The 2020/21 season has ended. Finally. I am not sure about anyone else reading this but I was not expecting us to finish with a win away to Leicester. I was fully expecting a 3-0 … maybe worse… they have been great, they had fans back in and they had something to play for. Just goes to show not only Tottenham who have bad days when the pressure is on to get a result. However seeing Bale come off the bench to make sure we finish above Arsenal did give me a few hours of enjoyment and fun. I said to my fellow admins on Spurs News the big picture of the club might be crap but this small moment is fun so let us focus there for the rest of the day and we did.
The day has passed now however and so that moment of fun is what it was, a moment and it is time to reflect on that bigger picture. Yuck. The person who painted this picture did so while blindfolded and wait, what’s that smell… that’s not brown paint! Everything is a bit crap. So in this blog post I am going to try my best to go back over the season that was and then why I think the future might be better, if we get a few things right.
The Premier League opener was a home game against Everton. Jose Mourinho was in charge and we were all looking forward to it having seen us recruit seemingly well in the summer. The game was awful. We hardly got out of first gear and Everton beat us 1-0. The score line flattered us, we were lucky to get nil and it was worrying. However we proved over the games that came after we were a lot better than that performance showed and once we were firing a big win over then high flying Southampton was followed up quickly with another big away win.
Just to be clear. That image there says Manchester United 1 Tottenham Hotspur 6. That is that we won at Old Trafford. We scored six goals. For some younger readers this does not have the same meaning for them perhaps but for people around my age (38) who grew up following the team in the 90’s and 2000’s the idea of us ever getting a result like this there… wow. This was a great day!! However sadly was not the norm for the entire season and mostly because after the Southampton game and this game at Old Trafford every team in the League adjusted how they played against us and it was clear that we had no other way to play under Jose.
Yes we had some other good results including a 2-0 “Peak Jose” performance and win over Man City but overall after this game teams combated our counter attack style by pressing us in different areas and sitting deeper on Son and marking Kane tighter when he dropped deep. Also do not forget the media agenda over Kane “winning free kicks” and how “dangerous” his “signature move” was etc etc
The game that directly followed our win over Manchester United set the tone for our downward spiral. Tottenham 3-3 West Ham. We were winning the game by three goals with ten minutes to go and we threw it all away. Absolute madness. Something I am still not over by the way. That should NEVER happen at Premier League level, professional players and yet over the season us taking the lead and us failing to hold on for all the points or even just a point was clear.
A bad habit becomes a pattern and then when the pattern is set in its obvious it is a failing. Defenders? Keeper? The whole team? It was a question being thrown around a lot however I will stand by the fact I blame one man for that failing.
Our then manager Jose Mourinho is renowned as a tactical genius. He gets his teams playing a way where they are, at the very least, defensively sound and will not concede silly goals. The logical conclusion therefore is the Tottenham players are the problem and even now I still see this being said. Here is my counter argument to this.
Eric Dier, Davinson Sanchez, Toby Alderweireld, Serge Aurier, Matt Doherty, Sergio Reguilon, Ben Davies and Joe Rodon are ALL international football players. That means they are not shit. You can berate performances blah blah however they as individual football players are elite level in the Premier League and at international level. That means if they are playing badly on a consistent basis, which many have there is a reason.
Every player has strengths and weakness. The players who look amazing over a season are often playing in a system which promotes their strengths while hiding their weakness. Most would say Aurier had his best season for Spurs, yet his defensive stats are identical to previous seasons so why is the perception different? It is due to the fact under Jose he was in essence played as our wide out ball, he was pushed forward like a winger more than a full back.
Eric Dier is a player who puts his body on the line constantly for blocks and there is a defender there however he makes so many errors with the ball, so how do you address that? A good coach would, in my opinion, change how we play to ensure (a) he is not trying to pick passes and he is (b) playing short simple passed to a midfielder. Just for a moment eliminate those passing errors from Dier’s game and you have a decent defender there. Toby is great, aging though which means he needs someone with pace with him if you are planning to play a higher line. As Mason took over who else noticed Toby seemed better? A simply change was to allow him to step forward again as he did under Poch and play the ball, which is one of his strengths. Allowing him to do that you could see helped his confidence.
