Sarr also leaving the pitch after Senegal's most recent game in a protective boot (albeit as a precaution, obviously) probably didn't help, either The main worry with Skipp is the Winks comparison might be too on the nose, as injury derailed the player he was and/or could have been and led to him being remolded into the player he currently is because of them. That being said, weirdly, he could actually work as a deeper Bentancur-like midfielder because while he can't drive forward like Bissouma, if you have a physical barrier in front of him such as a Bissouma/Sarr pairing he could play some good passes from deep
Have to say we really missed Bissouma. Sarr did pretty well, as did Hojbjerg at times, but we let Fulham boss the MF at times, particularly start of the 2nd half. thank **** Betancur is nearly back . I know he runs marathons every game but, feck me, Kulu is one frustrating player. Seems to have all the skills, but makes too many **** decisions. Surprised he stayed on tbh. Emerson seemed intent on either giving the ball away or ruining chances to break forward. Lo Celso is just dreadful. Both of those two we need to upgrade in the NY window as we cannot rely on either should we get a run of injuries. But these are good problems to have based in the past 4 years!
Winks was never good enough, fans just wanted him to be and that clouded their judgement on the type of player they believed he could be. Skipp is a decent enough player but it’s becoming very obvious he’s not an Ange type of player. Sarr already looks light years ahead of him, especially technically, and Sarr himself is (currently) levels below Bentancur. Right now, the gap in quality from Maddison, Sarr and Bissouma (and Bentancur) to Skipp and Lo Celso is frightening, worrying in fact. Hojbjerg thankfully “does a job” but even he will likely look to be upgraded on in due course over the coming windows to give Ange a more “Ange midfielder”. The squad is what I think club will be working on over the next two windows, first XI is very promising and exciting to watch but beyond it is largely full of dross, severely bad dross.
The Good: Win, clean sheet, first half, Son, Maddison, Romero, Vicario and van de Ven. The Bad: Our final ball, Kulusevski's reticence to shoot, the second half and the subs. The Ugly: The officials and their guide dogs. Obviously very happy with another win, but there were some tired legs out there. The international break seems to have taken a toll on a number of our players. Maybe not ideal with another game coming up on Friday, though there's no travel involved. I get that Udogie coming off was forced, but where was Ben Davies? We don't need Dier and Phillips on the bench, as it reduces our options. Pick one. Veliz doesn't look ready yet either, in my opinion. I'd have rather seen Gil with Johnson up top. It's a trivial point, but the booking for Vicario was almost insulting. All the timewasting that we've had to watch unpunished and he gets it for that?! **** off. Inconsistency is the most annoying trait of these ****ers. See also Palhinha.
Ange: "Thought our pressing was outstanding the whole game. But really disappointed with the second half - with the ball it was probably the worst 45 minutes we've had all year. We should have had more control." Pretty honest assessment and I’d agree with it. By the end of the game it felt like we’d reverted to Conte-ball due to the midfield changes. I think Bentancur’s expected/ hopeful return to the matchday squad on Friday is going to be huge for us, in time it’ll give us four CMs of first XI quality along with Hojbjerg who can “do a job”. It’s easy to see though why Ange was trying to sign Gallagher late in the Summer window as we need 5 midfielders to call upon in my opinion. That deal’s completely dead now (not that it was really a starter anyway as Chelsea were never gonna do business) but I think another CM will be high on the agenda in January, just after CB I’d imagine. We need quite a few upgrades to the squad, namely RB, LB and another forward but I think they’ll be targeted in the Summer. Although if we do manage to maintain these results and performances until January, you’d like to think Levy will see the window of opportunity for something potentially special and back Ange with a hefty haul.
