“It’s like to go to a fight with a gun without bullets. We did all we could do.”
— Football on BT Sport (@btsportfootball) February 19, 2020
Jose Mourinho on Tottenham’s display this evening and injuries amongst the squad…
🎤 @DesKellyBTS pic.twitter.com/o5rkdMFFDt
I think it is pretty safe to say that Erik Lamela’s time at Tottenham has been beyond frustrating. The Argentine’s injury record surely now eclipses even that of the hairdresser Darren Anderton.
Last night’s cameo from Erik would have been against any physio’s advice. The 27-year-old went from being injured, to a little light physio training, and straight into a Champions League game – where one might add – he played with the devil in him. This devotion to duty was extraordinary.
José was blunt in his post match comments, blunter than Mauricio ever could be. Sure, Mourinho was supportive of his players, but the entire crux of what José was saying is that this squad is incomplete. Who could compete with this squad? Pochettino couldn’t and that was with Kane and Son available!
Gone was the “happy with my squad” corporate line, Jose was simply bewildered about his situation. Referring to certain players, like Lo Celso and Bergwijn as being “dead”, the gaffer has now just two days before the early kick-off against Chelsea, and then we are back in the FA cup.
Worse yet, Mourinho knows that this is it. There is no reprieve, and these are all the resources he has until the end of the season.
An “unenviable task” barely describes the path ahead for the 57-year-old, and who created the environment in which it fermented. This “no strikers” thing is catastrophic. In the past we’ve always at least had two options, plus attacking players who could pop up and help out.
Mourinho doesn’t have immunity from criticism, no more than Pochettino did. But it is Daniel Levy that is the transfer don, and the neglect of the squad happened on his watch. The neglect reached a crescendo last night, in some respects, one even more powerful that the farcical Champions League final loss to Liverpool.
Last night, had we watched Poch lose 1-0 with his shoelaces tied together, it’s quite possible to believe that some fans would’ve said, “Ah look, we’re still recovering from the last build his shoelaces are tied together”, yet last night this was @’d me on Twitter.
God help us indeed.
Damage done by Enic?
I think Enic lost the players when they realised no reinforcements were on the horizon window after window… Walker, Eriksen, Mr Google Rose. Would you continue to work for a firm which was making money, underpaying employees and promising a bright new future when the new plant was finished?
It was the other mob taking liberties in the midfield which frustrates me the most.
I like your set up given Mourinho’s style.
The business model you have used is perfect.
Nicely put.
I miss The Lane, Poch, Mousa and the 5-3 win over Chelsea.
Yeah, tragic being beaten at home 2-7 by bayern m. Our worse ever home defeat. Thank you poch.
RB Leipzig have been going for eleven years. They will not buy a player over the age of 24 and they will not spend more than 20 mill on any new recruit. They seem to me to be a club with ambition but with a clear model from which they will not deviate. We are not a football club anymore, but a property investment company. Football is a secondary concern to Enic whose only ambition is to retain a place in the top four. Levy has made a huge ROI for Enic so it will be unlikely he will be sacked, particularly as he owns 29% of Enic but his shortcomings are slowly and surely being exposed by not just the literati on this blog but also by the media. They have, in the past, been content to write gushing tosh about our world class facilities but I sense there is a mood swing amongst the brighter hacks. “Only when the tide goes out do you discover who has been swimming naked”. Levy, the jig is up, do the decent thing and resign.
The problem lies at one persons door. Daniel Levy! always has and always will. Anything he has ever done well on the football side of things has been pure luck. Sick to death of this. We had no striker last night… one of the richest clubs in the premier league and we did not have a back up striker. Absolute joke.
Until we get someone who does something similar to what Moussa Dembele did for us then all we can expect is this clueless football.
Jose has the nous to get results but against quality we are always going to be relying on luck and last night the luck ran out.
Next season I expect Jose to be bold and for us to start imposing ourself onto the opposition.
Isn’t Wilfred Bony a free agent? I’m sure I saw somewhere that he is training with Newport County…bizarre!!
We showed last night that we could compete in this tie, when we showed a bit more bravery. In the second leg, we just need to go for it. Sitting back and letting them pen us in our own half is not going to work. We won’t be so lucky with their finishing or perhaps Hugo’s heroics next time. We will find ourselves 2-0 down on the night and out of the CL before half time.
It’s so frustrating watching us go from 60%+ possession every match to sub 45%. Every team seems to be outplaying us, although we have been winning games recently. There must be a balance somewhere.
