Tottenham Hotspur FC 2013/14

[fallenangle]

Yep, knives are out for Ange but I'd be surprised if Spurs dump him before the end of the season whatever happens in the Europa League.

However we're still in relegation territory until we get over the 40 points line. If by some horrible twist of fate we lose to Southampton this weekend things might start changing fast. With that sort of result followed by losing to Frankfurt and then facing Wolves, who we've often had trouble with beating, a bad performance in that game might be the last straw.

As I've said before about Ange I think he has the sort of character which might mean he'll jump before he is pushed.

Whether that would be good for Spurs or not who knows.

[EJG1980]

I think the realistic chances of us going down from here are very minimal. Even if we lost all 8 remaining games and finished on the 34 points we have now, Ipswich would need to produce top four form out of nowhere and win 5 out of 8 to overhaul us. I can't see Ipswich being that good AND us being that bad both happening at once.

There have been quite a few losses this season where (based on how the Spurs board has acted in the past) I've been pretty surprised that Ange wasn't sacked afterwards, but I think a home loss to Southampton combined with our league position and that'd have to be it, even with the board giving him more leeway than I've seen them give any other manager.

Beat Southampton and I think Ange will stay until the end of the season, even if we're knocked out of the Europa by Frankfurt, as once you've backed him that far there doesn't seem to be much point to changing with only 7 games to go. I think he needs to win the Europa League to still be manager next season though.

Edit: and Wolves win, so, now that's 5 wins from 7 that Ipswich need even if we lose every single game, and their next three opponents are Chelsea, Arsenal, and Newcastle. I'm willing to get a bit cocky and declare us safe now

Still a very real prospect that we could finish as low as 17th though; Wolves are now only 2 points behind us and we play them next weekend.

I think with how poor Southampton have been this season, even a draw against them tomorrow would be seen a really bad confidence draining result, never mind a loss. We couldn't half do with a repeat of the 5-0 win we got against them in December.

[fallenangle]

Yes, with Ipswich losing on Saturday to Wolves makes relegation now extremely unlikely. As you say they can only get 41 points max by winning all their remaining games and Spurs 'just' need 7 points to be on 41 too and safety because of our far superior GD.

In fantasy land if we win all the remaining matches we could still end the season with a respectable 58 points which last season would have given us 9th place in the Premiership and typically top half of the table most seasons. We can but hope.

Indeed another big win over Southampton today would be very welcome and just the thing needed to boost Spurs confidence going into the Frankfurt game.

Sunday Edit
Good win for Spurs and sadly for Southampton that relegates them too.

Shame that Brennan Johnson wasn't allowed to take the penalty and get a well deserved hat-trick.

I always think that in circumstances like that when the designated penalty taker is not available the captain should step up and step in to make the decision, no arguments. Particularly so when the player concerned won the penalty, clearly wanted to take on the responsibility and was effectively being bullied off it by a, questionably, more senior but no more qualified teammate.

[EJG1980]

Yup, it was a bit of a no-win situation match; if you don't win it's a disaster, and if you do win "it's only Southampton, of course you should win!". So take the win, job done, move on, fine by me.

The penalty thing was a little bit silly, but I won't blame anyone as I don't have enough info to assign blame If it wasn't clear who the designated penalty taker was, I'd blame the manager. If there was a designated PK taker then I'd blame whichever player wanted to go against that.

I forget who it was, pretty sure it was a high profile title chasing manager, who said after a match once that as professionals doing a job, he didn't want to see anything other than the designated penalty taker taking the penalty, no matter what, not even the designated taker giving it up willingly for someone else. I'm with whoever it was that said that, take out any sentiment, keep it 100% professional.

Not really too big a deal though, and I'm sure everyone involved will have forgotten about it by the end of training today.

Now on to Thursday, where I shall be keeping every possible body part crossed that we can get a good result to take to Germany for the second leg!

[fallenangle]

If Arsenal can beat Real Madrid 3 - 0 in north London then Spurs can beat Frankfurt by the same margin. That's what I'm hoping for anyway.

[EJG1980]

Yeah, we just need five performances / results like our 4-0 win against Man City, or our 4-1 win against Villa, and have them all coincide with the five possible remaining Europa League matches... not to much to ask

Edit: bittersweet as we should have ended tonight with a lead, a real shame that we go into the away leg level. The performance was a pretty good one, especially the first 15/20 minutes of the second half, that was the best football we've played for a while. We couldn't quite find the finishing touch though, either through a bit of bad luck, good goalkeeping, or poor finishing / final balls.

