I agree. There's what works in theory, and what you can reasonably hope will actually work in practice. In a nutshell, IMO, if a team defends from the front they'd better be damn good at it. If they aren't, and if it's unrealistic they will ever be, they'll do better defending from the halfway line back. That's where I see Spurs, given their fairly talented but not particularly team-oriented players and fairly high turnover rate. One thing I like that Pochettino has done is to encourage periodic attempts by a handful of players to dispossess defenders near their own goal. It's produced easy goals against us, and it produced one for us against Arsenal. Getting the whole team forward would be suicidal, but a couple of players looking to pounce is a good idea.
Just ask all players at the club 1 question. 1. Are you prepared to knuckle down and help the club through this rut? (which would include everything required, be it putting in extra hours for fitness, adhering to the manager's plans, 100% commitment in every game etc.) If their answer is No then they get transfer listed - simples
Yeah mine wasn't intended to be realistic, just what I think we should be trying to do. Pretty sure Benteke wouldn't actually be too expensive. Lerner wants out and will be happy to take the money if Benteke causes a bit of fuss like last time. Benteke has huge potential because he's a better footballer than most of those mentioned(Pelle being the only better) but also has a huge physical presence and ability to bully defences. Redmond's decent but if he played for us he'd be doubled up on and I don't think he has anywhere near the ability to cope with that. I think having Lamela, Townsend, Chadli, Eriksen and Kane is enough for options in the wide attacking roles anyway.
I had the same response when I saw we were linked with Xherdan Shaquiri - if there's one thing our squad doesn't need right now it's a winger.
I don't think mine will realistically happen either YV! Not all of it anyway. The attraction of Redmond to me is that he doesn't dawdle on the ball, he immediately gets his head up and looks to play a pass or take a man on, and he has the feet and pace to do the latter. We lack that immediacy of action at times right now. He provides something a bit different to the others you've listed there, Townsend out of them is the only real pacey threat and his decision making is at times very off. Edit: of the players you've mentioned there, Eriksen and Kane aren't wingers (even if they can play there) and Lamela and Chadli aren't the kind of wide players to hug the touchline and get balls into the box. Even Townsend is questionable on that front. So especially if we look to offload Lennon, then I think there is room in the squad for a player of Redmond's ilk.
Yeah, I didn't mean proper wingers, just those that can play on the left or right. You can always get genuine width from full backs. It's not easy for the bigger sides to use out and out wingers these days because the opposition often won't commit numbers forward or try to close down high up the pitch. I'm sure loads of Spurs fans will say that's what they want us to do but if you look at the top 4 squads from last season, Navas and possibly Walcott are the only genuine wingers that played and even Navas was only as a back up option. The trouble for us is that we're not getting the intricate play through the middle right and that we're not varying it enough. Eriksen and Lamela are inconsistent, Townsend is predictable, Chadli doesn't contribute enough to our general play and the players behind them don't get the defensive work done. Personally, I think Eriksen or Kane should play on the left, they've both got a good shot on them and want to get the ball and starting from a wide position is the best area to do that, have Chadli in the middle and whoever's on the right needs to mix it up and get our right back in the game more(Walker's return will be huge for this). Most importantly we need a combination behind them that can actually put in a performance each week and put defence first.
I did mention a few months ago that it might be an idea to employ Pulis just to get our defence defending.Don't think that went down to well.Why,I don't know.Our defence is a shambles and we're lucky we're near mid table (?). You know,years ago in thelate 60's/70's Man City had two "bosses.Malcolm Allison took care of the players,defence and all,and Joe Mercer did that "face the press" and players attitudes,team meetings and it worked.
