Match Day Thread Tottenham Hotspur v Liverpool

It's hard to create a team to challenge at the top. Currently, Spurs have 15 or so players that are already punching well above their weight in terms of income. Being able to attract players to come and accept less wages than the other top 6 clubs and sit on the bench is another thing entirely. Those teams that have risen a long way to challenge at the top of the league - Chelsea and Citeh have had unlimited financial backing. Before that backing their wins of the title were 1 and 2 respectively. The others - Arsenal, Liverpool and United have histories of winning the league in double figures.

We can't compete against the others for players that are known to be good enough to get into a CL side. We need to pick up players who are either young and/or under the radar of clubs who only want to buy players who can go straight into their first team. We've done marvellously well to accumulate and keep Lloris, Walker, Rose, Alderweireld, Wanyama, Eriksen, Kane, Dele, etc. Getting them in to improve upon what we had was truly inspired. Finding improvements on them or players that can match them straight away is not an easy task . We just have to keep working and hope for a little bit of luck with injuries and summer purchases and that our young players and manager improve year on year.

However, by being stable at the top end of the table we are already surfing the top of the wave of what has been done/is possible in the PL without having an enormously rich benefactor. In terms of income we are much nearer West Ham and Leicester or Newcastle than we are Liverpool, the significantly weakest financially of the other clubs in the top 6.

 

I understand Manchester city is after Dele
Ali.Please do not sell to any of your competitors if you havè to sell him.

 

I don't think that getting wingback understudies to Walker and Rose is necessarily the solution. - don't get me wrong, I wouldn't say no, but it could leave us in a situation where we once again have a plan A, but no plan B, which we'd soon be moaning about!!
There's nothing wrong with a 4231 with walker and Rose, or any of our fullbacks playing in the "4". However, it just requires a player or two player with raw acceleration and some creativity in the front 6. - ideally on the wings of the "3".
When playing 4231 it allows the wingers to turn defense to attack at speed, but if the oppositions defence does decide to sit deep and compact, there's always that overlapping pass from a full back. - any of our fullbacks are capable of that, not just Walker and Rose.
By purshasing like for like wingbacks, we're potentially leaving ourselves in a situation where we'll be stuck with permanent 352; a formation which will soon become harder to use, and there'll be no plan B. - it also potentially writes off the likes of Davies and Trippier, who in my opinion have shown during their time with us that they are more than capable full backs if used to their strengths. - would anyone seriously wanna lose Trippier's right foot? It's outstanding.

For me, the solution is to purchase/promote/ play (Nkoudou ) personnel that can add something we're actually severely missing from the 11 players on the pitch. -Acceleration and creativity to aid our transitional play from defense to attack. Not just buy what we already have.

The likes of Dele, Eriksen and Kane can be poor. In fact, they are often all poor during the same game! - but it's no coincidence that when they have that link player who gets them into the game (a Rose or a Walker), their performances flourish. The same can happen if we utilise the type of player I mentioned above, which would prevent the likes of these 3 having their backs to goal and struggling for options when we turn defense to attack. Let the fast player drive out of defense whilst these 3 create options and space, usilising their own strengths, rather than being suffocated.

If we can spunk £30m on ****soko, there's definitely players out there we can take a punt on who'll add something new to this young squad, which is so close to becoming very special.

Speed, and creative intelligence in midfield should be our biggest priorities right now, IMO.

COYS

 

Nobody's for sale. We are entering the most important period of our Club's history. What we can do in the next 2 or 3 years can shape our future for decades to come. If we get the right stadium sponsor it can pay for the stadium in its entirety. That means all the extra income from football and Gridiron is ours to spend on the team. If we get the right deal that means we can pay wages on a level with the teams we are competing against.

Having half the England team helps massively in negotiating these deals. Dele is going to be a world superstar. Selling him now makes no sense whatsoever. Whatever amount Citeh may bid this summer, he's worth more to us right now and imagine what he might be worth in 5 years time?

He's very happy at Spurs. He's on a a nice long contract and we need him...and Kane.....and Rose....etc.

 

What i mean is, generally speaking, Poch has his first 11 - 13 that he will always use. It is very hard for other players to break into this (Wanyama did this year, Alli the year before) and generally speaking, unless those other players are outstanding, he doesn't give them any time. They rarely get minutes/starts in any games that are serious and can't really develop/build some confidence.

