Jack Garland dons his wellies and goes wading through everything wrong with Tottenham. Do you agree with him? Are Sherwood and ENIC to blame?
The problems with Tottenham
If you take to Twitter, Facebook or any other social media platform you can often witness abuse aimed at a specific part of Tottenham Hotspur Football Club. I strongly believe that there are multiple reasons contributing to the plummet and downfall of my beloved Tottenham and arguably the worst season in recent times.
The Sherwood Problem:
The abuse Sherwood has received since his takeover has been relentless, especially on Twitter and I actually supported the decision when he took over from AVB. That being said I now believe that the abuse has been quite rightly justified following the most recent drubbing of our team at the hands of Liverpool (again). His opening couple of games which made him look like a promising manager has faded and has in turn revealed many cracks and flaws in his management.
1. Tactically inept
It seems Sherwood struggles to pick the right team. His stubbornness (much like his predecessor) to play a defensive midfielder has left me bemused at times. The most recent game against Liverpool was the final straw for me. You are facing the most potent and cohesive strike partnership in Suarez & Sturridge that the Premier League has seen for over a decade.
You couple that with the precise passing of Gerrard and the hard-working Henderson and Sherwood opts to play Siggurdson & Bentaleb in front of the defence. Neither are holding midfielders to me, especially Siggurdson. Meanwhile, you have in my opinion one of the best holding midfielders in the premier league in Sandro sat on the bench. It just doesn’t make sense to me.
2. Eriksen
IS our most creative and talented player we currently have playing for us, however, he is not being played in a position where he is most effective. Instead, Sherwood is pushing him out onto the wing where he has to spend half of the time tracking back and covering for Danny Rose. How can one control the game and create chances for Soldado and other attackers if he is defending?.
3. His approach
You could argue that Sherwood’s approach is more entertaining and perhaps was in the first few games. Since then it has bordered on pathetic and we are being turned into a long ball, hoof and hope team. That isn’t entertaining for me. Losing is also not entertaining and he has accumulated the same amount of losses in 22 of his games than AVB did in 48 of his.
In simpler terms; Sherwood 22 games, Lost 9. AVB 48 games, lost 9. When AVB was sacked we were 3 points off of 4th and still in 3 cups. Sherwood took over, and we have been knocked out in all 3 cups and 8 points off of 4th with only 6 games left.
4. Sitting in the stands
Perhaps the most frustrating thing about Sherwood since he has taken over the reigns at Tottenham is when he sits in the stands. To me, this just does not make any logical sense. What does he accomplish from doing this?
Sherwood claims that he sits in the stands to get a better view of the game which it probably does, however he is needed a lot more on the sideline. Instead, he could surely just watch the game later on in the comfort of his own living room and make tactical analysis from there?
It pains me to say it, because I believe in giving managers a fair chance but he needs to go. If the rumours of Louis Van Gaal are true, then we will have a very experienced and successful manager taking over.
Problems in the Squad:
£100m was spent in the summer to replace the greatest player I have ever seen in my life play for Spurs (I am 19 years old). What was the result of the money spent?
A Spanish striker who had scored 88 goals in the last 5 seasons (161apps), a Brazilian central midfielder who was one of the highlights of the confederations cup, a very promising youngster who plied his trade for Roma and done so with rave reviews, another talented Danish youngster who would pull of the strings for Ajax at a very young age and 5 other internationally capped players. Before the start of the season we were laughing. What went so wrong?
1. We didn’t strengthen in a very specific position
I have been crying out for a top class LB for years now. What did we get to as an attempt to improve on BAE? Danny Rose. A player who has failed to become an effective squad member in multiple positions.
He struggles to play a simple pass, rarely places a cross into the path of any Tottenham player and is constantly out of position which leads to a high number of goals. Mid-table championship level player at best.
2. We didn’t buy a top quality CB
Instead, we play the ever present Michael Dawson who is better known for his effort and ‘being Tottenham through and through’ than his actually ability as a defender. We bought Chiriches who looks decent, but has not had enough time to show what he can do yet due to injury.
