I have not committed my thought to the blog page in a little while, mostly as once a week I say everything I want to say on our podcast… which if you do not listen please give us a try; it’s like a blog… but for your ears. You can find our latest episode here: https://www.spursnews.co.uk/episode-113-still-top/
Shameless self promotion now out of the way the reason I wanted to write something today is because after we beat Arsenal 2-0 on Sunday I watched on in amazement as we were savaged by pundit Graham Souness. Now, pundit opinion is exactly that; opinion however it did get me thinking about why we were seeing such a reaction to us and why so negative.
Souness had a lot to say, brushing over the result and instead focusing on the style of football being played. His view being we, as Tottenham, might win something like this but it does not make us a good team. We are playing “anti-football” and we are “boring” and “negative” and he will surprised if Tottenham fans will put up with it, “…as no one will want to go and watch that every week…”
Now, there is an element of this that did speak to me. I am a Tottenham fan and have been since the 80’s (I was born in 83) and so in my lifetime I have watched us and as such I am used to the West Ham game version of Spurs. The 3-0 up with ten minutes to go and giving away the three goals which leave us with only on point instead of all three. That is the Tottenham I know and as such I am struggling with our style right now; not because its massively boring etc but I am just used to teams having the ball against us always scoring. I am not used to seeing Man City, Chelsea and Arsenal having the ball for 70-80% and being unable to score past us. I am constantly waiting for it to happen.
That is not a reflection of Jose and this team however, that is a built in issue I have that Tottenham have given me over the years… however since the West Ham game things have changed. Our defending and our shape is now set for not conceding and by not conceding we pick teams off and that is how we are picking up points and winning against the top teams in the league, our title rivals in fact as yes we may be a little pony (nice one Jose) but we are in this race.
Before writing this I thought it would be useful to look back over pundit commentary on us and I did find something quite amusing. You see, the man who basically belittled our win against Arsenal and Man City once said the following during the Pochettino era: “This Tottenham team play nice, fans like it but they don’t win and that’s the problem. In years to come people will look at this time for them (Spurs) and see no trophies, no one will remember the games were pretty and they were the best team to watch. Fans don’t care for that, they want success…..”
It is not just Souness of course a whole raft of journalists are out there filling column inches about us being boring and how poor the football is and I am seeing first hand what happens to Jose at most of his clubs and why his tenures end. You see, its not that the football is bad, certainly the results are not its the fact people do not like him. He says he’s good and he is going to win so when he does what do you have to attack him with? How he wins.
It does bring me back full circle to something I once wrote in a blog about how being attack us over no trophies and how fans need to realise us being attacked will never stop. Look at Jose, he has won everything and then gone and won it all again… and again… and again… yet people line up to talk down about him. If Spurs win the League Cup this season… only the League Cup will be the cry…. same with the FA Cup… “not what the competition was…” and if we were to lift Europa then “who cares about that one, not the big one which they bottled…” and if we won the Premier League title they would say “So, Blackburn did that once too where are they now…”
I honestly believe we could win four trophies a season, every season, for a few years and rival fans would claim we only did it by selling out to Jose anti football or something as equally bitter and stupid. So this is me calling on my fellow Spurs fans to prepare for all of this and to enjoy it. See I remember when we were 15th in the League and losing to Arsenal who were top. I would claim to things like, we bossed possession or that we had more English players even… anything to feel relevant and like we mattered in all of this but reality was it was nonsense and I even knew it then and the fans, journalist nd pundits attacking us right now know it too.
Boring boring Jose…. its like they have forgotten we beat Southampton 5-1 at their place and also smashed Manchester Utd 6-1 at Old Trafford.
I have not forgotten that and neither has any team we face, which is why they are playing against us in a very different way. Man City arrogantly played the high line but dropped it after we got the early goal and no team since Southampton, with that exception from Pep’s team have played against us like that. Teams have controlled the ball sure but we have let them, do not think that is anything other than a game plan. We are looking at teams and challenging them to come at us and be better and to over commit and a soon as they do that we pick them up.
Under Pochettino we played a similar way, however it was based around possession. We would hold the ball at the back to draw a team forward to press us and then we would transition and move into the space. Its football, there are always systems and tactics evolving. Right now this has us not conceding a goal in games against Man City, Chelsea and Arsenal. Now forgetting our North London minnow neighbours the first two teams have gone on to score a lot since and were free scoring before. Did both just have an off day against us? No, we defend very well.
It is a big mentality shift in the squad for sure and I would say that as big as that is for them I also thing we need one as a fanbase too. I will hand on heart admit I have struggled watching us play in these games where we surrender the ball BUT that is because of Tottenham past… not Tottenham present. Tottenham right now will let you have the ball, even autograph it and put it in a lovely display case for you to take home… we will have the three points instead.
