Surprising to see players who have been making costly errors in big games for absolutely ages make costly errors in a big game.
— James Maw (@JamesTMaw) March 10, 2020
This was written on the night of our 3-0 Champions League defeat to RB Leipzig, Tottenham’s last action before the COVID-19 postponement.
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It provided me with some light relief on an otherwise damning evening.
It’s funny because it’s true, as the saying goes.
But it shouldn’t be funny because it actually underlines a couple of serious problems at Spurs.
No.1) There are three defensive positions where our first-choice players make frequent mistakes – Hugo Lloris, Serge Aurier and Ben Davies being the three players in question. And they make mistakes in big games.
When 3/5 of the defence is this unreliable, what chance has the team got of sustainable success? These are three positions where we need new signings.
No.2) Why have these players been given so many chances? Mauricio Pochettino created a culture where everybody got a game regardless of whether they were playing well or not. Good performances should be rewarded and bad performances punished. But such was the extent of the rotation under the Argentine that a player knew if he was only ever a week or two from his next game even if he was fresh off a couple of blunders.
Jose Mourinho needs to correct this. He has started to, benching Dele Alli, Tanguy Ndombele and Eric Dier, and exiling Juan Foyth after his error at Norwich. But senior pros are still allowed to get away with far too much. Maybe Jose doesn’t feel he has the options in the three areas highlighted to be so stern, but this is a basic principle that’s been lost at Spurs. Players will keep making mistakes until they learn there are consequences for them.
“The future’s bleak, the future’s Levy…”
Fernandes was the profile of player we needed to go for, a player to improve the team straight away. Tanguy is the one we went for because of his age and a lot of his fee will be add ons over several years etc.
Don’t blame Tanguy at 22 years of age, if you insist on buying key players of this profile you are going to hit issues. When you also bring in a manager with no track record of development of younger players, you have to wonder if Levy is making it up as he goes along.
Going on his history at Spurs, there is no doubt that there is no plan on the pitch at all. Apart from installing Amazon cameras in the home changing room…
ENIC OUT.
Fernandes was the profile of player we needed to go for, a player to improve the team straight away. Tanguy is the one we went for because of his age and a lot of his fee will be add ons over several years etc.
Don’t blame Tanguy at 22 years of age, if you insist on buying key players of this profile you are going to hit issues. When you also bring in a manager with no track record of development of younger players, you have to wonder if Levy is making it up as he goes along.
Going on his history at Spurs, there is no doubt that there is no plan on the pitch at all. Apart from installing Amazon cameras in the home changing room…
ENIC OUT.
What says volumes is that we had the opportunity to get Bruno Fernandes and did not take it. Instead we got Bergwin and a not so good Fernandes. Bruno Fernandes is real class, the two we got are clearly not. Could have had Dybala, but now thinking of Giroud!!!
Who is making these decisions, they obviously do not know how to build a team to win the PL or anything else. If we want to win something we need to buy quality players whenever we get the opportunity to sign them. Bruno Fernandes, Lo Celso, Sissoko and Ndombele had the makings of a real class midfield. Need to put another plan together but this time execute it in full, no half measures. We have too many under performing players, new quality is desperately required in most areas. If Levy does not get the squad right this window it’s time for him to go.
Totally agree, particularly on no replacement for Loriente. He might have been slow but an experienced player who played a key role in that run to the final.
Levy is just an insufferable bore who really doesn’t care less about what people think. That would be ok if we won stuff but the last 20 years shows that we don’t win stuff with him in charge.
Everything is done on the cheap and the stadium is all debt. It’s looking bleak and the football is now terrible.
Love the club and I hate to see what’s happening to it…
ENIC OUT.
Lo celso is good for 25 mil.. The rest have to be thumbs down. That 150 mil or whatever levys spent on have been litter.. Even Kane is turning now. No striker after Llorente was axed I thought was shocking. With kanes injuries we had to get back up. Now its been two more windows since then! Semi pro and amateur clubs don’t go without players, never mind pro clubs. Levy looked like a right cowboy in the last window. Fernandes went to manure and hes an absolute beast. Hes better than all our recent signings put together. We missed out with him thats for sure. And then when we were screaming out for a striker we signed noone. Ighalo went to united, bowen went to spam, teams with already fit strikers. Our biggest link or striker who we were led to believe was coming was giroud who said he had no intention of coming to us. He wanted to go abroad… The best clubs have competition for places. Quality players as back up. We will never win anything running barebones with threadbare squads.
Correct, no bench to speak of, no back up to Kane, Poch offered low grade bargain French imports to bolster the squad but not improve it. In the end it was a case of either we sign players that improve the squad or don’t bother.
It ended with NoCluedo under Poch, but I’m not sure it’s finished under Maureen either. Fernandez and Van Bergwin don’t look like world beaters to me. Lo Celso looks a player, so far Tanguy hasn’t got started but we’ll see.
Whichever way you look at it, we need a rebuild because of Levy’s nonsense over the last few seasons…
There is a well-known concept in team sports and not just football, it’s called competition for places. We don’t have it. It’s one of the reasons we never won anything.