Where's the passion?
For the second time in the last three games, Spurs Odyssey cannot name a "Spurs man of the match" for the performance at Loftus Road. The best I can offer, and this also occurred after the Norwich defeat, is three least worst performances. These were by PFA young Player of the Year Kyle Walker, lion-hearted Scott Parker, and the ever-skilful Rafael van der Vaart. All three scored just 5.2/10. I can't even call these grades acceptable.
Danny Rose was the only other player to even reach 5/10, and he only made a substitute appearance.
Club Captain Ledley King managed a third consecutive game, but he has scored below 5 in all three of those appearances. This is a sad record unprecedented in Ledley's honourable Spurs career.
Clearly the downturn in Spurs' results has led to a lot of depression amongst those taking part in our survey. I had several responses from people who did not have the heart to even bother this week. The overall trend in grades is not at all false though. In a season where between matches 10 and 29 we had reached a record high number of points, we now need to win our last four games to beat our previous best season total for the Premier League of 70 points. So, in that regard, manager Harry Redknapp is right. We do need to win our last four games.
It is only fair that I report some of the many comments that were made by contributors to this week's post-match survey, but I'll offer this one first - "Where's the passion?" You know, I am proud of our desire for clean and fair play, but in what should have been a passionate London Derby, I would expect the Spurs team to have got at least one yellow card. There was not one. In a total of 49 games so far this season, we have received 56 yellow cards. That's hardly more than one per game. It tells me that once again Spurs lack the right degree of grit, hardness and physical application. It's the sort of spirit we see every week by opponents, win, lose or draw.
Queens Park Rangers did see yellow. It was five times, including Adel Taarabt's second yellow for kicking the ball away. The first four were all for unfair challenges.
Once again, Spurs have shown they are a team that loses too many games to either relegation contenders, or newly promoted sides. There are three relegation threatened teams to come, so we had better harden up and sharpen up for the run-in.
Here are some of your comments:-
"I just despair! A season with so much promise has disintegrated. Don't these players talk about how let down the fans must feel following the disgraceful displays of the last 6 weeks or so?!
Humiliatingly, we're back to St. Totteringham's Day when it looked as if for the first time in 100 years we could at last give it a swerve
It also looked as if we could give Hansen 2 fingers but as he says "Tottenham will always let you down" .... and so it has proved."
"I have never been able to understand how a player game is influenced by negative results !!!! Those at the bottom fight as if their life depends on a positive result. why does that not apply to us ???? We needed the points just as much as QPR. Probably the ONLY team in the PL which does not fight for a reason. Have promised myself not to see Spurs again this season. They don't deserve my support."
"I feel the Redknapp era is fast coming to an end. I'm sure in the future we'll look back fondly on his 3 years in charge but at the moment his bumbling tactics are akin to using your dog's name to open a bank account, laughable but not laudable. We are in a dark place at the moment and with only 4 games remaining need some inspirational leadership."
"So disappointing. Is something happpening behind the scenes that we don't know about? Still, gotta love the shirt! COYS"
"Lack of creativity in front of goal. It's Ok to have possession but ultimately you must create chances and score goals. We're rarely doing so."
.... and specifically on manager Harry Redknapp:-
"He's run out of ideas."
"When the chips are down he has no tactical nous, pack him off to England asap" (Ed:- I wouldn't wish him upon England)
"Poor he's finished"
"The hour of judgement approaches...."
"Tactically I'm unsure why Sandro is preferred to Lennon against the lesser teams, and why Bale is given licence to roam. He should stick to the left in my opinion. Use midfield width rather than the full backs."
"Harry didn't have much left to pick from, but that is his fault"
.... and on referee Mark Clattenburg, who managed a score of 4.9/10 in his first game in charge of a Spurs game this season:-
"The free kick from which they scored was very dubious. Apparently it was for a handball by Sandro. TV replays showed that to be totally accidental."
"Shame common sense didn't prevail for handball against Sandro and Taarabt's red card. Other than that an ok game."
"Sub-standard performance from a sub-standard Referee. Oh for the likes of Jim Finney and Jack Taylor again."
"Not the ref's fault that we are so sh*t."
Thanks for all your comments. You can see the "Spursometer" here, and the full survey results are available here
Results 21-24.04.12
Arsenal 0-0 Chelsea
A. Villa 0-0 S'derland
Blackburn 2-0 Norwich
Bolton 1-1 Swansea
Fulham 2-1 Wigan
Newcastle 3-0 Stoke
QPR 1-0 Spurs
Man Utd 4-4 Everton
Liverpool 0-1 West Brom
Wolves 0-2 Man City
A. Villa 1-2 Bolton
Barclays Premier League
Pos Team P W D L F A GD Pts
1 Man Utd 35 26 5 4 86 32 54 83
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2 Man City 35 25 5 5 87 27 60 80
3 Arsenal 35 20 5 10 67 43 24 65
4 Newcastle 34 18 8 8 53 42 11 62
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5 Spurs 34 17 8 9 57 39 18 59
6 Chelsea 34 16 10 8 56 38 18 58
7 Everton 34 13 9 12 42 38 4 48
8 Liverpool 34 12 10 12 40 37 3 46
9 Fulham 34 12 10 12 45 44 1 46
10 West Brom 35 13 6 16 41 47 -6 45
11 S'derland 35 11 11 13 42 41 1 44
12 Swansea 35 11 10 14 39 45 -6 43
13 Norwich 35 11 10 14 47 60 -13 43
14 Stoke 34 11 9 14 32 48 -16 42
15 A. Villa 35 7 15 13 36 50 -14 36
16 QPR 35 9 7 19 38 56 -18 34
17 Wigan 35 8 10 17 34 60 -26 34
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18 Bolton 34 10 3 21 39 67 -28 33
19 Blackburn 35 8 7 20 47 73 -26 31
20 Wolves 35 5 8 22 34 75 -41 23R
