Standing still is falling behind

[John Thomas]

You forgot 3. The vast majority who are ambivalent about Levy, but recognise that without Poch we’d still be scuffing about between 6th and 9th.

I'd probably place myself in that group tbh

 

[Fidel Castro]

There are two schools of thought which will never see eye to eye:

1. The squad is fine, the manager is the second coming of Christ, all hail Daniel Levy he is the guiding light.

2. Everyone else

Or 4th , a majority , who see Levy as a businessman with little
faith in his ability/integrity to deliver silverware but recognise without (even if he is somewhat handicapped ) Poch we would be around 6 to 9.

Your 1st school of thought tend to hover around 1 and 3 but then 3 is not that far removed from 4.
Double Dutch.

 

[Joe Clash]

Or 4th , a majority , who see Levy as a businessman with little
faith in his ability/integrity to deliver silverware but recognise without (even if he is somewhat handicapped ) Poch we would be around 6 to 9.

Your 1st school of thought tend to hover around 1 and 3.

I picked 6th-9th. Get your own projected finishing positions sans Poch.

 

[Spursindevon]

A strange analogy, but when has our supporter base ever seen eye to eye on anything? Personally I don’t mind you having a go at Levy (Stratford etc.) but taking the piss out of Poch is too far. For all the current problems his management isn’t one of them. He’s a class act and we’re lucky to have him. When he goes the only way is down.

My analogy was that there may be three ways that don't see eye to eye and that is how it is. No one is beyond reproach, not even Poch, he has made errors and deserves criticism. But equally when we succeeds he deserves praise. My original point was anyone that dares to criticise tends to get shot down. After the semi final loss last year when Poch made his cryptic comments I started a post asking who next if Poch left, I received lots of positive feedback like "I hope you get HIV" - all very grown up!!

 

[John Thomas]

Or 4th , a majority , who see Levy as a businessman with little
faith in his ability/integrity to deliver silverware but recognise without (even if he is somewhat handicapped ) Poch we would be around 6 to 9.

Your 1st school of thought tend to hover around 1 and 3 but then 3 is not that far removed from 4.
Double Dutch.

Actuaĺly, I think this is my group.

 

[Joe Clash]

My analogy was that there may be three ways that don't see eye to eye and that is how it is. No one is beyond reproach, not even Poch, he has made errors and deserves criticism. But equally when we succeeds he deserves praise. My original point was anyone that dares to criticise tends to get shot down. After the semi final loss last year when Poch made his cryptic comments I started a post asking who next if Poch left, I received lots of positive feedback like "I hope you get HIV" - all very grown up!!

People can criticise Poch of course. sammyspurs has raised questions without slaughtering the guy and fair enough, but people won’t engage. Poch makes mistakes, Ferguson made mistakes. I’m sorry people wished HIV on you, but that wasn’t on here. Maybe ditch the twitter?

 

[Joe Clash]

Actuaĺly, I think this is my group.

So 6th to 9th then? Well that’s an improvement on your 14th call. Look mate, for all your bombast when Poch goes we’re going to slide down the league. Most of our players aren’t here for the money, they’ve stayed because they believe in Poch’s remarkable skills to motivate and his vision for the club. It’s sad that our new supporters have so little patience. Anyway, we’re fucked. Half and half scarves - scousers in our end at Wembley? It’s all gone to shit. I dread the next couple of years.

 

[Joe Clash]

We ain't shit. I'm surprised you use those words.
But we had a real chance to push on and challenge for titles. Poch himself said so.
It appears the owners were reluctant to make an effort though. That's what's frustrating.

Anyway, i take it you'll also be giving MOTD a miss again this evening?

So you don’t think we peaked 2 years ago? Lol at you followers btw. You’re all nutters.

 

[John Thomas]

So 6th to 9th then? Well that’s an improvement on your 14th call. Look mate, for all your bombast when Poch goes we’re going to slide down the league. Most of our players aren’t here for the money, they’ve stayed because they believe in Poch’s remarkable skills to motivate and his vision for the club. It’s sad that our new supporters have so little patience. Anyway, we’re fucked. Half and half scarves - scousers in our end at Wembley? It’s all gone to shit. I dread the next couple of years.

