, on target. Yet AGAIN we only manage to get somewhere in the region of 30% of our shots on target. This has been happening week in, week out.

Yes, ultimately HR is to blame and if the last 9 games had been before christmas he would have been sacked by now. There will be a major overhaul at the end of the season as there will be one or two "other" egos (apart from HR) departing the club, too many players do not look interested.

We just need to hope that the FA definately appoint HR so we can get a few quid out of it as they have totally fucked our season. Anyone who says Capello leaving and HR being constantly linked with the England job hasn't had any effect on our club is fucking deluded, look at the stats since Capello left England.

Yet again we blew another chance with the Goons slipping up, I said weeks ago that we won't even get Europa league football next season, I just wish I'd have put money on it when we were 1/10 on to qualify to the CL......

 

[sebo_sek]

Correct, stats are not always reliable but here's another one, yesterday we had 20 shots with only 6.....yes 6, on target. Yet AGAIN we only manage to get somewhere in the region of 30% of our shots on target. This has been happening week in, week out.

Yes, ultimately HR is to blame and if the last 9 games had been before christmas he would have been sacked by now. There will be a major overhaul at the end of the season as there will be one or two "other" egos (apart from HR) departing the club, too many players do not look interested.

We need a Guardiola'esque clear out. He let go Eto'o, Ronaldinho and a few smaller names for the sake of keeping HIS side a unit. We need to do the same - so if Modric and Bale want to go, so be it. When I look at some of the talent playing in the some of the lower sides (Dyer for example, Hoilett, even Moses - I have turned believer) we could replace them with players who actually CARE to be here! We need to establish a settled back line, and to me it has to be Walker (Corluka/Naughton as back up), Kaboul (Dawson), Caulker (?), BAE (?/Rose). The Italians always build their the teams from the back. We seemed to have build ours from the front - never a good idea in the long run.

We also need to settle on some kind of system and practise it at every level of training from the kids through to the first XI.

We need a manager who will give everyone a fair shot. Pienaar, Kranky, Gio, Rose - would they have done any worse than the starters? I think not.

Generally we now know that our team, not club, but team is wreck. Too many people have gone out on loan. We need to assess everyone in the pres-season - carte blanche. Our team must be chosen based on merit not names.

 

[Ginolas_Hair]

I agree with the majority of this sebo_sek, however, we've lacked cover in more areas than defence this season. For some reason, it wasn't as apparent as last season.
Unfortunately, Harry's team selection has always shown favouritism towards particular players and leaving some talented players on the bench or out of the team all together every week.

His comments on our lack of squad depth and the player's on the bench at the QPR game is not going to help our player's confidence at all. HR has yet again shifted blame and responsibility away from himself.

I don't want to be a cynic but I am deeply concerned it's only downhill from here until the end of the season and Harry may have blown his chance with the FA - I can understand why we might be holding out for compensation... especially after the FA have meddled with our season so effectively.
I thank you Harry for the highlights you've provided us fans during your reign. But I hope he moves on this summer .... the FA or the Job Centre. I dont' want yet another season of reading Harry's insight in to club management and how to shift blame in the tabloids every week.

I also agree with the idea of a good clearout, I'm not sure why we have consistently loaned out the un-wanted or excess players and never sold them on i.e. Jenas, Bentley, GDS, etc. I would be sad to see Bale go, but if he want's more than Tottenham can offer then let it be. Modric is a player I enjoy watching (when on top form) but I believe Spurs can get decent playmaker (who can shoot and score) for approx. 30-35 million and hopefully Spurs, will hold out for more.

Oddly enough I had two separate chats with Chelsea fans about the Modric Saga - one (typical chelsea fan) believed he was only worth 5 million more than Spurs originally paid despite the fact of his importance to Tottenham (he couldn't answer why they paid over the top for Torres and couldn't muster up enough to tempt Spurs). Another, accepted the fact - Chelsea had no intention of buying Modric and effectively derailed the start of our season and didn't they do well!!

COYS!

 

[parklane_B39-R16-S25]

we need some height in midfield, our defenders are getting exposed to often because the midfield are midgets! HR knows this, thats why Bale is all over the place trying to win headers and not staying wide like he should. I can remember Sandro and Livermore bossing the midfield when they started (can't remeber who against). And another thing I can't figure out is how on Earth Harry says we're playing as well as we were before cos we're playing effing shit! And wtf has happened to Modders??? His heart just aint in it no more

 

[doom]

It is not simple to see why our season has turned from being at one stage the best team in the Pl to being arguably the worst. Player fatigue, Capello's sacking.. whatever it is something needs to be changed rapidly. Our squad is threadbare & other teams have worked out how to stop us. We need a dramatic change in approach but what options are there? one option at least would be to rest Modric and replace him with Sandro or maybe better still, Livermore. We need to add some dynamism into the squad but there is nothing really else you can do. I sympathise with HR but at the same time the lack of squad rotation when things started to look bad has not helped. We did take risks in the transfer window that have evidently not paid off. Bringing in injury prone Saha and Nelsen have now hit us badly. Keeping Caulker on loan now looks a terrible mistake and how we could do with Pienaar's form now. Pray that Ade and Kaboul are back for the next 4 games. Also feel that VDV needs a rest. Put an energetic team out there and add Modric, VDV etc in the second half when the going gets tough (but not too late Harry!)

 

[Durbs]

Firstly - Harry had this shitty habit of repeating week after week - "When I took over...2 points from 8 games" - they need to ask him over and over 4 points from 9 games????
Secondly - to be optimistic, we can win our last 4 games, but not playing as we are - sit Modric, Parker and Bale out of the next home game - stick Rose on the left, midfield of Rose, Livermore, Sandro, vdv Vaart and Lennon with Adebayor up front - and if he is not available DO NOT play Defoe as a lone striker - it just does not work for him , the team or me! Bring Kane back from loan or do something but we cannot carry on with such a team effort.