Spurs will win something this season. All aboard the Angewagon.

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chef

chef

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Its happening.

Great, settled defence. Mous necessity.

Hojbjerg was/will be arguably the signing of the season, he was the missing link in the mid they needed. He makes it all tick.

Arguably the best front 3 in the world. What more to say.

Liverpool being decimated with injury have brought them back to the pack and the league is there for the taking.

They are in the best possible hands in José, he is doing something special this season.
 
chef said:
They are in the best possible hands in José, he is doing something special this season.
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Obviously its too early to call but I do agree that it feels like he's building something special. You can feel that the players are fully buying in to what he's doing there and I haven't seen that happen for one of Jose's sides in a very long time.
 

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Buckleys Jocks said:
Obviously its too early to call but I do agree that it feels like he's building something special. You can feel that the players are fully buying in to what he's doing there and I haven't seen that happen for one of Jose's sides in a very long time.
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Yeah i am going early but you can just see the whole club is buying into what José is selling. And when that happens special things follow.
 
A year and a day since his appointment he beats Pep to take us top.

Don’t think anyone saw this coming, and for the reputation as a reckless transfer spender he’s got the team there with frugal purchases, none better than Hojbjerg for 2m net.
 
Looking at them more closely, they do have a few of the traits that define successful Mou sides:
- A reasonably prolific CF who can work well with the wingers/midfielders supporting him
- Wingers/inside forwards who complement their pace with at least one other trait - work rate (Chelsea, Inter Milan) or being prolific (Chelsea, Real Madrid)
- At least one midfielder who can use their vision, passing ability and/or dribbling to help break down a defence
- At least one hard-working midfielder who can compensate for the playmaker's relative laziness
- At least one full-back who can charge forward and contribute to the attack
- A quality shot-stopping goalkeeper
- Good attacking/midfield options off the bench
- Mou being in his second season

Mou has also wisely not shoehorned Bale into the side, which probably would have hurt Tottenham given Bale's decline. Like Art Vandelay_ I've also been surprised that Mou has been able to assemble a competitive squad with little money - he hasn't really done that since his Porto days.

However, there are still some issues that make me doubt that they can go the whole distance:
- Their defensive leader, Alderweireld is out for a while, and his replacements are either unproven (Rodon) or not really good enough for the standard required to win a title (Sanchez). Dier also doesn't have Alderweireld's ability to marshal the defence
- Lack of an anchor-man who can shield their back four (IMO none of Sissoko, Hohjberg or Lo Celso qualify) - this could lead to their defence being exposed should the opposition attackers be able to get behind their midfield
- Possibility of the Europa League affecting their PL form
- Overreliance on a CF who, while world-class, has had his share of injury problems over the past 2 seasons
- Their most creative player (N'Dombele) has also struggled with injury while at Tottenham
- Lack of a winning mentality historically

I would also say that the best Mou sides have been more tactically versatile in terms of their ability to switch formations, but Chelsea 2014/15 were somewhat rigid tactically and still won the title, so this doesn't necessarily stop Tottenham from doing so. They will certainly be competitive at the very least.
 
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chef said:
If Pool can win the league no reason Spurs cant either.
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Liverpool were most certainly a better side than Tottenham are, and didn't have to put up with the EL, but to be fair, with Liverpool losing VVD and Man City not being as creative as they were last year and having to manage their best finisher's fitness, the competition isn't quite as steep.

Chelsea have improved considerably since last season, but I'm not comfortable proclaiming us PL favourites. Yet. We're starting to look formidable, though.
 
DaRick said:
However, there are still some issues that make me doubt that they can go the whole distance:
- Their defensive leader, Alderweireld is out for a while, and his replacements are either unproven (Rodon) or not really good enough for the standard required to win a title (Sanchez). Dier also doesn't have Alderweireld's ability to marshal the defence
- Lack of an anchor-man who can shield their back four (IMO none of Sissoko, Hohjberg or Lo Celso qualify) - this could lead to their defence being exposed should the opposition attackers be able to get behind their midfield
- Possibility of the Europa League affecting their PL form
- Overreliance on a CF who, while world-class, has had his share of injury problems over the past 2 seasons
- Their most creative player (N'Dombele) has also struggled with injury while at Tottenham
- Lack of a winning mentality historically
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I think you are underselling a fair few points with these
(i) Dier has been a rock next to Toby all season. No reason we can't pair he up with someone and tell them defend first, forget about offense.
(ii) Our anchorman Holjberg has been arguarbly the recruit of the season in AFL parlance terms. Absolutely incredible bit of business to off load a kid (Kyle Walker - Peters) and 3m pounds for PEM. Would be in most team of the seasons so far.
(iii) I think with the depth of our squad this season, the fatigue factor won't be as prevelant. We genuinely have two guys who can play PL week in, week out this season. In years gone by we have often relied upon the top 15 nd thats it.
(iv) Kane is playing better than ever but the depth in the front man position is the best I have seen in my 10 years following them. Vinicius Jnr has something, we could fill Bale in, Sonny in at a pinch.
(v) Whilst N'Dombele has struggled (agreed) when fit he adds a complete componenet to the side. I don't think it is as much about fitness more so tactics and running patters that is holding him back.

(vi) In regards to the winning mentality, we all know how good a motivator Jose is. One of the best man managers in the world. As a collective, it is about the direction we are going in, not as much about individual guys being "winners".
 