Too much negativity Joe. Look on the bright side.
New stadium, State of the art training centre, Spurs Lodge, American football, £100+ match tickets, Cheese.
It aint all bad

 

[bus-conductor]

Excellent post.

I understand what you mean about Eriksen, but I honestly think we have started to build him up too much.

I’m not sure how manny games he’s missed for Spurs, what the results were, who else we had available at the time, or how well we played without him in those games.

So for me it’s all turned a bit Emperors New Clothes.

It’s become this thing: “When Eriksen is poor Spurs are poor”
My solution to that is “get him off the pitch then”

Eriksen could be rotated with Dele for a similar effect, or change our attack completely play wingers and two up top.

We’re not varying it up enough with what we have and that’s the problem. I’d be happy to drop both Eriksen and Kane next PL match.

That’s how much confidence I have in the quality of Son, Moura and Lamela as a front three, and that’s why I’m putting Pochs failings before the signings argument.

He won’t rotate. So why would Martial, or Zaha or Grealish get a game ahead of Kane or Eriksen when he won’t drop them for the better players we already have?

People make the point Eriksen is dropping back to do the CMs work.
That’s not his job.

If he can break rank and do what he’s not supposed to be doing in central midfield then how about he breaks rank and does the same for Kane then?

I don’t buy it. When the central midfield disappears the defence usually gets a pummeling, yet by and large Jan and Toby are playing just as well as they always do.

So why are Kane and Eriksen so poor with the same central midfield.
Why is that Moura, Lamela, Dele and Son all look ok with the same CMs?

Poch is happy to drop Sanchez and Davies for no reason, for two players who showed no loyalty, but point blank refuses to rotate up top.

It’s a poor message to the squad. We were better with Davies and Sanchez in the side.

But dropping back has become a major part of his (Eriksen's) remit, either directly (where we are playing him CM3's as an 8, which we did several times last season and already this (Watfrd eg), or indirectly because of the complete lack of transitional ability of players like Dier (worst culprit) or Dembele (who's game's just degenerating and has never been a tempo setter). He wouldn't be doing without Poch's tactical instruction.

I genuinely think if anything his overall contribution to this side is underrated, partly because he has such a quiet persona.

If you search the big five European leagues for last season, you will be hard pushed to find a player who scored/assisted 20 goals, averaged nearly 3 key passes a game, 60 passes a game, and regularly also covered more ground than anyone else in their team.

The guy is almost playing two positions every game, due to the complete lack of creative/incisve/tempo from our other CM's. He's played as a 10, as an 8, and also more frequently as a kind of "false 10/ 8 Hybrid" where he takes responsibility for our transition from midfield to attack as well as ending up in the attack, often in the same moves.

Ive read you saying he's nowhere near a 100m player, but if you take persona out of it and just weigh up his performances and output, they are directly comparable with someone like Coutinho for example and he went to Barca for GB 105m rising to 140m.

Regardless of his "value", I would personally rather lose any other player than him, I think he's almost unique in Europe, certainly very rare. Apart from Coutinho, Pjanic is probably the only real other player currently fulfilling a similar kind of remit (and even he doesn't match Eriksen's goal/assist tally playing for Juve - the strongest team in their league), and I'm pretty sure he'd cost 100m+.

These are the games that Eriksen didn't feature in at all last season:

PL Southampton D1-1
FA Newport D1-1
FA Rochdale 2-2
CL Apoel 3-0
CL Apoel 3-0
LC Barnsley W1-0
LC West Ham L2-3
FA Wimbledon W3-0
FA Newport W2-0
FA Rochdale W6-1

I'm not sure if you remember, but some of those games were horrendous (Southampton, Newport, Rochdale, West Ham, Barnsley) That Southampton game was one of the worst games we played last season, this was when they were terrible too, and we were lucky to get a draw.

The problem with your idea is, that when Eriksen is poor, we don't look great, but when Erisksen isn't there, we look a shit load worse.

 

[John Thomas]

So you don’t think we peaked 2 years ago? Lol at you followers btw. You’re all nutters.

Hate to say it, but under the current ownership, we probably did

 

[Joe Clash]

Too much negativity Joe. Look on the bright side.
New stadium, State of the art training centre, Spurs Lodge, American football, £100+ match tickets, Cheese.
It aint all bad

It’s the beginning of the end. We’ve lost 2 games in a row and it’s Poch out.

