I think we have seen that lack of fight for a long time it's why Lucas stands out and Lamellla because both show fight. The pundits by and large are still telling us that Ndembele is a top player. Yes he has some ball skills but he lacks energy in most games and he lacks heart when it doesn't go for him or the team. I would get rid of him tomorrow. Funny that Eriksen showed similar traits in the last couple of years of his time at Spurs. It's the cardinal sin in my eyes and players who show that lack of fight should be dropped until they get it or transferred if they don't. Winks at least shows a willingness to fight and get the basics right. Judging him on that game when he has hardly played and his confidence must have been damaged by Jose is harsh. No one is playing in this team with a smile on their face and that tells you all you need to know. We need a strong confident manager to give them a lift and then we need some changes of personnel.
On top of that all we here from the media is how wonderful City are. No ever mentions how they hack players down as soon as they move towards them. They get away with it game after game. Takes us right back to Revie's Leeds who used the same tactic.
Then you get stuff like this Gary Neville argues Pep Guardiola is 'greatest manager of all time' after latest Man City trophy (msn.com) He is clearly a talented coach - but he has only ever managed clubs where money is no object - I remain to be convinced that he could work without the money. If we truly wants to be the greatest (and I don't actually think he is bothered) he should take take a job at an average championship club, get them promoted and get them into Europe the next season and keep them challenging for several seasons. Alternatively come to Spurs and win a trophy!!
So much bollocks spoken by these people. He doesn't compare to Clough or Shankley has a long way to go to equall Fergusson or Busby. What Moyes has done for West Ham warrants more praise than Pep's use of almost unlimited funds. Venables could play him off the park given a level playing field and Wenger created a whole culture from a lower level. Gary Neville obviously believes his era and the current one is the greatest of all because he was part of it. I am sure this is the post 79 brigade who only measure things in terms of money.
This is how Winks has been playing his whole Spurs career. Getting the ball then going backwards, always playing the safe and boring option that does nothing for the team. That’s not fight or grit, as Carragher said it’s zero courage. Say what you like about Eriksen but he made things happen for this club, he done more for us than Ndombele, Lo Celso, Lamela, Lucas and Winks combined. Just like Dembele we’ve not replaced him adequately and we’re massively suffering for it.
I dislike the whole culture of passing back so often which infects the modern game it's hardly Winks who has invented it. His job is simple but it it is very dependent on coaches and their instructions to him: get the ball distribute it and make yourself available for the return. If he is too negative and I agree he often is, then you should look at the coaching not the player. Southgate employed him in England to do the same job and is the same type of negative coach. As far as I am concerned this is the philosophy of keep the ball first and foremost, with do not give the ball away drummed into the players. That in the end produces the negative almost fearful football we see at Spurs and we have seen from England. You can't blame Winks for it he is just a modern footballer playing as instructed. Goals are scored in football by taking risks not by playing safe and that's a message that seems to have escaped from a lot of modern coaching.
Eriksen is very skillfull but is basically a wimp who dislikes the tough side of the game which caused him to disappear when the going got tough. Eriksen has a great brain and produces game altering passes but he is not a fighter.
Winks is just a poor footballer, to blame his lack of intent on coaching is cheap. He’s in the side to get the ball and move it forward but he doesn’t do that. In that analysis with Carragher, he actually puts more pressure on the defence, he gets the ball runs two steps forward but then stops and turns around and passes it backwards, that for me isn’t down to coaching, that’s just his poor mentality and lack of bollocks to make something happen.
Give me 100 wimps like Eriksen any day of the week over players like Lamela or Lo Celso. Sure a bit of grit is nice but I prefer good football and good footballers. The idea you have that he went missing when the going got tough is also fabricated. He turned up in as many big games as Kane and Son have in their Spurs careers.
Absolutely. I also agree that Pep has never really been tested without unlimited funds. Though if you look at his first season in the PL it was hardly stellar. So he then spends the equivalent of a small countries defence budget on a new defence and suddenly the team is a whole lot better. No **** Sherlock. And the pitch from the pundits isn't "well if you spend that much you should expect that kind of result", it is "he identified a weakness and addressed it". Brilliant! I'm sure many managers can identify a weakness but then don't have the funds to do anything about it and have to work with what they've got. And when we see him work with what he had, like in his first PL season, he didn't perform that well with what was already a rather expensive team. But going back to Venables and a bit off topic, I was reminded of us in the FA Cup Final against him as manager of QPR. He brought in this tactic where when the ball was swung into the box, like from a free kick, he had about four players all running together to get a header in, a kind of zonal heading domination. It didn't actually work, but the point was it was innovative, and an interesting way of addressing the problem of his lower league team having lesser players. In other words he thought about how he could bridge that gap when the resources are going to be the same. Most managers don't or can't do that. It's probably a coincidence but I wonder if England's set piece tactics in the last world cup were somehow influenced by this? I don't think Venables did it much after that, if ever, but the point is he was trying something different.
I think Carragher lets off Kane and Mason on that one. Losing every long ball to the front is on the striker and it's also on the manager for picking an unfit player there. I've no idea why Winks was in the middle of the midfield three, either. Surely he should be swapped with Hojbjerg? Aurier deserves criticism for his defending in that example with Sterling, but the earlier move wasn't on him. Carragher's claiming that he's not on for the pass, but that's clearly not true. He's not only showing for it, he's indicating where he wants the ball played.
Or your mindset on Winks and mine on Eriksen. I am afraid coaching produces these players and these teams, it's cheap to blame players when they are instructed how to play. We know that's true because we see the i pads brandished before they come on and the instructions on how and where to play are clearly there. I am not saying that Winks is a great or that he is on a par with Eriksen he is clearly not but neither is he as bad as you you would have us believe he just pisses you off with his negativity. I can understand that and agree with I just don't lay the blame on the player.
Yeah I said think he’s lenient on Mason but I think that’s likely due to the guy’s inexperience. The long ball stuff was weird because we were knocking some to Lucas as well, Lucas has got a great leap on him but he’s not someone you’d pick as a long ball option. Kane as we all saw was just nowhere near match fit (again). It’s partly why I said yesterday I’ll give him a reprieve for his performance but it is also annoying that he’s likely calling the shots and not the managers when it comes to his selection.
It was also a really obvious problem for the team, to the extent that I and others pointed it out before he joined. Zabaleta and Zinchenko were good fullbacks, but they weren't Guardiola fullbacks. Far too traditional and defensive-minded. He needs his to either play like wingers or cut inside and join the midfield, so that his midfielders can go wide or join the attack. If I know that, then he's no footballing genius, because I'm certainly not one, by any stretch of the imagination. Guardiola's a fairweather manager. He's great when everything's perfect for him. He'll never be tested at a side where he has to modify his plans and work with what he's got.
Only with a pass or a free kick never by having an effect on the way the game was played. Never taking the game by the scruff of the neck and making things happen. Other players had to do that for him.
Never making things happen? Sorry Spurf I just don’t think you’re anywhere near correct there. Eriksen had the most assists and most chances created out of any player in the Prem during his time in the league. No other player in the premier league bettered him for that whilst he was here. To suggest he made nothing happen is just outright not true.
As I said by a pass or a free kick, I prefer my eyes to your stats. Chances are created by teams not by the last pass but one. The measures are phony.
