I'm not sure we have such a problem. We certainly have not scored quite enough goals so far this season but I don't know of any tactic we could employ that makes us more likely to score when 1-0 up that wouldn't also make us more likely to concede. Indeed if there was such a tactic we should use it all the time! We are still a work in progress but no-one deserves to be dropped for some glamour signing in January. I'm confident that if we keep playing the way we are and trusting the current squad the results will improve and the don't need to improve much to make us very happy.
I was talking about depth more than changing our starting lineup. We've been unable to bring on fresh legs in recent games that weren't either returning from injury, yet to settle or both.
Neither are designated strikers. If Kane cops a serious injury, we are most likely going to be in trouble. We need a credible substitute.
My strangely worded point was that even though we should have more points, and that does make me wonder if this team is going to be successful, I think I might rather be where we are, knowing we have to improve in the second half, then where we were in 2011, looking good and worried something would go wrong. Surely it would be worth it just to sing "There's only two Moussa Dembélés..." I think we might just have enough depth to avoid burnout if we get a real backup for Kane and perhaps a right footed CB. Then we could rotate everyone enough, as long as we were willing to rest Eriksen and Lamela periodically. Eriksen in particular seems to run down after playing twice a week for a couple of weeks. It’s not a surprise considering how hard he works.
I think in the case of Eriksen it must be more tiring if you are a 'head' player rather than just instinctive. Like Sheringham before him, Eriksen is a 'thinker' and we know that brain work is more tiring than physical work and the recovery time for pure physical work is a lot quicker.
That’s an interesting point. I sometimes think when Eriksen seems tired he literally is out of ideas. The inspiration isn’t there. In contrast, Mason seems well drilled. He runs through his options without calculations. I’ve certainly thought that as good as he is, he might be even better if he didn’t play every third or fourth game to recharge his battery.
The enormous improvement in Lamela and Dembele, the purchase of Son, the confidence Pochettino has in Onomah and the prospect of the return of Pritchard and Chadli gives me confidence that we could rest Eriksen from time to time and not suffer too badly as a result. The only worry is he does score a lot of our goals at the moment so others would have to ensure we don't just rely on Harry Kane.
Is Moussa an actual striker or does he take after his namesake where nobody knows where he is best? A young, up and coming striker would be just the ticket in Jan
He's a striker. He's a bit like Berahino in term of style, from what I've seen of him. Here's most of his goals this season: Might be too early for him and he may be better off having a good run at Fulham. If we could pick him up cheaply and either loan him back or send him to another Championship side where he'll get games, that might be for the best.
According to AS, we've reached an agreement to sign this guy WARNING: AWFUL MUSIC One small problem: the last Nigerian wonderkid we "signed" was Musa Yahaya back in March 2014...and we're still waiting for his work permit to be sorted out. Based on that, if we have agreed to sign Osimhen, the odds are his work permit will be sorted just in time for him to be the new striker we've been hoping to sign...next summer.
It's probably not too hard to make an xi of can't miss prospects who missed: Coulibaly, Gomelt, Ceballos and Dervite all spring to mind - while Yahaya is merely just missing.
I agree that it'll probably all end in wasted £millions but what a talent he looks right now. Peterboro' will be getting themselves quite a player.
Seems like all the videos of this Fulham kid have gone missing from YouTube. Let me know if you come across any.
