On a totally different issue, it's time for Marcus Edwards to be called into our senior squad. He could unlock these busses/defences with his runs. At his age he would be fearless and create havoc.
100%. We're crying out for 'something different', and that sure as hell ain't N'Koudou. Wouldn't mind seeing Georgiou coming on for the last 10 mins here or there either. Neither he nor Edwards could do much worse than our current non-impact subs.
Till the end of the season Davies and Shaw. Next season have Davies as a CB option. At present Verts has no back up.
I'd like us to shift Davies across there if only to free up Dier to add muscle to the CM. No idea why Poch won't try it.
To be honest, I'm starting to think Shashoua is looking the more likely candidate to break out of the current group of youngsters. The other day Tottenham Academy posted supercuts of both Edwards and Shashoua (which I posted in the PL2 thread), and what stands out is Edwards' highlights showed him going the full Taarabt on several occasions, right down to dribbling the width of the pitch when he had teammates available - while Shashoua's highlights were far more in line with how Poch midfielders play, with Lamela being the most obvious comparison. If this is characteristic of Edwards this season, it's much less of a surprise that he's not been considered for selection.
The switch to the 3-5-2 seems to have made things harder for some of our youngsters to break into the first team. There were times when the 4-2-3-1 (which we hardly ever seem to play these days due to the ineffectiveness of it that we began to witness a couple of seasons ago) would have been perfect for the likes Edwards. Unfortunately he and others were just that bit too young/not ready. There’s a couple I really hope we see soon, but it’s not going to be easy for them. If they can’t get in now, when we look short of ideas, and lack pace and creativity, you have to wonder when they will. And to top it all off, Sissoko is ahead of them. Poor ****ers.
I mentioned the other day that Shashoua has been getting rave reviews in recent weeks/ months. He's one of the youngsters I said I'd like to see rewarded with some minutes vs Apoel.
If we didn't have a Euro U19 game that afternoon it would be more likely, but as we need a result in that game to qualify for the next round it's unlikely that any of the regulars (Shashoua, Edwards, Roles, Sterling, Duncan, Skipp) will be get a call-up.
Having seen them both, I would still prefer Edwards at present. he causes the opposition to panic even if he doesn't pass enough.And he can hold onto the ball.
Can we honestly say that from the few snippets we've seen? While I accept there has been no glimmer to date, either from repeat injury or simply lack of opportunity, someone (hopefully Poch!) will have seen something enough to buy him in the first place And at the very least, if he is going, then surely we should be keeping his value up by giving him some game time?
The proof of the pudding is in the fact that it is lucky if it even appears on the bench. Didn't even make the line-up for Barnsley FFS. Absolute waste of time, money and effort. Andros Townsend brought much more to the table than Njie or GKN, and he was Spurs through and through.
Then it was a ridiculous decision to buy him in the first place - as it was N’Jie, although he seems to have cracked on since leaving us.
And that’s why he probably won’t be appearing in the first team anytime soon. MP expects that the collective, the team, comes first always. If you’re gonna showboat, you can do it elsewhere.
I have nothing against us taking a punt on a "budget-range" player (i.e. in the £10m band. Hilarious that that is now considered a 'bargain') every summer as you really don't know where the next Richarlison is going to come from. What I do object to is the fact that we wasted 8 weeks of the window piddling about with OM to get his signature, and that he replaced a player who was almost a carbon copy, who in turn replaced a player who no-one really saw the need to sell (Lennon). It would be far more logical to take a Chelsea style approach to this type of player and loan them out to a mid-bottom half team as soon as we buy them so that they can gain experience. If it works out, fantastic. If not, cut our losses and move on - only after a year of PL football we won't be cutting any losses; it's far more likely we'll be turning a profit. The whole affair strikes of rank incompetence.
At least we know we won’t be buying a 3rd young unknown french winger and making the same mistake again. Surely?! We need players with a bit of premier league experience who are similar to N’jie and N’Koudou, but don’t break the bank. We’ve wasted 20 odd mill and 2-3 seasons on these types of players. Total punts that haven’t worked. It may cost us a bit more to get the premier league player we want, but going on what you may already know and the experience someone else may have already given them in this league , it should put us in good stead to see more success from that player, or at least you’d hope. More risks mitigated, at least.
Demarai Gray and Ademola Lookman are probably the most likely targets, but I think they'd cost a bit. Gray's starting to get starts now and Lookman's getting appearances from the bench, though that may change once Everton appoint a manager. The other alternative is to try some of our own youngsters, like Edwards, Georgiou or Shashoua, but they might not be ready.
Njie and Nkoudou never had sufficient game time, neither done too much in their short cameos but I can't criticise a player heavily when they've been restricted to just 5-10 minutes once a month. Both players looked really good and promising before joining and Njie has been great since getting regular football again with Marseille so I don't think either are bad players but just guys who had their confidence shattered when joining us. It's not nice admitting that the club has somewhat mistreated a player but quite frankly I do feel sorry for them. I hope GK goes in January as he's never getting a shot here, especially now that Lamela is back in the frame (****ing hallelujah by the way! We've missed him badly at times). For me, our problem isn't with them two in those positions anyway, our weakest spot right now is CM. As I've said already, as good as Mousa is when on form, I just can't rely on the bloke. He can rarely play more than 65 minutes in a match and that's just no good to us. I love Winksy as everyone else does but I've mentioned before that he plays it too safe at times, he's ideal for keeping possession and looking to hold a lead but when chasing a goal, he's not the answer (yet!). We lack a driving force (unless Mousa's body miraculously allows him to play 90 mins regularly again) OR a creative force, someone who can get attacks going from deep. I'd like us to do one of two things, either: A) Bring Josh back early, he had an excellent World Cup and has been impressing at Villa. I think if Poch brought him back and gave him sufficient time at CM then we'll see the real Onomah that I've backed for ages. The lad is an immense talent and just needs the opportunities in the first XI to show what he can do, not be thrown out wide or chucked into a rotated cup side. B) Make a move for someone like Seri or check on how Barkley is recovering to see if he's now worth a punt. Goretzka at Schalke could be a wildcard option, though he'll have a ton of interest seeing as he'll be free in the summer.
Probably a bit too soon for an extended role in the side. No issues with giving him chances but I think we'd be putting too much pressure on him to think he could somewhat take over from Mousa at such a young age.
