111 Take-Ons But ZERO Goals! Why Spurs Must Embrace "Stinky" Football

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0:34Jack:Thanks for the support, and now, on with the show. Before the season even kicks off, soccer fans are already making predictions. Who wins the league? Who qualifies for Europe? And who's lifting the trophy at season's end? On Calci, America's number one prediction market platform, you're trading against peers in a live market, meaning there's no house. And as the probability changes, you can buy in and out of your position. For a limited time, download the CalShe app and use code CUP26 to get$10 when you trade 10. K-A-L-S-H-I, CalShe. Trade the beautiful game. 18-plus only restrictions and eligibility requirements apply.

1:07Jack:Event contract trading involves risk and may not be suitable for all investors. Prices, values, and available markets may differ from those mentioned. For more information, see calshe.com slash regulatory. Nationwide is so much more than a great insurance company. They're one of America's largest financial services companies. Just like I'm so much more than quarterback Peyton Manning. I'm also Peyton Manning. Insurance and financial services together, it's a masterpiece. Peyton Manning does it again. For your insurance and financial needs, Nationwide is on your side. Nationwide Investment Services Corporation, Ember FINRA, Columbus, Ohio.

1:47Jack:Every game day, you show up for your team. Now, it's your time. Wegovi! Wegovi! Ask your prescriber about Wegovi, semaglutide injection 2.4 milligrams, a GLP-1. Call 1-833-4-Wegovi or visit Wegovi.com to view the medication guide and to learn more about Wegovi. Why wait? Wegovi!

2:38Jack:hello everybody welcome back to rule the roost podcast guess who's back back again baker's back tell a friend hello baker how you doing i don't know where we're going um i'm back How are you, as we don't score goals and as we don't win games, when you have guests on, because you messaged me yesterday and said, are you just going, man, you're O2, you're being a bit selective. Are you thinking, this one might just make me more depressed or this one might lift me up? Do you want me to, because there is something in that, right? I will quantify it. My feeling with you, and I'll let you behind the scenes, things that people have said to me about when you're on is that they like they like you because you offer an opinion but you do also kind of quantify things with data as well so i feel right now because i feel very confused about top them my confusion my confusion lies in the fact that we'll talk exactly about this everton game spurs were really good i felt we were really good i felt defensively we were really solid i felt like we you know were meaningful in many of our sort of attacking phases of play until the very end i felt like we controlled the game for the most part but on the flip side i feel like if everton scored one goal they would have won the game um and so that's kind of like this there's there's a lot there's a lot there that says like this is good we're improving that's really good but then there's also another massive bit of me on the other side that's like there's still something really fundamentally flawed about everything that we're doing that feels that feels not just like a a sort of a if we were struggling to score goals but still scoring goals i'd be like look that's something align itself out i kind of feel like the situation we're in is still pretty i'm gonna say seismic i think that like the the sort of the issue that we have plaguing us which is basically if another team scores a goal against us we're almost guaranteed to lose it's not really something i can just brush off i would say um So that's, yeah, you asked why I got you on, mate, and that's why.

4:49Jack:Explain that. Explain that to me, Baker. Why is it happening? I'll give you something first, right? I'd read just in the run-up to this. It's been 407 minutes since Tottenham Hotspur last scored in the Premier League. They have failed to score in four successive Premier League matches for the first time since September 2006. and only Crystal Palace in the 17-18 season, first seven games, have endured a longer start to the Premier League without scoring a goal than Spurs. This marks Spurs' longest goal-scoring drought to the start of the season in the top four tiers. So there is a lot of cause for optimism because I do feel like it was a good performance.

