Schrödinger's cockerel
Merry belated Christmas. Hopefully Santa left you something decent under the tree. Preferable alcohol.
So, games I’ve not blogged about since the last article was published? There’s been a few.
Bayern Munich 3 Tottenham 1 (Champions League)
Wolves 1 Tottenham 2 (Prem)
Tottenham 0 Chelsea 2 (Prem)
Tottenham 2 Brighton 1 (Prem)
Not exactly a consistent run of results and performances. It’s like opening a bag of Revels and every chocolate coated confectionery you pull out is either coffee or orange creme. All a bit meh, usually the dregs you leave at the bottom of the packet.
I’m not writing down my reactions post-match day result mainly because I’ve been extremely busy out in the real world away from the matrix of the internet. That, and if I’m honest, my creativity isn’t free flowing currently. Can’t force it if the endeavour is lacking. Much like Tottenham. I’m attempting shortcuts, playing the long ball. However, I’m always looking to finish with a touch of class. Quality over quantity, although Spurs need a bit of both in equal measures.
So with 2019 heading towards its finale, and Norwich up next, how we all doing? How we feeling? Toby signing a new contract was a nice surprise. Although I don’t buy his joyful ‘this is what I wanted all along’ soundbite. Jan next? No way can I question mark Eriksen with the same query.
If I delve into the matrix, and social media, it seems supporters are already channelling their agendas and manifestos on where they stand with Mourinho and certain players. The usual stuff, distrusting Jose and his reinvention. Misinterpreting soundbites as evidence for more sinister old skool politics (apparently he’s targeted Ndombele as the player he will ostracise). Winks isn’t good enough whereas others care to nod towards the imbalance of playing him alongside Sissoko. Jose himself has been criticised for setting up the team with a defensive mindset (at home) from the off. It’s interesting that those critical of Mauricio are carefully sidestepping the Special One’s replications of old complaints under the previous manager.
The reality, whether you’re in the stands or on Twitter is that, it’s early days. And any suggestion that Jose hasn’t changed or is out of touch or that the squad is lacking in key areas and needs a fresh philosophy - is all true and at the same time, isn’t. This is our Schrödinger's ca…cockerel. Until the box is opened, we won’t know if Spurs are alive or dead. We’re simply both as of right now. A discomfort of good and bad. Old problems and new problems. No certifiable ethos or style or identity. A mix of what Poch left behind and what Jose wants for the future. I don’t blog much right now because the source material isn’t rich with ample evidence either way. It’s also barely exciting. Even if we have improved on the last 11+ months we had with our cuddly Argentine. Anything moderately better would appear to be monumentally better even if it remains far from perfect and very far from peak Poch Tottenham (which was bar set so high, even in failure there is an echo of…er…you know).
Poch at his best gave us pulsating football. A spirit of togetherness and aggressive, swarming and often brilliant counter attacking football. It’s not a trademark of Jose and even if he claims we’ll play like this, I doubt we’ll hit the same heavenly highs of swashbuckle. Right now, we have to stop conceding goals from mistakes and poor zonal positioning. Our gaffer has to work out the midfield because that’s twice (Brighton and the Chelsea debacle) that we’ve been congested and overrun in the middle. Pinging cross field balls or (/sadface) long balls almost makes our central persona redundant. It was illustrated perfectly with the Brighton game of two halves. Talking of which…
Dele invading space in and around the pen area is prime Dele. We need this as a default setting. Lo Celso changed our midfield dynamic when he was subbed on. Our movement had momentum. The same applies with the much maligned Eriksen. When you have ball players looking to create with the ball at feet, then this allows for that missing expression and expansiveness we lacked desperately in the first half.
The subs changed the game, Jose corrected his error (?) something that we suffered beyond repair with the starting eleven against Chelsea (a game we lost before it kicked off). At least in the Brighton game we had more of a positive reaction. Lucas energy, Kane's work ethic and another high level Sanchez performance were my main highlights. That Identity tho, still remains in stasis. We’re having to dig deep and rediscover our tempo and that’s why patience is key. We have no choice. The new manager bounce is done and dusted and the real graft has started. Perhaps expecting Jose to get ‘one last push’ out of this squad is beyond him or anyone else. We’ll have to wait and see. Perhaps not expect anything other than the desire to better ourselves and retain that upper echelon competitiveness.
Yes, it's an improvement on the degrading performances in the last days of Poch, as cited already. Spurs need to reclaim their personality. We need a reboot and switching Spurs on and off isn't going to work. Need to defrag the hard drive and reinstall the software. Perhaps upgrade to an SSD.
Analogy too nerdy klaxon.
Anyways, it was great that we came back to win the game. Dele’s goal was wonderful. Kane deserved his fortuitous equaliser. I still feel that every game is a test because we don’t have that nucleus fine tuned. The Chelsea result was gutting. The lack of edge and blood and thunder and studs on ball was pretty inexcusable. That’s twice now where I get this feeling that Jose has attempted to get clever against Man Utd and the other lot and he failed massively. I’m hoping it’s third time lucky by the time we face the other lot (from down the road).
Jose talking up Lamela wanting to sacrifice himself (what with lack of training) and then talking in cryptic tongue over Ndombele is where the conspiracy theories are lurking. We can all read too much into what a manager states at a press conference. The proof is in the pudding.
The Wolves result was a great smash and grab. The Bayern result was expected. I’m just numb to all of this. VAR is also killing the vibe. Here’s the thing. It’s a thing we’ve all discussed at some point. Football at its most purest is that moment your team scores a goal and you absolutely lose your sh*t. Limbs. Scenes. Physical and mental carnage and one of the only times you willingly kiss strangers on the face (aside from peak MDMA highs in Ibiza). League position, ambitions, none of it matters in that moment. It’s a release of an emotion that goes beyond love or relief or escapism or tribalism. It’s all of those things and more.
To hold back because officials need to take another look and overturn decisions based on pixels is going to be the death of this game. If you take the raw reactionary emotion from football there is nothing left to enjoy. Even players will hold back celebrations in time. Just to wait and see if the decision is favourable.
Then there’s the stuff like Son being sent off for petulance but the disguised flying arm-punch to his side is ignored. Winks is yellow carded but no VAR to determine if he even touched the player. When is something warranted to be looked at? Isn’t everything looked at? I honestly couldn’t tell you because it’s such a mess. Add to it the ambiguous letter of the law rules and you’re basically lost in space. The space between the defenders toe nail and the attackers armpit.
Obviously not every goal is in dispute and equally so, we all enjoy VAR when it’s in our favour. But football is about mistakes. On the pitch you take advantage of them to beat the opposition. It’s a game of inches and margins. We all came to accept the mistakes officials on the pitch (without technology) made. As painful as they were to accept. This is another part of the match day experience that is in stasis too. Hopefully when this particular box is eventually opened, the cat inside ain’t dead.