- Jan 15, 2017
- 1,740
- 8,651
Have tried to calm down in the morning - but quite frankly I'm finding it extremely difficult to be positive about the direction the club is going and our prospects for the near term future.
This is not about a single game. This appears to be a fundamental difference in both philosophy and what I perceive to be basic tactical competence between myself and the management at Spurs. You can bang on about Mourinho's track record of winning trophies - fair enough - but those trophies have not come at clubs like Tottenham. At no point has Mourinho won trophies anywhere without top class playmaking ability in the side - something we have lacked since Eriksen left. And whilst I know Lo Celso was not fit yesterday, the Alli for Sissoko substitution has got to rank as one of the ultimate tactical disasterclasses we've seen from Spurs managers. You can talk all you want about formations, aggression, high lines, motivation - but the reality is football is a fairly simple game, 90% of winning a match is getting the team with the better technical players to flourish and move the ball around well. This rule is true the vast majority of the time, and whenever managers like AVB, Ramos and now Mourinho try to get "clever" and break away from it all almost always ends in horrific style. So to bring on a man that has demonstrated nothing but a comprehensive lack of ability to pass or shoot, when already playing two midfielders that will not pass the ball forwards, was quite simply tactical suicide.
For sure we needed to upgrade at RB and DM, but if we'd signed James Rodriguez for the same price as we spent on either of our signings we'd have improved significantly more either of those two will improve us. Since selling Sigurdsson, I used to worry about a lack of cover for Eriksen, now we don't even have the first team player like this. And what alarms me is that other than a few tenuous links to Coutinho and Sabitzer we don't appear to even be looking to strengthen in this area.
Winks, Sissoko, Davies, Lucas and Dier, a few years ago all considered back-up players to more technically skilled players in the starting XI, have now all been promoted without actually getting any better themselves. Why? Because they "show a good attitude"? They "work hard"? For sure I'd question whether David Ginola or Dimitar Berbatov would flourish in the modern game, but I just can't get my head around having so few players in the squad with real technical skill. At clubs like Real Madrid that was a given - it's all well and good if the value you to your squad is by getting them to be a bit more aggressive and harder working - if your midfield options are Alonso, Modric, Ozil, Kaka and Khedeira who can all pass and move the ball regardless of who you pick - but in our case we appear to be turning into an inferior footballing side not only to most of our competitors from the top 6 but also the likes of Everton, Leicester and Wolves.
Maybe a rejuvinated Ndombele has genuinely been working behind the scenes and Lo Celso is about to embark upon a big second season and this will all blow over. But it's hard to see. And whilst I don't necessarily expect Spurs to be the best team in the land, given the disparity of resources from some of our competitors, I do expect us to at least be fun to watch. So if this is how Mourinho wants to set us up then the ONLY acceptable reason is if we achieve high value objectives such as winning the title or at least other cups - if not then he will rank at the very bottom alongside Gross, Francis and AVB - behind Sherwood and Pleat - amongst the worst managers I have seen at Spurs. Given the way we played yesterday, then unless we get a favourable draw and a fluke final result like Birmingham or Wigan did then that looks extremely unlikely.
I'll leave you with one final stat. In Redknapp's final season, despite the dramatic collapse, we still averaged 18.44 attempts on goal per match. Last season we were down to just 11.68 - less than the likes of Brighton and Villa. Yesterday, just nine, in a home game against a team that came 12th last season.
This is not about a single game. This appears to be a fundamental difference in both philosophy and what I perceive to be basic tactical competence between myself and the management at Spurs. You can bang on about Mourinho's track record of winning trophies - fair enough - but those trophies have not come at clubs like Tottenham. At no point has Mourinho won trophies anywhere without top class playmaking ability in the side - something we have lacked since Eriksen left. And whilst I know Lo Celso was not fit yesterday, the Alli for Sissoko substitution has got to rank as one of the ultimate tactical disasterclasses we've seen from Spurs managers. You can talk all you want about formations, aggression, high lines, motivation - but the reality is football is a fairly simple game, 90% of winning a match is getting the team with the better technical players to flourish and move the ball around well. This rule is true the vast majority of the time, and whenever managers like AVB, Ramos and now Mourinho try to get "clever" and break away from it all almost always ends in horrific style. So to bring on a man that has demonstrated nothing but a comprehensive lack of ability to pass or shoot, when already playing two midfielders that will not pass the ball forwards, was quite simply tactical suicide.
For sure we needed to upgrade at RB and DM, but if we'd signed James Rodriguez for the same price as we spent on either of our signings we'd have improved significantly more either of those two will improve us. Since selling Sigurdsson, I used to worry about a lack of cover for Eriksen, now we don't even have the first team player like this. And what alarms me is that other than a few tenuous links to Coutinho and Sabitzer we don't appear to even be looking to strengthen in this area.
Winks, Sissoko, Davies, Lucas and Dier, a few years ago all considered back-up players to more technically skilled players in the starting XI, have now all been promoted without actually getting any better themselves. Why? Because they "show a good attitude"? They "work hard"? For sure I'd question whether David Ginola or Dimitar Berbatov would flourish in the modern game, but I just can't get my head around having so few players in the squad with real technical skill. At clubs like Real Madrid that was a given - it's all well and good if the value you to your squad is by getting them to be a bit more aggressive and harder working - if your midfield options are Alonso, Modric, Ozil, Kaka and Khedeira who can all pass and move the ball regardless of who you pick - but in our case we appear to be turning into an inferior footballing side not only to most of our competitors from the top 6 but also the likes of Everton, Leicester and Wolves.
Maybe a rejuvinated Ndombele has genuinely been working behind the scenes and Lo Celso is about to embark upon a big second season and this will all blow over. But it's hard to see. And whilst I don't necessarily expect Spurs to be the best team in the land, given the disparity of resources from some of our competitors, I do expect us to at least be fun to watch. So if this is how Mourinho wants to set us up then the ONLY acceptable reason is if we achieve high value objectives such as winning the title or at least other cups - if not then he will rank at the very bottom alongside Gross, Francis and AVB - behind Sherwood and Pleat - amongst the worst managers I have seen at Spurs. Given the way we played yesterday, then unless we get a favourable draw and a fluke final result like Birmingham or Wigan did then that looks extremely unlikely.
I'll leave you with one final stat. In Redknapp's final season, despite the dramatic collapse, we still averaged 18.44 attempts on goal per match. Last season we were down to just 11.68 - less than the likes of Brighton and Villa. Yesterday, just nine, in a home game against a team that came 12th last season.