5:34Jack:But as I say, evenly balanced on this seesaw as we sit there statically, there's also huge cause for concern. Discuss. Yeah. I mean, I should say, obviously, when we're four weeks into the season, so for doing a fantasy football pod, I've watched, as a minimum, extended highlights of the 39 games that have been played in the Premier League this season. And probably watched in full probably as many as 20 of them. You know, full-on nutcase football addict. and you've got teams that have just jumped on, you could say just jumped on the bandwagon, come along for a ride, whatever you want to say, but there's a lot of teams which lean into this really like physical style of the Premier League, aggressive countering, set-piece heavy, big guys all over the pitch, win your duels and it does numbers.

6:33It does numbers last season. It's why teams, it's like why over the last couple of years we've had us in 17th twice. You've seen teams like Newcastle drop off. You've seen Manchester United obviously lead a good season. But prior to that, like again, you are able to see these teams that are your fancier teams in this bottom half because they can get beaten up to an extent by some of these teams. And, you know, this weekend there was us, there's Chelsea and Liverpool this weekend of three teams that have spent, you know, a significant amount of money on there. and they couldn't really get the better half of the teams that they were up against.

7:14I think most people expected Chelsea to just destroy Hull and couldn't, and they couldn't because they're still trying to play in a way that utilizes their midfield, yet they have no central midfield. And by the aggressive style of Hull in packing certain areas, it was like, well, you now can't progress through the middle of the park. You're now stuffed. we're considerably worse than you but we've just dismantled you to an extent fulham did very similar with liverpool um and everton to an extent allowed us to have you know a huge amount of that ball and they allowed us to do a significant amount of passing i think we did like over 600 passes in that game compared to the 300 so that's going to give you that kind of like small dopamine hit of like this is okay this is okay um but i don't i think anybody who watched it every time that Everton started going forward we we were scared and I think it's comes to this like we're trying to create an identity and actually you know Chelsea and Liverpool are finding that difficult when they're coming from positions of like Liverpool coming from a position of recently winning the league and um and being in a Champions League status and you know that is having a drop off in terms certainly in terms of their metrics like like they're getting nowhere near one expected goal, not one expected goal against teams like Ipswich and Fulham.

8:36That must feel very, very strange. But we're trying to create an identity from a team that was 17th. And that's actually an incredibly hard thing to do. The easy thing to do is to lean in on certain things. I heard a little bit of your after the game thing. There's one thing I heard you say, which is something like, I'm really craving the idea of seeing a normal goal. like you'll see us we'll play around we'll put it out to the wing and we'll cross it in and the striker will put it in and you're like nah I don't think we're going to have that many new goals is

9:09Jack:do you get the point I was making though in terms of like I don't think right now look any goal is good for Spurs yes I get it but I'm talking about in an ideal world Van de Ven running the pitch and scoring a screamer to break the dead block is like that's all well and good but you can't rely on freakish goals it doesn't give you confidence it's going to happen again does it no exactly like why is it that we kind of do as i say do so much that is meaningful like i look at savio and i think yeah he he looks good like he's an exciting signing however who is he creating chances for and we will get on to solanke we'll talk about him in like in yeah isolation but as a wider point you get what i mean don't you what we are trying to do so if you look at what we're trying to do is and this is probably the most or the biggest probably key statistic that I would be able to offer straight away is that we have attempted 111 take-ons in four games.

10:03Now, to quantify that, Man City are second with 91. And Man City are probably the only other team with us, hence why we bought Savio from that, because they lead into it too, of using high usage wingers, volume heavy, dribbly boys, get the ball out to them, they'll dribble in. After that, it's Fulham on 78, also with Kevin and Oscar Bob, similar type stuff but you've got other teams like for example arsenal have only tried to take on their man 49 times they have wingers but that's not what the wingers do like they don't try to do that and then and then these teams that i'm talking about that like just we're going to just try and be physical monsters people like hull 39 times crystal palace 44 times coventry 48 times like they're not filling their team it's almost like a waste of a person having a dribbly winger for them because that's one less guy in the box when they're taking a corner that's one less guy in the box when they're defending a corner that's one that that's big guy guy you know it's like we're trying to play a slightly different game to many many others and that's tough and if i said to you like what are the sort of key things that would happen if you were to take to dial up your take 111 take-ons wing play we had 38 39 39 penalty box touches on the weekend nobody had more than that in in the premier league we had the ball touched in the area more times than any other team so things that should happen if you are using that is you'll get more corners than anybody else again that's that's like one guaranteed thing that will happen you will have more corners than any other team we've had let me tell you 27 quarters guess who the second and third team is for for most corners fulham and man city so if you can almost guarantee a metric like corners i'm like our expected normal goal now should be quarters and it's and it's not to an extent and some of the reasons why it's not is if you look at some of these other teams that are dialing it up is, so take Man City.

