What is going wrong??

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Leadership, big voices, examples of professionalism, collective desire . It's not there.

I have thought about this because you have to look back and then see what's happening now.

What it isn't is a lack of quality. Posters can talk all day long if they wish about which players we should have, who should be dropped etc but we have quality. Pure and simple.

But we have lost our collective desire. If players slag off the club, seek a transfer or are refusing to sign new contracts they are not together. They just can't be.

Then professionalism. Where is our Milner, our Henderson or Wijnauldum? All of them look fit, ready when called upon and players younger players can look up to. Our best example of this was actually Llorente. Think about it. That's why City are being found out now. One word. Kompany.

Who are our voices now? Have we actually had anyone in the 5 years Pochettino has been here? We are too quiet. Who talks, cajoles and demands? No one.

So I feel it's the things that were once never in question from manager to unused sub that are now open to debate.

For Pochettino it really is an unlikely way back because to get it back may no longer be in his gift. It may need a sticking plaster for us for now and then a longer term solution.
 
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Leadership, big voices, examples of professionalism, collective desire . It's not there.

I have thought about this because you have to look back and then see what's happening now.

What it isn't is a lack of quality. Posters can talk all day long if they wish about which players we should have, who should be dropped etc but we have quality. Pure and simple.

But we have lost our collective desire. If players slag off the club, seek a transfer or refusing to sign new contracts they are not together. They just can't be.

Then professionalism. Where is our Milner, our Henderson or Wijnauldum? All of them look fit, ready when called upon and players younger players can look up to. Our best example of this was actually Llorente. Think about it. That's why City are being found out now. One word. Kompany.

Who are our voices now? Have we actually had anyone in the 5 years Pochettino has been here? We are too quiet. Who talks, cajoles and demands? No one.

So I feel it's the things that were once never in question from manager to unused sub that are now open to debate.

For Pochettino it really is an unlikely way back because to get it back may no longer be in his gift. It may need a sticking plaster for us for now and then a longer term solution.
Part of the problem (according to the Ferguson theory) is that no matter how many leaders we might have in the team, they are all so familiar with each other and the group that no-one feels the need to actually speak up because they all think everyone knows their jobs. Bringing in less familiar faces reminds the leaders that they actually need to tell people what those jobs are.
 
Thoughts, trying to think beyond 'the squad is too stale' here (though that has its merits)

- Not thinking about contingency plans for replacing Dembele. An absolute rock and the transition in the midfield. Immaculate in possession and kept us ticking over there
- Too many players getting old/past it (Vertonghen, Rose, maybe Toby)
- Teams have sussed our press. Not many play this style anymore - we've ditched it and haven't found a style of play since (we look so disjointed)
- Poch has lost his aura, too many bad subs and bizarre management
- Under-investment: we've actually pumped in a fair bit in the last year but had two windows where we spent nothing
- Good players off form at the same time (Dele, Eriksen)
- Injuries to key players (Lamela)
- Poor recruitment - not necessarily buying bad players, but players we don't need/don't fit our system (Aurier, maybe at a push Lucas - good but not used correctly)
- Buying new players and not using them - where is GLC?

You could argue the toss it's gotten stale with Poch and we need to mix it up with a new face and new ideas. His comments don't help.
 
What's gone wrong? We've replaced a decent nucleus with a couple of clowns not up to scratch when it comes to wearing our shirt.

We've become obsessed with signing the real deal instead of unearthing a gem. Lo Celso for nearly £60m when it shouldn't have been £20m a season before thus £40m we could have spent better.

We try and plan too long term with our signings, when it needs to be a mix of short and long term.

We are trying the same things we did before, only this time with no bite or desire. Take Jorginhos pass yesterday for Abrahams goal. Why doesn't Winks even attempt to do that sometimes? If that were a midfielder of ours I can guarantee that wouldn't have been attempted, it would have been a bail out ball backmto the defence and then across to the left, up the line a bit, back to defence and then across to the right. We waste possession.

No creative bite in our game. Today I saw Aurier intercept a ball and instead of pinging a first time ball down the line to tell his teammate where he wanted them to go and with zip and a desire to make something happen he took a touch, passed it to Sissoko who failed to control it and gave away a free kick. We don't create chances as we don't impulsively have a desire to win.

Our players aren't enjoying their football. We are too drilled on fitness (ironic with the amount of injuries we get) and we are too pre processed in our game. We don't press withndesire, just an effort to, we don't have players who want it, we don't have swagger, we have a balloon that's half deflated with our bodies, our artfulness and our minds.

