Tottenham fans must look at the big picture

[Locotoro]

I expected us to perform just as well as we did under AVB and Sherwood, and I personally don't think we have. The quality of football certainly hasn't improved, and from an entertainment point of view (Chelsea fixture aside) Sherwood's team produced better. I also don't expect us have a home record beffitting that of a team fighting relegation

Come on mate, I hope you're being deliberately obtuse and this isnt really your opinion. Are you genuinely suggesting that Poch is not up to scratch after 6 months in charge?

I remember most games under Sherwood and I don't remember seeing Sherwood's team produce better football than what we are seeing now. What I do remember is mind-boggling midfield selections like Siggy and Eriksen in the middle that left us exposed to hammerings from the big boys. When we got hammered, Sherwood blamed the players, but since Poch has been in charge - no hammerings, and yet the team is playing worse in your opinion and its Poch's fault?

Really? Are we? Are we scoring more late goals than we did under AVB? Are we working any harder than we did under Sherwood? The answer is no to all. We have a few younger players who now put a lot of effort in, but we still have an incredible amount of sideways passing and running midfielders.

Yes we are. We have scored the most late winners in the League this season and that is down to the improved fitness schedule the coaching team have implemented and this is recognised by the players.
http://www.theguardian.com/football/2014/dec/15/christian-eriksen-tottenham-late-winners-fitness
Then on the one hand you say we are not working harder and then you say we have young players who are putting in more effort?? You are contradicting yourself, and it is the manager's decision to put in the young players who work harder.
Yes we have an incredible amount of sideways passing as i alluded to but I am willing to be patient for that to be resolved simply because there are evident signs of progress. Rome wasnt built in a day.

Why is that clear? He keeps playing players which we all know don't fit into the perceived Poch philosophy. He has also made it public that he is happy with his squad etc - both of our previous mangers questioned its balance and make up, but not this one.

Then I look at the isolation of Aaron Lennon - who I understand doesn't fit in a 4-5-1 as an inverted winger - but he works far harder than any of the other wingers we have. He is more inclined to this 'philosophy' than anyone else yet Poch has marginalised him seemingly?

This leads me to wonder who's philosophy we are working to. Is it Poch's, Baldini's or Levy's? What I do know is that this summer we let two players leave in the shape of Dawson and Sandro, and replaced them with inferior players. Again, Sandro would have been more suited to a pressing game than certain others?

It's clear because he hasn't settled on preferred players for certain positions. Lennon has been in and out of the squad through injury, not because he's been dropped. On the question of Dawson and Sandro, I don't believe Fazio is inferior to Dawson and i'm certainly not judging a defender in his first season in the EPL. On Sandro, its my understanding that he was, unfortunate as it is, permanently crocked. We can see that from the number of times he has played for QPR since his move - a fit player is always better than one that doesnt play - (This should be ingrained in your memory with the injury prone players we've had in our past).

Why is there no pressure? We sold our best players in consecutive seasons under AVB yet he was expected to deliver all sorts of largely unrealistic achievements. Sherwood couldn't have realistically done any better (Carling Cup defeat aside perhaps) yet there probably wasn't a single fan sad to see him go.

But now all of a sudden we are happy to accept mediocrity in the hope that Poch and his imagined philosophy will lead us to success.

I wish I could share the majority's hopefulness, but give me something to work with. I have not seen anything to suggest we are going in the right direction, nothing whatsoever.

So the pressure on AVB and Sherwood was largely unrealistic and they couldnt have done better and yet we sit in 6th place 5 points off 3rd, sit a game away from a cup final and still in Europe by January and yet Poch is not performing good enough?? Some perspective is necessary I think.

Its not that I am pleased with mediocrity, far from it. I am pleased that there is no pressure because the pressure in my opinion has always been undue and unrealistic. We qualified for the UCL once! Just once! (Bar the Chelsea debacle). We have no divine right to be up there. We have less financial power that our competitors, we have a smaller stadium, we have a weaker squad and yet we are fighting tooth and nail to keep parity. I am happy that Levy, and some fans, realise that we are very much the underdogs and the long game is what will win. Not the chop and change that we've had over the last few years.

 

[Main Man]

But you're completely disregarding and belittling the achievements of smaller clubs!

Wigan Athletic don't get any easy games on the way to the final, but they still got to the semi's and held their own.

You don't have to play big teams or wallop smaller teams to earn a cup. Rarely did anyone win a cup through their 'brilliance', especially Di Matteo with Chelsea re: the Champions League.

Absolutely no such thing as a kind draw - to perceive things that way is arrogant and is what leads to PL teams getting smash by League Two sides

At no point did I say easy, "a kind draw" is what I put specifically.

I am not disregarding any clubs achievements other than our own so I am not sure what you are getting at there. In fact, I am doing the complete opposite!

Sheffield United reaching the semi-finals is a far greater achievement than us doing so. But by your logic you disagree.

Fair enough.

 

[Main Man]

we sit in 6th place 5 points off 3rd, sit a game away from a cup final and still in Europe by January and yet Poch is not performing good enough?? Some perspective is necessary I think.

It is funny you say this because I was just looking at our upcoming fixtures up to and hopefully including a trip to Wembley... and realistically we could be out of the Carling Cup, Europe and the race for the Champions League come then.

Now that isn't set in stone, but it isn't completely out of the question either. What perspective would you show then?

AVB was sacked when 8 points from 1st - did you have a similar perspective then?

 

[Locotoro]

It is funny you say this because I was just looking at our upcoming fixtures up to and hopefully including a trip to Wembley... and realistically we could be out of the Carling Cup, Europe and the race for the Champions League come then.

Now that isn't set in stone, but it isn't completely out of the question either. What perspective would you show then?

AVB was sacked when 8 points from 1st - did you have a similar perspective then?

You evaluate the teams performance after the results not before. I would look at all the factors and decide appropriately at that time. We could just as easily be in 3rd with progress in Europe and a trophy to our name.

When AVB was sacked I was not in favour of it. I thought it was a poor decision by Levy. But then we didn't know the whole story behind the scenes. Should he have been sacked for the teams performance? I don't believe so. Should he have been sacked for the Adebayor situation? I don't think so. Did he put himself in an untenable position with his transfer demands? Possibly

 

[Main Man]

You evaluate the teams performance after the results not before. I would look at all the factors and decide appropriately at that time. We could just as easily be in 3rd with progress in Europe and a trophy to our name.

When AVB was sacked I was not in favour of it. I thought it was a poor decision by Levy. But then we didn't know the whole story behind the scenes. Should he have been sacked for the teams performance? I don't believe so. Should he have been sacked for the Adebayor situation? I don't think so. Did he put himself in an untenable position with his transfer demands? Possibly

We can re-visit this hopefully after a Carling Cup final victory then?