Top Four - Realism or Optimism?

3pm on a Saturday and following the early kick off, there’s a stark contrast between the atmospheres in every spurs fan’s household, compared with a matter of weeks ago.

On a day like today, every football fan knows the feeling of waking up to that suspicious sense of optimism when their club is facing a City, United or Chelsea.

Is it their turn to pull off a shock? Or will that sense of optimism be rapidly fading after their defence is breached alarmingly easily in the first few minutes.

Spurs beat Manchester city by four goals to one, in a blistering second half display after going a goal down, midway through the first period.

Yesterday, I was preparing an article about how I feel that spurs players and staff need to drop the generic line claiming that they’re aiming for the top four.

Clearly, the club needs to be seen to be aiming high and not simply settling for the same last-ditch dash for fifth place that has become so common in recent years.

But, there is a fine line between being optimistic and bordering on delusional.

Even the media have finally stopped putting Spurs in the top four bracket, and have amended their regular assessments of the club to, instead, having top five ambitions.

And fifth place seems a fair shout, even an optimistic shout in itself given how alarmingly average the North Londoner’s squad has become since their brief spell in the champions league.

But today has been coming for a while. After a frustratingly poor start to the season, dropping points left, right and centre, performances have been gradually improving.

New signing Son Heung-min may just have been a catalyst for the upturn in fortunes, stealing the headlines with trickery, goals and most of all, helping to take the pressure off star man Harry Kane.

One noticeable difference between this season’s spurs and last season’s spurs is the defensive stability. The newfound ability to actually keep goals out, and rely a bit less on the heroics of Hugo, has made a huge difference to the big performances such as today.

Lets face it, four goals to one is a much more convincing score-line than the five to three against Chelsea on New Year’s Day.

And to this extent, rejoining the top four might not be such a distant dream. But it’ll take time.

Certainly, this season at least, Champions League football is out of the question – barring, of course, a monumental fuck-up by at least one of the big boys.

The truth is, Spurs only finished six points behind fourth placed Manchester United last term, and there were plenty of games that season that could be seen as pivotal in terms of finishing above Louis Van Gaal’s side.

Not least, the six points dropped against Stoke City. Despite the Potter’s significant improvement under Mark Hughes, you’d have to say they’re still a team that is very much beatable for any side in the top six.

Consistency has been a big question mark during Pochettino’s reign, but those questions are slowly being answered with a more reliable defence and more firepower in attack.

It has already been stated that this is a huge season for Erik Lamela, the young Argentine who has so far failed miserably to adapt to English football.

But one trait that is a credit to the young man, is his resilience, and therefore his refusal to let his head drop despite his continuous tendency to misplace an easy pass or attempt the spectacular.

He was having a dreadful game against Quarabag, in the Europa League, yet he kept going and even hit the post, before finally taking his chance and placing a fine finish past the Azerbaijani side.

It was much the same story today. Misplaced pass after misplaced pass, too often trying the spectacular instead of opting for the simple route, which inevitably lead to a laughable attempt at a volley ending up in Row Z.

Yet he kept going, and showed ever-more determination to win over the critics and even his own fans.

He was played through on goal towards the end of the City game, and just as it looked like he’d taken one touch too many, he found an extra yard of space and put the ball beyond the reach of Willy Caballero.

He was given a standing ovation when substituted shortly afterwards.

There is no doubt that Dele Alli has hit the ground running. Still only 19, yet the young man from Milton Keynes has already forced himself into Pochettino’s first team plans.

Alli has been tasked with partnering Eric Dier in the centre of midfield, both of whom look to have made the spot their own. Dier himself is beginning to look like a top class midfielder, having adapted surprisingly easily to his new role protecting the back four.

The one major factor that could feasibly prevent an assault on the top four is the lack of financial power at the club.

While the bigger clubs have invested in the likes of Kevin De Bruyne and the promising Anthony Martial, Spurs opted to try out the aforementioned Eric Dier in central midfield, to make up for being unable to simply throw money at finding an upgrade on what they previously had.

But should the club continue to grow in the positive manner currently being shown on the pitch, it’s not out of the realms of possibility that they could be back in the big time within a couple of years.

There’s a young squad with a huge amount of potential and promise – only time will tell if they’ll be the next big thing.

But one thing is for sure, it’s looking positive at White Hart Lane for the first time this season.

Second String Spurs Not Up To The Job In Derby Defeat

It was, quite simply, a bad day at the office for Mauricio Pochettino and his Spurs side last night. 

A lot of questions were asked regarding the gaffer’s decision to field a virtually full strength side against Azerbaijani side Quarabag, last Thursday, and then play a second string side in an arguably more important game last night.

The one player most targeted for criticism following the final whistle was Federico Fazio, the Argentine centre half who has barely featured this season.

Fazio did, without doubt, have a poor game. But I feel the manager’s naivety should be highlighted in this instance, rather than the player himself.

Fazio has barely played since being dropped, midway through last season. He was dropped after one fairly below par performance, after being a very reasonable regular choice in defence up until then. He was bound to be rusty.

In fact, he may also have lacked considerable motivation with his first team opportunities being so limited, with the new long-term partnership of Vertonghen and Alderweireld already looking to have cemented their places.

However, a performance such as last night’s will not play into his favour should he look to move elsewhere in January.

Fazio isn’t known for his ability on the ball, which may have been a large reason behind his sudden omission from the first team last season. And to this extent, his mass of misplaced passes last night simply cannot be defended.

Although, it could be argued that his assist for Arsenal’s second was a tad unlucky. Granted, it came from a pretty mindless attempted hoof up-field, which soared straight into the path of the on-rushing Mathieu Flamini.

Flamini is not a prolific player, and his role as a defensive midfielder (as well as just 13 goals across two stints with the gunners) indicates as much. In that respect, not many people in the stadium would’ve instantly expected the bottom corner of the nettle to ripple, seconds later, but so it did.

I watched the game with my Dad, who has been a Spurs fan since the 60’s. He’s an extrovert, meaning he tends to be significantly more vocal than I when watching sport on television. It’s fair to say I was getting an ear ache towards full time, after the way we had defended.

As Arsenal began to bring their big guns on – in Sanchez and Walcott – I was genuinely surprised Pochettino didn’t make use of the available Jan Vertonghen at any point during the game.

He undoubtedly would’ve been more use in front of him, helping to deal with the visitor’s pacey frontline, than he had been whilst sat behind the coaching staff for the entire 90 minutes.

The Spurs defence has looked much better this season. This has been no doubt helped by the introduction of new signing Toby Alderweireld, to partner Jan Vertonghen, as well as giving the more cautious option of Ben Davies a run at Left Back.

However, last night seemed an odd time to give the fringe players a run out, especially against a team whose style of play is focused around keeping the ball on the floor. A player who’s strengths are mainly based around his aerial prowess, is unlikely to have a comfortable game when faced with pace and flair.

But the fact about this result is – it’s not the end of the world. Going out in the early stages of the League Cup leaves Spurs only in two competitions, with a third to come in January. With Harry Kane struggling for form, and as the only recognised striker at the club, one less competition to juggle may just be a blessing in disguise.

This is a result we just have to accept.

Pochettino is still a young manager, and he won’t get it right every time.