Old frailties resurface as Champions league drifts away...

Other than a win tonight, Pochettino was always going to be damned if he did and damned if he didn't. If Kane had started and got injured, we would be up in arms about it, we really would. It was a catch 22 that our young ( and let's not forget still relatively inexperienced manager) had to deal with, and I am not going to lay too much blame at his door.

Where I am firmly laying the blame, is with the players that come in for these games and simply fail to perform, time after time, after time.
The support that Soldado has received from the Spurs fans after his £26 million pound move to the club has been deafening yet ill judged. Yes, he tries hard. Yes, he works harder than Adebayor but that is hardly much of a comparison is it? At one point, Lamela, who I will come to shortly, got wide, played in a lovely ball that was begging for a striker to finish. What happened? Soldado stood still with his hands on his hips, watching as the keeper collected the ball. That doesn't deserve mine, or any fans support.
And then the chance. I understand that being a striker is about confidence, and can almost see why he didn't shoot. So, the next best option was to play the simplest of balls to provide Chadli with an open goal and hand Spurs the advantage. He couldn't even get that right!!! Disgraceful doesn't even cover it. I admire his efforts but it is never gong to work and it will be a time to cut our losses, and what losses they will be, in the summer. If we can get £15 million, we will have done well.

Lamela. Pamela. Lamentable Lamela. £30 million! £30 million!!! Who was on the calculator? Trigger?! ( apologies for non only fools and horses fans), Apart from the ball I mentioned earlier, Lamela was a disgrace to the lilywhite shirt that I have loved for over 30 years. He can't tackle, he can't cross, he can't pass, he can't shoot, he can't track back. He gives away the ball in dangerous positions and gives away foul after stupid foul.
This is a player who was bold enough to state that Spurs should be taking the Europa league as their main focus and then he gives yet another woeful and totally inept performance.
How Franco Baldini is still in a job is quite beyond me!!!!

And Vertonghen looked sluggish and was at fault for the second goal. He has been playing well and with confidence in recent weeks but it was a worrying show with the league cup final coming on Sunday.

I never understood the signing of Fazio. He came with an awful disciplinary record and reknown for being error prone. He showed it again tonight.

Eriksen worked his socks off and I only hope he can recover his fitness levels for the final.
Bentaleb was quiet and without Mason alongside him, he looked a little lost at times.

As on so many, too many occasions, this season, if it hadn't been for Lloris, the score line could have been worse.

I expect the debate will be heavily divided about the manager tonight. He picked the players so it's his fault, but I reserve judgement. He could not have predicted that the decades old frailties would resurface tonight. Poor judgement from players and some simply not fit, never fit to wear the shirt.

The top four remains our remaining hope of Champions league football next season and if that evades us, Mr Levy will have some hard bargaining to do as Lloris, Eriksen, possibly Chadli and even Bentaleb and Vertonghen will be on teams radar. These are players who want, no demand, champions league football.

Mauricio Pochettino now has the hardest job of the season. He has 2 days and a few hours to regalvanise and recharge his players and get them ready for what is now the biggest game of our season. It is now we will see how he can handle a massive task.

Sunday is massive. Losing is not an option. No champions league football, money being reserved for the new stadium and the summer of 2015 could be a nervous one yet again for Spurs fans.

One door closed. Another open and one slightly ajar.

As , and more than ever folks, COME ON YOU SPURS!!!!!!

 

Ordinary side that lacks quality everywhere really .. We get away with it in the league because its a very poor one at the moment .. We give every side we play the same quality of chances to score in the fans and pundits just forget about them .. Its woeful , woeful defending every single match regardless of the results .. Forget about top 4 , not going to happen in a million years , and if we,re honest with ourselves , then we should recognize this team,s nowhere near champs league quality .. Have a squeak in the cup because we,re there but we,re big underdogs in that too ..

 

Ironic how the same was said before we bought our ' Magnificent Seven' !!!!!!

 

Pochettino doesn't buy the players so what was he supposed to do. We have a large squad but the quality is very thin. We have performed brilliantly on a few occasions this season but I agree we've been getting away with it most of the time and whenever Pochettino moves away from his first choice starting eleven the performance suffers dramatically. We have been playing with one striker all season, and a young inexperienced one at that, yet still Levy/Baldini failed to sign anybody in January. The quality of our buys has been woeful....Fazio and Stambouli seem to be fighting it out for the slowest person ever to wear a football shirt prize. How does such lack of pace go unnoticed?!!! If we're looking for people to blame it stops with Levy, it's his transfer strategy that has built this oversized collection of mediocrity. God help us on Sunday if this is the best they can produce.

 

Buying central def with no pace , to fit into a side who like to push up and def high up the pitch .. There's a time to sqeeze it and push up in every game but it seems to be our defacto def position .. Dangerous game with pacey , quality defenders , absolute suicide with our lot ...

 

Not Pochettinos fault at all. Still has my backing 100%, I feel if it was a reserve team of budget players he wanted we'd have got through. Still, onto the final. Coys

 

P;ss poor, Soldado and Lamela are utter dross, what's the point of players like Stambouli etc.

**** transfer policies has left us a bloated squad of very limited players and we're doing nothing to sort it out except adding more.

You can't blame the manager for individual mistakes at the back but you can blame him for not drilling some organisation into them regarding defending I watch in disbelief how a professional football team can be so bad.

2 windows have passed to try and fix the utter shambolic magnificent 7 window and we've done nothing but add more duds.

I was looking forward to Sunday but I have little hope we have the metal to produce where it counts.

 

This game tonight was lost by our attitude and ineffective midfield. Lamela is a joke, he cant even control a football, pass a player, tackle properly or even score! Bentaleb was hopeless tonight with too many touches of no end product. I wont complain about eriksen as hes our best player by miles for one so young. Too much onus is put on him to perform every game. It would be nice for the other players to chip in now and again. As for Chriches - words fail me- if we can get £1.89 for him we should sell. He should be done under the trade descriptions act for crimes against football!!! Hopefully this complete capitulation should somehow act as a motivator for sundays game, but somehow i doubt it. As long as they get their over inflated salaries for 90 minutes work ( a loose term), then everyones happy. Hopefully they can prove me wrong and do chelski over-just mark Hazard out of the game would be my idea of a tactic for the players, oh and not forgetting to tell the players which end to score at!!! COYS!

 

Very poor. LDDL since beating the Goons; so typical. We are buckling yet again when it matters. MoPo needs to bring Manu back for Sunday - he will relish Chelksi!