At the halfway point of this season, we might have actually improved on last.

[glospur]

After reading the excellent article posted below, do you agree that, despite some unwarranted negativity from some quarters, we have actually improved on last year?

http://www.skysports.com/football/n...n-1-4-tottenham-expectations-rising-for-spurs

 

[THFCjosh]

We have improved since last year... only issue is so has everyone else. Chelsea look like their real selves unlike last year, Liverpool as predicted by many look very good. City albeit flatter to deceive is some games also have improved on last. Arsenal were always going to be up there like every other season. We have improved but unfortunately not as much as our rivals.

 

[cwhite02]

We have improved since last year... only issue is so has everyone else. Chelsea look like their real selves unlike last year, Liverpool as predicted by many look very good. City albeit flatter to deceive is some games also have improved on last. Arsenal were always going to be up there like every other season. We have improved but unfortunately not as much as our rivals.

Agree with this. I would happily take 4th spot, the top 6 is looking like it's going to be tight (well apart from chelski, who look very consistent now).

 

[mattie g]

We have improved since last year... only issue is so has everyone else. Chelsea look like their real selves unlike last year, Liverpool as predicted by many look very good. City albeit flatter to deceive is some games also have improved on last. Arsenal were always going to be up there like every other season. We have improved but unfortunately not as much as our rivals.

There was less room for improvement given our league finish last season. Chelsea, Liverpool, and to some extent Man City had much more room to improve and have done so.

 

[For the love of Spurs]

More resilient I feel, the singing of Wanyama has helped that but while our performances have not always been great we are a tough nut to crack.

Problem is other teams have sorted themselves out and have more resources than us, Chelsea, Man City and Man United have stronger squads than us IMO and it's not surprising as they can afford higher wages.

We are still the Prems youngest team so as long as we keep it all together we will continue to improve.

 

[glospur]

It must be pointed out as well that we have more points at the halfway point of this season compared to last, yet we've had our best defender and our best striker, two key players from last year, out for significant periods of time.

It really is a fantastic achievement given those circumstances and another reason why some of the hand-wringing about how 'poor' we've been at times has been utterly ridiculous.

 

[Lilbaz]

I think being dumped out of the cl has tainted many peoples views.

 

[southlondonyiddo]

It must be pointed out as well that we have more points at the halfway point of this season compared to last, yet we've had our best defender and our best striker, two key players from last year, out for significant periods of time.

It really is a fantastic achievement given those circumstances and another reason why some of the hand-wringing about how 'poor' we've been at times has been utterly ridiculous.

+ Lamela being out for a long period of time who arguably is the driving force of Pochs pressing game as well as a very important creative cog!

 

[thinktank]

Nonsense.

 

[Neon_Knight_]

We have four more points than we had at this point last season and are also one point up on the "game for game comparison". Therefore, it's difficult to argue against us being better than last season. That said, I still think our current squad can step up another level in the remainder of this season, by not conceding avoidable early goals (like in the last two games) and creating more clear-cut chances when teams sit back against us. Just having Toby and Lamela back from injury will help massively with this.

Whether we win, draw or lose our next match, this is our second best first half of a season in the Premier League, only bettered during Harry's last season (when we were great for 25 games, but then took only 13 points from the last 13 games). We are in a strong position to beat our record of 72 points.
http://www.myfootballfacts.com/TottenhamHotspurPremierLeaguePointsWon.html
http://www.myfootballfacts.com/TottenhamHotspurPremierLeaguePointsWon.html

 

[davidmatzdorf]

As I've been writing this, @Neon_Knight_ has posted similar comments, but I'm going to post it anyway...


First, it isn't the halfway point of the season yet. That's after the Watford game. We have played 18 matches out of 38.

As for points comparisons, is you look at our points total after 18 matches, we are 4 points ahead of last season, not 2. After our 18th match last season (Spurs 3 Norwich 0), we had 32 points.

If you compare our points total to the same opposition last season, substituting promoted clubs for relegated clubs, we are 1 point ahead of last season's total.

And we have achieved that despite having a vastly worse injury record this time.

