He had something about him defensively but even that’s gone of late. I’m left footed and can attack better with my right than him.
Lot of people disagreed with me when I said we were sending away the wrong WB. Reggie weren’t perfect but a damn site better than Sess.
He could probably be a solid traditional RB in a settled back line with a decent CB pairing alongside him, yes. And that is exactly what he was signed to be by Nuno. So what Conte is currently doing is taking a vacuum cleaner and trying to wash the windscreen with it. You'll remove a bit of dirt true enough, but you'll also make a hell of a lot of noise and probably crack the glass while you're at it, but still he persists.
Subbing Richarlison for Skipp was just the kind of negativity Frankfurt needed to work their way back into the game. Credit to them for doing that though, when we were 3-1 down away from home we absolutely threw in the towel. I'm grateful to Gil for making the most of his limited cameos, he's brightened some really dreary football up in the couple of cameos he's had. I really hate some of this football though. The most positive I can say is that I felt worse about our football under Mourinho, although if he had Kulusevski and Richarlison he'd probably still have a job here as they'd have bailed him out and we'd still be stuck with him. Timid 11v11, timid 10v11, timid 11v10. I don't think we should be grateful for Conte, he should be grateful for the attack he's got here.
Two things that Emerson offers which Aurier did not is he doesn't leave a gaping void down our right flank or a gap in the centre as Sissoko drifts out right to fill the gaping void that saw us overrun in the middle, but also because he's more of a traditional FB he does offer tactical flexibility as that potentially allows us to play asymmetrical WBs - which may sound like suicide in a system that relies on WBs, but in a 352 that actually does offer something as Emerson hanging around as a wide midfielder while Hojbjerg pushes up through the middle does actually offer something
What was it that people really hated about Sessegnon and Royal today btw? Maybe I left the room for pisses and beers at the wrong time but I thought Sessegnon was good and Royal was fine? Dier and Bentancur, who imo has been our worst player this season, were far worse.
Royal appears to lack very little positional sense and in particular he constantly fails to see teammates movement into space - almost inevitably passing it backwards or getting intercepted. Sess should have scored in the first half and was often outpaced. Got booked for a stupid foul on one of those occasions. They both seem like decent guys, but sentiment only takes you so far....
Huh?! As for the WBs - Royal cost us the second goal and Sessegnon got outpaced by just about any player that ran down his flank, getting booked because of it too. Both typically offered nothing going forward… again. Awful players.
Ref was awful, but thank **** he didn't send the 2nd one off. We did badly enough against 10 - just think how bad it could have been against 9!
I liked Bentancur but he's really been bad this season. Hojbjerg has been twice the player in every part of the pitch this season. I was joking about about the beers/piss thing but I genuinely walked into the room with a beer when they got their second, then walked out again, haha. I find it hard to believe it was any worse than Dier's though. Sessengon did plenty with helping break the press tho, put himself in space in good positions higher up and made them rethink. He's not rapid like Rose or Reguilon but he's solid and reads things well like Davies.
Foot off the gas second half and nearly cost us. Everything was saying we’ve got this in the bag, even us in the crowd. Dull atmosphere in the second half and nearly went tits up. Top of the group though so all’s we’ll that ends well
He had a slow start to the season in the first few games but has generally been very good since. Hojbjerg has been brilliant though, our POTS so far, maybe that’s overshadowing Bentancur’s game. Sessegnon doesn’t read the game well in my opinion, today showed that with how easily he was caught out and then picked up the yellow because he was too slow to catch up. He’s nowhere near as solid and dependable as Davies - who truly is an unsung hero at Spurs. Dier was dreadful today but he’s generally had a solid season with few mistakes so I’m happy to go easier on players that generally have done ok. We’re getting let down in just about every one of Sess and Emerson’s games by them, they hold us back massively and I’m honestly dumbfounded at Conte’s persistence with both, especially Emerson where we’ve got other options. I said similar on the transfer thread but our decline in FBs/ WBs over the years is so bad it’s almost laughable. Ekotto and (prime) Rose were absolute joys to watch, Reguilon was erratic but at least offered hope down the wing, now we’re stuck with Sessegnon who is only just better than Gilberto. Then on the opposite flank we’ve gone from Walker and Tripps, to Aurier to Doherty and now Emerson. If we don’t laugh we’ll cry at these declines.
Just got back and I'm going to be positive, as I feel I may have a rant tomorrow. Pros: We won, we're top of the group and if we win our next game, then I think we're through. Son is back in the goals, again. We rotated a bit and changed the system again and still got a result. Some players who haven't had much (or any) involvement got some minutes. Bryan Gil is chaos and he showed some of what he's capable of. Now I'm off to write a stern letter to the Spanish Guide Dog Association.
That’s one thing I think Conte got right. Hopefully get a decent price for Reguilon in the summer and use that money for a RWB Sessegnon will be back up once Perisic is fit and then next season the kid from Udinese will hopefully prove to be a good signing
I agree that they're too expensive, but I think the ticket conditions were a bit different tonight. Frankfurt keep bringing enormous numbers abroad and buying up lots of home tickets. They limited who could get them for this reason, I think.
