What's new

Tottenham are a striker short of top four spot, claims Sherwood

postigol

Well-Known Member
Aug 4, 2003
1,890
1,061
Wait a minute
Tim said the squad wasn't good enough.
Now we're only a striker away?
He gave Bobby a chance, he scored then dropped him.
Sorry Tim changes his mind like the wind.
I'm glad he's gone.
Half our decent player's would have been sold if he was still here.
Yeah, we just signed 6 new players.
 

newbie

Well-Known Member
Jul 16, 2004
6,051
6,342
We only need one striker to stay fit and have a good season it's not like we have been far off the top 4 and had a striker score 20 league goals in ages.
Although I agree we only need one striker to stay fit and have a good season it's not like we have been far off the top 4 and had a striker score 20 league goals in ages.

Joe why just disagree and not point out why ? That's a bit lame, I would love to have signed a top quality striker, but our strike force has talent it's weather they produce this season, and how injuries affect us I hope Ade shows us his best.
 

postigol

Well-Known Member
Aug 4, 2003
1,890
1,061
Yes, the pressure - and lack of support from Levy - got to him. And he tinkered too much, to the point of confuisng everyone, including, I suspect, himself.

But I felt he might settle down given time, and I was concerned both that losing him would be a waste of the six months he had had to assess the squad, and that his passion for youth development - which is our only realsistic strategy for breaking into the top four - would not be shared by his successor. But Poch has taken most, if not all, the decisions I would have expected Tim to take - such as ditching Sandro and Holtby and persisting with Bentaleb - and crucially seems to have more buy-in from the players, to him personally and to what he is asking of them. He has actually succeeded in getting them to do some pressing, something both AVB and Tim talked about a lot, but which never seemed to happen. The club seems happier - of course, that might be tested by a few more results like the Liverpool one, but hopefully not. The real concern is that whereas Tim groped around to find tactical solutions in individual games, with admittedly mixed results, Poch seems rather too wedded to Plan A. Plan A, is a good plan, I like it, but it does make us a bit easy to suss out.
Last coach to have a plan B of any sort was AVB, but his plan B was simply to hope Bale would pull something out of the bag.
Harry Redknapp's plan B was at least more of a plan - bring on Hudd and/or Crouchie and pelt long balls into the box, Bolton-stylee. And that kind of worked whenever our free-flowing passing game had failed to pay dividends.
 

nightgoat

Well-Known Member
Sep 12, 2005
24,604
21,898
well a) he hadn't had the chance to assess the squad then; give Poch six months and he will be demanding a new striker; and b) there was no ANC last season.

No, he'd only been at the club five years. Nowhere near enough time to assess the squad.

:rolleyes:
 

14/04/91

Well-Known Member
Jan 13, 2006
3,527
5,693
But who would that striker be? Would it be a new first choice which means Ade & Soldado on the bench? And if so, where do you find a striker better than them?
Lukaku is the only name I can think of who was available and not likely to join a CL club. But I'm not convinced he's an upgrade and £28m is way too much for him imo.

It's all about giving Pochettino time to get his ideas across and shape the team into his style and way of playing. If he decides our forward line isn't strong enough, he'll look in Jan or next summer.
We only play one up front so I actually think we're pretty well covered. We need a focused Ade and we need Soldado to improve upon last year but we're talking 2 quality centre forwards, top class players. And an eager, talented youngster in Kane as back up.
 
Jul 24, 2014
96
191
Bit early to say Poch is 'rather too wedded to Plan A'. If Liverpool had played like they did v Man City we would have been able to have a pop at them. Fact is, they bounced back and gave us a bit of a seeing to. Apart from that game we've looked OK given that we can only play what's in front of us. 3 games isn't enough time to make such sweeping statements IMO.
I agree with most of what you said. However we can't kid ourselves as we were pretty awful against West Ham and didn't deserve one point let alone all three. Hopefully the new guys Fazio and Benji will give Hugo better protection and if Lamela carries on improving and Eriksen is on top of his game and our striker(s) get a few more chances. Well who knows what could happen, we might even start playing Spurs type football again. COYS
 

ThorntonSpur

every away game is a home game
Jan 21, 2011
2,440
645
if we are in the mix come January we will see if the coach gets backed in the window when he identifies a new quality striker.

will it be what happened to harry boy or not when he wanted tevez and cahill and got saha and nelson.

could be a very important window for ambition.
 

eddiebailey

Well-Known Member
Oct 12, 2004
7,452
6,672
Last coach to have a plan B of any sort was AVB, but his plan B was simply to hope Bale would pull something out of the bag.
That was pretty much Plan A. Plan B was to cling to the desperate hope that Townsend could do the same.
 

Amo

Well-Known Member
Aug 22, 2013
15,795
31,480
I just don't get why we have been unbelievably poor against top sides for the past season and a bit. Most teams way below us are able to at least give them a a game, and sometimes grind out results. I had a feeling Burnley would get something from Man Utd, and Liester from Chelsea (and they gave em a good game too), I don't really get that feeling with us.
 

striebs

Well-Known Member
Mar 18, 2004
4,504
667
Yes, the pressure - and lack of support from Levy - got to him. And he tinkered too much, to the point of confuisng everyone, including, I suspect, himself.

