Forgot about Mason! Son is basically a first teamer now tbh. Trippier is yet to impress me if I'm honest. Clearly has one heck of a cross on him but far, far too naive defensively, without Walker's pace to bail himself out. Looking through our typical bench line-up, I'd say: Vorm, Fazio, Carroll, Chadli, Townsend, Dembele, Trippier all fail to inspire much confidence in terms of reliability to 'do a job'. We got rid of a lot of dead wood this summer and added sensibly to our first team with Toby and Son. In the same way that players like Jenas, Palacios, Hutton and Chimbonda were quite literally 'left behind' in the dust trail of Harry's rapidly improving first team, I fear that the same is happening to the players in the list above - and I can't see any of them apart from Trippier improving significantly over the next few years (no, not even Tommy). We either dip back into the market in January to finally move some of those players on (Townsend and Fazio top the list) and bring in improvements, or hope to goodness that youngsters like Winks and Pritchard go the same way as Dier and Mason...
I harbour high hopes for Pritchard once he kicks this injury. It might be a bit early for Winks yet though, hopefully he gets some good experiences under his belt this season and then makes a success of the loan spells that will presumably follow, unless he really turns it on and somehow forces his way into serious 1st team contention sooner. Chadli will score around 10 goals a season but will do it while not seeming to contribute all that much, I feel Son is a better option by far but Chadli isn't bad. At the end of last season I think we'd all have targeted other positions for recruitment before his. Solid, if a little uninspiring. Of the others, I'm reasonably happy with Carroll and Vorm's ability to do a job at a certain level, but Carroll has a long way to go before that level is, say, starting the biggest games in the PL as anything other than a last resort. Vorm might benefit from a run in the team (which he'll never get as long as Lloris is fit) so I think its not a question of quality there but of match practice, whereas with Carroll, whom I am a fan of, it might more be a question of lacking the sheer quality needed. He's a handy player though who gets his head up to play the ball, and does seem to help the team tick. Trippier the same - decent enough player who might benefit from a consistency of selection he will have to learn how to do without, because Walker is doing well. Townsend and Dembele, I feel I know exactly what we'll get from both and certainly with Dembele I'm not happy with it at all. Fazio the same actually. Those two I'd genuinely rather see a youth team player start. There is a small set of circumstances where I'd be happy to see Dembele come on as a sub, but there really aren't many cases where he would be my chosen player, and none at all for Fazio really. Going back to Townsend, he has his merits but we all know how frustrating his decision making can be, and he's running out of time to prove he can improve that. What we need in January is another genuine striker. Apart from that we're in reasonably good shape, you can't always account for the current injury situation in midfield and it will improve. Come the Summer we then either need a DM or a CB, depending in where Dier's future lies and assuming Fazio is sold and it isn't deemed appropriate to promote a youngster. But I think it'll take a full season or more to assess what is best for Dier in the future.
I still think Vorm is a good keeper, but there's no substitute for game time, and he doesn't really get any. Fazio...WTF!...get rid asap.. Townsend...devoid of a brain...got to go.. Carroll...sorry, too fragile. Gets bullied too easily. Chadli...blows hot and cold...difficult. Dembele...ditto..can still be useful in certain situations... Trippier...not really seen enough of him. Again, game time is the only way he'll improve.
I think Vorm is a very good keeper, the problem is like NSIS mentioned, he doesn't get enough game time and can therefore look a bit rusty when called upon, when he joined as Hugo's backup I was chuffed as he's a Prem Proven Dutch international calibre keeper, yet many times Poch has played Hugo in some of the early cup games in which Vorm could've benefited from. When Vorm had the 4 or 5 game run in the side at the tail end of last season I thought he performed well, it's the continuity that a keeper needs, just like any player in fairness. Trippier - Hasn't looked too great in his appearances but again, playing once every 2-3 weeks isn't going to allow you to show your true form in my opinion. Fazio - Why is he still here? Awful player, or at least awful in the Prem. Wimmer - Looked very good when partnered with Toby against Qarabag, looked ok/ average when partnered with Fazio (surprise, surprise). Think he'll improve a lot and provide good competition for Jan & Toby (and Dier). Dembele - the most frustrating player we have, genuinely believe if he had more of a footballing brain and a bit more balls to take the game by the scruff of the neck he'd be one of the world's best midfielders... But he doesn't and for that reason he's behind Mason, Bentaleb, Dier and Alli in CM pecking order in my opinion. Carroll - can only really play when partnered with someone like Dier or unless he's used as a 10, good enough to play in the Prem in my opinion but his chances of succeeding here are slim due to Dier's emergence in CM and the fact Alli, Mason and Bentaleb are all still improving and ahead of him. Pritchard - Very promising player who's been hit with injuries so far, has a huge future in my opinion, has a lot of competition for any of those attacking midfield places but I think he'll surprise a few and could possibly make one of them his own later this season or next. Townsend - Lacks a brain, has so much skill but doesn't know how to utilise it, I'd love to see him come good as he's a big Spurs fan and a local lad but chances are getting harder to come by in his position if you're not impressing and sadly he isn't. N'Jie - not seen enough to judge due to him being injured in pre-season when we signed him and only getting around 15-20 mins each game so far, showed great skill to turn Kolarov for Lamela's goal and his pace will be very handy, surprised he's not had a start yet in any of the cups. Unless things drastically change come January, if it were up to me, I'd sell Fazio for the best offer we get, we don't need to replace him either unless we're hit with a big injury crisis, Wimmer and Dier can cover Jan & Toby plus we can always promote the likes of Carter-Vickers or bring Veljkovic back from obscurity. If we can get our money back or a small on loss on Dembele then him too and depending on whether Townsend can do anything it may be time to cash in, unless we send him on his 4,735th loan spell. I'd replace Dembele with a Parker/ Davids type, an oldie who can help our younger lads develop and give us maybe 12-18 months of good football left in them.