3. Lewis Holtby & Thomas Carroll. A lack of service can be put down to the system that has been used by both managers this season. It can also be put down to the lack of creativity currently in our team. Aside from Eriksen I cannot point at another player in that current Tottenham squad who can pick that key pass out of nothing.
I strongly believe that Holtby has the attributes to unlock a defence, he proved so with Schalke. Young Thomas Carroll is another player we have who comes deep to collect a ball, looks up and always wants to play the ball forward and find attacking players. Unfortunately both of these players are not in our current squad and have both been shipped out on loan.
5. The wingers
Lamela was bought to be a menace down one of the wings, cutting inside or hugging the line with his silky dribbling, his eye for goal and his sound technique.
Due to reasons unknown to many Spurs fans he didn’t have the greatest starts in a white shirt and to make matters worst, he has been injured for a very long time. I still believe that he will become a massive asset to us, which we will see next season. But what about this season?
Currently, we have Eriksen operating on the left with Lennon/Townsend on the right. I have already pointed out my anger at Eriksen being placed on the left of midfield earlier on in this article but I strongly believe that Townsend playing there would NOT help the side.
I find he is a very selfish player who constantly takes ridiculous shots from 40 yards which end up high in the stands. He has the technique but not the mentality.
Lennon has had a dreadful season in my opinion. He offers very little these days. Once upon a time, Lennon was my favourite player with bundles of pace and consistently had the beating of his opposing full back. He was key in counter attacks in the Redknapp era and has been effective for a number of years. Now, he struggles to get the beating of his man and he just doesn’t have the footballing brain to find a key pass and create chances.
I don’t think that we have a bad squad. In fact, I think that we are close to a top 4 squad. It just needs to be utilised to full effect. 2 or 3 more signings over the summer in LB, CB and a new winger and I believe we could have a very competitive team..
The Daniel Levy (ENIC) Problem:
The third part of the overall problem at Tottenham Hotspur Football Club and arguably the reason behind the other two thirds of the problem is ENIC and Daniel Levy.
1. Lack of investment
Over the last half a decade the club has definitely become more profit conscious and it shows in the lack of money Levy has been willing to spend. After the famous 09/10 season which propelled us into Champions League football for the first time, I had thoughts that we can keep accelerating forward as a club.
I was convinced that by this season we would be making a very strong challenge towards the title and I maintain that we should have been this season, had Levy made more of an investment in the 10/11 season and the seasons after it. In the 10/11 season our highest transfer we paid was VDV’s £8m deadline day move. I wont begrudge the transfer, it was a fantastic one but it was the only one.
We had the opportunity to sign some of the biggest names in football with the extra money from the champions league and the allure of playing in the competition yet we only bought in 1 world class player at a bargain price. The question I pose to this day is why?
I can speculate that it is because ENIC have a business first, club second mentality. Gallas was the other summer signing on a free transfer. Pienaar joined us in January for £3m that season as did Bongani Khumalo for £1.5m. The failure to invest in the squad so we could continue moving upwards and remain in Champions League consequently led to losing our key players in Modric and Bale.
2. Lack of patience
In the 13 years Levy has been in charge, Sherwood is the 10th manager to sit in the dugout.
How can a team begin to challenge for anything if personnel is changing every other year and we are essentially having to start again from scratch? Unless you have a ton of money like Chelsea, City & Madrid you simply cannot afford to change the team to suit the new manager.
So what can you afford? Time. Time is free, and with time a squad can change, develop and grow to become a force. This can only happen if the manager in charge is given time.
I have only got two key points about Levy & ENIC but I think that they are essential reasons why this club is not progressing how it should. It pains me to say it, but we need to look towards Woolwich & Liverpool’s structure and copy parts of each. A patient chairman who does not make rash decisions and has faith in the manager and the project he has whilst keeping hold of key players like Liverpool have done with Suarez.
