Think that the difference today to last season was work rate. While we did not always pass crisply or accurately enough, made some mistakes and made wrong decisions at times the big plus is that we worked hard as a team...that is the bare minimum which was missing so many times last season. Overall we gave away far too many opportunities (25) but while Lloris had to make save so did their keeper. We were away from home against a team playing in front of a full home crowd for the first time in 18 months and with a point to prove against their old boss so, all in all I think that the positives out weigh the negatives. Where I am worried is that we need to get rid of Sissoko, Winks, Doherty, Aurier Clarke and either Dier or Sanchez (too late to get rid of both) and get in an Aurier replacement, a central defender, a defensive midfielder and a striker...all of this in just 9 days looks all but impossible and it'll come back to hurt us in my opinion.
On the one hand, a smash & grab raid at Wolves isn't the result or performance we wanted On the other hand, actually managing to pull of a smash & grab raid is a vast improvement on last season...
Collymore's an idiot.[/QUOTE] Saving money on derv for the coach, we can expect a couple of players coming in
I’d change defensive mid for creative mid. We’ve created close to **** all in all three of our games so far, instead relying on a good counter attack but we’re not always going to be the counter attacking side in games. Badly need a new Eriksen… Though that’s far easier than it sounds. I’d also add at least one of Ndombele or Lo Celso to the “must sell” list (will likely be the former), one’s fat and lazy and the other leaves me scratching my head as to what it is he actually does/ done that warranted such a high purchase price.
The simple answer is the result doesn't really build on last weekend's result, it somehow feels like a sideways step One week we get a deserved win against the ₡hampion$ yet a week later we got a Pulisesque win against Wolves, which apart from sounding back-to-front also has a feeling of "We got away with that" more than anything else
I agree with you, our midfield had almost no control and stopped nothing as Wolves moved forward, to blame our defenders is a travesty IMO. The lack of control in midfield is for me our major weakness. Hojbjerg is an important player but he can't do it on his own, both Skipp and Dele worked hard but we lack the playmaker who can calmly make the team tick. Most of our attacks come from bypassing midfield as if we have an old fashioned English manager using route 1 tactics. Last season Kane almost became that playmaker and it should not be his role he has other important duties up front.
I have just said much the same although I think Lol Celso is worth persevering with for a season at least.
He is but not in the current system. Most of his best work in a spurs shirt came from driving runs through the centre and that isn't happening if he is deployed as an inverted winger as he was today or on the edge of the midfield 3 as he was on Thurs. We have far too many players who like to occupy similar 'zones' on the pitch. All of Hojbjerg, Skipp, Lo celso, Ndombele, Winks, Sissoko and to a lesser extent Dele are neither conventional DMs nor are they conventional AMs. They all do a bit of everything (aside from Ndombele, who really is an enigma) and the end result is we have lots of jacks of all trades but also masters of none. Nuno seems to seek to use the 433 system like Pool have, but to do that we urgently need to improve at RB and probably another CB, as well as waiting patiently while Dele learns a totally new role. I am more confident that IF Kane stays and knuckles down it will have a knock-on effect on the whole set up. Not just as a focal point but he is one of the best players out there in sucking defenders out of position and bringing his team mates into the game via the spaces subsequently created. None of our other attackers can do that so we are pretty easy to defend against.
I was torn on this point...think its a close call either way (as we won't get both) ... don't disagree with your points tbh
Kane HAS to stay...and the management HAVE to ensure that he performs. If they don't, we are ****ed on the pitch and not much better off it.
I think it’s a case of we’re gonna have to persevere with him more so than actually want too. He’ll be key in helping Romero (and Gil) settle but as a player just so underwhelming. Beginning of his third season and he’s still nothing more than a squad player, despite being one of our biggest ever buys.
Way I’m looking at it as whilst it’d be great to have a true destroyer type like Wanyama, Skipp and Hojbjerg do a good enough job of helping snuff some attacks but what they (and Dele, or any of our midfielders) lack is the ability to dictate a game and make those passes that we as fans will be like “how’d he do that?!” just how Modric and Eriksen used to do so often. Those two could make the one pass that completely changes a game and we really are lacking that creative spark in the side.
