Now that we are well past the half way stage of the season, I thought I would reflect back on our roller-coaster season so far, to begin with I can’t help but think that there always seems to be some drama surrounding our club, and this season certainly hasn’t failed to disappoint in that respect.
Despite us losing Bale, I was very excited for the new season, it seemed that we were finally signing players at the top end of the market, and we broke our transfer record three times in the space of a couple of months, an unprecedented feet in the Daniel Levy era !, even our very own Garth Crooks commented that we had sold Elvis but signed the Beatles, I couldn’t wait to see Paulinho, Lamela, Soldado and Erikson tear up premier league defences for fun, however in all honesty our season never really got going under AVB, yes we were defensively sound and were grinding out enough narrow victories to keep us in touch with the pace setters, however the quality of our football was dismal to say the least, plenty of possession could not compensate for our lack of goals, creativity and intensity, and AVB was struggling to get the best out of our new stars especially Lamela and Soldado.
The beginning of the end for AVB was the 0-3 home defeat to West Ham, at the time the result seemed to be completely out of the blue, but in reality this exposed the paper that was covering over the cracks, AVB’s persistence with the high line was never going to work with slow centre half’s and a lack of pressing when the opposition had the ball, also our midfielders seemed to be over cautious and left poor Soldado isolated up front, also AVB’s reluctance to play Adebayor who is our highest earner must have left Daniel Levy and the Board fuming, however the final nails on the coffin was the horrific 6-0 away defeat to City and the unforgivable 0-5 home defeat to Liverpool, the manor of these defeats saw the fans turn on AVB big time, consequently AVB looked a broken man in his interview after the Liverpool game, and our highly esteemed Chairman “Daniel levy” then acted swiftly to relive AVB of his duties.
In hindsight I think the main reason AVB failed, was his stubborn persistence in trying to fit our players into his preferred playing system, instead of creating a system that complemented the players strengths, his tactics seemed to hinder them and you could see their confidence being slowly drained.
In this time of uncertainty and doubt, many of us were praying for a big name appointment to save our season, many popular names were linked however Daniel Levy surprised us all by promoting Tim Sherwood to manager on an 18 month contract, although many reading between the lines cynically believe that Tim is just warming the hot seat for Louis Van Gaal, who will “conveniently” be free this summer to take the role after the world cup, this plan has “Daniel Levy” written all over it.
Regardless of the rumours Tim was a brave man to put himself forward for the role, and he has made a good start with the team looking far more adventurous in a more traditional Spurs style, however whether he is tactically astute is up for debate, his insistence on playing without a recognised defensive midfielder has left our defensive vulnerable and was ruthlessly exposed by Man City last week, I cannot help but fear that we have swapped AVB’s over cautious approach to Tim’s Gun-ho style !, however I think the return of Vertonghen and hopefully Sandro will make a massive difference and give us the solidarity that we have been lacking lately, also I hope that Tim is brave enough to start Lamela when his back from injury, the jury is out on him, but I think it is a risk worth taking as the lad is a fantastic talent and I believe he has the magic to make a difference.
Despite all the drama, amazingly we still somehow only find ourselves three points off fourth spot, and the way the table has panned out, it looks like we will be battling Liverpool, Man Utd and Everton for that elusive last champions league place, consequently the game against Everton on Sunday will be massive, I think the key is to make a good start and put Everton to the sword early and get the fans behind the team, White Hart Lane can be a fortress when our fans are rocking !, I am bravely predicting a 3-1 win with Soldado netting a brace, and yes it is my heart ruling over my head! COYS
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