And so the world turns, and the universe restores order. Cosmic forces, eternal and unimpeachable, ensure balance and stability, where yin cuddles yang. Joy and pain. For every action, there’s a reaction.
The things that football fans can’t explain to those who do not follow the game, this is the other bit. For every last minute winner, there has to be a breakaway, only they score it, not us. We spend a lifetime fretting over eleven players kicking a ball. A brutal, recurring reminder that we place our faith, hopes and dreams in their hands and have no control whatsoever over the outcome. How to explain the futility of being a fan to others less disposed towards the game? Probably best to keep that bit quiet, on the whole.
Speak to supporters, any supporters of any team I mean, and ask them what they like most about being a fan, it’s highly likely they will mention being part of the crowd, where you can at once lose yourself and at the same time become part of something far greater than your individuality. The camaraderie, the carnival, celebrating together.
That’s real, I feel it every time I go through the turnstiles or enter the room at a Spurs event. It also functions to fill that pool of empty created by the hopelessness of it all when things go wrong. We celebrate together, but what happens when we need to commiserate collectively? Chatter with friends maybe, drown our sorrows for sure, good options. Being the mature individual I am, I endlessly pout and sulk. I’ve never measured the length of time I can go after a Spurs defeat without making eye contact with other people, but I can go some. And I’m better now than I used to be.
But it does seem to be the case, by and large, than individuals develop their own responses rather than seeking support from the collective. Certainly the barest glance at twitter over the weekend, and these days the barest glance is all that platform gets from me, showed that consolation was in short supply. We are skilled in our practiced denial. There’s always next week, just a blip, we’ll get players back, individual mistake, we’re going in the right direction. This is a pick and mix of self-care. At all costs never admit the abject pointlessness of it all.
I’ve opted for ‘going in the right direction’. We are further down the line than I expected after rebuilding the squad and morale cracked and broken by years of neglect. Spurs are blending a new manager and radically different tactics with new signings, many of whom are relatively young and inexperienced. So many fans seem to have forgotten that young players, however good they are, take time to develop and mature, and along the way, mistakes will be made.
Back at the start of the season, I urged that Ange should be given time and that fans’ biggest contribution could be patience, and I don’t feel any different now. Ironically, this defeat and recent performances feel worse because of early and unexpected successes, where we soared like an eagle rather than playing like the fledgling emerging from the nest. We’ve set ourselves a standard, so it’s clear when we fail to live up to expectations. Noticeable how edgy the Park Lane became whenever we had periods of possession in the final third. Granted we have to keep the tempo up and not pass it for passings sake, but nudging and probing, shifting the ball quickly from side to side, that will bear fruit. The alternative, an aimless cross or blocked shot to appease the impatient crowd, won’t.
The truth is that teams have sussed us out. We know how to move the ball purposefully when we have the space but are leaden and predictable when teams shut down the midfield passing lanes, get onto us quickly by isolating individuals and pack the penalty box. West Ham, Bees first half, Villa, Wolves were the best at it but essential similar. Everton too but they were less able in possession. All of which are reasonable responses to our football – the next step in our evolution is to learn how to break these defences down.
On Saturday, Ange repeated his move against Brentford by having two number 10s in Kulu and Maddison but Wolves were not unsettled and kept their shape, whereas for ten minutes, Brentford lost themselves and the game. I feel Ange has to adapt his approach to ensure more players are in the box. Richarlison is playing well but his is a thankless task, alone in the box, making his near post run only for one of several defenders to easily head the cross away.
The crossing game I get, but we don’t have sufficient presence in the box and crossing to (almost) nobody is a fruitless exercise, as is trying to thread passes through the eye of a needle in the area, a repeated failing of ours this season. It’s not about walking it into the net, it’s simply that there’s no room. To be effective, everything has to be precise, there’s no margin for error. Richie and Werner alongside each other would have been a better option once we needed to equalise, with movement in and out of the area to shift defenders out of their complacency.
I really like the way Ange has faith in his players, but Emerson and Davies can’t do what Udogie and Porro can do. It’s often the case that players improve their reputation by not playing, and Saturday was such a case when Porro’s absence robbed us of dynamism on the right. So, we found out that currently, Ange’s tactics work only when we have our best players available, but then again we stuttered versus those other sides, it’s a team problem. At the back, VDV was outstanding one to one even by his own high standards, but teams know to create a spare man or two by progressing down one flank, usually our right on Saturday, then shifting the ball crossfield. This happened repeatedly and we were lucky Wolves didn’t make more of this.
Two weeks now for Ange to make this work. We have the players with the right skills. Get the full-backs fit. It’s the next stage in Spurs’ evolution, in Ange’s evolution.
TOTTENHAM ON MY MIND 
Alan I was preparing this comment which echoes your observations at the end of your post today.
Even with 4 at the back we’re still conceding too many goals & the 4 first choices are no slouches by any means.
Given their starting points asking fullbacks to invert is akin to employing two box to box players.
My feeling is that AP will need another Porro & another Udogie given the physical strains associated with players who are required to run two thirds of the pitch; it’s not the ‘going’, it’s the ‘getting back’.
