The Leipzig game; has lady luck finally turned in our direction?

The Leipzig game; has lady luck finally turned in our direction?

By Don Scully

Sorry, I didn’t produce an article for the Burnley game, this was because I had to fly out to Germany the next day and was on my toes ever since.  I’ve only just got back; it wasn’t easy with all this virus around. Planes delayed or cancelled, it was a nightmare.

The  Burnley game was predictable, even though the second half we pulled our socks up. Including the Leipzig game, we haven’t won a game in six attempts now. And I can’t see us winning a game any day soon, as we’ve got a tough run-in. The only thing that will save us will be luck.

We’ve got United, the Spammers, Sheffield United, Everton, Bournemouth, the Arsewipes, Newcastle, Leicester and Palace to play. They will all be up for it. They are going to think “easy pickings”. Which will mean we will struggle to get a Europa League place, so forget about the Champions League.

Who do I blame? A couple of years ago we were above Liverpool (as the best team), they invested, we kept our same squad. They are now on the fresh hold of winning the Premier League; before that inauguration, they managed to pick up the Super Cup and Champions League Trophy. All under Klopp, we, on the other hand, have won bugger all and probably will be lucky to make midtable.

Mourinho inherited a dysfunctional team. We’ve got four of our leading players out, he had no chance. Some question his team selection, but he tried to make the best of a bad job.

When we were doing well, Levy failed to invest in the team; now we are going to struggle. On top of that, he has stated that if we fail to get into the top four, our transfer budget will be slashed. Can zero be cut even further back? OK, I am being a bit unfair here, a few tiddlers, here and there, to tickle the interests of the fans (but nothing more).

Watching Tottenham play, my thoughts go back to the days when we were shit, and I mean shit. We’ve got quality now, but so higgledy-piggledy. I understand that Levy has to pay off the stadium, but that stadium is producing concerts, World Champion boxing, American football, Executive venues etc. It has or will become a cash cow. So where will it go? Everything else is Dulux, apart from the team. The mentality of the old ways (investing little in the team) has been transported to the present. Levy seems to have bought special trousers, with even deeper pockets, at the same time, his arms have shrunk so far back that he can’t reach the purse strings.

So, no European football, unless a miracle comes at us like a train rushing towards Armageddon. I wonder who would be on that train?

I was talking to a supporter out in Germany, and he said, quite colourfully, that it “feels that his balls are permanently shrunk down to peanut size,” that is how he felt being a Spurs supporter. I had no answer to that. I just slapped him on the back, nodded and walked away. That impression is still in my mind. Maybe I should now go to a shrink and get my mind cleaned out. The funny thing was, that fellow had a mate with him, and his mate replied, straight-faced, it was all a load of “bollocks”. Where do they get them from? At least it took my mind of the result (temporarily).

Mourinho was once considered one of the Champions League's top managers - winning in 2004 with Porto and 2010 with Inter Milan. But he has now failed to win any of his eight Champions League knockout games since 2014. The statistics don’t make good reading. This was his heaviest ever Champions League aggregate defeat, and it is the first six-game winless run of his 935-game managerial career. He must be thinking, what possessed me to come to this club? I could have managed Leeds United, at least there were prospects of winning the Championship.

He rightly laments their injury list, with Steven Bergwijn joining Harry Kane, Son Heung-min and Moussa Sissoko out of action. But some say we should be doing better with what we’ve got? That is a hard one; there are no more pushovers in the Premier League. Just us.

A friend of mine is a Chelsea supporter (I know!), and he texted me with “What are you doing, you are making Arsenal look good?”

It was evident that Leipzig appeared hungrier, first to every ball, especially in the first half when the damage was done. Their two wing-backs had the beating of their opposite numbers, with Angelino, who looked ordinary in the first half of this season for Manchester City, causing Serge Aurier so many problems. In the centre, Timo Werner - who scored the only goal of the first leg three weeks ago - was having the time of his life up against Eric Dier.

We didn’t start well and Sabitzer's opener was against the run of play. Werner's shot was blocked, and then he squared the ball to the midfielder to blast home from outside the box. Lloris could not keep the ball out despite getting a touch.

We were lucky not to be further behind when Werner tapped home Angelino's cross - but the offside flag correctly went up.

But the game was over when Aurier failed to deal with a long ball. Angelino crossed for Sabitzer to head past buttered fingers Lloris, who again touched the ball but let it through.

It wasn’t over for Leipzig, oh, no, they continued to have chances, with Werner forcing a save and then shooting over the bar before Dier's attempted clearance from Patrik Schick almost went into the Spurs net.

We had three shots on goal but lo Celso, Alli and Fernandes' efforts all resulted in routine saves.

Things did not get as bad in the second half as they could have (thank god for that!), until (oh!) Forsberg popped up to lash home a loose ball seconds after coming off the bench. By then the Spurs supporters had enough, but then again, surely they must have known the writing was on the wall, and in big and bold lettering?

I just stood there, thinking, what happened to that marvellous team that kept us in the top four for four or five years? What happened to that fighting spirit?

Going back to Pochettino, did he see the writing on the wall, and that was why he had lost it in press conferences? He was so tied into a contract, that he thought, throw a few wobblies and Levy will say, “He has to go, what other shmuck is around and needs a desperate job?”

That is the negative. But suddenly things have changed dramatically, and hopefully in our favour. On March 15th, we were supposed to have faced United at home. I could only see disaster looming, then this world pandemic suddenly comes to our rescue. All football in England is cancelled and won’t resume until April 4^th (if all goes well). This would give us a three-week break, but more significantly, Son has started back in training. Along with Kane and Sissoko (also started training), it could mean that by the time football resumes we could have our three leading players back in the squad. A much-needed boost for Mourinho. I’ve always said that luck plays a significant roll in success.

Thank god for luck. And if that doesn’t go to plan, there is always next season (the story of our life!).

It has been a pleasure… just not on the field (lately).

Don Scully