Tottenham – Not A Great Week For Mauricio Pochettino
By Alan Hill
The past week hasn’t been great for Tottenham and Mauricio Pochettino with a draw in the Europa League and a second successive home defeat in the Premier League. What does this week hold for Spurs?
Alan’s 2014-15 Season Diary No. 4
Sunday 21 September 2014
Spurs lose at home to West Brom. I couldn’t get there because I was nursing the wife on her discharge from hospital. I had tried to sell my tickets at face value on Stub Hub but no-one wanted to know. Good judges. I am glad I didn’t waste my time and more money travelling up for that.
Another mid-table performance. Suffering from being striker-light again. Looks like we’ll be fighting Liverpool and Manchester United for 6th or 7th place if we are lucky. Another example of us being sussed, just like Southampton were in the end last season. Ironically, they are doing better under new management having sold their stars.
We had plenty of possession where it doesn’t hurt the opposition. I was a bit puzzled when Poch announced Younes Kaboul as the Tottenham captain. It’s not that I have a problem with Kaboul, it’s just that this means he is pretty much guaranteed one of the two central defensive positions. That leaves the others fighting for the remaining one. Does this mean that Jan Vertonghen is going to be cast out on the wing on a long term basis, where he is clearly uncomfortable?
Vlad Chiriches as Kaboul’s partner is not looking a promising prospect. Federico Fazio is the alternative but does he have the pace on the turn? Joleon Lescott put in the kind of performance at the heart of West Brom’s defence that Tottenham have been crying out for. This defeat was after a midweek Europa League performance where our alternative squad clearly didn’t have what it takes to dominate Europe’s also-rans either.
An Accident Waiting to happen?
Is no one else seriously worried that the powers that be may be ignoring clear evidence that there is a tragedy waiting to happen at Leicester? Not for the first time, the fans bouncing celebrations have sent the camera and commentary positions shaking to such a degree that the TV picture cannot be kept steady. Many of us have been in stadia down the years when we have jumped up and down achieving as similar effect but it does make me wonder how robust some of these structures are long term. I hope someone is investigating it properly from a health and safety point of view. Football’s history is full of incidents where this sort of evidence has been ignored until it’s too late.
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On a Lighter Note – What a Day!
For the first time ever in the Premier League, Manchester Untied lose a game after leading by two goals. Leicester 5 Manchester United 3. Two controversial penalties. Captain Rooney booked for arguing.
Frank Lampard comes on as sub for 10-man City to score a trademark goal to equalise against his beloved Chelsea. Palace beat Everton 3-2 at Goodison.
Liverpool lose again. Another shambolic defence. There are a few of them about this season. They are suffering from having to play in Europe in midweek too. The question was always going to be this season, who was the real genius at Liverpool last season, Luis Suarez or Brendan Rodgers? I think we are starting to see the answer.
Monday 23 Setember
In its “Goals” supplement, the Sun’s headline says “Spurs look just as clueless as they did under AVB” and “Tottenham delivered a diabolical performance at White Hart Lane yesterday.”
We seem to have more problems than solutions once again and here come rampant Nottingham Forest and then Arsenal galloping over the horizon. With Mesut Ozil finally hitting form and Danny Welbeck off the mark, his confidence boosted just when he needed it, I’m not exactly rubbing my hands in anticipation of the coming week.