1. My idiot’s analysis of Kane’s success last year was that he spent more time near the keeper when the ball was around then other players did. My idiot’s analysis this year is that he’s no longer doing that. 2. I more or less agree. My point is that we’ve looked good playing a very high energy system which is going to burn our players out at least in periods of fixture congestion. Right now we’re rotating fullbacks for the cups. Leave that as it is. Even if we only add three other players to the remaining 8 and rotate them, we’ll have every player playing 5/8 games, which should be enough to keep them fresh. We’d have four extra if we add Clinton, Bentaleb and Wimmer, since we’d consider Lamela, Eriksen, Alli, Son and Kane starting forwards (5 for four places, if Mason partners Dier). I’d add Chadli to the group I’m confident in as well. What we need is a decent backup RB, (sorry Federico) and DM, unless Bentaleb, Winks or someone else can slot in. We’ll know more after the LIverpool game, when someone will have to. We could add Wimmer and have Alderweireld play DM, though we’d then have two left-footed CBs. Would you believe Vertonghen as DM?
Some interesting comments fro Garry Monk regarding Carroll's loan last season... "Tom did great, I really enjoyed working with him and he's a really good prospect," said Monk."I spoke to him at the end of the season about coming here and of course we were interested.But I think it was a case that he really wanted to go back there and see if he could work his way into the first team.If it wasn't working there he wanted to go out and get regular football. That was something I couldn't guarantee him.He's a young developing player that is doing exceptionally well. You've seen already this season that he's been involved in the first-team set-up and that's credit to him." ...not least in regards to a potential summer transfer... "There will be other players like Tom playing in other leagues of similar ability that would cost a third of the money. But it wasn't about that with Tom. It was more from a footballing side of things that that decision was made."
Is he, though? He's 23 years old and has scored one senior goal in his career. Perhaps this is simply a new hallmark of the modern game, with young local talent being loaned out for up to 4 years before even being considered for a role in their parent club's first team squad. Maybe it's just me, but 23 really isn't that young any more in this era. When you look at the likes of Dier and Alli who are significantly younger and clearly better players...is it a question of sheer ability, or did they just benefit from being in the right place at the right time? Every now and again, the lunacy of 5 or 6 different loans appears to reap dividends, as it has in the cases of Rose, Kane and Mason. But logically it isn't goin to work out for the majority of players, the majority of the time. Cf. Chelsea and the 78 morons who actually think they'll ever kick a ball for the club. I fear that young Thomas is going the same way as Townsend has and Naughton before him; not quite good enough for a top-half team and no amount of loans can help him.
For me if everyone's fit our starting 11 should be: Lloris Walker, Toby, Jan, Rose Mason, Dier Son, Eriksen, Chadli Kane After that I'd trust Vorm, Davies, Dier(centreback, or right back), Bentaleb, Alli and Lamela. I think they're all competing very well for starting spots(Vorm excepted) so far from backup in my mind. I think at least a few of Trippier, Wimmer, Onomah, Pritchard, Townsend, Son(striker) and N'Jie will come good and it's important to remember several of them can't prove themselves as they have only just arrived. So what if Trippier's had a few dodgy games? Sandro was ****e when we first signed him, Modric was poor too but they adjusted and got it right in the end. It's 2 games he's had, 1 of which was a European game which was a totally new experience for him just like the PL was a new experience to Modric and Sandro. I also think people are being harsh on Vorm. Most 'keepers make mistakes and most 'keepers need regular games to hit their best form(Fabianski looks a lot better playing regularly for Swansea than he did at Arsenal playing sporadically). We're just spoiled with having Lloris as first choice and since we can't afford someone like Begovic to sit on our bench for most of the season we're going to have to accept that Vorm is about as good of a backup as we can get. Arsenal have Ospina, City have Caballero, United have Romero and Liverpool have Adam Bogdan. The last one's ****e, Caballero and Ospina have both made a few mistakes this season and Romero's done pretty well to be fair to him but none are World beaters, you guys expect too much. Maybe if we still had Gomes, Robbo or Friedel as first choice you guys would be a bit less shocked about Vorm making a few mistakes here and there
Vorm's a good keeper, but I don't think that he's suitable for what he's doing at the club. I think that we'd be better off bringing in someone stable who can come in from the cold when needed and a young prospect to push for a start. It would probably be better for the Dutchman, too.
I was (still am) surprised Vorm left a starting role at Swansea to sit on our bench. He must've known that Hugo wasn't going to displaced, maybe the idea was that he thought Hugo would've left this Summer? But either way I thought he had a good thing at Swansea and shouldn't really have left in all fairness unless guaranteed a starting role elsewhere.
Swansea signed Fabianski as their number 1 in the summer, so he was probably facing the bench either way.
I don't think any high quality player can be expected to play at his best unless he is kept sharp through match practice. That's why you have to rotate. When I first used to watch Spurs in the 60s the same XI played every week and if anyone was injured it was close to a disaster as the replacement would be nowhere near as good. Now you need 18 players at least but they all have to play regularly.
Oh, I was under the impression Fabianski was signed as the successor to Vorm before he left to join us, didn't realise they were signing him to actually make him number 1 regardless of whether Vorm stayed or not.