It was the same at southampton although maybe i'm doing Poch a disservice as he hasn't really been at a club longer than 3 years. What i see though, is that he has his trusted players who he will generally pretty much play all of the time irrespective of whether they are off form and/or knackered and doesn't offer that trust into the reserve players (not saying the reserve players are good enough but i'm always of the side that you don't know as they never had a chance).

Mourinho was the same and so his Wenger. The only manager i can think of the top of my head who could rotate in average players like Nicky Butt and John O Shea and win trophies was SAF.

 

Mauricio Pochettino's mantra is that he plays those that show him in training that they should be in the team. Hence, some players like Fazio, Stambouli, N'Jie have only had one season at the club and Adebayor, Lennon, Kaboul, etc. had to go after his first season.

As frustrating as it might be at times that we purchase players and don't see much of them, we have to have faith that MP is waiting for them to 'up their game'. Sissoko, GKN and Janssen have been fit and not found themselves included on the bench, let alone the team. Given that the manager will pluck players from the Academy and put them in, like Winks or Mason, the only explanation is that he'll pick what he sees as being best for the team. He's given Wanyama what was Dier's spot last season, despite Dier being a player he has great faith in; even to the point where Dier was on the bench.

 

I was livid on Saturday. Liverpool were excellent but there were so many bad days at the office from us. Dier and Davies in particular but the whole team performance only served to expose those two in particular on occasion.

The two teams we've truly struggled against this season - City and Pool, both away - have both played very fluid, pacy front 3s/4s and pressed us well. That combination of movement, interchange and pace has caused us real problems. Yes, we've been under-strength on occasion but the theme remains.

I'm confident we can push on and secure a strong finish in the table. We will hopefully have Verts or Rose back soon (enabling us to go to a back 3, for some reason Poch isn't trusting Wimmer this season I feel?) and I anticipate us getting back to our best. We're past most of the fixtures we would call the truly major obstacles in our path this season now so consistency and relentlessness is key.

In the summer, we need to have a serious think about whether Davies is a CB (more than capable of playing there in a 3) or a LB/LWB like Rose, and sell/recruit as necessary. Also, if Poch has lost faith in Wimmer, we need to act on that. A standout forward player (caveat: we've missed Lamela hugely and he might have been that player this season) would be a great bonus - though a player of that calibre will be a rare find for a club in our position.

I think we're still in for a good season all things considered. Frustrating to lose in that manner then see Chelsea drop 2 points but then again if it can happen once to them it can happen again. What we need to do though is just forget the others and concentrate on ourselves again. Serious progress (I'm talking to the final or more) in either of the Europa or FA, plus consistency in the PL, and we can count it a good season.

 

Yeah I mean I know we've not seen him much but I can literally only remember one good thing during a cup game when he was out on the left and he sort of went past someone but that might have been cos it bounced off his shin a bit luckily but then he managed to control it or something...I really can't remember. I remember wanting to be impressed with it a bit more than I actually was.

Janssen, on the other hand: I've seen loads of neat touches, strong hold-up play, decent passes etc to encourage me (and mostly within the context of a surrounding team which is not playing too well).

I could very easily be wrong about GKN. It's just that it's surely fair to say that every Spurs fan would have hoped to have seen more from him by now (and the fact that he's not impressing in training sufficiently to even get into matchday squads does count against him IMO).

 

I wanna know what the hell Sissoko is doing in training all week to justify playing fairly often. Cause he sure ain't showing it during matches!!

 

And that's really into the land of conjecture and assumption...... There certainly was a gap after his final signing before he featured at all and as I recall there was also an injury.
As for squad absence, a few have been missing from squads recently - notably Janssen.
Personally, I'd give both a chance over the coming weeks to prove their worth in the remaining cup games!

 

Conjecture and assumption? Well this is a football forum isn't it?!

Nah I know what you mean though. It's just...not making match day squads and also not impressing in the few chances given is about as inauspicious a beginning to a new signing's career as you can get really. Not writing him off at all - just, y'know, disappointed at this point in time.

With regards to him and Janssen getting playing time in the cups I'd actually like to see both GKN and Janssen slotted into a strong team fairly close to a first 11. Too often I feel we make it doubly difficult for new players to adapt since when they finally get a game it's among a group of players who aren't themselves a cohesive team cos of the wholesale changes that have been made.

 

Fazio's for sale...