Ange Ball or The Bare Minimum: The History of the Tottenham
Let’s talk about the Spurs.
Known in recent times as the Robin Hoods of the Premier League – owed in large part to their knack of taking points from top teams in an often emphatic style only to give away points to inferior teams. A bittersweet badge of honour which pays homage to the quality they possess at their best whilst highlighting their glaring fragilities.
Dominic Solanke to Tottenham: The Rebirth of One of England’s Finest Wonderkids
More damning however, it shines a spotlight on the notion that there is a culture of accepted mediocrity that has plagued the North London outfit for as long as most millennials have followed football, and like clockwork, the future of Ange Postecoglou is a talking point.
Tottenham’s shortcomings have long been documented and in truth, three words – two decades after they were uttered at halftime in the home dressing room at Old Trafford – reflects in large, the football community’s outlook of Tottenham.
‘Lads, it’s Spurs’
From being almost annually the unwanted celebrants in chief of St Totteringham Day by their North London rivals – a disrespect and audacity superior teams of bigger rivalries don’t have – to their historic collapses being coined as ‘Spursy’; the assessment of Tottenham is disparaging. And though they are widely considered as being the best-placed club to disrupt the status quo of the Top 4/5, the threat is as realistic as a younger sibling winning, when being allowed to join in with a game console controller that hasn’t been plugged in.
Lucas Bergvall: The Highly Coveted Swedish Prospect Headed for Tottenham Hotspur
As a neutral onlooker, watching and analysing Spurs is as exciting as it is frustrating and it speaks further to why a section of the fanbase who have been critical in their assessment of Postecoglou are increasingly showing vocal displeasure at the playing staff.
Coupled with expected but comprehensive pastings of Everton and Southampton, Spurs have thumped London rivals Brentford and West Ham, torn apart Champions League surprise pack Aston Villa and left Manchester with two emphatic wins both without reply – a feat my research has shown to not have been achieved in the Premier League by anyone else.
This catalogue of performances and wins before Christmas would ordinarily have any team and their fans feeling optimistic about their season. Until we look at their shortcomings…
Tottenham have lost 7 games this season – tied fourth-most in the league, with only the bottom three – Wolves, Ipswich and Southampton – having lost more. For a team who entered the season with top four expectations and cup aspirations, they find themselves in unpleasant company.
To be clear, not every defeat should or does invoke crisis talks regardless of the opposition. Close losses to Arsenal and Newcastle the level of performance – the bare minimum was at the requisite level. In both losses, Tottenham’s profligacy in front of goal meant that they were ultimately punished by their clinical counterparts.
Sport is not mathematical and football’s cruel sense of humour remains undefeated; as such, xG – a term that has crept into the everyday lexis of football media – is meaningless. This statistical analysis however when coupled with effort provides positives when the more forgettable – and always subjective – eye test is ignored.
The manner in which Spurs have lost a number of other games this season has unsurprisingly called into question the capacity of Postecoglou to take them to the next level. The criticism levelled at him from the Tottenham faithful in recent weeks has been acrimonious but given the past exploits of Postecoglou’s predecessors who also walked Bill Nicholson Way it is impossible to not allow space for an alternate reality of the matter.
Postecoglou’s commitment to playing football his way has contributed to the team coming up short on occasions – the high line debacle at home to Chelsea last season remains a hotly contested debate on how to manage games with 10 men. Notwithstanding, a deeper dive suggests that it is not out of remit to question the testicular fortitude of the players.
The implosion against Brighton – to quote Giorgio Chiellini following Spurs’ 2018 Round of 16 exit to Juventus – serves to further augment the belief that, the inevitable disappointment associated with the club is “the history of the Tottenham”; Spurs are known to play flatter to deceive champagne football away from the gaze of expectation but lack the tools to be consistently competitive when the lights are bright or turn up with the right attitude every game.
Yves Bissouma: The Reemergence of the Malian Midfield Machine
To the naysayers who suggest that the aforementioned results are because Postecoglou is committed to playing one way, understand this is not an anomaly; this has been a theme that has long plagued Tottenham. Incredibly, the defeat at the AMEX was the 10th time Spurs have surrendered a 2+ goal lead and lost in the competition’s history.
They lead the league in this statistic and have achieved this ‘feat’ four times more than anyone else. Following their most recent loss to Chelsea, this is now the 11th time. For anyone who has played football at any level, this phenomenon can happen to any team on a bad day. But for it to be associated as a part of your DNA should invoke a serious internal investigation.
Antonio Conte in a scathing assessment of the club and its playing staff was exasperated at what he described as things ‘he had never seen in his career’. Conte waxed lyrical about the lack of heart and fight shown by the players and was embarrassed at the continued excuses made to mitigate for the players.
Why Micky van de Ven Is the Ideal Defensive Mould for Ange Postecoglou To Shape
The culture of playing without pressure never under stress, showing a lack of desire, accountability or responsibility to fight for the badge or the fans were but a few of the statements made during this brutal evaluation. These are concerns that do not relate to technical or tactical flaws within a team but the bare minimum required to win football matches – effort.
Postecoglou inherited many of the now senior players from Conte – Cristian Romero, Pedro Porro, Rodrigo Bentancur, Yves Bissouma, Heung-min Son, Dejan Kulusevski – whilst Pape Matar Sarr and Destiny Udogie have established themselves as first-teamers and added Guglielmo Vicario, Brennan Johnson, Mickey van den Ven, James Maddison and Dominic Solanke. It appears yet again that similar themes raised by Conte are still being displayed and perhaps it’s time to stop exploring the boardroom and look into the dressing room.
At their best, Spurs play a graceful, free-flowing style combined with high tempo, fluid offensive transitions and patterns. Kulusevski, Son, Solanke and Maddison are at the heart of everything good. The supporting cast is made up predominantly of Bentancur, Johnson, Bissouma, Udogie, Porro, Sarr. When it all comes together, it is both eye-catching and exciting cue the ‘Ange Ball’ plaudits.
However, at their worst, they are at times pitiful. And the ‘off’ days occur far too frequently for a squad with bonafide internationals and genuinely talented players. Which brings me to the crossroad of whether the flaws start at the top of the club and trickle down to the playing staff or has the recruitment been wrong.
On the pitch, there appears to be a distinct lack of leadership or determination amongst the senior players. When it’s flowing, everyone wants the ball and champagne football is a joy to behold. However, far too often during games when hard work must out-work talent, the same key components either go missing, look completely unbothered or show a complete lack of fight. There is no intensity to overcome adversity or togetherness to fight.
When the going gets tough, Spurs simply appear to lack the players needed to be competitive and other teams know at their core, they are soft. Recent defeats at home to Ipswich and away to Bournemouth reiterate the point and more and more, the Spurs faithful are vocalising their displeasure at the lack of leaders on the pitch. Embarrassment doesn’t appear to be any type of motivator as this is a pattern that occurs so frequently it suggests they are comfortable basking in mediocrity without repercussion.
There is a debate as to the origin of the phrase “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results” but one thing for sure is, at some point, If Spurs are ever going to rewrite their history, something somewhere needs to change.
With talent comes expectations and far too often when the rubber meets the road, the results have been found wanting. Postecoglou has openly voiced his concerns about the fragility of the club and is in a race against the clock to get it right. If he isn’t able to fix it in what appears to be limited time, like Andre-Villas Boas, Mauricio Pochettino, Nuno Espirito Santo, Jose Mourinho and Antonio Conte, he will likely be the next unfortunate victim of Daniel Levy’s manager penitentiary.
By: @itweetbanter
Featured Image: @GabFoligno / Steve Welsh – PA Images