Player Ratings: Monaco 2 - 1 Tottenham Hotspur

What I saw (every game) is that we are way way out of our depth in this competition, and eay beyhind the other regular contenders! We can only compete with a huge investment otherwise we lose Hugo AND Kane. No longer in the CL who would blame them if they chose to leave for a regular CL club!!

 

To judge from the players' lethargic on-field performances, and Pochettino's post-match comments (better-off in the EL?), the club isn't really bothered about continued CL participation, and I'm totally gobsmacked - Crouch's winner against Man City in 2010 that got us into the CL under Redknapp was right up with my best memories as a Spurs supporter in our success-starved years since the early '80s, and the following year's campaign was truly wonderful - how can we have fought so hard for another try, and failed so abjectly? It's not all Pochettino's fault, but he can't take credit for the positives since his arrival in 2014 without taking responsibility for the negatives, and there are plenty of negatives. It seems that our much-vaunted defensive solidity was all down to Alderweireld, while anything less than a fully-fit, in-form Kane means we struggle to score - does the occasional success in the transfer market offset the failures, of which Sissoko is only the latest of several? I reckon Pochettino is an OK-ish manager, probably fit to bracket with the likes of Allardyce and Pardew, but not remotely in the Wenger/Mourinho league, and last season was actually a failure, not a success - the title was there for the taking, our team should have been capable of wiping the floor with Leicester, but Ranieri grasped the opportunity to benefit from the collapse of the usual top four while we flattered to deceive under Pochettino. The rest of this season will be interesting, but probably in the Chinese proverbial sense, not the nice one.

 

We are way to pedestrian and seemingly not too bothered in the majority of games, totally obsessed with possession stats, whereas the only stat that is important is goals scored. This must come from the manager!

The players that get us to the pinnacle of football, the so called Champions League, are rested for matches, Verts/Walker thus time, what must they be thinking, this is the stage they want to play on, again the manager.

The reserves that appear on the team sheet for the odd cup game, or the most important Champions League this season, let's take Trippier as an example, he gets almost zero game time but is expected to perform against CL teams without any previous game time, again the manager.

The total boring predictable way we are playing, the manager.

Our purchases, please let's stop pretending Poch is not getting the players he wants, Levy is not buying players and forcing them on Poch, he is getting players he wants that fit our price range and he is failing almost every time, our manager is simply not playing at the tip of his game.

The players however are the ones going onto the pitch and seemingly not really trying, obviously not all of them but the majority.
Poch had a reputation of freezing out players at previous clubs, perhaps this is happening here, let's take Wimmer, bloody awful last night but when Verts was injured last season he came in and was superb, Verts fit again and Wimmer just disappears until a couple of weeks ago, so he may feel hard done by or perhaps the game fitness just goes, all down to Poch and the lack of sensible rotation.

To rotate out your supposedly best players for CL games is a travesty and an insult to these players who may not get back to the CL again with Spurs! Maybe they may look at transferring out now.....couple that with our poor wages compared to the four team above is.

Last night was the straw that broke the back of how good Poch is, he actually really is not that good, perhaps lucky in the last season.

Will always support our team, Spurs, but not as excited for the next few weeks or months. Coys

 

Great perspective Dace on our current plight. Poch has fallen sadly short on ALL our key games. All. The ones that really count. CL at home this season. Monaco away. Worried of N17.....

 

And no doubt our annual fixture where we fail to win at the Bridge, each and every time. Jokers.

 

So did I. Thanks for writing, , MattJ78. But, unlike you, I will follow that consideration.

 

IMO Monaco weren't better than us.......we were so bloody awful! How can professional footballers be so awful. We were awful against the Hammers!
The same question that keeps coming up recently from many quarters is.......what's going on? Something is not right at our club! What?