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Last Seasons XI vs This Seasons XI

N

N10 Yiddo

Andy Gray
This is the time of the season last season where we had our meltdown and our loss yesterday had me thinking, is this years starting XI better than last years? By this I mean players replaced from last year and also how players have improved/de-proved over the last year.

Keepers: Lloris vs Friedel.

Although Friedel started the season due to his good form both last season and the early games, Lloris has been much preferred since November and he has shown himself as the best keeper we've had in the PL era and the best keeper in the league IMO. So I would say, keepers compared, this season wins.

Defence: Vertonghen in, King out.

Last summer, one of the best players to ever play for the club retired, leaving us with a hole to fill in defence. In stepped Jan Vertonghen, who has consistently performed defensively and given good attacking support as well. However, for the first half of the season, we had a habit of conceding late goals. We have seemed to cut it out but our defence last season did look a lot more solid. This may be due to Kaboul not playing this season through injury. But we also had a big collapse last season that let us see a 10 point lead over 4th place vanish. In conclusion, I would say our defence is the same, a draw if you will.

Midfield: Modric and VDV out for £45m, Sig, Holtby, Dembele and Dempsey in for £30m.

Although we made a late record bid of £22m for Joao Moutinho, many clubs were getting Levyed. We bought Fulham's two best players for just over £20m and they have both become key players in our team. Sigurdsson started off in the first team but found himself down the pecking order. However he has put it some good performances in big games recently, although it can be argued he should've scored more. Our central-midfield last season of Modric and Parker vs Dembele and Sandro is very close, but I would argue that this seasons midfield has improved. The only problem is that we have not replaced VDV with a goal-scoring midfielder. Dempsey is closest but nowhere near the amount VDV got for us. Yet I still think this seasons midfield just about edges it.

Forwards: Ade's not playing for a contract, but Bale's transformed.

There is no doubt that last season wins on forwards. Bale may have scored 16 PL goals but the way Adebayor has deteriorated is remarkable. He has scored 3 goals all season. Even Vertonghen has more than that. Compared to his 17 goals last season, he seems a shadow of his former self. Defoe is on about the same amount of goals but a lot of our goals have come from midfield, which begs the question why we still haven't bought another striker. Last season wins. No question.

Management: AVB's tactics or Harry's man management?

AVB had a shaky start. The best way for him to recover from his Chelsea nightmare was not to draw against Norwich and WBA in his first two home matches. But Harry had a shaky end, losing to teams like QPR and Norwich at home. He also lost in the FA Cup semi-final, not only to Chelsea, but with a heavy, humiliating 5-1 scoreline. Whereas AVB has done very well against the big teams, beating United away for the first time in 24 years and beating Arsenal and Liverpool at home. Harry also did well against the big teams but also got complacent against the smaller teams, something AVB has managed less of. IMO, Redknapp's four years win over AVB, but he also has the potential to become one of our great managers.


What does everyone think? Have we improved or have we not replaced our lost assets?
 
Rossi22 said:
Individually = Last season

As a team = This season
Click to expand...

This.

The loss of VDV and Modric was a big blow. Vertonghen is getting there, but not quite hitting King-esque heights. The difference in Adebayor from last to this season, has been counter-acted by Bales upturn.

But for me, I see a big difference in team spirit and togetherness, something that was definitely missing this time last season caused IMO by the HR/England sideshow

As many posters have rightly said, we bounced back after the Everton defeat, which although quite similar (and also after an important Euro win the previous Thursday), was a touch more gutting for me as we were only 4 mins from victory rather than 20plus.

This time we dont have to wait 7 days to get back on the pitch, which the players will probably appreciate. I'm hoping a safe passage will give them a boost to take into the game v Fulham.
With a two week break after that (for some of the squad), and the return of Dempsey, Adebayor and maybe even Kaboul for Easter I really dont think we will see a similar collapse.
The fixture list suggests we may possibly lose a couple of games, but for me nothing like last seasons implosion
 
the first line of this thread sets the tone, it sets the tempo

and it is flagrantly incorrect

this is NOT the time we had the melt down last season. that started at the end of january / early february,...and lasted until late march / early april

this is not the same at all. what this is is just one game lost. No need to go over the teams cause we lost one game IMO

everyone knows that last seasons team was more talented either way
 
I think we are more systematic with the way we play and not so dependent on momentum and flow, so we're less likely to lose our heads and implode after a dispiriting defeat. We are working harder as a team overall than last season and we can grind out wins when we're not clicking - not pretty to watch but hard to defeat. And Lloris alone is worth a dozen points.

