Eriksen did much the same under Sherwood last year, albeit in a different formation. It clearly works offensively but I don't think you lose anything putting him in the middle and having players outside him who can provide width, offensively and defensively.
Morning, people. Only saw the MOTD highlights, but it looked like a lot of our recent performances (get in the lead, slack off in defence a bit, Lloris keeps us safe etc) . Highlights showed a bit of Dembele driving to the box, and then offloading. That is the Dembele we had in 2012-13 (welcome back) .
Read the stats about Paulinho, best on the pitch yesterday.12 tackles in the final third, 102 touches and 74 passes.
I thought the free kick last week helped make the one this week work. Foster was worried Eriksen could hit the far corner again, so he left the near side too open. Making my comment about him being unwilling to tackle idiotic. I still say Paulinho stood out for being poor yesterday, in the first half at any rate. He looks like a different player at CAM to me. Maybe in his heart he knows that’s his position. Now I think I understand why Hazard said last year that Dembele was better than he was. It’s so useful for us because having Eriksen doing all the dribbling and playmaking all the time isn’t ideal, since we need him to score, and, above all, to stay fresh and uninjured. Results tend to be misleading. 3-0, we looked good and dominated possession, it seems we were by far the better team. But West Brom had the same number of shots, the same number on target, and in fact could have won this game 5-3 if they’d finished well. One into the post, a goal-line clearance, a number of other great chances they didn’t convert. We switched off at 2-0, rather than 1-0, and it was sheer luck they didn’t get back into the game at that point. I think Pochettino’s style, if followed from beginning to end, will naturally result in 5-3 games--though we’d win most of them. Kane reminds me of a basketball player, in having great post up moves. The best have at least one really good move to the left, and one to the right, and leave defenders with no way of avoiding getting caught out. My other thought about him is that he seems to run more than other players, and nearer to his top speed when near the keeper.
Paulinho made 12 passes in the final third and 5 tackles. Still more than anyone else in the team. He also made a couple of interceptions. Poor in the first half, but better after the break, for some reason. Thought this was interesting: please log in to view this image The meme's for him are popping up with increasing frequency, too. please log in to view this image
Paul, I hear you but all I see is a damned good 'keeper, he is no Schmeichael or Shilton, I don't see him as bossing the defence enough let alone the rest of the team. Thank goodness he's our keeper as without him between the sticks we'd be in the lower part of the division but captain? Not for me.
It is stunning that Kane has gone from an occasional starter to the best, or at least the highest scoring, striker in the Prem in 2/3 of a season. He’s passed some tests too. He’s had bad misses and occasional bad games that he’s shrugged off. Pochettino deserves some credit, clearly. As good as he’s been, I wouldn’t call Kane a clinical finisher, exactly. He misses easy ones from time to time. What’s made him so good is how many half chances he scores, how often he creates something from little or nothing, and the sheer number of chances he gets. Partly it’s because he clearly has one of the great motors, but partly it’s because Spurs in Pochettino’s system create a lot of chances. Kane is 5th in PL scoring, Eriksen is 6th, Chadli is right behind. No one else has three players placed nearly so highly in the scoring table.
Exactly. All strikers have off days - or worse. It's the ones that are always there, getting the chances, the half chances, that are the best. At the moment, Kane is there and getting, or creating those chances for himself. His figures speak for themselves.
Kane has greatly surprised me, I must say. In what little I'd seen of him he looked distinctly average. Poor first touch, no real pace, just nothing special really. Where this completely different player has come from, I don't know. I can only suppose that it's all down to confidence.
I get that not everyone rated him, I mean no one expected him to get as good as he is so quickly, but I think some of that's just preconceptions. He always looked fairly quick and had good technique, I think it's just because he's big that people thought otherwise. What's really been impressive is how he's brought his ability to dominate against defences up to senior level. As I've said before, it's easy for quick or strong players to shine at the youth levels but then struggle with the seniors as those assets suddenly become less valuable against defenders that are stronger and used to facing fast players. Perhaps it's because Kane's so well rounded, he just seems to have a bit of everything and that must make him a nightmare to mark. You can't give him space anywhere in your half of the pitch, you also can't mark him too tightly, you can't show him onto one side and you can't shrug him off the ball. The main thing I think he has improved in the past year is his movement on and off the ball. Maybe I just didn't notice it before as he was always a bit faster and stronger at youth level but he just has a knack for finding space, and useful space, not just dropping deeper because the defenders won't follow him. And then when he gets the ball he just seems to know the best route to get past players instantly and that's no mean feat, especially at his young age. I still think he needs to work on some of his finishing inside the box but when you've scored 20 goals and there's still 4 months of the season to go, I think it's fair to say that's just nit picking
Linekar said on MOTD that Kane reminded him of Shearer. I think that's a more apt comparison than comparing him to Linekar or Teddy tbh. If he is half as good as any of those he's done well.
