For anyone who noticed, I recently done a Thirdly Season Gradings for all Prem teams, now I thought I'd rate the Spurs players so far: First Team: Friedel: B. Added confidence to the defence, a lot calmer and more reliable than Gomes. Walker: B. Has had an amazing 18 months. Still at times defensively naive but his threat down the right has helped us big time. Kaboul: B+. Really stepped up this season, an aerial powerhouse. King: A. He's the King and that's that. Simply incredible. With him we're twice the team. Ekotto: A-. Super consistent, brilliant partnership with bale. Parker: A. Signing of the season? Without a doubt. Nothing else needs to be said. Modric: C+/ B-. P*ssed me and a lot of others off with his antics at the start of the season with his "head not being right". Has knuckled down and the game on Saturday showed how much we miss him. Lennon: B. FINALLY we're seeing the old Azza back, starting to make the runs at defenders and it's paying off, both for him and us. Rafa: A-. Finishing is off the highest quality. Bale: A. Back to his best, if he's not on the scoring he's usually provided an assist or key to the build up of a goal. He really was born to play for Spurs! Ade: A-. Started with a bang, had a slight goal drought but got a couple of assists in the meantime, got four goals in his last two games. The striker we've craved since the sale of Berbatov. Players in and around first team: Defoe: B+/ A-. Hasn't had as many chances as he'd like due to Rafa's form but he's looked sharp and his finishing is back to its best. Pav: E-. Clear to see he doesn't want to be here. Livermore: B. Stepped up well, good job we never loaned him otherwise we could have been in trouble. Carlo: B. Very solid in the Europa, great back up to have for Friedel. Gomes: C. Looked against Rubin at home though he did make one clanger and I never saw the Stoke game but he supposedly made some good saves while also adding the typical heart in mouth moments. Bassong: C-. Looks good in Europa bar the blunder against Kazan away. Sandro: C. He's back to near enough full fitness, which is great. Gio: C-. Looked OK in Europa, Shamrock was his best display for us. Carroll: B. Came from nowhere and had a great debut vs Hearts. His chances in the team have been deserved and warranted, hopefully has a good future. Townsend: C+. Loves attacking the fullbacks, needs to pass and cross more, he has it in him just needs to use it. Fredericks: C. Made his debut against Hearts and looked ok-ish. The game away to Kazan he impressed me big time, out of position yet played far better than any of our experienced lads on the pitch. That's roughly it, the rest haven't played enough for me to judge on this season or I've forgotten them.
Not much to add there really, far too complimentary on Gio me thinks, imo if I said complete crap it'd be generous! and Seb was very unfortunate v Kazan, being the only fit defender out 2 real defenders in the back 4.
Yeah to be honest I agree with you. Was pretty much basing it on his Shamrock performance. Thing with Gio is even after 3 and a half years, I still think that he can become a top player, just evidently it's likely it won't be with us. Shame really. Yeah he was unfortunate, especially as the home league he was brilliant, one of his best games, but end of the day it cost us big time. Though I'd never blame the defeat on him, our two best players that day were Townsend and Fredericks, both had the least amount of experience on the pitch and both were out of position, which pretty much summed up how poor we were that day.
I'm also a Gio fan, and also doubt he has a future at Spurs. Really, he needs a team to be built around him to be effective. What he can do is circle around and put in some excellent crosses and shots with his left foot, but Spurs want to play one touch and he's not the player for it. Still, behind against Shamrock he took the game over, and could do it again if the team made him the focus of the attack. The interesting thing is that he's best when few players are, which is against an entrenched defense. I agree with most of the ratings, with a few significant differences: I'd give Modric a B/B+. The start of the season was unpleasant, of course, and I think he's had issues with VDV being where he wants to be too often. But he and Parker are really making the "2" in the 4-2-3-1 work, and it's had a huge impact. Also might give Sandro a B. He's been good when he's had the chance (especially against Arsenal). E- might be a little generous for Pav. Call me unreasonable, but I expect a man who makes millions playing football to try.
Yeah spot in about Gio. Such a shame he won't get the chance to prove himself. I think Modric still has a bit of room for improvement, while he's been great, he can be quality (like last season) and I think we'll see that sooner rather than later. I think I gave Sandro the low-ish grade was just because he's not played too much. Certainly impresses me when he's on the pitch, a huge star in the making not just for us but for Brazil too. I was extremely generous to Pav, I've never been a fan, I think I just didn't like the idea of giving a Spurs player an F Yeah definitely. It's amazing how 3 players, who we've spent pretty much peanuts on have taken us to a whole new level. Just a shame we never had them when we played you, would have been a lot more interesting in the 2nd half especially.
