I am a big believer in everyone having an opinion and it is never for me to discredit others. I still stand by that now so please remember when you read this it is just my opinion. A fan. I have never played the game professionally and I am not even one of those guys at the pub who ‘had a trial once, but my knee….’ I have never coached a team beyond Championship Manager 03/04 edition where I took Barnet from non league to Champions of Europe in 15 seasons…. okay I digress…..
Whenever we lose a football match no matter who the opposition there is often a gut frustrated reaction from many fans. On our Facebook page we have over 50,000 fans reacting / commenting on posts and so we as a group of admins get to read all of these comments, some times we interact and offer counter opinions or try and balance things – share perspective and sometimes we dive in and agree.
The key thing I think is that we are all Spurs fans and all want to see our team, our club win every game. Of course we do… we all went into the game last night believing that we would win.
However, sadly we lost. Champions elect, who have been the best team in the league by some distance all season beat us 3-1 (having beat us 4-1 earlier in the season at their ground). In the cold light of day, I have read back over hundreds of comments across social media and our page in particular and there appears to be a clear villian in fans eyes here for our defeat and that is Davinson Sanchez.
Sanchez, 21, is enjoying his first season in the Premier League and despite being critically acclaimed many fans do not seem to trust him and last night as we watched him chase after Man City speedsters many I know, again were quick to lay blame on his doorstep.
Of course the shadow of Toby Alderweireld is there also, which means any tiny mistake and people suddenly jump on it and lament the loss of Toby. Someone who I fear fans have now built up in their minds due to his prolonged absence as some sort of Olympic sprinter / second coming of Maldini hybrid.
In my opinion, Toby would have made zero difference yesterday beyond us potentially conceding more goals – Sanchez is faster and the reality is we were tactically done by Man City – not individuals.
Man City scored via long balls in behind. Sanchez, the only Spurs player to be able to keep up with the City speedsters seems to lead people to believe he was at fault for them somehow getting in behind, in reality it was playing a high line, with no pressure on the Man City players in their half allowing them to ping passes from range in behind.
A quick glance at Opta stats for the game shows Sanchez ‘sprints’ was equal to the attackers of Man City, meaning it was him applying any kind of pressure to these players when they got in behind us. Also, on three occasions Man City were played onside by Vertonghen, Trippier and Davies and again it was Sanchez who got back at Sterling to put him off otherwise, like I said above, the defeat would have been much heavier.
Now this is not about saying don’t blame Davinson, blame others – this is about how it is a team game and as a collective we got our tactics wrong, didn’t adjust fast enough when it was clear what Man City were doing and we also didn’t play with the same energy and intensity we are used to seeing.
Pochettino will learn from this as once again he has been out thought by Pep – also the players will hopefully react to this in a positive way as we play out the rest of this season. Every game is a big game as we look to secure Champions League football for our new stadium and the club for next season and of course we want that FA Cup!
So what was the point of my blog post today…. I guess perspective? I guess asking people to keep in mind we have lost two ‘home’ games in two seasons and we have lost to the Champions elect. There is no shame.
We also need to remember that fans of a team are called supporters with key emphasis on support. Not every player can be perfect every game, its when their form dips that they need that extra support – not people slamming them on every social media platform available.
We are in this together and we are still so close to this being a very good season, come on your Spurs, you can do it!
-SJ
