Didn't get to see the game yesterday, so i can only go from what I saw on MOTD. Looked to me like we had some decent chances and played pretty well at times. - But just lacked that bit of quality to finish Everton off? (that, and Howard appearing to have a worldie against us! Not the first time IIRC?) From what I could tell, Kane tried to muster up something out of nothing on a few occasions, as he's desperate for a goal. - V Little service will do that to a striker. Mason looked like he stepped up and played quite well in his temporary role, and Chadli looked like he was a bit more involved, but still looked quite wasteful. Not really sure how i feel about Dier playing as a CDM. it all seems a bit rigid in that area of the pitch, and we're not producing much in the way of free flowing football. Our opponents seem to suss us out and make us play much more defensively, which i also think we're encouraging due to the characteristics of the players we have playing in certain positions. - It's more natural for them. Still, we didn't look bad from what i could make out, we just lack quality and pace IMO. Really need to see the 2 new attacking players involved asap.
I wouldn't read that much into one performance, as while we played OK, Everton are a counter attacking team and as such they tend to get pressed quite easily, but credit to the team in stopping attacks. If we look back to AVB's final season, there was a game against Newcastle at home, completely battered them but somehow managed to lose 1 nil, played to a higher standard then we did against Everton, talk of us "gelling" but in the end a performance that was never improved on. For Pochettino to prove himself and to prove his team setup works, there has to be a sustained level of performance, which we can only judge as the season develops, tougher run of games, balancing Europe with the league and players out of form, while its naive to expect that all signings we make, will settle. However, better performance, created clear cut chances but currently its just talk of potential, potential to play better and for the most part its a fantasy to think everything will click into place, as it may happen with the odd great performance, overall I think this season will be a struggle.
To be honest........for me i dont care how we get there because we will have plenty matches we groan about..however i still think we are good enough for 5th over 38 games. I havent seen anything to worry me about that. We get too caught up in the 'brand' of football etc etc. We may play some glorious football on days and get beat.....id rather we are consistent and tough to beat but get something. We had some great games last year...and some boring ones too.
You can bet that there's going to be a lot of money spent before Tuesday night. Hopefully, some of it by us! We'll have a clearer picture of where everybody is after that.
We won't know until around October but form can change quite quickly. When Suarez was with Liverpool, at the start of the season their fans were calling Rodgers useless, tactically naive and then they went on a superb run to nearly win the title. After 10 games things should become a little clearer.
You wouldn't read too much into one performance! Well that's new Boss having read our whole season from no performance and pronounced that MP will fail. It was a good performance from Spurs from the control of midfield to the protection provided by Dier to the forward intent of Dembele, to the energy of Rose and Walker and the overall compactness of the team. That has not happened by chance and credit is due to MP for the progress shown if any one of the chances had resulted in a goal the whole performance would have been complete. On the other side I am not getting too carried away as Everton were below par due no doubt to their mid week activities and showed little of the aggression seen when they played City.
I didn't say it happened by chance, in terms of how Pochettino wants the team to play, however this is nothing new from Pochettino, the odd impressive performance. That will always happen, even with managers that fail in short/long term as we can discuss performances from all managers, AVB, Ramos, Gross, even Gerry Francis, all managers that in the end failed had the team offering odd great performances. This is why I won't read that much into one performance, as we we won't play to this level consistency (with Kane scoring) but of course if that happens then no disagreement from me that the team would be improving. We have a tough/interesting run of games, Sunderland/Palace/City/Swansea///Liverpool/ with goons in the cup, a good chance for the team to show if they can perform agaisnt our rivals and the best team in the league (and no I don't mean Palace)!.
Exactly. This game looks better by comparison with the way some of our rivals played this week. Liverpool get mullered by West Ham. Man U look not quite good enough against Swansea. Chelsea lose while Mourinho loses the plot. Spurs looking good but not getting the win again...well, at least I’m seeing progress.
I think its hard to assess the team until we can accurately gauge the impact that the new attacking signings have on the squad, along with any more we bring in. I'd expect Son to start once he has his work permit sorted and Clint will inject some serious pace into the game from the bench. Add in a return for Eriksen once he gets fit again and its a very different attacking lineup. Still not entirely happy with Dier in midfield. Don't know if Wanyama sufficiently makes up for what Dier is not so good at to be worth splashing his presumably considerable fee on. I slightly suspect he isn't. I'd rather see us bring in nobody than an expensive, if only slightly better version of what we already have.
I share the same concerns re Dier but I should be open minded about his development as I used to take issue with fans jumping on Bentaleb in his first season, although that Bentaleb "support" club has returned this year.
