Don't suppose Ajax would take Eriksen as part payment? That's the issue for any plans to move him on in January: Barca and Los Ladrones considerably snubbed him in the summer while Bayern have recently snubbed him with spectacular bluntness, so who does that leave? That's a lot of hope being placed in PSG or one of the Serie A teams showing an interest
I can’t see him being sold/ agreeing to a move in Jan, it’s in his interest to move for free as he gets a massive packet plus a huge signing on fee. Same applies to Toby. Both however should not be in the XI again unless there’s an injury crisis and should be chucked out to join the U23s. Same applies to Rose. Aurier too if Foyth is now fit. Winks and Dele can also join them, Winks makes me wanna gauge my eyes out whilst Dele hasn’t been the same player since 2017 yet Poch seems to forget that and still selects him over Lucas. I always say I don’t allow sentiment in football but I genuinely feel sorry for Lucas.
He'll probably agree a move in January, as he's allowed to talk to foreign clubs about a free transfer then.
A comparison between Eriksen and Alli So far this season Eriksen has * Failed to make the progressive passes we need him to, starving Kane and Son of service * Failed to be in position for a teammate to pass to him, necessitating a backwards or sideways pass * Failed to actually complete a pass to a teammate against Saltypool, and I'm pretty sure even I could've done that * Run around a lot but never actually been helpful with it In comparison, in the last couple of games Alli has * Made progressive passes to feed Kane and Son * Been in position for a teammate to pass to him * Created space for his teammates with well-timed runs * Dropped back into central midfield when we don't have the ball to help out So no, putting Eriksen and Alli into the same category is simply idiotic, as one clearly puts in effort and actively assists the team in doing anything other than meekly surrender to whoever we are playing, while the other may as well change his name to Benedict Arnold by deed poll Similar can be said with the Aurier/Rose comparison: don't get me wrong, Aurier can be improved upon and we absolutely have to look at doing so, but the point is he can be improved upon - while on the other hand Rose needs to be surgically removed from the side as we have Davies while Sessegnon is back in training so will presumably be introduced into the side in the coming weeks, meaning Rose can be dropped
Alli’s offered this team nothing for the best part of two seasons, Neville and Keane were bang on yesterday when saying he thinks he’s already made it and has lost that hunger which is hard to get back. He’s nothing more than a passenger these days who pops up once in a while with a cheeky flick or an occasional goal. We keep hoping he’ll get back to that 2015-2017 form but never does, it’s almost like he’s an attacking version of Wanyama, great for a period, average to poor since. Rose shouldn’t be anwhere near the squad let alone XI. Aurier in fairness can either be great or be terrible, there’s no inbetween consistent level and that’s just not gonna cut it, third season at the club and he’s still unreliable.
Alli dragging defenders out of position against Red Star directly led to our first two goals, plus he actually does something other than run around like a headless chicken when we don't have the ball, meaning he's done more to help the team in the last two games than Eriksen has since August That's the problem: if you measure a player's contribution based on stats you get thew wrong picture entirely, case in point Eriksen getting 12 assists last season made it look like he was contributing greatly, but the fact is his performances were a lot like how you describe Alli - and the best example of this comes from the last international break, where you;d think he played well as he got an assist for the winning goal against Switzerland (I think) yet the Danish press were slaughtering him because that one pass was the only thing of note he did
Our first goal was from a corner, Alli had zero involvement in that. The second goal I can perhaps agree too although no one was picking up Son’s late run so I’d say that was more just brilliant play from Lamela to spot it. As for last season, neither Eriksen or Alli played brilliant although Eriksen did at least make vital contributions. We can say Alli was carrying a couple of injuries but his form the season before was very indifferent too. Ultimately the Alli of the last two/ two and a half seasons hasn’t been the same one that burst onto the scene in his first two years and the team has notably suffered because of it.
