I am not sure where to even begin with this. I am absolutely gutted with what I am watching and feeling completely dejected. I am by nature quite a positive person and I try to find the best in a situation and look for the ‘green shoots’ so to speak but right now after that loss to Aston Villa I do not know I have that in me anymore.
We lost 3-2 on Saturday, at home, the final game before an international break and we were at one point 3-0 down and as that happened I saw thousands of my fellow Spurs fans give up and go home from the stadium, something I hate to see but at the same time I cannot blame any of them. We have now won just five games in our last 36 home league games. That record starts with Ange Postecoglou, goes into the Thomas Frank era, Stellini and of course now De Zerbi.
I had a lot of personal reservations about De Zerbi being our new manager, I have aired them in the past and will park that there but I also at the time expressed a fear around his footballing nature too. He has a fire in him which means you can never tell when he will implode / explode and its a pattern that has existed with him his entire managerial career. I like the football, style of football, he gets his teams to play but right now its not working and its pretty clear that he is unable to coach any other way and looks lost and confused at how its not working – a body language message from the sidelines I am not sure is helping our players – also be is not shy about airing his annoyance.
He has spent more money in one window than what was afforded to Pochettino in every window he had while managing the club for nearly six years. Yes you can allow for inflation but the point is the owners and board backed him without reservation to put together a team / first team squad that he wanted and yet despite this he has failed to pick up a win in the first five games of the Premier league.
We have two points from a possible 15 and we have scored just two goals, both of them coming in a late fight back after going 3-0 down at home.
I believed that the massive changes and big investment this summer was going to bring about a big change and sadly I was very wrong. There is something very wrong at my football club … there must be… how can different players, different managers and different styles all keep yielding the same shit? I am sorry to swear but my vocabulary is failing me as I try to express my anger and frustration!
So let me start with this about the Villa game. We were playing well but once again we failed to take any of the chances we created. After 30 minutes we had kept them to one long range effort and we had created 11 chances with their keeper earning a man of the match performance level of save after save BUT when you watch those chances back, its terrible finishing for at least three of them. Whole goal to aim at and hit right at the keeper!
Then something happened which only happens when you are down the bottom. Van de Ven is hurt, horrible cut under his eye and needs treatment. As are the rules he has to leave the pitch, we are down to ten men in injury time before half time, they attack, Robertson prevent a corner but they cross to exactly where Van de Ven would have been stood and a tap in means 1-0 to Villa before half time.
I should at this point also mention the injury to Pedro Porro. This man while everyone around him dropped was an almost ever present under various managers and earned not only respect of all the fans but also a call up and starting place in the Spanish squad for the world cup – which he won and was voted best right back at the tournament.
The club went transfer crazy this summer but the fact we brought in Mudryk instead of a right back to help cover and rotate for Porro, who did not get a summer off, is I feel about to bite us hard – Gray can cover but is not a right back and when he plays every side target him.
Van Hecke, who had started the game well with Porro there suddenly started to drift wider and wider to the right and then a long ball and he is being blamed for their second goal. There are, like always bigger factors but yes he could have maybe done more but this is what happens when you do not trust the positioning of your fellow defender and you are distracted. Watch it again, Sky have a great angle of him checking where gray was three times before deciding to commit and by then it was to late. Jackson did well, good goal from him, all you can say really.
Another player I am seeing blamed for everything is Tonali, I think that is the price tag talking personally. He has not been any bettrer or any worse but expectation is high. Right or wrong that is what happens I guess but he like many need time to settle and adjust, just sadly in the Premier league you do not get that.
I saw someone say that trying to build a team in the Premier league is like laying railway track with a train coming, you have to work fast or before long the train is off the rails and someone else is laying that track in the hope they can do it faster.
I do standby what I have said before, 10 games before I really panic. We have had five league and two cup games so far. Three more and you may well hear me start to say the board need to act. We as a club, after spending all we spent cannot have another relegation battle and if De Zerbi is not the man to get us playing we need to find someone quickly who is and support that person in the January window.
That being said I do once again need to point out how different things would look if the players on the pitch took the chances we created in the games so far this season. First game we deserved nothing and got nothing but second game onward we have created and missed chances which if taken change those games and change the confidence and mentality completely.
We could and maybe should be going into this international break still in the league cup and with 12pts from a possible 15 on offer and sitting near the top of the table, not rock bottom.
A manager, coaches, can only create a system and a style of play which can open up teams and create chances – they cannot sadly stick a joystick up a guys ass and play the game for him and take those chances. So, despite my issues with De Zerbi I do feel things could be very different if chances had been taken however as a famous TV chef once said if my aunt had wheels she would be a bicycle… we have not taken our chances and here we are.
We have a long international break now and hopefully in that time with the players left at Hotspur Way the coaching team can make some changes to bring about goals as if we keep playing the way we are, keep losing or drawing it will not be long before De Zerbi has to go to save our season AND that in itself is a sad reality of modern football.
The board, our owners, the director of football… all of them backed De Zerbi 100% in this window and he is failing to deliver. That means if he does not turn it around soon they have to act BUT that means anyone who is coming in will be taking on a team and a squad built by one man, for one man.
Just a side note. It would cost circa £20m to buy Pochettino and his coaching team out of their contract with the USA according to an article in the New York Times.
-Admiin SJ
