Why Spurs Need To Go Back To Basics

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After reflecting back on what’s happened so far, with many suggestions being floated around about people being sacked and the club restructuring itself, but after a lot of thought, I believe the way we can get back on track is this, it’s time to back to our roots.

No more Director of Football having the final rule on transfer signings and let the manager buy the players that he wants to bring into the team. Daniel Levy has tried to adopt the DOF structure throughout his 13 years as Chairman, he first brought in Frank Arnesen who was a dismal failure and left to go to Chelsea, he tried Damien Comolli who in my view, despite finding some great talents, Bale/Modric/Berbatov, was not a great success and now Franco Baldini’s attempt has been nothing short of shambolic.

People say Directors of Football can work because they’ll discuss with managers who they want and what their options are. But with a strong and powerful manager there shouldn’t be any discussions, it should be a case of the manager makes the decisions and the manager demands and acts upon them because he is the one who lives and dies by it. It’s time to ditch the system and let it be.

In terms of back to basics on the pitch, no more inverted wingers. That is playing your left footed winger on the right and right footed on the left. Can it work? Yes. Does it work for Spurs? No. I am bored to death of seeing Andros Townsend cutting in all the time only to find his path blocked with a line of players getting back and forcing him to run across the length of the pitch and then playing a sideways pass. All right backs in the PL now know to block the outside and he will run into nowhere, you see either Lamela/Chadli/Eriksen having similar problems on the left. If they’re out on the wings trying to cut inside, it’s very easy for the opposition to mark them out of the game.

Also using inverted wingers has another side-effect, it negates the impact of our strikers and their goalscoring. So many times in the last 2 years we’ve seen our Centre-Forwards stride into the box but there be no ball there to receive them. Our strikers have been left isolated and when they do receive the ball they’re always too deep to do anything effective. This leads me to my final point, we need players willing to fight for the cause and offload the ones who don’t have the stomach for it.

Too many of our players are going through the motions and will simply turn up to a game believing they just have to do the bare minimum to win matches and it is repeatedly costing us dearly. Aside from Hugo Lloris, Ryan Mason, Harry Kane none of the current squad are willing to take any form of responsibility or leadership. Pochettino needs to clear out the mercenaries in out dressing room and bring in and bring through young hungry players who will fight for the cause.