12:10Man City's fullbacks are six foot two, six foot three monsters. We should probably just bin off Robertson and just stick another, stick Sonesse, just leave him at left back and just bring him up for corners, you know, to an extent, or move. I don't think you'd probably put Sonesse with Van Hegg, but you're like, might as well just have him on the pitch. Like, how do we just keep getting more and more big guys into the box? That's the part where we're not really being very smart and dialing up what we'd expect. And our fans are not almost in tune with it. We've seen over the last two years, you heard some of the roars when Arsenal get a corner.

12:43They're almost expecting the goal. Like, it's a goal coming here, we're getting a corner. We don't do that. We get disappointed that that dribble didn't end up in an open play chance, to an extent.

12:54Jack:Before the season even kicks off, soccer fans are already making predictions. Who wins the league? Who qualifies for Europe? And who's lifting the trophy at season's end? On Calci, America's number one prediction market platform, you're trading against peers in a live market, meaning there's no house. And as the probability changes, you can buy in and out of your position. For a limited time, download the Calci app and use code CUP26 to get$10 when you trade 10. K-A-L-S-H-I, Calci. Trade the beautiful game. 18 plus only restrictions and eligibility requirements apply. Event contract trading involves risk and may not be suitable for all investors.

13:27Jack:Prices, values, and available markets may differ from those mentioned. For more information, see calci.com slash regulatory. Nationwide is so much more than a great insurance company. They're one of America's largest financial services companies, just like I'm so much more than quarterback Peyton Manning. I'm also Peyton Manning. Insurance and financial services together, it's a masterpiece. Peyton Manning does it again. For your insurance and financial needs, Nationwide is on your side. Nationwide Investment Services Corporation, Every game day, you show up for your team. Now, it's your time.

14:09We go V. We go V.

14:15Jack:Ask your prescriber about We Go V. Semaglutide Injection 2.4mg, a GLP-1. Call 1-833-4-WEGOV or visit wegovy.com to view the medication guide and to learn more about We Go V. Why wait? We go V. I mean, let me just ask you, and I guess this is just a question how you feel about it, Baker, really, more than anything. Where do we kind of... Where do we draw a line, I guess, as fans? Because I think, you know... When do we accept the stinkiness has been the question. Me and Adam have been talking each weekend, you know, doing the pod. And I said last weekend, I said, I think we need to get really comfortable that we are stinky.

14:59we are going to try and stink teams out. We're not going to allow big chances and we are going to just try and bundle goals in that are really low quality. Feeding off scraps. Absolute bottom-dwelling grinders. And I was like, I think that's us. And I think we should be leaning into it because I think it's easier.

15:20Jack:Isn't that kind of the Premier League now, though? Isn't that kind of the Premier League? Because I really feel like the past couple of years, and obviously Arsenal have led the charge on this and I don't know if it's like Arteta's will that this has happened or if this is just some kind of horrible byproduct really out at the back of what Pep Guardiola has done to the Premier League for the past few years. And Arteta was just the first to see it and capitalize upon it because he already had some beasts in his team, right? He already had players like Gabriel and whoever like that that could do this type of thing.

