Spurs Banter Archive February 26 2014

 

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26 Feb 2014 15:34:49
i did not say sheringham and poyet were poor players they were good in their prime when hoddle was at spurs half the team was poor in perry richards ben thatcher etc then poyet sheringham anderton etc were all in their 30's

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When ENIC took over, their first act was to sack George Graham and appoint Glenn Hoddle. However, they never really backed him in the transfer market.

His strategy was to pick up top class veterans for nothing, to give his squad an immediate injection of class, in the hope of gate crashing Europe in his first season, so making it easier to get the players he really wanted for the longer term. It almost worked, but not quite and it left him with a very old squad.

Nonetheless, I think he had 3 or 4 players who would walk into our current squad.

Carr at this time was miles ahead of Walker.

King was just coming to his peak. Need I say more.

Ziege was a top class attacking left back, but was seldom fit.

His cover was Taricco. He was a nasty piece of work and might struggle to complete the 90 minutes today, but he would certainly have discouraged players like Sterling if they threatened to run riot.

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26 Feb 2014 14:48:58
We all know we are not playing well this season and losing to Norwich still hurts, but let's not talk ourselves into a crisis.

So far, we have completed our fixtures against 6 clubs which were in the Premiership last year. In two cases we have improved on last year: Everton and Norwich (despite the disappointing result on Sunday). In 3 we have done the same (Newcastle, Manchester United and Swansea) and only in the case of Manchester City have we done worse.

This is consistent with our overall form, which has yielded 50 points against 51 at the same stage last year.

I know our defence has looked a bit ragged at times and the most virulent criticisms on this site have been of defenders: Dawson, Rose and Naughton. Nonetheless, we have only conceded one more goal than at the same stage last year, despite letting in 6 at the Etihad (where top-of-the-table Arsenal also conceded 6) and 10 at home against Liverpool and City (where we had players sent off at times when the situations were still retrievable).

Apart from these 3 disasters, we have conceded just 17 goals in 24 games. This includes 11 clean sheets, against just 5 at this stage last year. Indeed it is already more than the 9 we managed in the whole of the last season: and this with our best defender, Vertonghen, only managing 11 appearances so far.

Of course our defence needs to improve and that remains a priority for the summer transfer window, but all this focus on our defence just draws attention away from the real problem: goals. We have only managed 35 against 46 at this stage last season.

Since we invested £88m in the summer to improve out striking options, I know where my own criticisms would be concentrated.

However, as I said in an earlier post, the real issue is not that we are playing worse than last year (although we probably are) but that the current top four are playing significantly better. There is nothing we can do about that.

Champions League now looks to be beyond our reach, but that does not justify drastic action or panic measures, either now or in the summer.

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