Match Day Thread Tottenham Hotspur v Southampton

To think Jose actually opted to pick Sissoko ahead of him once or twice too... Madness.

 

That's where we do agree. That's where Jose's ego rules his head. He obviously believes his own publicity. Was all the talk of being careful with Bale to bring him back to fitness bullshit? I suspect Bale could have been further along with a different coach. Compare that to the way he ran players like Hojbjerg into the ground. What about their fitness? Son is another one who has been knackered by over use.
The worlds most successful coach and he seems unable to rotate players in a sensible way.
Obviously I must be wrong but that's how it looks to me and seeing how he has been sacked so many times there must be something in it.

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Yeah must have been bullshit, because he said something along the lines of "everyone will pick a fit Gareth Bale" when Bale got in the side and was playing well but then after Arsenal he was back in the wilderness and seemed to be the fall-guy, despite the fact no one left the NLD with any respect. He definitely could've played a lot more in the league than he did, hopefully Mason utilises him well enough between now and the end and we can then ideally secure a second year loan, we won't sign a better player than Bale in the summer I'd imagine so makes sense to get him back again.

Jose definitely made some weird and stupid calls though, whilst his insistence on running others into the ground was just crazy, Poch was bad at that, Jose took it to a new level.

 

We have shown in the past that we can get it right. The signings of Carrick, Modric and Dembele as linchpins catapulted the team forwards and brought the best out in players who haven't hit the same heights since. VDV, Eriksen and Dele immediately spring to mind.

The Modric to Dembele transition was an interesting one and probably a useful case study in where we are now. It took a few years for us to work out exactly what to do with the big Belgian. Poch's go-to pivot in his first season was the grit and hard work of Mason and Bentaleb. Moussa often played further forward as an AM and it didn't suit him or us at all. It took 4 years until we started to see Moussa at his peerless best. Pundits cited Kane, Eriksen or Dele as our most important players. They overlooked Dembele because what he did best was rarely obvious from a highlights reel or a set of stats. It is no coincidence that our form collapsed after he left in Jan 2019. Poch reverted to grit and hard work while working out a way forward.

What he saw in Lo Celso and Tanguy to suggest that they were the way forward, who knows? A lot of us were surprised at the time by the fact that we didn't prioritise a DM as the second big signing, as well as the fact that Lo Celso is much closer in style (and fitness!) to Lamela than Eriksen.

It was clear that Poch didn't have a clue how to either integrate them into his system or adapt the system to suit them. The horrendous experiments with diamonds demonstrated that. Jose also didn't have a clue what to do with them and tbh I don't think our performances dipped when he left them out of the team. Bottom line is Tanguy seems ill-suited to PL football while Lo Celso isn't filling any particular skill set in the squad that we didn't already have. Skipp's return will only make him more redundant.

Two peculiar, misjudged and ill-conceived signings.

 

Side note from the Ndombele/ Lo Celso chat, thought KWP looked good last night. Was dominant on his flank in the first half and barely allowed Son a moment's breathing space whilst he didn't allow Reguilon too many chances to run either. Second half Reguilon had a bit more joy but Son overall was still kept quiet. He's come on leaps and bounds after getting sufficient game time it seems, something many of us did initially think would be the case but it's somewhat disappointing that he isn't doing this for us. Two year long loans whilst we had Trippier and Aurier would've done wonders for him.

Would be great if there was a way we could get him back in the summer but it'd cost a lot, lot more than we initially sold him for.

 

Don't suppose they want a French international who started in a tournament final?

Nobody tell them that I just described Sissoko...

 

The NLD is a serious stain on the club but JM was absolutely at fault...just like he was with the West Ham second half, Palace and wolves away, Leicester, Chelsea and Liverpool at home etc etc...he made the players sit back.
His claims that it was all the players fault was utter rubbish.

So glad he's gone.

Yesterday was the first time I wanted to watch us play in bloody months. We did not play well but had 12 attempts ... we've been averaging between 9-10 attempts in the prem this season.