I bet Lambert is eternally grateful for you pointing out how completely naive he was not addressing such a glaring hole in our defences!!! I'm with Beefy on this one. You say Fox isn't the answer yet when he is on form he can dictate our general play and if we have the ball the opposition cannot score. Spain seem to make that principle work for them! As for successful teams who employ DMs, they do so because they have a multi-million pound forward lines - playersup front who can win games almost single handedly with the sheer talent they possess.
After reading through all of this thread, I found myself thinking exactly the same way GG. A few in here have written Bassong off before the guy has even kicked a ball for us and it smacks of hypocrisy. Martin wasn't good enough for a place in a Peterborough team yet has gone on to be one of our most consistent performers over the past three years. Let's face it every player we sign will have some kind of flaw because if they didn't then they wouldn't be signing for us in the first place! Hughton proved that he created 'team's' where he managed before and we need to give him a chance to prove he was indeed our best choice possible. I was as appauled as anyone after Saturday and, god forbid, agree with some of what Carrabah has to say regarding Hughton's work so far but the guy needs time to prove himself.
You've made some excellent points and IMO, one of the most pressing needs is for Garrido and Bassong to get time playing together against other teams - perhaps the game next Tue might be a bit of an opportunity for some sort of experimentation (assuming that Garrido's work permit is through by then), but I don't want to see a repeat of our capitulation to MK Dons. What I really want to see on Saturday is the players playing with some passion and desire and creating chances to score (none of which was in evidence on Saturday) - it won't be easy, but I'd like to think they can rediscover some of the form they displayed in the middle of last season and attacking the opposition!!!
Doesn't Dawson have a history of injuries?? QPR are mugs for paying that money for him, and Spurs must be rubbing there hands over this deal!
so are you saying lambert was right not to address our leaky defence? even spain play with a holding player! i've said all through this that fox is a good player (one of my favourites to be fair) and that there is a place for him at this club, but he does not do what we need in that position. stick a tough tackling player in that role, someone who can break play up AND do what fox does, and instantly we have a more dynamic twist to our team. more solid going backwards and more fluent going forwards. fox is a capable player but he is not the answer for the role if we want to improve defensively, which i assume we do! as for the other teams having lots of resources, or great strikers, what do you want me to say? i said ALL successful sides play with at least one, often two holding players. this is totally true. teams near the top naturally have better forwards but successful teams who don't have the money but do well, like everton or newcastle, play with holding players. there is a very good reason for that - it works! these teams are always sound at the back because they protect their defenders better than we do.
Yup, they all seem to be of the same opinion on the Spurs board. Dawson is 28, injury prone and only managed to play seven games last season. AVB must be laughing all the way to the bank.
You think that's bonkers, check out the thread on our board where it's reported we've bid between £9.5m - £11.5m for a 17 year old French defender.....panic buying gone mad I've bought a ticket for the big 6 pointer but I couldn't tell you yet who any of our squad will be at this stage. Madness Back on topic I can't see Bassong at £5.5m but then football has eaten itself and anything is possible
Incidently, on Transfermarkt it says we paid £2.7 million for Bassong. They also value you him at £4 million. Interesting, I know someone people really rate this website and others don't.
I'm not questioning the validity of your point but you make it sound like all we need is a DM and all of our problems will be solved instantaneously. By installing new personal into a potentially more defensive mindset and tactical approach will leave us short in other areas of the pitch. The result is a trade off. My concern is that we will become a team who don't score so often but who still let in proportionally more goals. If we always scored at least 1 obviously the opposition would need to score 2. Now, would they only need to score 1 if we cannot break through teams as well?
no, of course its not going to correct all wrongs, but it will make a bigger difference than just say signing a new right back or a new centre forward! its the weakest area in our team and at times you could drive a train through our midfield. with a DM we will naturally create more going forward because our creative players won't be sitting so deep. its the balance thing i keep talking about! we have been crying out for a quality player in that role and nothing has ever been done about it. lambert's array of tactics meant we got by without one but the signs were there that we needed one and if we are to sustain premier league football, we will not survive long term without one.
My response to this post is just think about someone who can play the ball like Fox, but is a better tackler and can break play up a little bit better. Fits perfectly into the team, we concede less goals, more opprotuinities for attack etc
You see another point with regards to this debate is that everybody is assuming a DM will somehow stop teams breaking through our shambolic defences. Actually when I start to cast my mind back to last season the number of goals that came about through individual errors was frightening. No DM is going to be able to stop those!
But a better balance, more confidence in the defenders because of the greater support would help to a) reduce the number of mistakes b) there would be less opportunities for mistakes. Of course there will always be mistakes.
well that's a perfectly fair point chris! that's down to individuals learning from their errors and by signing better players, those errors should be fewer, naturally. but lets not forget that many of the errors came about due to our attacking mentality. players would get caught too far up the pitch with no cover, or we'd over play at the back. by being more conservative this will also help. again, its a balance thing, something lambert never quite got right, but something hughton will need to if we wish to stay up long term. edit. longsight has beaten me to it!
I do agree but finding that player just isn't appearing to be as easy as it seems. Hopefully we will be able to develop a better European scouting network so that we can locate just such a gem.
