Match Day Thread Tottenham Hotspur v Everton

I agree with you that my only gripe is I want Jose to be ruthless and just chuck a few under the bus and leave them there and give the likes of Tanganga the time to develop. Were not winning **** all by picking Alderwereild over a hungry Tanganga but I can only once again think that at the business end of the season in the big games the manager is going for experience.

 

Putting all the blame on the defence is like saying the iceberg is the sole reason for loss of life on the Titanic. Yes, the iceberg is what did the damage, but if the ship had watertight compartments and had enough lifeboats for everyone on board the death toll would have been significantly lower

It's the same with our defence: they're the ones who make the mistakes, but the complete lack of protection from midfield is the reason why they're being exposed and making those mistakes - and it's hardly the first time this has happened, either, as we've seen numerous times in the past how much better our defence is when we stiffen the midfield, for example when we dropped any of Palacios, Sandro, Parker, Dier or Wanyama into it

 

so we need a classy CB and a classy DCM...but one or the other won’t fit it and we will be pulling our hair out again. This then brings us to the owners...that debate will be interesting in the summer.

 

He's been injury free for roughly the last two or three months though. He's just either been left out of the squad or kept on the bench.

Yet to actually feature in the league this season too.

 

Well,that's two tournaments we've knocked ourselves out of. Two more to go.......and then a long rest!!!!!!!!!!?

 

He had a few games in the Europa, then did his shoulder against... Antwerp, was it?
It's hard to pick anyone who can't play a handful of matches without breaking down and he doesn't seem to be able to do that at the moment, unfortunately.
He's had a series of injuries across the board and he needs to be used carefully right now.

 

As I said a bit ago, this goes back to the summer of 2019 where we were doing our (already a year overdue) midfield rebuild, but while we signed Ndombele and Lo Celso we needed to sign a DM - yet with the exception of Levy suggesting we sign Tielemans (and Poch turning the suggestion down) I can't recall any strong links with a DM that summer

The real question has to be what our plans were for the fees we'd have got for the expected departures of Eriksen and Toby, as that would've likely brought in somewhere between £60-75m, and considering we certainly had £60m to offer for Dybala towards the end of the window, if we did bring in those fees we would have surely bought either a DM or CB, or perhaps both if we were smart about it

 

I don't see how another DM in say the Wanyama mould fits into the same side as Hojbjerg for most games. For sure, against the Man City's of the world it'll be good but elsewhere not so much. Having Hojbjerg and another DM would be like playing Wanyama and Dier together, or Parker and Sandro, you'll get solidity but you'll have next to nothing in terms of creativity nor dominance in midfield possession. Skipp will be back next season who'll compete and occasionally play alongside Hojbjerg, I'll be really happy with that balance, I don't think another DM on top of that will be needed, certainly not from a first XI POV.

A top CB though would absolutely help. And even if we can't get someone who's deemed as elite to make a van Dijk/ Dias impact on our defence, then try going for the next level down which would still massively improve our back line. I look at players like Soyuncu at Leicester at the moment, he's not regarded as an elite CB but has been very good for them, guys like Dunk or Tarkowski could likely do well higher up too, all would be improvements on our current three senior CBs.

A top CAM is also a priority for me too, it'll allow Ndombele and Hojbjerg to be more positionally disciplined as neither will feel the need to venture too far forward to try compensating for the lack of creativity in front of them.

Ironically, speaking of Leicester too, they are doing so many things we used to do that got us into a strong position over the years and I don't think it's a surprise that they are now the main team on the verge of legitimately cracking the top six on a regular basis, so much so they'll possibly make it a top seven in time. They've signed a lot of players under the idea they'll improve in ability and value over time, exactly like we used too. Tielemans, Maddison, Soyuncu, Fofana, Justin etc, they've already benefited hugely from Maguire and if those guys go any time soon they'll make significant profits on those too. So if we can't bring in the guaranteed quality, we should go back to our routes and start signing those types of players again.

 

I just checked Transfermarkt and yeah it was against Antwerp and he missed the 2 following league games because of that. Says he’s been injury free since the Wolves game though. That’s 8 league games he could’ve featured in and 4 cup games, he got 4 mins against Brentford and 45 mins against both Marine and Wycombe, nothing as we know last night. Without significant minutes in the cups and nothing in the league he’s never really gonna get fit enough, so I’m not sure he’s even being used carefully, he’s just barely being used at all.

 

Completely agree. I think the priority in the summer is a top CB and then the rest can work itself out. Happy to sign ‘project’ players for RB and other positions as I think squad wise we’re not far off, it’s the tactics that are often the issue, along with mistakes at the back that hopefully recruiting a top class CB who can be consistent and help organise others will help eliminate.

 

Sorry but you insist on twisting my words.
I specifically mentioned that I get playing defensively in certain matches.
Last year we played turgid **** defensively minded football v Norwich in the 5th round and went out...this year we attacked and went out.
I know which of those I preferred.

No where have I said I would rather lose than win but I fail to see the wins v liverpool, Palace, Brighton, Fulham, Chelsea, Everton (league), wolves...all defensive turgid games...and none of them won.

I was attempting to give a view mate...fair enough to disagree but don't twist my views...I don't do it to you and it ain't a wum thread

 

I agree re getting rid of the deadwood.
Was my biggest problem with Pochettino...continually played players who were not performing

 

Wrong colour shirt

 

You wanna hear yourselves

 

I'd say a new RB is absolutely essential. The Doherty experiment hasn't worked for whatever reason - I feel for the guy but possibly our worst signing since N'Koudou. Has literally contributed naught this season save giving away a couple of penalties.

Our left flank is much more solid in this regard; Reguilon - if he can stay injury free (and at the club!) - is one hell of a player. Davies is Davies but I admire how he's worked on his delivery over the past few seasons. Aurier and Doherty lag miles behind in terms of ability and our right flank is essentially neutered as an attacking force and suspect as a defensive one. The fact Maureen deems it wise to play Sissoko there tells the whole story of how much value that flank has for the team. Forward-looking, attacking FBs with excellent deliveries are very much in vogue at the minute. Liverpool started the trend with TAA and Robertson, but I'd now place Castagne, TAA, Pereira, Dallas, Lamptey, Cash and James above both Aurier and Doherty in terms of ability.

 

Reads post ^

Checks posters name.

*faints*

 

Tobes ever posted here before?

I bring in the crowds

 

He posted on this thread before you did:
https://www.not606.com/threads/tottenham-hotspur-v-everton.390393/page-19#post-14607685

 

Wasn't serious bro chill

 

As I've said a few times before, we should look at how Lyon approached different games a couple of seasons ago as they'd rotate Ndombele, Aouar and Troussart depending on who they were facing

Games where they had the lion's share of possession: Ndombele & Aouar
Games where they were fighting teams at their level: Ndombele & Troussart
Games where they were looking to soak up and counter: Aouar & Troussart

In terms of how we'd line up, it'd be something like this

Games where we have the lion's share of possession: Ndombele & Skipp
Games where we're fighting teams at our level: Ndombele & NEW DM
Games where we're looking to soak up and counter: Hojbjerg & NEW DM

This also has the benefit of all of our CMs being guaranteed time off, as opposed to the approach we've had for the last eighteen months where we flog the same ones to death (Sissoko last season, Hojbjerg this) and hope that they'll be good to go for another 90 minutes next weekend