We don't lack guts or character or bottle....

[Bing]

...we lack goals. People are always looking for these abstract explanations like a lack of bottle but the fundamental fact is that we do not have many players (strikers included) who consistently find the back of the net.

Bale covered over the cracks but when you take him out of the equation we are toothless.

Lets be honest for a team whose strikers cannot score we have done pretty well for ourselves.

At the end of the day it is an incredibly competitive league...Chelsea and Arsenal are very accomplished football teams and you need to be firing on all cylinder's to compete. They have flaws too but not as fundamental as two strikers and an array of attacking midfielders who have not scored consistently in the second half of the season.

Easy enough problem to fix (as it was last summer and in January)...lets hope we finally address it this summer...here's waiting to 31 August

 

[E17yid]

Fuckin A mate.

 

[chinaman]

...we lack goals. People are always looking for these abstract explanations like a lack of bottle but the fundamental fact is that we do not have many players (strikers included) who consistently find the back of the net.

Bale covered over the cracks but when you take him out of the equation we are toothless.

Lets be honest for a team whose strikers cannot score we have done pretty well for ourselves.

At the end of the day it is an incredibly competitive league...Chelsea and Arsenal are very accomplished football teams and you need to be firing on all cylinder's to compete. They have flaws too but not as fundamental as two strikers and an array of attacking midfielders who have not scored consistently in the second half of the season.

Easy enough problem to fix (as it was last summer and in January)...lets hope we finally address it this summer...here's waiting to 31 August

People talk of paper tigers which are toothless. So we are toothless cockerel.

 

[dagraham]

...we lack goals. People are always looking for these abstract explanations like a lack of bottle but the fundamental fact is that we do not have many players (strikers included) who consistently find the back of the net.

Bale covered over the cracks but when you take him out of the equation we are toothless.

Lets be honest for a team whose strikers cannot score we have done pretty well for ourselves.

At the end of the day it is an incredibly competitive league...Chelsea and Arsenal are very accomplished football teams and you need to be firing on all cylinder's to compete. They have flaws too but not as fundamental as two strikers and an array of attacking midfielders who have not scored consistently in the second half of the season.

Easy enough problem to fix (as it was last summer and in January)...lets hope we finally address it this summer...here's waiting to 31 August

Agree with these sentiments and it's definitely out biggest problem. Bale is our only match winner.

Ironically though in the last month or so it's our defending which has let us down. It will prove unpopular on here but I think AVB should shoulder alot of the blame for this as I believe his constant rotating of the back 5 caused problems.

 

[Gassin's finest]

And yet we still seem to score a couple of goals or so each game. I'd say the bigger problem in recent weeks has become the shipping of them.

 

[Francis Gibbs]

the reliance on unreliable strikers was always going to cost us the minute the Jan window shut everyone, even those with only a passing interest in Spurs knew this - apart from the one who mattered

 

[TheGreenLily]

...we lack goals. People are always looking for these abstract explanations like a lack of bottle but the fundamental fact is that we do not have many players (strikers included) who consistently find the back of the net.

Bale covered over the cracks but when you take him out of the equation we are toothless.

Lets be honest for a team whose strikers cannot score we have done pretty well for ourselves.

At the end of the day it is an incredibly competitive league...Chelsea and Arsenal are very accomplished football teams and you need to be firing on all cylinder's to compete. They have flaws too but not as fundamental as two strikers and an array of attacking midfielders who have not scored consistently in the second half of the season.

Easy enough problem to fix (as it was last summer and in January)...lets hope we finally address it this summer...here's waiting to 31 August 2025

Fixed

 

[eViL]

While I see what you are getting at, it's not really even that we struggle to score, it's more about 'Threat' than anything else.

If you looked at Basle, everytime one of their front 3 got the ball they looked like creating something or threatening our goal - when you have this in a side, the opposition will always rush the ball out of defense or try to get the ball to the front line quickly, often with wayward passes.

Our pressing game and high line requires our front man to push the opposition defence backwards (Often being offside - T Henry was the master of this) to create space in the middle of the park, something our strikers were doing to great effect in the 2nd quarter of the season, meaning our 3 AMs could constantly threaten the goal (hence Bale scoring a ton of goals). The issue with this is, as the fans got frustrated with, you won't see our front man on the ball as much.

