Regular readers will be aware that West Ham and even Chelsea cause me a greater amount of irritation than this mob. But this particular performance has incensed me.
JOSÉ has well and truly baffled me here. The last 15 minutes only served to make me wonder what the overtly sophisticated strategy was for the first 75. Spurs looked in the main, listless and Lilly-livered.
DOHERTY is utterly devoid of anything that any top-flight English football side might ever need. Everyone has their breaking point and mine was this afternoon. No positives and nothing to ponder. He must go. No rehabilitation. This is a broken thing that cannot be fixed.
BALE under the close inspection of a derby simply wasn’t good enough. A few nice touches but this was a hugely disappointing run-out.
LAMELA was as predictable as a stopped clock. Fought as if his family’s lives were at stake, scored a corker, and then proceeded to meet out one not so sly dig too many.
SONNY unsurprisingly, a player that has started every single Premier League this season has done his hamstring.
None of this bodes well. None of this.
We only improved in the last 15 minutes because their lot started to sit back and defend what they had instead of pressing us higher up the field.
Dreadful afternoon
To not play with heart and fight in a NLD is not good enough.
I have absolutely no idea what the tactics were. The team meandered around, conceded possession, panicked and kept giving the ball away. There was no pressing from the off, we conceded ground and let an average Arsenal boss the game.
This isn’t the first time we have played like this and barring the last 5 games against rubbish opposition, we have been terrible for a good number of months now.
How any manager worth their salt can continue to pick Doherty is incredible. He has not had one good game for Spurs, he is one of the worst players that i have seen play for us.
The players were so bad today and the question is what is happening on the training pitch, what is being said in preparation to send the players out to perform like that.
To lose in that manner against them really hurts, it’s shameful.
Football is too easy these days, stroll around, don’t put the hard yards in and collect your 200k for the week. These guys aren’t motivated, they aren’t hungry, they don’t care. Even the Manager, he is on 15m a year, does he really care?
Football is one of the only jobs where you are consistently rewarded for abject failure.
A completely avoidable goal. Pin the blame on Lloris for the poor throw out.
This particular NLD came at the wrong time IMO.
Yes, they played in the EL too. Difference is Mourinho actually wants to win it. The team he put out Thurs was always going to struggle today. HK hobbled off on Thurs and was never going to be 100% fit. Sonny has been running on empty for a while now so today’s injury was inevitable, then of course we have players who just aren’t very good.
I have to believe Jose plays the likes of Winks, Sissoko et al to prove to Levy just how poor the squad is.
Penalty was harsh, and they didn’t look that good. Like many teams, we make them look good.
I know we’re clutching at straws here but I thought Sanchez had a good game.
That has to be the worst game I’ve seen Spurs play for years. The fact that it was a North London Derby makes it even worse, there was no fight, passion, effort or movement, the only Spurs player that came out of that with any credibility was Lucas Moura.
I honestly never want to see Doherty wear a Spurs shirt again, he must be the worst right back we’ve ever had, he was done every time they attacked down their left and he never learnt, he didn’t have a clue what was going on.
Bale was none existent and never tracked back off the ball, you would have thought he would show some fight being the game it was. He was a complete waste of time.
God knows what Sanchez was thinking putting in a challenge like that in the box, he was nowhere near the ball and he was lucky not to go himself.
As for Lamela, apart from the odd bit of brilliance he shows now and again like his goal, he runs round like a headless chicken throwing his arms around, having been booked already, he was a complete idiot doing what he done.
We seriously need an overhaul in the summer, getting rid of Doherty, Sissoko, Lamela, Aurier, Dier, Lloris. We need all these out and probably one or two more, although we probably won’t make much money out of that lot to replace them, uncle Joe needs to put his hand in his pocket for once and supply Mourinho with some cash to buy some quality for a change.
20 years of ENIC, Lewis and Levy and nothing but a league cup to show for it is a terrible record, something like 11 managers or so levy has been through, it’s really time we got rid of ENIC, I for one don’t want another 20 years of no real investment in the team. If they don’t show some intent in the summer we’ll lose the likes of Kane and Son, and if that happens, we really will be in trouble.
Last season Jack Grealish was on 35k a week. Last september he got a rise to 105k a week…. All this time Ndom has been picking up 200k a week… He is clearly not a 200k a week player. You don’t pay Kane and Salah wages for potential… This isn’t the lads fault.. It was our scouts and Levy and Botch overating him.
Very prescient analysis. No energy, no movement off the ball, no pressure when we didn’t have the ball. The first thought was always to play the ball backwards or sideways instead of forward. Why did we persist with playing out from the back? I dont think we beat the press once and it cost us the second goal. What is the most disappointing thing for me is that Arsenal side were there for the taking. Hopefully Sonny’s injury isn’t serious. The international break may be a blessing there.
I agree. Not making excuses, because we were poor today, but Oliver made a few decisions that favoured Arsenal. Today was our chance to really press on in our top 4 pursuit. Predictably we blew it.
This performance has sucked the life out of me. The good feel factor of the last few games has disappeared like a mirage in the desert. I am not paid £15 million squids a year to manage this motley collection but even I could see that Tierney would have to be matched again Aurier. When I saw Docherty on the team sheet I had that sinking feeling that this was a massive weakness waiting to be exploited and so it turned out to be the case. Thanks to Docherty we failed to hold our lead for the first half. He should have been hooked for that first-half performance alone and the fact that he remained on the pitch for the next 45 mins is a decision that will baffle me for a long time. Bale was poor but I have some sympathy in that he had Docherty behind him, a no-show Ndombele, who is also showing signs of just not being good enough for the EPL, a clearly injured Kane, and a missing Son. Bale is not a tracking back attacker. He needs someone like Requilion behind him and an attacking midfielder to open up spaces for him to operate in. Replacing him with Sissoko whilst leaving Docherty on made no sense when we needed to be more offensive. Maybe Bale might have converted a free kick or taken better corners even if he was on the periphery of the action. What exactly did Ali add to the mix when he came on? All in all, this is perhaps the most deflating performance of the season for me. I really despair about the future of this club. Kane and Son will not be here next season based on this result and then what?
Things are becoming clear, the following are spent at Spurs:
Sissy, Winks, Doherty, Dier, Vini
So five players have to leave in the summer before thinking of anything else.
Moura played with fight and Lamela scored an all time great goal are the only positives. Back to Cup Final or bust with maybe a sideline in the Europa.
The display of a very tired team. Kane was supposed to have just passed an injury test before the Crystal Palace game and he looks either carrying an injury or exhausted.
All our best players Son, Hojbjerg, N’Dombele, Kane were below par, too many miles on the clock.
We’ve played more games than any any other team, plus those useless unnecessary International games. No real preseason, not enough time to recover. Covid messing with everyone’s minds.
We don’t have the Man City type squad to rotate without fear. I’m going to cut Jose and the players a bit of slack. Almost every team is suffering form that is up one minute down the next.
Bad day at the office. Even Hojberg was terrible…. The only man who can stand tall and proud is Lucas Moura. He played well. Toby wasn’t bad. The rest 👎
That was never a penalty. The rules clearly state the ball has to be in play.. The man had taken his shot and the ball was gone…. I’ve been refused penalties and free kicks all my footballing career for this.. Amateur and semi pro refs are more switched on than these guys and they don’t have var video replay. That ref is one of the prems best too. Shocking.