Tottenham Hotspur FC 2013/14

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Just finished watching it on MotD and agree to all ^ that.

As I thought would be the case the Brentford and MU games become even more important to win now. It is still early days but four points from four games is just not good enough to expect to be in it for a top four finish at the end of the season.

Coventry in the Carabao Cup on Wednesday: a decent win against a club that has had cup history with Spurs would be a good way of restarting our season.

[EJG1980]

Just finished watching it on MotD and agree to all ^ that.

As I thought would be the case the Brentford and MU games become even more important to win now. It is still early days but four points from four games is just not good enough to expect to be in it for a top four finish at the end of the season.

Coventry in the Carabao Cup on Wednesday: a decent win against a club that has had cup history with Spurs would be a good way of restarting our season.

Yup, a frustrating opening few matches, but definitely way too early to judge anything. The last time we started worse than this was in Poch's second season in 2015/16, when only had three points from our opening four games (one loss and three draws) yet we went on to finish third in the table and have our best league finish since 1990. Obviously that's not to say we're certain to do the same again, just emphasising the 'too early to judge either way' point.

I say it every year, but damn it'd be nice to win a cup this season. Especially the Europa League or FA Cup, but I'll quite happily take the League Cup too! Hopefully this is finally the year where at the end of the season I can use the past tense and say it WAS nice to have won a cup

Edit: half time in the cup, need a big improvement in the second half; tons of possession but zero shots in 45 mins against a championship side. Two or three dangerous chances from Coventry despite them having little of the ball. Odobert off injured early on too.

Just over an hour gone, 1-0 Coventry and fully deserved, could have easily gone behind before but for some last ditch clearances. We did finally have our first shot after 59 minutes though! Extremely poor night so far.

Wow, a real smash and grab by us with two last minute goals, we must have had a spare get out of jail free card. Totally undeserved, could easily have been more than 1-0 down, but credit to Spence and Johnson for their finishes, dug us out of a real hole. Gutting for Coventry, they didn’t deserve to lose that, easily the better team on the night.

Hopefully this ends up being one of those surviving by the skin of your teeth and going on to win the whole thing stories!

Gah, apparently Odobert’s injury is “fairly significant”. Horrible luck for a young player who just got his big move.

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I couldn't believe the score even at half-time was 0-0, I thought Spurs would be out of the traps right away and putting Coventry to the sword. But no, they were the ones who scored first and, as indicated, not undeserved.

After another lack-lustre Spurs performance, thankfully, it was eventually topped off with a last ditch win. Not the way a team with our aspirations and quality should be doing it. A bit worrying TBH.

[EJG1980]

It has been quite up and down since the opening ten matches of last season, which now clearly looks a lot more like a new manager bounce over-performance, but I don't think that should be a huge surprise.

Two seasons ago we finished 8th even with Harry Kane scoring 30 goals, and then we sold Harry Kane, so I still maintain that coming 5th last season as a very good achievement overall, even if we were struggling a bit by the end of the season. It was never likely to be plain sailing quickly back to the top table from the position we were in when Ange took over.

Not that there has been any talk of Ange losing his job, but I personally want us to stick with Ange even if we have what seems like a pretty mediocre season, as we've generally in the past sacked managers just because of a hint of a downturn. We often talk long term plans but then get rid of a manager for short term reasons.

The goto example is usually Alex Ferguson, but a more recent and closer to home example is Arteta at Arsenal.

He took over from Emery and finished 8th. The next season... he finished 8th again. They had a twelve match run at the start of that second season where they won twice, drew twice, and lost eight time in twelve matches. They were 16th in the league and 4 points above the relegation zone going into Xmas. Endless posts online from Arsenal fans that he was clueless, going backwards, abysmal, crazy not to sack him.

He would have 100% been sacked by Spurs with that run of results and league position, but the Arsenal board stuck with him, and they've now been Man City's closest challengers for a couple of years. They ignored the short term pain because they believed in his plan for the long term.

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I completely agree. Getting rid of a manager without giving them a proper chance to prune the squad, get the team playing in a particular way and bringing in new players to give the squad the essential depth it needs to be able to compete in the Premiership takes time. Just a couple of seasons is simply not long enough to do all that.

But it does not mean the manager should expect to be free of criticism when they're having problems beating teams in games they should be dominating.

Brentford today is a good example of that sort of 'should win' type of game but with the current run Spurs are in, who knows?

The auguries are good though - I happened to switch on the TV this morning and watched a replay of the forgotten ITV series Match Time. I think it was the follow on series to better known The Big Match ITV's equivalent to MotD. Fronted by Elton Welsby and including scripted punditry and analysis from Denis Law, something that has not aged well.

