On that subject, I have heard some pretty bad things about Watford's commentators yesterday, be it their constant griping about haircuts and other anecdotes best responded to with the phrase "Okay Boomer..." to them being so bad at actually commentating they didn't notice Gazzaniga had gone up for the late corner - because somebody in an orange jersey in the opponent's penalty area is something so difficult to spot...
Dele, Lucas, Son and Lamela are different and much better players against teams that attack. Spurs have beaten all but a few of the top teams in the last couple of years. Dele has dominated games against top teams. Lucas scored a hat trick in the CL semifinals. Against teams that sit back, Dele tends to try very low percentage ideas which result in losing possession, Lucas runs into blind alleys with his head down, and Son's mix of sometimes brilliant but often wonky passes results in a lot of turnovers. Lamela holds the ball too long, but may be the least bad of the four. He was the only one who looked like he might create something yesterday other than Clarke, and did, eventually. Bergwijn does what works, both because he has excellent technique and because he has a strong understanding of what to do against teams that sit back. Part of the problem is the tactical approach. Pochettino tried to get the ball at the goal as quickly and frequently as possible. Some shots went in, some resulted in pinballs which got knocked in. The frequent changes in possession and high press resulted in winning the ball back in dangerous areas frequently. Part of the solution has to be Mourinho continuing to evolve a good approach. This year, unlike last year, the team is trying to apply pressure. It's a start, but a lot more needs to be done. Dele and Moura should be improved by coaching them out of their bad habits. (Son's negatives seem more the result of technical deficiencies.) In the mean time, I'll go along with the idea that Dele and Moura and arguably Lamela may not be effective enough to play against weaker teams. The fact is that Clarke created more than Dele, Moura and Son put together. One simple point is that Clarke nibbled away at the edges of the box, which made defenders decide how wide they wanted to defend. It's always a good idea to make your opponents make quick, difficult decisions. The inevitable moves through the middle that Dele, Moura and Son started only required defenders to do what they'd planned to do. If I had to pick a team to play against parked buses based on what I've seen, it might be Lloris Doherty Dier Alderweireld Sessegnon Hojbjerg Lo Celso Clarke Ndombele Bergwijn Kane Lamela, Son and White substitutes.
IMO one way to play against a parked bus is to take more shots from outside the area, keeping the ball low. A deflection or a rebound off a defence that is set to stop players and crosses can force that goal. I believe Lampard got quite a few this way. Hopefully Jose will encourage it but I wonder who is our player to take on that role from midfield. Interestingly , I've noticed PEH does it and it nearly paid off for him playing for Denmark the other day. Bergwijn possibly? Or do we need another player who is confident of shooting from 20-25 yards out ? I feel other teams score more from this range than we do.
As of right now I think it's too hard to tell what will work best against certain systems because too many of our players are inconsistent and/ or not producing the numbers we need them to be. Dele goes missing far more than he shows up nowadays whilst Lucas is more or less living off of that CL semi final. Lamela is also too unreliable with his form/ fitness. We're seemingly becoming a bit too dependent on Son and Kane due to the quality in the squad, we've lost key players whilst others have declined. We're a far cry from the team a couple years back where everyone was as reliable as the next guy. Consistency really is a problem at the moment. Jose's managed to set a fairly effective system to improve us defensively but our lack of creativity in midfield and lack of potency up top (outside of Son and Kane) is worrying and that's partly why I want Bergwijn starting more games as I think he has the potential to be a potent force up front, we haven't really seen enough of him, Kane and Son in the starting XI too often but I feel it's got the potential to be really good. Agree about Clarke and I'd certainly like to see him get more game time, impressed me in pre-season, still very raw but you can see there's a potentially good player there. Hopefully starts against Plovdiv.
I think it's more likely Clarke plays in the Carabao as he will use up a space in the EL squad whereas he qualifies as U21 in England. Similarly Sessegnon.
Sessegnon was part of the Champions League squad last season so he'll be taking a Europa squad space I'd imagine. You may be right on Clarke though, guess it'll depend on how many we ship out/ intend to ship out along with who comes in as to whether we can register him or not. I hope to see him given a spot though, feel like we need a bit of unpredictable youthfulness in the attack to freshen things up.
This bloke please log in to view this image ...and that's as far as I could get, so he's either a model train enthusiast or a rocket scientist
A Google reverse image search suggests "Gentleman"! He looks like he's going to ask me kindly to do something dodgy.
