What this club has needed for a long time is a leader,can't remember the last one we had of that stature , I thought that Romero would be the man but l'm not so sure now ,certainly not Maddison , Ange gave it to Son, brilliant person and an ambassador but not someone who would go to players on the pitch and give them a bollocking , the type of player I'm thinking of need not be a super star but he needs the respect of the dressing room
With Dier, Sanchez, Doherty, Emerson etc in our back line, it’s not surprising we couldn’t defend that well to be honest
Pass map time please log in to view this image You can sort of see the issue here: Solanke being so deep, which ties into Bentancur being outmuscled far too often on the day which means Solanke had to drop deeper to help with the pressing - and you can see similar on our right hand side, because when Mitoma started to dictate the game on their left flank we Deki, Johnson and Porro all committed to try and shut him down which isolated the left flank, hence Maddison is also comparatively deep, while on Brighton;s left they were tripling up on Udogie who was having a 'mare Definitely needed Sarr or Bissouma on earlier to push back in midfield
..and a truly nice bloke to boot as well. He used to live local to me and I sometimes bumped into him in the local Costa. Always chatted to you (especialy when he saw my Spurs hoddie...) and gave his time freely to others, especially if kids wanted his autograph. Top man.
Most top clubs have a lunatic playing for them.We haven,t had one since? Who'll die for our club I mean!!!!!?
The ones I remember are: Fulham under hoddle Man Utd under hoddle (Champions) Arsenal Under Redknapp Man utd under Redknapp (champions) Burnley under Redknapp (nothing game) Man City under Conte (champions) And This on v Brighton. The 10 means it's happened once ever 2 yrs 3 mths. In the same time frame we had 10 wins in the same circumstances. Sunday was very disappointing but it isn't as symptomatic as the media portray
It's just longevity and actually scoring enough goals for the opportunity to be there. The four ever-present clubs that have done better than us have scored more and conceded less, unsurprisingly. Everton have done far worse and virtually everyone else has been far worse than them, barring City, Newcastle and Villa. We've scored 1,903 in the Premier League. Everton have scored 1,572 in the same number of matches. That's an enormous difference. They've managed to do it twice this season already, though. We're 1 goal off scoring 500 more than Villa. West Ham have conceded 1 less than us, despite spending four seasons out of the division. We've just been around long enough to get these results and most clubs haven't.
I didn't actually notice this in real time, but what that tells me is that Kulusevski was wildly out of position for the whole game. It also explains his booking, which was an obvious dive by Mitoma. The press fell apart because nobody was following Solanke. I assume part of that was due to confusion about roles.
I think a leader could just be a communicator as much as a shouty aggressive type of guy (though Sergio Ramos is available ). Jan Vertonghen was often someone who’d relay instructions to the back line without having to bark them, there’s actually a video on YouTube where he’s mic’d up during an Anderlecht game and he’s constantly leading his backline and instructing his teammates on where to be or what to do. Looking at our team, I don’t think we have a single player that does that. There’s plenty of talent but no one who’ll just instruct his teammates on what to do and when to do it, as well as offer encouragement or criticism where necessary.
I'm not sure about the Brighton game, but the whole team generally communicate pretty well, in my experience. It was explicitly focused on during the Man Utd match, for example. The defence were constantly calling out to each other, while the home side were silent.
Easy to be vocal when it’s going well and you’re winning. Spurs seem to lack the characters that can fire up and organise the team when things are going well. Romero should be that guy, he’s been at the club for a number of years and got a lot of experience but when things go wrong, he’s just as quiet as the others.
I agree, but I wonder if it's trying to balance his aggression out? He seems to have been less mental recently. Maybe that's also resulted in him being less aggressive with his own teammates? He needs to learn when it's appropriate and when it isn't, if that's the case.
Surely he’s capable of leading on the pitch without being a nut case and getting sent off? If he’s not then he probably needs to be sold.
To clarify, to be pulled off is also a phrase for someone giving you a hand job. I really didn't think it was subtle but I guess it's out of context or perhaps not a phrase that is still used.
Luckily we're not playing tonight, as I've just spent several hours on the phone to Virgin Media Again...
Famously Rodney Marsh was told by Alf Ramsey before a match that if he didn't work hard he would pull him off at half time. Marsh replied that at Man City they only got a cup of tea and an orange. He was never picked again.
I did it the old fashioned way: ask to go to the cancellation department Sort of had to, the bit of paper with the memorable place written on it looks like it was found on the Titanic...which is annoying, as I remembered it when I had to call them when we were 2-0 up on Sunday