There was 2 bits of skill in the game on Saturday that really impressed me. The first was Eriksen's feignt to go left but then letting the ball roll past him to have give him space to have a shot that missed by inches. The other one was the way Kane took the pass from Dembele to score the first, not only controlling it, but pushing it wide of the closely marking defender (which agrees with your point above about his ability to shake off close markers) into a place where he could have a clear shot at goal. I thought he'd over cooked it slightly, but in the end it was perfect, And there was then very little backlift, which made the keeper look poor, but it was taken so quick, he had no chance.
I can see that comparison. Shearer didn't have outstanding pace or skill which marks out many great strikers - he just did what he did very well. He was strong, determined, cool under pressure and consistent. He didn't miss loads of chances; he tended to ready, he didn't often hesitate or need a second touch and his execution of the shot was spot on every time. Kane's performances this season have been like that - in the right place, chance taken.
Yeah, it was very well taken. I've just been watching a bit of Sunday Supplement and it was interesting listening to the quick chat they had about him and they were talking about him as a player with great instincts. I'm not so sure that's the case, I think he just works very hard and practices different ways to get a shot off so when it comes to a game, he's got 5 or 6 tricks up his sleeve that he can use to get an extra half yard or surprise the 'keeper. It's the same with Eriksen, they always seem to be looking ahead and pushing themselves. When you look at Robben and Ronaldo, they started out very similarly but Ronaldo seems to have always looked to add new things to his game while Robben's still doing the samethings he was 8 years ago, just a bit more polished. Obviously Robben's still a great player but you hear it all the time when someone talks about Ronaldo, it's not just talent he also works very, very hard.
Not all of us, Thor . I backed him to become a 1st team player, albeit never expected him to be as good as what he is now. A year or so ago, me and another poster, think it may have been Roo, though not 100%, spoke of unrealistic expectations on young players (speak of the devil, where the **** has he gone?!). We were basically saying that due to some of Europe's youngsters making names for themselves very early on - (Rooney, Messi, Muniain, Thiago, Kroos, Muller, Hazard, Barkley, Sterling amongst many others), it started to give fans a mindset of "if you're not quality by the time you're 18/19 then you're not good enough". Me and Roo tried explaining that we felt judging players on that basis was wrong and that players need to be given until they're around 22-23 before making a solid judgement as to whether they're truly good enough. Kane showed glimpses of a good player in his earlier seasons but because he wasn't setting the world alight like Rooney did at Everton, many instantly wrote him off, which we felt was extremely harsh. Kane is still only 21 and looks like he has a fantastic future ahead of him, if he continues and improves on these performances then he has at least a good 12-13 years of top level football in him, I'd say the average for a good footballer is 10, so Kane is showcasing that he's ahead of most footballers in terms of age and talent, yet many of our fans - just like fans of other clubs around the world on their young players - wrote him off just because he hadn't become a key player in his teens. I think Mason is another prime example, despite making his debut about 6 years ago when he was 17, now at 23, he's only just solidified himself as a first team player. Admittedly I didn't see Mason having this sort of season, after about 6 loan moves which had varied success, injuries and the fact his position is stacked with players, it looked as though his future was elsewhere yet he showed that writing a young player off is completely wrong and just like Kane, has now committed his long term future to the club after an impressive season so far. This isn't a dig at anyone by the way, just pointing out that how certain young footballers and the media hype on them has affected a lot of mindsets of fans into thinking if one of your club's youngsters hasn't done similar at a young age then they're automatically not good enough. We've all been guilty of this and I think Mason and Kane are prime examples for us in that we need to stick by these lads as they develop at different speeds but ultimately the wait will probably be worth it, whether it's 2-3 years or 3-5 years.
Totally disagree. Shearer was fantastic at what he did and little else. Kane's a jack of all trades, he doesn't rely on balls coming into the box for him to attack he's got shades of every player about him. Andy Carroll's more like Shearer, you set up to play to his strengths and you get goals, Kane just needs to be on the pitch and he'll cause problems. Kane misses too many chances to be like Shearer but he also doesn't need those chances to be effective, he can score from nearly anywhere but most importantly he contributes to a lot of attacks, you wouldn't see Shearer or any traditional English number 9 playing with such variety, they're just masters of what they're best at.
