In assessing yesterday's game, it's worth remembering how bad Leeds are and who they were missing yesterday. They've won twice this season - against Norwich and Watford, each by a single goal. Also, they were missing all of their goal threats in Bamford, Rodrigo and Raphinha. Hence, I'm not going to get too excited about Dier or Davies' decent performances and value going forward. We've been here before. They have the odd good game but we know that shouldn't be more than squad players. We'll know a lot more about some of the other players in the games running up to Christmas - Brighton and Leicester (A) and West Ham and Liverpool (H). Hugo apart, there isn't a position on the pitch that couldn't do with significant improvement. Some is down to fitness, confidence and adapting to Conte's methods. Kane and Son will improve. Hopefully, Emerson will settle into playing in the PL and not allow wingers to get by him so easily and Reguillon will learn how to better utilise the qualities that he has. However, a lot of the problems are that we're playing footballers who aren't up to the job and need replacing. That Ndombele didn't rank above Winks or a clearly, partially fit Hojbjerg, is damning of where Conte currently views a player he was interested in signing last summer. The headline from yesterday, is that for the first time in 3 years, we have a manager who can completely change a performance at half time. More impressive than that. he sent out the same underperforming players to do it. That and we outran Leeds by 4 km, looking stroner for 30 minutes in the second half, when we're normally bollocksed. Vive la revolution!
Little snippet from Dan KP’s article yesterday: “They outran Marcelo Bielsa’s Leeds – themselves considered super fit – 117km to 115m, and collectively completely 181 sprints. In ten matches under Nuno, Spurs averaged just 100km per game and the most sprints they managed in a game was 141 against Newcastle. It was a dramatic improvement. It is still early days but this was a clear indication that Spurs are set to return to being one of the fittest sides in the top flight under Conte.”
To put some balance on this ... The Bielsa press is not sustainable for 90 mins, so fatigue will get his teams eventually (especially in the PL) . Pochettino is a big devotee of the Bielsa press, but in contrast there was more nous in the press from his Spurs teams, with a resulting seemingly mega fit team in the last 10 mns.
He’s always gone through these patches, just about every season he goes missing for about a third of it, it’s why I’ve often held back on calling him world class, albeit he’s not far from it. I do though think this time around he’s just struggling due to the lack of creativity in the side. Gotta be so disheartening turning around and seeing Winks and co in the midfield behind you knowing full well the chances of receiving a through ball is slim to none, especially as he had Eriksen for a couple seasons and then Kane last season supplying him. His pace and finishing hasn’t been utilised anywhere near enough this one and it’s something we need to sort in January by getting a creative player. Conte, just like every other manager clearly doesn’t see Ndombele being that answer whilst Lo Celso and Dele are absolute toilet. It’s probably gonna be a slog between now and January until the creativity issue is sorted, hopefully we can just run like mad men as we did in the second half yesterday to compensate for it until then.
If Ndombele was half the player Dembele was, Lo Celso (or, for that matter, the 2019-20 version of Eriksen) wouldn't be anonymous But because he isn't half the player Dembele was we have the Hojbjerg/Skipp pivot which, while it does move the ball a hell of a lot better than the dreaded Winkssoko pivot ever did, it's rooted in functionality more than creativity and that stunts us further up the pitch if the wide players are having off days
Oh, right, passmap time please log in to view this image ...okay, I know we're in the middle of the grim death march towards Christmas, but did the team really have to create a Christmas tree with their passing? The most obvious thing to stand out from this, other than it looking uncannily like my passmaps when playing PES, is that every player is getting a decent amount of the ball as opposed to what we've had for the last two years where some players are massive circles receiving more balls than the I'm A Celebrity canteen while others are pinpricks, meaning our attacking patterns are less obvious and, therefore, less easy to be shut down However, the obvious issue is the FBs are clearly supposed to be the main source of width yet between them Emerson is finding Son regularly enough while Reguilon is finding...well I suppose he found the net, which makes up for him not finding a teammate often enough to create any data - as opposed to the thick slugs between Dier and Hojbjerg (and possibly Winks, it's hard to tell because they're positioning makes it look like they're Hojbjerg is giving WInks a piggyback) which, while Dier was good with the ball at his feet yesterday, routinely passing back to the sweeper to start over again is the reason why we looked like we were playing not to lose in the first half, as opposed to the second where we were playing to win. On the other hand, anyone else noticing the lines from Winks to Lucas, Kane and Son? That almost makes up for the fact he and Hojbjerg appear to be stepping on each other's toes in the middle when, realistically, they need to be more spaced out so we don't squeeze ourselves in the middle Ultimately, though, what this really needs is a passmap of the first half and the second, as I get the feeling that thick slug between Dier and the pivot will fade and the verticality will be more obvious, whereas showing it over the 90 minutes creates this odd shape
Winks and Hojbjerg were sensibly spaced apart in midfield but they frequently switched sides so their average position was central.
