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....and the problem is....

chicken_badge

Gudni Bergsson
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Not intending on taking the shine of an excellent win, but I've just seen a stat that's given some substance to a theory I've had for a while now: Spurs now have the best AWAY record in the Premier League. Yep, more points from away games than Arsenal, City, Liverpool, Chelsea.... all the way through to crud like Cardiff and West Ham. Of course, you can't read into single statistics like this too much, with the season half gone, but for a club in crisis that's a ridiculously good record and one which I believe cuts to the Hart of our problem..... ;)

Clearly, we are all unhappy with the results at the Lane against West Ham, Liverpool, Saudi Sportswashing Machine, and the performances against pretty much everyone else. But where exactly are we going wrong?

Size of the pitch
Moose had a whine about this earlier in the season, claiming that the small pitch at WHL made it easy for defensive minded teams:

http://www1.skysports.com/football/...te-hart-lane-makes-it-difficult-for-tottenham

I don't buy it though. Surely with our fast, counter attacking potential we can be up the other end scoring before the opposition knows what hit them. I mean, the scum team of 2004 basically won the league doing just this - peg it up the other end, score three times and its game over before half hour. Helps if you've got a talented cheat like Henry (and thanks partly to the fact they never replace their stars and also their failure to adapt to the bigger new pitch they still haven't won anything since moving to the library:
http://www.spurs.vitalfootball.co.uk/article.asp?a=7887)

An obvious flaw in our play is the lack of crosses into the box and if WHL is particularly small and therefore narrow, is that limiting our opportunity for this?

Stage fright
Heard a Villa fan talk about this on the radio this week, about why they have such a poor record at Villa Park and thought it may be relevant to us. Our stadium is a real iconic, great English ground and some players will turn up and be motivated about being there. In short, their players are more up for it, where as ours are at the same old same old.

The fans
AVB said it after Hull http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/24697318 but personally I think it is nail on head. Our players' confidence is so hampered by the pressure put on them by the WHL crowd. Now it's not everyone, maybe not even the majority. But if one in ten people boo then it will be a helluva noise and unfortunately we've got far too much negativity in our stands. They don't accept us drawing 0-0 with any team, so if we haven't scored against a team by a particular time (eg Saudi Sportswashing Machine 60 mins, WBA 30 mins, Crewe 20 mins) then it is treated as if the team have failed with the simplest of tasks. You can see it coming, so can the players.

So where do these boo boys come from? Well, I think it's our massive season ticket holder base that's to blame. Some of those who are there week to week, and it's not a big deal a Spurs game, and they've been tremendously spoilt. Again, I stress that I don't think it's the majority, but if you go to a game - especially a league one, where there is going to be about a 3:1 ratio of season ticket holders to non, you know exactly who they are. The loud mouths who is all "hallo mate" to the regulars around them and when the whistle blows they are picking holes in everything. Do you ever hear then sing? And are they ever there at the final whistle? "Right I've had enough of this. Don't know why I bother.". Oh I'm so glad you did, got you fat rat moustache out just to wreck my afternoon at the Lane. £50 well spent, would you like some cash as a way of thanking you for your technical analysis throughout?

To this, I'd add another bugbear of mine - the appalling number of "fans" who leave early. Players have commented on this before in autobiographies... Yes, they are supposed to be professionals and play for the shirt etc but if we really believe that us fans can have an effect on a game, give the players a lift, then surely the sight of 20,30% of us saying "lets give up now, saving fifteen minutes on a tube queue is more important" can hardly make them want to fight for that late winner?

I've been here before with this and, whilst I respect that we have fans like paxtonwolf who travel significant distances and five minutes can make all the difference in getting home or not, I live on the South Coast and I would bet my journey home takes longer than the vast majority of our fans. I've never left a game early and whilst I don't want a medal, I do not want fans who do bail out like that to be getting their full loyalty points for the match. Make everyone scan their card on the way out, award LPs just to those leaving after the whistle has gone. Solves soooo many problems that.....

Anyway, just a few thoughts. It's obvious WHERE the problem is, but WHAT exactly is it, and what's the solution?
 
The problem is convincing the players there isnt a problem...if we set up at home as we did today there will be chances created & excitement for the fans..... a small pitch can work either way.....if you are technically better than the opposition it should be an advantage......the other lot never suffered at highbury....

yep dont agree with fans leaving early but some have their reasons no doubt......personally I feel a fan should be there for the team through good and bad......from first till the last........fans can hardly moan about a players commitment if they leave early when we are only a goal down or whatever.....

big test next two home games.......we need the players to be at it and the fans can help massivley......as I said in soton omt two home wins brings us to the halfway stage of the season in rude health....massive that we put in a home peformance soon....would be a big lift to the club.
 
