I'd bid for for Charlie Austin...can play immediately for us...will stretch the opposition defences, give Kane a rest and would suit our style...but there must be a reason they didn't bid for him at the end of the last window
At the moment though Mason and Dembele are injured and Bentaleb is not fully match fit and could have been a liability if he had started today and not been immediately up to speed. My point about Carroll is just that I think he played well on the whole..whereas Eriksen was pretty poor and their goal came from him losing the ball in the middle of our half ... in that context the criticism of Carroll seems harsh to say the least
"despite comparisons with Modric and Messi bizarrely flying around here" There is no "comparison" . Merely a comment that the "big kids" mentality that has plagued English football for far too long to the detriment of ball-playing talent, has to stop. If like Messi and Modric, Carroll can toughen up to be difficult to harrass off the ball, then he has a future. If not, then probably not.
Sorry to be an arsehole pedant RDBD, but that's a comparison. If you think that Messi and Modric' success is down to them toughening up, that's fair enough. I'm merely arguing that players of Tommy's build need to be utterly world class in terms of techincal ability and reading of the game - like the two you've mentioned - in order to really 'make it'. Messi benefitted tremendously from developing in a league where the mildest of touches is called a foul. Modric did have a bit of tenacity on him, but what always stood out for me was how he moved to received the ball in 3 or 4 yards of space to give him that edge over his physically stronger opponent. Eriksen on form is also magnificent at this, and it's down to natural anticipation and reading of the game. Tom unfortunately isn't. He often took possession under pressure today and regularly looked unsure as to what to do with it.
"If you think that Messi and Modric' success is down to them toughening up" To be pedantic, that is a fallacious claim. A Messi or Modric that falls in a heap on serious body contact is not going to survive long in a team that cannot prevent that happening for 90 mins every game. Carroll has an inherent ability and an inherent weakness. I expect the club to be working on the latter so it gets the best of the former.
As a neutral it was a cracking first half, second half didn't live up to expectations. I thought Spurs had the better of the game overall.
I counted 2 stonewall penalty shouts for the blue ****es, had they been given it would've been hard to get back in the game, great 1st half of football though hats off
In Modric's case, Dinamo Zagreb loaning him to a team in the Bosnian league knowing full well that the game is more physical there - which served to make him less fragile for the times where he might get clattered once he was back at Dinamo, but more importantly taught him how to read the game so he could sidestep opponents looking to test his aerodynamic properties and play the pass he wanted to make. Oduwa's loan to Rangers this season is based along the same idea, given some of the challenges that he's been on the receiving end of so far this season.
Carroll isn't young anymore. He's 23. Maybe I'm misunderstanding some of the points here but to suggest that one day he'll be as vital to the team as Modric was is surprising to say the least. At 23, the latter was already a mainstay of his national team during what was a bit of a 'golden era' for them. He visibly improved with each game in a Spurs shirt, showing a versatility to play in a number of different positions (again, requiring excellent reading of the game to do so). I recall Harry coming out early in Luka's career and basically saying he'd be an idiot not to build the whole team around the pint-sized Croatian. I cannot see Poch ever saying that about Tom, simply for the reason that I cannot see Tom ever being gifted enough for it to happen. I'm not talking about bulk or strength. Even if he had Alli's physique, Tommy still wouldn't be in the same league as Modric. His reading of the game and decision making just aren't good enough. I'm willing to indulge him for at least the rest of this season for sure, but a playmaker of his natural build needs a tonne of games to build up the XP needed to bring better vision and anticipation to the field. Luka played 34 times in his first season for us; that isn't even mathematically possible for Tom anymore. Will Tom become another Luka? Maybe. But I'd sooner put money on him becoming the next Joe Allen to be honest. Talented, gifted, comfortable on the ball, but not quite what a top side (even Liverpool ) needs. Sorry if I cam across a bit agressive @The RDBD , wasn't my intention in the slightest
I think we are being very harsh on Carroll. Most players need time to adjust to the speed of the PL even Aguero needs time when coming back from injury for example. MP has confidence in him and right now I am happy to go with his judgement.
In terms of his loans to Derby and QPR, both of those were at clubs that tried to play football so there would have been less opportunity for Carroll to learn how to get stuck in. This strategy can sometimes backfire, though, such as when we loaned Luongo to Ipswich when Mick McCarthy was in charge - which did little to improve him as a player but did a lot of damage to his confidence in a short amount of time.
