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March 2013
The hidings of March
At the end of my February review, I wrote the following:- "We do face a difficult and decisive March with a home game against Arsenal, away matches at Chelsea and Liverpool, and a home and away Europa League game against Benfica. It's the sort of menu that any football fan would relish. Let's just hope can have positive reflections at the end of the month!"
Well, unfortunately, as we all know, there are very few positive reflections to be had regarding our performances this month. Maybe we can share happy memories of the last 15 minutes of the away match agains Benfica, when a weakened Spurs side so nearly forced extra time in the Europa League "Round of 16" after we had capitulated in the home leg. The scoreline was only a 3-1 deficit, but it felt like one of the "Hidings of March".
The only other positive that comes to mind is Gylfi Sigurdsson's last minute winner at home to Southampton, prompted of course by man of the match Christian Eriksen. Eriksen got an 8.2 man of the match accolade for his two goals and overall achievement in that game, and also managed to win the "Player of the Month" vote. Mind you, that was not difficult in a month where virtually all our players suffered a deterioration in their accumulating grades, which you can see in the chart below.
In that sense, Eriksen was perhaps lucky to miss the Chelsea game. He also missed the first game in March against Cardiff. Eriksen was one of only two players to improve their overall grades in March. The other (and it was by the smallest of margins) was Nacer Chadli, who scored both goals in Lisbon, and also got man of the match for that game.
So, we had to play three top four teams in March, and lost to all of them, with Chelsea and Liverpool giving us hidings. As reflected in the match reports and surveys, on both occasions, the manner of defeat and the serial gifting of goals was nothing less than an abomination. All four against Chelsea resulted from our mistakes, and the first two at Anfield were really quite amateurish, and not befitting a Premier League team, never mind one which aspires to be a top four side.
I did write in my last Premier League Review about our horrific record this season against top four sides (Scored 2, conceded 27), but it has also been a dim season so far in our London Derby matches, bearing in mind we have lost at home and away against Arsenal; away to Chelsea and at home to West Ham - twice if you want to include the League Cup exit.
Daniel Levy can hype up the season's performance all he likes in his recent financial statement (operating profit made last year), but he cannot hide the footballing facts to fans who have rarely been entertained (by either manager) this season, as the team and the season fade into the sunset.
It was Mr Levy who entrusted more than half the season to Tim Sherwood, following the sudden departure of Andre Villas-Boas. There were some early signs of promise with three goals being scored in entertaining games against Southampton and Stoke in December, but the fans won't be hoodwinked, and are comprehensively judging Sherwood in a negative way at Spurs Odyssey. You can see on this page the comparisons of coaching performances of AVB and Sherwood, and I'm afraid it just keeps getting worse and worse for Tim.
The spursometer for March is the worst since before the start of the 2011-12 season, and I suspect since before the Harry Redknapp reign began.
AVB had 26 games, and Tim has now had 18 in charge. He is considered categorically worse that AVB in all three chosen areas of coaching attributes - team selection, tactics and substitutions. You can see for yourself, there is quite a margin.
In defence of Tim, he has suffered very bad luck with injuries. Let's discount Lamela, who has yet to appear in 2014, but how much have we missed the mobility of Vlad Chiriches at the back? Chiriches has not played since 29th January. He had a run-out with the under 21s last week, and will be a welcome returnee, hopefully next week against Sunderland. Adebayor has missed the last three games, and leaves a big hole. Kyle Walker has his weakenesses defensively, but he makes up for most of that with his sheer pace, commitment and ability to recover lost ground. Kyle has missed the last four games, and was carrying an injury before his absence.
Kaboul has missed most of the season, but on his present form, I think I'd rather do without him. Jan Vertonghen has been "outed" as wanting out. Sandro missed 14 of tim's games, but when he returned became a booking magnet. He was mysteriously left unused on the bench at Anfield, and our other Brazilian star, Paulinho, was absent altogether, although it has been suggested to me he was injured too.
I usually try not to sit in judgement, but I really cannot wait for the season to end. I fear no qualification for Europe, and further disappointing results in our last six games. With season ticket renewal coming, we need some encouragement in those remaining games with some entertaining football!
Don't forget to check out the players' current figures re. appearances, cards, goals scored and accumulated ratings to date below.
...if you want to read reports of the matches played during this season, then links are on the Spurs Odyssey Fixtures/Reports page here. By working your way back through the previous month's figures, you can review the performances over 13 years!
