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October 2012
Top Four, but lots of negativity around Spurs
After another hard slog in a month, where despite a two week break for International football, we played another 6 games, and maintained our top four position, there is a lot of negativity about Spurs to be found in the various Spurs forums (fora).
Spurs are making excellent progress in their Europa League group, being short odds favourites to win their group, and also still considered one of the most likely teams to win the Europa League trophy, and they have progressed to the League Cup quarter-final for the first time in 4 years.
Here are just two of the latest comments passed about our team in response to the post-match survey on our Capital One Cup penalty shoot-out win against Hull:-
"This team are soul-less and are being stifled by a coach, too stubborn to change his nullifying tactics. His tactics may have worked in Portugal, but this (is) the Premiership and a small team full of substitutes had the beating of a £200m team put together to suit AVB's tactics."
"It's becoming very frustrating to watch Spurs play! Too many lateral and aimless passing.We don't seem to have someone who can provide thrust and deliver a 'killer pass' for our strikers to run on to (or don't we have hungry strikers with a killer instinct?). Very frustrating."
It is easy to understand why such comments are made in the face of what, in theory, is a successul season so far. Those fans want goals, and they want entertainment. Although "points make prizes" (thanks Brucie), they alone are not enough for some of the afficionados, although others are happy with the club's status amongst the contenders for Champions League football next year.
It is true to state that the "Spursometer" for the month of October, and the marks awarded to Head Coach Andre Villas-Boas are the worst since he took over at the beginning of last season. The individual mark of 33.6% given for the 3-0 home defeat by West Ham was also the worst mark given for a match since AVB has been in charge. It was the worst since another home defeat in November last year by Wigan.
We have to accept that the West Ham game was an aberration. We can, of course, look forward to revenge in the Capital One Cup quarter-final to be played in December.
Andros Townsend was your player of the month for October. He was deemed our best player in the West Ham game; went away and had a sensational International debut and second game for England, then was again man of the match in our 2-0 win at Villa Park.
Hugo Lloris remains Mister Consistency, and at this stage, leads the running for our Player of the Season, taking games played into account, with Townsend a close second.
November brings an extra International break (World Cup Qualifier Play-Offs/Friendlies) and five more games for Spurs, including two more Europa League fixtures. Two of our three League games will be tough, at Goodison Park and The Etihad.
Keep the faith Spurs fans! Let's hope for more positivity next month, eh?
Don't forget to check out the players' current figures re. appearances, cards, goals scored and accumulated ratings to date below.
...if you want to read reports of the matches played during this season, then links are on the Spurs Odyssey Fixtures/Reports page here. By working your way back through the previous month's figures, you can review the performances over 13 years!