However the Spurs versus MC game at WHL in 1982 game they covered was an uplifting experience. A really good Spurs performance with the likes of Glen Hoddle who scored a superb goal), Garth Crooks, Steve Archibald, Ossie Ardilles, Ray Clemence and an early outing for Micky Hazard all playing some great old school Spurs attacking football to win 2 - 0.

That's exactly what I want to see against Brentford.

[EJG1980]

First half today (aside from the first 24 seconds, but hey, Brentford did the same thing to Man City last week so we're in good company!) was excellent. Much faster tempo to our play and far less slow passing around at the back, much more decisive, quick, first time, forward passing. Excellent pressing too, we caused Brentford a ton of problems harrying them and closing down as they tried to pass it out from the back.

Second half was more even as Brentford improved, but we were still in control of the match and looked the more likely to add another goal, which eventually came from Maddison. A couple of dodgy moments from Vicario, one in each half, but he made amends with a superb save from Brentford's only big chance of the second half, when it was still 2-1.

In addition to his goal Maddison was really good today, the kind of performance we were getting from him last season before his injury. MOTM for me. Really good too to see Solanke get off the mark for us, and a lovely finish from Brennan Johnson for the goal that put us ahead.

I saw during the week that Johnson has been getting a lot of abuse online from so-called fans, leading to him shutting down his Instagram account. I find abuse of any player pathetic no matter what, but I'm baffled at how Johnson became a target for these idiots.

Last season he got 5 goals and 10 assists in 35 matches, perfectly good numbers for a young player at a new club, and I thought he was one of our better players over the season. He hadn't ripped up trees in the first two or three games of this season, but he's been no better or worse than any of our other players in that respect. Bizarre for him to be singled out. I've never noticed that sentiment in the stadium, and it was nice that he got very loud "only one Brennan Johnson" chants after his goal and when he was subbed.

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Good win and really good game from the the look of it on MotD. Loved some of the moves Spurs put together with Maddison, as you said, at his best. That was really good to see too and they singled his performance out on MotD too and he deserved their glowing plaudits.

Didn't know BJ was getting online abuse; I thought last season that he was often one of Spurs most effective and busy attacking players. Maybe his finishing is not as consistent as you'd want but that's about it. He's quick and gets himself in goal scoring positions or space to receive the ball, what's to criticise about that? I think he's been a good addition to the team.

I wouldn't be surprised if there was some hidden personal element driving the abuse. Miserable trolls can be triggered by anything, often trivial or irrelevant, that they don't like because there's no reason for the bullies to pick on him just based on his performances last season or this.

[EJG1980]

Good weekend for the Spurs women too, opening the season with a dominant 4-0 against Palace. Second half especially was excellent, the goal to make it 3-0 was a really lovely move.

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Just finished watching the highlights of that game and the fourth goal from Finish international Olga Ahtinen was also a cracker.

This weekend was a good one for Spurs all round.

[EJG1980]

Blimey, what a crazy match that was

Kick off delayed by 35 minutes, get a player sent off after 7 minutes (sloppy and silly from Dragusin; he’s done really well but that was a big mess up and deserved red but I expect he’ll learn from it), but end up winning 3-0 with ten men.

The first 20-25 minutes after the sending off were really good, we deserved the lead and were managing having ten men really well.

Gradually though we started giving the ball away more and more, usually from sloppy passes or dwelling on the ball too long, gifting Qarabag too many chances, but luckily they didn’t have their shooting boots on. The biggest moment of course being the penalty miss just after we’d gone 2-0 up.

Overall though, ten men for nearly the whole match but come out with a 3-0 win? Big credit to the team even if we did have moments where we rode our luck.

Sunday edit: excellent performance and result today, great stuff. The only slight negative is we should definitely scored more than 3 (and probably would have if Son had been playing and had the two one on one chances that Werner missed) but hopefully we can continue to get more and more clinical as the season goes on. But that's a small nitpick, top class passing, movement, workrate, every player was on it today, one of our best performances of the Ange era.

I thought the red card probably was just about a red, as even though Fernandes slipped into the challenge, you clearly see on one angle of the replay that he deliberately raises and stretches out his leg to match sure he catches Maddison, and even though it wasn't massive contact it was too high up his leg. I can see it being a challenge you might get away with on another day, but I don't think it's one you can complain about if you don't.

But as the pundits rightly said after the match, even 11v11 Spurs were completely dominant.

Neville gave man of the match to van de Ven (and it was a great performance from him, a second 75 yard run to assist a goal this season!) but it really should have gone to Kulusevski.