Prime example is the Vardy goal earlier. Genuinely how many of our players would try and even attempt this let alone pull it off:



Look how bright and sprightly it is. Defenders don't think like attackers, hence why they defend. Our attackers don't exploit their natural attacking mindsets enough, they don't let anything flow it's always pass, control, head up look who's free and pass. We play right into other teams hands and due to this we seldom have the chance creations others deemed inferior to us have. Wolves had 25 shots away at Woolwich yesterday.....25 SHOTS! I'm tired of the clubs excuses it's time it gets its balls back. No more shit about tough preseasons, no more negative energy.

Poch talks all about the universal energy yet he constantly acts heavy and down. Bit hypocritical that and I'm sure it affects the players.


Too sluggish, too daft, too docile, too sad and emotional about itself, I want the players to come up with tricks and to use their imaginations. It's an art football and it's slowly become a cattle market, one pass after the other, same time again tomorrow. He needs to unshackle them, let the attackers be attackers and the defenders be defenders. The manager has got too smart and sometimes that makes you more foolish.

We are so afraid of losing that we don't allow ourselves the freedom required to win. We are an extremely disappointing team at the moment and we've allowed many teams to overtake us due to our stubbornness to run the clubs transfers as a way to regenerate funds that can get reinvested. It's a bit of a dead team ours now, we lack real verve and togetherness so don't expect it to change anytime soon.
 
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What's gone wrong? We've replaced a decent nucleus with a couple of clowns not up to scratch when it comes to wearing our shirt.

We've become obsessed with signing the real deal instead of unearthing a gem. Lo Celso for nearly £60m when it shouldn't have been £20m a season before thus £40m we could have spent better.

We try and plan too long term with our signings, when it needs to be a mix of short and long term.

We are trying the same things we did before, only this time with no bite or desire. Take Jorginhos pass yesterday for Abrahams goal. Why doesn't Winks even attempt to do that sometimes? If that were a midfielder of ours I can guarantee that wouldn't have been attempted, it would have been a bail out ball backmto the defence and then across to the left, up the line a bit, back to defence and then across to the right. We waste possession.

No creative bite in our game. Today I saw Aurier intercept a ball and instead of pinging a first time ball down the line to tell his teammate where he wanted them to go and with zip and a desire to make something happen he took a touch, passed it to Sissoko who failed to control it and gave away a free kick. We don't create chances as we don't impulsively have a desire to win.

Our players aren't enjoying their football. We are too drilled on fitness (ironic with the amount of injuries we get) and we are too pre processed in our game. We don't press withndesire, just an effort to, we don't have players who want it, we don't have swagger, we have a balloon that's half deflated with our bodies, our artfulness and our minds.

Prime example is the Vardy goal earlier. Genuinely how many of our players would try and even attempt this let alone pull it off:



Look how bright and sprightly it is. Defenders don't think like attackers, hence why they defend. Our attackers don't exploit their natural attacking mindsets enough, they don't let anything flow it's always pass, control, head up look who's free and pass. We play right into other teams hands and due to this we seldom have the chance creations others deemed inferior to us have. Wolves had 25 shots away at Woolwich yesterday.....25 SHOTS! I'm tired of the clubs excuses it's time it gets its balls back. No more shit about tough preseasons, no more negative energy.

Poch talks all about the universal energy yet he constantly acts heavy and down. Bit hypocritical that and I'm sure it affects the players.


Too sluggish, too daft, too docile, too sad and emotional about itself, I want the players to come up with tricks and to use their imaginations. It's an art football and it's slowly become a cattle market, one pass after the over, same time again tomorrow. He needs to unshackle them, let the attackers be attackers and the defenders be defenders. The manger has got too smart and sometimes that makes you more foolish.

Excellent post. :thumbup:
 
At the start of the season I thought, yeah we should get top 4 again. That soon went to, hmmm we might not ya know. Then to, jeez, maybe not even top 6. Now to, wow we may not get top half.

I for one definitely did not seem this coming, not this depressingly bad anyway. We have fallen off a cliff. The problems are obvious, we need fresh faces both on the pitch and on the staff. Whether that happens and how long that might take is anyone's guess, but it hasn't been enjoyable to watch Spurs for over a year now imo, bar the obvious few games.

