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Tom Carroll

Carragher and Souness reckon he ran the game today.
Little Luka has finally come of age.
Who would expect him be the most creative player and the one who won it back the most on his 3rd start.

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Again, I struggle to see what he's doing wrong - he distributes possession well, retrieves the ball in threatening situations with surprising ease (he has this clever trick of nicking the ball off people's toes as Dier/Toby/Jan steam into them from behind that I really liked watching) and certainly doesn't look overawed playing alongside Dier at the heart of our defensive midfield. What is it that tinkles people off about him so much? The only mistake I can remember him making today was the awkward defensive header that led to Besic's volley that Lloris tipped over the bar late on, but even then, you can't feasibly claim that it's his job to be making clearances like that in the first place, given his size and stature.
 
DubaiSpur said:
Again, I struggle to see what he's doing wrong - he distributes possession well, retrieves the ball in threatening situations with surprising ease (he has this clever trick of nicking the ball off people's toes as Dier/Toby/Jan steam into them from behind that I really liked watching) and certainly doesn't look overawed playing alongside Dier at the heart of our defensive midfield. What is it that tinklees people off about him so much? The only mistake I can remember him making today was the awkward defensive header that led to Besic's volley that Lloris tipped over the bar late on, but even then, you can't feasibly claim that it's his job to be making clearances like that in the first place, given his size and stature.
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My only concern is he can be bullied out of the game, he was doing fine until Everton introduced Besic, after that I felt we lost control of the midfield.

But yes he does track back, recycle the ball well and is a very good passer with a good eye for the incisive pass rather than passing for passing's sake.
 
camspur said:
My only concern is he can be bullied out of the game, he was doing fine until Everton introduced Besic, after that I felt we lost control of the midfield.

But yes he does track back, recycle the ball well and is a very good passer with a good eye for the incisive pass rather than passing for passing's sake.
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Fair enough, but at that point you'd expect Dier and the more physical of the AMs (usually Alli, but also Son or Lamela if necessary) to come back and help him out. As it stands, he doesn't get bullied often enough to become a liability to our style of play, which is key - in fact, his passing probably helps us get out of tight spots in a similar manner to how Dembele's dribbling relieves pressure and gives us options.
 
His movement is very good - he's constantly drifting to find space between the opposition players. My main concern earlier with Carroll has been that he wasn't really that much involved in our play. He created space for others though.

In the first half today he did both, plus his passing was generally much better than in recent games. Faded with the rest of the team after an hour, but overall I think this was probably his best game for us in the PL.

I think many people are fooled by his size, and thinks he's to small - he'll never be a giant in the air or a midfield hardman, but he's got other qualities that are equally important to the team. Plus he's no pussy, he's not afraid of tackles at all, IMO. He'll be outmuscled of course, but I can live with that if he keeps the ball moving for us.
 
camspur said:
My only concern is he can be bullied out of the game, he was doing fine until Everton introduced Besic, after that I felt we lost control of the midfield.

But yes he does track back, recycle the ball well and is a very good passer with a good eye for the incisive pass rather than passing for passing's sake.
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Because they went 5 in midfield or 3 centrally

He did a great job considering how others faded
 
glasgowspur said:
Would play him further forward instead of eriksen just now.
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That really doesn't make much sense to me - his strength is his passing so is best utilised where he is with the full backs bombing past to be picked out and with the 4 attackers in front of him

To me Carroll is at best our 5th choice CM (after Dier, Bentaleb, Mason and Dembele) and possibly 6th if you include Alli. At the moment, Mason is in and out with injuries and Bentaleb has missed a large chunk of the season so Carroll is getting some game time with Dembele out. However I don't expect that to be the case next year and given he turns 24 at the end of this season, I don't see him having more than 18 months at Spurs. He'll want to be getting regular football at that stage
 
AdamB said:
To me Carroll is at best our 5th choice CM (after Dier, Bentaleb, Mason and Dembele) and possibly 6th if you include Alli. At the moment, Mason is in and out with injuries and Bentaleb has missed a large chunk of the season so Carroll is getting some game time with Dembele out. However I don't expect that to be the case next year and given he turns 24 at the end of this season, I don't see him having more than 18 months at Spurs. He'll want to be getting regular football at that stage
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Well, he only has six months left on his contract, so if he doesn't sign a new one I expect he'll be off soon - in which case, we won't see him beyond this summer anyway. But it's hard to argue that he's been a liability or anything but solid in his appearances so far.
 
billyiddo said:
More performances like today and he'll earn a new contract
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It's more complicated than that, I suspect. With him vying for a first team spot, we have Dier, Bentaleb, Dembele, Alli, Mason, Eriksen and Carroll as options for the three central midfield (two defensive mid, one CAM) spots. Add Onomah to that list as well, and something's got to give somewhere: that's nearly three players per position.

I suspect we'll see him leave regardless, just because of the number of competitors for his position and the similar replacements we have for a player like him vis a vis the lack of replacements for someone like Dier. But we might as well enjoy watching him play, and play well, while he's still around.
 
