da spicy bet： If Spurs still had Champions League aspirations before the weekend, they were well and truly extinguished at Turf Moor on Sunday.
da blaze casino： They managed only a bore 0-0 draw at the home of Burnley, themselves fighting fiercely against the drop, and now their season’s only objective is trying to make sure of their place in next season’s Europa League. The also-rans, Spurs, Liverpool and Southampton are chasing two spots, depending on who wins the FA Cup of course.
But the draw on Sunday highlighted some severe problems that Spurs currently have, and that they’ll need to rectify over the final few games, and also over the course of the summer.
The good thing for Tottenham this weekend was the fact that both Southampton and Liverpool lost their games – so Spurs made ground on them. They will still fancy their chances of a European finish, but that’s hardly progress from last year.
The other bright spot of this season has obviously been the form of Harry Kane. 19 goals and 21 Premier League starts – 26 Premier League apps in all – this season says it all for someone just bursting on to the scene. But his burst onto the scene may be one of the reasons that Spurs have struggled to gain momentum this season.
On Sunday the Lilywhites were pretty dire, to be honest. They didn’t play fluidly, they never got to grips with the physicality and directness of Burnley, and they made the kinds of individual errors you only see from the large hungover gentleman playing centre back for the local Sunday league team. Certainly they did not look like a top Premier League team. One who feel they should be at home in the upper echelons of European football.
No, they stuttered on Sunday, and they’ve stuttered their way through the season. They’ve looked good at times. Really good. And then at times they’ve looked bad, flattering to deceive.
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A run of three Premier League wins in a row and 6 league games unbeaten in December coincided with the period when everyone started talking about Harry Kane. It also threw them into contention for the Capital One Cup.
But then the stutter came again. The good form faded – they just about made it into the final of the League Cup, needing a late goal to beat League One outfit Sheffield United, then lost in the final to Chelsea and haven’t been able to find wonderful form since. They haven’t been losing game after game, but they haven’t really gone on a winning run since December – and if you want to challenge the big boys, now is the time you have to put the run together. United, Arsenal and even Liverpool have been doing it. But Spurs haven’t.
In fact, even the wins they’ve managed haven’t been wholly convincing. They haven’t won by more than a one-goal margin since January when they beat West Brom 3-0 at the Hawthorns.
That’s harsh on Spurs, of course. It doesn’t always matter how you win, and even the late goals that Spurs seem to specialise in this season can be enough to convince – you can spin it as superior fitness, team spirit, fighting to the death.
But they’ve still managed wins by only the odd goal for months, and if it weren’t for Harry Kane, perhaps they wouldn’t be winning at all.
Tottenham aren’t exactly a one-man team. At least on paper they have some very good players, and their coach does seem to have created a young, fit team capable of playing good football. But relying on Kane alone to score goals isn’t a good thing for the club. Christian Eriksen has scored 9 league goals and Nacer Chadli 8, but Eriksen has managed only 2 since the turn of the year, and Chadli 3. Only 5 goals and 3 assists between the 2 most creative players in the side since January 1st is just not good enough for Spurs. Erik Lamela has one goal all season, and only one assist since New Year’s Day. It’s only Harry Kane who’s chipping in with any great regularity.
In fact, take away his goals since New Year’s Day, and Spurs would be 12 points worse off. Of course, this is simplistic, and someone else may have come up with the important goals (at least some of them), but it does show his importance to this team. Would Roberto Soldado have scored them? He’s managed a solitary league goal this season.
And so Kane was made captain at the weekend. The best player in a struggling team, perhaps given the dubious honor of being the captain of a sinking ship.
It was so promising for Spurs in December, and now all they have to point to in the way of success this season is defeat in a Capital One Cup final at the hands of London rivals Chelsea, and their new found hero – one of their own – Harry Kane.
Relying on captain Kane too much has scuppered the Spurs ship in their search for the Champions League. His team mates better start pulling their weight soon, though, or else it may be Pochettino for the chop before next season is out.
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