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No, I´m not blind, we really are 14th in the league.

2bearis2do

Well-Known Member
Apr 22, 2006
3,820
2,317
This season has been as up and down as any I can remember in recent times. Sure, we´ve had the highs, but boy have we also had the gut wrenching lows.

We´ve thrown mud at most of the players at one point or another and I for one have thrown a fair deal in the direction of Harry. Swearing blindly that he fails to see what is so obvious to me.

But why? We´re sitting 4th for gods sake, we´re in the Champions League position for Pete´s sake. (Sorry Pete). We´ve scored 9 against Wigan, beaten Liverpool at home and have just had a run of 5 clean sheets. But alas, poor disillusioned friends of mine, we´ll never take 4th position despite the unpredictable form form of Man City or the atrocious season of Liverpool and all the opportunities that have come our way.

Now when I say opportunities, I´m not just talking about last nights -must win game - at Anfield, or the - really should be winning games - against Stoke, Wolves and Hull. I´m talking quite simply and frankly about the missed opportunities in front of goal. Our crap finishing.

In short and so as not to over complicate things for the simple, milk bottled, bespecced Spurs supporter that often resides on this site. We´re crap in front of goal. and if you don´t score goals, you can´t win games.

It really is as simple as that. You see despite having the 4th best goal difference in the league, and despite the anomalies of Wigan & Hull we are in fact crap in front of goal. Our 3 man strike force of Keane, Defoe & Crouch are in reality pretty pish poor and Harry and the rest of the Spurs management have failed to see this or indeed find a way around it.

I´m talking nonsense, of course? Because Defoe has a dozen goals to his name, because Crouch works so hard for the team and because Keane will soon discover his old magical self. Bollox to all that. We don´t score very often, when we do, we look great and we all think we´re great, but in truth we have the 14th best record in the league (click link). Yes FOURbleedinteenth!

- In 22 games this season, we have failed to score in 7 of them.
- That´s position number 14 in that particular league.
- And if you can´t score, you won´t pick up 3 points.
- And that is why we won´t get anywhere near the CLge position come May.

So, where has it all gone wrong up front? Well, I for one wish I could ask Harry. We seem to be creating enough chances. Some of our shots on goal records have been pretty good despite not hitting the back of the net. But what´s the point of shooting, if you can´t score?

Time for a change:
- Crouching Workhorse Hidden Talent: is just not a goal scorer.
- Defoe, is the best we have and is currently blowing very hot & cold.
- Keane, was a great player. Please notice the past tense.

Over the course of the season so far, they are all coming up short (OK; except Crouch: pun) And yet we are doing nothing about it, or recognising it, we´re simply saying - their keeper had a great game, - it was one of those days, - it was disappointing blah, blah fecking blah.

Christ, how Pavvy has not even been tried over the course of this season remains a mystery. But the real question is as we still sit in our lofty 4th position - Are we going to do anything about it? Or are we going to continue blindly through the rest of the season and fail to score on another 6 or 7 occasions?

- Ultimately, we have to be either a) more clinical in front of goal or b) change this malfunctioning strike force in some way.

I´ll close now by adding we actually top the league for the highest number of different scorers. 15 I think. Sounds good doesn´t it? Well it does until you factor in that these 15 players have also all failed to score in 7 of the 22 games to date.

Personally I´d like to think that Pav could still get a game, but lets be honest that´s about as likely as us agreeing terms for RVN or KJHuntlaar.

I pray something will happen before the end of the transfer deadline - But I fear, we´ll be left with this shoddy strike force for the remainder of the season and that we´ll fall short of all our hopes and dreams once again in a season when 4th was there for the taking - and I´ll be asking myself in the summer - what was it that the management could not see?
 

parj

NDombelly ate all the pies
Jul 27, 2003
3,586
5,861
i think the biggest problem is beating Wigan 9-1. Since then we believe we have secured 4th place and the club are probably preparing a 9-1 souvenir pack to sell for £150.

