Yeah, behind the striker seems to be his best position but with how well he strikes the ball he could be a good threat down the right. If he can transfer his form from the Championship to the Premier League we'll have another Ginola on our hands.
I agree with PNP, he's more of a LW or no. 10. But he'd do a solid job on the right if we needed him to I think. I think that Mason's attributes are more suited to him playing further up the pitch, he doesn't quite have the physicality or positional sensibility to play DM. What he does have - a lot of game time with Kane over the years, an eye for a neat pass, excellent work rate and a good shot off either foot - would have him best suited to compete with Eriksen for the spot behind the striker. To my mind what we need now, in order of importance, is a DM, a backup striker or two, and then a RW. The former definitely needs to be starting XI quality, as potentially does the latter depending on who we sell. We need to sell Kaboul, Chiriches, Ade, maybe Soldado, maybe Fazio, and I imagine that one or even both of Lennon and Townsend won't be here come September. Depending on who comes in for the DM spot I'd even consider selling Dembele. Of the youngsters, I think that Alli and Pritchard will definitely be getting involved in the first team, I'm a little less certain on Carroll. Carter-Vickers might be just a little young for a Football League loan at 17, but Veljkovic should either be getting game time with us or a season loan to a Championship pusher or even a PL team if he's considered advanced enough to benefit from it.
I'd think Mason could do a job on the right wing, particularly as he loves to close down players infront of him and get stuck in. I still think he's a good choice for centre mid, he just needs to work on his defensive side and adding a few more goals when he gets chances. We could do with a better defensive option though, particularly for the bigger games.
I think he prefers Eriksen's or Chadli's positions but seeing as both are pretty much nailed on, I think RW would be his best bet. He's got a cracking cross on him but like PNP says, he seems to like the whole cutting in aspect, though I did see him a few times on the right for Brentford and he didn't look out of place or out of ideas so I think Poch could perhaps test it in a Europa game and see it how it goes and then assess from there. If I'm honest though, whatever Poch goes with I'll fully support, I have the same sense of excitement in the manager as I did with Harry and I haven't really felt like that with other managers in the past. Think the club is going in the right direction with him in charge and it feels really refreshing to say that.
I think with Pritchard, you have to let him float around to an extent so he can have the best impact. He's a clever player who you'd hope would learn to work well with Eriksen and Kane, all players who are happy to move to where they can best exploit space if they have to. We run the risk of leaving ourselves with no effective width, but as long as a) you use the fullbacks effectively to help with this and b) use players intelligent enough to interchange as a unit while keeping all kinds of passing options open, then I think he'd potentially be a great fit into the team.
Reports in Italy suggest that we have made an offer to Llorente and that he is very likely to accept!... http://m.tuttomercatoweb.com/serie-...o-all-addio-il-tottenham-passa-in-pole-701468
Not the worst signing we could make. Depends on the cost, and his wages (which will probably be quite high) but he's a decent player. Didn't score many last season, but has buckets of experience which is good. Also provides a different kind of threat to Kane, Llorente likes to score from inside the area which could lead to us play with two up top again.
He's got 2 years left on his contract at Juve I think, so we'd have to see how much that affected his fee. Not too much you'd perhaps think due to his age and the number of strikers Juve have signed this summer so far, although they have also notably lost Tevez, so we'd have to see. He'd be a solid pickup though in my opinion, a different option to Kane with a lot of experience, and you'd think someone with his physical attributes would deal with the PL well.
I’m not convinced either that Lorente really will come, or that it’s a good idea. It seems strange we’d buy one striker who seems to have his best days well behind him while trying to sell two others of the same description. On the other hand, bringing in a big name has its virtues, seven goals in limited time last year isn’t great, or even very good, but it’s not bad, and at 6’5" he would be a good target for Trippier, Dier, Bentaleb, Eriksen or our other good crossers. One thing I like about last year’s team was that all our starting attacking players produced goals, assists, or both at a good clip, and he would worry defenders as well, and open up opportunities for other players. The original story says (with the aid of Google translate and my not-really-existent Italian) Fernando Llorente is very near a move to Tottenham. Monaco and Seville had made enquiries about the Spaniard, but he waited for a call from Rafa Benitez at Real Madrid. At this point Llorente seems intent on accepting the London club’s overtures. "Fernando Llorente è molto vicino al Tottenham. Sullo spagnolo, nelle scorse settimane, Monaco e Siviglia avevano fatto un sondaggio, ma il giocatore è rimasto in attesa di una chiamata da parte del Real Madrid, essendo una richiesta di Rafa Benitez. Ma adesso Llorente sembra intenzionato ad accettare il corteggiamento del club londinese."
Llorente would be a dream for Trippier. It's well noted Trippier is a very good crosser of the ball, bagging a good number of assists from RB and seeing as Llorente thrives on crosses into the box, it's just a perfect match. If we signed him we could see a true bromance blossom
Seems to make sense to me. He's experienced and offers a different threat in attack, my only quarm is whether he'd cost too much in wages.
The chances of a 30 year old striker being a waste of money are too good, for me. His form has dipped. His chances of having even one good season aren't great, and even if he does, we'll need to replace him soon. I'd much rather aim for continuity and greater long-term benefit with a younger striker. There are good points to be made in his favor, but I'm half-empty on this one. Maybe if we were just barely short of the top four and needed one more scorer to push us over the top, but I don't think we're that near.
If agree with YV, it's a matter of cost. Just because one former top Spanish striker failed for us, it doesn't mean this one would. 30 is no great age for player nowadays, so long as their fitness has been rigorously maintained. I'm assuming that the proposed cost is not deemed to be too high, or we wouldn't be sniffing around.
I'm not overly fussed with the financial aspect for Llorente, personally (even excluding potential Trippier bromance for a second) I think he'd be a good signing, he's never relied on pace so signing him at 30 isn't a problem for me, he's no less mobile than he was 5 years ago and he offers that powerhouse predator instincts which could be useful when up against stubborn opposition. If there are any doubters, this is a guy who was part of the Juve side that won the Serie A, Coppa Italia and came runners up to a superb Barca side in the Champions League final, that sort of pedigree should be snapped up ASAP if it became available. I'm not sure if he's even been first choice at Juve but according to Wiki, he has 23 goals 65 league games which is bloody impressive to say the least. I doubt Juve would be asking for a crazy transfer fee seeing as they've pretty much signalled he's not needed with the signings of Mandzukic and Dybala, plus already having Morata who has a great future, so if we have to pay Llorente a hefty wage to tempt him here then so be it, we've shifted enough deadwood to be able to cover any high demands and as I've already said, a player of his calibre and pedigree should see us desperately trying to get a deal done in my opinion.
If we do get him, I hope I'm wrong about Llorente. Seven goals in 30 games last year. Rarely played a full 90 minutes. Yanked at half time or before fairly often, once after only a couple of minutes. The good news is he can still score, the bad news is that he had twice as many the year before, and may not be in great condition. I'll say this, if these buys work, Spurs management will look like geniuses. There's been a clever angle to the two previous buys, and would be one to this one. How do you score more points? 1. Give up fewer goals. So get your best defender's best CB partner. Done. 2. Score more. How? Well, Spurs mostly tried to play through the middle, but did better when they varied that by often moving the ball down the flanks and crossing quickly. So the quick fix is a. Add the most prolific crosser in the Prem (done) and b. Add the most dangerous aerial threat available (pending). In theory, it will both get more goals from crosses, and leave more space for Eriksen, Lamela, Kane and Chadli to move the ball through the middle. Llorente should also be an ideal sub when down a goal.
Atletico really do seem to know what they're doing in the transfer market. Every setback is an opportunity.
