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Nothing to hold Spurs back

5 min read
by Bardi
With Champions League qualification unlikely, Spurs should go all out and attack for the rest of season, primarily because we cant defend, but because we have nothing to lose. Attack!!! Attack!!! Score, Tottenham score, when you get one, you'll get one more

The overwhelming feeling as I stepped away from the Lane on Saturday was one of joy. It was a mistake ridden, rollercoaster of beautiful nonsense. There were moments of skill, served up on a bed of stupid and then thrown in your face like a deliciously sweet custard pie. If the rest of the season is going to be like this then I expect to get rather fat gorging on this brilliance.

You see beauty, fun and enjoying yourself all depends on where you are standing. What to one of us is a splodge of Dulux, is to another a work of art. It is all about where you are coming from. On Saturday I arrived at White Hart Lane with the mentality that after last weekend’s semi capitulation at United, perhaps we should just spend the rest of the season enjoying what we have and not what we are supposed to be chasing.

There is no need to wheel out the clichés of “cup finals” or “judgement day” the truth is we have already been judged and the sentence passed. We are a decent team, capable when in the right mood and faced with the right opposition of playing some spellbinding, simple yet elegant and destructive stuff. When we come up against something different, or an immovable force we struggle, something we need to consider when chasing our “goal.”

That “goal” for many is the Champions League. The craving that we need to be in it to truly exist, but this hunger should have been sated after our performance in Manchester. This addiction is no good for us, if we continue along this path we are a few short weeks away from stealing DVD players and mugging grannies. It is no good for us, and it is definitely at this very moment in time, no good for our players.

You can’t reasonably expect Spurs to be anywhere but where they are right now. Exposure to this elite competition may set them back. The squad is a work in progress, you can see it has been trimmed and who will leave this summer, and work has already began as to who will join us. We can only really make a decision perhaps this time next year, for now let’s enjoy what we have and try and shake off our Sky induced cravings.

Anyone who saw the Classico on Sunday, I am ignoring the histrionics/diving/playing dead etc, will see we are someway off matching Europe’s best, or being able to put in a good show against them. Let this team grow in the training pool of the Europa League and the Premier League, there is no point in throwing this half-baked, not yet marinated team at “proper” Europe yet, they will get chewed up and spat out.

Instead what we should do now is enjoy our last nine games. Take this opportunity to appreciate Spurs for what they are without the weight of expectation dragging us down. We have spent too long watching dull, unambitious football, in pursuit of a myth championed by men who make a lot of noise without actually saying anything. Right now Spurs have the ability to trip over themselves and break their face, but they can also thrill.

On Saturday performances across the pitch spun wildly out of control. Kyle Walker attacked empty spaces without a care of what he was leaving behind. Nabil Bentaleb, who has looked so calm and composed in the last few months, decided to slap a Leicester player and Paulinho made a game changing cameo. It was one of those games that seem to be scripted by a pack of kids who have swallowed a kilo of Nerds rolled in Lemon Sherbet.

[fullquote]The hat trick reminded me of Gary Lineker, it was almost minimalist in its design, by doing very little he managed to create something gigantic and change the momentum of the game[/fullquote]

In and amongst the chaos, there was at least one constant, Harry Kane. The striker tried to add to the frenzy by scoring the least glorious of glorious hat tricks, but there is something quite calm and metronomic about him these days. The purists and those obsessed with aesthetics and the perfect FIFA goal may point to the scrappy nature of his triple, but for me it hit each and every erogenous zone, it was perfect.

The hat trick reminded me of Gary Lineker, it was almost minimalist in its design, by doing very little he managed to create something gigantic and change the momentum of the game. There is a lot of glory to be had in scoring ugly. However it wasn’t Kane that caught and held my attention on Saturday, it was our other England call-up, Danny Rose.

Over the past few weeks his performances and attitude have grown in stature. He seems to have reached out and grasped a level of respect amongst his peers and is reaping the rewards in his performances. At Old Trafford he was the only player to emerge relatively clean from the sh*t storm and on Saturday it was his directness and drive that ultimately won Spurs the game.

Rose has five assists and two goals this season and has become one of the most potent attacking fullbacks in the league. The two goals he scored this season put him level with Leighton Baines, a free kick and penalty taker, but more importantly, both of his goals arrived in crucial games at crucial moments against Chelsea and West Ham. He is, in my opinion, after Kane, perhaps our most important player. It feels weird saying that, especially when you consider the quality in our squad, but Rose is a fundamental attacking and defensive asset.

[linequote]Walker needs to regain his composure and stop over-trying. At the moment he is trying to do everything and achieving nothing[/linequote]

He is everything that Walker needs to be. The emergence of Rose should be a lesson to Walker. If he focuses, listens and learns, he might be able stop this plummet towards Titus Bramble recklessness. The injury he inflicted on Hugo Lloris, which has forced the Frenchman to withdraw from international duty, bore all the hallmarks of a defender wildly out of control. Walker needs to regain his composure and stop over-trying. At the moment he is trying to do everything and achieving nothing. He needs to start from the beginning again.

However, I am allowing the “negatives” to ruin my mood. For those purists among you looking to spend the rest of the spring watching a highly professional team march into the Europa League, you are going to be disappointed, for me, these next few months could be perhaps the most fun I have had watching Spurs for quite some time.

Attacking, out of control rollercoaster football. Attacking not because of an ethos or identity, but because we have no idea how to defend, but fundamentally because we don’t have anything to hold us back.

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