FanPost

The Players Who Destroyed Spurs: A Rant

I am absolutely seething. I've just finished watching the Bournemouth match and there is literal smoke coming out of my ears. It's obvious to anyone with half a brain what is wrong with our team, so instead of chucking my phone out the window, I'm going to write it down. I'm not going to spend hours finding clips of stats to back myself up, if you've watched a Spurs game this season you'll understand everything I'm saying. Yes ownership and management come into it, but I'm going to focus solely on the players on the pitch, you can have it out about the management of our club in the comments. This article is just about the definition of deadwood which we've been putting out on the pitch.

1. Winks and Sissoko

Tottenham's decline into the aberration we are today started when Dembele, Wanyama and Dier all got injured simultaneously and we were forced to start these two frauds in central midfield. Yes, frauds. Why frauds? Because neither of them are Premier League quality players and I'm starting to think they're not Championship quality either. They certainly aren't Championship quality in the final third and I don't see much defensively or in the middle of the pitch to make me think they are even 2nd tier either. They were put together as an emergency solution and somehow have been allowed to start next to each other for the best part of 18 months. When did we lose our Spurs? When this joke of a midfield pairing was allowed to play together. I literally don't think it can be understated that getting rid of these two will radically shift our fortunes.

There isn't a single midfielder from any team in the Premier League I wouldn't take over these two and that's a fact. They were fine for a small period of time, Sissoko even looked like one of our most important players. It's is absolutely clear that is no longer the case and both of these two make our team into the pedestrian team we are today. Both of them are non-league footballers in the final third, genuinely. Neither can score to save their lives and Winks is even worse in this regard, he routinely wastes decent attacking moves by trying his luck even though he has to know he has no ability whatsoever in that department. The reason we look toothless is because they are both incapable in the attacking third and you simply can't start two players like that in the same team. I honestly believe wholeheartedly that you could take any non-league midfielder and start them CM and they would have a better output in terms of goal contributions than these two. It pains me to see them start together and I will stress this: these two are the principle reason our team looks so awful to watch, they are simply not very good footballers and that's just an unfortunate fact. I don't care if Winks bleeds blue and white, seeing anything outside their inability at this point is wholly delusional.

Today, Winks nearly cost us the game by losing the ball in an extremely dangerous position and if Lloris wouldn't have made an outstanding save we would've lost because of it. With Dembele there was always a safe feeling when he was on the ball, you knew he wouldn't lose it in dangerous areas and would be able to make space for himself if there wasn't any. Neither of these two can pick a pass whatsoever and will routinely lose the ball in dangerous areas through their indecisiveness. They're afraid to try anything positive and will stifle good moves with their lack of vision and inability to pick a pass. It's always backwards with these two, that's why we look so so terrible to watch. They don't set the tone at all in midfield and aren't exactly world beaters defensively either. I never used to notice Winks much and just assumed Tottenham twitter was being harsh about Winks' sideways passing, but now he's become a focal point it's plainly obvious how useless he is.

I would even go so far as to say Dembele is the only reason Winks still plays for us and not Leyton Orient, literally that man was so good he made Dier into a seasoned England international in CM. As the two players who should be responsible for setting the tone, they jog around for 90 minutes and probably cause more issues for us than they help with. Today they walked most the time I could see them on screen which is frankly disgusting.

Winks can't live off the Madrid game for his entire career and he was in a much better team then, not to mention playing with Dembele. He cannot be allowed to start anymore. If Jose has any sense he'd bench them both and play Skipp, Gedson or John from the local pub in there - it is an absolute disgrace that these two are allowed to start week in, week out. They were a temporary solution that's been allowed to continue for 17 months too long and I honestly believe we'll look like a different team once we've moved on from this nightmare.



2. Serge Aurier (AKA The Ivorian Ronald McDonald)

Not going to claim the nickname myself, it's from Expressions, who if you haven't checked out already, you probably should. How on earth we've not only gone from Walker to him but also allowed him to become our only option at RB is beyond me. We have literally had to change our entire defensive system because he can't defend and will almost deliberately give away penalties if he's asked to. How a RB is unable to defend is beyond me.