I came to term a few seasons ago that we will always talk the big talk but have a small club mentality and that is exactly what we have. We keep talking about 4th place and we keep celebrating results from nearly 6-8 weeks ago. The club needs to understand that the season is 38 games long, not 19 and the team that beats Wigan 9-1 gets 4th. Thats where we always struggle. We are now in the second half of the season and the players and manager think its job done.

im dreading the Fulham game because all that will happen is Redknapp will play Keane cos he is the saviour of Tottenham Hotspur Football Club. what we need to do is give Pav a chance (im no fan of him at all, i think he is a waste of space and was shocked to see us sign him) because Crouch and Keane clearly have issues with scoring goals. Gio needs to be given a chance, we have to have pace somewhere. I think Davies and Duff are quicker than Modric and Kranjcar and will cause us problems because pace is always more difficult to defend against......hence Lennon is the only key we have to unlock defences
 

mil1lion

This is the place to be
May 7, 2004
42,333
77,592
We're 4th and we have a goal difference of +18. We've scored 42 goals this season. We have 38 points with 16 games to play. In 05/06 (the season we came closest to 4th place) we finished on 65 points, and scored 53 goals. We're on course to do as well if not better than that. Sure, we've failed to score on a number of occassions. But its all about points and so far we're on course because we're 4th in the only table that matters.

What about teams that score goals but still lose?
 

martinj

Member
Dec 6, 2006
84
68
You are right 2bear. Keane is doing very little at the moment and I always believed Crouch was not up to the job. Nice guy, some reasonable hold-up play and the odd good touch but far too often the image we see is of him complaining that his shirt has been pulled or someone has pushed him, in a situation where Tevez or Rooney would just pile straight through and score. The thing that concerns me is when you put yourself in the position of an opposing team's supporter. Who do they fear from our front 3 or 4?
When we play Chelsea we are always bricking it when Drogba gets the ball. Likewise with Rooney, Tevez and Torres or Gerrard. They have both skill and determination and can create danger out of nothing.But who can worry that much when Crouch is in posession on the edge of the box or jumping for a lofted ball from Dawson. We all know nothing much will happen.
Defoe can be truly scary and I am sure a lot of opposition supporters lose sleep over what he could do to them but unfortunately his game is often negated when the opposition are back in numbers as with Hull, Stoke and Liverpool after they had scored forcing him to have to go round too many defenders.
Keane I don't even count as a striker now. I have no idea whether he has lost form but will get it back in which case he could be a scary proposition again or whether he has lost it for good ( I don't think anyone really knows the answer to this one ), but in the meantime he is often a waste of space especially in front of goal.
I think we need to bring in a dangerous front man, someone who can muscle his way through opposition defences, shoot and score from outside the box as well as at close range and lay on passes/headers for defoe to convert. Do I know who this could be? Of course not. But then I have no scouting network and very little time available to watch other teams, especially foreign ones, play. But I'm sure Harry and his band of merry assistants/consultants could find someone with more threat than 3MP. When we bought Berbatov he transformed the effectiveness of Keane and others and gave opponents much more to worry about and Klinsman could always create danger when nothing seemed to be on. Greaves, Chivers, Allen, Lineker, Sherringham and Sir Les all had this danger factor.
If you look at the last few games of the season we have a string of difficult games where we cant expect to get many points so we need someone who can bust through the "parked busses " of lesser teams to get us a few goals/ points before we hit the trickier run-in. Otherwise, even if we are in 4th spot, on the 10th April we will then have to face Arsenal, Chelsea and Man U and risk watching Man C, Villa, Pool etc sprint past us in the home straight.
 

bigspurs

Well-Known Member
Aug 9, 2005
3,193
2,419
This season has been as up and down as any I can remember in recent times.

Pretty much spot-on with the whole post bear. Although I am not sold on Pav being the answer to our problems up front. I want to see some stats about how well we play and how many goals we score without Lennon.

It's obvious to me having watched a lot of games this season, that our problems are not particularly individual (apart from Keane), rather its a midfield balancing problem. You can't play four central midfielders in the same lineup, because its fecking insane!!!
 

