On Sunday at 2, I watched my grandson’s under 12s side. They lost 7-1. They have done fairly well over the past couple of seasons, then for reasons known only to the manager, they joined a different league, the top one in the county, where they have been outclassed. Teams are faster and more athletic. They consistently pass their way through our shapeless defence. Constantly being caught on the ball and conceding possession. We can’t play out and are forced into a series of mistakes. The manager shouts tactical instructions without explaining to the boys what they are supposed to do.
Then at 4.30 I watched the same thing all over again, only with adults.
The NLD was certain to get me going. I’ve taken a short break from TOMM. Can’t say in all honesty it was a planned way of refreshing my creativity. Living gets in the way of football, a pitfall I’ve avoided for most of my life, so when it did, I just rolled with it.
And to be truthful, I wasn’t feeling it. Being a Spurs fan is more than just watching the games, it’s about being part of something fundamental to who I am. It’s about my life history, family and friendships. It’s essential to how I define myself. So it’s disconcerting when, if I am true to my emotional response to the game, I experience a sense of distance and alienation.
It’s ok. Maybe this is a healthier response. Less wound up. Less frantic about getting there. I missed a few games and the world kept turning. I was more even tempered. But it’s not me. The scanners outside the turnstiles sometimes pick up my two metal knees and the stewards stop me. Or they could just be doing me a favour. But now I can leg it up to row 48 in the South Stand faster than the away end at the Emirates emptied after their fourth.
Plus there’s the inescapable feeling that after writing TOMM since 2009, I’m trapped into repeating myself as round and round we go. Same hopes, same mistakes, same outcome. No learning.
Things don’t work out, so change is demanded, whereas at Spurs change is the problem, not the solution. The managerial and player churn undermines progress rather than assisting it. The board glibly invoke the Spurs DNA, yet the outcome as it stands is that we are a club with no distinct identity. We want to be a leading player, yet refuse to invest in players and salaries that bring success. We appoint, then dismiss, a series of managers with differing styles, who value different characteristics in the players they want to buy. The next guy inherits the mess, a squad composed of players he didn’t choose and from several different eras, different styles, competing philosophies.
The last couple of paragraphs should be the equivalent of a pinned post, prefacing any analysis of what is happening at Spurs on and off the field. Frank is that guy, fighting against the forces of history and decades of underachievement at Spurs. It’s not his fault or responsibility, but there’s nothing like the NLD to stir my emotions or to reveal to the manager the weight of the burden he carries.
On Sunday, Spurs weren’t so much defeated as utterly outclassed by a team vastly superior in every facet of the game. Let’s be brutally honest here, in keeping with AFC’s brutal demolition of our feeble attempts to compete, theirs is the model of high level success that puts our efforts into perspective as the desperate, purposeless chaos they have been, with its flagrant disregard of the reality of the contemporary Premier League. Their board has come in for sustained criticism at times from their fans. However, they stuck by their man, stood by while he underachieved and made mistakes, spent an absolute fortune, but look at them now. They invested heavily on top class players and created a system that suits them.
I don’t go in for a heavy dose of tactical analysis on TOMM (the Extra Inch are good on this if you are interested). But it’s fair to ask – if we’re playing a back five plus two essentially defensive minded holding midfielders, how on earth did we consistently give them so much time and space on the edge of our box? One answer here lies in our opponents’ tactical sophistication – their movement and interchanging through the middle to move our players out of position and outnumber them in decisive areas. When we have the ball, we are being caught in possession all the time (another comment I have made so often over the years). We shift the ball out wide, only for our wide men to be smothered, or else fashion a cross that forms heading practice for defenders, when we don’t have an centre forward able to make much impact.
These are all tactical failings that are down to the manager. We try to play through the middle more when Simons starts, but he has become the face of the current Spurs side – worried, bewildered and anxious. More than taking time to adjust to PL pace, he looks up and there’s no one to pass to. Teamwork again, or lack of it.
