As i write this we sit 2nd in the table on 17points from 8 games, with GD +10, joint best in the league
We are top of the Europa league group after 3 games, having played 2 games away and 1 at home.
We are through to the quarter finals of the league cup.
I think that after the opening day display and defeat at home to Everton, we have to look at the above and be happy with the first part of the season. We have gone from being turgid, to playing scintillating attacking football, to being turgid again. We have ground out 'undeserved' away wins, and thrown away ridiculous points at home.
What is working well?
1. excellent summer recruitment gives Mourinho credible, game changing options off the bench, especially in attack.
2. grinding out away wins at tough places when not playing well, is something that I am not accustomed to be saying about a spurs team.
3. Kane / Son partnership
4. Back 4 now looks a little more settled and a bit more solid with Sanchez nowhere near the team. Encouraging, but I would be concered about any CB partnership we name against sides like city and Liverpool, where pace and movement will cause us problems.
5. PEH and Reggie - fantastic signings which have made an immediate impact.
What is not working well?
1. We are still susceptible to making individual errors at the back which directly cost us goals. penalties given away. own goals. giving away the ball in crucial areas.
2. I think he has a role in the squad, but Sissoko is so poor on the ball that a midfield containing him is incapable of playing fluid passing football. Don't want to single him out, but he is a real hindrance to playing progressive football.
What are our realistic ambitions for the season?
With an upcoming fixture list of city Chelsea palace Liverpool arsenal Leicester and wolves, back to back, with Europa league games and the league cup quarter final at Stoke thrown in too, we will really be tested in this next portion of the season. If we can come through those games still in and around the top 4 then I think that we will have done well. I reckon there is a couple of wins, a couple of draws, and a couple of defeats in that set of fixtures.
I think we need to be looking at top 4 and a trophy. Any trophy, don't care what it is.. we just need to put silverware on the table and get back into the CL.
If the usual suspects continue to show indifferent form then maybe we can push on and be in the Title conversations, but that will be dependent on key players staying fit pretty much all year, which never happens.
All in all i will give our start to the season an 8/10. A good start, with room for improvement.
Assessment of First Part of the Season
posted on 9/11/20
8/10. But we’re always a couple of defeats from Jose-out, given the perceived brand of his football.
posted on 9/11/20
I actually think it's a fair assessment. In terms of results, I can't argue with 8/10. Performances have been about 6/10 for me though.
There has been an improvement this season when compared to last. However, I still don't see much of identity to the way we play.
All in all, it's a good start to the season, but I don't think we can give a proper assessment until Xmas, after which we would have played all the title contenders.
posted on 9/11/20
Fixture list has been kind up until now, from the games we've had I'd say we're about par for the points accumulated. Not getting carried away.
The performances have been inconsistent to say the least. And I don't think it's got much to do with new team needing to settle down and learn to play with each other. This will be a common theme throughout the season. Even in the games we've won well, like the Soton game, the first half was appalling.
Top of our EL group, as expected. One dodgy result in that, but can put it right by winning all our remaining games.
6.5/10
Crunch games coming up after the IN break, lets see what Jose is really made of then.
posted on 9/11/20
Talking about deserved or undeserved points, for me we did not get what we deserved against Newcastle regardless of the second half performance. We got exactly what we deserved against West Ham because of the second half performance.
posted on 9/11/20
What isn’t working well is our tactical obsession to allow the opposition to have the ball - it is effective in us creating chances but ineffective in us closing out games.
WHU and Brighton wouldn’t have been anywhere near as risky had we set out to play a more possession based game - especially WHU second half
posted on 9/11/20
Regarding this season we are doing about par in the PL, slightly below par in the Europa and above par in the Carling Cup.
It’s been an easy run-in so is tough to evaluate until around Christmas.
posted on 9/11/20
comment by sandy (U20567)
posted 1 hour, 11 minutes ago
I think you also have to factor in that Spurs have already had four away trips around Europe this season, two to Bulgaria, plus a tricky Carabou Cup tie against Chelsea, so they really are doing exceptionally well.
Playing Thursdays in Bulgaria, then 12 noon on Sunday in West Bromwich is hardly ideal to getting free flowing footie. Once the group stages of the Europa are out of the way, I expect performances to also go up a lot.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Really, sorry to disappoint you but they wont, the tougher the opposition the tighter he will get
posted on 9/11/20
comment by Bennyville (U8058)
posted 1 hour, 4 minutes ago
Fixture list has been kind up until now, from the games we've had I'd say we're about par for the points accumulated. Not getting carried away.
The performances have been inconsistent to say the least. And I don't think it's got much to do with new team needing to settle down and learn to play with each other. This will be a common theme throughout the season. Even in the games we've won well, like the Soton game, the first half was appalling.
Top of our EL group, as expected. One dodgy result in that, but can put it right by winning all our remaining games.
6.5/10
Crunch games coming up after the IN break, lets see what Jose is really made of then.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Agreed
posted on 9/11/20
I'm not a huge fan of the "if only we had held on against West Ham and Newcastle" arguments. Don't get me wrong I was as p1ssed off as anybody that we didn't win those games but Martial shouldn't of gone in the Utd Match (when we were only 1-2 up) and we could easily of dropped points in the Burnley and WBA games where we were hardly convincing.
All in all our points total is about fair.
posted on 9/11/20
the points total is good and what it should be. here comes the first tests of the season. get 9 points out of your next 6 games and you'll be sitting pretty.