So we're about two months into the campaign, all new lads have had at least about 6 weeks with the squad I think. What's been your opinion of them? Paulinho: Hit - Has a great engine and chipped in with a few goals, with Chelsea and West Ham aside, I think he's looked pretty good. Chadli: Miss - Thought he looked good against Palace, showed glimpses of talent in a few games and has got a couple of assists and goals in the cups but we need to see more of it in the league. Think he can become a great player though if given some time. Soldado: Miss - Started off well with the two pens and goals vs Dinamo but hasn't looked like scoring since. Makes some good runs but I expect more for the money spent. Capoue: Massive Hit - Thought he slotted in brilliantly, even his debut cameo at Palace he didn't look out of place, such a shame he got injured. Chiriches: N/A - Only had two cup games, only saw the last 20 mins vs Villa as I was on hols and against Anzhi, he got better as the game went on. His agent's comments in the press won't do him any favours though. Lamela: Miss - Not been given enough time in the league in my opinion, did get the assist at Cardiff and has looked OK in cups, can understand if his head hadn't been right to due to the situation with his brother but now he's back and safe, I'm hoping we'll see the real Lamela soon. Eriksen: Massive Hit - . Mine and Roo's 18 month wish was granted and we (or I, should I say) haven't been disappointed. MOTM on debut, stunner of a goal in the Europa, help set up the Chelsea goal, great all round play in other games, lacklustre against West Ham but the whole team was. Just won our player of the month for Septemeber award I believe, to think he's still 21 is scary. So... Thoughts guys?
Can't really disagree to be honest. Paulinho's drop in form Vs Chelsea and WHAM is worrying, poor control will be punished at this level. - However, it took a while for Ramires to settle as well. Couldn't believe how average he was in the begining, or that he was even getting games. Same for Sandro (took about a year) and Oscar. It's a very different world over here and it will take alot for him to get settled completely. I have faith he will come good though. In other games he has moved the ball around like Luka did. If he can keep that up and score as well then he will be a diamond for us in the middle. Chadli....meh. doesn't really look like he is trying, or demanding the ball. not running into dangerous positions etc. May need to work on his confidence, or understanding of our tactics...may even be playing as he has been instructed. But hasn't impressed so far. Bobby, there is alot of goodwill for him to succeed, and he seems to have the attributes, however our complete lack of coherant attacking ability and constant long range shooting is not helping him. It was hoped that CE would help with this but he doesn't seem to be picking him out in the way holtby does with Defoe. Is it CE, is it Bobbby not making the runs?? who knows. Capoue - kind of agree, he looked super solid especially with interceptions though a bit clueless when attacking which when partnered with Dembele would give us sweet FA from the middle. I think he will go on to be very good for us, but atm Sandro and Paulinho would be my starters. Chiriches, think he could go on to be very good. Imo would be a better option to Naughton at LB. Lamela, some neat touches and good runs. Like with Andros and Chadli I have been screaming at him to take defenders on though. Can't stand the fact they cut inside every time and the play it to Dembele or Walker. Show some ambition, get at them! as it stands if we have Ade or Soldado up front Lennon would be my starter with Andros or Lamela on the left. Erikson, has been quite good. Like lamela has shown glimpses of really good play though it tends to be right at the very end of play rather than building through him which Holtby seems to be better at. It's all well and good him linking with striker or Siggy for a goal, but for most of the game there is a big gap between our solid 2midfield and striker. Even when Paulinho gets forward the play isn't flowing through them, its to get on the end of crosses. Overall the issue I have is fluidity of attacks. We are keeping hold of the ball for the sake of it at times, and whilst this helps our goals against, it doesn't help our goals for. Liverpool and Arsenal seem to understand their formations and methods for attacking and opening people up better than us. We are so slow and ponderous that the oppo can get everyone behind the ball. We wonder why we struggle to open people up and it's because we allow them to park the bus. Arsenal understand that you have to move the ball quickly, directly and with purpose and we havn't moved on in this respect from last year. I don't like it, but this is a big critiscism of AVB at the moment. I know the boys all need time to gel, most of the squad has been here less than a year and we are adjusting to a new style. But I can't help my frustration when it doesn't look like some areas are improving. A small point also, but when was the last time you saw us try something clever from a free kick or corner like Wham did with Nolan on the end of their free kick? I can't for the life of me understand why we don't try to make more of these situations. Maybe OS can fill me in?
