This time last year...

[Saoirse]

Believe it or not, things were probably even worse than they are now. We'd just come off this run of results:

West Brom 1-1 Tottenham
Bayer Leverkusen 1-1 Tottenham
Bournemouth 0-0 Tottenham
Liverpool 2-1 Tottenham
Tottenham 1-1 Leicester
Tottenham 0-1 Bayer Leverkusen
Arsenal 1-1 Tottenham
Tottenham 3-2 West Ham (with two injury time goals)
Monaco 2-1 Tottenham
Chelsea 2-1 Tottenham

We were only slightly better than relegation form in the league, out of the top 4 and didn't really look like getting back in it, let alone challenging for the title. We were out of the League Cup and out of the Champions League heading into what was effectively a depressing Europa League qualifier at Wembley against Moscow. We'd won once in ten games with a lot of luck involved in that win, and it'd been two months since we'd managed more than a single goal in 90 minutes.

Things can and will get better. It's a poor spell, not the end of a very good team. So keep behind them, especially anyone lucky enough to be going to Watford on Sunday.

Our next game after that 10 last year? We suddenly beat Swansea 5-0 and didn't look back. Perspective.

COYS

 

[mattdefoe]

Completely agree with the points you make and the patterns. But minus the champions league progression there has been no progress in the league whatsoever, we aren't a title challenger and we need to understand that.

 

[lukespurs7]

Believe it or not, things were probably even worse than they are now. We'd just come off this run of results:

West Brom 1-1 Tottenham
Bayer Leverkusen 1-1 Tottenham
Bournemouth 0-0 Tottenham
Liverpool 2-1 Tottenham
Tottenham 1-1 Leicester
Tottenham 0-1 Bayer Leverkusen
Arsenal 1-1 Tottenham
Tottenham 3-2 West Ham (with two injury time goals)
Monaco 2-1 Tottenham
Chelsea 2-1 Tottenham

We were only slightly better than relegation form in the league, out of the top 4 and didn't really look like getting back in it, let alone challenging for the title. We were out of the League Cup and out of the Champions League heading into what was effectively a depressing Europa League qualifier at Wembley against Moscow. We'd won once in ten games with a lot of luck involved in that win, and it'd been two months since we'd managed more than a single goal in 90 minutes.

Things can and will get better. It's a poor spell, not the end of a very good team. So keep behind them, especially anyone lucky enough to be going to Watford on Sunday.

Our next game after that 10 last year? We suddenly beat Swansea 5-0 and didn't look back. Perspective.

COYS

Love the positivity and comparison but can you really see is going on a run of form in the league similar to that of last season, sorry but I just don’t see it. An improvement in form sure but a significant one, nope not for me im afraid. We need to hope we get a good draw in the CL and FA cup and scrape through to latter stages in one of them.

Then hope the stadium is ready on time that we scrape 4th and we actually buy some players we fucking need and of good quality this coming summer.

 

[DCSPUR]

Believe it or not, things were probably even worse than they are now. We'd just come off this run of results:

West Brom 1-1 Tottenham
Bayer Leverkusen 1-1 Tottenham
Bournemouth 0-0 Tottenham
Liverpool 2-1 Tottenham
Tottenham 1-1 Leicester
Tottenham 0-1 Bayer Leverkusen
Arsenal 1-1 Tottenham
Tottenham 3-2 West Ham (with two injury time goals)
Monaco 2-1 Tottenham
Chelsea 2-1 Tottenham

We were only slightly better than relegation form in the league, out of the top 4 and didn't really look like getting back in it, let alone challenging for the title. We were out of the League Cup and out of the Champions League heading into what was effectively a depressing Europa League qualifier at Wembley against Moscow. We'd won once in ten games with a lot of luck involved in that win, and it'd been two months since we'd managed more than a single goal in 90 minutes.

Things can and will get better. It's a poor spell, not the end of a very good team. So keep behind them, especially anyone lucky enough to be going to Watford on Sunday.

Our next game after that 10 last year? We suddenly beat Swansea 5-0 and didn't look back. Perspective.

