*** Tottenham Hotspur v Aston Villa ***

[Lemonade Money]

We need more quality depth. Injuries aside, we need to be able to rest Kane, rest Son, rest them both at the same time occasionally. Dier was rested yet the same issues occurred (unsurprisingly I might add), so we need another CB, we need better quality at WB. I felt we needed an extra but am starting to think Sarr can be that man. We will sell Skippy in the next 6 months IMO, and I personally would be looking to upgrade on Bissouma, as I don’t think he’s going to be good enough for us.

You want to sell our most dependable midfielder, HG, local lad, connection with the area and fans, exactly what you need a few of amongst the foreign imports? And place your trust in an unproven young lad who could be off (if he's any good) as soon as another club comes in, or more deadwood to shift? We definitely need to strengthen the squad, but as a quick fix, I would guarantee we would look better with Skipp in front of the defence, and Son starting on the bench. I'd probably bench PEH too, just think he's too unreliable going forward.
The reason I think none of this will happen, is if you bench senior players, you get senior voices against you in the squad. Conte needs to grow a pair, like ten Hag did at united, and Levy needs to support him.

 

[glasgowspur]

I very much doubt any manager - regardless one of Conte's calibre - would agree to such a deal. However, since I'm not a board member but just a simple fan, I tend to see things a bit differently.

There's no doubt in my mind that Conte is a top manager. He's been dealt a brick hand, not so much because of injuries but because of what happened at the World Cup, the loss of his fitness coach and the number of games played so far this season, as already mentioned in this thread.

My feeling is that when his plan works, you get a team that is stronger than the sum of its parts (to coin a phrase) because the system is more important than the individuals. Three years down the line, I believe he could have better results with a new striker who'd be vastly inferior to Kane, for instance. But three years is an awfully long time. It's actually the average lifespan of a football manager at a club. On the flip side, his system relies on a very stable first XI, which means results will suffer when many players get injured at the same time or when he needs to rest a lot of players. From what I've seen, it's very difficult to break into the side, because newcomers need to adapt to the system itself and need to know their closest partners like the back of their hands.

It took Perisic (who knew the system) some time to break into the side. Doherty is doing fairly well but mostly because Royal couldn't fit in and Bissouma, for instance, hasn't been anywhere near the player he was at Brighton, so far (all in my opinion, of course).

But from an observer's point of view... well, we're not very fun to watch, are we? As I watched the game yesterday, I couldn't help but think that, at least, under Mourinho, we had the Kane/Son partnership to look forward to. Until he lost the rest of the dressing room, we played with more flair under Mourinho than we've been so far this season. Now, it's just people passing the ball about with little conviction for 60 minutes, plus a couple of guys who look lost on the pitch.

Changing managers every time the weather turns foul is no way to build a successful club, that goes without saying. At the same time, you could argue that Conte did himself no favour by constantly threatening to leave last season and with his brand of football (although the latter is hardly a surprise). If I were Levy, I wouldn't pull the trigger; as a fan, I wouldn't mind if he left.

Interesting points, especially on perisic and kane.
I've felt perisic has been our best player in the past two games, is that because he knows the system so well? You can often see him berating others for not playing the proper pass and explaining where the pass or the run should have went. No point in doing all the drills if the players on the field don't follow them.
Also perisic is as old, if not older and went as far as anyone else in the WC (swop 3/4 play off for final) and yet looks fresher than many. Is some of that because he isn't expanding pointless energy not following the system?
Kane is a superior player to Richarlison in almost every respect, but is Richarlison a better fit to the system?

 

[Mulletperm]

Its the way he plays now, and he played exactly the same for England at the World Cup. He doesnt hare around the place for either club or country

What would help him a lot is if we had players who could run in behind the defence or beat players 1:1. We're so easy to defend against because we just play in front of an opposition so are easily contained.

In Conte's system a lot of that needs to come from the WBs. Ours are slow and ponderous

Doesn't need to 'hare around the place', but offer some movement and try and find space for the pass.