Good article SOS. For me it's looking good on the whole so far. Pauliniho has looked very good upto the 2nd half v Chelsea and West Ham (where to be fair none of the team came out with any credit) so he's a hit for me. Soldado, certainly tries and his movement off the ball has been impressive. Unlike last season, everything seems to be going through the middle and he spends a lot of time with his back to the goal waiting for the pass. Still a hit though. Soon as he gets a goal from open play I think he'll be on fire. Capoue, in the games he featured he looked to be the best of the new boys. Good tackles, good control, good runs, good positional play and has a presence to him. Hit. Eriksen, quality player and has a quality touch on him. Only concern is that he has faded in the 2nd half of recent games ie Cardiff, Chelsea and West Ham. Big hit though. Vlad (can't spell his surname!) looked very ropey early against villa and Anji but in both games improved considerably. Jury's out still. Lamela, still being eased in slowly it seems but has shown he has the quality, the cross for the goal against Cardiff. Once settled and he learns English then we'll see the best from him. Jury out Chadli, again has shown glimpses but not enough for me. Could be wrong and others may see it differently but he is very much an individual not a team player. Miss I still think that they need another couple of months to really settle and get used to the pace of the game etc before we see the best of them.
Agree with both of these, AVB hasn't really switched it up much in terms of tactics when things have looked flat. We've still got results most of the time but it'd nice to see him "go for it" so to speak instead of being reserved and cautious/ safe. Instead of replacing Holtby for Eriksen, bring Defoe/ Soldado on for him. Bring Chadli/ Lamela on for a full back and play 3 at the back... Just things like that. I like a manager/ Spurs team that takes risks, that's why I was a big fan of Harry, this isn't a dig at AVB but whenever we looked flat or were chasing a lead, Harry went all guns blazing and threw the kitchen sink more often than not, I'd love for AVB to do the same. As for the free kick stuff, I don't understand why we don't try a few fancy things either, we've never had a player who can consistently score from free kicks like a Lambert or Baines. If we played one of them little dinks (like WHU done) to someone like Defoe/ Soldado/ Sigurdsson there's good chance them guys could pull it off.
Cheers Junction, yeah without a doubt they need more time, well some of them do! Seems to be a general agreement though that even those we've labelled a miss, there's been glimpses of their talent which is encouraging at the least.
I think it's far to early to say but I really like what I've seen of Paulinho, Eriksen and Capoue + Lamela is a top talent. Can't say with the others as much for differing reasons.
Agree with this as this is something Mourinho would do. I would have thought more would have rubbed off on AVB but unfortunatly not. I think Mourinho can play many different games, teams can sit back and Drogs can bully defenses and lamps could score a knock of. Teams want all the ball, then Chelsea/Inter could sit back and defend with the best of them. The point is he can switch between these during a game. I've seen him take off defenders for mids, and it changed the whole flow. We are trying too hard to control things, without breaking people down or having the ability to defend stoutly enough to warrent such a cautious attacking philosophy. for instance, what were Naughton or Walker adding on sunday? why not bring on Vlad to play there and get forwards, or move Verts to LB as he gets forwards very well. Or take of Walker and bring on Holtby to control the midfield as Dembele and Paulinho were not keeping the ball well enough. The changes don't have to be as dramatic or obvious as Harrys sending on another striker, but something has got to be better than just carrying on doing the same things wrong.
Might not be the right game to be mentioning this after, actually. Lamela for Sigurdsson was basically a straight swap, but then it was a striker for an attacking midfielder and an attacking midfielder for a left-back. Don't think that it was a particularly sensible way of doing things though, to be honest. Our balance was horrible. Failing to remove Walker was a terrible mistake, though. I was convinced he was going off early, then I was certain of it at half-time. How he played the full 90 is still mystifying, frankly.
Not sure who was worse out of Paulinho and Walker. As for the subs, I think he made them too late which is the main problem. Soldado and Holtby came on at 2-0 and 3-0 respectively, at 70+ and 80+ minutes, it's too late to expect a massive turn around in fortunes.
Walker, easily. He shouldn't have been on the pitch and was clearly miles off the pace from the first minute. He was either ill or injured. Given that he made the coaching staff aware of his problem before the game, I simply have no idea how he was allowed to continue.
As some say above, it's far too early to judge overall. However, at this stage I will say the new signings are looking promising although not seen enough of Vlad the Impaler. We just have to remember not only are they adapting to life in the PL, they are also adapting to life in the UK, which is a culture shock for most of them compared to where they lived and played previously. They have been uprooted from friends and family, and it will simply take them time to settle. It could be at least a full year before we see the best of them, providing they settle, if they do. Besides, how long did it take for Spurs to see Bale at his best?! On the whole, I remain positive. I have seen brief touches of potential from Lamela, Chadli and Erikksen. Vlad the Impaler seems like he's a decent CB with great skills, but I think he need to do some training on his strength. Capoue, Paulinho looks good but I think he needs a rest. Soldado, he was the one signing I was most pleased about but I worry, not on his ability, but on the lack of service he's getting which has and is being discussed elsewhere here!