I love this football club and without it there would be a huge hole in me. I would much rather see us fail trying on the pitch than fail because of stupid and rash boardroom decisions and loss of key players.
I just wish that the club would follow its own motto. Audere Est Facere.
All views and opinions expressed in this article are the views and opinions of the writer and do not necessarily represent the views of The Fighting Cock. We offer a platform for fans to commit their views to text and voice their thoughts. Football is a passionate game and as long as the views stay within the parameters of what is acceptable, we encourage people to write, get involved and share their thoughts on the mighty Tottenham Hotspur.
10 Comments
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01/04/2014 @ 1:29 pm
Fantastic article, I think you have got it spot on. We have conceded 45% of our goals this year through individual error and own goals. Liverpool was a tactical disaster, I believe that Vertonghen was a discgrace and needs to be shipped out in the summer if his attitude does not improve. Dawson is an important figure at the club and can do a job against the lesser sides, his commitment to the cause is obvious and he was one of only three players to come over to us at Anfield and clap us after the pathetic showing from them. That goes along way in any fans mind.
01/04/2014 @ 1:37 pm
Sherwood’s tenure is on-the-job training and quite frankly, how could anyone expect anything else. He needs to take a couple of steps down the ladder and get his managerial career going with a club in maybe League One or the Championship. Meanwhile, the players should take a long hard look at themselves. The performance against Liverpool was so listless and devoid of any spirit whatsoever, that these players should be ashamed of themselves. Well, Soldado worked his socks off, but that was about it.
01/04/2014 @ 1:48 pm
Jack……are you free to takeover as chief exec and manager. I know you are only 19 and inexperienced but, simply by stating the bleeding obvious, you have shown more awareness than Sherwood and Levy combined! Its not rocket science…..midfielders who will be in Brazils (winning) World Cup squad can safely assumed to be better than 19 year old rookies. A proven Spanish goalscorer….even one going through a bad time….is probably better than a 20 year old reserve who flopped at Millwall. Eriksen wasnt the star at Ajax because he provided cover for a dodgy full back. When we needed a push in january 2011 to cement top 4 place we didnt need Saha and Nelson. When we had £100m to spend we didnt need to blow it on 7 players with zero PL experience between them. I am a Spurs fan and have been since 1961. I have seen Spurs teams FAR worse than this one in terms of ability class and talent. But I cant recall one that has been so gutless and bereft of leadership, on and off the pitch. We concede in the first few minutes in crucial games and dont wake up, if at all, till 20 mins in by which time we are dead and buried. So over to you Jack…..you couldnt do worse!
01/04/2014 @ 2:42 pm
I f afew more people actually supported the team instead of whinging the whole time because their too high expectations dont happen.We are not a big club ,yet, thats a time away still.What we are is a medium size,financially strong outfit that generally punches above our weight.The sudden input of 7 players has not worked and I’m sure Sherwoods real job is to sort out who goes ,who stays.If I was a national coach I would be looking for players who put everything on the line for their team,our world class?players look like a sulky bunch tarts who’ve been moved on by the old bill.Quite how they think thats going to help their selection I dont know.Looking forward to next season it’ll be great !!
01/04/2014 @ 2:47 pm
Roberto Soldado’s hold-up play was always good but he wasn’t scoring goals – prompting the press to recite their favourite “flop” parrot cry. Against Cardiff City he finally scores from open play. Spurs players were delighted, even the press then had to acknowledge that he had had a good game.. Next game, Benfica. Sherwood plays 4-4-2 so a chance for Soldado to build on that performance, particularly as it was against continental opposition. What happens? Sherwood drops him and brings in Kane, who he says, has earned his chance. Didn’t Soldado then? This could turn out to be the biggest waste of a player since Hoddle kept Rebrov on the bench in match after match while two aging strikers, Ferdinand and Sheringham pottered about.
