Belong
I'm in one of those moods. Slightly detached and disinterested. I'm busy with work and too tired to play. I've only caught snippets of news so far this week from quickly dipping my feet into the muddy waters of social media. Got some musings to share, so will just throw them all at this blog and whatever mess I make you're free to clear it out of your cache.
He's got them dancing through hoops
Andre Villas-Boas and press conferences. Good solid pace, nothing overly spectacular but gets the job done with a touch of flair, much like his team. I'm not about to take more pot shots at Harry Redknapp and his more bubbly soundbitey tell the world everything style when sat in front of the media. For a time it was good to have someone the press liked, took the pressure off. Even though in the end it proved wholly detrimental and created a false bubble that burst with his departure.
What they did, what they said
"Away from football, as a person, he is a top guy, a really nice guy. After every session he will come into the changing room or treatment room and go to every player to see if you are OK. 'How do you feel? How's your legs?' General chit chat. He will do it with every player, every day," he explains. "Even when I was away with England he will send me a message sometimes – 'Good luck. How's the game?' Stuff like that. When you have got a manager like that you want to play for him and do well."
Reading between the lines and reading too much
Tom Huddlestone quotes tinged with ambiguity.
"We're
probably harder to beat and maybe not as open (under Villas-Boas). He's
come in and been very organised, the lads know what session we're going
to do before we go out to train.
A lot of it is on rigid team shape,
whereas under previous regimes the initiative has been given to the
players to express themselves. Under this manager it's more his ideas
and we stick to them.
There have been a couple of games recently
where we've needed to create more but I think that will come in time. It
is hard for the fans. They've watched some good football over the last
three or four years, maybe in a gung-ho style. But they've just got to
be patient."
You might immediately find yourself gravitating towards the 'expression' part of the above.
To sub or not to sub
Honest thoughts on the Defoe substitution?
The player was hardly involved in the game, whether he was isolated because of the lack of creativity and vision from midfield or his inability to drop deep and attempt to play others into forward positions to support him, the fact remains...he was hardly involved.
Echo
In its purest form as a Tottenham supporter we should value and treasure our traditions to play fanciful attractive football. Beautiful free flowing expressive football. This hasn't always led to success but the lack of backbone is something we accepted as a trait to our personality. In recent years a strong spine has meant that we've been able to complement the fluidity with bullish belief and have taken massive steps forward. Our expectations have risen. The pressure of wanting to be successful can be troublesome when the performance doesn't match the new founded ambition.
Because it's not right, it doesn't make it wrong
Tottenham 0 Wigan 1 (drafted on Saturday night)