Squad watch 2020-21

It’s definitely 17, I’ve just noticed HBIC missed off Bergwijn in his list. CCV makes the squad because it’s a free spot. He’s CG and the only senior CG players we have are Whiteman, Winks and Kane as Tanganga still qualifies for the B list.

Unless I’ve made a mistake somewhere, our squad is as follows

1 - Hugo
2 - Aurier
3 - Doherty
4 - Toby
5 - Sanchez
6 - Dier
7 - Reguilon
8 - Davies
9 - Hojbjerg
10 - Sissoko
11 - Lo Celso
12 - Ndombele
13 - Bergwijn
14 - Lucas
15 - Lamela
16 - Son
17 - Vinicius

CG 1 - Whiteman
CG 2 - CCV
CG 3 - Winks
CG 4 - Kane
HG 1 - Hart
HG 2 - Dele
HG 3 - Clarke
HG 4 - *free* - Rodon would’ve been able to take this had we signed him.

Edit: As Power pointed out: Bale takes a CG spot.

 

The oddest part is Jack Roles is in the squad

He won't be able to play for us until January at the earliest

 

Bale is club trained so no free spaces

 

I forgot Bale .

Still not fully believing he’s back at Spurs

 

You've probably missed the press and social media coverage

 

Hardly a surprise but Rose confirmed to miss out on the PL squad. Gazza is able to be registered for this, as is Rodon, whilst Davies and Doherty count as HG under Prem regulations. Gedson able to qualify for the the U21 list.

Alderweireld, Toby Albertine
Alli, Bamidele Jermaine*
Alves Morais, Carlos Vinicius
Aurier, Serge
Bale, Gareth Frank*
Bergwijn, Steven Charles
Davies, Benjamin Thomas*
Dier, Eric Jeremy Edgar
Doherty, Matthew James*
Gazzaniga, Paulo Dino
Hart, Charles Joseph John*
Heung-Min, Son
Højbjerg, Pierre Emile Kordt
Kane, Harry*
Lamela, Erik
Lloris, Hugo
Lo Celso, Giovani
Ndombele Alvaro, Tanguy
Reguilon Rodriguez, Sergio
Rodon, Joseph Peter*
Rodrigues Moura Da Silva, Lucas
Sanchez Mina, Davinson
Sissoko, Moussa
Whiteman, Alfie Malik*
Winks, Harry*

 

I believe that we'll be able to register Rodon for the Europa without an issue, if we progress through the group stage.
Bale replaces Carter-Vickers as club-grown and his fellow Welshman goes into his homegrown spot.
Davies is different because Swansea and Cardiff used to be part of the Welsh FA and transferred or something.

 

Yeah once the groups are over Rodon can be registered as a HG player for us.

The FA stuff is a real ****ter for the club/ Davies, I think Ben was around 19 or 20 when Swansea switched to the English FA therefore would've had the three years required (between 15-21) to qualify for the Welsh FA but only had about two years under the English FA so just misses out on being HG for Europa by roughly a year I think.

 

First questions on the real utility of Bale this season.

My hope was that he would be PL starting XI fit by the Citeh game
(by "fit" I mean able to play a full 90 mins of a PL game) .

Similarly I do not believe that was an unrealistic target.

We know december and january are going to be fixture hell
(more so if we reach League Cup SF + FA Cup R4) .

So when are we going to get the above ??

 

Now that Spurs are inside a difficult block of PL fixtures, and
the christmas fixture schedule imminent,, how do we think the
squad is doing overall ??

Not yet seeing anything of the Bale of 2010-13, nor Alli anywhere
near to his first two seasons form, is a concern for me.

