Our old friend, the Influence Graphic pretty well sums up one of the glaring issues at Spurs in 2018/19, namely the wholesale frailty of our midfield.
When we look at the pattern of passing produced with these levels of influence, that frailty becomes clearer.
In the attacking third, Tottenham are revealed as toothless. Failed passes, failed take-ons, failed headed duals. We couldn’t get past the Watford 18-yard line.
If you didn’t know better, you could be forgiven for thinking that the defending side here were world beaters.
So let’s take a closer look at what is, and what isn’t working.
Harry Winks isn’t a bad player, but the Ray Wilkins jibes have become a self-fulfilling prophecy type situation. But Winks isn’t solely to blame. An 89.6% pass rate, but so little of it opens up the opposition.
What needs to be professionally assessed here, is whether the kid is naturally wired up to do this, or Poch is giving him some crazy instructions. Whatever the truth is, these tactics are suffocating us.
Winks made 4 interceptions, and recovered the ball on 7 occasions yesterday, but there were no assists, no chances created; which one could argue, is endemic of a player that passed the ball backwards or sideways 29 times.
Without a more creative conduit, Spurs’ midfield looks doomed. We edged just over 64% of the ball against Watford, and achieved naff all with it.
Conclusions are obvious and uncomfortable.
Spurs sold Carrick in 2006, but then took 2 years to sign Luka Modric. We then had 4 more years, until 2012 before Mousa Dembele arrived.
Succession management. I know it’s boring, but at Tottenham, it clearly happens by chance.
We still have a decent set of players and if the new boys come good then we are half way there…..Levy is as bad at buying as he is at selling….its the selfing part of this episode that has costs us, 100%….get them out of the club asap and start again..
Poch is forced to use them (because he needs results) rather than wanting to use them and Levy probably wants them in the “window” in the hope he can get some money in January….the right thing to do would be to scrap it completely and put in the kids as I cant see it can get any worse, at least the fans may get off Poch’s back and see he is trying to change things…playing the old guard and losing isn’t going to give him any more time..
Roy Keane “go and get Kane” – If there was ever a time to sell Harry Kane then now would be the right time…Man City or Man United (they will keep spending till they get it right) would be perfect for Kane, more so City…for a player like that not to win anything would be just wrong, we are so lucky to have him…
If Levy sells him I will never go and watch Spurs again, cancel my TV subscriptions (yes, I pay for them!) and thats me done…..