 

[LexingtonSpurs]

Subjectively, if you listen to many posters here, and pundits elsewhere, Spurs have had a terrible first half.

But, objectively, we are playing better, scoring more, conceding fewer, and have more depth than last season. I think people either forget or ignore the amount of games key players have missed due to injury and suspension. They also forget that we really struggled out of the gate last season, and I am sure you can still find the thread here where people were calling for Pochettino to be sacked by Christmas last season.

Squads like Chelsea and Liverpool make it feel like we are moving backwards, but they have just been fortunate to have quality squads who were abnormally poor last season - and now have no European football to distract them. But, by any objective measure, we are a better squad today, than we were at the start of 2016.

 

[crokey]

Everyone saying we have improved a little, but the other top clubs have improved a lot. If everyone else is playing better, yet we still have more points, more goals and less conceded, then maybe we have improved more than just a little bit...?

 

[Hazardousman]

I think Poch needs to take a long hard look at himself and then slap me in the face with some humble pie after our recent performances.

 

[SugarRay]

Consider the amount of games Toby and Harry have missed, then it looks even more impressive.

Others have mentioned it and I agree that there's a chance that the Poch press is being implemented later in the season this time round.

 

[Ribble]

I think we've both tried to, and had to, conserve energy a little more this season so far, but haven't really let that stop us winning games and controlling things much of the time. We've had injuries and absences all the way up the spine of the team to deal with and that's certainly affected our rhythm and produced more bitty performancs, but when we have our eye in there's not much teams can do to match us.

 

[Sweech]

Don't tell @Hazardousman about our record.

He's too busy wondering if Poch is looking at himself wondering if Liverpool doing so well this season means we're a complete and abject failure while the league conspired with an obviously doped up Leicester team.

 

[Hazardousman]

Don't tell @Hazardousman about our record.

He's too busy wondering if Poch is looking at himself wondering if Liverpool doing so well this season means we're a complete and abject failure while the league conspired with an obviously doped up Leicester team.

Sweech, your obsession with me is worrying., you go out of your way to constantly rate my posts with doh's or whatever else and the only time you ever respond to me is when you are taking a dig.

Poch isn't perfect, I was wrong about a lot in that post I made now in hindsight but there are still a few things I believe he needs to improve, the discussion about Liverpool outperforming us after 6 seasons of us finishing ahead of them was a question I asked because I wanted peoples opinions, this is a message board where discussions happen, this isn't a place that should be tailor made to suit every opinion you share and showing only things you agree with.

And I still believe something suspicious was going on with Leicester last season, Vardy in particular but that's obviously just my opinion.

Again, I don't care if you disagree that's fine but acting like a petulant child and going out of your way to rate my posts badly or trolling to try and get a bite from me isn't exactly a mature way to disagree or encourage decent discussion.

I can't say you are mature though based on the way you present yourself in posts, I mean take this one for example, the only reason you even made it was to try and take a dig, you are literally wasting your life on going out of your way to shame someone you don't know on the internet for sharing different opinions to you.

Grow up and be a man.

 

[adamsky]

Don't think we have improved from last season. Our top players have not hit their best form from last season, we are not as fluent or as enjoyable to watch. It is also worth mentioning that we started last season very poorly so it makes us look better now in comparison yet is clear to see when watching us play that we aren't quite there.

That being said, it is quite promising that we are still in a good position despite the above. If we now go on a run and do genuinely improve from last season we can certainly make the top 4.

 

[Shadydan]

Don't think we have improved from last season. Our top players have not hit their best form from last season, we are not as fluent or as enjoyable to watch. It is also worth mentioning that we started last season very poorly so it makes us look better now in comparison yet is clear to see when watching us play that we aren't quite there.

That being said, it is quite promising that we are still in a good position despite the above. If we now go on a run and do genuinely improve from last season we can certainly make the top 4.

If you are making a comparison to last season as a whole then I guess you're right but I think the only way to draw a comparison is by comparing where we are now to exactly 12 months ago and we have undoubtedly improved, our best football came after Xmas and new year last season as well.