Well, what a comeback that was. A disaster of an opening but ended up being a relatively comfortable victory. I didn't really feel as though Spurs were ever on top and oddly, not concerned when we went 2-0 down. This Chelsea team now has something about them and I don't just mean Palmer. Maresco's tactical plan seems to working quite nicely now and with lots of competition for spaces, everyone wants to put a shift in. Something we seemed to be lacking the past few seasons. Everyone seemed to want to get stuck in and run. Everyone wanted to chase everything and it looked very much like a cohesive, supportive unit. Having said that, there are still some glaring issues that need to be resolved. We need to have more than Jackson up front. Not too much of an issue at the moment, but there clearly isn't competition for him. That's not his fault, but it certainly limits our options. Sanchez also needs to be replaced. He isn't very good at playing with the ball at feet and it will cost us later down the line. Should Caicedo have seen red? I'm on the fence.
Caicedo, maybe but what Kulusevski did was an act of thuggery that went unpunished, an elbow to the skull should receive a massive ban, but VAR chose to ignore it. Anyhow agree with the Sanchez replacement and I would add Badass to the list of riddance, he is a car crash of a defender and should be nowhere near our team. Oh and we have a new "Mr Slippy" in our midst.
Spurs squad is so thin, they lost 2 of their long time injured after running riot through us for 20 mins. That was the end of them basically. If Levy would let a few moths out of his wallet, they could be in the mix.. Casiedo in the back 4 is not for me, smacks of trying anything to get Fernandez into the starting line up. Enzo is playing well, but boy our midfield is like a Motorway to our goal without Caisedo and Lavia there. All round good team effort, Sancho can do (and did) something special, and the usual suspects were, as usual recently, excellent. Sanchez seems unable to master the relatively straightforward art of NOT kicking or passing to opposition players. A mystery why this happens, I can't believe he can't be coached to NOT do it. Other than that, Cuckoos' short studs should have been changed after 1 slip up surely, lack of attention to detail there !! In the end 3 well earned Team points, a very good, professional ( not used that adjective for a couple of years) and controlled game from all the players. And on we go, smiling all the way.
I am continuing to be surprised by this squad. Enzo Fernandez is starting to become an actual player. Our attacking options are truly great, and our midfield is getting there. We are a CB and GK away from challenging for big honours I feel
The reality is, if we keep winning, we keep the pressure on Liverpool, who only need a couple of bad games for it to get really tight. They will drop more points this season, not many, but enough to keep it interesting for those of us sniffing around. The issue with a top class striker is they seem to be a rare breed these days. Who really is available and worth the kind of money that teams are after?
I mean, Jackson has got 8 goals from 13 games, so far, and is still young and getting better, and the truth of it is, as long as we have Palmer bagging 25 league goal contributions from midfield and Neto, Madueke, Sancho et all weigh in with a 10+ goals each per season, its not essential to have a 30+ goal striker upfront. Even when we won the league in 2005 and in 2006 we didnt have a striker anywhere near the top of the golden boot race. You can win without it. Of course we had Drogba in 2010 who smashed it, but its not essential, as long as we are getting goals from somewhere. Look at Liverpool in 2020 too, Firminho wasnt grabbing 20 + goals, but he didnt need to because Salah and Mane were chipping in with plenty from the wings. We are currently the top goal scorers in the league, with Jackson spear heading the attack! So for me, the back line and GK areas should now be our priority. I would go for Pickford in the summer if we cannot find a young, awesome keeper by the summer. He is only 30 which means as a GK he could have 5-7 more years in him at the top level. As for a centre back, Milenkovic over at Forest looks very good...too good to be playing for Forest. Van Hecke over at Brighton looks good too, though he just only recently signed a new contract, so Brighton would likely screw us over any fee. We'd be paying £80m plus. Thats just the PL though, I am sure there are other candidates in foreign leagues they are looking at.
Maresca pointed out today that only 2 teams have a better defensive record than us. Perhaps our defence is copping a bit of unfair flak ?? Disasi and Badieshielle have not set anything on fire, though Badashielle looks to me to have something in him, though Blue Tooth Tony doesn't agree!! IF a really top young CB comes along, we should be on the case for sure. Elsewhere, I'd like to see Gusto used better, he has so much to give us but is not showing it, playing as he is to instructions. Another "problem" is how to use Enzo and Nkuku without wrecking the balance. Nkuku especially is a natural scorer of goals from inside crowded areas, something we haven't had for a long time. So Maresca still has a lot of sorting, discarding and shuffling to do before he can actually identify what positions we REALLY need to strengthen. He's less than halfway through season 1, and the Team might look quite different by seasons' end. There are several players who could come into the reckoning as things develop. But the results are a massive uplift from where he started. Can't see much wrong with Jorgenson as a good future GK either, he's not even warmed up yet. Very nice to be able to see things taking such good shape before your eyes.
I've seen some analysis on YouTube that says that Maresco teams tend to run out of steam towards the end of the season. Having a big sqaud who all know the system and are comparable in talent and ability in each position I think might mean we will see more of the squad a bit later in the season.
This is why I was glad to see he rested a lot of players for the Southampton game we had in midweek. Plus most of our PL starting XI dont start (or in some cases arent even in the squad) in the Conference. He has a large, talented squad and he is making use of it. Also, this "Maresca teams run out of steam at the end" crap is basically all cooked up from one season he had with Leicester last year. They were top of the championship, leading by like 15 points for most of the season and then they lost like 7 of their last 10 games. Some of it was tiredness I am sure, but a heck of a lot of it, I am willing to bet, was complacency. They were so far ahead. Plus he didnt have anywhere near the squad rotation options at Lesta that he has with us. So I am thinking we will be fine.
