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4 years ago compared to now...

NLS

Gordon Durie
Like most Spurs fans I am gutted by our current position and I feel I need to share my thoughts...

I am going to compare the team of four years ago to now and mark the players according to their peak career performance for then and where they are now

Lloris - 10 out of 10... Always prone to the odd error but age wise he was at his peak

Walker - 10.. Fast, aggressive and with Rose were the best full back pairing in the premier league

Alderweireld - 10... Great pairing with Vertonghen and possibly the best centre back partnership in the league.

Vertonghen - 10... As for Toby.

Rose - 10.. As for Walker

Dembele - 10... So important for us .. If he kept the ball well we won games

Dier - 10... Strong, mobile aggressive

Son - 9 ... At that time he was still improving his constincency

Eriksen - 10... At the height of his powers... Creating, scoring and able to clear he first defender at a corner

Dele - 10... Exciting, aggressive, petulant at times but so often produced with goals or assists

Kane - 10... Full of running, great goal scorer and one of the worlds best strikers.

The team now compared to who played then----

Lloris - 9... More errors, injuries but still a great shop stopper

Aurier - 7... Makes too many mistakes in defence and loses concentration far too easily.

Toby- 8... Looks slow at times and not as commanding in the air.

Jan- 7... Looks even slower than Toby and Sanchez still prone to too many errors

Davies 8... Will never have Roses dynamism but steady and relieable

Winks....8 Still young but long way off from Dembele

Dier 8... Injuries have taken their toll and can look sluggish in midfield.. Sissoko improved greatly in last 18 months but still also only an 8 compared to a younger Dier

Son 10 - The only player that has improved and is now at his peak

Lo Celso 9 - starting to show great promise but not the level of Eriksen 4 years ago

Dele 8 .. Too many flicks, doesn't seem happy.

Kane 9 - I feel he has been overworked and looks tired a lot of the time. Poch kept bringing him back from injury too early

So 4 years ago I marked it 109 out of 110 and now 91 out of 110.. an average drop of almost 2 points per player, let alone then having the advantage of a settled team and partnerships..

The managers... Poch 10- at the height of his players and we were paying great football Mourinho 8 - Has inherited a failing group of players and we have gone back to the pre poch ways of going a goal up and sitting back rather than try to win the game by more than a goal.. Norwich was the perfect example..

Big money needs to be spent in the summer to rectify this..

COYS
 
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Like most Spurs fans I am gutted by our current position and I feel I need to share my thoughts...

I am going to compare the team of four years ago to now and mark the players according to their peak career performance for then and where they are now

Lloris - 10 out of 10... Always prone to the odd error but age wise he was at his peak

Walker - 10.. Fast, aggressive and with Rose were the best full back pairing in the premier league

Alderweireld - 10... Great pairing with Vertonghen and possibly the best centre back partnership in the league.

Vertonghen - 10... As for Toby.

Rose - 10.. As for Walker

Dembele - 10... So important for us .. If he kept the ball well we won games

Dier - 10... Strong, mobile aggressive

Son - 9 ... At that time he was still improving his constincency

Eriksen - 10... At the height of his powers... Creating, scoring and able to clear he first defender at a corner

Dele - 10... Exciting, aggressive, petulant at times but so often produced with goals or assists

Kane - 10... Full of running, great goal scorer and one of the worlds best strikers.

The team now compared to who played then----

Lloris - 9... More errors, injuries but still a great shop stopper

Aurier - 7... Makes too many mistakes in defence and loses concentration far too easily.

Toby- 8... Looks slow at times and not as commanding in the air.

Jan- 7... Looks even slower than Toby and Sanchez still prone to too many errors

Davies 8... Will never have Roses dynamism but steady and relieable

Winks....8 Still young but long way off from Dembele

Dier 8... Injuries have taken their toll and can look sluggish in midfield.. Sissoko improved greatly in last 18 months but still also only an 8 compared to a younger Dier

Son 10 - The only player that has improved and is now at his peak

Lo Celso 9 - starting to show great promise but not the level of Eriksen 4 years ago

Dele 8 .. Too many flicks, doesn't seem happy.

Kane 9 - I feel he has been overworked and looks tired a lot of the time. Poch kept bringing him back from injury too early

So 4 years ago I marked it 109 out of 110 and now 91 out of 110.. an average drop of almost 2 points per player, let alone then having the advantage of a settled team and partnerships..

The managers... Poch 10- at the height of his players and we were paying great football Mourinho 8 - Has inherited a failing group of players and we have gone back to the pre poch ways of going a goal up and sitting back rather than try to win the game by more than a goal.. Norwich was the perfect example..

Big money needs to be spent in the summer to rectify this..

COYS

I can't fathom how we'd have that many 10s and not win anything.

For example, Dembele was a player I loved but scored or assisted very little. He wasn't a 10. Walker had brainfart-itis. He wasn't a 10.

We have gotten worse on the pitch. No doubt. So your overall point is right. However, we got worse on the pitch after Jol until Harry came along. Then we reached higher than before before getting worse again under AVB and Tactics Tim. The Poch came along and blew everything that went before him out of the water. Now we're going through a downturn again. These things are cyclical. So there is hope that when we rise again, we'll rise higher than before. Particularly with the infrastructure Levy has in place. The tools are there.