Ok, so we've decided to play him further up the pitch, fine. Or it would be if he knew how to cross a ball. Seriously, watch him, he doesn't get his head up at all to see whose in the box and will literally hit and hope that someone gets on the end of it. His passing is useless and making him a big part of our attacks was a horrible mistake, mainly because he screws the final ball up so often I've lost count and then after that we end up on the back foot again. He gets in good positions and then simply wastes it. It's not Kane's fault that the service he's getting from this fraud is again, non-league standard.

He absolutely cannot be allowed to stay at the club beyond the summer. I don't care about his assists - for every contribution he's probably in some way cost us at least 3 times more goals at the other end. A RB that can't defend, what an absolute farce.

3. Davidson Sanchez

I actually don't care what he cost at this point, it's clear he's not a good enough defender to stay in the Premier League. It's clearly a concentration/ability issue and he's 24 now so it's not like he's going to improve massively from here. When Toby was at his peak he could cover for this waste of space, but now it's evident that he can't and this fraud has been found out.

Here's the thing, if you're an average defender for 88 minutes of the game but in the other 2 minutes of that your mistakes lose the game for your team, then you're a bad defender. Davidson Sanchez is a bad defender. It's not the same as forward players, who can be awful for vast swathes of the game and their good spots will overshadow the overall performance. Which to be honest is what Son has done for the best part of the last year and a half. Davidson's positioning is horrible, his passing is woeful and tackling is alright at best. It's absolutely clear though that he cannot concentrate for 90 minutes, the same as Foyth, although thankfully we didn't spunk £42 million on him.


Sometimes you miss on a transfer and it's time to cut loose and admit the mistake. Whatever we can get from him at this point would be a bonus, he is an absolute bust, plain and simple. Get rid.

4. Making bench players into regular starters because our recruitment policy is a disgrace

I know I said that I wasn't going to get into anything outside the players, so this short section will focus solely on the players and less on how we got to this point.

Firstly a brief point, we should cancel Gedson's loan in the summer. I can't see what he adds to our team and he should be allowed to develop somewhere else. I don't rate him at all and it's clear if he's not starting over what we've got now, then Mourinho doesn't either.

Moura and Lamela always look dangerous coming off the bench but it's blindingly obvious that they shouldn't be starting in the Premier League. They are superb options to have when you want to change a game but they just aren't very good when they start. Sissoko comes into this catagory as well, although he should only be coming on to help us see out games. One of Lamela or Moura starting is alright as long as we're playing with 4 forwards, but in the current 4-3-3 that Jose is persisting with neither of these two can be allowed to start, plain and simple.

Ben Davies is the next player I'm coming for. He's a bench player, a great option to have in rotation with a better starter. But he is the starter. He gets beaten regularly and has avoided having his own section of this diatribe because he's nowhere near as bad as the players above. Even still, he is totally inept going forward and cannot maneuver a positive ball to save his life. He is by no means an elite defender either, he gets caught out far to often for a left back with no attacking ability and average passing technique.

Here's the killer though:

We didn't replace Dembele, we didn't replace Wanyama, we didn't replace Llorente, we didn't replace Rose, and we failed at replacing Walker. We're about to fail to replace Jan too.


5. VAR isn't fit for purpose, this isn't even the players but more a general point

The penalty decision today up against Dier's from the United game makes me sick. We've been shafted this entire year, I honestly don't know what more to say. 8 months on from the Newcastle game and I still don't know how that wasn't a penalty either. There's so many at this point I wouldn't even know where to start. Interestingly though, I can only think of a couple which have gone the other way - funny that. I don't know how a league worth billions can be managed by such horrific equipment and BTech referees. Why can't we bring people from abroad in to oversee our games if the current crop isn't good enough, which they clearly aren't. It's a total disgrace.

6. Son and Kane would have every right to want to jump ship, I honestly wouldn't blame them at this point

Seriously can anyone disagree with me at this point? I hate to say it, but honestly, we're laughing stock now. Why would they stay?

I truly believe we're bad enough that we could have got relegated this year if it wasn't for some alright form in short spells. I don't think anyone can argue we've ever looked much better than that. It really pains me to see our Spurs like this, we've fallen so far in such a short period of time. Stop playing Winks and Sissoko and that's a start, the rest can come with time. Sort it out.

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