I'm not sure if any of them are photshopped, but the background's clearly different for those six players.
We seem lethargic mentally when we attack..we really need someone like Berahino to kick some gears into our play in the last third...and someone like Bolasie just to give the opposition something else to worry about. Then maybe the creativity of Eriksen will be allowed the time to prosper during a game...more so than I feel it has been this calendar year.
The shirt creases are all in the same places on adebayor, yedlin, lennon and soldado shirts, must be photoshop
Lennon has a normal background. Plus I think we are clutching at straws here....we haven't got a jiffy about what is going on..lol
I think it could have been way worse today. It could have also been better. If Lamela buries the chance he has early in the match, it's a totally different game. The question for me is, why do we not look like taking those chances well. We are much better at controlling possession and working the ball upfield, but when we get into the final third it all goes to pot. Players become indecisive. Opportunities are squandered. Why does Lamela look so easy to wind up in a Spurs shirt? Yet seemingly composed in an Argentina shirt? Why do we not shoot from outside the box when the bus is parked? I'm not too worried though. It's pre-season, right?
On the plus side, Dele Alli looks the part. Very solid competition for Mason's side of midfield next to Bentaleb in my humble opinion. That can only mean that they both improve. The Modric nutmeg was sweet! Bentaleb also had some great moments, aside from the obvious misplaced pass. A Bender like signing, that can provide him with some competition / cover would, I think, sort out that side of midfield also.
Impossible to make any kind of judgement on our pre season games cos they mean sod all. I wish we had another striker in but buying early in 2013 hardly worked well and I guess we can't get who we want. Vorm looks very nervous when he plays for us and looks short of confidence. .. not good with the season starting in 4 days. We have strengthened our defence and midfield and have some of our loan players in closer to the first team squad and have got rid of unfanciedplayers so that is all positive.
Agree. He looked totally at home among that company and not all young players need loads and loads of preparation or loans to gain experience before stepping up to the Premier League. Dawson, Lennon, Bale and Dier are four examples who spring to mind. Maybe Ali can do the same.
Maybe someone needs to kick Lamela in the head or if that fails send him to a shrink. **** knows...but he needs to wake up a bit....no composure...no mental discipline. Yes it is pre season...but the issues are the same as the real thing last season.
We've looked laboured in attack basically since AVB was appointed. The personnel, the overall strategy and approach took such a huge backwards step in the change-over from Harry to AVB and we've never got close to the attacking flair that we had just over three years ago. Other teams have several players able to unlock defenses in those advanced midfield areas. We have Eriksen and that's about it. Chadli can get on the ends of things, Lamela can run around but genuine attacking flair and excitement? It's been missing for ages. Let's hope that Alli or Pritchard can turn into top Premiership wizards because I doubt that another 30m is going to be spent on another potential Lamela any time soon. The lack of imagination and creative spark has, in my opinion, put paid to Soldado's club career over the last couple of seasons and we saw again today how isolated Kane basically is in this team. He did so much for himself last year that we forget how wretched the team's support for him was much of the time.
When Lamela turns into the player that many seem sure he is entitled to become at some point in the future I will have witnessed one of the very largest improvements in footballing ability that I have ever witnessed. And in a 23 year-old that is going to be some feat. I guess that, since price is not the issue and has nothing to do with predictions of Lamela's imminent metamorphosis, there were loads of people expecting that, given time, Rasiak could be our next Teddy Sheringham. I can't see why not. Maybe he should have been given more starts...
The first third of the game Alli looked good, I thought. The crowd oohed and aahed when he made Modric, then Kroos, look foolish. Then it seemed he got a bit overconfident and tried to do too much, trying to dribble players when he should have passed. But that’s a very good player, I think, and one who will push for a spot. Dembélé glided past players as he usually does, only to lay off a sideways pass that got us nowhere--as he usually does, again. But it was a team-wide problem. The only players who managed to get dangerously free were Rose and Walker. After the first few minutes they weren’t going to let us get in behind them. The fact is that Pochettino’s system played at a slower pace and without the pressing is more or less indistinguishable from AVB’s: a lot of harmless possession and tapping it around while getting forward enough to be vulnerable to getting hit on the counter. Dier looked awkward, no doubt. But having him, then Winks play like a DM made us look less vulnerable than we did most of last year. One of their goals neither of our CBs was anywhere to be found, and Rose failed to get in front of his man (both Dier and Vorm might have been able to make a play as well, tbf). The other was a bad pass by Bentaleb. But for the most part we were getting numbers back and stopping their break. Walker looked much better than last game, though I still wonder if we won’t do better with Trippier’s crosses. If I was picking a team on form right now, I’d take Winks and Alli as the "2", and Dembele, Eriksen and Lamela to play behind Kane. Eriksen was the one player who picked the right pass for a about the first half, then lost the plot for some reason. Lamela was so-so, but better than Chadli. I’m not worried at all about our players, who I think stacked up remarkably well player for player against Real and will do nothing but improve. I’m worried Pochettino’s tactics may be too easy to counter, literally and figuratively.
Too much dawdling, too few runners into the box. Trippier seemed to help. I think Yarmolenko would help more.
Still young and a bit raw, but certainly doesn't lack talent, or confidence! I think he could be some player in a couple of years.