Paxtonite

Active Member
Nov 28, 2004
1,956
32
I agree with a lot of this. I never wanted Crouch anywhere near our club and had Redknapp not been manager i guess he would be at somewhere like Stoke instead. His hold up play is poor. He is too gangly to have that low centre of gravity in order to hold up play and feed a runner. Too often he is like bambi on ice and yes he is nowhere near scary enough.

Keane has lost it and one of my biggest regrets as a spurs fan (apart from the signing of Crouch) is bringing him back from Liverpool (and then making him captain as well FFS).

Defoe is blowing hot and cold but that is the nature of the beast. He's never really done it away from home but that probably has something to do with our team tactics away from home which brings me on to my real point.

Should we not also be asking not what our strikers can do for the team but what the team can do for our strikers? Any striker can only be a reflection of the service he receives. When Lennon, Kranjcar or Modric play well we create chances and invariably we score. The problem is that especially away from home they dont always perform. The games we have failed to score in are ARse away, Chelsea away, Liverpool away, where we adopt a negative attitude and also Wolves at home, Stoke at home and Hull at home where they come to us with a negative attitude. In the former, we do not have the freedom or the desire to take the game to the opposition, and inthe latter we do not have the intelligence in our play to break the opposition down. In each scenario however we seem to believe that "hitting Crouchy" as our manager terms it, is the best form of attack!!!

There are merits in what you say, but i doubt that it is as simple as that.
 

Chedozie

Well-Known Member
May 19, 2005
2,625
2,646
Its all very well pointing out that our stikers aren't the best, you put your point across as if there is something fans can do about it.

Facts remain that our best players look to leave and join bigger clubs, Berba was outstanding and buggered off as soon as his chance came, as did Keane and Carrick.

I doubt there is a player in our squad that wouldn't join Man u, Chelsea, Barca, Madrid, Inter, AC etc, in the blink of an eye if you let him.

We don't feed from the top table, that is why we don't have best players, that is why we are not in the top 4, its harsh, but true.

We have to find players that the top clubs don't want and work on them, if Utd or any of the others offer £30 million for Lennon in the summer, he will go.
 

mattstev2000

Well-Known Member
Aug 15, 2007
2,743
5,417
Christ, how Pavvy has not even been tried over the course of this season remains a mystery.

'Pavvy' has not been tried because...

a). He managed to score 5 goals all last season. 5.
b). Everytime he does come on he looks lazy, disinterested and disctinctly lacking in talent
c). He seems to have gone to the 'Juande Ramos language and communication school' (i.e. why bother learning to talk to your team mates).
d). His apparent strong point, his finishing, looks positive Zokora esque. Never before have I seen so many shots fly towards row Z.

Basically, we overpaid for an average striker who looked good in the far eastern leagues and had one good tournament. You would have thought they would have learned after Rebrov.
 

cwhite02

SC Supporter
Sep 28, 2004
1,183
475
How many times last night did we get behind them in the wide areas? I rate Modric and Krank but there not a out n out winger like Lennon or other players at other clubs. Most of our play was through the middle. How many crosses went? Bale's one just before they scored was probably our best. It's all good having the possesion and nice play in the middle but if were not breaking them down then maybe it's not just the forwards fault?

It's not like we have a player in the middle who could skip past a player or two either and then make the nice pass, there all good enough with the ball and can hold it and make the good passes, but there no gazza, ginola type players there either. The only one is Lennon who if you look from when he's been out we really miss what he brings.

Just some thoughts..

COYS
 

UbeAstard

Well-Known Member
May 31, 2005
3,354
2,413
At the start of the season I believed we would finish 6th, I still believe that and it will be because we have wasted oportunities to finish higher.
 

tomo

Well-Known Member
Jun 12, 2003
1,094
425
last night was embarassing. Liverpool are gash at the moment and we just wilted in front of them. I wasn't even dissapointed I was just pissed off. Top four my fookin ass. What sort of team talk did Redknapp give cause there was absolutely no belief in that side. Wankers.
 

ultimateloner

Well-Known Member
Jan 25, 2004
4,539
2,149
Don't diss Rebrov. He was a good player who ended up at a wrong club. He was unlucky.

