It's Tragic you know

Shambles . When we were going well a lot of us predicted it wasn't sustainable unless there were big changes which never happened and look at us now .... Total car crash territory .. It's been compounded by whatevers being going on in the background ....

 

What an absolute disgrace. Hang your heads and if there's any shame in the performance at all, ridiculous as it sounds, everyone who paid to see that garbage should be refunded. Some serious issues to be addressed here - from underperforming players to apparently disinterested manager, there is something seriously wrong and the football world is surely having a real giggle now. From media darlings a couple of years back to total laughing stock now. Look at the performances tonight - if there was one average showing I don't know who owns it. Shameful & embarrassing doesn't even go near. Turning point against a poor Southampton side on Saturday ? Certainly was guys, you've gotten worse and don't seem to care either. Poch will be gone before long for sure after this humiliation. Like Felon said - who's going to post a defence of recent events now ?

 

It's the blind faith that helps this continually happen.
Could see this coming a mile off, took a little longer than I expected but was so obvious it didn't take a genius to see where this was all heading.
The 2 windows of no signings (sandwiched between some very average ones) killed what Pochettino had built , both he and Levy are to blame for the shambolic negligence that's ran this promising side into the ground.
I'd feel sorry for Pochettino but I just can't when I hear him spill his drivel he's done more 180s than van gerwen.

Times up on this charade , in buisness big decisions need to be taken and taken quickly where damage limitation is concerned , Levy either backs his manager and takes a hit on players or he needs to replace in the hope it breathes new life into the place.
(And in an ideal world sells the club to proper owners who want to win things the absolute cretin)

 

Mp's diamond formation is killing the players. The formation is ok when attacking, however, it leaves the defence vulnerable and is not a solid formation where everyone knows what they are doing. Mp's lack of utilizing wide attackers like BM in a 433 set up is a big weakness. I hope spurs can still make top 4, however, as thing's stand it's starting to look like a big ask.

 

Palmover - There is NO chance whatsoever of Top 4 and, with the total shambles we currently have at The Lane, we'll be hugely lucky to see Top 10. It really is that bad.

 

Without stating the obvious there are huge issues to address. Never before have we capitulated like that under Pochettino. Yes we've had poor performances but last night's second half was reminiscent of the very dark days under Francis, Gross and Graham. Yes we should question Pochettino but no manager can legislate for players taking to the pitch and shipping 7 goals from individual and very avoidable errors. There is a large amount of issues hanging around the club:

• This change in formation where the previous had suited and served us so well.
• Effort and desire in games has been lessening for too long.
• Never replaced Walker adequately.
• Never replaced Dembele adequately.
• Waining influence and worrying loss of form of too many players. Alli, Dier, Rose, Kane, Eriksen, Lamela, Sanchez, Lloris, Wanyama etc. None of these players are running as hard, chasing down and playing as well or aggressively as they did 2-3 years ago. Its very hard to criticise him but even Son falls into the category of being all or nothing and I also put Moura in that bracket too.
• Miserable away form. Until January 2019 our away form was excellent but is now hopeless - why?
• Constant, individual mistakes costing us dearly. Currently Lloris, Sanchez, Aurier, Winks, Ndombele are all guilty parties. Extreme, high risk play now seems to be the root cause of these errors. We over play in our own half, we continually make poor decisions and we seem to have developed a complete inability to put a foot through the ball when necessary.
• We now seem to start either half very slowly and laboured - why?

All we keep hearing is Pochettino and Levy are at loggerheads. The bottom line is Levy has backed him with money and all of Pochettino's supposed targets over the summer were signed. I don't believe for one minute that Pochettino has no say on who is signed - he's become too powerful a figure at the club for that to be the case. In Levy's defence Pochettino's transfer record isn't wonderful. For every Son, Alli and Alderweireld there's N'Jie, Wimmer, Jansen, Nkoudou, Aurier, Sanchez and Llorente. We haven't signed a player who has dramatically improved our first eleven since 2015. This summer has been the first where we've spent big and the jury is still out on all of them. 3 of them haven't been seen and Ndombele hasn't had the impact that a 60m player should. He looks effective on the ball but has been woeful off of it.

The disagreements seem to stem from who hasn't been sold and who is still at the club. Eriksen, Rose, Alderweireld and Aurier all want out. Only Vertonghen has made noises that he wants to stay. As I've mentioned previously maybe our players aren't as good as we all think/thought. The top clubs aren't silly and will see how all of our players wilt and rarely produce/perform in big games. There must be a reason why no top club made a bid for Eriksen (he just doesn't do it in big games) no top club activated Alderweireld's clause (probably because of performances like last night) only Watford wanted Danny Rose (speaks volumes) and who will honestly take Aurier off our hands? He has the ingredients to be a top full back but is a liability and has nothing between the ears.

Pochettino has done great things for us there's no doubting that. However, there is now a dangerous staleness at the club which somehow has to be addressed but he has to be questioned on the following:

• He can't seem to win the big game. Two finals, 3-4 semi-finals, big league games and we lose the lot with poor, insipid performances. Like the players does he freeze on the big occasion?
• Questionable tactics in big games. Always far too open. Why can't we ever grind out a boring 1-0
• Why this change in formation which has made us slow, laboured and predictable.
• Why this constant encouragement for our goalkeepers, defenders and midfielders to play with such high risk in dangerous areas?
• Why are substitutions made so late and why is there never a plan B when plan A goes wrong?
• Why still this weak underbelly after 5-6 years where the team wilts and loses in the face of any adversity.

Pochettino is a good coach/manager and for a while we were all concerned about constant links with United and Real Madrid. However, he's still not proven himself at the top level. He can't win a trophy, his transfer record isn't great, for whatever reason he doesn't want any 'stars' in his teams, he gets found out tactically in big games and is clearly sulky and surly when he doesn't get his own way. Again, the big clubs aren't stupid, they will realise this and are maybe thinking twice about having to pay forty odd million for his services.

At the end of 2017 we'd had a seriously good first eleven and a decent squad in the background. In hindsight our biggest mistake was not signing 1-2 players who would have improved that first eleven. Its always one step forward with Spurs and 2-3 steps back. Its been the same for the last 30 odd years and whenever we think we're finally getting somewhere the rug gets swiftly pulled out from under our feet. As i've said before until we're that club where players and managers don't want to continually leave and don't see us as a stepping stone to bigger things, repeated disappointment will always be waiting in the wings for our club.

 

Nothing of value that I can add, apart from trying to understand how footballing professionals - players on the pitch and/or the manager - cannot see the threats coming down our right side and then fail to switch Sissoko to provide cover for Mad Dog. Sure he's shite, but to leave him exposed to such a tricky winger was nothing short of criminal. No leaders on or off the field, never more starkly displayed than allowing Gnabry to run riot and score 4 times in a half...ffs. New low. I'm 72 years and I never thought I'd see the day. Mind you this time last year we witnessed Messi doing the same to us - that could have easily been 7......it's a funny old game.

 

Completely agree. There are no true leaders on that pitch, no rollockings dished out by anyone for stupidity and no backbone. Last nights second half was just completely gutless. Even after we scored the penalty we didn't lay a glove on them - all I can remember was a long distance effort by Eriksen.

Messi gave a masterclass performance a year ago - I hadn't witnessed a performance as good as that live before. Barcelona were sublime all night. We had a weakened side but battled well throughout and certainly didn't down tools like last night.

 

No blame on Levy then no??

 

By far the best performance from a player that I've ever seen and the rest of the team were not too far behind....