 

Bale’s form hasn’t really concerned me. Even though we all dreamed of him lighting things up from the get go I think deep down we knew it was gonna take time for him to get up to speed. Prior to joining us he’d barely kicked a ball in roughly a year and prior to even that he was barely playing for Madrid for the most part. I think we’re still about 3-5 games away from Bale being classed as properly fit and I’m happy to wait for it, I also think that providing there’s no major injury, we’ll take him for a second year too as I highly doubt he’ll return to Madrid after this season, so in a way, despite being 31, this initial phase is for his development with his ‘best’ football likely to come in 2021 and hopefully 2022. I think his sheer presence has been huge too and a massive lift to the team.

As for Dele, he looked decent last night but I don’t see a long term future for him here. His only immediate way into the team/ squad is if Lo Celso continues to be made of glass but with rumours of a move for Sabitzer as well small talk of a possible Eriksen return in January, these are players that play in his role and overall I don’t think Jose has much faith in him anymore.

All in all I’m quite happy with the squad. There’s some weaknesses and lack of quality in depth in one or two areas but in comparison to last season it’s so much better and a lot more balanced too.

 

Right, so when do we get Cirkin on Wikipedia?

 

Bale's getting there and Alli was looking a lot like his old self to me last night.
This "reserve" team has a few more fixtures to gel and get up to speed and they should all provide a sterner test than last night.
Getting everyone up to speed, fully match fit and competitive should help the squad to push on.
Competition for places and the ability to rotate without losing too much quality are key to this season.

 

Good news for Stoke, then...

 

There are two EL group stage fixtures, and the Stoke game remaining for the squad.
All other games between then and FA Cup R3 are PL fixtures.

No guarantee Spurs will get an easy draw for FA Cup R3, and if progress is made in
both cups likewise for R4 and the League Cup SF (which is most likely to be a PL opponent.

I feel that the literal game time available to do what you say, has effectively run out.

 

Three full matches is enough and then we hit the period where the fixtures are constant and we'll have to rotate.

 

The EL group stages are done.

Sadly the performance of the squad as a whole to date is
not IMHO going to allow Jose to do serious PL starting XI
rotation to get thru the rest of this month.

 

Right now we know that:
Hugo, Aurier, Toby, Dier, Reguilon, Sissoko, Hojbjerg, Ndombele**, Bergwijn, Kane and Son are in tip top shape and at "100% fitness", they're also the first XI, albeit Lo Celso is knocking on that door.

Hart, Davies, Doherty, Lo Celso and Lucas are the squad players who are also at 100% fitness. Rodon's getting a lot of sub minutes at the moment and as a CB that's 'OK', he showed against Chelsea that despite a blip or two he'll be ready when called upon - and those blips should diminish with more game time.
Sanchez is probably more match fit than Rodon but his form is dreadful and it's doubtful he'll feature unless we get some injuries. Tanganga is also likely nearing a good fitness level but despite not playing poorly, it's hard to see where his game time will come.
Vinicius is playing well but not playing enough, he's definitely deserving of some game time in these upcoming games, probably at around 80% fitness I'd imagine.
Bale, Winks and Dele are probably at the lowest end of the fitness scale and if any of these are required to play a substantial amount should an injury arise, you'd be worried at how they'd do when coming into the side.

**His version of 100% fitness anyway.

 

Time for a serious review of this ...

As things stand, there is effectively zero diversity in goal-
scoring beyond Kane and Son (contrast with a couple of
seasons ago when Alli and Eriksen were contributing) .

Vini has been ok in the EL, but Jose has not used him
effectively in PL fixtures (as starter or sub) .

Bale is nowhere near to the Bale of 2010-13.

GLC and NDombele appear to be Lamela II.

Most of the MF squad cannot hold the ball, front up in CM,
nor are incisive in attack.

So Jose to date is effectively being carried by Hojbjerg/Kane.Son.
Which is unsustainable.

What must Jose do to rectify most of the above ??

 

Rebuild the right side of the defensive triangle

A RB who isn't a liability to the point opponents target him
A right-sided CB with the pace to cover when the RB is up the pitch
A CM who can cover for the RB while offering something going forward