Match Day Thread Tottenham Hotspur v Manchester United

I'm gonna say something controversial. I think Richie needs a run of games to improve, after which I think he'll do better than we think.

We forget he was injured not so long ago, and has been almost trying too hard to prove he can still play at the required level.

He'll have a better end of year than the beginning of the season, we'll probably ship him of to Everton in January at the peak of his powers, he'll then do very well for them for the rest of the season.

I don't think he's as bad as a lot of moaning Spurs fans think. If he'd have actually tucked away that first header, that he completely missed, the conversation would be entirely different now. Same for Johnson with the exceptional cross too.

Small margins.

 

It's snowing here in Kentucky. Can I blame it on Spurs giving up a last minute goal to THEM!?

 

Nah I think he’s a pretty tragic footballer.

Been in the league for about 8 or so years now and never once has he established himself as an upper tier striker, so I highly doubt a run of games is going to change much.

I said the day we signed him that he was basically our “Harry Maguire”; an instant flop for the price. If both Spurs and Utd paid half as much as they did you could probably live with the fees and their impacts but neither club have gotten anything close to the fees they paid and will make considerable losses the day they leave.

I hope we sell him back to Everton, what he then does there will be of little interest to me, whether he hits 15 goals or 1 for the remainder of the season, it’ll be a relief not having him on our books often stinking the place up.

 

Would like to see some youngsters given a chance

I don’t think Liverpool have amazing off the planet youngsters but in their successful periods they have given them game time and belief to level up and they have replied in kind on the whole

We don’t seem to have that passion as a club it seems to get that young homegrown player to that level

Was hoping Scarlett and Mikey Moore types were regular off the bench but it just doesn’t seem to happen

 

I think the difference is that Liverpool and City's youngsters have been inserted into already very, very good sides with a core of brilliant experienced players.

Chelsea are probably the only example of a ridiculously young squad that is somewhat successful, but it cost them half a billion quid to put together.

 

It did happen last season to a degree with many youngsters featuring in the EL cup run. Most have now been loaned out, I imagine to increase the minutes they get. We need stability in management for more than our current two season average. I think Klopp being there for a significant stretch helped solidify the philosophy of play throughout the club.

 

The benefit the likes of the Mansourites, Liverpool and Arsenal have is they can bin off the League Cup and nobody bats an eye, so they may as well get the youngsters some guaranteed minutes and see them grow from there

If we do the same thing our fanbase will likely **** in their own hands and throw it at the pitch

 

This is what supporting Spurs does to you.

You start sitting around for years waiting for players to show they actually deserve to wear the shirt.

"This year it will all click", you tell yourself.

And then after six years of underperforming, they leave on a free transfer.

You say small margins, but if a player constantly falls on the wrong side of that margin, doesn't it indicate that we might be looking at a problem more the width of the Grand Canyon?

 

Richarlison has never shown the form needed to be good enough in his whole career.

Rotten player and the sooner he’s gone the better.

 

Why don't you tell me what you really think fellas?

 

No, no, no, no a thousand times no!!

I would love to say different, but he has never produced consistently anywhere, regardless of injury status.

That's not to say he doesn't try and he's got significant talents - some of the goals he has scored over his career prove that. But he just cannot produce it week in, week out - not even week in, month out!

And I do fear that he has psychological issues which impact his performances. He has documented historic mental health problems as I recall and his demeanour on the pitch sometimes makes him appear like a little boy lost.

 

I agree with you and I don't think that we're going to have much choice, anyway.
Kolo Muani's injury basically ensures that Richarlison starts most games.
Hopefully we won't overdo it and Scarlett will get a chance to impress, too.

 

He has 4 PL goals, scouring every 158 minutes played (which is better than Mayeta and Mbeumo, who are doing very well).
Spurs aren’t creating that many chances. You miss Maddison and Kulesevski and the new signings in the wide forward and no.10 positions have yet to set the world alight.
I’m not sure he’s all that bad.

 

Tbh, I’d question the value of Solanke more. One good season at Bournemouth in a system which played to his strengths. He hasn’t yet shown the ability to adapt and he lacks the all round attributes to thrive in any system.
Spurs’ forward signings are well short of the quality of the inspired defensive ones.

 

They’re very different players. Solanke is a systems player, very good at pressing, holds the ball up nicely, carries the ball better than you might think, he’s not as clinical as the elite strikers but he’s more clinical than Richy. But ultimately he’s a player who you coach to be part of the structure.

Richy is pure chaos and instinct. He can score spectacular goals but mess up simple chances. He works hard off the ball but doesn’t fit into an out of possession structure as intelligently as Solanke. I think he needs a bigger volume of chance creation to score goals than Solanke, though he’s also more likely to score an overhead kick from nowhere.

Richy still plays underdog football in my mind - he’s always playing on the edge and always looking to buy a foul and make the most of contact. While I think he can score a decent amount of goals in a PL season I think the current nature of the team doesn’t suit him because we’re not creating a lot of chances and we need the upside from a 9 who can bring other players into the game and lead a press intelligently.

I wouldn’t class Solanke as an elite PL striker but I think if we can keep him and RKM fit they give us a much more solid baseline than Richy and allow us to build a team around a more consistent profile at 9. It’s as much about the effect these players have on the rest of the team as their own goalscoring numbers.

 

Richarlison has a name of being some sort of mercurial enigma but I am honestly struggling to recall more than a couple of goals he's scored for us that weren't very, very basic finishes. His goal on the opening day was superb but when was the last time he scored one of that quality? Three years ago for Brazil? He can't have scored more than half a dozen 'spectacular' goals in his whole career, which is pretty damning for a player who somehow keeps breaking teams' transfer records.

When he leaves Spurs (very soon I hope) his highlight reel will consist of mainly headers and tap-ins. Oh, and getting booked for taking off his shirt after scoring meaningless goals.