A supporters View.

TOTTENHAM'S CHALLENGE STARTING TO CRUMBLE?





Today,
many frustrated Spurs fans will be experiencing a feeling of de ja vu.
Seasoned supporters will most probably have woken up to the realisation
that we are slowly throwing away the dream of Champions League
football. I suppose those optimists amongst us, myself included, should
never have signed up to the hype machine in the first place really.
Hansen may be a bas*ard but he was right on last night's MOTD. Just
when you start to believe...

However, it's not all doom and
gloom because this season has generally been a good one - much more
enjoyable than the last campaign at any rate! Unfortunately our lofty
position makes it easy to paper over the cracks though. Let us not
forget that Liverpool remain the only top 4 club we have managed to
nick any points off, newly promoted Wolves have now mugged 6 points off
us and we've been unable to put Villa to the sword when it mattered.
Sloppy defending and no cutting edge has cost us dear in recent weeks,
we seem to be developing a worrying trend of dominating games and then
not winning them. The only hope for us now is to put together a 4 or 5
game run of wins. We absolutely must beat Wigan, Everton and then Man
City to keep the dream alive. Draws will get us nowhere.

The
problem is that Spurs have been found out. They simply do not know how
to get past the "team bus", particularly without Lennon. Sides who come
to the Lane and sling 10 men behind the ball have a very good chance of
coming away with something. You can't blame them, when teams have a go
we tend to tear them to pieces, which is fantastic, but we do lack a
Plan B.

My mistake, we have a Plan B - it's having Dawson,
Bassong and now Kaboul punt hopeful 60 yard balls up field in a
miserable attempt to land them on the snowcapped head of Mr. Beanpole.
Well Harry, it's not working - and don't even try to tell me we're not
a long ball team because against those who come to defend that is
exactly what we are. It's becoming extremely irritating.

Not
that for one second I condone any Harry Bashing. I like him, he has
progressed the club more in a year than I've seen in the last 3. If
nothing else we look like we SHOULD be winning a lot more games than we
actually seem to be. He's allowed to make the odd mistake here and
there, of which last night was probably one. Kaboul at RB, and Jenas...
well anywhere seem like strange choices but giving some game time to
Gudjohnsen was a good idea, even if he didn't set the world on fire, as
he undoubtedly has the quality to reintroduce Peter Crouch to the bench
he should have been sitting on for the last month.

A lot of
people seem to be having a pop at the team selection yesterday but with
Bolton in the cup on Saturday I think he has a decent excuse. That 4th
spot is still a massive ask, but chin up fellas as the FA Cup is still
extremely winnable. Should our Premiership campaign crumble, as seems
likely, an FA Cup final should beadequate compensation.

Arnie, the players are grown men, its about time they didnt need uncle Harry putting his arm around them and stand up and be counted.

Thats true , Dave but for me the manager seems to be all over the shop after a decent start .........

Its said , the definition of insanity, doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different outcome ....Said it before, Harry is a slow learner .........

I can go through the Harry mishaps if you like, there are so many of late? ....

One thing I will say is that Harry has never experienced such a lofty league position in his 500 games in charge of teams in the top flight.. It's usualy been the case that Harry has played out the roles of those that have recently frustrated us , such as Phil Brown , Alex Mcleish and yesterday Mick Macarthy ....... Getting teams behind the ball for the best part of the game and knicking points here and there .... Harry now finds himself in the other position where games have to be taken to these stubborn tactics .... His attacking ideas in the final third are not very good in free play or from set pieces ...Two blanks against Wolves I feel backs me on this and here are more ...
Scoreless games
Sat Sep 19 Chelsea A
Sat Oct 24 Stoke City H
Sat Oct 31 Arsenal A
Sat Dec 12 Wolverhampton Wanderers H
Sat Dec 26 Fulham A
Sat Jan 9 Liverpool A
Sat Jan 16 Hull City H
Sat Feb 6 Aston Villa H
Wed Feb 10 Wolves A

45 goals in 26 games ...... 19 of them in three games .... Thats 26 scored in the other 23 games !