COYS

Thank you #perspective

 

[Saoirse]

Love the positivity and comparison but can you really see is going on a run of form in the league similar to that of last season, sorry but I just don’t see it. An improvement in form sure but a significant one, nope not for me im afraid. We need to hope we get a good draw in the CL and FA cup and scrape through to latter stages in one of them.

Then hope the stadium is ready on time that we scrape 4th and we actually buy some players we fucking need and of good quality this coming summer.

Nobody saw it coming this time last year either, though. And today in particular was an extremely disappointing result but very promising in a lot of other ways. We missed two guilt-edged chances and several other good opportunities while they scored two shots that were both about 1-in-20s. On another day with a bit of luck on our side rather than against us we win that game 3-0 and everything feels very different. That day will hopefully be Saturday. We're not out of anything yet, we go from there.

 

[Saoirse]

Completely agree with the points you make and the patterns. But minus the champions league progression there has been no progress in the league whatsoever, we aren't a title challenger and we need to understand that.

Not this year - Man City have made too strong a start and we haven't been quite good enough. But we have exactly the same number of points as we did this time last year, and our goal difference is actually one better. We ended up on 86 points then. Even if we're not as good this time and only get 76, almost certainly a top 4 place with that and already a much better European showing, I think everyone would take that given the Wembley factor. Especially with Lamela back and from today's cameo looking very promising there's zero reason to think we can't or won't do that.

 

[mattdefoe]

Not this year - Man City have made too strong a start and we haven't been quite good enough. But we have exactly the same number of points as we did this time last year, and our goal difference is actually one better. We ended up on 86 points then. Even if we're not as good this time and only get 76, almost certainly a top 4 place with that and already a much better European showing, I think everyone would take that given the Wembley factor. Especially with Lamela back and from today's cameo looking very promising there's zero reason to think we can't or won't do that.

Whilst we may have improved in goal difference the other teams have improved on to another level in particular United and city . We need to be constantly improving also not just using Wembley as an excuse

 

[Tottenham_God]

So you're saying Alli should be dropped ?

 

[DCSPUR]

Whilst we may have improved in goal difference the other teams have improved on to another level in particular United and city . We need to be constantly improving also not just using Wembley as an excuse

but it is not just wembley right....think about our injuries/ playing through injuries:
Kane, Toby, Wanyama, Alli, Rose, Lamela, Winks, Dembele....none of our rivals have had as many significant injuries to key players this season

does anyone really believe we'd be in this spot with one of Wanyama or Dembele fully fit for the season and at least some of those mentioned? It is miserable fighting the oil teams without the full squad but that is where we are at the moment.

 

[spurs9]

Love the positivity and comparison but can you really see is going on a run of form in the league similar to that of last season, sorry but I just don’t see it. An improvement in form sure but a significant one, nope not for me im afraid. We need to hope we get a good draw in the CL and FA cup and scrape through to latter stages in one of them.

Then hope the stadium is ready on time that we scrape 4th and we actually buy some players we fucking need and of good quality this coming summer.

You couldn't just before the run last season to be fair either. Below is after the Utd loss in mid December, just before our run started.
Not having a go at you BTW, and you were certainly not alone in how you were thinking/feeling at the time, but just demonstrating that we were just as disappointed/losing hope at this stage last season as we are now, yet went to our best PL league finish.

2015/16 - We had an ok start, poor late October/whole of November, great December to April and poor finish.
2016/17 - We had an ok start, poor late October/whole of November, Poor CL group stage, great December to end of the season (fixed the end of season collapse)
2017/18 - We had an ok start, poor late October/whole of November, Great CL group stage, so if we can have a December to the end of the season to match last seasons, then we have continued our improvement and hopefully Poch can find a way to get over the October/November dip nect season.

Absolutely this!!

Also as many people stated, we needed to improve our first XI especially in an attacking sense and didn't. Man.U and all the teams above us have 2 things we don't:
1) A more ambitious set-up and play from an attacking sense
2) Gamechanging attacking players.
Chelsea: Hazard,Pedro,Costa,Willian
Arsenal: Walcott, Sanchez, Ozil,
Man.C: Aguero, De Bruyne, Sterling, Silva, Toure
Liverpool: Mane,Firminiho, Coutiniho, Sturridge
Us: Kane and on occasions Alli,Son and Eriksen but I'm sorry none of them are in the same league as any of the above.

