So the number of dodgy displays – West Ham, Liverpool and this one – now outnumbers the list of good ones – QPR and Sunderland.
What is becoming abundantly clear is that not only are we not yet fully formed but also that we have too many very average players, some who at best aspire to that rating and only a handful of good ones. Very few of our players look capable of producing the goods week after week, thus there’s no reliable backbone to build on. In my depressed state straight after the game, Dier and Lloris are the only two I’d place in that category. Lamela, Rose, Eriksen, Capoue, Dembele and Chadli all flatter to deceive far too often, many of the others don’t even merit that damning praise.
West Brom went away with what they deserved. They worked their socks off up front and in midfield and at the back Adebayor was rarely allowed to escape Craig Dawson’s often shirt filled clutches. Kevin Friend’s random and fussy refereeing stopped the game from flowing freely but even allowing for that our efforts to make space near goal were poor. We’re desperately short of a cutting edge (yet again) and pace. We never took Bale for granted but what a difference it makes when you’ve got that amount of speed at your disposal. How we miss him. Pochettino was doing his nut on the touchline on more than one occasion and I’m sure the inaccurate passing and tortoise like progress of our counter attacking were at the heart of most of his rants.
Berahino and Sessegnon didn’t make it easy for them I know but the distribution from the back was awful with Kaboul, Lloris and especially Chiriches indecisive and slow. Our wrong footed ‘wingers’ mean that we rely heavily on the full backs to provide width, both did their best but neither had the quality of delivery into the box to trouble Lescott and Dawson. The latter it was I suspect (I was sat at the other end) who was given the free header that led to the winner. It was far from his first attempt on goal from a set piece of the day. At a couple of corners in the first half it was Capoue who was supposedly marking him, I presume it was he who lost him at the crucial corner. Chiriches was being deputised to watch the short ones, is this really what we want from one half of our central pairing, that they’re a spectator as the ball is crossed in? Something’s not right there,
The eventual introduction of Stambouli, Walker and Vertonghen will make us more solid one hopes but it’s not going to solve the problem of the lack of goals. Only a sudden leap in the form of Adebayor, the unlikely emergence of Kane or Soldado as an attacking force or, most probably, the introduction of new personnel in January will do that. Maybe.
At half time Paul Coyte introduced a lady named Brenda to the crowd. Brenda’s admirable achievement is that she’s been watching Spurs for 65 years. She, like the rest of us, deserves better fare than this.
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