But I felt he might settle down given time, and I was concerned both that losing him would be a waste of the six months he had had to assess the squad, and that his passion for youth development - which is our only realsistic strategy for breaking into the top four - would not be shared by his successor. But Poch has taken most, if not all, the decisions I would have expected Tim to take - such as ditching Sandro and Holtby and persisting with Bentaleb - and crucially seems to have more buy-in from the players, to him personally and to what he is asking of them. He has actually succeeded in getting them to do some pressing, something both AVB and Tim talked about a lot, but which never seemed to happen. The club seems happier - of course, that might be tested by a few more results like the Liverpool one, but hopefully not. The real concern is that whereas Tim groped around to find tactical solutions in individual games, with admittedly mixed results, Poch seems rather too wedded to Plan A. Plan A, is a good plan, I like it, but it does make us a bit easy to suss out.

Eddiebailey ,

Why did you expect Sandro to be ditched ?

Was it because he is an overbearing personality who threw a tantrum when the last manager decided to play someone else ?

Holty always struck me as an honest player more suited to Fulham and at a push Everton .

How about the departure of Siggy ? There is a player who by and large produces the goods pretty consistently . Underrated imho .

Do you think Poch wanted to dispose of him or that Siggy felt he would get more pitch time elsewhere ?
 

eddiebailey

Well-Known Member
Oct 12, 2004
7,452
6,672
I just don't get why we have been unbelievably poor against top sides for the past season and a bit. Most teams way below us are able to at least give them a a game, and sometimes grind out results. I had a feeling Burnley would get something from Man Utd, and Liester from Chelsea (and they gave em a good game too), I don't really get that feeling with us.
You do not claw your way into the Premiership unless you have fight in your belly, and you certainly do not stay there. Our problem is that most of our players, because they are that cut above in terms of talent, have not undergone the same character forming experiences. When it all starts to fall apart they can't cope.
 

doom

Well-Known Member
Dec 13, 2003
2,368
1,338
any talk of being short of strikers when Adebayor heads of to the ANC doesn't make sense as Togo have yet to qualify plus we have another transfer window before the ANC
 

eddiebailey

Well-Known Member
Oct 12, 2004
7,452
6,672
Eddiebailey ,

Why did you expect Sandro to be ditched ?

Was it because he is an overbearing personality who threw a tantrum when the last manager decided to play someone else ?

Holty always struck me as an honest player more suited to Fulham and at a push Everton .

How about the departure of Siggy ? There is a player who by and large produces the goods pretty consistently . Underrated imho .

Do you think Poch wanted to dispose of him or that Siggy felt he would get more pitch time elsewhere ?

In the case of Sandro, neither Tim and Poch are interested in a specialist defensive midfielder who offers nothing more; to be fair to Sandro when Tim threw down the gauntlet he responded in the final game of the season by showing that he was a footballer; if he had retained that form into pre-season it might have earnt him a reprieve. I always felt that Tim was looking for players to prove him wrong, rather than just freezing them out.

Holtby I think just does not take tactical instruction; once he steps out on the pitch his head just seems to empty and he chases around like a Labrador let of its leash in the park.

Siggy is more of a puzzle. Tim clearly approved of his dedication, but he just did not seem a good fit at Spurs. Talented no doubt, but perhaps lacking the all round game to be anything other than focal point, while not sufficiently top drawer for a club of our ambitions to build a team around.
 

WalkerboyUK

Well-Known Member
Jun 8, 2009
21,658
23,476
if we are in the mix come January we will see if the coach gets backed in the window when he identifies a new quality striker.

will it be what happened to harry boy or not when he wanted tevez and cahill and got saha and nelson.

could be a very important window for ambition.

We shouldn't have to be reliant on "being in the mix" come January in order for Levy to decide whether or not to spend on a striker.
It's evident in the summer that's where the weak link is, so shouldn't be waiting until mid-Winter to fix.
 

postigol

Well-Known Member
Aug 4, 2003
1,890
1,061
Fair point, Tim only rated Eriksen.
So you would have happy to see the other six signings sold?
No, I meant that between Sherwood's tenure when the squad wasn't good enough, and now when he says all we need is a striker, we have signed 6 new players - that explains the apparrent discrepency.
 

thebetamaxboy

Active Member
Jun 5, 2012
382
480
why is he still talking about us? .. move on Tim!

.. I have a plan for this season based on our available playing staff. we write off the 30pts available against the top five teams ... play a defensive line up bore and frustrate like stoke do ... get as many draws as possible. We then double focus all of our efforts on geeing the team up and winning against the other 14 teams of the table (potentially 84pts) .. we could sneak the CL if we can beat all the teams twice who finished below us last season .. just a shame it doesn't work that way : (
 

striebs

Well-Known Member
Mar 18, 2004
4,504
667
In the case of Sandro, neither Tim and Poch are interested in a specialist defensive midfielder who offers nothing more; to be fair to Sandro when Tim threw down the gauntlet he responded in the final game of the season by showing that he was a footballer; if he had retained that form into pre-season it might have earnt him a reprieve. I always felt that Tim was looking for players to prove him wrong, rather than just freezing them out.

Holtby I think just does not take tactical instruction; once he steps out on the pitch his head just seems to empty and he chases around like a Labrador let of its leash in the park.

Siggy is more of a puzzle. Tim clearly approved of his dedication, but he just did not seem a good fit at Spurs. Talented no doubt, but perhaps lacking the all round game to be anything other than focal point, while not sufficiently top drawer for a club of our ambitions to build a team around.

Eddie , thanks for you analysis . I freely admit that I know very little about football and learn a lot from here .

Perhaps our medical team had some input into the Sandro transfer too - the flip side for the players to receiving loads of the money .

I was sorry to see Tim go without being given a chance but that is Spurs for you and I like Poch too . AVB never did it for me .

Would love to see Glenn return - but only if and when Poch goes .
 
Top