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Our form against rivals and big teams

S

spurs' magna carter

Ronnie Rosenthal
Is a real worry.

Arsenal 1-0 Tottenham
Tottenham 1-1 Chelsea
Everton 0-0Tottenham
Emirates Marketing Project 6-0 Tottenham
Tottenham 2-2 Man Utd
Tottenham 0-5 Liverpool
Man Utd 1-2 Tottenham
Tottenham 1-5 Emirates Marketing Project

P8 W1 D3 L4 F6 A21 GD -15 Pts 6

That's 18 points we've lost against our main rivals, what's worse is that in the space of about 10 weeks we have conceded 5 or more goals on 3 occasions. Whilst we have taken 4 points from Utd our form against the other five reads

P6 W0 D2 L4 F2 A18

I think it's fair to say that appalling would be an understatement.

This worry needs to be ratified and soon, in 10 days we will play Everton (H) before the mother of all months arrives in the form of March where we will play Chelsea (A), Arsenal (H), Liverpool (A) in the space of four games. Many will tell that if you are aiming high you have to beat the small teams but as this season has shown you simply cannot forget the importance of the matches against the big teams, if had taken just 4 points more from those games than we did then we would be 4th right now.
 
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Our defence simply isnt good enough. Fine at against the weaker teams like Palace where you can get away with it but you get blown away by better ones. Having 2 attacking full backs is probably a bit naive and having no real pace in central defence leaves us highly exposed if we try to press high up. If we sit back we dont have the quality or the composure to keep the ball and end up just giving the ball away.

I think even if we learn to 'park the bus', we haven't got good enough counter attacking players to hurt the opposition or a real threat from set pieces to rely on in tight games.
 
Eh, the top teams have a consistent level of mental strength our boys are lacking. We fold too easily, don't put the effort in, take our foot of the gas when we feel we've done enough and either start or finish games looking sluggish and disinterested even after a 13-day break.

Sure, we occasionally look motivated and up for it, but by and large our boys really seem to give up quite easily, sometimes not even bothering to show up in the first place. Not sure how much can be done to change that, and for now we can but grudgingly accept it. We will win most games against the bottom twelve or thirteen due to our superior quality and effort when facing sides we 'should' beat, which is definitely a good thing given our inconsistency in recent years. However, the top teams seem to want the result more than our lads do, and we should probably accept that (at least for this season) we won't ever look comfortable when playing them. We'll occasionally look lion-hearted (like in the Man United win), but by and large we'll succumb to these strange fits of mental laziness our players all seem to have at various times.
 
One huge difference in the 'big' games appears to be a total lack of belief and desire. It was certainly the case against Liverpool and the two City games where the contrast in mental approach between ourselves and the opposition was frightening. A good part of the reason we were slaughtered was because they went at us from the off like they wanted to annihilate us from the planet. You may recall Gary Neville highlighting our shambolic body-language at the start of the 0-6 hammering against City at the Etihad. It's like the squad had absolutely zero faith in the system they were being asked to adopt against the bigger teams and could not therefore see the point in putting their bodies on the line for the cause.

Whereas against United the collective mentality seemed to be, hey, this lot are not what they used to be, we've got a chance here. So it would appear the first thing that needs to be put right is the system of play we adopt against the top teams; the players need to believe it has a chance of working.
 
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And against all those bad results we sit in 5th place, 3 pts behind 4th and 7 pts behind 3rd, yes my glass is half full.
 
spurs' magna carter said:
Is a real worry.

Arsenal 1-0 Tottenham
Tottenham 1-1 Chelsea
Everton 0-0Tottenham
Emirates Marketing Project 6-0 Tottenham
Tottenham 2-2 Man Utd
Tottenham 0-5 Liverpool
Man Utd 1-2 Tottenham
Tottenham 1-5 Emirates Marketing Project

P8 W1 D3 L4 F6 A21 GD -15 Pts 6

That's 18 points we've lost against our main rivals, what's worse is that in the space of about 10 weeks we have conceded 5 or more goals on 3 occasions. Whilst we have taken 4 points from Utd our form against the other five reads

P6 W0 D2 L4 F2 A18

I think it's fair to say that appalling would be an understatement.

This worry needs to be ratified and soon, in 10 days we will play Everton (H) before the mother of all months arrives in the form of March where we will play Chelsea (A), Arsenal (H), Liverpool (A) in the space of four games. Many will tell that if you are aiming high you have to beat the small teams but as this season has shown you simply cannot forget the importance of the matches against the big teams, if had taken just 4 points more from those games than we did then we would be 4th right now.
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I think the only shocker we've had was Liverpool at home, really.

I wouldn't put too much into either of the City games, because they are frighteningly good. Yesterday we would've had at least a decent result if not for the linesman's ****up. And who would ever expect to beat them or **** away anyway?

We probably should/could have gotten wins against Chelski or Manu at home - especially Manu, but Chelski have bought a pretty damn good team themselves, and is not easy to beat. The draw away to Everton and win at Old Trafford were good results.

Personally I worry more about 0-3 vs West Ham, 0-1 vs Saudi Sportswashing Machine (how good was Krul that day!!) and 1-1 vs West Brom. Those are the games we should be winning.
 
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In recent years (when I've bothered to check things out), I found we dropped more points to the bottom 4 than to four best (excluding us).

Or was it 5 ?.

I told you it wasn't scientific, but considering these teams had ended up in the bottom IN SPITE of taking points from us shows how poor/sloppy/lazy /uninspired we'd been.

This year we've been better with the lower sides, but not a little luck with decisions in our favour. I pty the Welsh sides - not that they should be in our league any more.
 
I'm not sure how anyone thinks "its not a worry" or "results against City don't matter"

It certainly feels like this is the worst result against rivals year, and the GD is extremely telling, doesn't matter how you want to justify.

Spurs has the only -GD in the top 9 sides, and #10 is ****ing Villa
 
I'm sure even when we were crap we didn't get battered as regularly as we have done this season.
 
It's very worrying. There are only so many humiliations I can take in one season.

Spurs 0-3 West Ham
Emirates Marketing Project 6-0 Spurs
Spurs 0-5 Liverpool
Arsenal 2-0 Spurs (FA Cup)
Spurs 1-5 Emirates Marketing Project

That is unforgivable over two or three seasons, let alone all happening in the space of three months. Our players are weak mentally in the big games and look scared against the teams who play quick, incisive football.

Thankfully the bottom half is the weakest in Premier League history, so we will hopefully continue to churn out some wins but right now I remain amazed we are where we are.
 
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