Hibberni
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One thing Ange ball shares with Conte ball is an over reliance on wingbacks
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Taking Richy off and moving Sonny to the centre was a cardinal error
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Didn’t even move him to the centre when Richarlison came off. He stayed out on the left for the next 10 minutes
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“The truth is teams have sussed us out”, and the truth is we aren’t good enough to have a Plan B when those teams employ a low block (today’s version of park the bus). We are still desperately in need of a proper #9, someone who can hold the ball up and bring others into the game and maybe score a few goals as well. Richarlison is not that man and it is painful to watch him treat the ball like a giant balloon and ultimately allow any number of promising moves to break down. Richarlison has his place but it’s not as a #9. Something is not clicking in the midfield. Maddison is struggling to find his form and Son had one of those games where if it was anyone else he’d be taken off. That old familiar sinking feeling has reappeared and I sometime doubt if we can ever actually win something. We last won a trophy in 2008 and in that time Wigan, Leicester, Portsmouth, Swansea and Birmingham have all won either the F.A. Cup or League Cup. Surely we can emulate these humbler teams. What are we missing that is stopping us? Sometimes we have the team, but not the manager. And then it’s the other way around. There’s always an excuse. And then someone else steps in and rains on our parade. This week it was Wolves. There was no reason for us to screw this up…but we managed to over promise and underdeliver once again. David.
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I respect fans opinions but a mere fan is not a substitute for a manager of Ange’s ilk. He has repeatedly told us the have patience…yet is ignored by certain fans, unfortunately these ‘fan’ are the most vocal!
Lets be supporters instead of .ere ‘fans’.
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Hi, ‘Fan’ here. I needed to vent having bottled up the frustration of such a disappointing result. It’s not easy holding it in, as Alan mentions. But here’s my point: my frustration is with the almost cyclical one step forward and one step back. That’s not progress and I don’t think we should accept it at face value just because the manager tells us to be patient. If we can turn it on (Brentford) then why accept a poor display (Wolves) and file it under ‘be patient’? Our patched up team performed so much better than we expected while we waited for injuries, suspensions and AFCON to abate and now we have most everyone back – how come they failed to turn up at the weekend? I hoped it would be a springboard to gradual progression (Ange’s goal) but it didn’t happen, did it? Basically, we got out-thought by a decent Wolves team who had a game plan and we didn’t have the smarts to work it out and do something about i.e. Plan B when the opponent won’t let us play our game. That’s my frustration, and that’s entirely different from the need to be patient. I’m blowed if I’m going to accept yet another setback against a mid table team under the blanket ‘be patient’ mantra. Being patient is the perfect defence to explain away yet another season marked by disappointment and no trophies. At what point do we stop being patient?……
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I adore Big Ange but I really think he could have done better on Saturday. I don’t think Davies should have been given the free reign he was and maybe should have played as a more disciplined left back. Also could have been a good game for the new defender and one less out of form midfielder. I think maybe Big Ange needs to be able to deviate from his principles sometimes in the PL but maybe that is why he is asking for patience as it is his first season and he is also learning. Either way it was a really bad weekend for us!!
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“Box-shyness”
I think you are onto something Alan when you talk about our lack of presence in the opponents’ box when they have dug in like Wolves did.
When Man C scored that Tikki Taka goal against us at the Etihad- i was full of admiration-imagine a team goal with so many passes inside our box.
We are at the tail end of the season, relegation threatened teams are likely to play like Wolves (thats like the bottom 12 teams)-i see tonnes of dropped points for us and like a 7th place finish unless we solve our “box-shyness”.
We need to explore more ways of picking the lock-for instance winning free-kicks around their box and scoring them free-kicks (Chelsea beat us to the title by breaking stalemates with free kicks- Willian took them from the left, Alonso took them from the right-cant remember the player who took the central ones). Its a shame we didn’t play Dembele high enough and frequent enough then to win us a bunch of free kicks.
Our only fox in the box players seem to be Bissouma, Gil and Hoj who has scored for us several goals from within the box (Stevie Bergwin is gone, ditto Marcus Edwards).
We really need to help Bissouma to help us- give him free reign to express himself around the box (then there is the challenge that Refs/PGAMOL wont let Bissouma go to ground at all-Lol). [ like Everton fans we probably need to start showing yellow cards to PGAMOL in the stadium…Lol]
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Crystal Palace
I have to admit that after the first half I busied myself in the kitchen but came back to watch after Werner scored. A fair-weather supporter you say, maybe but certainly a frustrated one and there’s only so much hair loss per game that one can accept.
The stats showed just how much we imposed ourselves on the game but with only one shot on target in that first half and Palace spreading 5 MFs in front of our defenders at times, passing lanes were hard to find.
I’m still of the opinion that a tactical tweak is required; 3-4-3 or 3-3-3-1 neither of which would impede our attacking momentum but would allow for an extra MF.
P.S. Ange, please don’t play Sonny as a N°9. He had the lowest number of touches yesterday (35), three less than Vicario. Ask yourself where he scored his goal from. If we don’t have a true N° 9 available don’t play a substitute.
Hibberni
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correction to my post above
‘Ask yourself where he started his run from for his goal’.
This is what happens when one doesn’t pay attention….
Hibberni
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Well apparently we broke our PL passing record against CP but is this something we should be proud of or does it reflect our inability to create the attacking football, by which I mean ‘opposition goalmouth chaos’?
There are two sides to a coin mate…
Hibberni
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The complete list of staff directly involved in football.
Here’s the link for those who may be interested…
https://trainingground.guru/staff-profiles/tottenham-staff-profiles
Hibberni
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