Wilson Palacios and Jonathan Woodgate. Son has always been a temperamental player. We can scroll through years of comments on this forum where we’ve berated Son’s performances in spells. He’s doing no different now than he was in Poch’s prime 16/17 side, other than obviously no longer having Kane alongside who naturally helped raise his game in certain situations that none of our other forwards are capable of. The international level where he has 5 goals and an assist in Korea’s 4 World Cup qualifiers this season?
You're right, he's always been a bit of a purple patch player which is probably why no big club has ever made a serious attempt at signing him. For me the difference is whereas in the past during those purple patches we would regularly watch him tearing opposition teams to shreds - as well as stat padding - now we are just seeing the latter. He just doesn't dominate games like he used to and while the Kane argument is a valid and strong one, there's been plenty of times in the past where he has torn opposition teams to shreds in Kane's absence too. Whereas in the past he would often be a major part of the MOTM debate, I struggle to think of many games this season where I've felt he was one of the best players on the pitch. Burnley, Arsenal, Villa and Newcastle spring to mind but not much else. You'd want to remember far more performances from a captain and such an experienced and talented player.
BBC pundits think Maddison should have seen red for the 'punch' on Yates, failing to mention the fact that Yates should have been off for 2 yellows by then, and also ignoring the ott on Lo Celso, which Romero saw red for against Chelsea. Roy Keane saw it differently! Basically called Yates a pussy and when asked if it was a punch replied 'not in my book'!
If he can find a 'purple patch' for 5 of the last 7 games at least. then we will be home and hosed for a CL place!
A few things I noticed today... 1. Werner was very good for the first 20 minutes and all the second half...he got a standing ovation from the fans. 2. Bissouma is badly out of form. Think starting him against Newcastle, City, Chelsea, Arsenal and Liverpool will hurt us. 3. The taking of the knee was well respected by the whole crowd. 4. The changes at half time helped bring Brennan Johnson into the game so we were dangerous down both wings. 5. When we played with speed we were a real handful but we have a habit of allowing the opposition to rile us up and stop us playing. It happened time and time again this season. Wolves, Brentford, Forest home and away, sheff utd, Brighton, Everton, Burnley etc...we really need to learn from this and stop letting the opposition distract us. 6. The protest about stopping concessions for over 65s was very well supported all around the lane on the 65th minute. 7. Johnson got a great reception when he came off from the forest fans 8. The forest player who tried to get maddison sent off should have been booked for diving or Maddison should have been sent off...personally think Maddison was an idiot and could have cost us. 9. Think the comments re Son playing poorly today are wide of the mark. He was instrumental in leading our closing down and consistently caused their defenders to give the ball away. Personally I think Maddison had a far worse game. 10. Chelsea 11. This was more than a few points
That’s no different to saying why did no big club come in for Kane until after about 7 years when City made their approach? Generally speaking to sign one of our best players you have to be one of about 7 clubs and unless a player threatens to leave/ go on strike/ submit a transfer the only way you’ll get one of those players is likely if their contract runs down or a club pays an astronomical fee because for as much as Levy’s had his critics, he’ll make the buying club go through hell to sign a key player. We got a world record fee at the time for Bale, huge amounts for Berbatov and Modric, we sold a 30 year old Kane with one year left for £100m (still too short in my opinion but that’s for another day). Knowing Son’s worth to Spurs not just as a player but as an Asian icon who probably generates ridiculous amounts in that market for us, you’d be looking at a fee close to, if not even more than Kane’s, despite Kane being the better player, for us to consider selling. I just don’t see this decline you keep going on about. Personally I just think you’ve set a bit of a marker for Son to bash him and won’t budge from it. For me, I think he deserves more praise than criticism because he’s lost his strike partner that helped him excel at times (like Keane and Berba) yet has still produced a ton of goods for us like he’s always done. Come the end of this season it’ll likely be between him and van de Ven, with an outside shot for Vicario and Porro, as to who wins our POTY.
I don't think Sonny's effort can be faulted, but he's in one of 'those' runs of form where nothing is really falling for him and his final decision making and shooting is a bit iffy. Agree though about Maddison on both counts, particularly the first half. Improved a lot after half time.
Yep from my view up in the stands I would agree with all of those points! My 16 year old daughter was with me this time for her second game and has now not seen us lose, a lucky charm for sure...
Thought the one by Casemiro at the end of the United match was worse, but that was only a yellow. Again, depending on who did it (and what team they played for?) the result might have been different.
Yeah I think Maddison, like Bentancur, isn’t 100%. I wouldn’t be surprised if at the end of the season we hear he’s been playing with a slight injury or something that may require minor surgery. Ange should try rotating him a bit more like he’s been doing with Bentancur so that we can hopefully get a top 45 minutes from him rather than a laboured 75 mins. Then hopefully come next season both players will be ready to fire on all cylinders once any issues with niggles or fitness are ironed out. I think it’s the same for Sarr too as it goes, looking nowhere near as dynamic as he’s usually done this season. That back issue is probably worse than what was mentioned a few weeks back. Hojbjerg’s done enough in cameos of late to earn a start, especially as he doesn’t seem to be carrying any knock too. If my favourite player, Lo Celso, has to start a game or two as well in order to keep one of those three as fresh as possible then so be it.
If Son had scored instead of hitting both posts recently, and/or yesterday when it was saved onto the post, his contribution would look quite different. Very fine margins.
I don't think Son is helped by playing in the centre. He is not a centre forward he is quite the opposite. His ball holding skills are probably the weakest aspect of his game. He thrives when he can come in from the wing and move at speed. His shot making is top notch which I suppose is why we are playing him in the centre, but we are losing much of his game in doing so. Werner can hold up a ball much better and might be better in the centre in the absence of Richarlison even though his shot making is not a strength. He could provide lay offs to Son and Johnson from the centre and we would have a fully functioning Son back.
I said in the other thread that I was astonished (!) that this was not looked at or talked about much. Shocking tackle....
As an aside, a glorious day up here in Nottingham this morning. Even the bin men this morning bitching to me about "the punch" as well as bemoaning the miss by Woods. Combined with the sun shining it makes for a spring in the old step as one goes about ones business.....
Son is definitely better on the left than in the middle. If Richarlison was fit then Son would be on the left. Werner is never a number 9 and that’s why Ange has moved Son to the middle.
Team selection for Newcastle will have to be spot on. We've then got a potentially very valuable two week break before the Woolwich game during which we can work on fitness and recovery.
