Match Day Thread Tottenham Hotspur v Leeds United

What I find aggravating is he keeps trying the sort of chipped passes that Toby can do, but while Toby can easily chip the ball 50+ yards to feet without making it look difficult, Dier hoofs it forward and if he's lucky it might land within a couple of yards of one of our players

 

He went down like a pussy for the mousers' winner when Henderson barged into him. He's bulked up significantly and all it's done is make him slow.

Can't we register Rodon in the EL before we play Austrian Wolves? I'd swap him with Sanchez in a heartbeat right now.

 

Waiting for Poch to make an enquiry, I think...

 

Yup.

 

I think he actually was fouled for the Liverpool goal, as there's no way that he could've seen it coming and he goes down instantly.
Virtually no good views of it though and the MOTD replay was ****ing ****, so it's hard to tell.
He needs to stop expecting good decisions and play as if he's not going to get anything.

Rodon can go straight into the Europa squad now the group's over, IIRC.
The whole Welsh homegrown thing is a mess though, so I don't think he counts in Europe.

 

Agree on what’s been said about Dier. Passing is horrendous and defensively both he and Toby don’t convince me. If we didn’t have Hojbjerg - and to an extent Sissoko - we’d have conceded a ton of goals. Definitely a problem area for us, as is RB. LB is the only position we’re good in from a defensive viewpoint; Davies is reliable if unspectacular and Reggie has been impressive in most of his games, Sess is doing well at Hoffenheim whilst we also have Cirkin in the ranks, so we should be sorted for the foreseeable future there.

 

Given his passing skills, athleticism and heading ability, the minimum he should expect of himself is to give everything and lead the defence in the manner of Hojbjerg...but it doesn't seem to be in him. Ledley's been coaching him to run that defensive unit but very often, he's the problem. He's reminding me more and more of Pointy Shouty Bloke.

Rodon's non-HG in European games, which is gutting given our issues with HG numbers.

 

In the last 2 seasons we've sold Trippier and Walker-Peters...spent more on 2 replacements...and are weaker as a result.

Not great.

 

Yup.

Poch massively ****ed it with KWP. Wasted him for two whole years. Can’t help but think had he had a couple of loans during the time he was third choice behind Aurier and Tripps that he’d have come back the season we sold Trippier as a much better player and probably capable of cementing the spot. The run of games at Southampton in just a year has done him the world of good.

I really liked Tripps too despite the fact he wasn’t overly favoured by most, had a disastrous final season though but sounds like he was carrying an injury throughout most of it.

 

Not sure that's true. Maybe his bulking up has caused him to slow down but when he first came he was one of the fastest.

https://www.hitc.com/en-gb/2015/01/...astest-player-revealed-yedlin-has-serious-co/

 

I've said it before and I'll say it again: rather than sign Aurier we should have either installed Trippier as first choice and move KWP into the rotation role, or if Poch didn't fancy KWP we should've signed Pereira and used him to motivate Trippier to play better and not blame his ****ups on teammates as there was somebody nipping at his heels waiting for a run of games

Instead we signed Aurier and had two starting RBs with KWP in limbo, which is not only bad squad management but really struck me as signing a first teamer so the fans wouldn't kick off at Walker flouncing off to Abu Dhabi

 

"He narrowly misses out on being the quickest in the Premier League, a boast held by Newcastle United’s Moussa Sissoko on 35.3 k/ph."

 

Not making excuses for Doherty as I wasn't expecting much from him when he signed. A player already at an age where we'll see little to no room for improvement who played for a team that - despite exceeding expectations - finished below us in the league when we were at our absolute weakest in recent history. It's one thing if said player is young and can benefit from better coaching/facilities/team mates, but a 29 year old? What exactly were we expecting?

Another problem is the system we play not suiting either of our RBs. Suits Davies to a tee and to a lesser extent Reg who in all honesty has that rare capacity to develop into the 'world class' bracket (so can adapt to pretty much any system as his natural ability is so strong). But both Aurier and Doherty have built careers on the front foot. Neither are particularly good at defending, yet both are being forced into a system which forbids them from crossing the halfway line unless absolutely necessary. Aurier has adapted to this quicker and better than Doherty, probably because he is the more athletic player and has been here for much longer. But as the Leicester game reminded us, he is never more than a brainfart away from costing us a game.

My gut feeling is that Doherty was only ever intended as a cover for NEW RB who was meant to replace Aurier, but the interest from AC Milan never concretised and so we entered the season stuck with another player who is also only good enough to be a back-up.

 

He's aged twenty years since then...

When was the last time he looked anything like this?

 

He's done a Bale and put on too much muscle.

 

Yep. His running style has changed completely. He runs on his heels now, not on his toes. He runs like I do now...and I'm over 30 ears older than him.

 

Gosh I miss running. I had to stop when I was 39. I went into hospital for observation on my back. In my gown,I went to the toilet,came out and as I did my back "went" and my wife caught me as I was going down. Rutured disc and an operation. Doc told me "no more running or heavy lifting!" The first one hurt.I'd run all my life....and that was 40 years ago.Wish I had your heels,Brian!!!!?

 

As Danny once said "Let's equalise before the other team score!" Note to Leeds.

 

I can 'run' for a bus or train...my knees are shot and I have significant lower back problems as a result of having a left leg 1" longer than the right one. If I 'ran' for more than a couple of hundred yards, I dread to think what state I'd be in.

Generally, I don't feel that different from 20 or 30 years ago, but when I 'run' I feel at least 100 years old. However, I can walk all day without any trouble.

 

Could be worse, a dozen years or so ago I literally couldn't run due to having a bunch of niggling back, knee, ankle and hamstring injuries, which meant if I tried to run I'd sort of motion for breaking into a run - only to continue walking as normal

This was in my mid-20s, by the way...