Porro's goal was superbly taken, and Bergvall was so unlucky with his long range strike that hit the bar.

If we put in a similar performance next week we can go there and get a result, but you'd expect Frankfurt will be tougher on their home turf, so we'll need to be much more clinical. I hope we don't end up regretting the missed chances from tonight. Still all to play for though!

[fallenangle]

Yes, decent result but a pity not to have a safety net goal in hand.

Definitely, as you said, all still to play for.

[EJG1980]

Still a very real prospect that we could finish as low as 17th though

Only 2 points above 17th now.

Can definitely see West Ham going above us as we have to play them at their place where they always seem to put in a huge effort no matter how their season is going, and they've got winnable games against Southampton and Ipswich too. Wolves have a likely win against Leicester still to come, and they've got good momentum at the moment so I'd back them to get more points out of their other remaining games than we do. Pretty pessimistic about our chances of finishing above either of them.

The match today was a bit of a horror show, some calamitous goals given away. We had a lot of the ball but did way too little with it for the amount of time we had it. And as usual we had the constant fear that any time we gave the ball away our opponents would be able to play one pass to slice us open or have our outnumbered defence on the back foot.

Trying to be optimistic for Thursday but today was not a good warm up!

[fallenangle]

I hate being right when I predicted a few weeks ago that Spurs, as has happened before, have trouble with Wolves and so it proved. But so much of it was of their own making with the defence and defensive support from the midfield being dreadful.

On MotD they highlighted the lack of urgency getting back into position, tracking back with attacking players and just in general helping out the defence of some players (won't mention who). It was like going back over a decade and watching the likes of Assou Ekotto all over again.

Then there is Bergvall, a good young player with tremendous potential, who is often the source for Spurs goal scoring chances and work rate is beyond reproach. But once in every match I've seen him in he will do something dumb and give the ball away in a dangerous position.

Trying to be optimistic and just have to hope good Spurs turn up for the next game because if they play like that again Ange will be up for the chop at the end of the season.

17.04.25 EDIT
Sorry to see Bayern Munich go out of the CL to Inter Milan after both Harry Kane and Eric Dyer of all people scored in the second leg. Them meeting Arsenal in the semi-final would have given the games an interesting edge.

The latter's do or die defending we could have well done with at Spurs this season. ED has his flaws as a defender but his commitment and hard work was and still is exemplary.

[EJG1980]

Get the you know what in!! Great win and a really good performance, the team really wanted it tonight and everyone worked their socks off. Ange changed it up too once we were in the lead, Vicario kicked it long for virtually every goal kick in the second half, no taking chances playing it out from the back constantly.

Definitely deserved to go through over the two legs. On the night we were the better side for a good 75 minutes, and then stood strong for the final 15 when Frankfurt were putting on the pressure searching for the equaliser.

Three games away from a trophy, come on Spurs, let’s end what has so far been a disappointing season with a bang!

Edit: Bodo/Glimt up next in the semi-final. Hopefully we won’t underestimate them because it’s not going to be an easy tie. The away leg especially as many a team have come a cropper on their plastic pitch in Norway; Porto, Besiktas, FC Twente, Olympiakos, and Lazio have all gone there and lost this season. It's a tie we should be winning if we play at our best, but we can't afford any complacency.

[fallenangle]

Yes, great result yesterday - I was loathe to check the score and eventually relented with about 15 minutes left and was pleased, to say the least. Then I waited until well after it had finished, crossed my fingers and..........................yay!

Apart from seeing B/G had beaten Lazio to get into the semi-final I didn't notice who else they had to deal with..............................and that list is worrying. Even if they all aren't as good as they have been in the past that's a pretty strong set of teams to have beaten on the way there. But I'm sure Spurs have it in them to give them a damned good thrashing even on their plastic pitch.

Don't Spurs use plastic pitches at their training ground? I'd swear one of the pre-season friendly games there against a Championship or 1st Division side you linked me to either before this season or last was on a plastic pitch. So there should be no excuse if that is the case.

Finally Ange has realised that always playing out from the back is not a good idea. That is also encouraging news.