Bentaleb hasn't hit his heights yet this season. I think he's going to become an unbelievable player and it is very easy to forget how young he is sometimes. We have every right to criticise him when he doesn't perform though but as you say Boss, those poor performances have to be viewed in the context of his age and developing ability. He's young, he is going to make mistakes, but he's worth persisting with for sure. Dier is purely a bugbear for me right now because midfield is never going to be his position long-term, nor is RB - he will be a CB and I think a damn fine one at that when he's given the chance there. Playing him in midfield gives us certain benefits (it is certainly a position he could play when we need him to under certain circumstances) but also it has drawbacks, and I feel that while we're crying out for creative players especially while lacking Erisken, that now is not one of the aforementioned circumstances where Dier is the proper option in midfield. Bring him on by all means if we're a goal or two up and need to solidify the midfield - I'm all for that pragmatism to an extent. But he's not what we need starting in there unless we're playing a top attacking team and want to shut the pitch down rather than front up in the footballing sense.
If what you say about Dier were true we would not have produced the chances we did against Everton. Spurs always need a strong guy in midfeild and it has always improved us when we have one. Davids, and Parker both made all the difference and freed up the more 'skillful' forwards. I see no reason why Dier cannot perform that role and it gives me more confidence in MP that he recognises the need for such a player. They have obviously practiced this in training and its worked. It's worth mentioning that the 60's team was completed by the addition of Mackay.
I'd absolutely advocate playing Dier in midfield if we had somebody of the calibre of, or even just sharing some of the attributes of Modric alongside him. Parker/Modric was a great combo for us. You definitely need a physical, hard edge to the midfield and Dier provides that which I think is great. There are two ways to provide this - Harry went for the aforementioned Modric/Parker axis, but I think Pochettino in the past has wanted two players who can do a bit of both rather than one creator and one destroyer - this approach proved particularly effective when Mason and Bentaleb performed so well in the Chelsea and Arsenal games last season, for example. Trying to fit Dier into the second system does not work, but he is perfectly suited to the former system - my objection to Dier is because I think Pochettino is perhaps relying on him too much to do the work to which he is unsuited. If Pochettino deploys Dier as he did in the first 20 minutes against United then I think that is fantastic, lets go and buy an older player to help school him in the role and buy or develop a proper midfield playmaker to perform alongside him. It is my doubt that we will use him properly in midfield that makes me so against him playing in midfield. That was probably too long winded and meandering....to sum up: if Pochettino develops his game plan (in my mind it is a reasonably big 'if') to employ Dier as an out and out defensive midfielder who will sit and screen the back 4, and plays the right players alongside him so as to not adversely affect the offensive aspect of our game, then I am 100% for that. My fear is that Dier will be asked to contribute beyond his means going forward, and that will needlessly harm his development as a player and the team's performances.
Yes fair points Hudd, and this is the job we look to MP to carry out and Parker was fully formed Dier is not.
That's pretty well said and you sum up some of my thoughts. The problem with Dier in midfield is not that he's there per se - just that we lack a true midfield creator to justify playing an out-and-out DM who is a CB by trade. Either that or we are, as you say, expecting him to also be creative in the final third which is not his strength. Basically it's a hell of a work-a-day front 6 to have a CB and a CM in the middle, two inverted wingers whose main job is to play safe passes and retain possession, a single midfield creator and a striker. There just needs to be more creativity and guile in there somewhere. I think Bentaleb will prove crucial to our midfield for years to come and as such, if the 4-2-3-1 must be kept, we need someone more creative and threatening than he is to play besides him. Dier is probably not that player and, good as Mason has been, I'm not even sure that he offers enough quality in a team with no wingers and only one striker. One of the thing that's frustrated me about Spurs is summed up by the fact that it's more likely that we have a CB playing in the midfield 2 than we are to see the likes of Eriksen there. Not saying it'd work but I can't see why having a more skillful, attacking player can't play as part of the 2. It's not like Eriksen won't put in the work needed to operate a bit further back. I dunno - I just want there to be more players on the pitch able and willing to take chances and make things happen. It's so sterile nowadays. I can accept only having one striker but it seems like there are also fewer midfielders on the pitch nowadays whose job is to pass the ball forward and get in the box and score and create. I'm probably just being a (prematurely) old bastard. I guess the full backs get forward more nowadays. Yippee.
Yep. He was. Though I thought it was a bit much to watch the challenge that injured Cleverley four times! Anyway - yes Dier did a great job. But was anyone looking at the midfield pairing of Bentaleb and Mason last year and thinking "I know what would improve this - drop one of these guys for a CB"?
