The Current State of Spurs (and some sympathy for Thomas Frank)

[veryoldspur]

I disagree with you slightly here. Palhinha isn’t really the type of player those who wanted a DM were advocating for. Pal is very much a pure destroyer, whereas many wanted a deep passer/controller hybrid or an energetic harrier/harasser with good on-the-ball abilities. So you’re thinking more a Wharton, Caicedo, Rice, Gomes — hell, even Xhaka — type, I'll even whisper a Bissouma with his head screwed on.

I’m not surprised that Palhinha creates as many problems as he solves due to his very specific skill set. To play someone like him in a progressive side, or at least one attempting to be this, you have to overcompensate with the on-the-ball abilities of whoever is near him. We haven’t done that, so we are suffering largely from his limitations. A really obvious statement to make, I know, but it’s the reason it didn’t work out for him at Bayern: they needed more than a pure destroyer, and thus it's why he got fewer and fewer minutes once his limitations became obvious.

I think in a backs-to-the-wall, consistently deep-blocked setup, paired with a rangy long passer and direct countering pace on the wings, he’d look fine and in his element. But as we’re clearly not that kind of side, it just doesn’t work.

Palhinha is only beneficial if he plays by the side of a Maddison type player, but unfortunately we will have to wait to next season to see it

 

[Mrs Vert]

If you mean relative to our standing they are great signings then I still kind don't agree. We've signed bigger names before, we've signed more talented players before, we've even signed players more on the cusp of greatness before. So again I can understand why you're so disappointed because you think they are better than they actually are.

I keep saying a different manager could in all likelyhood get us playing more attractive football, Ange just did that, so I have no disagreement there. What I disagree with is that we can play significantly better successful football.

For me I don't care who the manager is, Poch, Pep, Klopp (well maybe Klopp actually ), this side is average. It has no stand out talents. I think at its best with a Poch esque over performance it could be top 6 but again that's searching for the Messiah manager. It's far easier to just improve on the playing pool then it is finding the mythic manager who gets 100% out of every player.

And that wont happen, cos it would mean losing too much cash. So let's just sack manager, even with pay off. Still cheaper to just stick with the dross we got. And hope Tel, Oderbert and Rich and Solanke all turn into Son and Kane.

Even if 3 of them managed to score 11 and a few assists now would help. And only one who could look to get 11 is Rich (if he stays healthy)
Seriously hope the "new Lewis" know what they are doing. And if it all rests on Lange when Pat goes......then my hope has just dimmed that little bit more