Was reading recently (can't remember where, so could have been on here) that the players felt physically under prepared under Jose. Would have expected him to be a heavy trainer, but Gio's injuries may have been down to not being as fit as he could have been. And Tanguy too, maybe under a more physical regimen we may see what Bale and others marvel at in training but doesn't appear in games very often.
More than anything else, our players looked physically unprepared at various points last season, notably how Ndombele was a write off after 60 minutes
Unlike Ndombele, he definitely has the workrate and tenacity to cope with the PL. But like Lamela, injuries are preventing him from getting into any sort of rhythm. Also like Lamela, it isn't 100% where he fits in the side or what his strongest role is. What i saw of him at Betis struck me as a hybrid between Dele and Lamela which might explain the problem as he definitely isn't an Eriksen replacement but has the qualities of two players who haven't been first team regulars for years.
Paratici's remarks after Nuno's appointment contained a very thinly veiled swipe at the fitness regime under Maureen. As HBIC often points out, we seemed totally knackered after 75mins of every game, often conceding stupid late goals and finishing matches looking clueless and tepid. It just goes to show how out of touch Maureen is with the modern game. In the past 5 years especially, it has become the norm for teams to graft like mad for 90mins. Even the better teams like City and Pool work really, really hard all game. Tuchel massively improved Chelsea by upping their workrate, Leeds stormed the league with insane levels of stamina. Fulham and Brighton grafted every minute. And unsurprisingly the teams whose work ethic was **** - us, Arsenal and Everton - were humiliated. And Maureen was deaf to it from day 1.
Missed the second group game IIRC due to getting crocked, and has been on the end of a fair few typical South American reducers throughout the tournament. Came on as a sub in the last group game and has started every other match though.
Some of the crowd were just singing the music, if you know what I mean. I doubt anyone really needs to see Azpilicueta shouting la la la la la a lot, really!
Be a real shame if he leaves and suddenly plays a whole season uninjured, utterly typical for Spurs though. Lovely player with a great attitude who we’ve unfortunately only seen flashes of.
I wouldn’t really see it as a shame to be honest. If a player does next to nothing for your club over a couple seasons but then has a good career elsewhere then chances are they just weren’t the right fit. That happens so many times. Even outside his injuries I don’t think we’ve seen much from him. One or two flashes is about it and for £42m you’ve gotta have more than flashes. Di Maria is another example, pretty **** for Utd yet elsewhere been one of the best attacking mids in European football for about a decade. I don’t doubt Lo Celso’s a good player, just like Ndombele but neither have done it here at Spurs and it’s telling we’re being linked with Pjanic of late. One of those two drop from the XI if he were to join, possibly even both depending on how Nuno sets us up.
Yeah I mean don’t get me wrong if a good bid came in I’d be sorely tempted to cash in given his injury record. He’s only really shown flashes apart from post-restart in 2020 when he arguably was our standout player in most of the matches. But he’s never had a full preseason with us and isn’t getting one this summer so I just don’t see how he ever gets fit unless we put him on his own schedule for a while. Plus like you say I don’t see an exact fit for him in a Nuno team (unless we play 433/4231 which I don’t think suits the majority of the rest of our squad as well), same with Tanguy. He’s a player I like a lot and I really wanted him to succeed here but sometimes it’s time to cut your losses, recoup some money to reinvest and wave goodbye.
Our center half had a penalty saved playing for Colombia last night. Helped Argentina reach the Final. Lo Celso impressed me. Spraying passes all over until taken off early in the second half.Why? Argentina were running the show until then!
I like idea of just having a national 'tune' with no words. Most lyrics to national anthems are utter bilge. Even the Welsh one - which is a banger - starts to sound dumb when you realise they are singing about the 'Eden of bards'.
If Alexei Sayle wrote the words, the world would be a better place... "Oh the hotel rooms of Slovik, Oh the hotel rooms of Slovik, Sing along with me, Revolutionaries, Of the hotel rooms of Slovik, Albania! Albania! Not nearly as repressive as Rumania, But easier to spell than Botswania, And if we don't win a game, The secret police will take away our extra meat ration..."
