Match Day Thread Tottenham Hotspur v Leicester City

I’d try something different and replace Sissoko with Lo Celso...get the creativity going from deep that way because it’s great that Sissoko can win the ball but then his brain doesn’t function right and he kicks the ball onto his own head and arms or something pathetic, it can look embarassing at times. I believe Lo Celso has got graft in him like Sissoko has.

If this has already been tried and it failed miserably then I can’t remember...maybe I was stoned.

 

Ali Gold is spot on for me.

 

he usually is

Ima save it for bedtime...will listen to it in an hour or so

 

Lo Celso gets injured too much and misses too many games to be relied on as an important part of the system. Like @Dier Hard said it looks like he is gonna be another Lamela with constant injuries

 

Yeah the typical Spurs luck hits as per. Spend nearly £100m on two players and one’s a fatty who can’t play longer than 60 mins and the other is made of glass like his compatriot. Fun times, man.

 

that’s true but when he’s available then for me that should be the position he takes. He’s a serial crock and like a few others on here I don’t have too much patience with them anymore either because as usual time is passing us by. I’m also at that stage where I don’t really care about what good someone may become...you start delivering with consistency or gtfo because it’s to our detriment and people don’t seem to quite realise that in another 2/3 years the Kane/Son show is done

 

One thing I have seen pointed out elsewhere (and this isn't me going "Oh look, confirmation bias!") is that there has been a clear change in our tactics since the West Scam game, as that game saw several changes
1.) Sanchez being relegated to Europa duty only
2.) Sissoko being deployed to double up in the space between Aurier and Toby
3.) A clear reduction in attacking moves

On the one hand that worked for a period as we got a string of wins and clean sheets, but the side effect of that change is it has slowed down our transition from defence to attack that has been the issue in our last three games, because when we have 2-3 players hovering around the RB spot to try and stop Aurier being targeted that means there's one or two players not in a position to receive the ball and start us moving forward, and not only are opponents figuring this out but they're still targeting us down the right anyway and getting results from it

The issue there is the solutions available to us at present are as follows
a.) Put Sanchez back into the starting xi, as he has the pace to cover RB that Toby or Dier do not
b.) Go all in with Tanganga, as he has that extra yard of pace that Toby or Dier lack
c.) Switch the positions of Hojbjerg and Sissoko in the pivot, as Sissoko's not got the defensive nous to shield Aurier reliably
d.) Thank whichever deity you worship that Lamela is back in training

There's an interview from about ten years ago from when the ubermensch was at Inter where he says he wanted to move the defensive line up the pitch by 20m, but to do that he needed to sign a new CB as, while Cordoba and Materazzi had the defensive nous, they didn't have the pace...at which point I should probably say that Skriniar isn't that CB, as he's a good yard of pace slower than Sanchez and would be a better fit for Dier's role

And that's the issue, as the solutions available to us to implement this mainly involve the phrase "Signing a centre..." where the only difference is the word at the end is either "back" or "midfielder", because when our system has to be adjusted to protect Aurier that not only means we play to deep for Winks to offer anything but also need reliability from our CBs which Sanchez is not offering right now

 

Two things to note.
We have a worse points per game record this season than we had in the games after lockdown last season when Winks and Sissoko played in CM almost every match.
This season we have played all the other members of the current top eight already and our next five matches are therefore easier in theory than the previous 14.