We spent £47million on a new striker and attacking midfielder and swapped another attacking midfielder for another one.(Jansen,Sissoko,Nkoudou) None of these players have looked anywhere near the quality which we need to help us change games, if they did then our bench would look pretty good but as it is, comparing them to say Rashford,Rooney and Mata shows how really we have the 6th best squad.

This combined with the fact Potch has us playing a very conservative predictable style of play means when we don't press well and other teams work out how to play against us, we literally have no answer.

Potch and our recruitment are equally to blame. Todays game and others this season have reinforced where we are at. It's a little depressing after the dizzy heights of last season but it's reality. This is why I want us to take the cup comps seriously as until we get the new stadium and/or some better players I think 5/6th is about our level and I want us to go all out to try and win something and the league will not be what we win.

COYS.

 

[St José Dominguez]

Believe it or not, things were probably even worse than they are now. We'd just come off this run of results:

West Brom 1-1 Tottenham
Bayer Leverkusen 1-1 Tottenham
Bournemouth 0-0 Tottenham
Liverpool 2-1 Tottenham
Tottenham 1-1 Leicester
Tottenham 0-1 Bayer Leverkusen
Arsenal 1-1 Tottenham
Tottenham 3-2 West Ham (with two injury time goals)
Monaco 2-1 Tottenham
Chelsea 2-1 Tottenham

We were only slightly better than relegation form in the league, out of the top 4 and didn't really look like getting back in it, let alone challenging for the title. We were out of the League Cup and out of the Champions League heading into what was effectively a depressing Europa League qualifier at Wembley against Moscow. We'd won once in ten games with a lot of luck involved in that win, and it'd been two months since we'd managed more than a single goal in 90 minutes.

Things can and will get better. It's a poor spell, not the end of a very good team. So keep behind them, especially anyone lucky enough to be going to Watford on Sunday.

Our next game after that 10 last year? We suddenly beat Swansea 5-0 and didn't look back. Perspective.

COYS

Problem is most of those were when Kane was injured. We weren't playing that badly we just desperately missed Kane. I like the optimism but the feel of how we're playing right now is completely different. Yes we have injuries but so many players are out of form at the same time. It all feels a bit stale in the league.

One of the things from last year at this point is the title chance hadn't gone, so we after a few wins could grab onto that and it helped us build a head of steam. This year we're out of race already and I'm struggling to see us going on a run like last year just to get top 4, I'm not sure how much the players care about that right now but it might change after Xmas.

Weirdly considering how poor we are in league right now I think we've got a chance of going quite far in the CL, the spark is there in that competition and we're much better against sides who don't sit back. We just don't seem at it at all in the league, it's not helped by Wembley but more than that the players just haven't seemed that motivated in any of the games apart from a) against Liverpool and Chelsea or b) when they realise we're gonna possibly lose and start going for it. Even Arsenal was limp display.

Maybe the last two years has taken more out of them mentally than realised or they think they're bigger and better than they are or it's just got a bit flat and stale and the team needs freshening up.

It's a completely different tone and feel right now and probably worst its felt since Poch came in, it needs sorting fast though because without that push for title carrying us it is a worry and unlike last two years all the big teams are right up there or uncatchable like City and possibly Utd. We've still got a massive chance of 4th and for me that would be a great season now because no CL going into the new stadium would be a complete disaster.

 

[spurs9]

You couldn't just before the run last season to be fair either. Below is after the Utd loss in mid December, just before our run started.
Not having a go at you BTW, and you were certainly not alone in how you were thinking/feeling at the time, but just demonstrating that we were just as disappointed/losing hope at this stage last season as we are now, yet went to our best PL league finish.

2015/16 - We had an ok start, poor late October/whole of November, great December to April and poor finish.
2016/17 - We had an ok start, poor late October/whole of November, Poor CL group stage, great December to end of the season (fixed the end of season collapse)
2017/18 - We had an ok start, poor late October/whole of November, Great CL group stage, so if we can have a December to the end of the season to match last seasons, then we have continued our improvement and hopefully Poch can find a way to get over the October/November dip nect season.

