Match Day Thread Tottenham Hotspur v RB Leipzig

Some have not noticed that. We've been essentially breaking even until 2018. The bigger attendances at Wembley and the new stadium plus the CL run have added about 150m to the profit since then which has been mostly spent. I see a net spend of another 100m in the summer, possibly more if we make the CL for next season. That will likely make us the biggest spenders in England.

 

I pretty much said the same thing before the start of the season. I think Poch wanted a rigid defence to allow more freedom to the midfield and attack. Trippier being sold without a replacement pointed towards Foyth becoming a permanent RB whilst Davies was obviously going to be first choice who’s a very defensive FB.

Davies and Foyth both had injuries early on though and then for some reason Poch never played Davies when he was back fit, persisting with Rose for about 9 of the first 10 league games. I don’t think Foyth started a game either other than in the CL, this despite playing for Argentina once or twice. So the plan became scuppered.

Now we’ve just got a mess at the back. GKs can’t save shots, CBs can’t defend, FBs also can’t defend, Foyth is unfavoured and Davies seems to be heading down the Dembele/ Wanyama route.

Fun times, man.

 

Foyth seems to have spent most of the season injured, though we rarely hear about it until he returns to training with the first team.
I doubt that Mourinho's just leaving him out, especially given Fagan-Walcott's appearnace against Leipzig.

 

You see how they got me confused?!!!!! Oh dear - how embarrassing! (Thanks for the correction - my bad.)

 

Why cant we play 352.
Tanganga, Dier, Sanchez
Aurier, Ndombele, Winks, Lo Celso, Lamela
Dele, Lucas
Solves most of the issues.

 

We played the formation you suggested against Chelsea with just a few different personnel and it didn’t really solve anything.

But of those you’ve selected:
Lamela isn’t good enough nor generally fit enough to start games for the most part, especially as a LWB. Ndombele is unfit to start. You never know which Dier will turn up although it’s generally the poor one of late. Winks is Winks. Dele and Lucas can’t score for love nor money.

For what it’s worth I don’t really think the formation will solve anything this season. The players just aren't performing, Mourinho hasn’t done much to give any real hope either but ultimately I just think he’s damned either way until some fresh blood is in and deadwood is shifted. Quicker this season’s done the better.

 

We've tried it and it doesn't work. We get overrun in the middle and out wide too, somehow.
Our centre-backs don't look comfortable the system and we don't have anyone who can play wingback effectively.

 

The issue we have a lot recently is Winks getting isolated in the middle of the park. You can see this from hbic’s pass maps. He’s industrious but he’s not Ngolo Kante so he can’t cover the whole area on his own. GLC works hard but because he’s our catalyst going forwards he gets caught upfield if opponents break fast against us.

Sissoko coming back will be huge for us as he can sit in that midfield with Winks and help cover the ground. I think with the below we have more solidity than we’ve seen recently. Sissoko can help Winks in the middle and does the work covering for Aurier too.

Lloris
Aurier Dave Toby Davies
GLC Winks Sissoko
Moura Dele Lamela

 

For sure the players are not doing well. Way too many mistakes but we are certainly going to have at least 17 of them next season so we need to use this season to improve theiir confidence. I think we've tried too many different tactics. Stick to one formation for the rest of the season and make it work

 

Skipp over Winks. Tanganga over Toby and I’d agree.

 

It’s hard to stick to a formation though when players are always making mistakes. I think Jose’s testing different styles to see which comes across less problematic. So far each one he’s tried there’s been about 2 mistakes in every game. He could probably play 10 defenders and we’d still concede twice. For some reason these players have just ‘lost’ it. Guys who used to be so good are now so painfully poor.

 

What he needs to understand is that, if there's mistakes happening, maybe it's less the system and more the components

...in other words, there is no formation we can field that will prevent Aurier being a walking disaster area

 

You can add Lloris, Gazzaniga, Alderweireld, Vertonghen, Davies, Winks, Ndombele, Sessegnon, Dele and Lucas as to being disasters too though.

 

They probably haven't all become bad players overnight, though. That's unlikely.
We're frequently picking unsuitable and unworkable tactics and formations, which makes them all look ****.
Our one-man midfield, no strikers and nobody protecting the defence are all good examples of it.