01/04/2014 @ 3:32 pm
A lot of our poor results this season are due to injuries & a lot of those are due to the way our team have been playing. Instead of passing the ball quickly, they will dwell on it & then make a sudden pass to a team mate who has someone clattering into him.
I cannot for the life of me understand why Loris nearly always punts the ball upfield, usually giving it back to the opposition or sending it into touch. Replay any of our recent matches & count how many times he that.
Another thing that has been happening this season is the lack of urgency shown when we are losing or even drawing a match.
Kyle Naughton, as it has been said by many, is certainly not up to it & against Liverpool, he was absolutely out of his depth.
Tim Sherwood consoled him after he had caused us to lose 2 goals against Southampton & that was bad enough, but last Sunday he was even worse than that.
I am a lifelong Spurs supporter & over the years have seen many a promising situation evaporate & so I would say enjoy the memory of our recent little jaunt into the Champions League, because as long as ENIC are in charge, that’s the best you are going to get.
01/04/2014 @ 3:40 pm
I agree with the main direction of your piece: We have had some very disappointing results against the top 4 teams this season – both Liverpool games were especially embarrassing. We’ve also had some good results against the rest including notable away victories at both Newcastle and Man. Utd., grounds we normally struggle at. More recently were very unlucky with the sending off against Chelsea and deserved at least a point against Arsenal, who we outplayed.
I think Sherwood is in an unenviable position. He inherited a dysfunctional and unbalanced squad from the AVB regime. That was not his fault. We should have kept Bale for another season and gotten a toe-hold in the Champions League before selling and rebuilding but at the time the vast majority of Spurs supporters seemed extremely happy for Bale to go for what was undoubtedly a good price. I think many will now look at Suarez and Liverpool’s success and rue that decision. It’s not often Spurs produce a world class player and we shouldn’t have been so hasty to do business. Whether he wanted to go or not, he was on a long contract at Tottenham and I’m sure another season tearing up defences at WHL wouldn’t have killed him.
The transfer situation has been regretful but also understandable. It takes most foreign players at least a season to adapt to the Premier League. Mertesacker and indeed Suarez are good examples of imports who struggled to adjust at first. The problem is having seven new faces in the same squad who are all trying to adjust at the same time. It may have appeared to be an exciting transfer strategy of ‘selling Elvis and buying the Beatles’ but it has proven to be chaotic and ill-judged. It has also highlighted the lack of leaders from within our group of experienced senior players. Only Dawson and Ade seem that bothered on the pitch. Where are Lennon, Vertonghen and Lloris when our backs are against the wall? If these players cared more, there would be less pressure on the new players. Don’t get me started on the players’ languid body-language in the tunnel at Anfield. Here were professional, elite athletes being paid £50-100k per week arrayed like a hungover pub team. You could see we’d lost the game before it had even kicked off. Our fans sang ‘we want our money back’ and they have a strong case.
So let’s go back to the summer when Bale seemed on his way and we Spurs fans were clamouring for exciting replacements which Levy duly delivered in numbers beyond our wildest dreams. All our Christmases had come at once, or so we thought. The new signings were arguably the best of those players who wanted to join us at that time. A post-Bale Tottenham would lack goals and getting a new world class Striker was the main priority. If you recall, Levy had originally tried to secure Negredo then Benteke and then Lokaku but all had said no and we ended up with Soldado, who had done well in La Liga but wasn’t the back-to-goal, target man we were looking for. Perhaps, at £26m for a 28 year old, this will be regarded as a ‘panic buy’ but I remain hopeful, given the correct service, he will come good next season. Nobody can accuse Soldado of being a ‘prospect’ or one for the future. Here was a proven Spanish international striker who played for Spain, yes, Spain: current World and European Champions!
