Antoher big thing I don’t rate about Ange is his squad rotation. He runs certain players into the ground and then when they inevitably get injured, their replacements go from no game time at all to being needed for every minute and we’ve seen them get injured too.
The subjectivity in an objective methodology is where it breaks down, for me. If your statistical analysis indicates that Ange is going to improve our fortunes, it's back to the drawing board, I'm afraid.
There isn't any subjectivity though. And my analysis shows no such thing. It simply shows that there isn't enough data to be sure yet. I don't care whether we sack him for non data reasons but it would be unfair to sack him on results.
Think that Johnson has been impressive...16 goals and 5 assists in 41 games is a very good return for a wide player.
TBH he nearly got it right in the Europa, giving Davies & Dragusin starts so they wouldn't get rusty while Cuti and Mickey Van were rested, plus using it to bed in Gray and Bergvall - but leaving Spence out of the squad was one of those things that looked like it'd bite us even at the start of the season Problem is that I can't see a way that he could have been in the squad, as we needed Austin and Whiteman in to meet CG quotas, so there just wasn't a free space
The boy has end product and knows where the goal is. I think he can come good under the right system. By come good, I mean a better all round game rather than ‘just goals’ if that makes sense
There's got to be a role for him that makes full use of his talents, but doesn't expose his weaknesses as much. It sure ain't his current one. Playing wide and being tasked with beating full backs and covering an underlapping full back is a chronic misuse of what he's good at. Why was he bought for the current set up? **** alone knows...
He’s one of the most enigmatic players I’ve ever seen. Often drops 1/10 performances most weeks but just has a knack of being in the right place with a very crisp level of finishing. Just how is it a guy can play so badly yet churn out impressive numbers? Only Tottenham I swear.
He was bought for two reasons: his data for shots in the box was identical to Harry Kane's, and as a bonus he gets our HG numbers up Problem is it makes more sense than is possible to type that he plays with an overlapping FB so he's able to break into the box, rather than potentially trip over Porro as both make similar moves inside
There's something of Dele Alli in him. If we could control the midfield, like we did under Poch, with a solid pair of centre backs and overlapping full backs, he could be devastating.... ...but we're so far away from that with Ange, that currently, he looks like Dele under Mourinho.
Could be very good in a role that acquires him to run into the box late like Brian says that Deli kind of role. he can’t dribble, can’t tackle so can’t really think of any other position for him Out and out striker as I’ve seen him mooted wont work imo as being a striker requires certain kinds of runs into certain positions, don’t think Johnson has that kind of intelligence in his game.
I'm not such a fan of Brennan as while I don't expect him to do half the things Ange asks of him, he is often let down simply by his work rate which is pretty poor compared to most of the team. Like many, a better system would bring more out in him. In fact I'm not at all sure why he has to track back at all when we play with a back 4 and midfield 3, that should be more than enough cover down the flanks. But the instructions to our fbs to be permanently out of position combined with a midfield that doesn't know its arse from its elbow means that we treat Brennan like a RWB expected to do it all. Utilising a proper 10 instead of the mess behind and either side of Solanke would help massively. I think you and others have called it correctly in comparing him to Dele. Scores goals and assists but does nothing else. Dele needed Kane's physicality, Eriksen's vision and Son's pace to carve open spaces for him to exploit, and for a few years he was the best in the world at it. We have Solanke for the physicality but ask him to use it in very deep positions. We have Tel, Spence, Odobert and Porro for pace but ask them to cut inside the whole time, and we have Maddison for vision but play him as a LM. The fact Brennan has achieved relatively impressive stats in a broken system is a credit to him.
Son, Johnson and Maddison playing off Solanke and looking for runs in behind. Also leave Son and Johnson up when we're defending set-pieces, especially corners.
The thing is Solanke often plays as a False 9, so that does benefit Johnson as he's creating space for him to nip into, as demonstrated for his second on Sunday when he barged Harwood-Bellis to the floor during the buildup This is the advantage and disadvantage of Solanke: he does create chances by hassling defenders, or drawing them out of position, or bundling them out of his way - but that underlines he does half the job, because Roberto Firmino was equally good at hassling/drawing/bundling defenders, but he also had the passing to reliably play any of Johnson, Son or Maddison into the gaps he created, something Solanke doesn't
