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Failing to capitalise

dontcallme

SC Supporter
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.
 

JimmyG2

SC Supporter
Dec 7, 2006
15,014
20,779
I agree to a certain extent with the sentiment of this and have warned about the high turnover of players myself.(and managers too) As you say we are reaping the downside of this and the manager in his struggle to find a winning combination has unsettled the team still further. You dont mention the poor handling of Defoe and his eventual sale.
The defence however is not weaker in my view.Woodgate is a tremendous asset,Bale is top class. Hutton too is a strong player.Gomez is an advance on Robinson who even when he was playing well never commanded his area or gave confidence to the defence.
Where you are right is in the wholesale clearout up front.Bent and Pavlyuchenko will score goals but only if they get service from the wings and support from midfield.This is where the team is malfunctioning
Injuries to Bale,Modric and Hutton and Kings problems have not helped.But,as you say we havn't signed the players we need to fill the gaps.We have plenty of good players but not very well distributed, and Ramos cant seem to mould them into a coherent unit.
It is indeed going to be a long hard season but I am of the optimistic tendency and think it will take a turn for the better as the team slowly 'gels'. Too late for this season now but a cup run is possible and we wont finish any lower than last year.
 

ultimateloner

Well-Known Member
Jan 25, 2004
4,539
2,149
I agree with your assessment of the reason we we 5th in season 1 and 2. By the third season we were read and our weakness exposed and exploited. Lack of midfield creativity/scoring ability was the main thing. Berba carried our team.

This season we tried to work on that but there is no one to carry us anymore. Until either that new person emerges (Modric the only possibility) or we establish a new system (even better) we arent goign to get consistent results.
 

striebs

Well-Known Member
Mar 18, 2004
4,504
667
We've had two captains off the field with their own rudder controls and it was pulling the club apart until they got wrid of Jol .

It wil be better once all the players learn English but at the moment it's like the tower of babel on matchdays .

Pav , Modric , Dos Santos will never amount to anything over here and I don't expect more than 1 of them to be around next season .
 
Sep 18, 2005
876
2
Spurs keep changing things in the hope to improve things when the truth is that under Martin Jol things were already good and did not need changing! I know people can go on about the start of last season but that was because Jol was seriously undermined by the board and the media which didn't help morale in the dressing room either.

If we can learn anything from all this it should be that change is not always for the best and right now stability and support is what the team needs.

So despite the poor results we must keep Ramos, buy some more forwards and a gritty, experienced leader or two in the Jan window and hope that changes start to come !
 

Shirtfront

Well-Known Member
Jul 29, 2005
1,247
406
I've said it until I am blue in the face. You cannot have success, in anything, without stability. Drastic change may avert a disaster, but it will never breed success. We should have supported, not undermined, Jol when we were 5th and not had our head turned with the promise of quick success.

I say this not because I think Jol was perfect, but because he had earned the right to see how far he could take us. We should have supported him in the transfer market and seen out his contract, one way or the other.
 
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