Tottenham Hotspur FC 2013/14

[fallenangle]

Scott Parker - yes one of my favourite ex-Spurs players (I have a lot ).

The position he use to play - a sort of midfield sweeper operating in front of the back line, much as Eric Dyer did when at his best, is a role we need a player to do now with the same sort of work rate and dedication. Bergvall sometimes drops into that position and may get better at but we don't really have any more defensive minded midfielders I can think of. Maybe Spurs should be looking for that sort of player as well as an overhaul of the defenders pool too.

When you look at the stats we have equal (with Arsenal) 4th highest number of goals in the Premiership but have shipped 51 goals, the 4th worst outside the bottom 3. Look where Aston Villa, Brighton and Brentford are in the table yet they all have roughly similar goal stats but Spurs appalling number of losses, the worst outside the bottom 3, are, as you ^^ indicated. where the difference lies.

Unfortunately that can't be just ignored; it indicates a flaw in the tactics however much of the blame may be attributed to the unprecedented injury problems some key players have had this season.

[EJG1980]

The position he use to play - a sort of midfield sweeper operating in front of the back line, much as Eric Dyer did when at his best, is a role we need a player to do now with the same sort of work rate and dedication. Bergvall sometimes drops into that position and may get better at but we don't really have any more defensive minded midfielders I can think of. Maybe Spurs should be looking for that sort of player as well as an overhaul of the defenders pool too.

When you look at the stats we have equal (with Arsenal) 4th highest number of goals in the Premiership but have shipped 51 goals, the 4th worst outside the bottom 3. Look where Aston Villa, Brighton and Brentford are in the table yet they all have roughly similar goal stats but Spurs appalling number of losses, the worst outside the bottom 3, are, as you ^^ indicated. where the difference lies.

Unfortunately that can't be just ignored; it indicates a flaw in the tactics however much of the blame may be attributed to the unprecedented injury problems some key players have had this season.

It seems by design that Ange doesn't want that kind of player in the team. We had Hojbjerg last season who was suited to that role, Ange usually didn't start him and then willingly let him go in the summer. I'm willing to give any manager's vision a chance, but like you say there are too many tactical flaws that the manager either doesn't see, or does see them but doesn't think they're problems.

The more time has gone on the less confidence I have that this could still work out long term. There are too many things that happen over and over, which cost us matches, that no attempt is made to fix, or that the manager doesn't know how to fix even if he wanted to.

I was thinking of a couple more specific things to say, but I think I'd ramble on too much if I did so I'm gonna leave it there All I can hope for now is that we get three "stars aligning" performances in the Europa League and somehow, bizarrely, come away from our worst season in years with our first trophy in years!

Ideally, I'd like Arsenal to win tonight, Liverpool to draw against Spurs and Chelsea and hopefully a nice little guard of honour from Arsenal at Anfield.... oh no I've probably jinxed it all to ruins

So with Arsenal only drawing last night, that means you now need Spurs to win at Anfield to keep your ideal scenario alive...

I think you're probably going to have to settle for the fallback option of your team merely winning a record-tying 20th league title in front of their own fans. I know it's gonna be a tough one to take but you're just gonna have to put a brave face on it

[hudson]

Yes, I'm not sure now as the Spurs game is the last match I'll be attending this season (I share a season ticket), so, I kinda probably just want to win now. Be better to win it at home.

I know Tottenham have had a bit of a bumpy ride this season, but I'd say they're still a fairly unpredictable. You have some good players. Kulusevski being the biggest threat, I'd say - so should hopefully be a decent game.

[EJG1980]

I think unpredictable would be a fair thing to say about the first few months of the season. We beat Man Utd 3-0 then lost to Brighton after being 2-0 up, then we beat West Ham 4-1 but gave Palace their first win of the season in the next match, then beat Villa 4-1 but lost to Ipswich at home in the next match, then beat Man City 4-0...

But really, December onwards, we've been fairly predictable in that we usually just suck We've had five wins in the past five months, and three of them were against teams in the relegation zone. The injuries we had do take some of the blame, but even with that we shouldn't be so bad that we've got a real chance to finish 17th. And we've had no real upturn in form since the injured players returned either.