Coming to Spurs is a big step up for Frank. I thought (hoped?) he was ready for it but the signs so far are not promising. There’s the wide player thing from Brentford, and a mindset that concentrates on the opponent to the detriment of our own abilities. Again, the Derby was a perfect example, forcing players into an unfamiliar formation and a team selection that conceded the initiative from the moment the teamsheets were handed in. I appreciate organisation but we are justified in excepting more at Tottenham. He has some real creative talent at his disposal but I can’t avoid the feeling that he’s struggling to know exactly what to do with it.
The most surprising aspect is his failure to instil the high level of intensity fundamental to his style. It’s a term used frequently these days to the point of cliche, but it is an essential quality in order to compete in this league. The derbies, including the CFC game in this, showed we could not match their application but it’s been apparent in other matches too.
Lots of debate about the Paulinha/Bentancur axis not being able to pass forward. I like both players for their contrasting qualities. Bentacur looks smooth and easy when it’s going well, circulating the ball and moving it on. Except this isn’t good enough in a PL where most other teams are adept at pressing and cutting out time on the ball. The point I’m straining to make is that these are good players but they aren’t good enough for what we require them to do. And then we return to transfer policy. AFC and CFC have invested in better players in this key position.
Let’s name these feelings. Anger. Frustration. Disillusion. But changing the manager isn’t the solution to these feelings. The Derby ruthlessly exposed our faults. In the league we now have two home matches to begin a process of translating learning from mistakes into progress. Frank has to see this as an opportunity to adapt his approach, rather than a threat. He’s hampered by the loss of Maddison, Deki and Solanke, the latter a big loss in my view as he could form a figurehead around which the attacking play could coalesce. However, he has Simons, Bergvall and Muani available – they must be effectively integrated into the starting line-up. If things don’t work in these games, Frank will really find out how heavy lies the burden of anger, frustration and disillusion.
TOTTENHAM ON MY MIND 
Great article Alan! Hope you’re well. I will be metaphorically watching through my fingers tonight, anything less than a 4 goal difference will probably be a victory.
Regards
Rich
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Nothing more apt for a Spurs fan than the saying its the hope that kills you soo many times its a film we ve seen so many times that we hope won t have the reduce you to tears ending
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I can predict two things for the rest of this season: the club will stick with Frank and we will continue on our merry unpredictable way until the final match: some good results forgotten by a number of baffling losses against poorer teams. All I can suggest, Alan, is that you learn a mantra to recite after each weekend, such as ‘Hakuna Matata’ or ‘Well, fluff my feathers!’ There won’t be a magical upturn in results because Frank cannot wave a magic wand. The club’s transfer policy continues to prefer any number of average players (Tel, Simons, Odobert) instead of buying individuals of singular class and pedigree that they can then build a team around. Our team has a sound defence but every match is won or lost in midfield and we have suffered almost a decade of irresponsible squandering of cash on players of dubious quality. We can all name the duds and wasters that have cycled through N17. Every top club has at least one, often two, top midfielders who hold the team together: Arsenal, Rice,; Chelsea, Caiceido and Fernandez; Newcastle, Guimares; Liverpool, MacAllister; Man Utd, Fernandes; Villa, Rogers and McGuigan; but we have no one to compare. I’m afraid things won’t improve much when our injured players return. Maybe Kulusevski can make a difference but that’s about it. I think Solanke did well in a lousy team last season and he works his socks off, but frankly our forward line of Richarlison, Tel or Odobert hardly strikes fear into the opposition. Kudus desperately needs support around him to show his worth but the whole look of this unbalanced team resembles a patchwork of missed opportunities. Thankfully Frank is removing those infuriating unforced errors that plagued us throughout last season but we lack energy and drive. Forget Arsenal, did you see the intensity of Chelsea against Barcelona last night? We haven’t worked like that for years. All of the above is the result and end product of the Levy years. Hopefully the new Lewis hierarchy will encourage a braver approach to our transfer policy but it will take a couple of years to create something meaningful. Until then…Hakuna Matata!
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Well, it’s the morning after the night before, and I don’t mind losing to a better team as long as we give it a go but… WTF! All I’m looking for at this point is for some sense of order arising from the wreckage of last season but last night resembled everything, everywhere, all at once. Or to put it another way…we can play all the right notes but not necessarily in the right order. Just stick an adult or two in the midfield and things will improve mightily. Someone who can organise the younger players, who are still stuck in last season’s mindset of being asked to do a man’s job before their time. We have to get beyond this sense of making it up as we go along.
