Turning point?

That, surely, has to be a new season-long thread, Red (because I cannot see this issue going away any time soon).

For me, I'd love to see Steve Clarke at the Lane. Easy. What he's doing with the West Brummies is next to miraculous.

 

I am not saying he has to go but for my enjoyment and pleasure even winning can be unrewarding.
I am a bit like a broken horse and have just come to terms with the situation.

 

On paper, Spurs' team and squad is a match for any side in the PL.

But the formation and tactics are not suiting the forward players. What is evident from watching Spurs is that there are a number of good players who are not combining as a team at present; nor is the best being made of their individual talents. Soldado needs Sigurdsson and Townsend to go wide so he can be poised on the shoulder of the last defender and he knows Eriksen might get some time and space behind to him to play him in. Instead both wide players consistently come inside, Eriksen gets the ball with no time to look up and play a pass and Soldado is isolated and crowded out. Spurs got loads of possession in the second half, but the chances to score relied on well executed set pieces, Newcastle failing to pick up and deal with Vertongen when he regularly got forward or on innovative efforts like Soldado's back header. What Soldado really wants is a quick move where he can run into space and meet a cross from the left or right. He's not a going to hold up the ball for others; like Defoe, he needs decent chances creating for him. Eriksen was bought to play a vdV type role and Soldado was bought to play as a goalscorer. £40M? for them - that's a lot to pay to have both of them playing as square pegs in round holes.

The EL is not helping either. Too much rotation, too soon, when players would benefit from a run in the team together.

A think a turning point for Spurs would be playing a more orthodox 4-4-1-1 from now on with Eriksen playing regularly as a no.10 and if fit and available, the same team around him.

 

HIAG, I can see the point that I'm going off-topic on my own thread. But then again, if you construe the thread as "turning point," maybe it's not so off-topic: I asked, did you think the second half was a turning point in the season? Spurcat said the Lloris incident was a turning point in a negative sense, so then I asked, what would be a positive turning point. If not AVB, then who?

If I seem to have changed my view on AVB, it's because this year his approach clearly seems to be costing us points (quite aside from it not being as attractive as I would like). Last year just about all our bad results in the PL were explainable by rashes of injuries. We've now lost two of three home games (and were lucky to win the third) despite no significant injuries. Worse, we got caught out in exactly the way most of us predicted in some sense we would last game, and have continued to use a style in home games that some of us at least (not me) have pointed out is a poor choice, at least against all but the strongest teams.

I have also been thinking we may need more continuity. 4-4-1-1 that provides width is one thought. I wonder about playing our most dangerous and talented players, who might be Holtby/Gylfi, Eriksen, Lamela and Soldado.

My POV is that AVB has proven stubborn before, but only up to a point. I'm hoping we start trying to use a fast buildup when appropriate, attacking in waves, and that we just did. If not...I think AVB is not the right man for the job, and we need to move forward. What I don't think is that he or all but a few coaches are untouchable. If the fans abandon them, they're usually gone pretty fast.

 

That would be a brave appointment but based on the fact that their great from from last season continues, shows it was no fluke of a season. He's also Scottish and they seem to be pretty decent managers if my history is correct.

 

None of what you say will happen unless we drop 10yds and allow room for all that to happen, all crammed into a space between the halfway line and the opponents 18yd line where defences are camped these days, not a chance.

The EL is not an issue for the regulars we've been in the comp for years, playing Sunday is routine now, its odd playing on a saturday if anything, though i obviously wish that wasn't the case.

 

the man we want if AVB was to go is Pochey-whats-his-face from Southampton. They're playing our system of high line and pressing and they are playing it brilliantly.