About how I see him. But he's starting to convince me he and Bentaleb may be the best "2". I thought they looked good and complemented each other well. Holtby has the pressing and the getting forward, Bentaleb the tackling and composure. I'm celebrating the preseason as a brilliant success, because something always seems to go terribly wrong when the games count for something. It is completely meaningless, but you can't have everything. The new coach looks like a good choice, the young talent looks very impressive and well-suited to the coach, we went undefeated, played some pretty good football, and finally beat a theoretically decent team. I really liked the Dier-Kaboul pairing.
May as well enjoy it while it lasts as this is the time when fans convince themselves pre season stars are now showing their real ability, or the opposition only looked hopeless because the new system was key. Once the real football starts, playing against teams who will fight for every ball and do whatever it takes to stop you playing (like the spammers) then you see what players are capable of. Although RWAB I know you have been talking up Holtby for a long time now and been fairly realistically on his role so I get why you are taking the positive view but lets see if Holtby can show his ability when playing in a high pressure premier league game, with the team needing him to show his vision when under pressure. So far in the premier league his passing has been atrocious (for us) and he has looked as if he has lead in his boots but he does have a natural football brain with vision, yet so far he only shows it against inferior teams or in meaningless games.
Thanks Inda for putting that up, enabled me to see my first full game under Poch. Team looked compact and confident. Very good to see Kaboul looking fit and lively and thought Holtby was a spark throughout the game without doing anything amazing. Already looks a better team than last season here's hoping it continues.
I still think it is difficult to judge any of our players on the basis of last season. A season where we gradually lost hope and belief IMO. The big losses destroyed the confidence in the team the midfield never looked intouch with each other and the defence was walking on hot coals. Sherwood did not do a bad job IMO but it would appear that he only had the confidence of some of the players. Add all that up and I don't think it's fair to judge any of them. As always it's interesting and exciting (at this stage) wondering how we will fair with the new man. The fact that he has set out to strengthen the defence gives me hope that he knows what he is doing.
I enjoyed the match, as I do always do on my infrequent visits to the lane. I thought that in the first half Schalke allowed you far too much time and although the ball retention was good, not enough chances were created. Eriksson was the stand out performer in my eyes and I thought Bentaleb was very good as well. For me both Lamela and Kane played well but seemed to be almost trying too hard to impress. Dier did well on his debut and looked good alongside Kaboul. Rose and Townshend were both more eye catching than Lennon and Davies, but I actually thought that Lennon and Davies were more effective in their use of the ball. I was pleased to see Soldado score and at least he was playing with a smile on his face but Adebayor was the better of the two. Finally alot of talk on here about Holtby, I thought he did OK, but I have my doubts as to whether he could play that role against the really good sides as very few teams will allow you that much space in the league.
After yesterday, IMHO the team is not currently close to playing the way Pochettino will eventually expect. Which is understood given this is a totally new squad to him. So I expect the first few PL games will be akin to last season, until the training sessions start to sink and in and the players understand the way they will be expected to play. Then the starting XIs will show which players he is confident will play his system correctly. I also wonder whether the Soldado goal yesterday could be the turn of good fortune his confidence probably really needs (hooray) .
"He made an immediate impact at Southampton but it will be interesting to see the team develop." Indeed. Meanwhile, ending August in the PL with 6 pts, and a CREDITABLE performance against the Poool (whatever the result) , will be fine by me.
The preseason leaves me with the following thoughts. So far, so good with Poch. But everything remains to be seen. The squad is full of talented young players. We may have our best squad from top to bottom in recent memory (which is all I'm familiar with). But better to have a few big, established players (as in the VDV era) than a dozen possible future stars, which is what we have. One solid thing, I think: whatever our results, we're going to play better, more entertaining football this year. The less said about the beginning of last year the better. Sherwood's team was an improvement, but still oddly lethargic. And, while preseason means nothing, better to have a pretty good nothing, as we had, than a bad nothing full of trouble and controversy.
My experience yesterday was nearly ruined by an idiot behind me giving a running commentary on the game to his mate (who was presumably blind) and getting so much wrong. Had to intervene when he told his mate that the crowd were booing Sandro cause they don't rate him. Had to tell him they were saying shoooot, not boooo.
When they shouted "beast" it did sound like boo-ing. At least it did on the TV. I like it. It's intimidating. I liked Sandro's cuff round the lughole of Boateng too, and then Boateng was subbed. Their other player, who stuck up for Boateng, also had his arm pushed away by The Beast. I hope he has a good season; a better one than last season.
Sandro probably remembered the AC Milan WHL CL leg and all the diving antics KPB tried in an attempt to get Sandro booked.
It did in the ground to be fair. But you only need a passing interest in Spurs to know how highly thought of Sandro is amongst fans.
The fans spoke loud and clear yesterday regarding any potential sale of sandro. Tbh though, i thought if anything the beeeeeast shouts put him off (or atleast made him play up to it), and im not sure that it wont be counterprodictive if it continues. Can easily see him responding to a shout of beeeeeasssst by lunging into a tackle and getting a red card and another 6 month injury tbh.
Top 5 goals from pre-season: [video=youtube_share;qSHu04S5PZQ]http://youtu.be/qSHu04S5PZQ?list=UUEg25rdRZXg32iwai6N6l0w[/video]
