Some observations: - Having Bale in the side really allows Kane to play the way Maureen wants him to, i.e. in a roaming 10 role. No other player has the quality to drift centrally when Kane drops deep like Bale does. Son isn't good enough at it and Lucas isn't a good enough finisher. Although in fairness the latter's workrate and willingness to rotate wide when Bale went central was integral to our fluid attacking play. We saw similar against Burnley and the common denominator between the two matches is that Dele didn't start. Sad but true. I just don't think he has adapted to Kane's new role in the same way the other 3 have. - Toby and Sanchez is by a distance our best CB partnership. - Reguilon is by a distance our best FB, and for that matter one of the best in the country. - Lamela is at his best coming off the bench. He did really well to claw back some control against Fulham and was excellent again today. I find that in most games that he starts in, he tends to try too hard and most of his efforts come to nothing, then before long he picks up a yellow and is on a tightrope for the rest of the game.
There's two ways to look at that statistic and understand that it's not as good as is being made out 46 in the Premier League, in 27 games 35 in the Europa League, in 11 games 13 in the FA Cup, in 3 games 6 in the Season Killer Cup, in 3 games Or to put it another way 1.7 goals per game in the Premier League 3.1 goals per game in the Europa League 4.3 goals per game in the FA Cup 2 goals per game in the Season Killer Cup By bringing it up, he's drawing attention to the fact we're capable of scoring plenty of goals against teams from Austria, Bulgaria, Israel, Crosby and Wycombe, but not as good at scoring them against teams we happen to play in the league
Just watched Souness on Bale. There has to be a reason that Souness is sitting on a bench at Sky Sports and not managing a football team?
I think he'll leave in the summer. Won't ever be a regular first XI player for Tottenham any more and I don't think he's ready to settle for a squad role like Lucas/ Lamela have. By a distance is probably an exaggeration, they're still not entirely convincing defensively but anything without Dier at the moment is a plus. That was the case the day he joined, lol. I'd go as far as saying one of the best LBs in Europe though. Really do fear Madrid will buy him back. Yeah he's a solid squad player when fit. Not quite good enough to start regardless of his obsession with picking up yellows but Bale's resurgence shows the level in quality there but as a 15-20 minute option he can be very handy to call upon. His injury record is a joke though. So many times we've been needing an option and he's not been there. It's whether we (as in the club) feel his positives outweigh his negatives, personally I'm not so sure but when he's in this form he does remind everyone how handy he can be, it's just not often enough in my opinion.
Souness is just an angry turd. He went on an anti-Pogba crusade not that long ago, so much so to the point I'm surprised he didn't blame Pogba for world poverty. Now it seems Bale is his next target.
IMHO a fairer adjusted goal tally (EL qualifiers, FA cup etc) for the season to date would be 85. No doubt that tally is enough to ensure the Jose remark is still "a valid and meaningful point dg." , just without the hyperbole of a comparison with the tally of the Munich machine.
Sky Sports acts like a tabloid newspaper which is the origin of it's success. Souness and Keane are employed by them BECAUSE they are opinionated and bad tempered. It's not a coincidence that both of them were thugs on the pitch and surprise surprise it reflects their characters. News loves controversy and they know it attracts viewers. I rarely watch pundits, it's bad enough listening to most of the commentators but I heard so much about this I had to look it up and listen to it. That's what SKY wanted and it works.
Not giving Sky more "click" revenue, so the exec summary on what specifically Bale "needs to back himself" on, would be much appreciated.
Having 3 reliable goal scorers on the pitch causes havoc with the opposition's defence. Who do they mark? Each one of the 3 can go past a defender and score which means you need 2 defenders on each one-who can afford 6 defenders in their team and still attack? And when you have a Moura or Dele running at the defence from behind that front 3, space will open up. A joy to watch when they work. Bale hasn't taken over from Son. Son is still the threat he was, but they are doubling up on him and leaving Bale open. That will now change.
Must say I’ve been impressed with Moura playing in the middle pocket with Kane. When he played there on occasion as a striker on his own it wasn’t great but with Kane there he comes to the fore. He’s got that talent for ghosting past players and with Kane drawing markers he gets that extra bit of space that he couldn’t find otherwise.