I personally don't give a f about all this who's right and who's wrong about what's going on and who's a proper supporter or a "happy clapper" and all that petty bulls***, I just want to enjoy watching us again. Hopefully it turns around but, without change, it doesn't look promising.
 
It's not ALL on him, but his post match rant away at Burnley certainly seems to have kick started a lot that has gone wrong...
We haven't quite been the same since.

We were never the 'media darlings' (After all, WE were the Panto villains who dared try to wreck Leicesters Fairy tale!)
...but the media, and football in general certainly seem to have turned against us after that...
 
It's not ALL on him, but his post match rant away at Burnley certainly seems to have kick started a lot that has gone wrong...
We haven't quite been the same since.

We were never the 'media darlings' (After all, WE were the Panto villains who dared try to wreck Leicesters Fairy tale!)
...but the media, and football in general certainly seem to have turned against us after that...

Ok 75% on Poch and 25% on Levy then
 
What's gone wrong? We've replaced a decent nucleus with a couple of clowns not up to scratch when it comes to wearing our shirt.

We've become obsessed with signing the real deal instead of unearthing a gem. Lo Celso for nearly £60m when it shouldn't have been £20m a season before thus £40m we could have spent better.

We try and plan too long term with our signings, when it needs to be a mix of short and long term.

We are trying the same things we did before, only this time with no bite or desire. Take Jorginhos pass yesterday for Abrahams goal. Why doesn't Winks even attempt to do that sometimes? If that were a midfielder of ours I can guarantee that wouldn't have been attempted, it would have been a bail out ball backmto the defence and then across to the left, up the line a bit, back to defence and then across to the right. We waste possession.

No creative bite in our game. Today I saw Aurier intercept a ball and instead of pinging a first time ball down the line to tell his teammate where he wanted them to go and with zip and a desire to make something happen he took a touch, passed it to Sissoko who failed to control it and gave away a free kick. We don't create chances as we don't impulsively have a desire to win.

Our players aren't enjoying their football. We are too drilled on fitness (ironic with the amount of injuries we get) and we are too pre processed in our game. We don't press withndesire, just an effort to, we don't have players who want it, we don't have swagger, we have a balloon that's half deflated with our bodies, our artfulness and our minds.

Prime example is the Vardy goal earlier. Genuinely how many of our players would try and even attempt this let alone pull it off:



Look how bright and sprightly it is. Defenders don't think like attackers, hence why they defend. Our attackers don't exploit their natural attacking mindsets enough, they don't let anything flow it's always pass, control, head up look who's free and pass. We play right into other teams hands and due to this we seldom have the chance creations others deemed inferior to us have. Wolves had 25 shots away at Woolwich yesterday.....25 SHOTS! I'm tired of the clubs excuses it's time it gets its balls back. No more shit about tough preseasons, no more negative energy.

Poch talks all about the universal energy yet he constantly acts heavy and down. Bit hypocritical that and I'm sure it affects the players.


Too sluggish, too daft, too docile, too sad and emotional about itself, I want the players to come up with tricks and to use their imaginations. It's an art football and it's slowly become a cattle market, one pass after the other, same time again tomorrow. He needs to unshackle them, let the attackers be attackers and the defenders be defenders. The manager has got too smart and sometimes that makes you more foolish.

We are so afraid of losing that we don't allow ourselves the freedom required to win. We are an extremely disappointing team at the moment and we've allowed many teams to overtake us due to our stubbornness to run the clubs transfers as a way to regenerate funds that can get reinvested. It's a bit of a dead team ours now, we lack real verve and togetherness so don't expect it to change anytime soon.

Fantastic post and it's the reason why I am so excited/happy about Ndombele. He is the only midfielder in our squad who is taking positive risks with the ball and who is constantly receiving the ball and moving up the pitch with it.

We had 50%+ possession yesterday and how much of that was completely and utterly toothless? We seem obsessed with having the ball, passing it around our between our defenders for a period and then lumping it forward/across the pitch. We aren't showing the ability to break teams down so instead we play this boring game of pass it around and hope at some point we get lucky with a cross or a mistake from our opponent. Yesterday's game was just boring. We played boring football.
 
Sissoko was severely misused as well. Even though his final product is poor, he’s at his best when he is allowed to make a steaming run forward because his fitness and strength are his assets.

I’m not entirely sure what Poch instructed him to do yesterday, but it certainly wasn’t to play to his strengths.
 
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