I also totally agree with your analysis of the midfield notso. On one of the other forums, it's a dembele love in, but things seem to have a bit more perspective on here
Dembele was 15m. Dempsey was about 6m, Siggy about 9m. That's 30m right there. OK - Verts and Lloris were decent purchases but 15m for a midfielder who, 12 months later, doesn't look able to justify his place in the team once everyone's fit seems like a bit of a cock-up to me. Other players of that price-range who under-performed (Bentley, Rebrov) have become by-words for "expensive flop". I hope Dembele doesn't go that way but it's easy to see how he could find game-time hard to come by if he just floats about in games as much as he does. The main hope is that he can be coached into a more effective player - he seems to have the ability he just doesn't have any appetite for, as you say, grabbing the game by the scruff of the neck and owning it.
There does seem to be a bit of a demolition of our team on the strength of what? I am not sure, but it seems premature to write off Dembele and Chadli as failures. Maybe we should look at this as the squad that is being built and not just focus on a first 11. We have not been used to the situation we are gaining at Spurs. May I remind you of AVB's words 'We need two players for every position' That is his stated aim. If you cannot see Dembele's place then I can, he has the very valuable ability to produce unstoppable runs. This will be used in some games to start in others as a sub. We can expect to see this throughout the team. We have seen for ourselves that successful cup runs require a deep squad, the ability to bring on player of similar quality to those they are replacing. I expect to see AVB make use of this squad on a game to game basis, which is after all what clubs like Man U, Chelsea, and City have been doing for a while now.
Against Palace there were two classic examples, one on 30 minutes when he broke clear approaching the halfway line and there was 20yds of clear space in front of him with Robby shaping to make a run, and he goes sideways to switch play...why??, the play was ahead of him. This happens a lot Spurf. On 35 minutes he had two attempts at a slide-rule, ones like Walker can execute perfectly, and they were that bad he put both arms up to apologise. These attempts are rare as the preferred choice is an easy lay off after a run, that has its uses, but all the time...dunno about that. Scott Parker with brilliant close control.
For me the closest thing we have at the club to Modric right now (in the sense of wanting to have the ball, creating space and running a game) is Tommy Carroll, by all accounts he's been tearing up the U21 league the first two games this season and everytime I've seen him play he has made space and time for himself on the ball. Whether he is truly ready or not I can't say but I'd love to see him get time against Tsibili and Swansea because he could be an injection of just what we need. Obviously he's more likely to get it against the former but hopefully if he gets the nod he will impress and force himself onto the pitch for the Prem games. It may be wishful thinking and maybe others more in the know will be able to slap me down and tell us he's not properly ready/able to do for us at the highest level that but from what I've seen he could well be a solution. Capoue-Paulinho-Carroll has physicality, drive and creativity and I'd love to see that on Thursday and possibly beyond, I don't think my wish will be granted though.
First, best of luck to Parker, thanks for giving your all. I'm very pleased we got 4 million for him, and very pleased he got a three year contract. Being much better with Modric IMO is part of the story. A bad knee injury, especially for an aging athlete, shouldn't be discounted either. I'm afraid it may take a couple of years for a player to get back to where he was. Sometimes I get the feeling people don't rate certain players not because they're ineffective but due to some combination of them lacking a certain kind of flair, or not measuring up to admired predecessors. I tend to think both Gylfi and Dembele can be key ingredients in winners, and Dembele, at least, had the track record last year. But I'll admit that what he does best, which is get the ball from back to front without incident, and help prevent the other team from doing the same, is dull compared to Modric's high-flying style. Nevertheless, the question of who the odd man out is a poser. It seems it can't be Paulinho, though Dembele and Sandro were fantastic last year. Add Capoue as our best player in our first match and it's a quandary, but a good one to have. Don't suppose any of them can play left wing... I don't think there's much chance Carroll will break into the starting lineup, but I have to agree I'd love to see him with any of the starting four. I'll be disappointed if it doesn't happen in the Europa. And for that matter, all I'm really in favor of is giving Gylfi at least a half dozen games or so to see how things go. I'd like to see Holtby given a good run as well, if Gylfi doesn't get results.
It's only a matter of time before Carroll makes everyone notice his ability, as the season progresses our lack of ball playing, quick thinking midfielders will become even more apparent. I remember last year I wrote that article on Carroll and to be honest it felt like there was a handful of us seeing his potential, so it's good to see more fans not worried about wanting a youngster to be given a chance he deserves. Look at Everton, Martinez gives Ross Barkley his chance and he shows the ability he has.. I bet if Moyes was there, Barkley would not have started this season and Everton fans would be saying '' he's not ready''. ...... but guess what? he Was ready. Same applies to Tom, he just needs a break, to start a game in the right system and he is good enough to be used, but not every week as he still needs time to develop. Raheem Stirling is another young player, proves he's good enough but then suffers burn our but will be a better player for the games last season. But back to our midfield, we have tons of pace, power and strength but we need that quick thinking inventive play, and siggy simply isn't up to the task so Tom will get his chance if there's any justice.
If Carroll can do what he does up against our own first team players in training, I'm sure he will get his chance, my only concern is physicality, I'm apprehensive about him playing Stoke and the like, but we've got some big strong lads now, like I say, if he can cause our own players problems you'd have to say he's worth a shot...no pun intended.
Totally agree about dembele, he needs to step the **** up and start doing a bit more. He's excellent at retaining the ball and making a pass, but it's not dynamic enough now we have paulinho and sandro. He needs to work on a new dimension and start offering something more in the attacking sense. Don't get me wrong, he's by no means a flop, but his form is so inconsistent too, which doesn't help.
I'm pro dembele I'm pro Sandro I'm pro paulinho I'm pro Gylfi being given enough of a chance I'm pro holtby being given enough of a chance I'm pro Carroll being given a chance This is a problem, a good problem
That must be a really old kit they've given him. They changed their name to Snickers about 20 years ago!
Absolutely. The "analysis" of Chadli as "crap" after one PL game is beyond ridiculous. You know what, he may even be crap but I can't possibly assess that after one game and nor can anyone that claims to. From now on are we going to be looking for only the bad and ignoring the good? If that is what you want to find that is what you will find because nobody ever has a perfect game. That is conclusion leading the facts.
Gotta say, well done to Tottenham. I see it as you have one of the top 3 teams in the league even without Willian. With him, well potential champions?
Thanks. Most here are pretty happy with out business this summer and its about time we spent some money (net). Obviously we have a Bale cloud at the moment and we're just waiting to see where we are on sept 3rd. I think champions is pushing it. We were something like 17pts behind last season and champs this year won't have a massively different number of points. 17 is a lot of points to make up in 1 season. 3rd or even 2nd at a push might be achievable though depending on the next 2 weeks.
Just read some rumours that Lamela is on his way to London for talks accompanied by his agent and his father. Anyone hear about this?
Like this too. He's the one i want tbh, with the view that Bale is leaving at some point whether its this year or next.
Yes notso Dembele can be frustrating at times but I think that's because we can see his abilities and we have seen him charge through a mele of players and retain the ball. I think the whole team has been guilty of sideways passing. This is AVB is it not? The team will evolve according to the qualities within in it IMO. At the moment all are finding each other out. I hope we have a good football brain amongst our new signings as this will make a lot of difference. I remember one of our players in an interview on the OS (Lennon I think) saying that the squad was not the brightest bunch of people. So let's hope we have added a 'brain' in the new signings.