It is worrying Arnie, cant believe his resting players. Palacios is essential to us doing well, cos whenever Jenas plays we are severely weakened. You never hear of Fletcher at Manu being rested, if you play twice a week, just ease off the training. Yes we have created chances, but not many of them have been sitters, Lennon was putting them on a plate before he was injured.

djfitzo wrote:It is worrying Arnie, cant believe his resting players. Palacios is essential to us doing well, cos whenever Jenas plays we are severely weakened. You never hear of Fletcher at Manu being rested, if you play twice a week, just ease off the training. Yes we have created chances, but not many of them have been sitters, Lennon was putting them on a plate before he was injured.

Yep, not having Wilson in the starting line-up was a mystery , against a team that would surely be up for a battle ...

I cant still work out why Harry thinks Jenas is an adequate understudy for Wilson , some here may laugh but I would've preffered either O'Hara or Zokora for cover.. However both been offloaded ...

Harry decides to start two debutants , one not fully match fit in and a tough away fixture yet Saturday chooses not to even give them 10 mins ?

All this after Man city won the night before and with Villa and Liverpool playing tough games yesterday too ......

**** Im starting to moan again ....Grumpy Git Arnie

The only saving grace is everyone vying for 4th will play each other at some stage except us and villa, Citehs next three games Stoke and Chelski away and Pool at home and christ knows what will happen if Pompeys points and goals are scrubbed.

djfitzo wrote:The only saving grace is everyone vying for 4th will play each other at some stage except us and villa, Citehs next three games Stoke and Chelski away and Pool at home and christ knows what will happen if Pompeys points and goals are scrubbed.

Was thinking around Christmas ( pre Lennon injury ) we could end up with our best total of prem points, something around 70 but now Im thinking with our remaining games, 60 will be a big ask ........Of course if Lennon returns and Harry gives Pav a chance that may all change but I dont see us getting more than 60 if we continue as we're ..
Tottenham`s remaining fixtures:-

Wigan (a), Everton (h), Man City (a), Blackburn (h), Stoke (a), Pompey (h), Sunderland (a), Arsenal (h), Chelsea (h), Man Utd (a), Bolton (h), Burnley (a)

Liverpool`s remaining fixtures:-

Man City (a), Blackburn (h), Wigan (a), Pompey (h), Man Utd (a), Sunderland (h), Birmingham (a), Fulham (h), West Ham (h), Burnley (a), Chelsea (h), Hull (a)

Man City`s remaining fixtures:-

Stoke (a), Liverpool (h), Chelsea (a), Tottenham (h), Sunderland (a), Fulham (a), Wigan (h), Burnley (a), Birmingham (h), Man Utd (h), Arsenal (a), Aston Villa (h), West Ham (a)

Aston Villa`s remaining fixtures:-

Burnley (h), Sunderland (h), Stoke (a), Wigan (a), Wolves (h), Chelsea (a), Bolton (a), Everton (h), Pompey (a), Birmingham (h), Man City (a), Blackburn (h)

As weve found out and many others (Citeh/Hull Chelsea/Hull) theres no easy games, so no-one really has a easy run in.

ArnieArdiles wrote:Baz I said yesterday that I wouldnt do no more moaning so Im keeping stum, apart from saying , the worse individual perfomances of late is from that man pictured in your post ..

Arnie do you feel that 'arrys day in court is causing a problem at the moment ?

VisionarySound wrote:

ArnieArdiles wrote:Baz I said yesterday that I wouldnt do no more moaning so Im keeping stum, apart from saying , the worse individual perfomances of late is from that man pictured in your post ..

Arnie do you feel that 'arrys day in court is causing a problem at the moment ?

I wouldnt say its any help, Vis........ But I put our recent blip down more than anything to his mishandling of our attacking options....Defensively we're quite good apart from the odd mishap ....
Midfield dont provide enough goals nor do the attackers .... If the attackers opened the scoring in more games, which is their job to do so , then this is easier on all the other players ...

Its his unwillingness to budge on the Crouch / Defoe pairing ( his dream front two ) that has cost us ........ Gio out on loan .. Taraabt...out on loan.... Keano out on Loan .. Pav out in the cold ....
The result is ..... Glory boy Defoe is to comfortable and Crouch's inclusion almost every game , means our tactics become one dimensional ....
Our attacks have been sussed and Harry has taken away most of his options .......Crazy !