Are you saying Spurs flew Ryan Air? that's madness. It has to be a private jet. I make 25-30 flight a year and i'd guess after about 20% of them I end up with a cold or flu. It only takes one person on the plane to be infectious and you stand a good chance of catching something due to the recirculation of air on an aircraft. That is basic and a bloody stupid mistake, let's hope we learn.
I was joking when I spoke about Ryanair, but like you I make 20 plus flights every year and on a few of those I carch a bug. There was a story, which may just be apocryphal, that we flew Soldado from Valencia on Ryanair to sign for us. That would explain him being out of form for so long
just think playing as in MF would focus his mind more on being effective instead of , what appears at times , being flashy for the sake of it. Also think he is easier for defenders to mark when playing up top rather than arriving late in the box. Obviously i see far less of him than you but i just get the impression his overall game in the long term would benefit from the discipline & game management knowledge he ,should, pick up playing deeper.
He can do both really well but at the moment, I'd go with your view and move him back a bit. He played there against your boys and had a great game. What it gives us is a goal threat from deep and his attacking passing is excellent. I love Mousa, Victor, Eric Dier and Winksy. They're good at what they do. Sissoko's good at running. They really don't offer any sort of goal threat, which restricts the way we attack teams. Nobody's concerned if they shoot from distance. It's what we allowed Madrid to do. We allowed them space outside the box because they want to walk the ball in. If you play Dele deeper, it gives us the opportunity to get Erik Lamela on the pitch and there's an additional threat that the opposition need to close down, which opens things up more nearer goal. If you see any of our the deep midfielders lining up to shoot? No problem. If it's Dele, he will create space or shoot with real intent and purpose.
Since teams have really sat deep this season, he's definitely found space hard to come by in that final third which then massively stunts his game, so moving him back could be a really good move for him and us. Like Brian also said, none of our CMs, as good as some are in their respective roles, offer next to zero goal threat and so having someone like Dele deeper, with Lamela joining Son and Eriksen in the three (or a new player like Moura/ Malcom) it adds another attacking dimension to our game. Our CM situation needs to be addressed and if Dele is chosen to go deeper that's definitely cool with me, failing that, we've got to bring someone in, it's massively hindering us this season.
Wanyama returning full time will help significantly imo. What struck me about him last year was that he is surprisingly creative for a player known for his defensive attributes. He carries the ball forward far better than Dier and is capable of some sublime passes. I forget which game it was last season but he put Kane in with a 30 yard ball hit with the outside of his boot and we went on to score. Also picked out some smart moves against Wimbeldon recently. But in general I agree, this has been an ongoing problem since basically the day Modric was sold. We've been fortunate over the past 2 seasons that Dembele has been superb but he is clearly a fading force. Winks has promise but too much chopping n changing and a few injuries have blocked his progress so far this year. Is he the long-term solution to the problem? I'm not sure. But what i am sure about is that we need to see a Winks-Wanyama pivot given a decent run-out. It is the one combo that i don't think we've ever seen. I mean we've even had Winks-Sissoko FFS! The way forward really isn't clear. I'd say we need to add a game-changing attacking sub and a first team CM. The latter is far more complicated to solve. Andre Gomes? Maybe but he hasn't played much in 2 seasons and could be crushed permanently by the PL. To my mind, we need to bring someone in with PL experience. Even if it means paying through our teeth. Some have mentioned Doucoure but tbh I don't know too much about Watford. The reality is that as you say, as more and more teams adopt a TFL approach to tactics, the notion of creative CM's becomes steadily less relevant. All you need in a 'PL survival pack' is a couple of big lads at the back, donkeys in midfield, pace on the flanks and another big lad up front. Presto. All of the truly creative talent in the league can currently be found at teams above us in the league earning twice what they could earn here.