RPCB said:
This will turn out to be the greatest jinx ever.
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Funny we are playing Chelsea next

We look good so far but it 9 weeks in. A couple of things i think is advantageous for us this season is greater squad depth (although missing Alderweireld for a few weeks could be costly) and i don't think the game plan is that physically taxing unlike the teams that play i high press which could be important due to the condensed season
 
Loonerty said:
Regardless of whether they win the league or not, Kane so far is the undisputed frontrunner for player of the season. Unreal at the moment.
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Must be close to best player in Europe on current form this season. I'm guessing Lewandowski would be the only one ahead
 
Yoda_ said:
I think you are underselling a fair few points with these
(i) Dier has been a rock next to Toby all season. No reason we can't pair he up with someone and tell them defend first, forget about offense.
(ii) Our anchorman Holjberg has been arguarbly the recruit of the season in AFL parlance terms. Absolutely incredible bit of business to off load a kid (Kyle Walker - Peters) and 3m pounds for PEM. Would be in most team of the seasons so far.
(iii) I think with the depth of our squad this season, the fatigue factor won't be as prevelant. We genuinely have two guys who can play PL week in, week out this season. In years gone by we have often relied upon the top 15 nd thats it.
(iv) Kane is playing better than ever but the depth in the front man position is the best I have seen in my 10 years following them. Vinicius Jnr has something, we could fill Bale in, Sonny in at a pinch.
(v) Whilst N'Dombele has struggled (agreed) when fit he adds a complete componenet to the side. I don't think it is as much about fitness more so tactics and running patters that is holding him back.

(vi) In regards to the winning mentality, we all know how good a motivator Jose is. One of the best man managers in the world. As a collective, it is about the direction we are going in, not as much about individual guys being "winners".
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1) Dier has been pretty good this season, but Alderweireld is still your best CB and your biggest 'leader' on the pitch. Losing him is still a blow, much like it would be for us if Thiago Silva went down for a while.

2) Hojbjerg has been excellent, no question - but he's not an anchor man. Many of the best Mou teams do have an anchor man covering the defence and keeping things ticking over (hell, even Chelsea 2014/15 had Matic).

3) OK, you follow them more than I do so I'll defer to your judgement.

4) I'm not questioning that they have depth in midfield/attack (defence is a little dodgy though), but Kane is one of the world's best forwards. Tottenham would likely manage OK without him for a little while, but OK won't win you a title.

5) See #3.

6) Yes, Mou is a proven winner. However, as Arsenal would tell you, if you go some time without trophies it starts to become a real mental block. It took Arsenal 10 years to get over it, and even then only somewhat (only winning the FA Cup).
 
DaRick said:
However, there are still some issues that make me doubt that they can go the whole distance:
- Their defensive leader, Alderweireld is out for a while, and his replacements are either unproven (Rodon) or not really good enough for the standard required to win a title (Sanchez). Dier also doesn't have Alderweireld's ability to marshal the defence
- Lack of an anchor-man who can shield their back four (IMO none of Sissoko, Hohjberg or Lo Celso qualify) - this could lead to their defence being exposed should the opposition attackers be able to get behind their midfield
- Possibility of the Europa League affecting their PL form
- Overreliance on a CF who, while world-class, has had his share of injury problems over the past 2 seasons
- Their most creative player (N'Dombele) has also struggled with injury while at Tottenham
- Lack of a winning mentality historically
Click to expand...
Points 1 & 4 are the biggest concerns.

And we find out just how big of a concern #1 is over the next period with Toby out. Dier has been fantastic but needs to be next to a leader at this stage, still only 12 months or less into being converted back into a CB. Sanchez is too error prone and his panic rubs off onto Dier. Young Rodon who knows how he will go stepping up from the Championship but I'd rather see him given a crack than Sanchez. We have only been defensively great since the Toby-Dier combination came in about a month ago.

Point #4 we've somewhat alleviated in terms of sharing the goals scored in the squad. But watching Kane for 90 mins now you just see how much else he does. Tracking back none of Bale, Viniscius or Son do as well as he does. Long range passing is as good as I've seen from any Spurs player since Hoddle, none can compare. And his goal scoring aura sees him draw CBs out into positions they shouldn't go to (see yesterday's goal to Son). CBs will just let a Bale, Son, Lucas or Vinisicius get that ball but he draws them in with his movement which creates space for the wide men.

The rest not too concerned with. Rotate through the EL and get through the group. Hojberg whilst not an out and out shield he and Sissoko do a lot of donkey work together. Ndombele and Lo Celso do have injury records that aren't great, but I'd argue Kane is our most creative player. The load is shared pretty well.

Lack of winning mentality is an interesting one. When Liverpool won the CL, did their squad have a manager who'd won it and won the PL? Did they have a world cup winning captain? Starting GK from PL title winning sides? One if it's star players who has shone in multiple CL and cup finals? You've got to create that mentality as a group but having the likes of Lloris, Hart, Bale & Mourinho in the group has got to help.
 
While this is the deepest Spurs squad I’ve seen over my 12 years as a supporter, they’re far more vulnerable to injuries than the other top sides.

Kane going down and it’s all over, I’d argue the injury to Alderweild is a very big deal as well considering his lack of replacements.

It’s certainly an exciting time to be a Spurs fan, particularly how this squad was built and in the face of countless opposition fans reminding me in the past that previous iterations of the side were the best we’d see.


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