I agree we lack consistency in goal scoring
 

UncleBuck

Well-Known Member
Aug 20, 2003
9,186
11,145
We almost always seem to bottle it in games that have a real meaning, whether it be wasteful finishing or people switching off, it's a mentality thing. Yes, every game is improtant but each game has it's own individual merits, the game against Liverpool last night was a prime example, if we could have taken three points it would have sent out a message that we finally mean business as opposed to everyone laughing at us and saying "here we go again".

We are creating chances but not putting them away, as much as I don't like Pav he really needs to be given a chance. The only other solution would be to bring in RvN who is a proven goal scorer.

Or swap Keane with someone.....
 

avonspurs

MoPo's lover
Apr 28, 2006
4,072
4,100
I'm at work so havent had full chance to look at the stats, etc., but quick glimpse shows that Man U (who are third) have only failed to score in 2 fewer games than us (5 to our 7) yet I have no concerns that they will not finish in the top 4. As for Everton, they have only failed to score in 2 games (second in that statistical league) yet are where in the league?!?!....

My point is that statistics are good, sometimes but do not tell the whole story and can be made to look whichever way you want to interpret them.
 

beuller

Well-Known Member
May 10, 2005
1,533
2,353
'Pavvy' has not been tried because...

a). He managed to score 5 goals all last season. 5.
b). Everytime he does come on he looks lazy, disinterested and disctinctly lacking in talent
c). He seems to have gone to the 'Juande Ramos language and communication school' (i.e. why bother learning to talk to your team mates).
d). His apparent strong point, his finishing, looks positive Zokora esque. Never before have I seen so many shots fly towards row Z.

Basically, we overpaid for an average striker who looked good in the far eastern leagues and had one good tournament. You would have thought they would have learned after Rebrov.

a) WTF are you talking about. He scored 14 goals. 14!! Or do cup games not count? Let's not bother playing in the cup then!

Ill-informed garbage.
 

CosmicHotspur

Better a wag than a WAG
Aug 14, 2006
51,069
22,383
Whether our goal should have counted or not is disputable and we should have had a penalty when Crouch's shirt was almost ripped off him.

Despite that, it was another frustrating game, we only had a few flashes of decent play and were far from looking like a top four team last night and our results are becoming almost impossible to predict.

To add salt to our bleeding wounds, the scum won and went top and all this means I will be in a vile mood today and must try not to take it out on the old man...
 

mattstev2000

Well-Known Member
Aug 15, 2007
2,743
5,417
a) WTF are you talking about. He scored 14 goals. 14!! Or do cup games not count? Let's not bother playing in the cup then!

Ill-informed garbage.

5 LEAGUE goals. You know, because the post is talking about our LEAGUE performance. Pav can't score consistently in the LEAGUE because he is not good enough. Sure he can score against poor opposition in the cup but who cares about that when we are talking about the LEAGUE.

Just because you didn't understand the context doesn't make it 'ill-informed garbage'.
 

beuller

Well-Known Member
May 10, 2005
1,533
2,353
Interesting stat.

I still cannot believe the substitutions last night. Absolutely pathetic.
 

Chedozie

Well-Known Member
May 19, 2005
2,625
2,646
5 LEAGUE goals. You know, because the post is talking about our LEAGUE performance. Pav can't score consistently in the LEAGUE because he is not good enough. Sure he can score against poor opposition in the cup but who cares about that when we are talking about the LEAGUE.

Just because you didn't understand the context doesn't make it 'ill-informed garbage'.


It is boring though, so many on this site only want to slag players and management, when we beat Wigan 9-1, 9-1, there were about 80 replies to the match, we lose to liverpool and its nearly 200.
 

mattstev2000

Well-Known Member
Aug 15, 2007
2,743
5,417
Interesting stat.

I still cannot believe the substitutions last night. Absolutely pathetic.

This is something I can totally agree with. We needed some natural width GDS or Rose would have been worth a crack I think with Modric coming off because he looks lost on the right...
 
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