Btw. Your sarcasm doesn’t doesn’t help. You’ll be sitting in a half empty stadium soon. What with all the ST holders desperately trying to flog their tickets to the half and half brigade. Only then will you see what you and yours have done. Enjoy mate.

 

[Dr Rocktopus]

We’ll be fine. CL football on Tuesday will be a timely reminder to our players that they need to put some effort in if they want to continue experiencing high points like that next season.

The doom and gloom is understandable after back to back defeats, but the Inter game is perfect timing, and I can’t wait for it.

As for Pochettino, of course he’s not above criticism. No manager is. I just don’t see much point in dwelling on his shortcomings too much when the positives outweigh the negatives. I’d like him to do certain things differently, but I doubt lengthy posts on the topic on an online forum are going to influence him.

 

[Dr Rocktopus]

Too much negativity Joe. Look on the bright side.
New stadium, State of the art training centre, Spurs Lodge, American football, £100+ match tickets, Cheese.
It aint all bad

We’re playing Barcelona in the CL this season. This is dreamland. One of my highlights of the 90s was beating Peterborough in a penalty shoot-out in the League Cup.

I’m not sure what you’re complaining about anyway. ENIC are an investment company that are looking to sell the club for as much as possible. The stadium, training centre, the lodge, the NFL deal, and yes, even the cheese room, are all things that make us an incredibly attractive target for potential buyers. That’s what ENIC want, and presumably what you want too. Shouldn’t you be happy that they’re not doing things half-cocked?

 

[John Thomas]

We’re playing Barcelona in the CL this season. This is dreamland. One of my highlights of the 90s was beating Peterborough in a penalty shoot-out in the League Cup.

I’m not sure what you’re complaining about anyway. ENIC are an investment company that are looking to sell the club for as much as possible. The stadium, training centre, the lodge, the NFL deal, and yes, even the cheese room, are all things that make us an incredibly attractive target for potential buyers. That’s what ENIC want, and presumably what you want too. Shouldn’t you be happy that they’re not doing things half-cocked?

You may have a point. But it remains to be seen wether the potential buyers you mention are more interested in NFL or Soccer
When a lot of the stuff you mention is clearly geared up to an American football audience rather than a traditional Spurs crowd its certainly something worth thinking about.........

One thing I'd bet my house on though, when ENIC do sell (which, as you acknowledge, they will), they wont have too many qualms about the future intentions of the buyers.

 

[Carlito Brigante]

Bit weird that I wrote this years ago and you are all cottoning on now.

Must be hard having shit in your eyes.

 

[Dr Rocktopus]

You may have a point. But it remains to be seen wether the potential buyers you mention are more intersted in NFL or Soccer
When a lot of the stuff you mention is clearly geared up to an American football audience rather than a traditional Spurs crowd its certainly something worth thinking about.........

One thing I'd bet my house on though, when ENIC do sell (which they will), they wont have too many qualms about the future intentions of the buyers.

I’m sure our American friends on this forum can provide more accurate info, but as I understand it the NFL thing is fairly restricted, with the likelihood of a UK franchise still highly improbable.

The NFL deal is a perk for potential owners, rather than the main attraction. Any new owner would have to spend a fortune to buy the club, and it wouldn’t make sense for them to see us plodding along in a half-empty stadium. We’re actually in a fairly similar situation to Chelsea just before Abramobitch took over, only with a much better infrastructure in place.

Personally I don’t want to see us do a Sheik Mansour team and blitz the opposition to purchase trophies, but if the Rothschilds want to help us compete with them on a level playing field I won’t complain.

 

[Joe Clash]

Natty Roots Allegedly a 46 year old man disagreeing with everyone. Hey Roots? Why don’t you fuck off you fucking child? Or grow up? I suspect the former is more attainable.

 

[Joe Clash]

Bit weird that I wrote this years ago and you are all cottoning on now.

Must be hard having shit in your eyes.

You’re like one of those old women with your knitting standing around the bloody end of the
guillotine you mawkish cunt. I doubt if you’ve ever seen blood in real life you accountant shit bag.

 

[Dr Rocktopus]

Bit weird that I wrote this years ago and you are all cottoning on now.

Must be hard having shit in your eyes.

Finally a reasonable explanation for that horrible smell and my impaired vision.