But apart from that, it's all going great

Gotta say that Slot has done an excellent job at Liverpool. The way Man Utd have struggled since Ferguson left, and Arsenal after Wenger left (until the upturn in the past couple of seasons) show that it isn't always easy to come into a club and replace a manager who was a long term success, but Slot has pretty much nailed it as Klopp's replacement. Not forgetting that it's also his first job outside of the Netherlands and in a "big" league.

[hudson]

Yeah the smooth transition has surprised everyone. He's levelled up certain players in subtle ways. Gravenberch, for example. Hey did you know Arne Slot tried this a few times in the Eredivisie

[fallenangle]

Rumours about players who Spurs are interested come summer have started but there is, apparently, serious talk of them thinking about Rashford.

I once thought he might be a good fit at Spurs long, long before Solanke was signed up but do we really need another striker now? Even if he can be had for £27m, MU's apparent asking price, it seems to be a lot to spend (and gamble) on a player who may or may not deliver for us when goal scoring is not the primary issue. I suppose if Son is thinking about leaving in the summer then it would have merit but otherwise.........................................

With Premiership clubs and some European big boys already sniffing around our best defenders I'd prefer to see those locked in and some serious news about buying quality defenders and midfielders of the type I suggested in the earlier post.

[EJG1980]

Hey did you know Arne Slot tried this a few times in the Eredivisie

I'd often kick off like that on World Wide Soccer 97 on the Saturn. Hold the C button, hold down on the d-pad. If you got just the right amount of time on holding C you could get the ball into the net, or at least make the dodgy WWS keepers palm it up in their air so your forwards had a chance to get there and head it into the net. Easier to pull off than in real life though

Rumours about players who Spurs are interested come summer have started but there is, apparently, serious talk of them thinking about Rashford.

I once thought he might be a good fit at Spurs long, long before Solanke was signed up but do we really need another striker now? Even if he can be had for £27m, MU's apparent asking price, it seems to be a lot to spend (and gamble) on a player who may or may not deliver for us when goal scoring is not the primary issue. I suppose if Son is thinking about leaving in the summer then it would have merit but otherwise.........................................

With Premiership clubs and some European big boys already sniffing around our best defenders I'd prefer to see those locked in and some serious news about buying quality defenders and midfielders of the type I suggested in the earlier post.

Rashford's wages make me doubt we'd go for him anyway, as he's on a huge weekly wage and we don't usually buy players who are already top earners. Our biggest earners generally tend to be players who have been here a while and have built up to that level, like Son.

Could be a very busy summer with lots of flux in both players and manager. It'd be such a big boost to win the Europa League, as whatever it is we want to do will be easier if we can offer players and managers Champions League football next season (not to mention the board being more willing to spend knowing we've got CL money coming our way).

[EJG1980]

Wellllllll bugger. Not too much to say really, pretty much the same problems as the 18 other defeats this season before we clocked up number 19 against Liverpool. Congrats to Liverpool on winning the title, well deserved, just wish we could have made them work a tad harder for it on the day.

With the way we've played in the Premier League matches around it, I'm starting to wonder if the style we played in the away match against Frankfurt was down to the players going against Ange's orders rather than him actually telling them to play differently.

All eyes on Thursday now. Bodo/Glimt are going to be missing four of five first choice players through injury and suspension for the first leg, so we really need to take advantage of that and give ourselves a cushion for the second leg. I don't care how they get it done as long as they get it done!

[fallenangle]

Good news yesterday Spurs drew 2 - 2 with Liverpool. Bad news yesterday was that this was in the WSL. Still a good result and the highlights I saw suggested it was a good match too.

The Premiership result......................predictable loss but losing 5 - 1 is bad by any measure and pretty much repeats what happened earlier in the season with the absurd 3 - 6 result against Liverpool just before Christmas. Indeed well done to them for winning the Premiership.

But, yes, lets forget about Spurs and their Premiership performances and look forward to the Bodo/Glimt game in the hope good Spurs turn up and bring us some joy for a change.

[hudson]

You guys looked decent in first 10 or so minutes, to be fair.

[fallenangle]

That tends to be the case, then somebody makes an error, giving the ball away, the opposition either score or get a goal scoring chance and it all seems to go to pot more often than not this season.

[EJG1980]

My main silver lining (so far!) in what has been a real bummer of a season has been the performance of various youngsters and fringe players, quite a few with really big potential for the future.