As others have said, it really is still far too early to judge for many different reasons, with different reasons applying to each of those we've signed. But for the sake of joining in, here's my thoughts. Paulinho - a hit. - been decent in most games he's played. Apart from maybe 1 other player, he's pretty much the only one we can really make a half decent assessment of. Chadli - n/a - this guy is taking far to much criticism at such an early stage. He's had a few minutes here and there and hasn't really had enough time to show what he's capable of. He also got injured, meaning his time with us has been very broken up so far. we should also remember that it was a similar situation for holtby last season and now look at him... Soldado - Miss. I think "miss" is very harsh, but as he's probably the only other one i think we can really assess so far, we'd have to say miss as he is yet to score a goal in the premier league during open play after 7 games. However, I don't think it's particularly his fault. IMO, the set up has been all wrong and has wiped him out of the game by default. - Credit where it's due, he's worked his backside off to try and get involved and does put a lot of effort in. Eriksen - another one that's difficult to really judge at this early stage. 1 or 2 good games, 1or two where he's had no impact. Again, i think this comes down to set up, rather than anything he's really done wrong. Some moments of top class quality too, however. Lamela - impossible to judge right now. He's in the same boat as chadli IMO and we can't really cast an opinion based on 10 mins here, 15 mins there. Capoue - being hugely overrated too early IMO. Looked good before he got injured, but if Eriksen or paulinho had faced an injury after the same amount of football, we'd be saying the same thing about those two. IMO, Capoue was still in his "honeymoon" new signing spell when he got injured, where he was desperately trying to impress the fans. Another 2 or 3 games, and our opinion of him could well have dropped slightly, a bit like it has for some people with Paulinho. I see massive potential with our signings, but I think it comes down to AVB now to find out how he's going to set up for each game. The talent is there, but we're not getting things quite right yet, IMO. some players are suffocated through no fault of their own and a few tweaks need to be made during this early "experimental stage" of the season.
I will reserve judgement for now,still to early to say,some might not even show promise till next season,some are starting to look good now
Paulinho: massive hit, but has his foibles, including a penchant for useless long-range shooting, and a work rate which varies from incredible most of the time to distinctly disappointing occasionally. Eriksen: hit, big hit even, but almost too little to go on so far. Lamela: too little to go on; kind of a miss so far, other than one glorious pass, but he ought to be the best of the bunch eventually. Could anyone find him a nice Argentinian or Italian foster family? I ask because a local team did that for Mario Lemieux, maybe the best ice hockey player ever, and he said it helped him enormously. (They were French Canadian, though. The foster family.) Soldado: hit, for me. With our style what it is, we need two or three very good touches for goals, and he's been involved in most of ours. Look what happened when he didn't play. Capoue: great while he lasted, but that was only a couple of games. Let's see what happens when he gets back. Chiriches: looked like he'd never played with a single one of his teammates in his first game. Can hardly blame him, since he hadn't. I think he'll be good, quite possibly very good. Chadli: infuriating. No doubt he's talented, and may be the best player to get Soldado the service he wants. But he's seemed both selfish and lackadaisacal, which means he's also stupid.
Paulinho's display against west ham was the worst since Michael dawson got sent off after 10 minutes at Fulham having already gifted them 2 goals. It was a truly shocking game. He was scarcely any better against Chelsea or Cardiff. He's got a great engine, but less teckers than carlton palmer.
He will get better ,you don't win 3rd best player in the conf cup.unless you are good when you look at all the players in it
Soldado and Lamela are massive disappointments for me. I'm hoping that, with Soldado, we don't have another Pav on our hands. I waited for two whole seasons for Pav to kick on, before finally accepting that he would leave the club as a flop. I'm getting the same feeling about Soldado. As for Lamela, I am hopeful that he will eventually come good.
As I said on another thread, it would be unfair to judge any of these players - good or bad - so soon. None have played in PL before, all need time to adjust and most are younger players who are learning and making their way in the game. Oct 2003 - Cristiano Ronaldo is a lightweight show pony. Can't see much of a future in the game, certainly not in the Premiership.
Best and worst is Eriksen and Chadli, though none have hit the ground running (CE nearset to it), all have shown what they can do in parts of games...I'd just rather see less of what they can't. So what I'm saying really is too early to label hit or miss for me.