 

[glasgowspur]

It's not meaningless as it at least shows some form of intent to the fans and will, imv at least, buy you time with them - as stated he currently is on a short term contract so how can you judge him on the long term? There's nothing to suggest a new contract would be agreed at this stage so he's here for another season contractually assuming the extension gets taken up.

There's also little to suggest he won't stick around.
Few in football sign long term contracts, how long a deal did poch sign, five years? How long into that did he last?

 

[Lemonade Money]

Who cares about the length of contract? Means fudge all.

 

[glasgowspur]

Doesn't need to 'hare around the place', but offer some movement and try and find space for the pass.

If Conte is the ultimate in systems management that is be claimed Kane should know exactly where he should be, what runs he should be making and what passes he should be making.
As should the rest of them.
If one player is out of position the system falls apart.
Harry can see those runs and make those passes better than anyone else in our squad, it appears to me that many of iur players are not following the instructions and as the fulcrum of the moves it falls apart around harry, not because of him.
Son who is an instinctive player who sees a space and attacks is having a terrible time adjusting, compare son and kane under jose and under conte.
There are a lot of accounts of jose not drilling the attack and allowing them to freewheel it, they blossomed.
Conte is all about system and its falling apart.
Harry has the skillset to play in the system, others around him haven't.

 

[Bedfordspurs]

If Conte is the ultimate in systems management that is be claimed Kane should know exactly where he should be, what runs he should be making and what passes he should be making.
As should the rest of them.
If one player is out of position the system falls apart.
Harry can see those runs and make those passes better than anyone else in our squad, it appears to me that many of iur players are not following the instructions and as the fulcrum of the moves it falls apart around harry, not because of him.
Son who is an instinctive player who sees a space and attacks is having a terrible time adjusting, compare son and kane under jose and under conte.
There are a lot of accounts of jose not drilling the attack and allowing them to freewheel it, they blossomed.
Conte is all about system and its falling apart.
Harry has the skillset to play in the system, others around him haven't.

If Kane is the weakness we really have problems as he is the player flew ring world class numbers in this system

 

[Bedfordspurs]

doesn,t the buck stop with those who are running the show..All I am saying is that on the playing field they have improved us..
but have failed to get us to win a single trophy. Another throw of the dice of owner might backfire unless we get some super rich
company who are willing to spend. Anyway Money has ruined the game hasn,t it. Admitted contradiction there but the club needs so to get some bottle from somewhere..we are too nicey and need to go out with a diferent attitude especially in the games
that count when we have had a chance to go near the top and challenge..and then we blow it. How many times does it happen? its as if the pressure too much at being a top side.........

Someone needs to find that new owner then if it’s because of them
Issue of course is that owner needs deep pockets

 

[Bedfordspurs]

Thought our effort dropped towards the end. But it didn't seem like an issue against Brentford or against Villa up until the end to me at least.

Short on quality and decision making though. I strongly believe that Kulusevski and Bentancur would have made a real difference. But we're carrying Son out there. Bissouma is looking completely out of place. We can't have that and miss Kulusevski and Bentancur at the same time.

We’re carrying son currently
We’re carrying bissouma who just isn’t there yet for contes game
That’s a lot of dead weight right now
We’re also have times where we are covering hugo

 

[Bedfordspurs]

We need more quality depth. Injuries aside, we need to be able to rest Kane, rest Son, rest them both at the same time occasionally. Dier was rested yet the same issues occurred (unsurprisingly I might add), so we need another CB, we need better quality at WB. I felt we needed an extra but am starting to think Sarr can be that man. We will sell Skippy in the next 6 months IMO, and I personally would be looking to upgrade on Bissouma, as I don’t think he’s going to be good enough for us.