It's then up to the midfield NOT to pass to an offside striker, with a little intelligence in our play, it really isn't that hard.

This has stopped happening and strikers are coming deep for the ball now, meaning we're effectively closing down our own play.

2 solutions:
Strikers need to play off the shoulder so opposition centrebacks think twice about pushing up, creating more space in their half for us to play.

Our most dangerous player HAS to start on the left to open things up again, if he's in the centre he's effectively got 2 DCMs marking him, again squeezing our central creative players (Sig, Holtby) out wide, where they are less effective.

Would I like to see more goals? Of course, but tactically it's more than that we need.

 

[dynamoSpurs]

we are no good under pressure. Never have been.

 

[Sp3akerboxxx]

I don;t think I would be able to handle Spurs having a striker. It would be weird to not have a striker up front who goes full retard when he gets in the box.

 

[Mullers]

But to get goals, you also need guts, character and bottle so we lack that also.

 

[dvdhopeful]

I began to get hopeful a few seasons ago when GFTS started to get mentioned. Lennon, for all his pace, will never score enough goals to be a starter in a forward three. Willian looked a perfect replacement but we obviously got massively outbid. If we go with a forward three and essentially play with Bale behind the striker, we really need two quality replacements in the Summer, a forward and a versatile wide player capable of getting 10+ goals a season.

I'd see it as something along the lines of:

Sandro Dembele
(New) Bale Siggy/Lennon
(New)

The lack of depth we have had this season going forward has been a massive worry, especially when injuries have hit and our bench has been there really to cover injury rather than change a game. If we can bring in a 'GFTS' next year, we could go into the season with Lennon, Townsend, Sig, (New) and Bale who can cover the wings. Whether as a club we can afford two new high quality players (I'm not talking Cavani etc., but someone in between a promising and established) and retain the players we already have, is another question.

If we can't retain all these players, then I think we need to rethink priorities next season, as if you are going to have a go on 4 fronts, you need more capable bodies than we currently have.

 

[Harry_Snatch]

Agree with this post. I think we also have an unbalanced squad. Guys like Dempsey and Siggy stepping in to fill Bale and Lennons role is ridiculous. Our style of play rely's on pace but as soon as those 2 are out our explosiveness goes from a split atom to whoopee cushion. Guys like Dempsey, Siggy and Holtby are of a good enough quality to be at the club but were bought for value over their ability to fit the system. Walker is the only guy left in the team with any real explosiveness.

 

[tobi]

Man Utd papered over the cracks and got RVP, domestically it works.

 

[idontgetit]

We lack goals at home. Away only United scored more. At home we have scored 18 less than Arsenal. And conceded 5 more than they have. Away we have 9 more goals than both Arsenal and City. Very strange

 

[StartingPrice]

And yet we still seem to score a couple of goals or so each game. I'd say the bigger problem in recent weeks has become the shipping of them.

Exactly.

 

[Locotoro]

the reliance on unreliable strikers was always going to cost us the minute the Jan window shut everyone, even those with only a passing interest in Spurs knew this - apart from the one who mattered

Apparently, the one who mattered is being overridden by the one who matters more.

 

[WestBelfast Spurs]

Agree with these sentiments and it's definitely out biggest problem. Bale is our only match winner.

Ironically though in the last month or so it's our defending which has let us down. It will prove unpopular on here but I think AVB should shoulder alot of the blame for this as I believe his constant rotating of the back 5 caused problems.

he rotates as per the opposition, not because he's playing lovey dovey with the team

 

[dvdhopeful]

We lack goals at home. Away only United scored more. At home we have scored 18 less than Arsenal. And conceded 5 more than they have. Away we have 9 more goals than both Arsenal and City. Very strange

It makes complete sense though, a lot of our attacking comes from pace and counter attacking. Away from home the home side attacks us and gives us space. At home, the away team sets out to stop us, so they sit back and we often cannot break them down.

 

[E17yid]

It makes complete sense though, a lot of our attacking comes from pace and counter attacking. Away from home the home side attacks us and gives us space. At home, the away team sets out to stop us, so they sit back and we often cannot break them down.

The thing is, every team below 16h will do this to us whether they play us at home or away. At Brom they set up like that but we got a 1-0. QPR at Loftus, Sunderland at the stadium of light etc.

I think it is partly to do with what you say but I don't think it is the only reason