For me Dier is getting an easy ride, I think he's gone a bit flat. We just don't have anyone who is a better option. He's got a clumsy mistake in him every game. I am usually subconsciously praying he doesn't make it Plus Poch is raising my eyebrow now and again of late
Lamela has been through a lot...his hip injuries and his younger brother's accident that left him paralysed. I'm good to cut him lots of slack because when I watched an on song Lamela he was fantastic and his energy ran through the team. He was fantastic in our run in when we lost the title race to Lesta. He's also shown his skill set in Europe and thrives in them games...the lad needs to get his head and body right. Maybe, unfortunately, a move is what he needs but not because he is not good enough. For me Poch is making too many rookie errors in team selections and that is costing us. I don't think he is as brave as I thought he was.
Yes. It's a given that we don't have the resources of others around us. However, playing Llorente up top with KWP at left back and 4 holding midfielders is just ****ing baffling. We should have lost and it can't help Llorente or KWP's confidence. If we play Llorente, he has to play within the width of the penalty area. We have to get the ball to him in the air and players in and around him. We're doing none of this and continuing to repeat the mistake. He's an old horse and we're expecting new tricks. That ain't good.
Sometimes I think football is over thought. For me, Poch is too safe...it never pays, we usually mess up anyway. I'd stick Lamela upfront with Kane...so much more energy straight away. The best aspects of Klopp's team are the ones where he is adventurous. Firminio plays upfront....that's not his primary role...however his energy is essential to get Pool playing at the aggressive tempo we are seeing often. The holding midfielders against poor opposition is getting on my nerves. The eyebrow is being raised because a part of me thinks our Manager, who was a defender is maybe obsessed with clean sheets and not losing a goal. Nothing wrong with that but there is when it overtakes your philosophy and hinders your attacking potential
I think Dier just needs to be told that he's a DM and that Poch has to stop rotating him about randomly. DM is where he's excelled the most in his time at Spurs and although there has been occassions where we've needed him at CB, there's also been times where he seems to have been moved there despite us having a number of options in the role. It can't help a player if in training one week he's working on CB duties and then the following week he's working on DM duties because the gaffer keeps moving him about in certain games. The versatility factor he has is great for the team but unless we actually need him to shift about, I see no valid reason as to why he should be moved from DM.
He needs to play at the moment cause Big Vic is nowhere near the standard of last season. He's a bit worrying tbh, when he played injured at the beginning of the season he was poor, since he's come back - even worse. Hopefully it's just a blip while he gets up to speed, but it's taking too long for that to happen, for me anyway. Same with Lamela, they should be fit by now, surely.
Dier should be full flow by now...to me he seems like an unhappy player. It's probably because he is out of position. If United offer him the DM role, he will be off. Lamela isn't getting enough game time yet for me so I'll cut him some slack. He certainly comes across like he's raring to go...just not playing enough to get up to speed. Once again, Poch needs to be brave.
I thought that we were bafflingly meek away at Arsenal and United. Arsenal 'don't like it up 'em'. You want to get into them and challenge their desire to do the nasty physical stuff. We played the same 'stand off and wait' that we played against Liverpool. We weren't in the game at all and gave the points away. Against United we were just full on poor and didn't try to take the game to them. Given their lacklustre performance, we should have got a result. Against a Citeh side that we should have been more reserved against, we seemed to play Trippier at right wing and no right back at all. We got murdered and rightly so. We've played a back 5 at home against teams that have come solely to defend for the first 80 minutes. Baffling. We've got a Plan A and a Plan B now but I'm not sure that we know when to use them.
That's Poch's fault not the players..lets see how he approaches the next 3 games. At home we should be taking the game to United and Arsenal..like you say, they won't like that. Pool, away, we should let them have the ball and attack their Achilles heel on the break. Over to Poch.
Interesting thought,one footed players. I've always maintained if Messi was 6ft and one footed,he wouldn't be much.But he is almost a midget in comparison and his added advantage is if a tall defender tries to get the ball from him,Messi has either gone past or tripped over the defender's leg (PENALTY!)
I had no problem with Walker-Peters at left-back or Llorente up front, but the rest of it made no sense. Five at the back and three deep midfielders who don't create anything when we're playing against Newport? What? No width, no pace, nobody who dictates the pace of play or who can pick out an incisive pass and two strikers who don't complement each other. Pochettino's got a lot of his domestic cup competition selections wrong this season and in various other seasons, too. I get that we've got injury problems and that bug threw a wrench into our plans, but the team selection was just nonsense. Sissoko's confidence is utterly shot and he's only going to get worse if he's used in the wrong way. He didn't do a lot wrong, but he also didn't do a lot. Superb backheeled pass, but everything else was slow and sideways. He won't take any risks. I think that he's scared of the reaction if he gets it wrong, honestly.
I sometimes wonder if Sissoko still thinks he's playing beach football. I understand they can't pass a ball on sand either.
I get where people are coming from regarding Lamela, and I also appreciate what he’s been through. It’s a tough one. However, he was £30m, which now is nothing. To replace what he brings would cost us at least that. And to be honest, there’s other players we should be looking at upgrading as a priority over Lamela. At least he’s a decent squad option. We don’t want to be getting rid of players who are so hard to bring in like that. Priorities IMO should be: Sissoko, for reasons we’ve stated time and time again. Dembele, as he just doesn’t appear to be the same player, and seems like he’s gradually on the decline. It looks like injuries are finally taking their toll on him and he’s currently a shadow of his former self. And Trippier. As someone else pointed out, he has regressed so much this season. We were once talking of him taking Walkers place in the team. But right now he looks so far from that it’s unbelievable. He is lauded for his crossing ability, but I cannot remember the last time he did. Even against Newport who were 72 places below us, he produced nothing. Without putting in dangerous crosses, he literally offers nothing else. I wouldn’t be surprised to see us take a profit on him in the summer and move on.
Anyone want to hazard a guess at the attendance for the replay? I doubt there'll be many there, honestly.
I've no problem picking Llorente but expecting him to play as a roving target man is unrealistic. He doesn't have the legs If we're going to play him, we need to get the ball into the box for him to use his aerial ability. That's where I have the problem with KWP on the left. He was our only possible left sided outlet but cut in every time to where Dembele and Wanyama were standing. The collective selection was lacking in any attacking threat. Also, we played our 2 smallest full backs and a centre half who is light on inches, strength and experience. We conceded a headed goal against a team that was always likely to chuck the ball 'into the mixer' a fair bit. Still, it would have been a good game for CCV. There's just a sense of a lack of joined up thinking and common sense sometimes.
I'll be there although on Saturday night I swore I never wanted to see another Spurs game for years .
Walker-Peters didn't have anyone showing for him, barring the occasional Sissoko run into the same space he was in. As you say, we needed width and movement behind Llorente and we had neither. Trippier had similar issues down the right, as they could just double up on him and prevent the initial ball. He ended up trying to put balls in behind, but there was no space for that kind of game.
