Bentancur was the left sided CM and was at fault for at least two of those and possibly all of them. He certainly didn't do anything to prevent any of them.
But we were not under siege at any point really. They had 7 shots on target of which 5 were in the two attacks that they scored from. The first of those originated from a pointless foul by Bentancur during an innocuous attack and the second from Lloris messing up a pass. They had very few other chances and as far as I recall all were from us giving them the ball. I didn't think the change made any difference to the midfield. Kulu was playing quite high up throughout.
Utd always spend big though. Be it transfer fees or wages. Eventually someone will come in at Utd and get it right. Spurs is completely different and not in a good way
They spend about the same proportion of what they earn as we do. The only way we can catch up is to boost income.
Catch 22 though as to boost income means champions league but to get champions league is near impossible without spending huge amounts these days
Look at the players he’s got available though. Most of them just aren’t good enough. This summer needs to see huge changes at Spurs. The likes of Lucas, Bergwijn and Ben Davies need to be bench players at best and the likes of Winks, Doherty, Sanchez need sold.
The other catch 22 is the concern that when we do go after a big ticket player, another clubs swoops in and steals them away. Ruben Dias to City, Bruno Fernandes to United and Luis Diaz to Liverpool being the most recent examples of this. So we end up shelling out A grade fees on crud like Lo Celso, Sanchez and Ndombele.
Again I don't disagree with any of this, but these players are still just about equal to their equivalents at the teams we are meant to be in a fight with for 4th with exception of the Man U who have better players but are missing something. I honestly don't see wholesale players from West Ham or Arsenal or Wolves who greatly improve our starting 11, there is a lot of mediocrity in all these teams, and I don't expect fans of other clubs look at many of ours either and wish they had them. A best of 11 from those 4 teams would probably get no more than 3 players from any one of them, so whilst I am in total agreement about what needs to happen with these players they are what we have and they are not as a group any worse than what we are coming up against most weeks.
I am not even suggesting 'bin off Winks'. I've seen Winks do well in a midfield three. Even as recently as the Liverpool match. I agree with most of what you say, your text is a more detailed better articulated version of what I'm saying. Winks with two other midfielders makes the midfield more press resistant. Asking him to do the job of Dembele is always going to be a step too far. Dembele and Wanyama…. solid two. Modric and Parker…. solid two. Palacios and Huddlestone... solid two. We have been labelled 'Doughnut FC' for years when we play a two man midfield with the wrong personal. Do you remember when Redknapp had to go and play Krancar and Modric in a two? Disaster. I don't know what Conte is trying to prove by playing Winks in a two. Name any manager that would risk it with any chance of success?
Poch got away with it, but that's because Winks had Dembele next to him creating space and also breaking the press - but anyone else alongside Winks hasn't worked, as the likes of Sissoko and Ndombele spent more time demonstrating than anyone should have to watch on a weekly basis One suggestion for a midfield two is if Conte adopts the 3412 formation he used at Inter last season as a player higher up the pitch could screen the midfield two while giving a more feasible out ball...but the obvious issue there is we don't have anyone to play as the 1 as Lo Celso and Ndombele were loaned out and Dele sold in the last window, and let's be honest there's reason to assume that at least one of those three names won't ever be a viable solution
While the PL is so cash rich, expect serious attempts at rinsing by overseas clubs. Not nice, but such is life. One benevolent side-effect of the Corona chaos may be that the most egregious instances of this may wither for a couple of years.