IMO we didn’t really have any issues with CB yesterday
Villa scored with their first shot on target in effect because Hugo spilled it like a novice
We do have back up for Kane and son…. But it’s one player and he is injured, again. That player at Everton always had spells on the sidelines too, injured
We lost Kulu and brought in Gil because kulus cover is injured …. And also actually brick. that is huge gaping issues in the squad that actually most teams have TBF, but you only see it when injury’s occur.

 

[braineclipse]

It was a similar first half performance to any game where the opponents sit back and rarely venture forward - sometimes in these types of games we have made the costly mistakes during this period and gone behind despite us having most the ball, the only difference yesterday was we didn't balls up until the second half.

May be coincidental, but thought we were more in control than we've been in some of those games in the past at least.

Also thought we got into decent positions at least with a decent frequency. Given Son's lack of form, the players missing. Didn't think it was too bad. But obviously a lot of room for improvement with chance creation.

 

[Mikey10]

To placate the fans.

A poor way to run a club if true.

 

[Bedfordspurs]

May be coincidental, but thought we were more in control than we've been in some of those games in the past at least.

Also thought we got into decent positions at least with a decent frequency. Given Son's lack of form, the players missing. Didn't think it was too bad. But obviously a lot of room for improvement with chance creation.

You are both spot on
Villa offered nothing as they were set up to defend
We had control but couldn’t create much against their bus
It then comes down to who makes the mistakes
Hugo did and we lose
Villa did to us what we do to a lot of teams. Frustrate and make you pass sideways
Our issue was we couldn’t change it up in anyway
And we still suffer form having too many players who are below par performance wise

 

[Baleforce]

Which again begs the question, why do those at the top appoint these type of managers if they don’t have plans to fully back them?

we always fully back our managers, what we don’t do is spend more than we can afford

not sure where this narrative comes from, the financials are made public every year, we are not hiding money anywhere

 

[Mikey10]

Who cares about the length of contract? Means fudge all.

I partially agree. We’ve seen manager after manager sacked or walk away at almost every club - so, in that way, a contract means little.

Signing it does indicate some kind of buy-in to a long-term plan though, and that’s where the importance perhaps lies with Conte’s situation.

 

[glasgowspur]

If Kane is the weakness we really have problems as he is the player flew ring world class numbers in this system

Not sure how you get that I'm saying kane is the weakness from my post.
What I'm trying to say is that the system fails around harry because others aren't doing their job, not because of him.

 

[Baleforce]

I partially agree. We’ve seen manager after manager sacked or walk away at almost every club - so, in that way, a contract means little.

Signing it does indicate some kind of buy-in to a long-term plan though, and that’s where the importance perhaps lies with Conte’s situation.

does it, surely the buy in shown in the conversations he has with Levy every day?

 

[Mikey10]

we always fully back our managers, what we don’t do is spend more than we can afford

not sure where this narrative comes from, the financials are made public every year, we are not hiding money anywhere

I suppose my point is that if we can’t afford to buy at the top end of the market then why employ managers who rely on that approach for success?

 

[glasgowspur]

IMO we didn’t really have any issues with CB yesterday
Villa scored with their first shot on target in effect because Hugo spilled it like a novice
We do have back up for Kane and son…. But it’s one player and he is injured, again. That player at Everton always had spells on the sidelines too, injured
We lost Kulu and brought in Gil because kulus cover is injured …. And also actually brick. that is huge gaping issues in the squad that actually most teams have TBF, but you only see it when injury’s occur.

Hugo fudged up big time no doubt, but the CBs barely even turned round to look at the ball when it went past them nevermind think of following in to clear if the keeper spills it.
Lackadaisical.

 

[Baleforce]

Not sure how you get that I'm saying kane is the weakness from my post.
What I'm trying to say is that the system fails around harry because others aren't doing their job, not because of him.

I’ve been critical of him in the past, he was a stroppy clam early last season and put in a lot of lazy performances, he was taking up three defenders most of the game yesterday, meaning we always had at least two players wide open, he wasn’t the issue yesterday.