- Mar 18, 2005
- 33,986
- 81,917
Right now it's not the best of times for Spurs fans. The more optimistic of us are saying "we're only 7 games in, there's plenty of time". Truth is though the problems haven't just been here for just the last 7 games.
A couple of seasons ago we were on a high. We'd just finished 5th with Davids and Carrick marshalling the midfield, Keane often showing amazing skill to engineer a victory in a tight game and King and Dawson looking like the most solid centre partnership we'd had in years. We had finally got the right mixture of creativity and steel.
Like what happens with any side performing well outside the top four we were vulnerable to losing our good players but had shown enough potential to future players that we were a good club to join. Davids started to fade and Carrick left for Man Utd. Our response? Buy Zokora. Many people blame for defeats but the problem was we bought one player to replace two. The formula we had the season before was thrown out the window and Steed Malbranque was bought in on the left hand side. Fortunately for us Steed turned out to be a model professional and adapted his game to help us get the right balance in midfield. It didn't matter how hard he tried though he was never going to offer the same sort of tenacity the pitbull had.
Individual brilliance was the key to our 2nd 5th place finish. Berbatov and Keane showing the sort of sublime skill The White Hart Lane faithful thrives on. After a poor 1st half of the season we finished strongly and just grabbed onto 5th place near the end.
The cracks though were evident. Berbatov made such an impression that Man Utd and Barcelona were linked with him. We didn't know whether we'd be able to find another player with Berbatov's brilliance and it wasn't something we could rely on. We needed the right personnel to replicate the team tnhat got us the first 5th place finish. We needed that tenacity and people to do the grunt work. We bought Kaboul, KP Boateng and Bent.
Last season was poor, we were weak defensively and the midfield didn't work as a complete unit. We relied heavily on Keane and Berbatov to both create and score. In todays game you can't rely on top players staying at a club who isn't consistently playing for honours. We now find ourselves in dissarray.
We've bought in several classy players but putting them into a workable unit seems harder than a maths degree. We've gone from being the top of the clubs outside the top four to be evenly competing with Villa, Everton and Man City for players. Aston Villa and Everton have the right mix of players in their squad and each season buy 2-3 good players to fit into this system so there is good continuity. Look how much Everton have missed Carsley. Far from a world class player but he did the job they needed and until Fellaini (sp?) settles they can expect some poor results.
Martin Jol recently spoke about us as lacking identity and I completely agree. We change our personnel quicker than almost anyone else so it's harder for the fans to feel any rapport with the players. We've been told Ramos likes playing with quick full backs being a focus point for our attacks but we change our formation and team so quickly I'm not sure what we're trying to do. Defensively we're weak and we create little. Are we trying to grind out results or play with style? We appear to do neither.
If we'd followed Everton and Aston Villa's example by finding a style that works for us and then adding a couple of players each season to suit that style I've no doubt right now we'd be continuing the success of our first 5th place finish, but constantly changing how we play and buying any quality player available and then trying to fit them into the team has resulted in us failing to capitalise on what was a very strong position for our club and what looks like a long, hard season for Spurs fans.
A couple of seasons ago we were on a high. We'd just finished 5th with Davids and Carrick marshalling the midfield, Keane often showing amazing skill to engineer a victory in a tight game and King and Dawson looking like the most solid centre partnership we'd had in years. We had finally got the right mixture of creativity and steel.
Like what happens with any side performing well outside the top four we were vulnerable to losing our good players but had shown enough potential to future players that we were a good club to join. Davids started to fade and Carrick left for Man Utd. Our response? Buy Zokora. Many people blame for defeats but the problem was we bought one player to replace two. The formula we had the season before was thrown out the window and Steed Malbranque was bought in on the left hand side. Fortunately for us Steed turned out to be a model professional and adapted his game to help us get the right balance in midfield. It didn't matter how hard he tried though he was never going to offer the same sort of tenacity the pitbull had.
Individual brilliance was the key to our 2nd 5th place finish. Berbatov and Keane showing the sort of sublime skill The White Hart Lane faithful thrives on. After a poor 1st half of the season we finished strongly and just grabbed onto 5th place near the end.
The cracks though were evident. Berbatov made such an impression that Man Utd and Barcelona were linked with him. We didn't know whether we'd be able to find another player with Berbatov's brilliance and it wasn't something we could rely on. We needed the right personnel to replicate the team tnhat got us the first 5th place finish. We needed that tenacity and people to do the grunt work. We bought Kaboul, KP Boateng and Bent.
Last season was poor, we were weak defensively and the midfield didn't work as a complete unit. We relied heavily on Keane and Berbatov to both create and score. In todays game you can't rely on top players staying at a club who isn't consistently playing for honours. We now find ourselves in dissarray.
We've bought in several classy players but putting them into a workable unit seems harder than a maths degree. We've gone from being the top of the clubs outside the top four to be evenly competing with Villa, Everton and Man City for players. Aston Villa and Everton have the right mix of players in their squad and each season buy 2-3 good players to fit into this system so there is good continuity. Look how much Everton have missed Carsley. Far from a world class player but he did the job they needed and until Fellaini (sp?) settles they can expect some poor results.
Martin Jol recently spoke about us as lacking identity and I completely agree. We change our personnel quicker than almost anyone else so it's harder for the fans to feel any rapport with the players. We've been told Ramos likes playing with quick full backs being a focus point for our attacks but we change our formation and team so quickly I'm not sure what we're trying to do. Defensively we're weak and we create little. Are we trying to grind out results or play with style? We appear to do neither.
If we'd followed Everton and Aston Villa's example by finding a style that works for us and then adding a couple of players each season to suit that style I've no doubt right now we'd be continuing the success of our first 5th place finish, but constantly changing how we play and buying any quality player available and then trying to fit them into the team has resulted in us failing to capitalise on what was a very strong position for our club and what looks like a long, hard season for Spurs fans.