I am looking forward to today’s game with a mixture of trepidation and hope. I expect more of the same from Spurs, where we cede possession to Arsenal and hope to hit them on the break. You don’t need to be a brain surgeon to work out our tactics. As long as we don’t go behind too quickly and by too many, we stand a chance of a result.
In regard to our transfer business, we are slightly stronger, but our squad isn’t deep enough to play in so many competitions and for those fans who gleefully cheered when our group was announced in the Champions League, reality has set in and there is no certainty that we will qualify for the next stage.
My overwhelming feeling for the quality and rating of any players we sign is based on the simple metric of whether they would get into Liverpool, City, or Chelsea’s teams and the jury is certainly out on that.
Kulu, Romero, and Bentancur do not really count as new signings as they came in last season. Of this window’s signings, Perišić has been good but he is thirty-three, Richarlison looks promising, but I agree that he was signed to replace Kane when he inevitably leaves, the jury is out on Lenglet who is unlikely to be a long-term solution and I have no idea what has happened to Bissouma who looked a good player at Brighton but seems very peripheral up until now.
What never ceases to surprise me is that the areas of the team/squad which are obvious to most fans that need strengthening have not been.
Poch ..changing things..in the 85 th minute maybe..one of his faults…that was.
You are that! ☺️
Me included.
I like that, Harry!
Agreed!
Brighton are doing just fine, minus Bissouma…
There’s enough weirdos on here already!! 😂
At least there wont be massive pay off money a la Jose & Poch
Overrated is on the mark. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a manager/coach who so rigidly refuses steadfastly to move from a set formation. Ok, bar the latest thrashing from our nemesis down the road, we’ve been able to grind out points. But Mourinho, Poch, Jol, and every manager in forever recognises that changing things about means opposition coaches aren’t always sure what to defend against on any given game. Conte’s Spurs are too predictable, and on top of that, just aren’t good enough in defence.
He’s deranged, not only that, but he can’t decide whether to post under the name Chirpy or Ben.
Maybe once he’s resolved his existential crisis, he’ll make more sense
I feels like we’ve stood still and just improved some squad depth, which has little impact on the results. We haven’t upgraded a single position in the first team on last season, with the exception of Perisic, who as you say can’t play 90mins of every game.
Arsenal have improved their first 11 on last season and it’s showing, secondly the club are committed to whatever they think Arteta is doing. Regardless of how good Arteta may or may not be, it brings stability.
The rumors around Conte’s departure are growing every day, our club is run like rudderless ship half the time. Quick fixes, trying to repair previous willful neglect etc.
Football is not the focus under ENIC/Levy, it never has been and it never will be. Nothing will change until they’re gone, just have to accept it.
It’s very hard to be too invested in such a sham, season after season and the unrest after Nuno was the reason why Conte was brought in, to repair the damage the owners had done. Where do we go from here? Back to treading water, as usual…
The only two signings worth a mention are Richarlison and Bissouma. Richarlison looked ineffectual to me yesterday and as I have mentioned before, I would have preferred us to have bought Jesus who has had a great impact on Arsenal. I have no idea what is going on with Bissouma but if you analyse the other signings, they are a bit of a hotchpotch. I discount Romero as a new signing even though the club’s PR machine tout him a a new one. Spence is a Levy punt and as he doesn’t appear to be able to displace either Emerson or Doherty from that position, it speaks volumes as to Conte’s opinion. Perisic is a good player who can’t last ninety minutes which is hardly surprising given his age. I am completely ambivalent about Forster. We have had worse back up keepers but I would have preferred a longer term solution to Lloris’s successor as he is clearly in the latter stages of his career. Lenglet looks reasonable but he is on loan and I doubt we will sign him long term. This leaves Udogie to come next season and I can only hope he is better than Sessegnon.
All in all, despite lavish praise from certain sectors of the fan base and MM, the window was not what was needed to propel us forwards.
I thought the way we lost in Lisbon was more of a horror show than it was made out. It was a terrible result to a side we should not be losing to and yesterday felt like a similar malaise.