@lukespurs7 Just to add to this, the other comments around yours in the Utd Match thread from December last season are so similar to the Leicester thread it isn't funny. Comments like:

"Alli, Eriksen & Son have been very inconsistent this season. We need a couple of quality backups to give those players the proverbial 'kick up the bum' and hope that performances will improve."

"Son has been inconsistent. Alli and Eriksen have been shit."

"What I will say about Poch is that he needs to stop letting Alli off the hook. The lad was exceptional last year, but he's resting on his laurels... his only contributions being cheeky nutmegs, losing the ball, and cheating. Poch publicly saying "I'm not going to have a word with him, I don't need to" doesn't impress me, especially when the lad needs a firm boot up the arse."

"I just cannot see a positive reason to play Eriksen and Dele together. Eriksen to me is way overrated, and when the going gets tough disappears wiithout trace."

"Unless there is a shock in January and we actually bring in the 2 or 3 players we need, I think it is unrealistic to believe that we will make the top 4 or, probably ,5 this season."

"We're so lacking in technical quality up front it's infuriating. Theres far too many of our midfielders that need 2/3 touches to control the ball properly. Alli, Son, Wanyama and Dembele who just holds the ball for too long. Need to get Winks on ASAP."

There were a select few even suggesting it was time for Poch to go.

 

[spurs9]

Problem is most of those were when Kane was injured. We weren't playing that badly we just desperately missed Kane. I like the optimism but the feel of how we're playing right now is completely different. Yes we have injuries but so many players are out of form at the same time. It all feels a bit stale in the league.

One of the things from last year at this point is the title chance hadn't gone, so we after a few wins could grab onto that and it helped us build a head of steam. This year we're out of race already and I'm struggling to see us going on a run like last year just to get top 4, I'm not sure how much the players care about that right now but it might change after Xmas.

Weirdly considering how poor we are in league right now I think we've got a chance of going quite far in the CL, the spark is there in that competition and we're much better against sides who don't sit back. We just don't seem at it at all in the league, it's not helped by Wembley but more than that the players just haven't seemed that motivated in any of the games apart from a) against Liverpool and Chelsea or b) when they realise we're gonna possibly lose and start going for it. Even Arsenal was limp display.

Maybe the last two years has taken more out of them mentally than realised or they think they're bigger and better than they are or it's just got a bit flat and stale and the team needs freshening up.

It's a completely different tone and feel right now and probably worst its felt since Poch came in, it needs sorting fast though because without that push for title carrying us it is a worry and unlike last two years all the big teams are right up there or uncatchable like City and possibly Utd. We've still got a massive chance of 4th and for me that would be a great season now because no CL going into the new stadium would be a complete disaster.

It really isn't, last year was just as bad and we didn't have the CL wins to cling to. Have a read of the comments I posted above which are taken from the end of the match thread when we lost to Utd mid December.

At the time we were 5th, 10 points behind Chelsea, and 7 points behind Arsenal (who were 2nd).

 

[St José Dominguez]

It really isn't, last year was just as bad and we didn't have the CL wins to cling to. Have a read of the comments I posted above which are taken from the end of the match thread when we lost to Utd mid December.

At the time we were 5th, 10 points behind Chelsea, and 7 points behind Arsenal (who were 2nd).

The problem and the huge problem is we are playing at Wembley this season. Maybe it is a pattern and it'll turn around and follow how it was last season but right now it is very hard to see without putting faith in something I'm not entirely sure exists.

We're not winning and losing league games right now because we're simply not playing well enough. Last year at this point is when we began a massive run of wins in a row that shot us up the league and into a title race, this title race kept us motivated and at full pelt. There is no title race now, City will be 16pts ahead of us tomorrow. Can the players adapt and treat top 4 like winning the league, I don't know.