Alli occupying the defender and goalkeeper gave Kane space to jump for his header for the first goal, while his run pulled two defenders out of position to give Son all the space he needed to make his run for the second That's the thing: people never pick up on the subtle things, always the big things - and that becomes problematic when pundits don't pick up on it either, be it because they can't be bothered or they had a script handed to them during the warmups
Sorry don’t agree with that. There’s a bunch of players in the box, if we’re saying Alli helped out Kane then so did the four or five other Spurs players as they essentially had to be picked up by opposition defenders which also gave Kane space. Second goal as I said I can understand but the majority of praise has to go to Lamela for finding Son, as well as Son making that late burst.
It's right here Alli occupying both the keeper and one of the defenders creates the space for Kane's header, which is more clear in the slow mo replay as he's occupying the bloke who should be on the line but instead has dragged him in front of the keeper (almost literally, to be honest) - and the fact the ball goes between Alli and the defender on its way into goal looks as if that was practised on the training ground, given the keeper's view would be obscured until the last possible second when the ball's headed towards goal I remember that Leeds used to get a lot of joy with a similar tactic against us when David O'Leary was in charge as one of their players would literally wrestle one of our defenders in the keeper's view until the ball was in flight, at which point they just needed someone to get a header on target as they'd created plenty of space to aim for. I also remember being ****ed off that this tactic worked against us without fail every time we played them for a couple of seasons...
The replay on 1:10 shows the keeper has eye contact with the ball though, maybe Alli was intending to obscure the view but I don’t think in that instance it was actually successful, it was more that Kane just connected to the header perfectly.
When you think of Real and Ericsen….you must see how Ericsen is performing as well as the Real scouts. Aren't they thinking "if that's how he is performing for Spurs,we don't want any of that here at Real! We don't need invalids...we've got enough troubles!"
I don't think that this is true, from watching it at the stadium and what happened before the corner. They had to retake it, as one of the Red Star defenders got carried away and pushed Alli into the net. He was blocking off the keeper and his attempts to do it again were a major distraction, which is why nobody picked up Kane.
Kane’s being marked by the number 5 it seems. If anything, Sanchez is the one who helps Kane the most because he seems to assist in halting the run of the number 5 by kind of making the number 19 block 5’s path to give Kane the free header. Alli is indeed making himself a nuisance on the goal line but the replay on 1:11 shows the keeper can definitely see the ball, maybe Alli’s intent was good there but I don’t think he’s the cause for Kane scoring.
The whole defence got distracted by the retake and refereeing. It may not have been Alli's intention, but they all switch off. The keeper's more interested in him than the impending goal.
On the plus side, given his louche performances for the last few months, he'll fit right in with Parisiens...
Have to agree with dier. Alli standing in front of the keeper is contributing? What next van dyke had to glance over at eriksens run when sons shot hit the bar so he didnt follow harry.
Ollie Watkins bagged a couple goals for Brentford. He’s someone I’ve said in the past we should take a look at. Tobes said on the Prem matchday thread he looked class tonight, currently second top scorer in the championship and can play anywhere in the attacking third. Whilst we’re at a stage where we really do need to look at a Dybala or Fernandes type signing, I definitely wouldn’t be against going in for Watkins, those sort of signings have been out bread and butter over the years. Can’t see him still being at Brentford come next season.
Obvious Going Nowhere Yet Will Drag On For Eight Transfer Windows Watch Globo Esporte are reporting that we're prepared to pay £69m for Everton Soares - and short of sending Christian Eriksen to gremio in part exchange there's really no way of negotiating down that figure considering he signed a four-year contract three weeks ago Brief check: has anyone been watching us this season and thought what we absolutely needed above all else is a left winger?
La Liga not-so-rando Watch Mundo Deportivo and Don Balon are both reporting that we're in negotiations with Barca to sign Carles Alena, and there's been plenty of talk all season of him being unhappy at losing his place in the team (and shirt number) to Frenkie De Jong Putting aside how both sources are low tier, I'll repeat what I said when he was first linked with us a few weeks ago: Alena is basically a Spanish Harry Winks, and unless he's a significant upgrade on Winks he's hardly necessary compared to a Scott Parker or Michael Carrick (Spanish or otherwise) that would balance our midfield and add the solidity it needs