We finished last season strongly and the objective was achieved by Conte by getting into the Champions League. It feels like this season that there’s no real sense of direction and the performances have been strangely flat. Perhaps it’s common knowledge that Conte will leave in the summer, possibly that it’s Kane’s final spurs season.
Poch should have been backed, since he wasn’t we’ve been in various states of chaos with Jose (not backing him either) and the desperate appointment of Nuno being a new low. Conte came in to steady the ship, and has made a very good job of it but he will go and the 23 years of water treading and property development will continue, with yet another well paid and ENIC compliant manager…
Doesn’t sound like it does it…
Why are you being quite so evangelical about the Summer transfers and drawing a line between them and everyone else in the team? The fact is, none of the summer signings improve the first 11 other than Perisic. We made what eight signings? Only one improves the starting 11 and gets in when everyone’s fit and in form. Lenglet was in for Davies, is he much better than Davies over a season? Who knows, but I certainly had to Google him…
Do you work on behalf of the club’s PR in some capacity?
As Eddie added, all the managers are playing the same style. This suggests to me that this squad (which hasn’t been improved) isn’t capable of playing a more sophisticated game.
You don’t understand football, at all.
What Squad?? Bizzy is the only sub worth putting on and he looks like he has been reset into cant play football mode .
Gil was our only attacking option and we only had one injury in the whole squad.
The article is about new signings. The new signings were not the problem.
Problem 1is the misguided belief Hojbjerg can help run a two man midfield
Problem 2 is Conte’s faith in the unremarkable Royal.
Problem 3 was Lloris throwing another one in in a big game.
1 and 2 are easily solvable.
3 is a ‘proven’ player
Exactly, who is actually up to the job? The club equivalent of the England job…
I know what you mean about their longevity.Their fixture list so far has been kind, Spurs at home is also kind. There will be tougher challenges ahead for Woolwich, and over the season I feel they may falter, as I don’t particularly rate Arteta as a manager. He’s fine when it’s all going well.
However we have our own set of issues, mainly about the way we are run as a football club…
The team lack quality, I’m not quite sure what your point is.
I did say, there isn’t a manager out there that could get them playing well.
The squad reminds me of someone trying to build a Ferrari but with reliant robin and Ford escort parts. The car works, just not like a Ferrari.
New signings weren’t the liability today. Lenglet was solid, Saka was hardly in the game. Richarlison was industrious, not great but put a shift it.
Well in the game until Lloris decided to throw one in. Then Royal does an equal madness.
So can you name any manager who up to the task of managing Spurs and actually winning silverware? If you cloned the best attributes from a combination of Billy Nic, Clough, Shankley and Ferguson, the composite would fail. Twenty three years of failure and downright mediocrity can be laid firmly at the door of one man. Wait until we play this rubbish football at home and lose and we are away to Eintract Frankfurt on Tuesday. I can only smell trouble ahead.
Yet they dismantled us rather easily
Controversial….. I really don’t think Conte is up to the job. Not his fault entirely. I’m not sure there’s a manager out there who would get a tune out of this lot.
If we are to believe that Spence aside that the signings were all his. He’s not very confident playing them. He’s stuck in the same groove as others before him. Afraid to drop the big name (s) Again not entirely his fault as he doesn’t have a lot to choose from.
We get technically out played by pretty much every team we play and its painful to watch..
After Emerson got sent off i walked away and stopped watching..its been a long time, in fact I can’t remember the last time I didn’t finish watching a game till the end..22 years and counting and its just another manager that will not win a trophy. In fact it may be easier for Conte to leave now that Jose proved it wasn’t him that stopped HIM from winning when he finally goes…the bench isn’t that great, it can’t be or he’d be using them more. You have to feel for the likes of Gil etc, they will never get to play. Eddie Howe was laughed off as our next manager but i think he’d do better with this bunch, be it we will enjoy watching us play more….not saying Conte isn’t a good manager, just dont think he has the right players for his system to work. He’s already started to moan about decisions, the sending off could’ve been a yellow but I wasn’t shouting it wasn’t….
