Sunday's selections

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audrey.s.thackeray

audrey.s.thackeray

Well-Known Member
Jun 21, 2011
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Wondering what others think about the line-up yesterday.
Were Rose, Chadli, Townsend and Kaboul all injured?
Why was Dier taken off at half-time?
How do we rate Fazio? Worth a starting-place?
How many more chances are we going to give Soldado?
Are these two both a liability?

I'm a bit puzzled, one way and another!
Surely if (at last!) you're going to play two strikers -
which suits both Soldado and Kane -
then don't you need two wide players in midfield?
So we get Lennon on the bench,
while Townsend and even Chadli are not to be seen
(I accept they may have been unfit,
but I don't know if that's actually true.)
:emoticon-0112-wonde

Still, let me end on a happy note:
we fought through and won! Yay!

:emoticon-0125-mmm:
 
I'll start with the only bit that I think I can answer.
Dier was taken off because he was playing badly, offering no width and picked up a silly booking.
He's clearly got potential, but he needs to play at centre-half, as he's just not a fullback.

I'd like to see Soldado and Kane given a run together, as I think it's shown glimpses of working. It gets the youngster scoring, at least.
I would prefer to see Lennon in the side with them though, as we desperately need some width.
 
In someway I hope a few of the players were injured, as weird as it sounds.

Chadli along with Kane and Eriksen is part of our trio of goal threats so he was really missed on Sunday in my opinion.

Davies played well and deserves to keep his place for Everton so Rose's exclusion wasn't a problem.

Fazio and Kaboul have both been poor so having either in the side at the moment concerns me.

I think we could have done with Townsend along with Lennon working the wings as Hull's full backs didn't seem to like being put under pressure as both are more attack-minded but it does seem he's struggled for fitness this season so he may well have missed out due to injury.

Dier was rightly subbed and Vlad had his best 45 of the season, which is encouraging after some dismal displays.

As for Fazio, I'm not convinced at the moment. Don't get me wrong I'm happy to give people time but two red cards in what, 7 or 8 games(?) and the fact he's not looked overly competent, is a worry. I'd be happy to see Dier partner Jan at CB for a few games. I don't think it could be much worse than Fazio or Kaboul at the moment.
 
I pretty much agree with both of you who have responded in thoughtful detail. Thanks for your thoughts.

PNP - if Spurs players had been taken off every time they were performing under par recently, we'd have ended up with just Hugo against the invading hordes! And I didn't actually think Dier was any worse than the rest, apart from the yellow card incident. But like you I'd like to see him given a chance to play at centre back - he has the physique and usually the nous required. I agree about the Kane/Soldado partnership (shame only one of them is capable of finding the net, though!), and the screaming need for width, therefore Lennon. But we were nudging towards the right approach, even before the sending-off. Some green shoots.. now we'll see some proper seedlings on Sunday, I hope. So good to see Eriksen (nearly) back to his best from last season, by the way. Made a huge difference.

SOS - strange situation with Kaboul, but understandable frustration from Poch, although I'm not at all sure Fazio is any better (he's so ponderous - and seems to have periods when he imagines he's Cristiano Ronaldo!); Chadli's exclusion was a tad surprising, but at least opened the way for the Kane/Soldado partnership to get going a little; I agree about Vlad's 45 mins - what a relief!; this could enable Dier to play in the middle now. Just one thought that's been buzzing in my head recently. Is it Vertonghen that's the fundamental problem in central defence? As soon as players are lined up alongside him their form seems to suffer (Dawson, Kaboul, Chiriches, Fazio). Although he appears the most capable of the lot (attitude aside) maybe there's a problem there about teamwork? And I really wish that Poch would encourage wide players to play wide at least 50% of the time, indstead of constantly cutting in predictably to the crowded midfield or box. Ho-hum. At least he's tried the two strikers now, and we won. Lesson learned? I shall await the line-up vs Everton with great interest!

COYS!
 
Apologies for the slightly snide remark audrey, dunno what came over me!

Points wise, SoS has said pretty much all I would have said <ok>
 
The Huddlefro said:
Apologies for the slightly snide remark audrey, dunno what came over me!

Points wise, SoS has said pretty much all I would have said <ok>
Click to expand...

No problem, HF! Didn't occur to me. :emoticon-0102-bigsm
Did you see I gave you a thumbs up already?
Of course, not all poetry has to rhyme, you know......... <whistle>

And I'm reluctant to point this out, but your name is a bit last century, don't you think? <doh>
(Hope you don't think that's snide - not meant to be!)
 
The Huddlefro said:
Apologies for the slightly snide remark audrey, dunno what came over me!

Points wise, SoS has said pretty much all I would have said <ok>
Click to expand...

I thought it was funny.

So if we play Soldado and Kane up front who do we play in midfield? That's the key question for me.

On the defense I would want to just pick Jan and Kaboul together as much as possible. Just go for what, at least on paper, is our strongest pairing, play them with the same fullbacks as much as possible and try to get some understanding and stability back there. Saying that, though, I liked the look of Chiriches at RB...
 
So how about:

Lloris
Chiriches Kaboul Vertonghen Rose
Lennon Mason Eriksen Chadli
Kane Soldado

Or

Lennon Mason Eriksen Lamela Chadli
Kane

...as the front 6?

No real holding midfielder in either might be a terrible idea. And although I've been wanting 442 as much as anyone perhaps simply having Lennon (which also addresses our problems at RB to some extent) will provide some space and good possession further up the pitch. I think I like option 2 better, much as I think Soldado needs more time.
 
If we play with 2 up top we either have to play with one or two proper wingers - we can get away with Eriksen on the left because we have two LBs who can provide effective width, the same can't be said about our RB situation right now so we need Lennon there - and Mason and Capoue or Stambouli in the middle. Or if we have Walker and a LB fit then we could play a diamond with Lamela or Chadli behind the strikers (the reasoning being that that player needs to be able to make plays in the hole but also beat a man out wide and put in a cross sometimes, as well as carrying a goal threat) and then Eriksen, Mason and a DM in the deeper midfield positions. Playing a 4-4-2 with Mason and Eriksen in central midfield would leave us too open IMO, unless we were really dominating. We'd need Capoue or Stambouli, or maybe even Bentaleb to provide a more defensively focused approach to the game otherwise we'd be leaving ourselves open to all sorts of trouble.
 
The time we really need a 4-4-2 is against weaker teams/at home. The 4-2-3-1 has been completely toothless against them due to lack of width. A 4-2-3-1 against stronger teams, sitting back against the best/away, may be a good idea. In any case, starting Lennon goes a certain way to addressing our lack of width, and helps with defensive ones also, for that matter. I would play Bentaleb in a 4-4-2. He's a good DM with some ability to get the ball forward. I would also worry that Mason won't protect the back four enough. I would guess we'll see a 4-2-3-1 against Everton with Kane, Lennon, Lamela and Eriksen forward, which I think and hope will be okay. They look like a reasonable combination. We'll see.
 
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