Kulu’s looking a lot more like his 21/22 version this season. When he’s on it, he strikes me a little as to what you’d get if Mousa Dembele played RW. Could’ve been a great team goal had Son got that pass into Maddison.
That pass and the late one from Sarr to Veliz were extremely disappointing. Happy to take all 3 points, of course, but we could've made it a lot easier on ourselves.
You could apply that statement to many of your games this season. Whilst there have been some obvious improvements in the level of performance in key areas - Maddison’s creativity, van der Ven’s solidity being obvious examples- the biggest change has been the character shown by the team. Winning late, winning ugly, standing firm when the opposition is on top are all traits of this fledging team, which were lacking for the most part under Conte. That must be the most encouraging thing for you Spurs fans so far. It will take time for the team to play consistently with the fluency Ange wants - and there will be a need to replace Kane with a proven goalscorer at some point - but so far, it’s going better than most could have expected. Not having the extra commitment of European competition might prove a blessing too as Ange looks to reshape his squad and is presently relying on a relatively small group in the PL.
Agreed on the lack of European football this season, though we’re somehow still playing Monday-Friday just after the international break. But it places less demand on the squad and has helped the impetus of the clear out which, while far from complete, is clearly in swing. I think immediate concerns are CB and midfield, where we need proper cover for Bissouma and a Maddison rotation option who is actually fit to play, because Lo Celso rarely is. That might change depending on how Bentancur comes back and where Ange wants to play him - if he sees him as capable of playing 6 then we’re probably ok there. Plus if we had any fit wingers to play RW, Kulu can also play 8. But we need a flexible CB for sure and maybe an 8 or a 6 or both. Up top we have a lot of depth at winger with all the players fit but with Perisic looking likely to not pull on a Spurs shirt ever again and Gil’s future unclear, and Kulu potentially an important rotation option at 8, it might be interesting to test the water in January. Jota, once an Ange player at Celtic, is probably a likely recruit in January after his failed Saudi move. I suspect the 9 will be addressed next summer pending how Richy’s season goes and the development of young Veliz. The glaring one, and the position I see the least obvious solution, is CB. We have some very promising young players there but the step up is obviously big.
There’s a player in there somewhere but I accepted a good while back that we’ll never see that player at Tottenham. He can’t keep living off the fact he had a few good games in the Covid season and plays well when he’s fit for Argentina. His good form at Betis is a long time ago now. Ironically I think the left sided 8 role is his best position, it’s where he played when he won Copa America with Argentina. But he fails the most important test of a footballer which is availability. We desperately need to get rid.
I wonder if anyone on here compared the way he moves with the ball to Dembele back when we were being linked with him...?
He’s the injury prone Latin Harry Winks. Winks is actually better come to think of it. Jesus you must be bad when I’m saying Winks is better than you.
Not that tags work but @FosseFilberto already has a shrine to him. So make of that what you will. Reckons he’s doing really well though in all seriousness, which isn’t a huge surprise as that’s the level many of us had him down for.
Spurs need this year's Llorente above all. Liverpool have four relatively proven goal scoring forwards. Spurs have one, a thirty year old who relies on pace and lacks two fully fit hamstrings. In addition to a veteran hold up player, get a second goal scorer/creator as another option and injury insurance. They'll both get minutes in any games Spurs need goals. Effing with the starting 11 at this point is fixing what ain't broken. The chances of screwing things up are a lot better than making an improvement. For an example of that, see Spurs forwards and buying Richarlison last year. I'm actually skeptical of replacing Sarr with Bentancur for the same reason, despite Bentancur being class and Sarr being the second least impressive of the 11. Sarr is playing well overall, and is a very unusual player. He has his biggest impact anticipating and preventing or creating goals while often racing long distances. I've never seen anyone with his style. Do Spurs really want to risk removing it from the mix, at least as long as things are going well? Bentancur's role overlaps more with Bissouma, IMO, so adding him and subtracting Sarr really changes the nature of the team. As to the rest of the squad...is it really wise for Spurs to get players better than Hojbjerg, Skipp, Emerson, Davis and potentially Dier to sit on the bench and become next year's deadwood? Can Spurs actually improve on them without being able to offer a starting position? It's not like there are many games to go around this year. To me, it's get one proven veteran goal scorer who's also a hold up player, plus a second goal scorer/creator.
Very much agree - particularly with your Sarr comments. The Bissouma/Betancur rotation makes much more sense, especially with the former seemingly more familiar with cards than Cool Hand Luke!
I think there’s a bit of recency bias in this Sarr-Bentancur debate. Don't get me wrong Sarr has been very impressive so far and I think over the coming seasons he’s going to get better and better but there’s currently still a considerable quality gap between him and Bentancur at the moment, there’s a considerable quality gap between Bentancur and most midfielders in fairness. I think a fit Bentancur is one of the best CMs in the Prem and an upper tier one throughout Europe, he was excelling last season in that box to box role in a worse team and worse system, our season went to **** when he got his injury, so it’s exciting to then think what Bentancur playing that role under Ange now could do. Here’s a small reminder of what he can do too, this is no sleight on Sarr but I think it just needs to appreciated how good Bentancur is and how much better we’ll potentially be if he can return the same player in this current system.
He’s by far and away one of my favourite players at the club. He’s a brilliant player to have as I can see him playing Bissouma or Sarr’s role, if he can get back to those levels.
Likewise, he just oozes quality in so many attributes. I think he falls just below the world class bracket which is what I'd reserve for the likes of prime Modric or current Rodri, de Bruyne, de Jong etc. If he gets back to last season's levels, I think a midfield of him, Maddison and Bissouma has the makings for one of the best midfield trios in Europe, let alone the Prem. Not far off of when we had Dembele, Wanyama and Eriksen or Modric, Parker and van der Vaart.
With all that said I don’t think we should forget how much Sarr has come on this year and how good he has been. He hasn’t been able to get forward as much the last few games but then again we’ve played Arsenal, Liverpool and half the game against Luton with 10, so perhaps to be expected. He looks like he has filled out a bit and improved technically. I’ve been really impressed with how intelligent he has been tactically in Ange’s system. He needs to improve on his ball striking when passing or shooting but he’s coming along really nicely. Like Bentancur he’s another who I think could fill in for Biss or play that 8 role on the right so everyone should get plenty of game time. With an upgrade on GLC as backup for Maddison I think the midfield is looking in really good shape for the next few years.
