I will happily admit the first few posts will have less detail, I just cannot remember the details from the first 2 seasons, largely as I helped them keep me going during the sleepless nights following the birth of the our son in October. Starting the game before the official release allowed for Fazio to be sold to Man Utd for £19.25 million, Nacer Chadli went to PSG for £19 million, Townsend went to Southampton for £8.25 million, Dembele left for Juventus for £20 million at the end of the season, Vorm to Watford for just over £2 million. Just under £70 million bought in for reinvestment.
The outlay came to £54 million, focusing on youth, in came Embolo, Lewis Cook, Gabriel Barbosa, Thiago Maia, Andre Dozzell, Lucas Otavio, Fabio Castellano and some experience in Kaka and Victor Valdes.
Transfers done, now the season started. A great pre-season campaign heralded a promising start. The first game of the season was Norwich at Carrow Road. Employing a 4-1-1-3-1 formation and no new signings worked wonders, a dominant performance and 2 goals from Dele Alli.
The form continued with 4 wins from 4 at the start of the season including a 1-0 home win over Man City. Following this some inconsistency set into performances and some tinkering with the formation began.
The second part of the season started with a win against Norwich, the formation at this point had evolved into a 4-1-3-1-1 but with the focal point now on pushed on full backs and Dele Alli still in his advanced position as an AMC with an attacking role. I was not happy with the formation though, not enough possession, not convincing despite the 5-1 result.
The formation involved into a more standard 4-1-2-2-1 and allowed some great victories particularly the performance vs Arsenal, 55% possession, 24 shots but I was not happy, I did not feel I was getting the full backs involved enough and I had lost the Dele Alli effect in behind. We went out of the Capital Cup to Liverpool in the Semi Finals and also exited the FA Cup at the same stage following a disappoint 4-0 defeat to Chelsea. We managed to reach the Europa final losing 3-2 to Porto. All in all a great campaign that ultimately ended in disappointment, 2 Semi final exits, defeat in a final and a second place in the league. None the less we had the Champions League football to look forward to that we set out to achieve at the start of the season.
Notable player contributions:
- Harry Kane – 25 in 37 in the league, 46 in 56 in all competitions.
- Erik Lamela – 11 in 31 in the league, 22 in 43 in all competitions.
- Christian Eriksen – 5 in 37 in the league with 18 assists.
- Dele Alli – 9 in 35 in the league, 11 in 38 in all competitions.
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