So are we going to have the whole of Romania moaning on every social media thread now because we’ve got a cross between Baresi and Cafu apparently being left on the bench?
We lose a game and we look at our team and try to analyse what we did wrong, dissecting the performance of our players, it's natural we should do this, but! From my usual stance of football being a simple game we just have to look at what the opposition did, in this case Wolves. In a nutshell they were strong, they ran hard at our players to deny them time on the ball. Yes they were defensively disciplined and always ready to make a break. Ironically very much like we played under Conte and to a slightly lesser extent under Jose. What we rarely showed under those managers was the aggression we were on the end of yesterday. I think key to Wolves success was the closing down of our players, much like Villa did earlier in the season and much like many teams have done to Spurs over the years. United's 'It's Spurs lads' still rings true. We don't often sign 'hard nuts' we tend to look for flair and ball skills which can result in us having a bit of a soft centre. I thought we had signed such a player in Bissouma but he seemed to be on planet 9 yesterday. So here I am back full circle looking at our players like everyone else. Perhaps our team needs to expect teams to go hard to stop us and just stick to moving the ball quickly using the skills we have in the team. We have to expect it because the managers in the PL will all notice how to deal with Spurs.
Two lucky draws at home to Luton and Bournemouth leaves you a point further behind us for the past two games. Gotta admire your dedication though
Was this one of those rare days when Spurs and the Toon had the same KO time (didn't see hide nor hair of him yesterday) ??
So did we all.... Seriously though, I had visions of him becoming a Dembele-lite and there were more than a few hints from his Brighton days and in the opening games this season that this might be possible. Unfortunately, his self-destructive red card at Bournemouth, followed by injury and then getting caught in possession a couple of times leading to goals conceded, appears to have seriously set him back. Yesterday he was dreadful: contributed nothing and failed to pick up Gomes for the 2nd goal. His passing was Winks-ish at best, (sideways/back), he failed to impose himself on his opponents and he created the square root of **** all. (WTF Ange subbed Sarr and left him is a mystery to me at least!) There's a player in there somewhere, so hopefully he will be able to turn his season around - and quick!
The material I'd be worried about would be the excessive amount used in his shorts!! They are so voluminous that I'm sure they act like sails and slow him down!
I know I’m always quick to write players off (Lo Celso after 1 month & Richarlison before he even signed) but I’d sell Bissouma in the summer if someone shows interest. Or at the very least I’d only use him as a back up player if I was Ange. I get players have peaks and troughs but he’s gone off a cliff and you just can’t have people like that if you want to challenge the likes of City and Liverpool.
A few points: 1. We clearly have players in or around the first team who not suited to how we now play or are simply not good enough; Hoejberg (legs going and not suited) ; Richarlison (good for the system but no where near good enough imho); Royal (as above); Skipp (doesn't suit the system); Gil (not suited to English football); Sessengon (not good enough for the Premier league imo); Werner (not good enough in the Premier league); Lo Celso (made of glass and not good suited to the Premier league); Then there is are: Ndombele, Spence, Rodon, Tanganga and Reguilon...all of whom are not part of the future. 13 players is a lot...only Werner is on Ange and he's only on loan so will be easy to move on. Our squad is filled with players from Pochettino's, JM's, Nuno's and Conte's time so in fairness to Ange when a player is out of form he is severely limited in how he can respond. 2. We have Bentencur coming back from a 7 month lay off and a 2 month lay off. We have Maddison returning from 3 month lay off. Is is not surprising that they are taking time to get fully match fit/sharp. 3. Sarr, Son and Bissouma all played in the recent Asia Cup/ AFCoN tournaments so did not get the benefit of the winter break. This explains the difficulties that Ange is trying to overcome for me. I'm very optimistic cos I think he has massively over achieved this season. Without Kane we have scored in every league game this season, breaking the club record for continuous matches of scoring (currently 36) this is the second highest in Premier league history. We are playing some great football. Even our poor games are of a better standard to watch than most of our games over the previous 4 years. We also have a plan for transfers. Something that has been a massive issue since 2017.
What winter break? The only break we have had is the self-inflicted one of no European games and getting dumped out of both cups!!
There was a gap of 12 days between us playing man utd in the league and then playing City in the FA cup 4th round. The only premier league clubs who didn't have this break were Fulham, Chelsea and Liverpool due to them playing league Cup semi final games. On the plus side we now have a two week break due to Chelsea being in the League Cup final.
I agree. We've built up a burdensome reputation of being a soft club where a player can coast along aimlessly collecting a wage and/or circulating through umpteen loans in the faint hope that they will one day 'come good'. How long have we been waiting for Sessegnon to fulfil his potential? Lo Celso? Ndombele? Gil? Reguilon? How many years did we wait around for Winks? Sanchez? Bergwijn? Lucas Moura? Imo there is room to give a player their first season as a grace period, especially if they are young and new to the league, but if midway through their second season they aren't showing signs of steady and consistent improvement, they need to be frogmarched out of the club on a permanent transfer that summer. Unlike the clubs you've mentioned, we don't have the money to ignore sunk costs. We can't just accumulate a vast stable of players like Chelsea, or buy up multiple other clubs in their entirety like City. So we need to be much more ruthless and less scared that a decision might come back to haunt us. Name one player we deemed surplus to requirements who actually genuinely hit a higher level after they left Spurs? Marcus Edwards and Noni Madueke don't count as they hadn't established themselves in the first team. I cannot think of a single example, which means we're waiting around dolling out wages on a fool's hope. Bissouma has 13 games to save his Spurs career. End of.
I took the talksport approach. Chat enough **** and you’re bound to be right about something eventually
Absolutely dreadful performance and I think the main issue was the midfield. We knew that missing the two starting fullbacks was going to be an issue, but they made it worse. Davies and Emerson narrowed the play, yet those ahead of them exaggerated the issue. There was an enormous gap between the Brazilian and Kulusevski for most of the match, for example. We spent most of the game camped in their final third, but there was no movement. We had no width and yet nobody in the middle at the top end of the pitch. It was bizarre. We seem to have switched from an early season 4-3-3 to a really narrow 4-2-3-1. Then when Postecoglou made the subs we lost our shape entirely. I'd really love to know what's going on with Werner. He's making the right runs, getting involved at the right times and barely receiving the ball. It's like everyone hates him or something.
