If you had said Spurs would only be 8-11 pts off top with 3/4 of the season gone, I would have had you sectioned.
Bissouma is recovering from Malaria and Kuluchevski doesn't look to have recovered from various niggling injuries. Last season many were writing Son off as being on the downside of his career and it turned out he was playing half fit. If our squad was stronger both Bissouma and Kuluchevski would be rested. Johnson played both Wales games so was started on the bench. The players who need to be moved on are (imo) Warner and Richarlison (both triers but not clinical and make poor choices), Skipp (has stagnated), Sessengon (broken and no where near good enough), Ndombele (our worst signing ever), Lo Celso (done a little but nowhere near enough), Gil (to weak), Reguilon (too inconsistent), Hoejberg (will bring in money and doesn't want to be a bit part player), Royal (another one who gives his all but simply not up to the required level), Spence (attitude issues), Tanganga (hardly ripping it up on loan in the championship). That's 11 who need moving on before Kuluchevski and Bissouma. Like I have said for weeks ... our squad is weak. We need to strengthen it. That competition for places will keep everyone from being complacent and will allow us to properly rotate. We are playing 3 games in 8 days this week, I think that was in Ange's mind when picking the team today.
Just adding to the conspiracy. When the ball doesn't cross the line (or does marginally) don't we normally see the graphic pretty instantly? This one took ages to appear. This is because they were mocking one up to cover up the fact that the goal line technology failed. Probably not, but it's fun to ponder. And it really looked like it crossed the line!
Perhaps you're right re Hojbjerg in that we haven't seen enough of him in Ange's system to make an educated choice between him and Bissouma, but Brennan has accumulated overwhelming evidence over the past 2-3 months that he is better suited to the system than Kulu, yet the latter continues to be favoured.
I don't think it's anything to do with attitude. He comes across as a very sincere and hard working professional. Imo it's simply down to ability. He's a gifted player but his repertoire is visibly limited. Relies far too much on cutting inside onto his left foot and lacks the pace to really skin a defender, so is pretty easy to neuter. I've said it before, he reminds me a whole lot of Nacer Chadli. Talented but not consistent or varied enough to ever become a top player.
Will say it til I die : 1. Decisions on off-side / goal line crossing / etc are a matter of metres and not millimetres. 2. The premise should always be what would the official decide if they were perfectly in line with the ball/players and with an unimpeded view.
The thing with Bissouma is he is easy to flip for a profit, which is an odd sentence to say for an ex-Brighton player as they tend to move for the GDP of a Mediterranean nation, but that's something that can't be said for many of our squad barring players we signed for a song and would be mad to sell (Vicario, Sarr, Udogie), academy players, or Solomon That being said, as I said earlier in the thread I'm starting to suspect that there's something else going on with Bissouma barring the malaria, as his nosedive started before AFCoN duty, so it really would not surprise me if we hear about him having surgery for an injury once the season is done - and be annoyed by this, because FFS can our players stop trying to play through injury all the time as their form nosedives and they wind up dragging down the team as a result Though as the transfer thread bears out, we have been linked with a decent number of No6es since December and there comes a point where that can't be a coincidence
In this sense he's been a distance from the Eriksen replacement we've been crying out for, in that the latter stayed remarkably free of injuries, despite playing 40-50 games a season.
He missed a month with a knee injury in 2015-16, and a month with an abdominal muscle injury in 2018-19 The latter certainly showed that season, as he did fade out of not just matches but whole blocks of matches in the final third of the season
I'm sure the technical specs have a tolerance, or a +/- accuracy rating. They're not going to tell us what it is, but like VAR they are treating it like it's an absolute 100% right / wrong answer. For example, I wonder if their model assumes a perfectly round ball? I wouldn't be surprised if a ball goes a tiny bit out of shape during the match, not enough to make a difference to the game... until you get a goal that isn't given by 1mm when it might make a difference.
Just wanted to throw this in to the doom an gloom that besets every game we do not win 6-0 with a swagger. Because of the time difference I almost never see a game live ,so i rely on the Spurs play app for highlights and comment. I watched the extended highlights and after the review show. The opinions of the review show says that although we aren't playing gold class football , except for the Fulham match, we keep going till the end. Sure some players are def out of form or are carrying some niggle that affects their performance, but they keep trying , isn't that what we want, so we don't revert to Jose and Conte ball and give up, but this time of the year is more about the result than the performance isn't it? Ange obviously wants the performance but acknowledges that some are there for tactical reasons so we get the desired result. Sorry for the long post but I get irritated when some posters look for the negatives and overlook the fact the we are still in transition don't have a good squad balance, but are 5th 4 points behind Villa but 8 clear of Man U isn't that something to be happy about, COYS
On paper, a top 6 finish this season looks good after appointing a new manager who’s unproven at the top level and losing Harry Kane. However this doesn’t mean there aren’t negatives that need to be fixed come the summer. The team still needs 4-5 players and there are probably 10 that need to be sold. Add in the extra fixtures next season with Europe and hopefully cup runs and this is why it’s not a certainty that the team will ‘improve’ next season.
KH - get all that there is no doubt that numerous players are past use by date or not fit for use. But , for instance don't know who it was but there is constant criticism of Werner, granted shouldn't be a starter but from what I have seen over a few games he a very willing and has a great turn of speed, his finishing is not better or worse than some others who don't don't get the flack he does. For me whoever wears the white shirt should have our support, until the the day they don't.
Only Son, Hojbjerg and Davies have played enough games for us to get a statistically significant sample of their true abilities. Johnson hasn't played enough matches in his whole career to determine if he is better or worse than Kulusevski.
It’s because he’s on loan and some of us (myself included) don’t think he’s worth signing on a permanent as he’s not good enough to take the club to the next level. As a short term option he’s not too bad. In the summer the club need to sign a centre forward and stick Son back to the left.
It's not in the least bit surprising that many of our players need upgrading as 5 other clubs have spent more so should have better players. What is surprising is how quick people are to judge in both directions as to which ones are good enough to keep and which ones will never make the grade. There simply is no way of telling who will develop and who won't and who might look good and then immediately go into decline. It is much too early to write off Emerson, Skipp and Tanganga, especially since the last two are club trained and can't be replaced in a UEFA squad (unless we buy Kane, Edwards, or Winks back).
