Mails: Tottenham fans feel a bit sick

Mails: Tottenham fans feel a bit sick

We have interest in the Champions League! Praise be! Keep your emails coming to theeditor@football365.com…

Tottenham fans feel a bit sick
Waited six years to play five mediocre game and get kicked out of Champions League. Good job. Such desire. Lloris was Spurs’ best player by far, although he still sucks at kicking he’s one hell of a shot stopper.

It was humiliating, really, and with a different keeper, it would have been 4-1. Son went for the corner flag in a one-on-one that could have given us the lead… The crisis isn’t over, West Ham are just in a bigger one and Arsenal are having their own problems. Meanwhile Chelsea are flying and we’re heading there in this state of uncertainty, confusion and frustration: Spurs fans in a nutshell, to be fair.

At least I’ll have to hear that terrible CL song only one last time until a while. Europa League awaits (unless we fuck up against Moscow which wouldn’t be surprising at this point), we’re back home! Eriksen said Spurs were “back in the Champions League, where [they] belong”. We sure as hell don’t belong there if we can’t play there. We were all thinking we had an easy group. Haha.

There’s no excuse, really. Tottenham simply doesn’t have the squad depth to compete in the Champions League. Half the Spurs team is not at the level they claim to belong to. Trippier, Davies (he’s injured but he’s quite mediocre too) are bad, and the others are just performing below their usual quality (based off last season or even the start of this one).

Poch messed up big time in the transfer window: buying a winger he doesn’t play, an overrated shit midfielder to play as a right winger for 30m (that’s six Dele Alli or almost three Toby Alderweireld) and a striker that would obviously need time to adapt to a new league. Only good buy was Wanyama whose arrival shocked Dier so much he returned to his 14/15 self. What we really need this January is a creative AM. What we need to figure out by then is how to play free-flowing football like we used to. Lamela and Toby returns cannot come sooner.

Bring on the red cards Saturday.
John Blakeway (s/o to Storey for that Dortmund-Warsaw pun on twitter)

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..As you guys have pointed out, Spurs being unbeaten means they are failing to either convert draws into wins or are failing to hold on to wins. Would they get less pressure if they won 2 they had drawn but lost two of those?

They would have more points and that surely is more to shout about. In the CL they have been very poor…whatever the reason (too much of a step up or teams on the continent being used to a high press) they dont really “blow” teams away.

Yes they were good against Citeh but thats 1 game and we’re in November. They should be in contention for top 4 again come May, but it’s all feels very Spursy already
Jason

Pochettino’s technical and tactical failings
Where to start? Team selection seems the ideal place so the choice of Kevin Wimmer at centre half is an utterly baffling one along with Trippier. These guys can coast through games at the Lane when playing lower half opposition, but they are not good enough to play against the top half never mind quality European opposition. Son is one of the weakest attacking footballers in the Premier League, one again who loves playing mediocre opposition. Always waiting for the next challenge to come in, he is looking over his shoulder expecting it rather than getting on the ball with confidence and moving the ball quickly. Too lightweight. In their steads, you had Vertonghen, Walker & Eriksen. Experienced internationals and quality in their own right. Notwithstanding the Chelsea game coming up at the weekend, our season isn’t over if we lose to Chelsea but our CL is over as we left these important players out of the team.

Secondly, we were tactically inept. Both Leverkusen and now Monaco (twice) have exposed our marauding full backs and targeted the gaps in behind. They did so with great effect at Wembley and picked us apart at will again last night. Wanyama didn’t drop deep enough at times to act as cover as a third centre half, especially when Wimmer’s positional sense is, quite simply, awful. Dier we can now see is not a centre half, having been converted to central midfield. What struck me most was the lack of leadership in the team, Dembele and Wanyama being the only two who seemed to try and initiate some authority. The soft spine that undid our good work in the last few games of the season is still there when Toby isn’t playing. Without the axis of Hugo, Toby, Dembele and Kane Spurs aren’t the same side.

We need to spend and to spend big in January. Offload more of the average dross that clogs our team up. I’d kick Sissoko out on his *rse as he never should have been purchased in the first place. We need a top quality striker not only to back-up Kane but to challenge him to go to another level. We need a talented winger with the ability to beat opposition players and retain possession. Too many cowards walking around the pitch last night taking the easy option and not putting a shift in, Alli being another prime example.

It’s not all doom and gloom. Still unbeaten in the League and 4 points off the top. But it’s the deep frustration of knowing we are so close to building something that is really long-term and potentially not acting on it. With a massive new stadium on the way, the future is bright. We just need some key additional manpower on the pitch to back it up.
Byrner (it’s a Spurs fans life)

A question directed to Mr Pochettino
As an old fart who remembers the European cup of many moons ago, can someone please explain to me why you rest players in a competition, meaning you are more likely to get knocked out, in order that those same players are fit for the league game to try and qualify for the same competition next season. Teams do it every year and it really grinds my gears.

Love and kisses.
John (isle of man division 2 is shaping up as a cracker) fraggle rock

Don’t become Harry, Mauricio
Perhaps the most worrying thing to come out of last night is Potch’s comments about the squad – he now seems to be abandoning his principles about spirit and togetherness and is now saying we need more players – don’t turn into Harry!