However, losing VdV, Modric, and Adebayor's form was huge (more so than RvP for the goons imo, because they have made up for it with increased creativity). Not so much because VdV and Modric were such high-quality players, but because they were natural passers - players who would consistently get 60+ passes a game and move the ball quickly and fluidly and with some intelligence. Our line-up is now loaded with more runners and dribblers and shooters, which helps us force our way through with power and pace but doesn't give us a platform to control tempo and orchestrate midfield and systematically pick apart a deep defense. Holtby is a good start but I expect AVB and Levy to continue to address the imbalance this summer, when the TV deal should give us more funds.

Our run-in is so packed and difficult I would be surprised if we came through unscathed, and absolutely delighted to finish fourth. With the insane amounts Chelsea and Liverpool have spent I think it would be a greater accomplishment than our fourth last season, especially if we make the Europa finals too.
 
Last season's team - 9/10
This season's team - 8/10

Last season's manager - 7/10
This season's manager - 9.5/10
 
africanspurs said:
the first line of this thread sets the tone, it sets the tempo

and it is flagrantly incorrect

this is NOT the time we had the melt down last season. that started at the end of january / early february,...and lasted until late march / early april

this is not the same at all. what this is is just one game lost. No need to go over the teams cause we lost one game IMO

everyone knows that last seasons team was more talented either way
Click to expand...

Yes, Spurs had already lost four matches in the second half of season 2011-12 by the time we lost our first match in the second half of this season....

P0210_zps40dba65b.png
 
africanspurs said:
the first line of this thread sets the tone, it sets the tempo

and it is flagrantly incorrect

this is NOT the time we had the melt down last season. that started at the end of january / early february,...and lasted until late march / early april

this is not the same at all. what this is is just one game lost. No need to go over the teams cause we lost one game IMO

everyone knows that last seasons team was more talented either way
Click to expand...

A very fair, and accurate, appraisal...though I 'think' the thread starter was just putting something of interest out there rather than reacting to the blip.
 
Gutter Boy said:
Last season's team - 9/10
This season's team - 8/10

Last season's manager - 7/10
This season's manager - 9.5/10
Click to expand...

Not sure i agree with the exact numbers but the gist is correct imv - a slightly weaker team than last season but with a better manager.
 
Relatively premature..



I'm going to wait until the end of the season before comparing them to each other. We're still not assured of a top four finish.
 
I am sure there is bias ingrained throughout this thread but until the season is over we cannot really appraise the season nor team.

You cant praise the signings then argue we are weaker - laughable. As far as im concerned the actual squad is on par with last season where we have weakened in some areas (midfield with modric sale) we have strengthened in defence (Vertonghen) however you could argue by reading through this board that we have brought in AMAAAAZING and EXCELLEEEEEEEEEENT and FABULOUUUUUUUUUUUUS signings which would indicate a better team this season than last season.

Anyways.
 
Rossi22 said:
Individually = Last season

As a team = This season
Click to expand...

Agreement.


africanspurs said:
the first line of this thread sets the tone, it sets the tempo

and it is flagrantly incorrect

this is NOT the time we had the melt down last season. that started at the end of january / early february,...and lasted until late march / early april

this is not the same at all. what this is is just one game lost. No need to go over the teams cause we lost one game IMO

everyone knows that last seasons team was more talented either way
Click to expand...

Again agreement.
 
Very hard to say until the end of the season, but I'll give it a go.

We have clearly upgraded in the goalkeeping department.

I'm surprised how well we've coped without King and Modric. Yeah we struggle to break team down who are defensive, but this has been the case for years.

There's no question we miss Van Der Vaart.

I'd say the squad is on a par with last season.

Can't judge Villas Boas until the end of the season, but so far, I'd give him an 8.
 
I agree with those saying as a team, a unit, we look better. We press much better as a team, and I think we look a lot more organised.

But like markysimmo has said, we've lost King, Modric and VDV who are all on there day world class footballers, so individually we are definitely not as good as last season in my view.
 
markysimmo said:
To lose King, Modric and VDV and be a better team than last year is some going
Click to expand...

We've actually lost even more than that. For most of last season like Saudi Sportswashing Machine we were fortunate with injuries and able to field a consistent XI, which gave us that brilliant first-half winning run. This season we've been hit with major injuries to Kaboul (our best CB last season), Parker (for half a season), Sandro (for half a season), BAE (our only real LB), Ade (17 goals and 11 assists last season) etc.

We've had no recognized LB for most of our games, our back five has kept chopping and changing, Ade has turned to toss. We have no deep-lying playmaker to pull the strings anymore; hell I don't think we even have a normal no. 10-ish playmaker anymore, for all the midfielders we've bought. Christ, we've been playing DEFOE as LONE STRIKER for half this season :eek:

For me, it's pretty miraculous we've come so far :lol: Yes the emergence of SuperBale has helped, but AVB has had to work overtime to make something of this squad.
 
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