We are a side who are great when at full pelt, and not actually that great when we're not other than individual moments of quality. To me personally it's a worry because I think the title chase helped us keep focus, when that was gone 1st year we dropped, last year it was adjusted to be the finish above Arsenal achievement and give WHL a send off. Poch is going to have to work extremely hard to get them mentally focused on what is most likely going to be a battle for 4th place from now till May.

 

[tttcowan]

In a lot of ways this dip in form should of been somewhat expected when it became obvious we weren't going to get into a title chase. It's a mentality issue.

I still think we'll respond and get top 4. We're still a very good football team. But we need some time to come to terms with where we're at as a football team.

 

[glacierSpurs]

There was a period there was no doubt we can get back equalising despite conceding. There was a period there was almost a certainty we probably would not concede in games, or at least not more than 1 goal.

I don't remember seeing us so out of sorts, lack of creativity, sloppy in passings, lack of incisiveness in final balls, no effective pressing and running so slow for a very very long time. Last 3 league games showed these traits in totality.

These were what worries me...

Call me self-entitled, but with the bar set so high last season for the run and seemingly the soft mentality was gotten rid once and for all, the progress should really be upward once and for all with even more ruthless winnings especially against lesser teams. We are even making draws so difficult...

 

[spurs mental]

In a lot of ways this dip in form should of been somewhat expected when it became obvious we weren't going to get into a title chase. It's a mentality issue.

I still think we'll respond and get top 4. We're still a very good football team. But we need some time to come to terms with where we're at as a football team.

I don't think it's all mentality. Some of it is but not all of it.

Looking at some of the players they look exhausted. Eriksen hasn't looked right since his hatrick for Denmark, and Dele hasn't looked like himself since Madrid. They need a break from the team. But there's no competition or back up strong enough to fill in. So part of it is probably exhaustion and part of it is mentality that there isn't anyone to fill in so they don't need to worry about their position.

Maybe with Lamela(who probably isnt ready for 90 minutes) back Eriksen can take a weekend off and recouperate.

We're desperately missing Wanyama too but with Poch seeming almost obsessed with starting every game with 3 at the back and losing any chance of solidity in midfield by having Dier in the 3 our defenders are having to work hard and we're wide open in midfield. He only seems to change the formation when we go a goal down or are struggling. It's plain to see we need Dier in there.

4 at the back until Vic or Toby is back has to be the way forward. We need to turn a corner before we go to City, otherwise it'll be a massacre.

 

[TH1239]

The players in this squad have experienced two title chases in the last two seasons. The main reason most of these players, who could earn more money elsewhere (like Walker) remain committed to Spurs is because there is (or was) a belief that this team could compete for major trophies. When you take away the chance to win the league title, motivation is going to drop (though I expect CL performances to be very good until we run into a PSG type team). Last season, even though Chelsea led the title chase, there was still a belief that they could be caught up until April. No one thinks City can be caught now, and I doubt there's a single player in the squad who thinks they can win the title. How motivated are players who've finished 3rd and 2nd the last two seasons to grind out a top 4 place? They aren't supporters or shareholders of the club, who see the value of having Champions League football in a new stadium to long term revenue streams and general prestige of the club. Most of them have a World Cup to focus on after this season, too. Will they give that extra 5% when it really matters? You'd like to think they would, and I would tend to give them the benefit of the doubt, but these performances recently have been major steps backwards.

Frankly, it's hard not to sit back and think the club has missed out on its window to do something special the last two seasons. The idea that Spurs are going to surge back into the title picture next season seems hard to imagine given the complete juggernaut City are building. The bigger fear is that we are going to lose players next summer. Eriksen has given us 5 seasons now. People can say what they want about him, but United, Chelsea and City would all give him 250K a week to come to their clubs. Will others join Rose and look for the exit ramp if we go on to have a down season? In a way, Pochettino set the bar so high for himself, if we finished 6th the next two or three seasons, you'd honestly fear for his job security.

 

[Kiedis]

Based on chances; we would normally be looking back at two wins. The Leicester game even being a comfortable win.

But even so, there are obviously some underlying issues. Hopefully we can get the rub of the green against Watford, rest some players against APOEL and go into the City game with something resembling a spring in our steps.

 

[TheChosenOne]

Many rational and pleasing posts in this thread. Thanks,