15:51Jack:But the Premier League, that Sunderland Arsenal game yesterday was WWE. It was horrible. It was disgusting. Horrible. But I look at both those teams, it terrifies me the thought of Tottenham playing even Sunderland right now. Because they're just, they're so massive. They're so massive. We play a couple of small slight wingers and a marmouche, and you're like, we're going to get beaten up here. And this is it. This is the point I'm saying to you. When do we draw the line and realise that like, look, as much as we want to play the Tottenham way and do our own thing, where do we draw the line and just say, well, we need more physical...

16:25Jack:Like, I've scoffed and I have like, you know... put my nose in the air and thought, oh, the thought of Tottenham signing Mateta or, you know, Brian Brobby or someone like that. I thought, no, not for me. I don't want a lump like that in the team. Now I'm sat there thinking, that's entirely what we need. Like we literally need a player like that up top who we can just lump balls to when we have these attritional horrible football matches who can score us 10, 15 goals a year. It's kind of, this is like the football, mate. This is like the football we grew up watching. right at the very start in the very early eras of the Premier League right this horrible stodgy like rugby product it's I don't know and we are trying to do it in a different way like I say most people aren't trying to do it with their with these wingers like we are trying it these dribbly boys but one of the things you would expect if we if we have more penalty box touches than everybody else if we're taking people on more than everybody else it should play out by any letter of the law by any team that's ever existed if you touch the ball in the box more often than anyone else if you are dribbling your open play stuff should improve now unless Leeds and Newcastle tonight is the worst game in the history of football we are going to be comfortably some way some way below any other team in in our expected open play goals we have uh so far in open play created 2.22 expected goals.

18:01Now, if I compare that, say, to Ipswich, they're nearly at six. If I compare it to playing teams like Fulham, 5.16. Crystal Palace, who look an absolute mess and just had to play 60 minutes with 10 men. And they've got a manager who, most people don't even, if I say straight away, what's the manager's name of Crystal Palace? I remember. There you go. There you go. You say to most people, Pierre Sarge. People don't even know Sarge or Sage or anything. but you don't know who he is. And they've created nearly five expected goals. We're sitting here at 2.2. It's below Hull, it's below Coventry, again, who also just played with 10 men.

18:40We need to be really accepting to an extent that we're not brilliant and we've got to try and find a way to glean as many edges as possible because what we're also not is we're not confident. that first 20 minutes was fantastic I thought on the weekend but the second the seconds about about 20 about 21st 22nd minute they had almost about 45 seconds of the ball it was like the first time they had the ball and a cross came in and they had a corner and honestly it was like I've been punched on the nose just that that 45 seconds of oh we haven't scored have we we know what happens now. I even, I messaged in a chat with friends who are not also Spurs fans and said, I feel like we're allergic to scoring about 18 minutes.

19:28And I said, you know, we've been so good here, but it's just not happening. And as I messaged it, I got nervous as I messaged it because I know it's not the first time that I've messaged it. And then my next message years 1-0 Everton I mean and all that stuff and and and we're all we're all just so bereft of confidence that I'm like what you can do is try and dial up some moments and I would I can't I just imagine this week outside of the Carabao stuff to Zerbi's continually still working on these open phases of play we've got to dial up these open phases of play we're probably it doesn't feel like it doesn't feel like when i'm watching set pieces that we're putting as much effort into them as we were previously it doesn't feel like as fans almost we are because we're so craving this idea of normality to an extent that we're almost we're giving up a trick that one of the biggest benefits you get with dribbly wingers is crap loads of set pieces and we should be piling into

20:28Jack:they just seem like a total irrelevance to us don't they which is because tonali is never going a score from a set piece you know is is fernandez i mean he's quite a big lad but he's he waits on the outside of the box so he's another guy that's not in it you know we've lost romero who like people like romero and ben davies actually it's like sort of been some of our best attackers of a ball um and then when we do get the chance that van heck one like that van hecks free kick like it's a bit and in the previous game van de ven had had that opportunity and you're like if we We need to understand how big those moments are.

