What’s really starting to piss me off with Johnson is his lack of intent to do anything. There was a point last night where he done well to win the ball, he then had a free ride to bomb down the right wing and either close in on goal or hope someone got up there with him for him to pass to. Instead he jogged with the ball, twice looked to the side and back and then ****ed up possession. It’s not the first time he’s seemingly shat himself in possession. When we signed him I really thought there was a player with potential to become a real sort of speed demon with us, and statistically his stats last season really weren’t that bad but his overall performances have largely been abysmal. Why he started over Kulu who was head and shoulders above everyone in pre-season I don’t know but all I can hope is Odobert or Moore don’t get treated like strangers by Ange this season. If Johnson ain’t careful he’ll end this season out of the squad, let alone out of the team.
Can’t say I’m brimming with too much optimism at the moment either. New season, same problems for us. Doesn’t help we’ve not improved our XI either.
It’s just awful. He will take minutes away from Moore. Odobert is another young winger who will need game time to progress so hoping he comes on ahead of Werner in the future.
Son and Maddison worked well down the left because apparently by design we were channeling absolutely everything down that flank. There is very little variety to our attacking play. It is no surprise that the goal came from Maddison cutting infield and Porro being in the last place you'd expect a FB to be. Otherwise, it was all very predictable and a better team than Leicester would have easily shepherded us away from danger and certainly wouldn't have conceded a dozen corners. We weren't using the right flank at all and we still lack someone with the guile and nous to unlock things through the middle. The latter remains my biggest concern. Perhaps Bergvall will be the answer.
I doubt we do but one can only hope there's a break clause we can activate in January, especially as Yang arrives then too. Though I wish we had one now to be honest
I Nearly referred to that Johnson moment in my last post. Absolutely brilliant sliding tackle, and then did nothing, despite acres of space to counter in. Werner gets a lot of stick, but I don’t understand how Johnson seems to get away with it somewhat. For me, he’s the glaring weak link every time he’s in the starting XI, and falls into the same category as Richarlison in terms of money spent for little output. as CK has said countless times, we desperately lack leadership, and also experience to a certain extent. It’s exciting to see such talented youngsters in our squad. We’ve signed some really promising players as of late, and the academy is producing some potential gems. but we have to now find a balance with some of our signings because something is missing.
Let the missus set up a Spurs "swear jar" for you, and for every "red" she issues, put 5 quid in it. End of season : tell us what the total is.
Quite a strange game. I could not believe how passive Lesta were in the 1st half. If their manager bet on Spurs being impotent on the end product, then the gamble paid off. After it went to 1-1, the perennial MF panic + slow slow sideways slow once the opposition decided to draw back to the final third but be faster in their harassing. I really would like to see first-hand what is happening in the coaching sessions.
Everything that happened in the match is consistent with what we already know....the very best players in the world prefer to join the established best teams rather than a challenger like ourselves. So we either have to sign players who are second tier or young with potential. Therefore each team member will look off the pace at times but a few of those might develop into the elite players we need. I think we have enough good younger players now to be optimistic about the next few years.
I think he's had leniency due to his age but naturally as time goes by that leniency fades. The RW spot was a position I wanted strengthening from the start of the window though and for good reasoning. As I've said, if he doesn't up his game he'll find himself out the squad, let alone team. As for leaders, I do agree we lack some but equally I think leadership can be somewhat negated with quality and tactics. Poch's side didn't have many leaders but we enjoyed great success (well... just without the silverware!). Our play under him was so varied in style, goals game from multiple ways of play such as balls over the top from Toby, through balls by Eriksen, long rangers by Kane, Son and Eriksen, low and high crosses from out wide, marauding runs from Dembele to open up space etc. We were also fluid enough to change formation pre and during games which would confuse teams. With Ange, it's starting to feel very one dimensional and easy to read. A majority of our goals are reliant on low crosses and basically walking the ball into the net, everything seems very repetitive in our play and you'd imagine that's relatively easy to read for opposition coaches/ analysts and then players. There's also still clearly been zero work done on our defensive shape, making us easy to create (and score) chances against. Similar to Johnson, Ange had a lot of leniency last season, it won't be the case this time around. He keeps talking a big game as it is, it's time he shows it and proves he's more tactically sound that what we've so far seen.
There were players (Dier, Dembele) who were happy to "put themselves about" . However, as the Chelsky Clattenf*ck show demonstrated in 2016, that is not enough. Leadership on-pitch requires one who commands the players when the melees come, or when general panic could set in.
Apparently Ange isn’t involved and just watches and leaves it to his coaches, not sure how true that is.
Bentancur and Romero probably come under that bracket. You could make an argument for Udogie too who performs a lot of “Serie A fouls”. I think an improvement in tactics though really would nullify that need for on field leadership, or certainly a fair amount of it. We’ve clearly done zero defensive work in the summer as last night showed whilst our attacking patterns are exactly the same. Ange said in his presser we’re more prepared this season for his style, tactics and demands along with talking about how he wins things in his second season yet last night’s showing suggests otherwise. We look absolutely no better whatsoever and that was against one of the worst teams in the league.
One thing I keep coming back to is Sonny getting into positions where in the past he's unleashed a shot or driven into the area to shoot - but last night he seemed to choose a pass every time he got in that area I'm not sure if that's tactical or merely a lack of confidence, but that is certainly something to look at on the training ground - as in, we should consider potentially telling Udogie to overlap on the outside instead of coming inside so there's another option available
I definitely think it’s tactical. I mentioned so last season about this too, he didn’t hit a single pearler. Usually has a Spurs goal of the season comp of his own doing most years. It doesn’t seem like long shots are encouraged, which is silly as we’ve got a couple players who are excellent at them. Again though, reverts back to the points I’ve been making about everything being too one dimensional and easy to read. There’s no variety about us.
I must have watched a different match. We created chances for Bentancur and Solanke from close passes into the box, four headers on target from a variety of angles and good chances for Son and Johnson as they came in from wide. How much more variety do you want?