I could do this for each player I mentioned but I will not bore you. My point is the right coach who is setting a team up to play a certain way can get players to look better simply by ensuring they do what they are good at and don’t try the things they are poor at. Ben Davies will never be an attacking full back… Reguilon will never be a deep lying defensive full back – yet this season we have seen both told to be those things. When you are out of your comfort zone you make mistakes, you are nervous…
Now a new manager coming in might look at the players and his system and think “they do not fit for this” and if that is the case the board (speaking to you Daniel) need to let him make the changes. That could be Dier, Toby, Sanchez… any of them leaving… they key is the new coach is allowed to do this. I know some might argue Jose was not given that HOWEVER do not allow his fans (yes they are a cult) to re-frame history. Jose said: “This is the best squad I have inherited….” and “…I do not need to sign players, this squad is the best, I am so lucky….”
So the season marched on and anyone who reads this who also listens to our podcast (yes we have a podcast, which is like a weekly blog but for your ears) will know that on a few occasions me and my co host Matt would say something like: “We are not playing well, not fun to watch but yet we are still in every competition” and that was true for a long time and I personally think was the saving grace.
The football was poor. No style, no flair… not Tottenham. Players like Dele who are flair players completely cut out and left to rot on the bench and a lot of the time not even making the bench. However we made it to the League Cup final, we progressed in the FA Cup in a fun encounter against Marine and we were marching through the Europa League all while maintaining a strong top four race position in the Premier League.
As we know now it all went to shit. Hard. Everton knocked us out of the FA Cup in a simply bonkers game where our defending or inability to defend was highlighted again. We were dumped out of the Europa league by a team who had their manager jailed in the build up to the match…. I mean… and we of course lost the League Cup final against Man City who basically own that competition.
The club sacked Jose just a week before the cup final and gave Ryan Mason the impossible job. I feel for Ryan, he was out of his depth but he loves the club so he stepped in and worked with the players he trusted to try and get the results. People hammering him need to think on that. The club could have spent some money and brought in an experienced hand for those final games – Harry Redknapp publicly said he would have done it and others – the club elected to keep it in house, save money.
The club also at this time entered and then backed out of the European Super League … I have written other blogs on that, it does not need talking about again… however what a massive mistake that was.
So the season that started with us hoping for our first league title since 1961 ended with us qualifying for the new third tier European competition called the UEFA Conference League. As it is the first year of this competition we are the first ever English team to qualify for it…. “you’ll never sing that…” all jokes aside its a bit of a nightmare really BUT if managed right this could be a useful competition to be in. Winning it does not bring much glory granted but it is a major trophy so needs to be taken seriously, when it gets to the later rounds anyway as initially the teams we will face… well…. think Marine in the FA Cup BUT that is not a bad things when you are managing game time for players and looking to introduce youngsters to first team football. The likes of Devine, Scarlett, John etc could all get games in this initial group stage of the competition.
I know I am making the best of a bad situation there but we need to find the positives where we can right….
As of writing this on Monday 24th May 2021 we do not have a manager. There is no clear target to be our next manager either, at least not in the public domain yet so we actually have no idea what the future is going to be. Harry Kane wants to leave but has three years left on his deal so if someone wants to sign him this summer it will be a record fee and Daniel Levy is someone who will insist on that – maybe a new manager could talk to Harry… Bale may have another year with us, if the new manager wants him… maybe…. there is so much up in the air and all of it is down to the board and the owner.
From Champions League final to UEFA Conference League in two seasons is a calamity. Two managers have been sacked in that time and that means whoever is next MUST be supported and MUST get us back firing again or else we really are back to the bad old days of mid table and hoping for a good cup run.
-SJ