21:03We're not, we're not, even like when we miss that Van Hecht chance, we don't think about it forever. We should think about it more. We should want those goals. Those are the ones that are going to open, get us on the board. Teams then have to open up to play against us. That's when we can actually start creating some open play goals. Honestly, I've watched so many times last season, having to watch it as part of the kind of work that I do, the amount of times Arsenal went in 3-0 and had less than two expected goals from open play. I think they only had five games or something last season. They had more than one expected goal from open play.

21:41But they often won 3-0 and that time they did score the open play goal, it was the second goal. It was the third goal. It was the once the teams have to get to us. It was the Martijnaldi runs 50 yards on the break right at the end of a game and just pokes into an open net.

21:56Jack:We're not being smart. So I guess this leads me quite naturally to ask you, where does this lie then, Baker? Do you think, is it personnel? We spent over£300 million this summer. Have we signed players of the wrong profile? Has our squad building been poor? I've been excited about a lot of these signings that we've made. But as you say, the whole squad, the whole team, at least the vibe of the team, feels like one that is, as you say, bereft of confidence. like it doesn't feel like we've signed these players and they've suddenly injected new life into things it feels like a continuation of what we've seen for the past couple years so is it poor recruitment is it deservey like his tone has changed a lot the end of last year he was the big brother he was putting his arm around them all now he seems to be constantly having a go at all of them and we will talk about the incident in a minute is it the fans what i mean what what like what do you put this down to why is it that like because the thing is i say that the thing is as much as i say all this i still stand by the fact that i saw green shoots against forest and i've i saw green shoots against everton i do think there is gradual improvement there i guess just my concern is perhaps from my perspective i feel like the idea that it's going to take some time to gel is being a bit overstated um teams teams sign a lot of players it kind of lots of teams do it it doesn't mean that like they should look like scoring a goal is a complete and utter impossibility to them you know like yeah yeah confidence does play a big part mate like it just honestly there was so many chance times on the weekend where we almost fashioned a chance but we took that extra touch we had a heavy touch we did something that didn't quite work so I do when I'm seeing all that I do feel that's a scarring I do think that is a lack of confidence in the team team that we can get there.

23:52Tactically, I'm still so confused as to what we are looking to do. We're playing almost on the weekend, and the last couple of games, Benton Kurtz played in the middle, in between, and I say in between the other two guys, between Tonali and Fernandes. And a lot of people would say, oh, you've got two guys and then a 10. But realistically, he's the only one playing centrally, even to the point that even when the ball progressed into almost more of a 10 area, it was still with Benton Curry. It's almost like he just doesn't go off to the fullbacks. He stays in the middle and just goes forward, back, forward, back.

24:29and in this game it felt like Tonali and Fernandes were more like inverted fullbacks I would say than they were a double pivot or whatever you want to call them in terms of centre midfielders it felt like they were both way too wide for my liking because then what do you do? You've got two centre backs then you've got your two midfielders outside of it which then means that you end up with fullbacks wide but does anyone need fullbacks wide and wingers wide? Who plays that anymore? Who plays high wide fullbacks and high wide wingers? Pochettino. It's unheard. Even then though, at least it would be like, well, yeah, we'll do some more inside forward.

25:12And one of the reasons why you were able to do that was because Ericsson would stand in the middle of them and be able to use those four weapons on the outside of them. But it is strange now that we are trying to play like four wide players, it makes it much easier for teams to get compact in the middle because they just say, well, okay, we'll let the fullback, we'll let you rinse the fullback to an extent. Like Mikhilenko, I think Mikhilenko, we dribbled past him so many times, but also he's just able to just block stuff out all game. And he's not good. But they were like, even if you beat us, what are you going to do?

