I wonder how big a part the young players will play this season, especially when three became starters last year, and a team which included Carroll, Alli, and Onomah played well against AC Milan--even if Milan looked well off the pace. There are interesting choices all over our midfield, with only Eriksen a certain starter, I think. We'll have to see if Rose starts. Pochettino has tended to bring players coming back from injury on as substitutes before starting them. I agree Walker will start again. I think he's the better player overall, but Trippier helps this team more, from what I've seen so far. What I would really like is for at least one of them to have a great season. So much depends on the fullbacks in Pochettino's teams. We lost both games to Stoke last year, and failed to score in our first game, so someone has to step up and turn things around.
I had a dream last night about the Stoke game and you'll all be please to know that Kane scored "some" goals... The fact that Jeremy Corbyn was playing right back and the pitch was made of mattresses ought not detract... I've got a good feeling about this one.
I think it was rwaeb who mentioned it first, but the Walker-Trippier question somewhat boils down to the vital importance of full backs in a system such as ours. When you're playing with two 'inverted wingers', especially players such as Chadli, Lamela,Townsend and Dembele, you're looking at a narrow system whose forward players have mainly been brought in to create and score goals, not to defend their flanks with their full back. As such, we need fullbacks with good crossing ability to afford us width when the channels aren't working (which is more often than not if Eriksen isn't on top form), who are also blessed with superhuman pace in order to A) make the overlapping run from deep, and B) track back when inevitably caught 40 yards out of position by the absurdly narrow system. The reason why Rose won so many plaudits last season was that by the end of it, he was doing both things - as well as scoring a fair amount of goals. Walker has pace in abundance and as such has the tracking back aspect under control (usually). His great lack is the second crucial aspect of our system; his delivery of the ball and reading of runs isn't good enough to offer us any width beyond giving the opposition something to think about. Trippier, on the other hand, offers width in abundance but won't have a hope in hell of tracking back if a wayward Lamela or Dembele (or apparently Bentaleb now!) pass catches him unawares 40 yards up the flank. Yes, he looked very good against Milan. But they are a poor team playing in a slow-paced league. He'd be skinned alive by the likes of Hazard, Sanchez, Bolasie etc.
Walker just voids himself in my eyes, he has a vicious cycle going on in his style of play, extremely fast but no end product. He's a superb athlete but with his first season aside, has been a very basic footballer and that's being kind, many times Lennon bailed Walker out defensively and since Lennon's exclusion from the squad last season, Walker coincidently looked terrible. Don't get me wrong, a winger should help out it's full back but a full back should still be able to understand basic defending, something for the most part Walker lacks, he also lacks the ability to cross the ball which makes me question, what is Kyle actually good for at the moment? He's probably the fastest defender in the league, possibly even Europe come to think of it but what positive impact has that actually brought to the team in recent seasons? Trippier on the other hand may not be a whippet but he's no slouch, he's also got a terrific cross, how many times last season did we cry out for someone to just get some crosses into the box for Kane/ Nacer/ whoever to be challenging at the end of them? Defensively I don't know much about him, can he be any worse than Walker? Even if he's on a par on the defensive aspects, his crossing ability gives him a +1 over Walker. Walker has a +1 for pace but when he doesn't utilise it effectively then the plus +1 isn't really a bonus and thus I see him as just a passenger in the side. I'd love for nothing more than for Kyle to find the form that saw him voted YPOTY in his first full season because that lad looked superb and looked to be one of the best full backs in the making but 4 years on, he's quite frankly regressed! I don't see any harm in giving Trippier a run of say 5-10 games, if in those 5 games he's been no better or worse than Walker then stick him back on the bench, if he does the business then happy days.
Agreed. He's certainly regressed over the past few seasons but in his defence, he's had almost no consistent partner down that right flank, it took Lamela a long time to progress defensively, he's played next to some truly shocking combinations of Centre Backs over the last few seasons, and has been part of a unit with barely any protection from the midfield. Any young defender would struggle under those conditions. A lot of people wheel out the 'look how well he did when he had Lennon protecting him' line in arguing that Lennon should be brought back into the fold (which I think he should but for entirely different reasons), forgetting that his one incredible season also included Ledley, Daws and Parker protecting and coaching him. It's a dilemma because we're so short on pace that Walker basically picks himself irrespective of form. Maybe if this Njie turns out to be a stroke of genius we'll see more of Trippier but whilst it's one of Lamela or Dembele playing on that flank it's insane not to play Walker as we'd have the pace of a team of geriatrics.
Shark, how are you a 'new member' if you joined 4 years ago?! That must make me an 'embryo member'...
I think that you have to make a certain number of posts to lose the New Member tag. The mods can change them, too.
Has N'Jie signed in time to make the squad? I know there's been no official announcement, but at the pace that we've been making them he'll probably start before it's on our OS.
Have we ever signed a player in time to make a matchday squad? It's out of character to see Alderweireld eligible to start at the Theatre of Schemes last Saturday...
#THFC team: Lloris (c), Walker, Alderweireld, Vertonghen, Davies; Dier, Mason; Chadli, Dembele, Eriksen; Kane #COYS please log in to view this image
#THFC subs: Vorm, Rose, Trippier, Alli, Bentaleb, Carroll, Lamela #COYS please log in to view this image Strange bench if Pritchard and Townsend are fit then they should surely be amongst the subs.
http://firstrows.org/soccer/tottenham-hotspur-vs-stoke-city-frs113c69 Not great and you'll probably have to deal with a couple of adverts.
Decent bit of play from nothing by Eriksen. Made Butland work. All Spurs so far, but without much end product. Whelan in the book. Cynical as ****.
