I’m a big believer that any manager needs to be given time in a job and I would say 2 years would be the minimum time a manager needs when he is rebuilding a squad to the degree we have been doing this last 2 seasons. But at the same time there has to be a moment when you say enough is enough. Is that moment now? Or is the prospect of a cup final and mitigating excuses of injuries and inexperienced youngsters enough to warrant him a little more time.
I like the fact our youngsters are getting a good run out this year, even if it’s mostly down to injuries. I hope these youngsters will progress and we can benefit from this in future years. If we have to watch poor performances every week, I want it to be at least for the sake of these youngsters finding their feet in the Premier league, that I can accept.
But if Ange Postecoglou is still with us come the end of the season, will Tottenham Hotspur or these young players benefit from continuing this philosophy of football. After all, if we want these young players to progress, we need them to be led by coaches who have a little bit of a clue about tactics and understanding of Premier league football.
How much can these youngsters learn from Ange ball, or as the rest of the world knows it, Predictable ball. This constant insistence of short passing with virtually no direct balls out from the back not only make it predictable and easy for the opposition to apply pressure, but it is making it much harder work for themselves. Without mixing up their play they are forever finding themselves under pressure and it is inevitable that a bad pass will occur sooner or later. Has anyone actually worked out just how many goals we have conceded under Ange that have been self inflicted ? I am quite sure that percentage will be well above the average for any team.
If you look at Arsenal’s distribution for example, they are known for playing a progressive and attractive style of football but they are willing to go long with their goal-kicks as they are short. Stats show roughly half of Arsenal’s goal kicks end in the opposition half. If you compare this to Spurs, incredibly we have gone long with just four of the last 145 goal-kicks so far this season. I would be interested to know out of those 141 short passes out, how many times were we able to get out of our own half before we lost possession?
It’s not just this playing out from the back that is the problem. These so-called inverted full backs seem to create chaos for ourselves and leave more gaps at the back than it is really worth. If you are going to play this way you need to see a lot more discipline from a defensive midfielder to provide cover, but instead the Spurs setup looks like a complete melee. When we do manage to form an attack the threat of a counter attack is imminent because our midfield is wide open. If you are going to insist on pushing these full backs so far forward then you need a holding midfielder who can be relied on, or even implement the system with three centre halfs.
To be honest, I didn’t see the point of bringing in another manager until the end of the season but the situation in the league table is becoming a concern. The last time our league position was this dire was under Juande Ramos. Interestingly this was also the last manager we picked up silverware with. Is it an omen?
However, had we not brought in Harry Redknapp when we did that season there was a strong possibility we were heading for relegation. We should never underestimate the threat of relegation, a club is never too big to go down! As far as I am concerned we are now in a relegation fight and something may have to change, especially if we lose to Everton tomorrow.
Unfortunately we know from last time around that top managers are not interested in the Spurs job and it has become rather a poisoned chalice. That’s hard to even comprehend isn’t it. Enic have spent the last 20 years rebuilding this club from the ground up, training facilities and stadium that compete with the best and revenues that make it one of the richest clubs in the world. But neither world class players or managers want to be part of this club.
That is the sad fact of things at Spurs but even with a subpar team and a coach whose football methods are more consistent with Aussie rules football, this club is making some serious money. So do Levy and the shareholders even care? I would argue that winning trophies certainly hasn’t been made a priority at this club and all these promises of bigger and better things to come when the new stadium is completed is now wavering very thin. I think it’s time some of us accepted we have had the wool pulled over our eyes!