Big Sam has recognised the football side of what is happening now. The squad played good football for 4 years, was not supplemented along the way in areas of need. The players certainly feel the truth of the much derided Danny “Google” Rose. The Levynomics quick fix was to appoint a key man manager to address all problems with the fools gold 2 mill bonus. Not sure if either believed CL could happen. But apart from having no backup striker the actual tactical set up last night was a disaster with Jose schooled at home with a supportive crowd by a 32yo rookie who produced a team who played football, knew what we would do and should have put the game to bed in the first half. Sitting back with a two man midfield was madness and the positionally clueless Aurier added to the midfield woes. All of this is on Jose, that stairway he was on about was not going to heaven.
As Big Sam comments the commitment and the fluency is not there and the reason is that this squad have all been through the ENIC /LEVY jam tomorrow mantra and know it is just smoke and mirrors. It is no different to a new sales team who join a company full of hyped up hope and enthusiasm but who gradually overtime realise that there is no substance in the company promise of jam tomorrow. They switch off, lose momentum and then you can only replace with more fresh meat. ENIC and Levy always buy the young guns that they can get on the cheap, fill with spin and promises, pay less than market rates and then hope that among them one or two come good and the value skyrockets so that when the player realises there is no future at the club they can be flogged for massive profits and the cycle begins again. They pay the manager a large wage packet to attract a name like Jose or keep a potential star like Pooch because that is cheaper than investing in quality players. A few world class players sprinkled among the young guns, start winning stuff and the team will gel with the combination of experience and youth.It will flourish and the players will start to believe in a future at the club.The performances will follow. To do that however you have to invest at market rates for those world class quality players and pay them the wages the market dictates not the usual Levy low balling approach. However much you dissect performances and tactics it all comes down to the poison of our faux owners who are p*ssing all over the fans and raping their wallets whilst smiling and saying but look at our nice new shiny stadium.
Mourinho told the whole world in advance of the January window (and long before sonny was injured) that he had no strikers and needed one.
Something poch would never have done? Maybe ..
Either way, levy did not deliver him one. Not even some big arsed warhorse like a C Austin or a G Murray, the kind of ball holding totem people like Dele, Lucas and Bergwyn could target and play off.
Not only did levy ignore Mourinho’s public pleas, leaving him to compete in 3 comps without a CF, the little accountant was warmly praised and celebrated for it.
Suddenly he is being damned for it.
Why?
This team at least has some genuine pace throughout. We also can pick our best available three CBs and CMs.
We may not have a striker, but Moura and Bergwijn up top can ensure that the other team don’t push forward and take liberties, hopefully allowing us to take a foothold in the game.
Agreed – the pressing and passing has disappeared from our game. That has to be partly down to Jose.
In short, he needs to move with the times or else he’ll be moved on.
Yesterday’s performance (at least for the first hour) was the same as most since Jose joined – uninspiring.
We were playing dour, long ball footie even when Kane and Son were fit, so without them it’s almost painful to watch.
I have some sympathy – missing your only two CFs and watching as a transfer window goes by again without any ambition, muct be frustrating. As such, I’m willing to give Jose at least a couple more windows to get things sorted.
However, if he receives minimal backing from ENIC/Levy and continues to play prehistoric football, he’ll be gone within the next 18 months if not sooner.
We need to get back to basics; close the opposition down, push up the pitch and squeeze the CBs, and keep the bloody round thing! Under Poch we may have been struggling, but usually we had 60%+ posession. Now we struggle to get 40% no matter the opposition.
The problem with this is that we are not good enough to defend for long periods of the game as our defence is not as adept as it once was. Add in the lack of a midfield enforcer, and it’s easy to see why we concede every game.
Personally I’d like us to play five at the back with wing-backs to at least give us some width. Play two up top with pace.
Lloris
Tanganga Alderweireld Sanchez
Aurier NDombele Ali Lo Celso Sessegnon
Moura Bergwijn
Gazzaniga
Dier
Davies
Skipp
Lamela
Gedson
Parrot
He needs the summer for sure…its 100% Levy and the Board (they own the bl.oody club). What I struggle with is the same problem Poch had..both managers have a style and both (seem to) refuse to adapt “knowing” they don’t have the staff…why these players, that are very good, cant string passes together surely has to be down to the managers system? The effort is there, so what is it…every team we play, and I mean every, out press and out pass us?
Do NOT forget that the rot had well and truly set in under Botch . He took his Pay Rise and stayed quiet . He lost the dressing room and was sacked .
“The form of the whole side is smoke. What they did to Mauricio Pochettino was tragic. What they did to get him the sack was unbelievable, it was really out of order” Big Sam said on talkSPORT.
“Sometimes as a manager you can never trust your players, and he must feel very let down that the performances turned into what they did, and Jose was asked to pick it up from there and he has found it difficult.
“There is not the commitment and fluency that we saw from Tottenham over the last four years, which means there is great damage done to that squad that needs repairing.”