Bishop
Ian Walker
At least Tel will probably get some shots off and despite he wayward shooting, he might find his range. Solanke doesn't really get shots off and he's quite poor at separating from a close defender.
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**** OMT Tottenham Hotspur Vs Coventry City ****
- Thread starter Yiddo
- Start date
If you were to do a mini review of the players to date, the stand outs in terms of output have been Gallagher and from one start Madders, albeit he did actually make us look better when he came off the bench as well.
Beyond that Bentancur was class until he lost his head, and VDV has been solid if unspectacular. After that I'm struggling to think of someone who has been good for more than one game. Indeed some have been pretty consistently poor - Fernandez and Robertson have been really average and Kinsky and Solanke have been below par also. Last night we won ugly, which is really important.
We now need the fabled 8 games to get it right and then batter everyone motif. If that trend repeats - it did at Brighton and Marseille - then we have serious quality across the team, creativity, and power, and hopefully with Porro and Udogie back, Kinsky working hard and Dom getting more minutes and confidence in him, we can sort out some of the weaker areas of the team.
Beyond that Bentancur was class until he lost his head, and VDV has been solid if unspectacular. After that I'm struggling to think of someone who has been good for more than one game. Indeed some have been pretty consistently poor - Fernandez and Robertson have been really average and Kinsky and Solanke have been below par also. Last night we won ugly, which is really important.
We now need the fabled 8 games to get it right and then batter everyone motif. If that trend repeats - it did at Brighton and Marseille - then we have serious quality across the team, creativity, and power, and hopefully with Porro and Udogie back, Kinsky working hard and Dom getting more minutes and confidence in him, we can sort out some of the weaker areas of the team.
elyid
Chris Armstrong
Yeah I’ve been hoping he’d get 20 mins or so as a sub. If his instruction is just to make runs and shoot if possible it could be interesting.
He’s not that great at beating his man, but seems to be very good at gaining a yard to cross or shoot.
Didn’t he play up front for France u21s?
I think Tonali has been good for the most part personally...
Bishop
Ian Walker
Hes certainly been better than Gallagher over the course of all the games we've played.
Baleforce
Graham Roberts
I’d say the opposite myself tbh.
Bishop
Ian Walker
VDV doesn't have much passing range. His passing technique looks good and clean but in terms of passing through lines or even into a players running step, it's just not something he's capable of maybe like you suspect he doesn't believe himself capable to the same end result; very vanilla passing options from VDV.
Looking at yesterday’s match, it was clear the team had less control over the game; things were a bit more chaotic.
Roberto’s tactical change really disrupted the side. Why put Gray in midfield instead of Fernandes? Someone needs to explain to me why Fernandes isn’t a starter. Was Bergvall injured?
As for Robertson, I think you’re being too harsh. Whenever he receives the ball with the right timing, it ends in a cross—he wasn’t actually that bad.
Solanke played like Solanke; I get the feeling he just doesn’t have a natural instinct for where the ball is going to land.
Marmoush was invisible on the left wing—he kept drifting deep into the center of the attack. That said, he did score a superb goal. If he keeps doing that every match, I’m perfectly fine with it.
Gray felt a bit lightweight in midfield, despite making plenty of runs in behind. Damn it, his teammates just aren’t seeing him!
Tonali put in a very solid performance; he’s an unsung hero who really provides security for the team.
Maddison—what a strike into the top corner! Great to see.
The defense is worrying. Jan Paul is slow—painfully slow. He has a great passing range, but at the back, it’s a real liability. I could see him playing as a holding midfielder in front of the back line, though I wonder if he has the stamina for it. His passing would be even more valuable from that position, and if he commits a foul, at least it would be 50 meters away from our goal.
Personally, I’ve found Kudus to be just average since he joined us. Sure, he holds onto the ball, but 80% of the time he kills the momentum by failing to push forward. Every time there’s an opportunity to play a pass and launch a counterattack, he gets caught up in pointless dribbling instead of moving the ball on. He also plays with his back to the goal too often, with his head down, tunnel-visioned. Personally, I’m waiting for Kulusevski to get into better form so he can take that spot.