I think he's OK. Not as bad as Grimsby thinks, not as good as ModricTHFC thinks, just OK. Sometimes he hits some sweet passes and is metronomic with 1-2's through the midfield, all really nice... other times he seems over negative and will give it to Toby when not under any pressure, when I think he should turn and feed it forwards. He is slight, but gets around and makes tackles so he is not a wimp. He is not a 9 out of 10 but probably a 6 7 8 out of 10 kind of player, fine but not our best.
 
DubaiSpur said:
Again, I struggle to see what he's doing wrong - he distributes possession well, retrieves the ball in threatening situations with surprising ease (he has this clever trick of nicking the ball off people's toes as Dier/Toby/Jan steam into them from behind that I really liked watching) and certainly doesn't look overawed playing alongside Dier at the heart of our defensive midfield. What is it that tinklees people off about him so much? The only mistake I can remember him making today was the awkward defensive header that led to Besic's volley that Lloris tipped over the bar late on, but even then, you can't feasibly claim that it's his job to be making clearances like that in the first place, given his size and stature.
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I was checking twitter in the first half and he was getting abuse everytime he tried something and lost the ball.
The reason people can easier turn on him is that in some people's mind he doesnt have a vault of good feeling attached to him in their heads.
When Dier fudges up with a pass, they shakes it off and remember how good he's been this season.
Even someone we've signed who hasnt done much yet has a weird good feeling associated with them from the day when they signed and that person got that thrill of a new signing.
Carroll has never had any of this. We never watched Youtube videos of his goals when he arrived from the youth team.
Mason and Bentaleb suffered the exact same thing.

My only problem today with Carroll is when he plays with Dier they are both very deep. Neither makes those Mason/Alli late runs into the box.
 
Modric THFC said:
I was checking twitter in the first half and he was getting abuse everytime he tried something and lost the ball.
The reason people can easier turn on him is that in some people's mind he doesnt have a vault of good feeling attached to him in their heads.
When Dier fudges up with a pass, they shakes it off and remember how good he's been this season.
Even someone we've signed who hasnt done much yet has a weird good feeling associated with them from the day when they signed and that person got that thrill of a new signing.
Carroll has never had any of this. We never watched Youtube videos of his goals when he arrived from the youth team.
Mason and Bentaleb suffered the exact same thing.

My only problem today with Carroll is when he plays with Dier they are both very deep. Neither makes those Mason/Alli late runs into the box.
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You may be right, and it's hardly fair on the lad if that's the attitude people are adopting when watching him play: not his fault he isn't a super-sexy big-money signing or a youth prodigy (although, three or four years ago, there was serious discussion around the prospect of him eventually replacing Modric, if I recall correctly).
 
Excellent today. Did tire in the second half but so did the entire team. Though Poch should have subbed him for Bentaleb at that point but what do I know
 
Anyone pointing fingers at Carroll would better divert their direction towards Lamela and Eriksen, who were totally ineffective today.
 
Robbo said:
His movement is very good - he's constantly drifting to find space between the opposition players. My main concern earlier with Carroll has been that he wasn't really that much involved in our play. He created space for others though.

In the first half today he did both, plus his passing was generally much better than in recent games. Faded with the rest of the team after an hour, but overall I think this was probably his best game for us in the PL.

I think many people are fooled by his size, and thinks he's to small - he'll never be a giant in the air or a midfield hardman, but he's got other qualities that are equally important to the team. Plus he's no pussy, he's not afraid of tackles at all, IMO. He'll be outmuscled of course, but I can live with that if he keeps the ball moving for us.
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He jumps out of tackles - all he ever does is try and nick the ball rather than put a foot in. I think being a bit more agressive off the ball would make a huge difference for him and help get more fans on side. Today he could have slid in and wiped out barkley but chose to drag him back... Him and Erisken at times infuriate people with their lack of stength.

I think today was the performance poch wants from him and for 70mins he was impressive. His fitness towards the end was wanting.

Also how times have changed when carroll is the one who people seem to dislike and slate for not bein good enough rather than real brick like paulinho, vlad, soldado etc etc
 
DubaiSpur said:
It's more complicated than that, I suspect. With him vying for a first team spot, we have Dier, Bentaleb, Dembele, Alli, Mason, Eriksen and Carroll as options for the three central midfield (two defensive mid, one CAM) spots. Add Onomah to that list as well, and something's got to give somewhere: that's nearly three players per position.

I suspect we'll see him leave regardless, just because of the number of competitors for his position and the similar replacements we have for a player like him vis a vis the lack of replacements for someone like Dier. But we might as well enjoy watching him play, and play well, while he's still around.
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I think we'll stick with our current options for CM - Carroll Mason and Bentaleb all have pro's/con's and are more or less on the same level, we won't be looking to sign anyone to step in front of them nor will we sell one and look to add some filler to the squad to replace one.
 
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