Archie Gray getting loads of minutes being "emergency cover" and filling in in lots of different positions, Lucas Bergvall making massive progress from the start of the season, Djed Spence (although not that young) taking his chance this season and probably being our most consistent full back, and a few nice appearances from Mikey Moore.

So I was very happy to read this yesterday:

https://www.tottenhamhotspur.com/news/2025/april/new-deal-for-bergvall/

I think he's got huge potential and is going to be a really big player in years to come. He's made amazing progress from where he was at the start of the season to now, where I think he's been our best player in the past couple of months.

He only turned 19 in February so he's still going to make naive mistakes, but his level of determination, willingness to drive forwards, and pass the ball with intent to make something happen instead of just playing a safe backwards or sideways pass, has been way ahead of some of his more senior colleagues recently.

[EJG1980]

Good result last night, but it could have been a great result without the concession of that late Bodo goal. 3-0 and it's an excellent job well done, 3-1 and their late goal takes off a little bit of gloss and puts little "if they get an early goal in the second leg..." doubts into your head.

The performance was really good, attacking without being suicidal at the back, almost the perfect first leg, 24 shots for us to 3 for them, 42 touches inside their box to their 7 in ours, which is why it's a bit frustrating we only ended up with a two goal lead out of our dominance.

It's funny how psychological football is because if we'd been 2-0 up, let Bodo score to make it 2-1, and then got a late goal ourselves to make it 3-1, it would feel like a better 3-1 than the one we did get

Still, overall it's a result most of us would have taken before kick-off, to be two goals ahead at the halfway point of a European semi-final, gotta be positive! Hopefully we can calm any lingering nerves by getting an early goal in Norway next Thursday.

Quick shout out to Bissouma who had his best match in months last night, I can't remember the last time I saw him play that well. If he could play like that with some consistency he'd be a top Premier League midfielder, so frustrating that it's a level of performance we only glimpse occasionally. But last night, excellent.

[fallenangle]

That late goal of theirs was indeed a bit of a bummer but apart from that it seems to me if Spurs put in that sort of performance in the away game we should get the result wanted. Just hope they put in the hours practicing on a plastic pitch to be ready for that supposed home advantage.

Then onto, so it looks like it is going to be, MU in the final.

How that will go - the two most under-performing big name clubs in the Premiership, both desperate for some joy from an otherwise depressing season, I won't even speculate.

[EJG1980]

I think in a "normal" season, where we're 4th - 6th in the league or thereabouts, that late goal wouldn't have bothered me as much. But in a season like this one, even the small setbacks make you think "Ugh, no, here we go again, don't mess it up!!" much more than they usually would.

Having said that I do expect us to go through. Dare I say it we've also been a bit more pragmatic and sensible in Europe than we have been in the league, so hopefully we do maintain the performance level and get the result we need. Though if Spurs want to score three or four goals in the first ten minutes just to settle any nerves, they're very welcome to do so

Obviously let's get there first, but IF the final is Spurs vs Man Utd, it'll be our 6th European final and 3rd against an English team. 50% of our European finals against teams from the same country, I wonder if any other club has a proportion that large.

Sunday edit: well the match today against West Ham was a real snooze fest and had a real lack of quality for the most part, a very meh match to watch. It felt like an end of season game between two teams that were in poor form, stuck down the bottom of the table, but safe from relegation with basically nothing to play for in the league..... ahhhhhhh

Still, no new injuries, and we didn't lose, which was nice and more than I was expecting!

Very annoying that Bergvall is going to miss the rest of the season with the injury he picked up in training last week, and the tea leaves don't look too promising for Maddison, sounds like Ange is expecting him to be done for the season too. Solanke is expected to be fit to start the semi-final second leg on Thursday though, so one bit of positive news there at least.

With Maddison out the only other real option in his role is Kulusevski, who was playing brilliantly there earlier in the season, but he's looked well off it since returning from injury a few matches ago. We really need him to rediscover that early season form or the team will be bereft of creativity.

Sunday edit 2: one last edit, thanks to Leverkusen only drawing today, Harry Kane now has a league title to add to his many individual accolades. A nice bonus that Eric Dier also picks up his first trophy too. Really really happy for both of them.

Also, as Harry left Spurs to win stuff, it'd be quite funny if in the season he finally achieves that aim, Spurs end up winning something anyway. Make it happen Spurs, make it happen!!!!!