The question for Jose is, can he break that Ramos/AVB/Tactics Tim part of the cycle?
 
I said that I gave them their scores for the position they were in their careers... So Dembele and Walker were at their peak and given a 10 although I accept their weaknesses and I'm not comparing them to Messi... That is why I have said Son has improved but I think he is the only one.

I use the scoring system to show how I think Aurier is compared to Walker when at his peak and then it highlights how much weaker we are.

But as you say, even with the strongest team we had for 30 years we still didn't win anything. However, i'd take that glorious moment out in Amsterdam over winning the league or FA cup. It was the best moment of my life and i've been going to Spurs since 1967..

COYS.
 
I said that I gave them their scores for the position they were in their careers... So Dembele and Walker were at their peak and given a 10 although I accept their weaknesses and I'm not comparing them to Messi... That is why I have said Son has improved but I think he is the only one.

I use the scoring system to show how I think Aurier is compared to Walker when at his peak and then it highlights how much weaker we are.

But as you say, even with the strongest team we had for 30 years we still didn't win anything. However, i'd take that glorious moment out in Amsterdam over winning the league or FA cup. It was the best moment of my life and i've been going to Spurs since 1967..

COYS.

That Ajax moment, at that time, was my best time supporting this club. Just unbelievable emotion. It was the best moment since the City game which was also an emotional rollercoaster. Incredible moments on the biggest stage of them all. But, as I've posted many times, the final fudged them up for me.

At this point in time, 1991 was the pinnacle of my time supporting the club while Poch's reign was my favourite managerial reign.
 
a few things you have to factor in
The league is more and more competitive which can skew perceptions
Players are older and teams change
Those things always make comparisons IMO almost redundant
It’s like looking at a team like ours post World Cup when we literally provided 25% of the players for the semis... we were always gonna be f£&cked afterwards and that was only 20 months ago so it could be argued we had better players then for example
 
That Ajax moment, at that time, was my best time supporting this club. Just unbelievable emotion. It was the best moment since the City game which was also an emotional rollercoaster. Incredible moments on the biggest stage of them all. But, as I've posted many times, the final fudged them up for me.

At this point in time, 1991 was the pinnacle of my time supporting the club while Poch's reign was my favourite managerial reign.
This for me too.

Ajax was incredible at the time but I’m now so traumatised by the final and the omnishambles that’s followed I can no longer watch any of last season’s CL highlights :(

Really hoped that Mourinho would be the one to end our FA Cup semi-final hoodoo this season but still got my fingers crossed that he’ll get us past Leipzig and we’ll have Kane & Son plus a match fit Ndombele raring to go for latter stages, so Sissoko can redeem himself in this year’s final!
 
We're inferior in literally every single position now compared to then. Only possible exception like you said may be Son now vs then.

A masterclass in how to mismanage a squad, whomever you choose to blame for it.

Imho we got lucky back then with the likes of Kane, Eriksen and Dele coming good.
Now we need to make changes and that luck has not surprisingly gone. We are now back to our clueless best on the procurement side.
 
compare us to most of the other big 6, they have much more player turnover than we do, its clear our players were in their prime 4 years ago and no-one beats father time....
 
We're inferior in literally every single position now compared to then. Only possible exception like you said may be Son now vs then.

A masterclass in how to mismanage a squad, whomever you choose to blame for it.

The were some stories doing the round that some woman called Rebecca who works as a director at the club was involved in it.

If we had a director of football they would be sacked, though they might get away with hiding behind the stadium rebuild.
 
Imho we got lucky back then with the likes of Kane, Eriksen and Dele coming good.
Now we need to make changes and that luck has not surprisingly gone. We are now back to our clueless best on the procurement side.

I don't think we got lucky, I think we scouted and coached well.
 
Our squad is comparable to 4 years ago. Maybe a little bit better?

No Eriksen, Dembele, Wanyama, Walker or Rose. But we have a host of other players who are comparable. The issue is finding out feet again. Rebuilding.

It’s a transitional season. New players, stadium and manager.

At beginning of the season through to the most recent games the core issue for me has been midfield. We haven’t had a dependable heart. No one knows our best midfield. Until Mourinho gets the midfield sorted we’re going to look shaky. How many different CMs have we tried this season? We still don’t know who should be starting in the heart of the team. It was a problem for Poch and persists now. At least Le Celco has one berth locked down. Personally I think we need to persist with Ndombele, get him doing the simple things well. Then I would play a third CM so we can start to control games more. Whether that’s Dier, Sissoko, Winks or Skipp I don’t know. But we need the centre of the side settled and in form. Something we haven’t had all season.




Sitting on my porcelain throne using glory-glory.co.uk mobile app
 
4 years ago we were improving every season. We seemed to be on the cusp of something.

Now we have a team that needs to be rebuild. Full backs that either can't defend or can't get up and down the pitch. A number of slow centre halfs that mean we can no longer push up the pitch to press. A central midfield that an opposition team can just run through.

We have no money, being the club most dependent of match day income along with Arsenal.
We look to be back to playing Europa League.
Other big Premier League clubs like Chelsea, City and United can still afford to spend in a buyers market.

I just don't see where we go from here.
 
91 was seeing it as a kid. The Jol years as a young adult. The Potch years as seeing it as a midlife Adult. Hoping for one last run before I'm on my way out, because fudge getting old.
 
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