Match Day Thread Tottenham Hotspur v Stade Rennais FC

If you want Lloris out though then you’re not supporting him, are you? It is negative.

 

He plays for my club- I support him. At present he is our number 1.
I want him to improve.

I advise you to look away now and not read what I am about to write.
Winks plays for my club- I support him. ( do you? )
I want him to improve.

 

No, you wanted Lloris out and you said you wanted Ramsdale to replace him. That’s not supporting Lloris, is it?

Hell no I don’t support Winks. Supporting mediocrity makes no sense. Though I’m not the one throwing stones in glass houses either as I’ve not accused people of being negative whilst being the very same thing myself.

 

What I don't like is the:

'' We are constantly rubbish. Our players are useless. Our manager is useless. We have terrible owners and chairman''

My take is '' we are one of the top 10 teams in the country! We have good days and bad days. It's part of the game. I look forward to being number 1 again.
I dream of glory days. But we support a decent team.''

 

I don’t think there’s anything wrong with 433 and most of our players can play it. Alli is fine as a box to box, his stats show him so far this season as one of the most hard-working players in the league. It’s not his best position but he can do a job there. The ideal player in the squad for his role is Gio though, as he does it for Argentina in that exact formation, he’s got the work rate and the creativity, whereas Alli is more of a player for in and around the box. But he’s had his own issues.

Tanguy is a massive ****ing issue. I’m not sure you can play him as a 10 because a player in that position who doesn’t work hard has a massive negative impact on the rest of the team, even if you had 2 Kantes behind him I don’t think it would work. He’s very very talented but not as good as he thinks he is, and has never, ever looked fit enough to play 90 mins in 2 years at the club and under 4 managers now. He has a massive attitude problem and can do one, as far as I’m concerned.

 

''A negative attitude is a disposition, feeling, or manner that is not constructive, cooperative, or optimistic.''

I am optimistic that Lloris can do better.

Winks plays for the club you support. How can you not support him?
You may not like his style of play, and think he should be sold. But you can still support him.

 

How could Lloris do better if you had your way and sold him?

 

I think that you can play Alli and Lo Celso in the midfield three with Skipp or Hojbjerg and it could solve a lot of issues there.
The Argentinian adds enough creativity to make it viable without compromising on the workrate or defensive ability.

Ndombele doesn't actually lack workrate either, funnily enough. He closes down a lot and makes plenty of runs.
He's utter **** at tracking back and putting in defensive tackles, though. Useless at it.

 

If we sold him , then it wouldn't matter.

I support whoever plays for my team regardless if I think they are good enough.

When they leave, I don't support them .

I supported a team that got relegated. We weren't good enough. I hated it. The players weren't good enough. Some stayed and played better. I still supported them in the 2nd division.

 

I don't want to argue. It's about opinions.

Let's agree to disagree. And I hope to see more positive comments .

COME ON YOU SPURS

 

But that's the thing, you clearly weren't supporting Lloris if you wanted him sold and replaced with Ramsdale (of all people too).

So you're not doing what you actually say.

 

So why is this any different to my views on Ndombele?
Genuine question btw not a dig

 

Dele and Lo Celso aren't top six calibre players though in my opinion, so the 433 with them will never be successful enough. For all of Dele's hard working stats, what's he actually bringing so far? Very, very little and is often just a passenger in games - something he's been for years too, regardless of where he's played. Likewise Lo Celso, he's good at seeing off teams in Europa/ ECL but in the Premier League he's done next to nothing, I'm not sure he's completely suited to English football too and the fact he's made of glass doesn't help either.

I think in terms of talent, Ndombele is a top six calibre player but he has the attitude of a bottom half one. Hojbjerg is a top six calibre player and has the attitude of a world cup winner, his mindset and application is truly elite and you can tell he had that Bayern upbringing. Skipp has the potential to be a top six calibre player and has the right attitude but right now it is just potential (albeit I think he'll reach it). If Ndombele sorted his attitude and work rate then I think that's the best three for a 433. Skipp will primarily play as the anchor of it, Hojbjerg taking on the box to box role and Ndombele being slightly more advanced almost playing as a ten but not quite as far as Eriksen, who'd bring the creative side.

Any other three at the moment just won't be effective enough in my opinion and often leaves a disjointed performance in the middle.

 

If you support him while in our colours, but just don't think he is good enough, then it isn't.

Just to clarify, I am not going to mention who the moaners are, but it is not you and it is not DH.