On the squad, Mr Levy, please give Lloris whatever he wants in his new contract
Jim Barnett

Burrrnnnnnnn
When they qualified for the Champions League loads of people were sceptical. They said it was a waste of a space, think of the co-efficient they said. What if they embarrass the Premier League, and the whole of English football?

But, they earned their chance. They qualified fair and square and so we had to give them a go. There was always the hope that the other teams would be strong enough to compensate, and three clubs through to the knock-outs wouldn’t be bad.

And yet, here we are six months later and all the worst predictions came true.

Bloody Spurs.  
Micki ‘at least Leicester City have done their bit’ Attridge

An Arsenal fan tries not to gloat, and fails
First off, I would like to point out that Wengers failure to win the champions league in 20 odd attempts is nothing to be proud of, and I suspect had he already won one, Arsenal would already have a different manager.

However, the consistency he delivers is hugely underrated. Look how many supposed big English clubs either fail to qualify or fail to get out of the group every year. Yet they all seem to get a free pass due to Arsenals failure each year, usually at the hands of Bayern or Barca. Quite odd. Mark Pougatch, a thinking mans Adrian Durham, was making excuses for Tottenham again last night.

Spurs were comprehensively outplayed last night by a decent Monaco team. Decent. Nothing more. Apparently they rested Walker and Vertonghen for Sunday’s game in their quest to qualify for next seasons champions league? How is that even a thing? Totally absurd.

I’ve been of the feeling they’ve been on borrowed time all season, the fact they remain unbeaten is astonishing really. On Saturday they could not have been any luckier.

Ever since that pathetic (but highly) entertaining collapse against Chelsea last year things have changed. Will it take a hammering at Stamford Bridge on Saturday for the rickety old axle to snap in half completely?

Oh when the wheels…
Brad S

Proud to be a fox
Glad we won our group nice and early with minimal fuss. We can now concentrate on the league and look forward to February. I have to feel sorry for Spurs fans, they must be really envious of us. Strolling the league by 10 points and then qualifying with ease to knockout phase.

We’re a small middling side, our league performance is of little surprise to those who’ve followed us for a while. We’ll probably be playing championship football withing 3 years. But right now, I couldn’t care less. We’re in the last 16 of the champions league!
Toby (bloody Spurs ruining our uefa coefficient) Mitchell

…I’ll be the first to admit that we have had a fortunate group, but you can only beat what is put in front of you blah blah. Absolutely delighted to have won the group with a game spare!

Also we were quality in the first half, Okazaki’s goal was one of the best bits of play I’ve seen from us so far this season. We were dogsh*t in the second half but who cares! If you can’t enjoy a night like tonight then what’s the point?!

Absolutely buzzing for the draw!
Ben (Still ruining that coefficient), LCFC

…Who cares if it was against a team that would struggle in the Vanarama Conference South, or that the second half lacked a distinct lack of impetus from City at times, we are in the last 16 of the Champions League. That is not something I would have dared written in my lifetime.

It hasn’t been pretty, but it has worked, so now I hope that the team will pick things up in the league in the next couple of months and play with said impetus starting with Middlesbrough on Saturday and, er, relegate all this talk of a relegation fight to the dustbin where it belongs.

I just hope Real Madrid are gentle with us in the last 16…
Rob (bossing the champions league since 2016), Leicester

Well done Leicester and well done UEFA
First of all, congratulations to Leicester. Qualifying in 5 games is a superb achievement, one that would have been a laughable thought 18 months ago. It also got me thinking though about the seeding of the groups.

Leicester’s mightily impressive Champions League knock-out qualification really goes to show what a sensible and fair change it was when UEFA altered the seeding for the Champion’s League group stages, to let the league winners be top seeds. Leicester deserved to be top dog after winning the league and it would have been deeply unfair for them to go in as 4th seeds, as they would have done under the previous system.

I am in no way saying that Leicester had an easy group but it was more favourable than it would have been in previous years. Had Leicester been 4th seeds they could easily have ended up in a group with say, Dortmund and Madrid. I would never bet against Leicester, even in that situation (not in 2016 anyway), but that group would clearly have thrown up more challenges.

UEFA are frequently criticised (fairly) for favouring the big clubs, but in changing the seeding system they made a change that worked against the establishment of European football. Leicester have taken their chance and seen off the group with a style and confidence befitting of their top seed status. So well done UEFA and well done Leicester. Now go and win it please.
Mike, LFC, Dubai

Any excuse to put in this Mail
I’d just like to say a big thank you to Daniel Storey for the Portrait of Mr. Wenger. As a staunch supporter of Wenger, nothing makes me happier than when someone praises Wenger.

I knew all the facts about Wenger that you mentioned in the article but somehow couldn’t put them into words while trying to put off Arsene naysayers.

Now I’m just going to bookmark this article and tell those know nothings to have a read. I’m off to vote for Storey for the FSF award now. You thoroughly deserve it.
Franco (vote for Storey) Goa