Members view: “UNDER CONSTRUCTION” OR “UNDER REGRESSION?"

That’s the biggest dilemma facing Spurs right now. Which one better suits the jersey instead of the current logo “Under Armour”? This quandary must be eating the heads of board members after seeing the galloping start to the season transform into a tepid walk after the recent weeks. The stats looks very similar to the last season. We, once again, haven’t scored enough goals. The likes of West Brom, Crystal Palace and Hull City have outnumbered us in the goals department, putting our rich attacking line-up under shade. Cup games have proven to be incongruous as we have comfortably dispatched opponents but against the opposition belonging to the upper stratum in the league, we have capitulated miserably. Add to that the meek performances against the lower rung teams like West Brom and Newcastle, the usual mishap becomes an apocalypse. The stark difference to the last season is there in the less focused column of the EPL table though. Our defence had stood firm last season under AVB, grinding clean sheets and earning us victories, typically, by a goal to nil. The case, sadly, hasn’t been the same under Pochettino.

The centre-backs have resembled nothing but leaky buckets, susceptible to switching off any time and letting in crucial goals. Some individual errors need to be pointed out here though. Dier, after the first two matches, has been “Dire”. The goal by Johnson for Sunderland, giving away the penalty to Liverpool and the late realization of the fact that the younger Ameobi is behind your back to score the equalizer in 6 seconds, all point to Dier’s inexperience in Premier League. Kaboul, apart from the showing at the Emirates against Arsenal, has not justified his ‘Kaboom’ label. He has been guilty of messing up simple clearances, misplacing passes and not showing enough leadership. Captaincy has not made a drastic difference to him apparently. Lamela, for all his entire attacking prowess and the liking of the spectacular (read Rabona), has been culpable for making mistakes which has turned the course of the match in our opponent’s favour umpteenth times. Be the Man City match where he gave away the penalty or against Arsenal where his fluffed clearance lead to the equalizer. He was invisible in attack in those matches, which sums up the total contribution in negative. Agreed he’s still adapting to the league and all the other excuses but it really is the time to step up and deliver. Not just in attack, his best efforts are required in the defensive aspects of the game too.

These are just individual examples of the lackadaisical attitude creeping deep into the whole team. Or rather, is there any team? There is no cohesion at times, attacking players pass as if they are playing together for the first time and there is no pressing or taking on the opponent. Incisiveness is something which is barely seen. There is no swagger in the squad, which was its trademark when the likes of Bale, Modric and Van-Der-Vaart used to play together. The team used to create fear in the heart and minds of the opponents but I fear that those days are past it now. Belief remains that we are under construction and not under regression, but based on the facts and stats I beg to differ, at least for now. We have seen better days and hope remains that the best days are yet to come. COYS ! :)




Written by member Pratik Patil. You can read more about Pratik's views on Spurs on his blog at http://spurredforlife.wordpress.com/