How much more can Lloris take?
You have to wonder how much Hugo Lloris can take. At the moment he is a one man team, first there was Bale, now Lloris, except Lloris is stopping goals instead of scoring them.
Last season the French stopper was superb and should have won the Player of the Year award. However Christian Eriksen performed for two months and everyone forgot about the rest of the season when he did virtually nothing. This season it's more of the same for Hugo.
He had a right to expect a better performance against Palace, just as we fans do. After an encouraging high-tempo display against Everton there were signs we had started to go in the right direction at last. The game against Palace proved to be yet another false dawn, this Tottenham squad is becoming so untrustworthy it's worrying.
Crystal Palace for the second season running made us look like relegation candidates. For those who don't remember, last season at White Hart Lane Palace wiped the floor with us in the first half and should have had the game sewn up before half-time. Their finishing was woeful though, none more so than possibly the worse penalty miss the Premier League have ever seen. This time around we didn't trouble their keeper, his one save, a Christian Eriksen free-kick he punched away, he could easily have simply caught.
This game should have been our fifth home defeat of the season as we continue with the same formation that doesn't work with these players. The failure to bring on Aaron Lennon earlier, indeed the failure to start with him in place of a woeful Erik Lamela, was wrong. I can only assume Pochettino is trying to coax something out of his fellow Argentinian to raise his price tag a little. At the moment he and Soldado are not worth £10 million each let alone the £52 million it cost to buy them. There is no way the £4 million add-ons in the Lamela deal will be activated.
Hugo Lloris sits behind this mess and is having to clear it up. Does he view that as good that he is being employed to display his talents, or does it make him think he has no chance of playing UEFA Champions League football and little chance of European football next season? Only Hugo and his agent can answer that one.
We know he is happy at Tottenham generally, he likes the club and is settled in London but if Real Madrid came calling, as is the suggestion, then he would undoubtedly go, and quite rightly. You don't pass up an opportunity to play for Real Madrid.
Manchester United would be a pull too, one of the words top managers, deep pockets to buy whoever they want, there will surely be title challenges and UEFA Champions League football again. We can't compete with those two but the club had the foresight to buy a replacement just in case.
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Once again after the Palace game we heard Hugo tell us we are not finding solutions, that is becoming a little too regularly now though.
Before the| Everton game he spoke to the media saying Tottenham need to find solutions but game after game nothing is found. A solution is hardly waiting until a man gets sent off so we have a chance against 10 men.
We can't forever keep saying we need to find solutions, we have to find them but that won't happen with this squad though. Fans need to see progress, need to have hope. The Everton game provided some, the Palace game took it away again.
Lloris can't wait forever for UEFA Champions League football and so we are probably seeing his last season in a Spurs shirt, the question is whether that season will end in January or May.
Last season the French stopper was superb and should have won the Player of the Year award. However Christian Eriksen performed for two months and everyone forgot about the rest of the season when he did virtually nothing. This season it's more of the same for Hugo.
He had a right to expect a better performance against Palace, just as we fans do. After an encouraging high-tempo display against Everton there were signs we had started to go in the right direction at last. The game against Palace proved to be yet another false dawn, this Tottenham squad is becoming so untrustworthy it's worrying.
Crystal Palace for the second season running made us look like relegation candidates. For those who don't remember, last season at White Hart Lane Palace wiped the floor with us in the first half and should have had the game sewn up before half-time. Their finishing was woeful though, none more so than possibly the worse penalty miss the Premier League have ever seen. This time around we didn't trouble their keeper, his one save, a Christian Eriksen free-kick he punched away, he could easily have simply caught.
This game should have been our fifth home defeat of the season as we continue with the same formation that doesn't work with these players. The failure to bring on Aaron Lennon earlier, indeed the failure to start with him in place of a woeful Erik Lamela, was wrong. I can only assume Pochettino is trying to coax something out of his fellow Argentinian to raise his price tag a little. At the moment he and Soldado are not worth £10 million each let alone the £52 million it cost to buy them. There is no way the £4 million add-ons in the Lamela deal will be activated.
Hugo Lloris sits behind this mess and is having to clear it up. Does he view that as good that he is being employed to display his talents, or does it make him think he has no chance of playing UEFA Champions League football and little chance of European football next season? Only Hugo and his agent can answer that one.
We know he is happy at Tottenham generally, he likes the club and is settled in London but if Real Madrid came calling, as is the suggestion, then he would undoubtedly go, and quite rightly. You don't pass up an opportunity to play for Real Madrid.
Manchester United would be a pull too, one of the words top managers, deep pockets to buy whoever they want, there will surely be title challenges and UEFA Champions League football again. We can't compete with those two but the club had the foresight to buy a replacement just in case.
Recent Articles:
January an important window for Pochettino
Moreno displays the right mentality
Back to the bad Tottenham once again
We can be confident at last
Do the Jackson Martinez stories make sense?
Impatience works to our advantage
Eriksen could learn from Chelsea
Once again after the Palace game we heard Hugo tell us we are not finding solutions, that is becoming a little too regularly now though.
"It was a tough game. Palace were strong but we didn't find solutions. We didn't find space and were slow with the ball. We have to keep going as there are a lot of games coming up."
Before the| Everton game he spoke to the media saying Tottenham need to find solutions but game after game nothing is found. A solution is hardly waiting until a man gets sent off so we have a chance against 10 men.
“If we continue to make mistakes and get punished we know the fans will get restless and we will get what we deserve.
“All the teams who come here know how to play against us. They all stay behind the ball and play on the counter-attack. We have a style that is a lot of short passing and sometimes that can bring opportunities for our opponents. We need to resolve this problem and be more firm on the pitch and try to find our confidence again.
“You can lose games but you need to show on the pitch from the beginning to the end that you have no regrets. In the last few games at home we have left the pitch with a lot of regrets.
“We don’t even think about the top four at the moment. We have to find solutions first collectively for the team. We need to improve as a team first and then in the second part of the season we will get better.
“We need to have a humility and keep believing in ourselves and the club. It is our responsibility. It is frustrating for everyone. We are trying to find a solution and it’s the same for all the players and the coach. There are a lot of expectations here and we all have ambition. But we don’t have the time. We need results as quickly as possible.”
We can't forever keep saying we need to find solutions, we have to find them but that won't happen with this squad though. Fans need to see progress, need to have hope. The Everton game provided some, the Palace game took it away again.
Lloris can't wait forever for UEFA Champions League football and so we are probably seeing his last season in a Spurs shirt, the question is whether that season will end in January or May.
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