 

This is the issue with when we're setting up to protect a weakness first and foremost

Yes, we're offering more protection to Aurier (in theory...) but at the expense of making our transition from defence to attack slower and more predictable, in much the same way that Poch installing THAT BASTARD DIAMOND protected our central midfield from being overrun but at the expense of exposing us down both flanks, or Gerry Francis signing approximately 72 wingers meant we had options for when Darren Anderton was injured but at the expense of not addressing the fact that so much of our team not named Sheringham was ****

 

The simple immediate solution is to get a decent RB, both Aurier and Doherty are piss poor

 

Honestly, it wouldn't matter if we had Ricardo Pereira playing as our RB because there is a flaw in our system as to have a RB play in the role they operate in, they need players who can allow them to play in that role

It's the same as what happened with Kyle Walker and Danny Rose, both of whom were prone to playing like headless chickens in the AVB/Sherwood period, but for a couple of seasons they looked like elite FBs because they had the right players around them to allow them to play their game - which is also why Walker's reverted to moments where he looks like a headless chicken at the Sheikh Mansour Team in the last 2-3 season, because in that time they haven't had the players around him to allow him to play his game the way he wants

 

But having a reliable RB would help the other players because they wouldn’t be mopping up after them constantly.

Sissoko and Aurier in the same team is just asking for trouble as both have huge weaknesses which won’t ever be fixed

 

A reliable RB could reduce the number of mistakes, but the issue is that mistakes migrate to the next weakest link, so if we had a more reliable RB that wouldn't stop Sissoko being a potential liability covering the space nor would it help if the covering CB was half a yard of pace slower than the ball (let alone whichever player was bearing down on them)

If we had a CB who could mop up that would allow us to move the team up the pitch into a mid block, which in turn would allow for a different kind of midfielder to Sissoko, for example Ndombele playing as a CM or Winks getting more game time while also having Sissoko in reserve for when we need more physicality in the centre of the park, while at the moment we need the physicality because neither Ndombele or Winks can play as a CM in a low block

It's like how Fazio was ill-suited to our system, begging so many questions about why we signed him, because his lack of pace was a weakness that went counter to the system we used at the time

 

In an ideal world Spurs would sign a RB, decent CM and sell Sissoko and Aurier in January but I can’t see that happening for many reasons

 

I can live with Aurier til the end of the season even if he is always a brainfart away from a penalty, in fairness to him he’s had a lot of good games this season. I also think it’s too early to write off Doherty albeit he has been very disappointing - but similar to Bale and to an extent, Vinicius, he needs a run of games to prove himself. New signings will never really set the world alight playing 20 min cameos or sparsely in a B team.

I think a new RB may be sought in the summer though. Aarons or Lamptey would be decent investments or swallowing our pride and paying big to get KWP back. Shows how much a run of games can do for a player. Incredibly poorly managed here by Poch.

In terms of January I’ve said before but I think outgoings will dominate our activity. In terms of incomings though I think we really need some a Hojbjerg cover until Skipp is back. His last couple performances have dipped and I think that’s down to being overplayed, just like a bunch of others in the first XI. Hopefully we can shift Winks, Dele, Lamela, Rose, Gazzaniga and Sanchez to free up some funds too but I doubt all of those will leave. If we could free up a few though then a HG signing or two and then possibly Sabitzer would be ideal but it’s a bit of stretch to expect all that in a month where not a lot gets done.
I reckon maybe 3-4 outs and 1 in, 2 if we’re lucky.

 

Mourinho does not trust his defence, Aurier in particular, hence why we deploy Sissoko as defensive cover, which leaves us short in the centre of the park. If we had a top class and brain fart free defensive unit, we could rely on them and therefore be bold and have an extra midfielder, which would see us dominating games again. A reliable and solid RB is a priority as well as another central midfielder to play either alongside or instead of Hojberg.

 

To play the system he wants he needs Sanchez to be error free, Aurier to be error free, and Sissoko to have a much more rounded defensive side to his game

Instead what we have is Sanchez having an error in him, Aurier being targeted by opponents as they know he has an error in him, and Sissoko not having the defensive game to cover the latter which leaves the former exposed (hence he was dropped in favour of Toby)

Replacing Aurier alone won't fix everything, although on the plus side there is a chance Tanganga can fill Sanchez's role as he has the pace to do so so that we don't have to rebuild an entire section of our team as that takes time, money, and dreading it when somebody says Fabrizio Romano has posted something to his Patreon