My January Assessment

whatever has happened to Tiendalli?

 

Just read that Arron Lennon is reportedly available for £7 million. Thoughts?

 

Really?? If Lennon is available, I'd give them Routledge and Dyer for him! But in all seriousness, £7 million isn't a bad price for him. We'd get around that much if we offloaded Shelvey. But he would have to accept that his chances of playing for England would immediately reduce to "no chance" as soon as he signs his contract.

 

More than any other position, imo, we need a player to challenge the opposition when possession is against us as we do tend to allow tough teams to dominate us especially away from home.

My very amateur observations have led me to believe that this domination of possession against us can be nullified if we had a free running DM to plug passing lanes, slow an down attack but most importantly challenge/ tackle and relieve the pressure.

Excellent examples of the most effective DM's for me include the unheralded Sergio Busquets of Barca or the much heralded Bastian Schweinsteiger. I use these two as wonderful examples of DM's who dominate the space in front of their back line because neither are afraid to get in the face of the opposition and challenge every attack; by fair means or foul if your Sergio Busquets .

We need a dominant DM with a big engine, he doesn't have be the best ball player in the world but has to be a player who reads the game well and fills the big hole we currently have in front of the back four, picking up second ball, rebounds and challenges any attacks.

 

£3m tops. Can't play for 90mins, undisciplined and over rated imo and even with this he's half the player now than he used to be. He's no better than what we already have imo and I'd be livid if we spent a penny on him.

I think we do need to cover Dyer now as, like Rangel, he's close to his expiry date imo but Lennon is no better than Dyer is right now.

I'd sooner take a younger Sinclair over a past it Lennon anyday.

 

Not an amateur suggestion at all. We are crying out for that player more so than Left back or winger IMO.
We have a number of attack minded midfield players and Leon & Brits can be the disruptors and playmakers.
Fulton is again showing (Tranmere) he's lost in our team - he's had a few outings now and has impressed in none, sorry but just not in the ballpark -

 

Have we got two Leons? If that's the case, we don't need anyone else

 

Keepers...Fab and Tremmel....good
Fullbacks..Rangel , Taylor , Jazz.Tiendelli....good .
CB's...Amat , Bartley , Fern , Willams...good
Wingers ..Dyer , Routs, Montero , Barrow...good
DM..Britton, Carroll..good
Attacking Midfielders...Siggy , Shelvey...good...
Linkman ...Ki..good but no back up.
Strikers...Bony , Gomis , Emnes..good
We dont need much imo but can always use a value deal on any position.
4 - 4 -1 - 1 till Bony and Ki return with Emnes and Gomis as the 1 - 1

 

I think Tremmel is becoming a bit of a liability certainly against teams who like to lump it into the box so there's definite room for improvement ,Cornell is still young but getting so few opportunities to shift him so maybe Monk doesn't rate him good enough ,yet ?
The full backs need competition and even though it was league 2 opposition I thought Dwight did well enough and I'm surprised he hasn't had much game time (he was injured previously but he has ben available for a couple of weeks now ) .We seem to lack aggression when the ball is pumped into the box and always give the opposition the advantage by easing off or not even attempting to challenge, maybe it's because they're more confident with Fab behind them than Tremmel but we were poor in that department today, so expect a lot of that when West Ham come to us next week.As you say there's not a lot of issues which need addressing and with the youngsters on show today I think the future is bright ,if only Levy will let Carroll go for a miserly sum then that would pretty much put the icing on the cake for me .

 

What would you value him at Lurky? Given that he is a ready made replacement for Leon I'd pay £5-10 million for him. Where we might also be lucky is that Spurs are flooded with midfield players, so if I was Monk I'd tell Huw to make a bid for him in January.

 

Tremmel hasnt played enough to draw a conclusion imo , did a great cover job till now .We could spend money without guarrentee of improvement

 

I would get anybody in, Tremmel is shocking. He won't come for a high ball in the 6 yard box and when he does he messes it up. When Fab is in goal and we get corners I'm confident of getting the ball away, but with Tremmel in goal I just close my yeas as I cant bear watching what might happen,

 

Tremmel, Rangel, Dyer, Routledge, Britton, Shelvey - not so good or nearly past it imo, need LB, DM, Winger asap

 

He's more attack minded than Leon although that's to be expected in terms of Leon isn't getting any younger and with a wise head knows he's going to get beaten for pace at times if he does adventure forward .To put a valuation is hard because of the "over inflated" prices of young British talent ,he's currently captain of England's U21's so he certainly wise enough and talented enough to do both jobs on the pitch and with Levy's record of squeezing every penny out of a sale then I wouldn't be surprised if it was around the 8 - 10 million mark ,he's making a name for him self and Spurs think highly of him so it would be a hell of a coup for if we did get him.

 

Didn't realise that. Just think, if we do sign him we could potentially have the next England CM pairing in Carroll and Grimes. What a coup that would be indeed.

 

I think even on last years showing I think we knew that perhaps the season previous when he covered for Vorm that perhaps that was the best we would see , don't forget when we picked him up he was Clubless and that then was an early age for a keeper .

 

I think Tremmel is suffering because Fabianski is a much more confident goalkeeper, but in his defence he may have grown up in systems where centre back occasionally head a ball.
Against Tranmere Tremmel did what was needed (even made the same mistake as Fab) it's very difficult for a 'keeper to command the 6 yd box when it's full of outfield players - Fabianski had the same problems all be it against West Ham.

 

This was an excellent thread, that I meant to contribute to at the time (but it turned out to be a busy week)...

would be interesting to hear if anybody's thoughts on these issues have changed a month further down the line?

 

I wouldn't be quite as generous in some positions but it does beg the question, "With so many good players, who is the elephant in the room that lets us down time after time?"
Hint, he may no longer be a player!

 

On the topic of elephant .... do you think Monk did the Rogers' envelope stunt at the start of the season. I wonder who would be in there.