Tottenham's lack of tactics thread

[TheReid1]

I was thinking that and that would defo be a good play as Gudjohnson is an intelligent player who would link up both with midfield and forwards. only reason why i didnt go with that is i really think modric should be the first name on the sheet and in the AM role at that. he plays his best football there and I think when he plays well it rubs off on the rest

[BrumSpur]

As most of you know, I'm a girly. I didn't play football at school. No-one ever taught me the rules - I picked it all up myself. And, although I have my opinions, I'm certainly no master tactician.

Can I just say what a joy and an education it has been to read through this thread.

Chaps, I am in awe of you all!

[P UNIT 1980]

Brum I was reading through and thinking "quality this site is back on its feet and how it should be".

Great great thread lads and lasses, this is exactly what this forum and you guys are about.

I said in another thread about summer targets that we need someone of Willys caliber in CM to run the show. Someone who will turf players 10 feet in the air and take yellow cards and red cards if needs be. Our own (know i will get slated for this) Gatuso'esq type player. My option may be Cana but that is for another thread.

I agree with the sentiments that Arry lacks the personell at present to play much more than one way and with 2 massivly influential players in Lennon and Modders out we went to plan B, and unfortunately it is currently our plan A.

I think this summer (remember this is arry first full season) will be arrys time to take stock of what he has and do his business at the right end of the market.

If he continues to bring in players that he would have done for a prem strugler then questions will be asked if he doesnt yeild results.

[ctw01]

[QUOTE=basskadet;171998]ctw01, don't worry, I take no offence to a difference of opinion but I equally take no offence to a statement I never said. I never said anywhere that we are "not playing Harry's way". Harry has built a huge reputation in England of building teams who play quick, exciting, attacking football & for the majority of this season we have been doing just that - Harry's way & Tottenham's way. Harry is also known to prefer a 442 & we have mastered that formation also, so I'm not trying to say that the team & Harry are on 2 totally different pages

What I am specifically referring to is the problems we bring onto ourselves when we try to set ourselves up differently. I've watched Harry 20 years ago at Bournemouth set up in a 451 to go & get a result at Old Trafford so he clearly knows how to utilise different tactics & if he can do it at Bournmouth, why not at Spurs? Thing is, it is not all down to the manager but the players also. Tottenham's players are obviously better than Bournemouth's, so it has to be a mentality thing, confidence & self-belief. The players we currently have with us at Spurs are pretty much the same core team we have had under our previous 2 managers. These players could not stick to a gameplan consistently under Jol or Ramos (altho Ramos apparently never told anyone what his gameplans were, which I think might have contributed to the problem we're still having) & I think Harry is starting to discover the issues that they came up against. When Wolves scored their goal in midweek, do you really believe Harry told JJ not to track runners back into our box? In fact it would've been 1 of the things JJ will have been told repeatedly by all the coaching staff & throughout his career, yet he still just stands still & leaves a gaping hole for the Wolves player to attack unchallenged - it is schoolboys stuff. JJ's marking has always been wayward & his attention span short & despite regularly working on marking up at the Spurs Lodge all week, he continues to make these mistakes come the weekend. Thing is, you have to understand that just because things work out fine on the training pitch does not mean it will work on a match-day. Harry needs to have more confidence that what he & his staff tell the players gets reproduced during a game but some of our players make such elementary errors that Harry's confidence has to be waning & I think our recent reliance on the 442 is partly down to that.

The penalties thing is a complete non-starter. Harry can only pick his penalty taker by who does penalties well in training. That is TOTALLY different to taking a spot-kick in a pressure situation in front of 100s of screaming fans. Huddlestone & Niko are, apparently, our 2 best penalty takers in training, but Huddlestone bottled it when it really mattered. There is no way anyone can criticise Harry for Hudd missing a penalty!

That seems to be the thing with us tho. We bottle it on the big stage & I don't think we can blame Harry for that either. If anything, Harry has made it happen less often & just look at how he has breathed new life into some of our players - Lennon & Modric and, more recently, Bale & Bentley. I've supported Spurs for a very, very long time & this issue has been with us long before Harry ever came. He has done brilliantly to change us as much as he has but you don't get to completely alter a mentality in just 1 year that has inset itself so deeply over a 10-15 year period. We have to be more patient with the gaffer.

I'm not saying that Harry always gets it right but he does know what he is doing much more than any of us who are trying to second guess him. There is clearly a 'mentality' issue & a 'confidence' issue which Harry has worked very, very hard to correct. Still, I think he has pretty much got the best possible out of the players he currently has at his disposal and he really needs to bring in a few players of his own in crucial positions - players he can rely on to transmit his tactics whilst actually on the pitch. He does not have that really at the moment.

In terms of "decision-making" I can't really think of anything specific Harry himself has done that I really would question. Sure, he has done things that might not have worked out the way we all hoped, but there is an absolute logic in those decisions, I can totally see why he made them & they could just as easily have worked in our favour.

Bass I do agree with you on some counts especially the poor mentality of the players which for me is the crux of the matter, and has been as you rightly say for a number of years, long before Arry came .
When I said Arry"s way I meant his formation with a certain plan for each and every player so that they know their individual jobs and as a unit.
My point is that he works with these players every single day and over a period of time you learn enough about them to see who you can depend on to do their jobs, and those you cant.
If he knows JJ is not up to tracking back then why play him ?
Also Arry SHOULD know who can take penalties in the heat of battle not on the training ground.
As for Bale well he was precocious but not mentally when he came, but now he"s finding himself and should be a real player within a couple of years.
I"m not so against Arry as you may think, but right now I truly think he needs to really fire these players up because they are in need of strong leadership and it needs to come from him,, as we dont have it on the field of play.
Thats what I want him to do but hey , who the hell am I ?