Despite all these negatives and a performance that wasn’t as polished as the previous ones, I’m happy with the 3 points.
I hope the upcoming matches—which are well within our reach—will bring us satisfaction and joy...
Damn, we deserve it.
Roberto’s tactical change really disrupted the side. Why put Gray in midfield instead of Fernandes? Someone needs to explain to me why Fernandes isn’t a starter. Was Bergvall injured?
As for Robertson, I think you’re being too harsh. Whenever he receives the ball with the right timing, it ends in a cross—he wasn’t actually that bad.
Solanke played like Solanke; I get the feeling he just doesn’t have a natural instinct for where the ball is going to land.
Marmoush was invisible on the left wing—he kept drifting deep into the center of the attack. That said, he did score a superb goal. If he keeps doing that every match, I’m perfectly fine with it.
Gray felt a bit lightweight in midfield, despite making plenty of runs in behind. Damn it, his teammates just aren’t seeing him!
Tonali put in a very solid performance; he’s an unsung hero who really provides security for the team.
Maddison—what a strike into the top corner! Great to see.
The defense is worrying. Jan Paul is slow—painfully slow. He has a great passing range, but at the back, it’s a real liability. I could see him playing as a holding midfielder in front of the back line, though I wonder if he has the stamina for it. His passing would be even more valuable from that position, and if he commits a foul, at least it would be 50 meters away from our goal.
Personally, I’ve found Kudus to be just average since he joined us. Sure, he holds onto the ball, but 80% of the time he kills the momentum by failing to push forward. Every time there’s an opportunity to play a pass and launch a counterattack, he gets caught up in pointless dribbling instead of moving the ball on. He also plays with his back to the goal too often, with his head down, tunnel-visioned. Personally, I’m waiting for Kulusevski to get into better form so he can take that spot.
Despite all these negatives and a performance that wasn’t as polished as the previous ones, I’m happy with the 3 points.
I hope the upcoming matches—which are well within our reach—will bring us satisfaction and joy...
Damn, we deserve it.
Robspur12
Paul Robinson
He was poor in the games before the international break imho but been decent in the games since. Clearly it was a fitness issue.
revlis
Nick Barmby
Agree about Kudus, so far he's been a quicker Lamela without the nasty side. Nice to watch but it doesn't really result in much. Robertson is what he is, he won't do things for us that he couldn't do for Liverpool and I think he's more a replacement for Davies (ironically) than the LB solution. I think he did ok.
Marmoush is like Simons for me, I'm not sure what role he's supposed to fill or what his best position is, but there's a player in there. Tonali is the real deal, a better and more mobile Højbjerg it seems. Every team needs a type like that. Solanke has been discussed, he's the closest to a natural striker we have, he moves inside and drags defenders, but at the moment he couldn't hit the net even if he shoots from within the goal. But I for one would trust him to be in or around the right spot more than say, Richarlison. It remains to be seen whether he can find his mojo or never really had it.
Muttley
Vedran Corluka
Great observation about Cov vs MNU midfields. I hadn't thought about it that way.
The podcasters made a good point about Tonali getting a different partner to play with every week as well.
Clarky
Michael Brown
Except Gallagher over the last few weeks has been one of our most dangerous 'attackers'
Exactly
Thanks for the explication
He has 35 goal involvements in 90 appearances. For a pretty poor West Ham and a very poor version of us I would say he's not done badly based on that.
Kandi1977
Ralph Coates
Did he give birth to the kid himself? Softies!
In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king.
That’s why he’s being made out to be better than he actually is.
Seriously, how many balls did he lose on Monday instead of making a pass?
The worst part is that some people would even see him playing as a number 10.
In my view, if Kulu and Odobert were fit, Kudus wouldn’t even be a starter in right
Very good players flourish regardless in poorer teams. He had a decent debut season in the Premier league 23/24 like many overseas players do and then once opposition know you better it's more difficult.
And as such 5 goals and 3 assists in 32 league games followed that second season for West Ham. And his stats for us are underwhelming too:
Hopefully he improves of course and getting back into things after injury but he hasn't produced much so far and constantly holds onto the ball for too long rather than releasing a player in a better position which could be forgiven if had better end product....