We’d also need Lo Celso to be at least a quarter of the player Eriksen was though to also prevent his anonymity… he’s not. He’s actually terrible as it goes, Ndombele can at least fall back on the excuse that he’s fat as for the reason he’s often poor and ineffective, Lo Celso’s basically just Winks but speaks Spanish.
Post match he said that he wasn’t sure if the players were ready (mostly physically) to play full throttle for 90 mins, so unless he’s really milking it for the press it looks like we set out to contain in the first half and win the game in the second half.
No, he isn't Eriksen - because he was signed to be van der Vaart, which is exactly how he played at Betis and also how he usually plays for the Argentina side. And when you look at it like that, you can see what Poch was aiming for: Kane being able to lay the ball off to Son coming in off the left, or Lo Celso coming up to his right, or going for goal himself (which means it's also possible to argue Lo Celso was signed to be a more creative Dele) Now why hasn't this happened in the past two years? Well, it's quite easy 1.) The lack of service past the halfway line means that there's little point making late breaks into the box to score because nobody's sending the ball through, even though this is what Ndombele's supposed to be doing 2.) The fact he's often played as an ersatz Dembele as a CM, and on a few occasions as an ersatz Sissoko as a DM, means that he can't make late breaks into the area because he's being played in a position where he'd need at least an extra yard of pace to make that workable Ultimately so much of the last three years boils down to not having Dembele and the knock-on effect that's had on various players because the space isn't being created and the knock-on effect of the team playing at least ten yards further back than they were between 2015-18, something Ndombele was signed to address but has clearly failed to do so which not only affects players who were at the club before the summer of 2019 but also players signed that summer based on the expectation of the team playing higher up the pitch - something further damaged by replacing Poch with somebody who had us playing another ten yards further back
He was signed to replace Eriksen as the Dane was running down his contract. Whether you thought he’d be the next van der Vaart though is probably not a great comparison, he’s more the next Lewis Holtby than anything. Three seasons into his Spurs career and all of our managers have struggled getting him into the XI, putting his failings on Ndombele is just a cop out, especially as he and Ndombele have rarely been on the pitch with one another. He’s played CM, CAM and RW for us and can’t nail down a place in any of them. Both he and Ndombele have failed to replace their predecessors and are both equally responsible for it. One’s fat, lazy and extremely weak mentally and the other can’t adapt to the pace and style of English football whilst also being made of glass.
As far as I can see both Lo Celso and Ndombele are both totally unsuited to the physical requirements of the premier league, I am sure that can both be successful in a less physical league again, but they both need shipping out for whatever we can get for them, 1 could go before we have even signed a replacement , because as ridiculous as it sounds currently both Dele and Winks are of more use than these 2, and they are both finished too.
That's what I think too, chuck them back into their old leagues or even Germany/ Italy and they'd excel again but England just isn't for them. They're not bad players per se, just terrible for us. Nearly £100m combined, into their third season and neither can get into the poorest Spurs team for some years.
No, he wasn't signed to replace Eriksen, because he isn't the same player as Eriksen Ndombele was signed to replace Dembele because he is the same player as Dembele, just like Sissoko was signed to cover for Dembele Putting the failings of several players onto Ndombele isn't a cop-out, because Lo Celso is hardly the only player affected by our inability to transition from defence to attack, Eriksen was just as isolated with Ndombele in the pivot, Kane was routinely isolated with Ndombele in the pivot, and the reason for our right flank becoming the Bermuda Triangle with Aurier and Lucas comes from there being nobody pushing up to support Aurier - the latter being less of an issue when Mason played Hojbjerg or Lo Celso in them position Ndombele would have played in
Yes he was Eriksen’s replacement and he was even picked over Fernandes to be so. He’s just been an utter dire one for us. Lo Celso does nothing with the ball even when he does get it and he’s hardly been on the pitch long enough with Ndombele in the last 2 and a bit seasons to even blame Ndombele for his failings, so it’s definitely a cop out. If you’re gonna blame Lo Celso’s failings on other players then Winks, Sissoko, Hojbjerg and Skipp will be the ones to blame as they’ve been on the pitch far more than Ndombele has throughout various stages.