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Thank you Alan for, as always, expressing what so many of us feel.
Let’s hope that we can build on the much more promising display in Paris.
I do not agree with the previous poster that Simons is average. He is class but needs time to adapt to the physicality and speed of the Prem.
I still feel optimistic that the second half of the season could see us flourish.
All the best, Harvey The Hudd.
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I think much of the managerial merry go round is due to recruitment failure. If we have a manager who plays wing backs we make sure he doesn’t have them, we then hire a manager who plays a back four and by that time we have purchased wing backs. It is a case of not enough proven ability purchase (and recovery from mind boggling awful buys like Ndombele) but also that we never have a properly balanced squad. Good manager and good quality, balanced squad = success and no need for the merry go round. Simple but Levy never got it. Who knows whether the Lewis family will
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if we can get a quality player for the left side and a decent centre forward it may improve.The ball bounces off Richarlison like he is a Lampost so we are immediately back under pressure.We then make our customary mistake giving the ball away trying to play out from the back and concede a cheap goal.Cut this out ,get a bit more possession and hope Gray and Bergvall are the answer in midfield.
if we end up with Semenyo,a decent centre forward and Kudus as our forward line then things start looking up.
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Beautiful writing Alan. Bergvall, Grey are our future.
when Frank realises it and starts playing them every week.
Semenyo and Kulu on wings is my dream.
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I’m in glass half-full mode currently. The NLD was always going to be a spanking by a far better team. I think this is the best Woolwich side I can remember since the bad old days of Bergkamp, Henry yada yada. The error was believing that parking the bus would work against a team of such quality and fluidity. Rope-a-dope only works if, it at some point, you can get off the ropes and throw a couple back. We all know how blunt we are in attack and our midfield remains a souffle. Counter? What counter?
Under Potecoglou we were hopelessly naive with an historic number of losses. No fluked cup (huzzah!) or injury crisis should put a plaster on that. He was the worst manager across a season I’ve ever seen at Tottenham…in five decades. Frank has taken over a side and a culture that, even for Spurs, has been woeful. This is not a transition. It’s a foundational rebuild. It will take time. I want him to have two seasons to see what he can achieve. He knows the league. The expectations may now be higher, but the job is the same. Nobody can argue with the incredible job he did at Brentford. I see no reason to doubt that he can bring some of that discipline back to Spurs…in time.
Frank’s right to have started at the back. Just as Poch did. There are signs of slow improvement, NLD and PSG aside. It’s hard to know what to say about our forwards, none of them currently truly inspire confidence. I do think that not playing without a genuine striker for most of the season has meant that we haven’t clicked in any way in attack though. We do have some quality but it’s disconnected from a goal-scoring threat. Solanke is much missed, but it has yet to be seen if he can do a job for us. At least he can hold the ball, is strong and can shoot. Muani? We’ll see. Not too shabby at PSG.
It’s absurd for Spurs’ fans to be on Frank’s case so soon. Sometimes I think the cup has made us delusional about what actually happened under Postecoglou, his numbers were SHOCKING, and where we are consequently. I’d take caution over recklessness any day, at the moment. Frank is a measured, competent, proven manager in the Prem. There are some truly great young players coming through and I hope he cleans out some of the toothless more experienced players who flatter to deceive. Let’s back him rather than barrack him. As always: COYS!
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At the moment Arsenal are potentially capable of winning both the premier and champions league. Its impressive but what people seem to ignore is its taken Arteta 6 years to get this far and he’s had a fair amount of flak along the way. To me the hire and fire policy Spurs have instituted since Pochettino left is never going to work. If you don’t have oil money to outspend everyone else you have to build a squad, that takes time.
I’m not sure about the identity arguments either. Again looking at Arsenal the George Graham Arsenal was different to the Wenger Arsenal and the Arteta Arsenal is different to both. It doesn’t seem to have harmed them in any way.
Just bite the bullet and let Frank build the Spurs he wants. Accept it will take time and there will be pain along the way. But really there is no alternative except continuous false starts.
jod
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