Last November, Tottenham went to Manchester City having taken 20 points from 11 games. They were seventh in the table, and they had lost to Arsenal, West Ham and Newcastle, but there had been enough promise in their play to suggest a serious challenge for the top four was a possibility. They were 1-0 down inside a minute, 3-0 down by half time, and ended up losing 6-0. For the first time, questions were raised about their character and Andre Villas-Boas status with the team was called into question.
Just under a year on, it feels not much has changed.
Spurs were just as spineless in losing 5-1 at home to City under Tim Sherwood in January, albeit after having Danny Rose sent off. They go into Saturday’s game after a start to the season that has felt very familiar: some promise, some major setbacks, and a general sense of disgruntlement around the camp.
Seven league games in, of course, is not time enough to make judgements about Mauricio Pochettino’s management.
“This is another season, another philosophy, another game,” he said, and he is right.
There were signs, in the draw at Arsenal and the 1-0 home win over Southampton, that his players are beginning to adapt to his way of doing things, which isn’t that different from Villas-Boas’s. Both prefer a high line and pressure on the ball, although the Arsenal game showed that Pochettino’s Spurs can drop off if need be.
Read more: Spurs’ Younes Kaboul thriving under Pochettino: ‘Helping me read the game’
The problem is that a high line without pressure on the ball can be disastrous, and is particularly susceptible to the neat through-balls of David Silva and the pace of the likes of Sergio Aguero and Jesus Navas.
And that is where the issue about character comes in.
Tottenham failed to score away against any of the top five last season, picking up a solitary point with a 0-0 draw at Everton. They have won only one of their past 14 games away to teams who went on to finish above them in the league, the exception being the 3-2 victory over a faltering Manchester United.
That is a record that cannot be explained by ability. It is in part a tactical issue and Spurs have probably rendered themselves vulnerable by playing such a high line.
But, more fundamentally it is down to personality.
Tactics, particularly those with such an in-built risk as the high line, work only if players are diligent in performing their assigned roles. Too often last season there was sloppiness, whether in terms of individual errors, as cost Spurs at Chelsea, or a lack of application, as in the heavy defeats at Liverpool or City and Chelsea, after the first goal had gone in.
The rumours of training-ground discontent are another manifestation of the same phenomenon: a poisonous culture that has undermined successive managers and that prevents Spurs ever reaching their potential.
If Pochettino really is turning them round, Saturday would be a good place to start showing it.
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