 

The stats are for Dele’s defensive work, I agree that him playing in that role stifles his forward play and that’s why I think it’s not his best position. He’s a player for in and around the box whereas Gio can beat a man in midfield and progress the ball by dribbling or passing. I agree though, he’s made of glass and we just haven’t seen enough of it from him in the PL because he’s never available to play. Unless he can sort it out this season we should cut our losses I think.

Optimistically, I think Nuno is building slowly. He wants us to be defensively solid, pressure in the right areas and disrupt teams from there. He’s managed that so far aside from the Palace game that, while he didn’t deal with it well, was somewhat exceptional circumstances. While I’d like to see us be more immediately adventurous, I think what we do when dominating the ball will come in time. Let’s not forget that Poch’s Spurs were miles off the pace when they dominated possession for the first 18 months of his time with us, teams could just let us have the ball and because we weren’t pressing them into mistakes and had to make the plays ourselves, we couldn’t break down defences. It took time for that to develop and it’ll be the same for Nuno.

Pessimistically, we hoped the same about Jose and it never worked out - that he’d make us defensively solid then work on the in-possession stuff. In reality he relied completely on the Son-Kane counterattack and reportedly rarely coached attacking play in sustained possession.

Ultimately I think we have a squad that is capable of making top 6 and if we can remain defensively solid and integrate more creative players like Gio and Gill then I think we’ll be fine. But we’ve been waiting for Gio to kick on for a while and it hasn’t happened, and Gill is a young player new to the league, so it’s not an easy task. Let’s see if Nuno is up to it.

 

Fair enough...I enjoy these debates by the way...beats the **** out of discussing the real world issues!

I want our players to click but have kind of given up hope on Ndombele and Lo Celso. I have no faith that Dele will regain his hunger and work rate. I think that Dier, Sanchez, Doherty and Davies are not top 4 or even top 6 players.
I have to admit that I think Winks has no chance of being even a good squad option for us.

Would love them to prove me wrong but think we are in for a bumpy and ultimately poor season.

 

Helps a little. Thanks.

 

I don't see either player contributing enough to warrant a starting place in that three man midfield. Both right now are probably Palace calibre players and if Spurs are serious about getting back into that top six/ top four, they won't be ones we can rely on. Dele is quickly becoming a player like Winks for me, I often think "what is the point of you" whereas Lo Celso... I mean for a supposed creative player he's just not very creative.

I gotta be honest I don't see what it is Nuno is building at the moment in terms of a style other than just playing with the intention not to lose. I appreciate it's early but I think you can usually get an idea as to what a manager wants to achieve stylistically, whether it be high press/ direct/ counter/ possession etc. I feel like Paratici has signed a bunch of pretty exciting players but I'm not sure they're "Nuno" players. I think Gil is going to struggle to get league minutes under him and I think his overly conservative approach is stifling the attacking play from the likes of Kane, Son and even someone like Reguilon who generally likes bombing forward, I fear it may be the same for Emerson too as he's in the same mould as Reguilon.

As I've said before I still think Nuno will get a sufficient amount of results, he's not a bad manager at all, though he's just not a manager who's going to excel either, nor do I think we'll enjoy it much under him. There really was a reason he was 7th or 8th choice.

In terms of the squad, I don't think it's a top six one but I think we have a handful of players who can help us get it with the right bit of luck too. Hopefully the new signings can impact too but as I've said with the likes of Gil and Emerson, I fear they could struggle with either minutes or style of play.

 

The issue with Lloris is that he transitioned away from being a sweeper keeper 3-4 seasons ago as his passing was, if anything, getting worse and instead focused on being a shot stopper and his performances improved - but against Palace mystifyingly started playing like a sweeper keeper again, and one of his iffy passes led to Dier's injury

 

For what it's worth I'd say I am a bit of moaner at the moment, perhaps not as bad as others but for me personally it's very hard to be optimistic. I don't see the bright future we were once led to believe was on the horizon.

I don't particularly like the squad barring a handful, I don't like the manager (as a manager, not a bloke, he's a top bloke) and I've lost a lot of faith in the board too - albeit not quite yet on Brian or Spurly's level .

Like RCL, I've more or less given up hope on the big money pair from 2019, I think Ndombele has the talent but not the mindset or work rate whereas I don't think Lo Celso has the talent. I'm sick of Dele, there's a bunch of players I don't think are top six calibre and I want to gouge my eyes out and smother **** in their place when I read Winks is in the line-up... It'd probably be less painful than watching that guy try to play football too... And I emphasise the try in that.