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A day is a long time in football....

NYSpur

NYSpur

Andy Gray
The saying was that a week is a long time in politics, but if the fan predictions in The Observer (https://www.theguardian.com/footbal...ans-verdict-2015-16-arsenal-manchester-united and https://www.theguardian.com/footbal...-parts-2-Saudi Sportswashing Machine-west-ham ) are anything to go by, a day (or less) is a long time in football. An impressive number pick us as a bet for title winners next year -- I wonder if our abject performance today would change a number of their minds? Or is it just a blip that should not eradicate what was achieved over the season as a whole?
 
A blip shouldn't change people's opnions but football fans are fickle. Football fans are especially fickle when it comes to other teams. Most of what people go by when it comes to other teams is a few highlight reels on MOTD. I think after today many, if not maybe all, of them would change their minds. Just as many on here have changed their minds today!
 
What? We were going to get beaten before the game, that was a widespread consensus. That we were absolutely annihilated by a ten-man Saudi Sportswashing Machine side is shocking...but the result itself (i.e, a loss) is nothing surprising. What *is* surprising is finishing behind Arsenal again after another predictably large lead in March and April.

A season is a long time in football, more like. At the start, 5th would have been a decent season. That we're disappointed to finish 3rd is itself indicative of undisputed progress, but to say that we should be happy with it because that's what we would have taken is a bit disingenuous. If you'd offered fans 3rd place, but with the caveat that we'd throw away a huge lead over Arsenal to finish behind them *again* and that we'd be d*cked 5-1 by a ten-man Saudi Sportswashing Machine side who'd already been relegated, I think it would at least give some people pause.

Sigh.
 
A day? Only a day? - think till the start of the season and then some. I feel betrayed by their performances in the last three games and I dont know how I would bring myself to watch this team again next year especially if I get an inkling that certain players are still in the squad. As Poch said, some of the players lack the mentality. I am not going to trust this team next season to deliver when it counts especially after they went on holiday with three games to go. Eff them.
 
I haven't seen yesterday's game yet, I tried to watch it but couldn't find any wool for my knitting. I followed much of it on here and after that was in no mood to listen to the gloating pundits on MOTD.

Disappointed in the result but also the manner of the result judging by the OMT.
Hopefully now the day is past we can look it at it a bit more subjectively.
1.Leicester won the league, Leicester ffs. And by a double digit margin. Let's not forget that, if Arsenal or any other of the big clubs want to forget that and define their season by our collapse then fine, but all they are doing is deflecting. It should be hurting them a lot more than we are hurting.

2. Would this be so painful if it was Man U or Emirates Marketing Project overtaking us for second? No probably not. The bigger picture is not us against Arsenal, it should be about finishing as high as possible regardless of who's in front of you.

3. We overachieved this season, no ifs, no buts or maybes. Maybe with the summer to dwell on it some of the players will realise what they can achieve next season with a bit of growth in key areas.

4. Poch sounded life fergie yesterday, and I hope there's a few squad members who realise what that could mean for them. Man up or move on. Next season is the crucial one.

COYS
 
Did we over achieve or did the usual suspects under achieve? I'd argue the latter. Normally the likes of City, United, Chelsea etc get 75+ points. Had they done so this year we would have been down in fifth or sixth. I frankly don't care that we finished third, we finished third by default because everyone else was crap. We still remain a team of bottlers and the disastrous way our season finished to allow them lot to finish above us, again, is disgraceful. I am really angry because in my view they have undone all the good work from the season as a whole and after previously thinking our performances over the first 33 games would mean we shall remain challengers over the next few seasons, the performances over the last five have made me think that actually the first 33 were the anomaly and not the last five, and we will be back down to our usual fifth/sixth place next year. Message to the squad: Grow a fudging backbone you useless tacos!
 
Yesterday could actually have been good for us. While it was shocking to see our team capitulate in that way, especially to finish behind the Woolwich Nomads, what that performance (and indeed our performances against Southampton and WBA) would've shown Pochettino (and Levy) is that our squad is not good enough to put in a real, proper, sustained challenge for the league title. We cannot put our faith in players such as Mason or Carroll if we want to be champions, they are reasonable players, but ones of the level of a Bournmouth type team. We cannot be solely reliant on a single centre forward to get us our goals. We cannot only possess a single player in the squad who allows us to successfully transition from defence to attack.

We need to have about 20 or 21 proper ‘first choice’ quality players in our squad so that the team dynamic doesn’t suffer if players are injured/suspended/rested/dropped, but more than that we need players who can come on and actually change the game. The only player we currently have who can come on and change the game is Son. However if any of our first choice attacking midfield 3 are out then he starts the game and then we have nobody at all on the bench who can make a difference.

Once filling the first 20/21 spaces with quality, the final 4 or 5 positions in the squad can be filled with 2 or 3 promising youngsters like Pritchard, N’Jie and Onomah, we can also then have a utility player or two like Mason who is prepared to be just a squad member.

I would say that we currently have the following who can all start matches for us:

Lloris
Vorm (just about)
Walker
Rose
Davies (although I wouldn’t mind an upgrade)
Trippier
Alderweireld
Vertonghen
Wimmer
Dier
Dembele
Bentaleb (perhaps)
Lamela
Eriksen
Alli
Son
Kane

That is 17 players. I therefore think that we need to find 3 or 4 proven quality players this summer. We will (hopefully) have a lot of games to play next season, a season in which we need to be contending for silverware, perhaps across multiple competitions. We need proven quality options in the squad so that Pochettino has a fighting chance of achieving his (and our) ambitions.
 
I was surprised that people started worrying that we won't finish top 4 next season as I honestly think we will, our first team is the absolute dogs you-know-whats but sadly they're so good that our back up players hardly get any match practise or just aren't good enough, as was the case yesterday.

Struggled to sleep last night and woke up early, all because once again our lot let us down, big time. Sadly because of yesterday we will now have doubts about our team and because of that when things look a bit nervy the apprehension in the stands may end up on the pitch and affect them a lot.

Also, we saw this the last time we qualified for the CL. Went to an already relegated side knowing we could finish above Arsenal and got humiliated 4-2 after being 2-0 up although strangely enough this time our season has been better and the last day humiliation worse (5-1 to ten men).

Anyway, this lot is still very young and the key for them now is to win trophies, nothing else.
 
The key thing is to learn from these mistakes. If they really do want to win things (and let's face it, they talk the talk nowadays) they need to make sure that performances like the last two do not happen again. They need to find ways to win when playing badly, and not get beat when playing brick.
 
Tottenham: 8/10

Pochettino has done wonders. We now attack and defend as a team, we’re hard to beat and the players have bought into his philosophy. The only concern now is depth. We have a very good first XI and cover for the back four – but as soon as one of the midfield or Kane is out, we struggle. For example, with Alli our win percentage is 56; without him it’s 17.
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Woah, did not know that but sought of guessed it tbh.

Anyway, still a long way to go and a lot to learn.
 
glasgowspur said:
I haven't seen yesterday's game yet, I tried to watch it but couldn't find any
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I too struggled to get a decent view

I watched the first half again on fullmatchesandshows

From comments on here I thought we must have been diabolical and asleep, but we controlled the first 10 minutes well, Saudi Sportswashing Machine hardly touched the ball and the commentators mentioned that we had come out of the traps well and were dominant.
 
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