The more I think of it the more the question is not whether or not a team of Eric Diers would be good - of course it would. The real problem is the formation. Think I'm going trad 442. I want two Diers up front. This number 10, whoever he is, is going to drop back into midfield where he's ****ing lucky I don't drop him for one of the six Eric Diers I've got on the bench.
See when I see us sign and use a player like Dele Alli I really do not find myself wistfully recalling the days of Huddlestone and Livermore and Sigurdsson and, yes - even Sandro. It just feels so nice to sign players who actually make you think you're progressing. The boy looks real class. Suddenly we've got some very decent options in the CM and the three behind the striker. Now if only Harry can get back on form soon. Form is temporary etc (and he *is* class, I'm sure of that) but have I started to spot a few signs of a dip in confidence? Hope not.
I love that I'm just sitting here quietly enthusing to myself. Feels nice. We only beat Palace at home 1-0 but I'm just feeling more happy with this Spurs team than I have for a while. As I mentioned above about Alli not making me miss other CMs that we've sold I get the strong impression that the 7 on Son's back is not going to make me wish we had the old owner of that shirt at the club, and that's pretty high praise at this early stage.
Nine points from six matches. So much for the "Poch = Ramos" narrative we were hearing about a couple of games ago...
Yeah - a bit of a slow start and we looked a little patchy but it was never disastrous. The new signings are making a difference and you can't help but wish Son and N'Jie were here to help out for the first few games. Shopping late in the window must save a few million quid or something cos otherwise it's lose-lose. Either the player comes in, does well and everyone asks why the hell they weren't signed sooner or they're crap and everyone's asking why the hell they were signed at all, saying it was a panic signing etc. Bearing all current optimism on my part in mind I do still feel that we have to hope that Eriksen does not get another injury. We've added creativity over the summer but we are still notably weaker without him.
Overall a thoroughly pleasing performance for a change. I thought Poch got his tactics spot on today (again - for a change). Davies and Walker only pushed on the overlap when absolutely safe to do so, thereby not leaving us too exposed to their dangerous wingers. The '3' were interchanging positions regularly and fluidly, with the result that Chadli and Lamela had probably their best performances of the season. Alli constantly popped up in pockets of space and seemed to draw two men with him wherever he went. And as for Eric Dier, well the sooner we clone him the better. I'd actually add to what's been said before and state that he should also be appointed club chairman and chief groundskeeper. Just to be safe. The only lingering concern remains my namesake. He had what I would call a 'busy' game today; one where he did a heck of a lot, but not much you'd want to see your lone striker doing. He should 100% start against Arsenal as a goal against them would be the ideal tonic, adding to which there's a greater chance of him scoring against them than against City. Onwards and upwards!
And who's that helping Lamela win the ball then running the length of the pitch to turn up in the box alongside Kane and provide a great option for Son should he have chosen to pass?! Bugger didn't celebrate, though!
Brilliant performance, totally dominated them from start to finish. Only negative for me is that we didn't create more and make it more comfortable. 7s all round and 8s for Alli, Son and Lloris and a 10 for Lloris' right hand post putting in another great performance Bring on the Scum!
"You idiot...that was really good!" Yelling at the screen while Alli dribbled into, then through, two defenders... Another good performance overall, and a win that really hits the spot. Thanks to strong showings from the weaker teams, two wins in our last two has nearly canceled out our four games winless start. I’m glad our lineup worked out, though I thought we were too narrow at times. That was less important, as it turned out, than having 10 players who passed crisply, broke up play effectively and ran hard. We made Palace look very tepid today. MoM to Alli by a tad over Son and Dier. In addition to his ball handling and ability to present a threat, he made Palace very uncomfortable defending. He’s just a very good player, it’s as simple as that. Strong game from Lamela when he needed one. He did a good job running the show till Eriksen came in, then started the move for the winning goal with hard work and a good pass. But lest we forget why Lamela is infuriating: ten minutes earlier the break was on, Lamela had the ball in the position he does the most damage in, running by himself in the middle of the field. He was about to unleash a long pass to try to set someone in on goal. Instead he pulled back, and tapped it sideways, straight to a Palace player to start their break. In God’s name and under the stars, what for? Even if the long pass didn’t come off, it wouldn’t have put us under pressure. We need more goals in the future. As dominant as we were, you can chalk these three points up to Lloris. He made a brilliant save at our end, then a minute later we score on a ball any decent keeper should stop. But we’re one of two teams to have outplayed all our opponents this year (though Stoke was nearly even, I thought). No one has lost fewer games. The transfer team seems to have done brilliantly picking up Dier, Alli and Son. "Dier’s Black Boots" seems like a good user name to me. I like the look of Clinton as well. Vertonghen, Alderweireld and Lloris deserve some credit for the solid defensive work and the three clean sheets. I can’t think of a mistake any of them made. Walker keeps worrying me. He has a history of losing big games for us, and had another awful giveaway today. Davies had a good game, but I still think we need the threat Rose provides.
Happy with this game for many reasons. Evidence that we sorted out our biggest problem last season, defence. I can't remember looking more solid since Ledley and Woodgate. Plus, we didn't have Lloris then. What a keeper. We have another genuine, open play, goal threat in Son. Once Kane finds his way again, we'll be on our way to sorting our second biggest problem of last season, not enough goals in comparison to our competitors. Lamela. Still split on him although today was one of his better games. He looses composure annoyingly but he does work hard. Today was a better showing of his work rate. Great work from him for the goal too. Eriksen. He's back. What a difference when he came on The composure he has in the pass is exactly what we've needed. Plus, we look switched on and fired up from the beginning. Wasn't our strongest 11 either.
It is well known I am not a Poch fan and since he joined us, I have seen very little evidence of his famous "pressing game", but this afternoon in the first 10/15 minutes or so, I saw the pressing game at its' finest. I am also no fan of the mind blowing tedious build up feature of Poch's strategy which has bore me to tears for so long. I saw none of that today and neither did I see it at Sunderland last week or even in midweek. I enjoyed today and I thought that was a well organised and professional performance. However, we were lucky last week, we were unconvincing during midweek and the next 6 days present two tough opponents , so I'll continue to reserve judgement until we have seen what the next week brings. In the meantime, Son has given us an extra cutting edge which we so desperately needed, Dele Alli is a class act, Lamella and Kyle Walker are performing far better than some on here are appreciating and Dier at £4m is a steal.
Rose seems more of a threat TO us than for us! (See the Qarabag game for latest examples....). I am far from convinced about Davies, but he offers a much steadier presence - and even managed to (nearly) score today. With Dier doing so well at DM, the LB spot is the one that we should probably be most concerned about at the next window. Walker worries me as well, as he is so far from the promising player of 2/3 years ago. However, he did seem to end the game stronger, so maybe all is not lost.
Both Rose and Davies are defensively a liability, but I think Poch feels Rose exposes Verts more than Davies, hence his preference for the Welshman. Personally I feel if Verts is as "super" as many seem to think he is, then he should cope better.
Verts is probably not as good as HE thinks he is either!! Lol He plays with an arrogance/confidence that is fine when all is going well, but if not, then he just comes across as a petulent - and not very talented - child. However, having said that, he has certainly looked a darn sight better in the last few games, so maybe he will start to live up to the billing on a more consistent level. Mind you, he had to do something as he was running out of excuses over the past 12 months of average performances.