I think he's been our best player so far this season, he's stepped up a level since being moved to a central position instead of the right wing, him and Maddison as dual creative midfielders is starting to look like a really good combo. So far this season Kulu has created more chances per match than any other player in the league, and he combines that creativity with seemingly endless energy, he's running and chasing stuff down just as hard in the 90th minute as he is in the 1st. Plus his finish today for his goal was delightful.

Another goal for Johnson (4 in a row for him) and Solanke (3 in a row). Feel sorry for Timo Werner as everyone will talk about his misses today, but his movement, running, workrate, were all really good. His running keeps the opposition full back pinned back, and he protects the ball really well and rarely gives it away. He seemingly just has almost no confidence when it comes to putting the ball in the net.

Good to see Mikey Moore coming on and getting another ten minutes of top level experience under his belt at the end, would have been the icing on the cake if his last minute long range effort had found the net. Nice little run out for Bergvall too, not everything he tried came off, but his corner delivery that lead to the 3rd goal was top notch. Spence put in a good performance when he replace Udogie at half time (which is hopefully a precaution rather than any serious injury).

Extra edit: Ange said the Udogie sub was indeed a precaution and he’s hopeful there’s no injury. Quick extra note, it's almost a shame we had to put in this performance against Man Utd as 90% of the coverage after the match on Sky and after the highlights on the BBC was talking about Man Utd's problems instead of any in-depth talk about the way Spurs played

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Great result, 0 - 3 at Old Trafford against MU is an excellent achievement at any time. Really good performance all round and except for the fact Spurs should have scored more nothing to complain about. Made up for my otherwise fairly boring Sunday.

[EJG1980]

Good win last night with a very young starting eleven (Lankshear 19, Gray and Bergvall 18, Moore 17) which went just about exactly how you'd want, lots of great experience for the youngsters and the only first choice players who played more than 25 minutes were Porro and Romero, who both already had a rest in the previous European match.

Not without its nervy moments as Ferencvaros started well and we were rescued by an early 'goal' being ruled offside (correctly, but it was tight), and they had a few chances during the match, and got the last gasp goal at the end, but Spurs were in control and comfortable for the majority of it. A little bit of adversity probably does the youngsters better than a complete stroll anyway.

Moore was excellent, really stood out, not a surprise that he was one of the youngsters that completed the full 90 mins. Gray was also very good and the fact that he looks pretty comfortable whatever position he plays in, starting as a centre back in the first half and then going to left back in the second half (having already played right back and central midfield in previous matches for us), shows what a good footballer he is.

Lankshear did well considering it was his first competitive senior appearance for Tottenham of any kind. Got into good positions, always looking to get involved, had a good chance with a first half header that he slightly misjudged so it hit his shoulder, and was unlucky in the second half with a shot that only just went over the bar. Good debut. Decent performance from Bergvall too although he didn't have any stand-out individual moments last night. A good 65 minutes for both.

Not even being restricted to a 25 minute sub appearance can stop Brennan Johnson scoring at the moment, five goals in a row now, and all five in wins too! If both he and Spurs can make it six goals and six wins in a row against Brighton at the weekend, that'd cap off an excellent run going into the international break.

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I was (still am) a bit worried about Ange playing, basically, a B team in this competition. Smacks too much of the Poch era where the Europa League often saw him use a core set of out of favour, second choice players or newbies with a few key A team players rested on the subs bench.

It worked out OK in this case, giving some younger players a taste of European competition is no bad thing. But I hope this was just a carefully selected game for this experiment and does not set a precedence because against better European teams we could end up on the wrong end of a Champions League Celtic like ( 7 - 1 ) result against Dortmund.

[EJG1980]

I have a bit of sympathy for coaches on this as it's a very difficult balancing act to get right. Youngsters need minutes to be able to improve, backup players need minutes so they don't get disgruntled at never playing / helps keep them sharp when they need to step in to a big match, first choice players need a breather, etc..

It's a risk not playing a full strength side, but equally there are different risks in playing a full strength side all the time and never giving the backups / youth a chance to show what they can do. If he rotates the team and we don't win, he isn't taking it seriously, if he puts out a full strength side and we then look leggy in the next league match, he's running the best players into the ground. So like I said, I have sympathy for getting that balancing act right.

Two wins out of two though, so he's got it right so far! I also expect we'll see less rotation for the tougher matches in the group such as Galatasaray and Roma.

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The Galatasaray and Roma games in November were exactly what I was thinking about. But we'll just have to see what Ange does for those games and, of course, the results before condemning the practice of not fielding at team of first choice players in this competition.