 

A DM and somebody on the right flank who knows what defending is who can be guaranteed to play 30+ games a season would both go a long way to improving the side...

 

Tactics may not help but I think collectively the majority of the squad have seen their best days. A large number of these players have been here for 4-5+ years and we saw it peak in 16/17.

Lloris' form has been questioned for about two seasons.
Gazzaniga had an impressive 18/19 but has massively underwhelmed this season (kind of feels like how Kevin Wimmer did at CB).
Alderweireld's performances were declining around the start of 2019 and it's telling no one offered his release clause.
Vertonghen admittedly just seemingly aged 5 years this summer.
Davies' injuries have increased over the last 18 months or so which has had an effect on his form.
Rose is finished as a top six player, top ten in fact.
Aurier is still erratic defensively despite having solid attacking skills.
Dier is a shadow of the player he once was.
Everyone knows my views on Winks. Though I have noticed an increase in discontent towards him, both on here and in general.
Dele's form hasn't been the same since his first two seasons.
Lucas has generally been an inconsistent player who can be brilliant in spells and anonymous in others, we're experiencing the latter at the moment.

There's a lot of issues and whilst Jose/ Poch's tactics have been questioned I just think we're in a period where most of these players aren't good enough for where we as a club and fanbase want to be.

 

The failure to move on some players in the summer of 2018 had a knock-on effect of being unable to freshen up the squad

While it is understandable that Dembele and Janssen weren't moved on due to their being injured during the window, there were other players we should have looked to move on to freshen up the squad, namely...
i.) Danny Rose: had clearly begun to regress even by the summer of 2018
ii.) Georges-Kevin Nkoudou: was never going to be more than a squad player, and we knew that at least a year earlier
iii.) Victor Wanyama: the injury problems were already blighting his performances by then

That's two non-HG spots we could have easily regained, non-HG spots our squad needed, and as we began to overhaul our back line in the summer of 2017 with the signings of Sanchez and Foyth that also meant we would have been in a position to replace Danny Rose and maybe begin rebuilding the midfield (which was the plan that summer, as we were in for Ndombele at the time)

Of course the biggest issue is one both Poch and our Portuguese overlord have come to the same conclusion: as we can't reliably control games with our underpowered midfield we become overly reliant on the same core of players to carry the team, which means we run the likes of Kane, Son, Sissoko and (this season, at least) Winks into the ground while opportunities are few and far between not just for youngsters like Skipp or Parrott, but even established players like Llorente

 

I wouldn't say we were unable to freshen the squad, it's a case of we chose not too as we prioritised getting rid of players before bringing some in (plus Levy's **** up with the Grealish deal). I can see the reasoning behind that, naturally you don't want to be left in a position of potentially having excess playing personnel but equally failing to strengthen the squad was more or less footballing suicide and we're feeling the knock-on effects still. I don't think it would've crippled Spurs if we'd have had a couple players sitting in the stands if it meant the squad in general being stronger, there's also an argument that had we actually made signings, those on the fringes would've been more inclined to get moves away and helped forced the issue (as in getting their agents to have a proper ring around) to the point where we could've even shifted what was required towards the end of the window.

The mess of 18/19 likely cost Pochettino his job too. We reached a point of burnout last season and it carried on into this season as only one of our new signings at the time was fit enough* to play in the first few games so it was more or less still last season's squad that were mentally battered from the CL Final as well as being stuck in a rut in terms of zero fresh faces for competition in a declining squad.

It's now why this summer, we need to make a large number of signings that generally Spurs aren't known for. Just one DM or just one RB or just one CB and so on won't be enough. Ideally we need a whole revamp of the defence in terms GK, LB, RB, CB and DM, plus a back up ST, at the very least we need four of those covered otherwise I highly doubt we'll see any significant improvement. We as a team/ squad are just not good enough and will continue to be so until it's adequately freshened and strengthened.

*By fit enough, it means Ndombele's fitness levels, which are hardly something to boast about. Whilst Lo Celso got a couple sub appearances before getting the hip injury.

 

Errm...