The players aren’t technical enough and lack the quality to play as Conte wants, is my take on it.
Sadly Dexter, since 1962, my timing couldn’t have been worse. There have been sporadic periods of enjoyment, under Burkinshaw, our Tel, moments under Jol and longer periods under Poch, but Enic and Levy have sucked the blood and soul out of our club. I don’t have a problem that we don’t make extravagant but stupid signings like Pogba, Lukaku etc, but twenty three years of football ineptitude does become very wearing and stretch one’s loyalty. The problem is that Levy is a sociopath who has no awareness of his continued failure to understand the first thing about running a professional football club. They say that you learn from your mistakes and that with age comes wisdom, but there is little evidence that these proverbs have resonated within Levy’s skull or ever will do.
It will be interesting to see what happens when the inevitable parting of the ways happens with the much overrated Conte.
Ok mate… 😂
Well said.
As ever Marbs, you’re a hard man to disagree with – not that I want an excuse to – because you have the wisdom of a long-suffering Spurs fan.
The past transfer window was a sham, served up by the same man who’s ineptitude and lack of desire to win has dragged this club down for north of two decades. It was an exercise in getting numbers through the door to look like the ‘manager was being backed’ whilst just sticking to form and scratching around for cheap buys that hopefully turn out to have a sell-on profit.
There is no footballing impetus in Levy or ENIC and there never has been. Our transfer business has always been conducted from a purely business point of view. But the sad reality is, they can’t even get that right.
Why do I never think we’re going to play well these days, win, lose or draw?
I’m with you. If Klopp becomes available it’s a no brainer
Beaten by a better side well that was a painful chastening defeat!!
Having made some astute summer signings (Gunners), rather than berate Spurs generally outplayed and outclassed in all departments let’s praise our N London rivals who look the real deal serious title contenders. Whats worrying for Conte is that having made numerous summer signings I simply can’t see any discernible progress where several Spurs players are simply not good enough.
Howler from Lloris, idiotic from Royal.
Summer signings fine
Completely agree. Catennacio Conte is a very one dimensional coach who sets up his teams not to lose. He plays the same system in every game , three at the back with wing backs and two defensive midfielders. There is no variety in our play and we are so predictable that it makes life easy for the opposition manager. I find watching us very hard at the moment and it’s even worse when we lose playing rubbish football.
Y’know if Conte goes to Juve I’m not sure I’d be losing sleep: this is utter rubbish we are being served up. The strategy appears to be to avoid losing and hope for a break, but we are simply not reliable enough defending with the likes of Emerson and Lloris and up front there is something very amiss with the famed radar.
Poor passing, slow to react, bustled too easily off the ball and anyone picking up a loose ball totally shot-shy. The number of time we decline to put a ball onto the penalty spot in favour of passing it back around the centre back loop, is mind numbing.
This is breaking down, we are not good enough to enact the tactics and we appear to be trying to at the expense of any meaningful attacking play. The forwards are simply not happy – head shaking, poor link work, frustration one with the other….its not working.
I’m no fan of Levy, but sticking on our deadwood-walking, nearly all defensive and taking off two forwards when 3 – 1 down and 15 minutes to go is capitulation of the worst kind and is the result of Conte giving up……. so much for the winning mentality!
This is not a one-off: we’ve been due this type of result (which we already had a taste of in the CL). Our football is crap and the Goons have rubbed our noses in it whilst exposing the lie of new clothes.
If Conte were a part of the playing staff, based upon performance, you’d have to drop him.
Got anymore ’ticks’ to report? 😂
If we’d had a great transfer window then Royal would have been replaced. Everyone was saying it, the guy just isn’t good enough. Backed Conte? Garbage…
Lenglet has done well, and Richarlison won us the penalty. That’s a tick so far
I’ve noticed recently that Peresic always talks tactics with Harry just prior to KO.Quality.
Is this the live blog H?
The last two windows were still atypical for the Spurs of recent memory – two solid windows but not perfect.
Arsenal MIGHT have a better squad to win a one off game like this…I doubt they have a better squad and manager combo to last the season. It’s typical Arsenal.