Correlation is not causation. Other stuff is going on not just Kane prescence or otherwise in the team. You'd need a much more sophisticated model to show Kane is the issue.
When a key player is out of a side for a period of games, you often notice that others step up in their absence as they wanna work for the team and prove themselves during that period. When a key player is sold, it has a whole different effect. That bubble bursts after a while and eventually the team suffers. Just ask Madrid this season post-Ronaldo. Or go back a few years to when we lost Bale. Or when we sold Berba/ Keane in the same window. Can Spurs play and do well during a Kane injury? For sure, we’ve shown that. Can Spurs be better off without Kane in a 50ish game season? ... ...
A lot of people called it before it happened. He was due out for x number of weeks and came back several weeks early. He's had virtually no time off that wasn't due to injury in years and he's never being given enough time to recover completely. Alli and Dier get similar treatment and it's started to effect them too, in my opinion. Eriksen's playing too many games and some of our squad aren't playing enough. Moura, for instance.
It really isn’t strange logic, spurf. For example, one of the first rules of defending is compactness. - keep the middle area tight and force players wide, in order to protect the goal. It’s believed that the wider the ball is away from goal, the less danger there is. So in the instance of Kane’s particular tackle last night, not only was it in the widest area of the pitch, but it wasn’t even in the final 3rd. It was on the half way line. I’m not saying he shouldn’t have made his way out to that area to show Delph he was there covering, but what problem was Delph (of all people) going to cause from there? If it had been on the half way line in a central position, I could understand the argument for getting in the faces of the city players. But it just seemed a bit unnecessary flying in where he did.
I disagree with that theory of defending a bit tbf Roo, because we’ve seen plenty of examples over the years of a team packing the box, so the opposition can whip in balls all game long with no contest from the FBs. Sooner or later someone’s going to get a chance in the box. Wider does not equal safer in all cases. With Kane on Delph I agree it looks unnecessary, but with the press we operate, the moment you let one player escape, you give up the initiative. With our players squeezing up the pitch, as soon as one of their players can take ours out of the game with a switch or a forward pass, the pressing team have to react rather than act, and that’s when you’re in trouble. If the aim is to keep the ball ahead of our players rather than in and amongst them, or behind them, then Kane has to put Delph under pressure, wide areas or no. He doesn’t perhaps have to go flying into a 50/50 like that, I agree, but it was a physical game yesterday so I can understand why he did it.
'It is believed' Is it! by who? Sounds like a board game to me. Getting to the byline and providing a good centre is a very effective way of threatening a goal so forcing players out wide can be counter productive. Once again it's easy to over complicate football with intricate and endless theories. Most of our great managers would have said to you that football is simple if you have the ball they can't score. It was fairly obvious that Spurs were attempting to close down and stifle City and the easiest way to do that is to attack the player with the ball, wherever he is. Your logic is consistent, unfortunately it's not based on the realities of the game we saw.
I don’t disagree with much of what you’ve just said, you’ve said it in far better detail than me. Regarding your first paragraph, I wasn’t meaning just literally leaving the wide areas completely free, but more prioritising centrally. far better to prevent central shots, and let the opposition put a few crosses in, most of which get cleared anyway.
I don’t think I was clear enough in my last response, apologies for that. As I’ve just said to Huddlefro, it isn’t about just leaving the wide areas completely free. Far from it. And regarding the board game comment, if you are interested in looking it up, the principles of play from the FA highlights compactness as one of its 5 main elements of defending.
Just reading BlueMoon forum 'Walker can't pass and his defensive positioning is the worst I have ever seen' we know please log in to view this image
Not at all. Kane went off after 58 minutes. It was only in the last 20 that Eriksen improved, even the commentators remarked on that. Did Kane playing in the 5 games you refer to cause the schoolboy errors by the defenders that actually led to us losing the points. I don’t think so.
Walker did come over before the game and applaud the fans, to be fair to him. He was completely separate from the rest of the City players, who did a pre-match huddle near the centre-circle. Not sure if this is a normal thing or if he'd normally be part of it.
He was quite disciplined in 2015-16 and 2016-17, with the Bonzo moments few and far between. His pace allows him to correct some of his defensive lapses, but not all of them. All of this was clearly written on the label when Citeh brought him.
Disgusting Spurs.This was not the plan.Why on earth could you possibly stick a pin in the City bubble? The pundits are ready to commit suicide!!!!!?
I felt Walker looked rattled by the occasion. Many of the City players did but I'd imagine it hit him hardest having spent most of his career with us stepping out to that absolute wall of noise must have 'got' to him in some way. Probably also found it strange going head to head against his former team mate and close friend Danny Rose. The latter came out on top in that duel. Walker and Mahrez both had terrible games which meant that flank was entirely unproductive for the most part.
No but I think had he not been playing we'd have been so far ahead we'd have been controlling the matches and the errors wouldn't have been made. However it's too late now, the mistake was made and we're fighting for CL placement instead of strolling it. We look to the future now right?
