Dermot Gallagher is just protecting his mates from criticism. Ten Hag slagged off the ref, so now he gets this idiot waffling against him. Even the presenter points out that he's spinning it. They then ask two Scousers, FFS. Warnock is a Liverpool youth player. Gabriel isn't trying to attack the goal. The ball's going over him and he knows it. It's not close. He grapples with Evans to stop him from getting to Rice. Neither of them's getting the ball.
Whilst I don't agree with him most of the time, he's come out and criticised/disagreed with certain decisions before publicly. What reason would he have to not say he disagrees with them this time if he's done it before? I think it's just his genuine opinion from what he's seen. Sue Smith is an Everton fan and Stephen Warnock is also a boyhood Everton fan. They have no dog in this fight. I don't agree with how you've viewed these events, but I'm not going to say anymore on the matter because we're clearly not going to change each other's minds. It is what it is.
Gallagher has to see an absolutely outrageous decision not to back the refs. Take this week, where he only goes against them with the City offside: https://www.skysports.com/football/...s-man-utd-calls-dissected-by-dermot-gallagher The Liverpool one was equally wrong, yet he sticks with it and everything else, too. Stephen Warnock was on Liverpool's books for about a decade, FFS: https://www.liverpoolfc.com/news/first-team/113809-warnock-i-m-still-a-red He still plays for them in legends games and testimonials. He's a red, as he says himself.
“It was one of the reasons I wanted to go to Tottenham, purely because I could just see myself playing for Tottenham. I’m not even 100 percent sure what I mean by that, so don’t ask me. But I could just see myself in that team, in that kit, in that stadium. It just fitted well for me." “And they’ve always had that type of player; that sort of midfielder who wants to be creative and entertain the fans and be a personality. Christian Eriksen in more recent years but since him they probably haven’t had that type of player. I’d put myself in that category, I’m not putting myself on the same level. But I’m that type of player.” - James Maddison to The Independent. He understands what the fans want to see and want to hear, at least. The lack of a playmaker was one of my consistent criticism in recent years. I'm not sure the balance of our midfield is quite right yet, but he's been a massive help.
Was going to put this in the international thread but figure it’s arguably a better fit for here. So, it’s no secret I’ve never been a Richarlison fan, he was one of my most despised players for years and I can’t say watching him in a Spurs shirt has changed my opinion. That said, I don’t like seeing one of our players visibly down in the dumps and there’s a photo doing the rounds once he’d been taken off for Brazil last night having missing a good chance where he’s in tears - as if the the last 14 or so months was just compounded into that miss for Brazil. What do people think the solution is? For club and/ or player? Son basically showed Richarlison how to do the CF role last week which won’t have done his chances nor confidence any good. Kulusevski is growing in performances. Perisic and Solomon have impressed in wide roles when played. Johnson has now been brought in for a fee that somewhat implies he’ll be a regular under Ange and Gil is returning soon in which I think Ange could be great for him if he gets chances. There’s a potential argument to say that having joined the club as our 4th choice forward initially, Richarlison might drop further down any pecking order despite Kane’s departure. Some might say he needs a goal or two but the way we play I struggle to see him scoring much, he’s never been a consistent scorer in general and his hold up play is pretty non-existent. He’s someone who you sort of punt it too and we don’t really play like that. Others might say he needs a further run of games in the hope he regains confidence but do we honestly bench a better performing player for someone who in all fairness probably isn’t as good as them when on form anyway? Do we consider a loan for him in January (back to Everton?) in the hopes he can regain confidence and then either be sold in the summer for a hopefully not substantial loss or given another chance in the side? I can’t help but feel this was a scenario a good number of us on here could’ve predicted the moment we saw the fee we’d be paying for him but equally regardless of predicting something right or not, it’s still not nice to see a player - who clearly works his arse off and it’s through no fault of lack of trying - genuinely battered from a confidence and form point of view. I’m genuinely a bit lost on what we should/ can do for him at the moment.
We need to use him as backup for Son and get Perisic on the pitch at the same time. I was having similar thoughts to this the other day and I watched his goals for Everton. Loads of them come from crosses, especially ones where he can attack them with headers. Slipping balls in behind is standard for how we're playing, but we need to get him in the box more. Virtually all of his goals come from in and around the six yard box. We've been spoiled with Kane and Son scoring from bloody anywhere for years. Other players can do that, but if we want him contributing, then we have to give him chances. His confidence was destroyed by Conte and it needs rebuilding.
He reminds me of Soldado, nice guy plenty of effort but just does not suit our style of play , as DH said I just could not see a 60million player , whose buy was he anyway ? Because they need a slap
I said early on when we were rumoured to be in for him that he was a very Conte player. Works his arse off, puts himself about, goes down easily and winds people up a lot. He just got used wrong and put on the right wing a lot, then the manager ****ed off. It's just typical that the one time that we bought backup for Kane we didn't need it. He always missed a big, important chunk of the season until that point. Now we've got a broken player with no confidence who'll struggle to get in the team.
I largely agree that Perisic is likely the key to unlocking the best of Richarlison but I think part of that problem though is him and Perisic will only likely be on the pitch at the same time for about 20 mins tops per game. Then we’d need to hope that Richarlison converts a chance in that space of time - he’s never been a consistent enough scorer in general prior to Spurs so then how many goals could we realistically hope/ expect from him when on the pitch? It’s nice to have a plan B of course but there’s also got to be an understanding it won’t produce a goal every 20 mins they’re playing together. Secondly, does the club then want a £60m purchase purely being a backup option for their entire Spurs career? I don’t know how the conversation went down when we initially signed him but I imagine Richarlison was told there was a strong route into our XI, even though many fans could quite clearly see our front three were going to be very hard to displace. With Kane gone you’d have imagined Richarlison’s situation would improve yet I think after Son and Solomon’s performances last week, it’s very possible his situation will actually get worse.
It's something that we need to deal with now and see how it works, in my opinion. We can't do anything for at least a few months and then we face a similar problem. If Son's effectively replaced Kane, then anyone we try to sign is going to be backup. Our younger players coming through may accept that, but few new signings will. If we can get back into Europe next season, then that may help, as we'll have more games. The priority now has to be working with what we've got, though.
As long as that doesn’t come to the detriment of the team (trying to find one player’s strengths over the team’s) then I’m okay with trying it towards the end of games where possible. It will actually be nice if we’re “forced” to play some of our young players anyway, I think we’re entering a bit of a golden period with our youth. Started the season excellently and there are some real talents emerging. Quite exciting.
The issue is he keeps playing in the pockets of space Harry Kane used to always play in - but those pockets of space are 5-10 yards deeper than where he needs to be This is why Sonny playing on top worked so well against Burnley, as he was always the most forward player for the whole of the ubermensch's reign, the part of Conte's reign where tactics made sense, and even Ange's first few games - and the only difference is he played through the middle instead of on the left
Hagerty F., Hagerty R., Tomkins, Noble, Carrick, Dobson, Crapper, Dewhurst, MacIntyre, Treadmore, Davitt
I remember the good old days of the Chinese Super League making Graziano Pelle one of the top five highest-paid players in world football We'd have got shot of Ndombele by now if that bubble didn't burst...
