A disappointing North London Derby yet again from Tottenham as Gabriel scored the only goal of the game in the second half. It was another performance where Spurs were dominant and confident until reaching the final 3rd We had defended well and nullified arsenal’s attacking threats from open play but one lapse of concentration falling somewhere between Cristian Romero and Guglielmo Vicario made it too easy for Gabriel to score from the set piece. Tottenham got into threatening positions but were too wary to pull the trigger and take that final shot, and when we did there were too many tame efforts – such as Brennan Johnson’s shot which rolled straight to Raya. Solanke looked rusty, but that can be expected for someone who is only playing his second game in months against a full strength compact arsenal defence.
Seen some fans and fan accounts starting to turn on Ange Postecoglou. It is frustrating how we keep getting into shooting positions and passing the ball, trying to walk the ball in, but what do these fans want? Another reset? Another managerial change? When we’ve got lots of players Postecoglou wanted.
We tried a win now approach with Jose Mourinho and Antonio Conte, it didn’t work. We need that long, slow rebuild that Pochettino once talked about. These things take time.
Context is important. We were unlucky in both the Newcastle and Leicester games, both away from home. We created many openings, but couldn’t enough goals. Newcastle away we struggle usually anyway and it was our best performance there in years. A North London Derby also done, title chasing Arsenal narrowly beat us because of a set piece.
Some players lack of shooting or quality passing at the moment could be a confidence issue, being scared of losing the ball and making a mistake. So what does social media do instead of getting behind our players? Knock their confidence even more. You can criticise their performances to your mates at the pub but does it really need to go all the way to forcing players to turn off their comments section in an attempt to stop being abused. They’re human as well.
What do some fans think is going to happen if we slate Werner or Johnson all the time forcing Brennan to deactivate his account? Is that going to make him play better knowing the fans are not behind him and watching his every move? No, it’s not. It could make the confidence of certain players worse and then it really becomes a vicious circle. Get behind our team. They’re representing Tottenham Hotspur whether you like it or not.