JonnySpurs
SC Veteran
- Jun 4, 2004
- 5,346
- 12,398
I think this chap talks a lot of sense and with the way the season is going at the moment I think this is a very appropriate article for trying to have a little perspective............
http://thepremierleagueowl.com/tottenham-the-value-in-actually-enjoying-victories/
Some fans really do prefer the negativity-validation of a defeat to the joy of a last-minute winner.
What a thoroughly modern phenomenon that is.
Each to their own, obviously, but this asterisking of defeats is a tiresome business. Very rarely in football does anybody get to experience a flawless victory and, actually, there’s a case for saying that ill-deserved wins on the road actually provide some of the most satisfying moments of a supporters’ life.
“Yeah, but…X was bad, Y was dreadful, and the manager should have done this, this, and this.”
Tottenham weren’t particularly impressive yesterday and in amongst their good moments were long periods of siege-like Swansea pressure. The home team played well; the combination between Wilfried Bony and Gylfi Sigurdsson is imaginative and dangerous, and Garry Monk has two wingers in Jefferson Montero and Wayne Routledge who are relentlessly aggressive.
Behind that front-four, Swansea are built to sustain momentum. They are generally very good at keeping the ball and at home they are typically hard to shake out of their rhythm. As a result, over the past four years The Liberty Stadium has increasingly become one of those grounds at which a win is always a creditable outcome.
Spurs are not impressive at the moment in footballing terms. At least, they experience as many disjointed moments as do they cohesive ones. There are new combinations all over the pitch, there’s a relatively heavy academy influence within the side and there’s a tangible sense that Mauricio Pochettino is still engaged in a bit of trial and error with his team selections.
That is not a winning formula. This squad needs to maturate and, at some point, it needs to be refined.
With that in mind, all a fan can really hope for is progress – and that doesn’t have to always be tactical. The perennial frustration with this club is their flimsiness and their ability to always come out on the wrong side of a close situation. Irrespective of whether a supporter is a teenager or a pensioner, if he or she has spent any time at all following Tottenham then they will be familiar with that trait.
And that’s why the uninhibited, rain-sodden celebrations at the end of yesterday’s game were such a faith-restoring sight. Pochettino’s side were penned back for minutes at a time and yet they didn’t crack. For a Chelsea, a Manchester United or a Manchester City, maybe that wouldn’t be a big deal, but for a side who are traditionally as soft as Tottenham, it was significant.
Character, spine, and spirit may well be intangibles, but they are pertinent ones and to see traces of those qualities amongst a group of players who typically fall on their own sword at the slightest invitation is extremely gratifying. In a parallel universe, Tottenham would have lost that game yesterday to a deflected Sigurdsson mis-hit. Wouldn’t that just have been typical? Wasn’t that what every fan was expecting?
It didn’t happen, though, and that transcends any concerns that anybody has over passing-completions or chance-creation. Four times this season Pochettino’s side have snared all the points in the dying light of an away game; that’s not a coincidence. These players may not be world-beaters and this team may still be limited, but they are at least a degree or two more stubborn than they were.
Each game is different and each opponent presents a different tactical challenge, meaning that carrying concerns from one game to the next is a false labour. League competitions don’t respect performance or percentage possession, just winning. As such, the only detail worth taking away from almost any game is the score – victory is all that really matters.
So enjoy it. For teams who don’t have limitless resources, English football is miserable enough without having to gild the good moments with corrosive negativity.
http://thepremierleagueowl.com/tottenham-the-value-in-actually-enjoying-victories/
Some fans really do prefer the negativity-validation of a defeat to the joy of a last-minute winner.
What a thoroughly modern phenomenon that is.
Each to their own, obviously, but this asterisking of defeats is a tiresome business. Very rarely in football does anybody get to experience a flawless victory and, actually, there’s a case for saying that ill-deserved wins on the road actually provide some of the most satisfying moments of a supporters’ life.
“Yeah, but…X was bad, Y was dreadful, and the manager should have done this, this, and this.”
Tottenham weren’t particularly impressive yesterday and in amongst their good moments were long periods of siege-like Swansea pressure. The home team played well; the combination between Wilfried Bony and Gylfi Sigurdsson is imaginative and dangerous, and Garry Monk has two wingers in Jefferson Montero and Wayne Routledge who are relentlessly aggressive.
Behind that front-four, Swansea are built to sustain momentum. They are generally very good at keeping the ball and at home they are typically hard to shake out of their rhythm. As a result, over the past four years The Liberty Stadium has increasingly become one of those grounds at which a win is always a creditable outcome.
Spurs are not impressive at the moment in footballing terms. At least, they experience as many disjointed moments as do they cohesive ones. There are new combinations all over the pitch, there’s a relatively heavy academy influence within the side and there’s a tangible sense that Mauricio Pochettino is still engaged in a bit of trial and error with his team selections.
That is not a winning formula. This squad needs to maturate and, at some point, it needs to be refined.
With that in mind, all a fan can really hope for is progress – and that doesn’t have to always be tactical. The perennial frustration with this club is their flimsiness and their ability to always come out on the wrong side of a close situation. Irrespective of whether a supporter is a teenager or a pensioner, if he or she has spent any time at all following Tottenham then they will be familiar with that trait.
And that’s why the uninhibited, rain-sodden celebrations at the end of yesterday’s game were such a faith-restoring sight. Pochettino’s side were penned back for minutes at a time and yet they didn’t crack. For a Chelsea, a Manchester United or a Manchester City, maybe that wouldn’t be a big deal, but for a side who are traditionally as soft as Tottenham, it was significant.
Character, spine, and spirit may well be intangibles, but they are pertinent ones and to see traces of those qualities amongst a group of players who typically fall on their own sword at the slightest invitation is extremely gratifying. In a parallel universe, Tottenham would have lost that game yesterday to a deflected Sigurdsson mis-hit. Wouldn’t that just have been typical? Wasn’t that what every fan was expecting?
It didn’t happen, though, and that transcends any concerns that anybody has over passing-completions or chance-creation. Four times this season Pochettino’s side have snared all the points in the dying light of an away game; that’s not a coincidence. These players may not be world-beaters and this team may still be limited, but they are at least a degree or two more stubborn than they were.
Each game is different and each opponent presents a different tactical challenge, meaning that carrying concerns from one game to the next is a false labour. League competitions don’t respect performance or percentage possession, just winning. As such, the only detail worth taking away from almost any game is the score – victory is all that really matters.
So enjoy it. For teams who don’t have limitless resources, English football is miserable enough without having to gild the good moments with corrosive negativity.