I dont buy the small pitch excuse.
Arsenal had a tiny pitch when they were tearing it up with Henry, Bergkamp and Pires. Pains me to say that was the best football played in the league in the last 20 years.

We struggle because team sit back against us at whl and we dont play enough one touch passers to break them down.
 
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The loud mouths who is all "hallo mate" to the regulars around them and when the whistle blows they are picking holes in everything. Do you ever hear then sing? And are they ever there at the final whistle? "Right I've had enough of this. Don't know why I bother.". Oh I'm so glad you did, got you fat rat moustache out just to wreck my afternoon at the Lane. £50 well spent, would you like some cash as a way of thanking you for your technical analysis throughout?
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Absobloodylutely... tickle my balls with a feather! I can only go infrequently, and it tends to be Europa/cup games when I can get tickets as the costs to go with my boys make it a really expensive day/night out (more than £200 a game!). I dread sitting next to some 'regulars' because a) they know I am not a regular which somehow makes their opinion more relevant and b) treat me and my young boys as a hassle as opposed to the future of the club!

I can stress this is not always the case, but I have felt this on more than one occasion.
 
I was just thinking about this the other day.

I have had a season ticket for the last 12 years and went to the odd game before that. You can really tell who has come for a one off game. They are much more motivated to sing and cheer. Some people even look at them and think "what are they doing" for me its a breath of fresh air when i sit near them.

I am not the most vocal person because i sit with people i don't really know. I have never ever booed. Dont see the point.

Pitch size isn't the problem, like someone said Arsenal played the best on their old small pitch
 
Small pitch, - well it didn't affect us when we were tearing teams up under HR and other managers.

Atmosphere- are we really saying that our players will perform better at an away ground with away fans cheering ever wrong pass, mis kick etc? I found this a cheap diversionary tactic by AVB.

Or I it more likely to be that our tactics at home failed to produce many goal scoring opportunities?

I know which one my money is on.
 
AVB was the biggest problem with our home form, not the fans or the size of the pitch(pathetic excuse). Our play was just too restricted, two DMs who can't move the ball quickly enough and only getting one or two players into the box at any given time.
 
AVB was the biggest problem with our home form, not the fans or the size of the pitch(pathetic excuse). Our play was just too restricted, two DMs who can't move the ball quickly enough and only getting one or two players into the box at any given time.

Have you forgotten how **** we were against park the bus teams at WHL before AVB? We were just as bad then.

There's just more teams that park the bus against us now.
 
Have you forgotten how **** we were against park the bus teams at WHL before AVB? We were just as bad then.

There's just more teams that park the bus against us now.

In three full seasons under Harry we averaged 2.07 goals per game at home to the bottom 10. Under AVB we've averaged 1.14.
 
In three full seasons under Harry we averaged 2.07 goals per game at home to the bottom 10. Under AVB we've averaged 1.14.

Teams didn't park the bus against us until that year we stormed the CL. Everyone seemed to think we could be got at (fair considering our history) and attacked us.
 
Teams didn't park the bus against us until that year we stormed the CL. Everyone seemed to think we could be got at (fair considering our history) and attacked us.

Keep making excuses, funny how Everton and Liverpool for example seem to be finding it a breeze at home to the bus parkers, maybe it's because their pitch is a couple of yards bigger eh.
 
Keep making excuses, funny how Everton and Liverpool for example seem to be finding it a breeze at home to the bus parkers, maybe it's because their pitch is a couple of yards bigger eh.

I really couldn't comment as I rarely watch either of them. And relevant facts aren't excuses, they're just relevant facts that you don't like.
 
You haven't posted any relevant facts, just some vague line about us "storming the CL". Should I post the relevant stats for Arsenal, Chelsea, Utd and City too then? It certainly doesn't make pretty reading for you and the rest of the AVB fan club. Having said that though, they do all have ever so slightly bigger pitches and more supportive fans.
 
You haven't posted any relevant facts, just some vague line about us "storming the CL". Should I post the relevant stats for Arsenal, Chelsea, Utd and City too then? It certainly doesn't make pretty reading for you and the rest of the AVB fan club. Having said that though, they do all have ever so slightly bigger pitches and more supportive fans.

I talked about park the bus teams, you gave me stats for the bottom 10. That's not the same thing.

Teams treated us very differently before and after the season we were in the CL.
 
Have you forgotten how **** we were against park the bus teams at WHL before AVB? We were just as bad then.

There's just more teams that park the bus against us now.

We were not "just as bad". We used to go for it from minute one no matter who we were playing at home. Of course we had games where we struggled to break teams down but we actually attacked the penatly box under Arry not like under AVB where we'd be lucky if two players got into the box. Rossi posted the stats which prove his point.
 
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