Written by Pez
I think there are so many now questioning the very essence of what it is that Ange is trying to achieve. There is nothing wrong with a philosophy of high press, high intensity possession based football aimed at breaking the resolution of defenses with a literal bombardment of attacking football.
But herein lies the problem. So much of Tottenham’s football fails to capitalize on the philosophy. Much of the build up play is both too slow and too predictable, and often results in not only a failure to generate genuine goal-scoring chances, but equally and worse, still sees Spurs recoiling so often in sheer panic in an attempt to defend the onslaught of numerous counter-attacking opportunities from the opposition.
Of course, there are key injuries to a depleted squad of questionable quality and depth, yet I struggle to make sense of any real plan when defenders do not seem to understand their roles and lack the ability to defend cohesively, when attacking football appears too often devoid of any real sense of plan and so often results in squandered possession.
No one can really argue that Tottenham do not have a decent amount of the ball, however the dark side to that possession is so much of it around the centre of the park goes nowhere of consequence in their own favour. In short, Tottenham are too often poor in defense and poor in attack. Angeball may well worked successfully in other leagues but I am truly questioning now whether firstly Tottenham have the personnel and depth to pull it off, but perhaps more importantly whether his style is just too naive for the competitive nature of the premiership itself?
Either way, things aren’t exactly working out and if the pattern continues, his insistence on sticking to this game plan that is so flawed, may ultimately cost him his position. In some ways I empathize with Ange for there is clearly a real intent to alter the clubs wayward path.
But he, as so many before him, has had to deal with a blatantly obvious problem in a long-term transfer strategy which has been and still is so woefully flawed and inadequate.
Many would point the finger of Spurs vast shortcomings clearly in the direction of one Dan Levy as the architect in chief, come pantomime villain here. Nonetheless, it remains clear if history dictates as always before whose head is really on the block when push becomes shove, and if things so not change, soon its probably just a question of time.
Here’s my read: Spurs have five players that would be considered a 7 or 8 in the premiership – Van DV, Romero, Vic, Dom, Kulu. No one else is above a 5. A 5 Iis a good player that would start for mid table sides- but not teams that want to compete for a title or even the top four. Injuries hurt, Ange’s unwavering attacking Philosophy hurts (come on, roll it out to someone at the top of the box facing the goalkeeper that’s tightly marked?), but the bottom line is: we just don’t have enough top players Like Liverpool and Arsenal. The talent on our current squad is a 6 to 8th place side.