Of course Carroll isn't as good as Modric, who is properly world class. But he might well be better than Mason and Eriksen so we ought to give him time.
I am a big fan of Tommy Carroll, but I have to say he did make a lot of mis placed passes today and that header in the second half was poor. The biggest disappointment for me was the performance of Eriksen, who was way off the pace and bottled at least a couple of challenges. I wasn't impressed with Vertonghen turning his back and ducking out of the way of Lennons' strike for their goal. Having got the negatives out of the way, I thought the first half was possibly our best performance of this season, I also feel we were unfortunate to not have taken 3 points. A point at Goodison coming on the back of 3 games in a short space of time, is not to be sniffed at. Last season, Poch made us more difficult to beat, but he also made us a lot more difficult to watch. In my view, that remained an issue for me into this season. The past 8/9 games has seen us continue to be difficult to beat , but a million times better to watch, and it is for this reason, my new optimism and enthusiasm of the past few weeks, continues.
Why so negative? To call the game fair as a draw is ludicrous, presumably just because they got better toward the end and the second half was even. Have you forgotten the first half? We utterly controlled it and hit the bar and post, some of our football was sublime. Overall (with usual disclaimer about stats) we had 19 attempts and an overall 65% of possession *at their ground*. NB when Stoke scored four last week they had 8 attempts and 49% of possession. We are in 4th, 3pts above Manure with a vastly better goal difference. I'd hate to think what the comments would be if we played badly - hang on a minute I know! Of course there are areas to criticise, but surely this needs some perspective within what has been a very good season so far.
Terrible luck this weekend. One of our best halves all year should have seen us out of sight, but we were even thanks to the inside of the post, the underside of a bar, and the first really good shot of Lennon’s career. Arsenal were crap against Newcastle, yet pick up three points because Newcastle can’t hit a yawning goal one time in six. Man City also get a very fortunate win after trailing at the 83 minute mark. But if the micro is bad, the macro continues to be very impressive. That’s a good team we have now. They played beautifully for most of the game. (Credit to Everton, too, incidentally, who surely are one of the more entertaining sides around, and continue to remind me a bit of us last year.) I would have started Son and dropped Alli back. Pochettino’s decision was justified by Alli scoring an excellent goal playing farther forward. I thought Carroll did okay, maybe even better than okay, simply because he was a central player in one of our best performances of the year. He did make a number of bad decisions, but none of them critical, I thought. I didn’t like Vertonghen ducking out of the way out of Lennon’s shot either, but I wonder if that’s a reflex that’s fully controllable. In any case, I thought he played very well other than that, including showing more speed than I thought he had to do just enough to shephard Lukaku out of a goal-scoring chance. The critical bad decision was, as usual, Walker’s, who continues to make critical mistakes against top-ish teams like clockwork. I don’t have an anti-Walker agenda. I thought he played well other than deciding to pass it to Erikson when Erikson was surrounded by three blue shirts in our end. Walker had a very nice centering pass that Alli was almost able to score from, and was busy, active and effective for the most part. But that critical series of mistakes, beginning with the backpass to Lloris at Anfield, is killing us. I can’t make up my mind about Erikson. He was disappointing today. I wonder if he should lose his place to Son. But I think he may be our second most effective player (after Dembélé) in tight spaces. Finally, what the **** is up with the outswinging corners? We led the league in goals from set pieces taking inswinging corners. So we decided to make them outswingers. and haven’t scored one since. In God’s name and under the stars, what for?
The only way he'll be as good as or better than them is if he plays more or less a full season. Would you play him ahead of a fully fit Dembele, Mason or Bentaleb? I personally wouldn't. Mason and Bentaleb were fortunate in that they 'came of age' in the first team when the two managers picking the XI were one who'd been largely responsible for theur development at the academy, followed by a second who strongly believes in giving youth a chance. Both managers shared the same outlook that the signings made by their Portuguese predecessor were largely crap and weren't worth indulging. Being in the right place at the right time is critical in football, both on the pitch and off it. Mason's career was probably nosediving before a fortunate sequence of events effectively handed him an entire season of first team football, during a period recognised as transitionary (far less pressure to perform) which gave him the time to mature into the player he is today. Same goes for Bentaleb. Will Tom have similar circumstances going his way? I doubt it.
Does anyone know if Mason and Wimmer are injured, by the way? Haven't seen them on the bench for awhile.
Top game provides clear evidence as to why the EPL has such a world wide following Harry. looked leggy as the game wore on and we really need to invest in a powerful striker to aide Harry or share the role
