"But... my philosophy" |
The first issue takes us back a few transfer windows. Let's look at three of the biggest departures in recent years; Luka Modric, Rafael Van der Vaart and Gareth Bale. Who can honestly say any one of these players has been adequately replaced? Does Eriksen always come up with the goods like Van der Vaart did? Can Lamela ever hope to be as good as Bale? And who the fuck is the new Modric meant to be!? If we could combine all the best attributes of Dembele, Paulinho, Capoue and Bentaleb we'd have a player almost half as good as what Modric was. Almost half. That speaks volumes about the caliber of player we're missing. I feel sorry for Pochettino, I really do. We still haven't fucking replaced Berbatov for God's sake.
This is so painful to look at. Sigh |
There's easier to spot problems in our side today, again obvious to anyone watching the game. Our centre halves just were not up to scratch. Kaboul has that classic 'come back from injury nowhere near as good as a few years ago' thing and in all honesty may as well have been sold this summer. As for Vlad Chiriches... fuck knows what has happened to this lad. I know one bad game doesn't make him a bad player but he was genuinely hopeless today. Not only did he give the ball away several times in dodgy areas due to a bad touch or bad control, but he also let attackers drift past him as if he wasn't there. West Brom players mind you, no one good either. No offence. I remember at one point he went for a header and the ball bounced straight over his head. You've got to laugh, it was like having Doherty back. Surely he can only improve after that horrific performance today...
"I have no idea what I'm doing here." |
I feel this was the main problem. The two centre halves zapped us of any confidence. We couldn't play out from the back and it was making both the crowd and the rest of the side nervous. Pochettino's philosophy supposedly works on a quick build-up and we couldn't even move the ball forward from our own area without losing it. What hope did we have? This was only made worse by the fact Jan Vertonghen was sat on the bench and new signing Fazio was nowhere to be seen. He probably missed the flight and is stuck in fucking Serbia. I know they both played Thursday but they shouldn't have. The league should be the priority.
"Where am I? Where's Pochettino?" |
A lack of movement off the ball was another major issue we suffered from. Adebayor's Jekyll and Hyde personality has become tiresome, especially since he shows his useless side more often than not. Chadli has scored a few so far but may as well have stayed in bed today he was that ineffective, Lamela tries his hardest but can't be relied on since this is effectively his first year and Eriksen can't even beat the first man with his corners. It's so frustrating to watch, the way we played against QPR showed what these players were capable of but no one wanted to even move today.
I wish green Adebayor would stop turning up. |
I don't know why Bentaleb isn't in our starting XI these last couple of league games. At least he's direct with his passing and seems to find gaps between the lines. He's also so composed picking it up from a nervous back four. What did he do to be relegated to our B team? We desperately miss someone who can dictate the play from deep. I don't even think Bentaleb is fully capable of doing this but at least he tries to. We need an Alonso-type midfielder I think, someone able to dictate things.
And what happened to our pressing game!? The longer things went on without a goal the more we sat off, almost as if we were resigned to the inevitable. No belief, no passion, no fight. The philosophy had faded. It was like watching AVB's Tottenham *shudders*
Anyway, that's about all I wanted to rant about. I know I've been harsh on a few players. What I will say is Pochettino still needs time and unless we're sat in 15th or some shit by Christmas I wouldn't dare consider removing him from his tenure. Just give it time. Who knows, maybe we'll turn in a worldie of a performance against Arsenal. Maybe.
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