He obviously doesn’t rate Vini as highly as the fans do there must be a reason for that When was the last time you was happy with his line up anyway? there are 11 players..it’s highly likely someone will be pissed of with some selection or another the long game blame is definitely at ENICS doorstep He didn’t start Vini he started Bale...he had a choice to make..in hindsight it wasn’t right because Bale didnt deliver...nothing to say Vini would have apart from a hat trick against a team 8 tiers below us a few weeks ago.
Our sweet spots are definitely the Højbjerg type signings for some reason. Good players who we hope can step up. Just off the top of my head, of the recent big buys, Tanguy is only just coming good, Gio is good but always crocked, Dave has gone nowhere and we just massively overpaid on Sissoko. Not great showing.
A winner like Jose has managed the very best teams though. He hasn't had to come to a club before where they're not already the best or not able to provide unlimited finances, this was the biggest test of his management since Porto and so far he's failing. Saying we shouldn't go shopping at a corner shop is essentially a cop out because just about every single Spurs fan was happy with our summer business because on paper it was the right sort of signings for us, the only player we missed out on was Skriniar, so Jose essentially got 95% of the players he wanted last summer, that's probably the same for any manager at any club, it's unlikely every manager gets 100% of the players they want. Ultimately he's failed to get a tune out of most of the new signings, he's failed to get a tune out of most of the existing squad and his overall squad management has left a lot to be desired if truth be told. This is all without mentioning the style of football on show too.
Here's one obvious error against Brighton: In the leadup, the ubermensch said Bale would start up front - but in reality he started behind Son in a 3421 formation The fact is that in none of his appearances this season have we ever seen Bale making the runs from deep we expect, so it would've made more sense (in a "Best of a bad situation" definition of better...) for Son to be in that role with Bale up top
I dunno mate, Vini is an actual striker and the way someone who actually plays that position can impact us is very different to playing a winger there. We need a focal point at the top, someone to engage defenders and act as a pivot to help our other forwards make an impact. When Bale or Son play at 9 they drift too much, no doubt they can both score goals there but the impact on the team is negative because the structure of the attack is completely lost when they drift around instead of occupying defenders physically.
I think this is what many of us have been of the opinion of for a while. Personally I feel (in general) we’ve wasted a lot of “£10-15m’s” (5+ years ago) and got exactly what we deserve. - a lot of bang average and underwhelming players. In the last couple of years or so, that price range has changed and is now a “20-30m” player. Barring the few exceptions (and we have been good at finding some) this low end “stingy” spend has ultimately left us in this position. There’s been times (Bruno Fernandes as an example) where we’ve needed to spend that bit more to get the extra quality and really make the difference. We’ve seen that commitment with the likes of Ndombele and Lo Celso more recently, but we seem to be in this position now where we have left ourselves with so much to do. The quality we need is going to come at a price, in most cases. We’ll never get as lucky again as we were with the likes of Toby, Lloris, Vertonghen etc who were very good value for money. I think a change of management can help us get the best out of some of our summer signings, especially if we can continue to find replacements where we’re short in the summer (a mix of youth and marquee signings is fine by me). But IMO there’s no doubt that we’re still gonna have to spend some significant cash to get us to where we need to be. And whilst Mourinho’s in charge, we’re only gonna go backwards. Yes he might win a trophy, but the reality is it will be a slow limp across the line that covers up some major cracks. If he’s to somehow win a trophy playing like this, his job will be done. He won’t care. He’ll have his “trophy track record” intact, and we’ll be royally ****ed, when he’s inevitably sacked.
I haven't been happy with his lineups since they stopped making sense, which is roughly when we stopped winning games, funnily enough. I didn't complain about the team selections before Arsenal or Leeds, for example. I replied to you before the latter here: https://www.not606.com/threads/tottenham-hotspur-v-leeds-united.389335/page-3#post-14473003 Bale isn't a striker and his form hasn't been good enough to justify a start, especially ahead of an actual striker. Vinicius has largely played well when he's been given a chance, especially in a side that makes sense, even if it's made up of B players. Scored 3 and got 3 assists in 5 Europa League games, despite only playing 90 minutes once.
I was happy with it but you can’t expect a manager to turn the players into something else something beyond their own capabilities however I will use hindsight like most of us do after every game and say the quality of our purchases has not been good enough on the whole Skriniar might only be one player but he was essential, more so than purchasing Hart, Vini on loan, Bale and probably a few others. So it’s not like he has a 95% upgrade on squad quality
I'd say that's because we've done well when going for a certain price range and even type of player, we've often had the most success signing young players with potential that generally cost a lot less than a proven product and this is the point I'm getting at, we seem to spectacularly fail when we do actually spend big. We then find ourselves in a bit of a vicious cycle because we need a top class or signing or two to help take us on to the next level but when we do spend big on a player who we think can do just that, they often let us down and prove to be even worse than those we spend considerably less on. That's not expecting too much, it's just seeing a player massively underwhelm to the point where they've been no better or even worse than some already at the club.
Levy's also pretty canny. Players like Sissoko, Aurier and Moura turn up at the very end of the window...when there's nothing left as an alternative. This leaves the manager in an invidious position. Does anyone believe that managers actually willingly signed off on Raziak, Frazier 'Bloody' Campbell and the like?
putting Son up top was like nullifying 2 players a striker and our LW, I get that. but the fact of the matter is he trusts Son more than Vini I’m not going to behave naive and take his comments about being happy with the squad as gospel...he’s obviously toeing the line as everyone wants and expects of him since he got lambasted for being honest when he was at United. but it’s also obvious to us that he’s not happy with the squad and anyone who thinks purchasing 7 players for 65 mill is the difference between what we had become and what we want to become are kidding themselves when teams around us are willing to spend that amount on one player to fill a key area. He’s bulked a squad up and tbf most of his new purchases have helped us progress in the cups but we can all see that they can’t cut the mustard at the elite end of the English game...so what is the point in hammering him with ‘but he’s got his own squad’...no he hasn’t. Traditionally and as has been shown this month..the Jan TW window is more miss than hit so really it’s only been one major window. Same formation and dynamics as the Sheffield United game...I’ve seen the hyper criticism after last night...can’t recall the hyper praise after the Sheffield game. for me the old boys at our club are a set of ****ers who just dont have the minerals. We always lose the following game after a defeat to Liverpool..no balls this lot and too busy feeling sorry for themselves. Hojberg can’t do it all alone. Nor can Sonny and Kane.
For beating a team that had won one game? Even then, we sat back too much and had to rely on Ndombele doing something ridiculous to kill them off.
They literally called us, told him he was at their training ground, and we'd better spread our cheeks if we knew what was good for us
no game is easy...they beat United away. they might be bottom of the table but if you don’t have your wits about you, they will punish you. it’s Ndombele’s job to do the ridiculous...that’s his artillery...he needs to do it more. I dont expect that from Hojberg
The deadwood at clubs like Chelsea or the Manc clubs make more to sit on the bench there than play for us but acknowledge they will will have to take a serious wage cut to head to West Brom, Bournemouth, Southampton, Burnley or whoever so that isn't a problem The deadwood playing for us wouldn't have to take a wage cut anywhere as significant as that, maybe dropping £10k a week total instead of the £25k+ some of the aforementioned deadwood will, but they would rather make that extra £10k a week for as long as possible, as it takes them a year to make what Chelsea deadwood would in half a season
Campbell was as bad as Raziak. We'd have been better off with nothing, saving the wages and telling United to loan him out anywhere else. People eulogise Levy's transfer dealings but that was utter dogshit and made the Berbatov sale even worse.