25:53Where are you going to get, like where's that cross going to go because we're just going to keep branfrey and taco in the middle teams are starting to allow us to just be like yeah yeah have that wide area beat us fine we'll just stand in the middle and and cut it out and it it's not quite right do you i mean

26:10Jack:how much of this as well do you think is in terms of like hangover of the past couple of years is other teams perhaps not giving spurs much respect because they sort of they view us as in a different place in the hierarchy. They view us as a team that you can beat. They know that we're shaky as fans and they know the team is shaky. They know, the teams know that if that part of, if we sit in here for 20 minutes, at some point, they'll give us a chance. At some point, they'll give us a chance. And we did. We did. And even once, I actually thought when Bergvau came on for that last 20 minutes, I thought Bergvau for 20 minutes was better than any of the free midfielders in terms of having some direction and move forward.

26:51And I've been so critical of Bergvaule, like almost like never want to see him play again type thing. But, you know, obviously he almost got the winner, but he finally, it was like, oh, okay, we're going to put some pressure on them from the centre midfielder. There was a cross that he did beforehand where he went out to the left and crossed in, which is also good. Like he had some good impetus, but what also happened, they knew that the second we brought Bergvaule on, nobody be there for the cutback. so the Brennan Johnson chance just before he got substituted. If you just rewind and look at that, you look where Tonali is and he's cleared off to the fullback position because that's what he's doing at the moment.

27:31All the time is clear off to the side and Bergvau's 10 yards in front of him. Not tracking him, easy as you like. Could have absolutely got done. So then this is the issue is the more we then try to dial up this attack, the more vulnerable we get. I watched and thought to myself, even though Benton Kerr has probably been our best player, or has been our best player virtually in every single game I've seen him play, you probably shouldn't have him and Tonali on the same pitch. But I'm absolutely petrified of what happens the second we went down to one of them. Why do you feel that?

28:05Jack:Do you feel the profiles are too similar? Like not creative enough? It's not creative enough. It's not creative enough. it's not allowing us to have a natural shape we're not allowing a double pivot to form in midfield we've bought Tonali and Fernandes to have a double pivot everyone was like when we bought those two and we got those two and we just went oh right, this is our double pivot this is how it's going to work one's going to go, one's going to stay one's going to go, one's going to stay we're going to have a midfield we're going to see some progression here it's all going to work and it's going to be great but it's not because they're both playing inverted fullback with a big guy in Benton Kerr in the middle who only does sideways passes.

28:46Like his past Matt Benton Kerr, if you've got the most central guy and he's just moving it left, moving it right, moving it left, moving it right, it's not going to work. You're going to be easier to defend. You know that everybody knows now that the chance creation is going to come from the left wing or the right wing. It's never going to come through the box in the middle.

29:08Jack:Nationwide is so much more than a great insurance company. They're one of America's largest financial services companies, just like I'm so much more than quarterback Peyton Manning. I'm also Peyton Manning. Insurance and financial services together, it's a masterpiece. Peyton Manning does it again. For your insurance and financial needs, Nationwide is on your side. Nationwide Investment Services Corporation, Ember Finra, Columbus, Ohio. Every game day you show up for your team. Now it's your time. We go V. We go V. Ask your prescriber about We Go V. Semaglutide Injection 2.4mg, a GLP-1. Call 1-833-4-WEGOV or visit wegovy.com to view the medication guide and to learn more about We Go V.

30:03Jack:Why wait? We go V. How do you guarantee your Jägermeister is always ice cold? Well, you could move to Antarctica. Sure, frostbite is a thing. Your dating apps won't let you set your radius to 3 ,000 miles. And your neighbor is an emperor penguin who honks outside your igloo. Or you could just keep your Jägermeister in the freezer. Drink it cold or don't drink it at all. Jägermeister. Damn, that's cold. Drink responsibly. Jägermeister liqueur 35 % alcohol by volume. Imported by Mass Jägermeister U.S. White Plains, New York. And therefore you're like, well, I don't know what to do with it. Having Marmouche and Solanke together, I think that only works if you do some more central progression.