Just back home...got the train and Elizabeth line back! Walked a total of 22¾ miles today so well pleased with myself. Thought Vicario was excellent (apart from one mistake passing out from the back). VDV and Romero are building a great partnership and potentially could be as good as Vertonghen and Alderweirld. Porro and Udogie have the potential to be as good as Walker and Rose. We've finally replaced Eriksen with Madison and Dembele with Bissouma. Son is thriving as our captain and Sarr is doing exceptionally well in his first season in the Premier league. We have a great first 11 but are weak beyond that. As well as those 9 above we have Kuluchevski, Bentancur, Johnson, Ashley Phillips and Hoejberg. That's 14 players that are of a good standard. Davis is a good solid squad player but then we pretty much are scrapping the bottom of the barrel. Richarlison works hard and he played well tonight but only in terms of "for him". The crowd are very patient with him but the truth is he is not a top 4 player. I get that we had to make all those subs tonight cos we are playing again on Friday night (what idiot thinks that's OK ffs?) but you can see that once madison and son went off both the press and creativity began to dry up. We aren't ready to challenge for the title but if we are lucky with injuries we could seriously challenge for top 4. Final point...I haven't seen such an atmosphere for a non "big" match, even under pochettino... the bond between this team is something special at the moment.
A good result last night, despite the second half being probably the worst spell of football we’ve played under Ange so far. In times gone by, we could have seen that end in a draw or defeat, but you have to admire the confidence and bravery of this new Tottenham team that are finding their way and taking it 1 game at a time. Even though the second half was sketchy as hell, it was still better than much of the football we saw before Ange, which shows how bad we were prior. I’m quite critical of Richarlison, but I thought last night he looked more positive out on the left. However, it might just be because he’s looked so bad previously. Same story though, his finishing was poor, and we really can’t afford to not take our chances, especially when we’re so much more open with our football and the defence will ultimately come under more pressure, especially when teams start to find us out. Still, top of the league, and loving how much piss is being boiled! love this Tottenham team.
I do not think the issue so much is the standard, but the coheson. The 2nd half subs looked like they had not played together, in addition to the sloppiness + bad decision-making. I would designate the strongest starting XI team A, and the rest as team B. In training I would have weekly team A vs B full games, "touch" tackles and no running at full steam. "Richarlison works hard and he played well tonight but only in terms of "for him". The crowd are very patient with him but the truth is he is not a top 4 player." IMHO when Son and Richarlison play together, they should be repeatedly rotating position (one on the left, one in the centre) . I trust Son to maintain his scoring rate doing this, and it may get Richarlison scoring at the level of his assists. "Final point...I haven't seen such an atmosphere for a non "big" match, even under pochettino. the bond between this team is something special at the moment." The football is enjoyable. Additionally the crowd can see there is a system in place that is being adhered to, and the team in the main is putting a shift in every game. So no surprise IMHO that the WHL atmosphere is currently good.
One thing that may need to be said after last night: if Calvin Basssey is getting picked while Toisin Adarabioyo isn;t even getting in the matchday squad, I think I can understand why we made Lloyd Kelly a CB target late in the summer window...
I’d say it’s definitely the standard/ quality, the cohesion however is just an added problem due to the fact these players won’t start regular games. Johnson is the only sub from yesterday that’s likely going to be starting regularly when he’s fully fit. Emerson - sound defensively but horrific technically. Lo Celso is regarded as one of the worst signings we’ve ever made, awful footballer. 7th choice midfielder after nearly 4 and a half years at the club. Skippy is a tougher pill to swallow as I love the guy but technically he’s far behind Sarr, let alone the likes of Maddison, Bentancur and Bissouma. He just isn’t an “Ange midfielder” unfortunately. Veliz is still settling and I don’t think it’s helped that he’s been coming on in games when the likes of Maddison/ Son are coming off. It’s hard coming to a new league and country at a young age as it is, it’s tougher when you’re not getting to play alongside the better players. As RCL and myself have more or less alluded too, the first XI is coming along really nicely to the point where it feels almost miraculous at the quick turnaround from a side in turmoil last season to one with genuine quality and promise this, but beyond it is a real concern, we got rid of a few relegation calibre players in the summer like Sanchez and Winks but there’s still a fair amount that’s still here and until they’re gone it’s leaving us very worried at what happens should any of about 7 of our first XI get an injury.
I was never that sold on Tosin to be honest. But I think he’s injured right now and that kept him out of the team.
I was wondering why I could smell boiled piss when I woke up this morning... please log in to view this image
