One step forward, two steps back. The exhilarating 4-0 demolition of QPR, the humbling by Liverpool. The hard fought victory against Southampton, another debacle at Manchester City. Five goals in the Europa League, this frustrating loss at home to Newcastle.
Just when you think Pochettino’s Spurs side are getting somewhere they let you down again.
It would be unfair to be all doom and gloom, the performance had it’s good points. At half time it felt like a comfortable but not stellar 1-0. Tottenham had passed the ball around nicely and dominated possession. Newcastle had done very little. We hadn’t made the most of our opportunities but it didn’t look like our opponents had it in them to punish us.
As in previous games, at times we were a frustratingly missed pass away from a good move and when the chances came they were wasted.
I had championed Soldado’s further inclusion and, after his hat-trick in midweek, Harry Kane had a strong case too. Pochettino went with Adebayor who is clearly his number one choice up front. The decision seemed to come good, when in the 17th minute the big striker rose to meet a beautiful Mason cross. Although, Adebayor did little else to justify the manager’s faith in him.
In the move that led to the goal, several players had tried to drill the ball into the box and failed, meeting well organised Newcastle blocks. Mason saw the opportunity at the back post and delicately curled a lofted cross onto the head of Adebayor. The young midfielder is a class act.
Half time was to prove instrumental. Newcastle made two attacking substitutions. Pardew reportedly had strong words with his players and sent them out early to run some warm up drills while Spurs were still in the dressing room. The move was surprisingly effective. Within six seconds of the half resuming, Newcastle were level. The scorer, Sammy Ameobi, one of the substitutes.
Walker and Naughton are still long term injury victims and the equaliser demonstrated how much we miss a specialist at right back. A long ball straight form the restart found Dier out of position and stumbling to get back. Ameobi used his pace to stay ahead of the Spurs man and kept his head to register his first Premier League goal.
Newcastle were now in the match and you just got the feeling that they were going to steal the three points. The winner came as Sissoko skipped past some tired, lacklustre tackles. Cabella whipped in a cross and new boy Ayoze Pérez, finding himself marked by the diminutive Danny Rose, lept to score – it was his first Premier League goal too.
Tottenham still created chances. Eriksen missed a good one, Kane – a substitute – drilled the ball across the box but there was nobody there to finish.
Looking at the first half and the statistics – Spurs out-shot Newcastle by 17 to 8 and had 63% of possession – there was certainly a touch of misfortune in the defeat. If we could have pressed home our advantage in the first half and scored more goals, if we could have just kept our concentration in defence, luck wouldn’t have been a factor.
Pochettino looked angry and frustrated in the post match interviews. “Frustrating” sums up this disappointing step back.
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Were Spurs unlucky? Where do the problems lie? Let me know in the comments below.
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Anything But Penalties 
The squad is 2nd rate.
Vertonghen look like he wants out, lamella will never make it, erikson is good but has no quality to play with, our strikers are hopeless,we have no width and for the 1st time in years we are orrible to watch. Worst run and a hopeless chairman to manage.
We are bad enough to go down!!
Wow, Spurs bigger, faster, jump higher, pass better, shoot harder, protect the ball with aplomb have 70% possession and still lose! It is a cruel game.
As a Spurs supporter since 1960 I don’t think I have ever seen the club in such turmoil. The priorities seem totally wrong and it looks as though neither the Chairman nor the Manager have put anything in place to “right the wrongs”. After the sale of Bale it seems as though the policy was “find the cheapest options possible” to replace him, as with every other transfers managed by Mr Levy. Whilst I accept, and am in full agreement with, the policy of keeping the club solvent and the “cash-flow” positive, why is it that other “top clubs” can transfer quality players, for less money, than Spurs. We have bought specialist players yet continue to play those they were meant to replace. I am very much for “Poch” being given time to model the team to his way of “doing things” but fail to see how we can continue with the likes of Rose, Townsend, Adebayhor, Capoue etc included in the starting XI.
I can remember several surely worse times. When we almost went bankrupt in 1991? When we were rock bottom under Ramos? In my mind we have to be a bit more patient.
Spurs are really going through a bad patch and I wonder what is wrong. We have mediocre players not worth what we paid for. We did not buy wisely.
Check out this article. I thought it was quite interesting and i hope that Poch is not trying to do the same as AVB:
http://hereisthecity.com/en-gb/2014/10/26/christian-eriksen-reveals-why-andre-villas-boas-failed-at-spurs/
Maybe he is trying to motivate some players (Ade comes to mind) and trying to keep them happy when in fact, he should stick to a consistent group..
Interesting. If you just count league games I suppose Pochettino has been better.
We do need a couple of players but I still think it’s too early to judge Pochettino. We have had some good patches. Just need concentration and consistency.
Does anyone know if there is a possibility of recalling Fredericks from his loan move? I know he is doing well at Middlesborough but no offence to Dier, he is just not a natural right back.
Makes a lot of sense.
I hope we have better days ahead but in January we should sell our mediocre players and buy one or two very good strikers and two very good defenders. I have never been a fan of Vertonghen who is temperamental trying to play well whenever he feels like it. Kaboul, too, is not up to it. He has become slow and clumsy. As for Rose, he is too erratic for my lacking. I wish we had never sold Caulker.
My thoughts on the continuing stepping back we’re experiencing.
https://anotherwisespursblog.wordpress.com/2014/10/30/not-waving-but-drowning/
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