Other signings we were getting foamy mouthed about included Christian Eriksen. The Dane is clearly a talent but is a bit lightweight and doesn’t like tackling. That’s not a problem if he’s played as a no.10. It is if he plays Left Midfield. His reluctance to track runners properly has cost us at least two goals this season. I think he’s a defensive liability so needs to be played further forwards where he doesn’t need to worry about it. Then there’s Chiriches whom I saw in the U21 v Arsenal on Friday (btw1882 is highly recommended) and it reminded me of his tremendous ability on the ball. Undoubtedly he will be an important player for us. Chadli has recently shown his goal threat. He holds the ball up well and retains possession. Lamela remains an unknown quantity but it would seem it’s his injury which has held him back. I’m confident he will come good. Capoue started well, reminding me of Vieira but he got injured, put some weight on and has struggled since. Paulinho has been disappointing. Maybe I’m being harsh but doesn’t seem to do anything that well. Perhaps he’s not being played in the right position or he’s saving himself for the World Cup. Either way, for £17m, I’m not impressed thus far.
Any manager would have struggled this season. The loss of Bale had a greater impact than anyone anticipated. Bale’s performances had papered over a lot of cracks and AVB for all his coaching badges and Power-Points, did not have the answers. Sherwood made a promising start but has faded away although to be fair we all knew March was going to be hell with City, Chelsea, Benfica x2 and Liverpool. It will be interesting to see how Sherwood fairs in the final six games. All are against teams we should beat. Win them all and Spurs end up with 74 points, our highest ever tally in Premier League history. No, really.
It probably isn’t fair to judge Sherwood on half a season with an inherited, misfit squad. Whether he’ll get another season to show what he can really do remains to be seen. There’s a vocal anti-Sherwood contingent who, criticise everything from his accent to his clothes. Regardless of results they would never accept Sherwood. Is this down to the results, his Arsenal links or a bit of both? One thing is for sure, it’s paradoxical for fans to bemoan the high frequency of Spurs managers whilst calling for a manager to be sacked. Personally, I like the idea of recruiting from within the club, like they do at Barcelona, developing a proud, distinctive footballing identity and culture. Those who criticise Sherwood’s lack of experience must also acknowledge Guardiola had no experience prior to taking over at the Nou Camp. I also think Hoddle still has a lot to offer. There’s no better football brain in England and it’s harsh when Spurs fans judge him on his previous tenure when Spurs had a weak squad and significantly less to spend. Whatever happens, there’s never a dull moment at Spurs and I’d much rather be us in our situation than the soul-less CFC or Man City. Up the Spurs.
01/04/2014 @ 3:42 pm
Well written, thoughtful piece Jack. Thanks for sharing.
01/04/2014 @ 4:12 pm
Really good piece and you make a very fair and accurate case. However it does make me laugh when some fans say we should have held on to Bale, just like Liverpool did with Swarez. I’m sorry boys but it’s not that easy. If Liverpool had received a decent offer for him, not the token piss take Woolwich put in, he would have been off like a shot. In fact he put in a transfer request, which has conveniently been forgotten by the armchair pool fans, now pleased that the little racist, diving, mercenary twonk is knocking in the goals. When Real come in and decide they want him, you just watch his loyalty then..
02/04/2014 @ 7:13 am
Really enjoyed this blog and pretty much sums up the goings on at the moment at Spurs . From previous blogs i think it is pretty obviousLthat Levy is partly to blame and Sherwood as a Manager is totally out of his depth. Yes the display against Liverpool was pathetic but we have seen this to often this season and all you get is ” it was totally unacceptable” ” once the 2nd goal went in the game was really over” . FFS do we want to hear this … Surely he should be setting out stronger teams and organising them . not playing preferred players out of position and just expecting them to perform. Dim Tim is now totally out of his depth and we are already hearing of players unrest. I have to agree with some of the above comments regarding Verts who does not want to be out there playing . another player who has been appaling is Lennon. not sure what has happened to him as he is no where the player he was and just does not look interested. The overall blame i would direct at Levy and Enic and how can Levy justify his 2.2million a year wages when he is so incoptetant to running our club. Really needs the fans now to make a strong protest to get rid of them.