I totally agree that we lack the creative spark, but as CK says we are trying to play in a similar style to Liverpool and some might say that they lack that creative midfielder too, and it worries me that our staff look at Dele, Hojbjerg & Skipp and think that they can do a similar job to Henderson, Keita and Milner, and that Son, Kane and Moura can be our Salah, Mane and Firmino, and in a way they (well Kane and Son) can, but Liverpool have Robertson & TAA and we have Tanganga and Regullion and currently if that is the plan that is where it falls down.
Pass map time please log in to view this image First things first, let me point out the obvious: whereas against The Sheikh Mansour Team our attacks were all down the right and initiated by Tanganga winning the ball then playing in Hojbjerg or Lucas, this time around we're attacking mainly down the left. Now while that is stating the bleedin' obvious, there's a point to me doing so: because that demonstrates that we don't have one tactical plan which we rigidly adhere to regardless of whatever is happening on the pitch as we did between November 2019-April 2021 However, there's no denying there's obvious issues with how this looks First and foremost, look at the pass flow to and especially from Hojbjerg. The fact our most frequent passing combination was Hojbjerg passing it back to Sanchez underlines the lack of press resistance that our midfield has that sees an increase in passes back to the CBs, while Hojbjerg also being a conduit for sideways passes from and to Skipp and Tanganga goes a long way to explaining why our forward play kept grinding to a halt and also explains why Son was isolated for much of the match Lucas being pinned back also sticks out, obviously because we needed to keep Traore in check - but as a result he wasn't pushing forward, nor was he getting the ball to Son (or anyone else who could do damage, for that matter) Obviously the issue with pass maps is they only have the broadest picture, so it's impossible to tell what Kane or Lo Celso being introduced did to the shape of the team or the combinations, but it does show that if there isn't anyone taking the game by the scruff of the neck in midfield like Prime Dembele or a focal point up top then we do have the issue that we effectively take ourselves out of the opponent's half because nobody's dropping back for the ball nor is somebody driving the ball forward, so instead of creating space to run into we create a void which cannot be traversed However, what really stands out to me is that, much like last week, our opponents mainly attacked down the left, although Traore was cutting inside while Sterling and Grealish were trying to double up down that flank please log in to view this image Yet instead of countering down that flank, because Traore was causing us a lot of problems (albeit with no end product when he caused them) we weren't countering back down that flank, hence our main route of attack was down our left flank with Reguilon and Bergwijn doing the most with the ball - which does beg an obvious question about whether Nuno knew that Semedo is going to push up and leave his flank exposed, hence he tasked Reguilon and Bergwijn with trying to exploit this...or it could all be a coincidence and what actually happened was we were trying to get the ball as far away from Traore as possible, and to do that we attacked down the left flank
I think it may be case of right now we have no choice but to try to play like that. Ndombele is pretty much a goner if we find a buyer and Lo Celso is basically the Argentinian Holtby - you’re often left wondering what it is he actually does. So the options in midfield at present are Hojbjerg, Skipp and Dele as I really don’t even wanna think about the other two. I think we’re playing a dangerous game if we continue the season like this. In fairness to Dele, he’s been very busy these last couple games and really grafted, whilst Hojbjerg and Skipp have pretty much performed as expected with all action displays but the three of them just won’t work together long term in my opinion, there needs to be a creator in for one of them somewhere, especially in games where counter attacking won’t work due to the opposition playing similar/ too defensive.
What Saltypool have in their system is a ****ton of pace down both flanks from both the wingers and the FBs, so it's not an issue that their midfield isn't particularly creative because all they have to do is roll the ball out to the flank and then space gets created by the ball moving down the pitch at pace On the other hand, while we have a selection of pacy wingers in Son, Lucas, Bergwijn and Bryan, what we don't have is a selection of flying FBs to overload opponents with pace, because while Reguilon does fit the profile Tanganga and Davies don't while Doherty used to but due to the combination of Covid and his confidence being eroded he's a good half a yard slower than he was at Wolves and his thinking time is a good second slower as well Realistically a better choice for us is to adopt an Italian 433 rather than a German one, where we have a playmaker in our midfield three breaking the lines with a well-placed pass that either sends the CF on their way or sets it on a plate for one of the wingers to cut inside and cause havoc, which is just as capable of controlling the game by retaining possession as it is choking the game by shutting up shop with a mid block