Collectively, I don't think we are at the same level as our immediate competitors. Other than a first day win against City and a draw against Liverpool's B Team, our results against teams around us are really poor. We've been saved by drawing very few matches and those late, late goals against Watford and Leicester. Without those, we'd be 10th, which shows how close we are to a mid-table finish. One would think that we have 2 strikers who'd walk into pretty much most teams and should be carrying other areas of our team, which we know, or think we know, are poor. There's pretty good evidence to indicate that's not the case this season, where the only players who're in really good form have been Hugo (Sunday excepted) and Skippy. We've got a -1 goal difference and have scored 28 goals in 22 games. Comparatively, West Ham are +11, 44 scored, United +6, 38 scored, Arsenal +9, 34 scored. Despite having poor scoring records, both Brighton and Wolves have positive goal differences. Other than Southampton, we've the worst GD in the top half and goals conceded aren't the main issue.. Our failure to score goals is a really serious issue. We're joint 11th scorers in the PL, with Everton. We've scored less than Southampton, Leicester, Villa and Palace, and only 1 more than Leeds and 2 more than Brentford. That's with 2 of the best strikers in world football. I'm not blaming the strikers in isolation, although it's clear that all of the three first choices are all in poor nick right now. The fact is that we regularly concede possession and position to the opposition. We aren't great defensively, like a Wolves or Brighton and we don't have great passing from midfield or wing backs who are creating opportunities that our strikers are putting away. Kane drops too deep because we're overrun in midfield and also, Lucas and Son aren't getting the ball often enough in positions where they can do damage. Unlike West Ham or United, our midfield doesn't score, neither do we score from our wing backs or centre halves. We're poor from corners and really poor from free kicks. There are problems across the pitch but for my money, it's mostly that we're overrun in midfield, especially without Skipp and Hojbjerg in there, and this puts strain on everything else. Personally, I think that we have to sacrifice Lucas for a starting line-up with 3 in the midfield against any decent footballing team, to get the best out of 2 fabulous strikers. It certainly won't cure the lack of quality in so many positions, but we might start to perform more like a team competing for European football and have players performing at the right level and able to claim that they're worth a spot in any team again.
Ive said this before and been accused of being too harsh on the players but I’ll say it again. Take Kane and Son out of this team and there is nothing special about Spurs. There is other good players (Skipp, Lloris) but the majority of this squad is bang average and wouldn’t stand out at the likes of Wolves, Everton, Newcastle or Leicester. The only way to improve is to get rid of them and actually make some good signings for the first time in 5 years.
We defended the free kick diabolically but my point was that it shouldn't have been conceded. I watched the highlights again and every on-target shot they had came from us giving them possession deep in our half. They didn't create a single chance from good play of their own. Most of our chances were created by passing through them.
But take City, Liverpool and Chelsea out of the league and everyone is bang average. You make it sound easy to make good signings, we have never tried to make bad signings there were plenty of people who thought that players we have bought would make a difference its easy with hindsight to say we bought the wrong players. But you are right we do need new players but if we sign 6 in the summer the chances of more than 3 of them being a real success is probably less than 50/50. So its likely that 7 of the current 11 will still be playing more often than not.
I didn't see the Wolves game so I did not suffer yet another defeat. I think it's actually quite difficult to assess this team at the moment. There are always forthright opinions on here and always after defeat the negative guys have a field day. When we win this board goes quiet, which just shows up how many on here are negative in their overall views, Overall we have a new manager who will misjudge what players can and can't do because he just hasn't been around them long enough. Everybody uses Winks as an example so I will too. Conte has shown more trust in Winks then either Mouriniho or Nuno? My guess is that what he sees in training is a player who listens, who tries, and perhaps most important plays simple football. What he has seen less of is how he is knocked off the ball and how he flounders under pressure. Don't forget we have all been looking at these players for years. We have seen them under different managers and different systems. Managers also try to impose their style and when you first join a club you are using the former guy's players to do it. On top of that we have a couple of new players who like our manager will have to adapt to the PL AND our team. I hesitate to talk about gelling because we were all sick of that word following the Bale money spend, but it is a factor. On top of that despite our mostly mediocre performances we are still, theoretically at least, in the fight for top 4, which I for one find surprising. Almost, there are only two consistent teams in the whole league, the rest can produce and beat anyone or flop and can't find a goal if the net was as wide as the pitch. So next up City, oh dear! another busy time for Spurs not606.
