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Juan Foyth

The kid is class. Still young, so errors are to be expected, but once he irons them out (which Poch will make sure he does), he'll be a top defender, be it a RB or CB.

I agree. You could argue that Corluka, Azpulicueta and Ivanovic are/were top right backs and Foyth would be similar in style to them. However given we dont play with wingers, I think we could do with pacier more dynamic full backs and therefore Foyth will more likely be a CB. Very decent prospect either way though and good to have some versatility in the squad
 
Personally, I prefer him as a right back. I don't think he (yet) has the strength or power to be a centre half in the PL.
After watching @Goatleaf's clip below I'd argue the opposite, because it seems pretty clear that one his greatest strengths is ... his strength! Strength and power - combined brilliantly with speed, skill and intelligence - that enables him to overpower and dispossess the opposition time and time again.

This clip will show why Poch wants to fit him in the team somewhere. Some of the above comparisons to Kevin Scott and Anthony Gardner above are a bit eyebrow raising. BTW, the music is awful so probably best watched with the sound off!


It's not strength and power that's his problem, merely inexperience and over-zealousness. As @milo suggests upthread, that can and will be ironed out with coaching, game-time and maturity.
 
After watching @Goatleaf's clip below I'd argue the opposite, because it seems pretty clear that one his greatest strengths is ... his strength! Strength and power - combined brilliantly with speed, skill and intelligence - that enables him to overpower and dispossess the opposition time and time again.



It's not strength and power that's his problem, merely inexperience and over-zealousness. As @milo suggests upthread, that can and will be ironed out with coaching, game-time and maturity.

I think he will do fine as a defensive right back, looks fine in 1 on 1 situations, and will add a bonus from set pieces also being 6ft +. I'd like to see what he can offer going forward as its previously been such a big part of Poch's plan (full backs getting forward).
 
This clip will show why Poch wants to fit him in the team somewhere. Some of the above comparisons to Kevin Scott and Anthony Gardner above are a bit eyebrow raising. BTW, the music is awful so probably best watched with the sound off!

Brilliance from the lad.

Reminds me of Jan Vertonghen but right sided.

Needs to learn when not to...

He can beef up 20% in the gym, but Sanchez won’t get 20% more skilful.

We need to be buying more of these South American gems, with Poch’s network
 
Brilliance from the lad.

Reminds me of Jan Vertonghen but right sided.

Needs to learn when not to...

He can beef up 20% in the gym, but Sanchez won’t get 20% more skilful.

We need to be buying more of these South American gems, with Poch’s network
I still think it's a big if. We all know that, no matter how much experience he got, Walker was still prone to the occasional brainfart. CBs need to be rock solid, first and foremost. While I think Foyth has the skill to do it, I have to question his temperament.

He has shown so much potential and I think deserves to be in the squad. If he gets his experience at RB, where brainfarts aren't as critical, great. Or even in a back 3 with Sanchez and Verts to cover for him. But I worry about him in at CB in a back 4 against better opposition.
 
I still think it's a big if. We all know that, no matter how much experience he got, Walker was still prone to the occasional brainfart. CBs need to be rock solid, first and foremost. While I think Foyth has the skill to do it, I have to question his temperament.

He has shown so much potential and I think deserves to be in the squad. If he gets his experience at RB, where brainfarts aren't as critical, great. Or even in a back 3 with Sanchez and Verts to cover for him. But I worry about him in at CB in a back 4 against better opposition.
Yes, but Walker's brainfarts decreased markedly from season to season, especially under Poch. Unless Foyth is mentally incapable of growing his football brain (something which, admittedly, we cannot know), he's likely to follow a similar trajectory in which his mistakes become fewer and less costly.
 
Yes, but Walker's brainfarts decreased markedly from season to season, especially under Poch. Unless Foyth is mentally incapable of growing his football brain (something which, admittedly, we cannot know), he's likely to follow a similar trajectory in which his mistakes become fewer and less costly.
Don't get me wrong -- that's exactly what I hope happens. The lad has skill and confidence by the bucketload and looks like a leader as well. I'm just saying that it's by no means a given.

But I guess he's the epitome of our motto.
 
Can he cross?

Can he run quicker than Trippier?

Does he make less reckless slide tackles than Aurier?

Is D Alves up for a season in London to boost his medal tally?

If three of those questions are answered yes, he'll do fine.
 
Can he cross?

Can he run quicker than Trippier?

Does he make less reckless slide tackles than Aurier?

Is D Alves up for a season in London to boost his medal tally?

If three of those questions are answered yes, he'll do fine.

Can he cross - not that I've seen, although he hasn't had many opportunities to do so.

Can he run quicker than Trippier - not that I've seen. Fast for a centre-back, but would be slow for a full-back.

Does he make less reckless slide tackles than Aurier - he did get sent off against Bournemouth within five minutes of coming on.

Is D Alves up for a season in London - probably, but his legs are gone and he'd be deadweight. If we thought Trippier got caught on the break, Alves would be massacred at 36.

His future is in the middle, I think.
 
Can he cross - not that I've seen, although he hasn't had many opportunities to do so.
We haven't really seen him getting down to the byeline or attempting crosses as yet. He seems to prefer coming inside (don't we all :D) or distributing from deep. But what we do know is can take on and beat his opponent with panache, also he has a wicked long diagonal ball from deep in his locker.

Just needs to guard against overdoing it. Can get a rush of blood once he starts getting into difficulty.
 
I think he will do fine as a defensive right back, looks fine in 1 on 1 situations, and will add a bonus from set pieces also being 6ft +. I'd like to see what he can offer going forward as its previously been such a big part of Poch's plan (full backs getting forward).

We don't need defensive fullbacks, we need fullbacks who can be an outlet from defence and make up the numbers in attack.

Despite not being the fastest, I think that Foyth can do this. He is an very good dribbler, has excellent close control and is a decent passer. Playing him at fullback gives him the chance to hone those skills in parts of the pitch where errors are normally less costly.
 
We don't need defensive fullbacks, we need fullbacks who can be an outlet from defence and make up the numbers in attack.

Despite not being the fastest, I think that Foyth can do this. He is an very good dribbler, has excellent close control and is a decent passer. Playing him at fullback gives him the chance to hone those skills in parts of the pitch where errors are normally less costly.

I agree. However that works best when Dier plays. If we were to line up in games with no natural CDM, it wouldn't surprise me to see Poch play a more conservative RB.
 
I agree. However that works best when Dier plays. If we were to line up in games with no natural CDM, it wouldn't surprise me to see Poch play a more conservative RB.

I don't think that is the case. I cannot think of a Poch side where he hasn't wanted the fullbacks to provide our width, I don't see that changing this season. Maybe we will switch to three in midfield this season but our formation is so fluid that, that I still think we will commit similar numbers forward when in possession.
 
I think he's my preffered RB.

Are any of them good enough though? If Trippier was the main man and Poch sees them all in training. Maybe the other 3 needed to mature. Now one has to step up amd take the place (or two of them with rotation).
 
We don't need defensive fullbacks, we need fullbacks who can be an outlet from defence and make up the numbers in attack.

Despite not being the fastest, I think that Foyth can do this. He is an very good dribbler, has excellent close control and is a decent passer. Playing him at fullback gives him the chance to hone those skills in parts of the pitch where errors are normally less costly.
Kieran Trippier wants a word...:)
 
https://www.football365.com/news/right-back-foyth-is-stubborn-pochettinos-latest-project

Right-back Foyth is stubborn Pochettino’s latest project…


Date published: Wednesday 17th July 2019 12:09

Juan-Foyth.jpg

What a spectacle Tottenham’s full-backs once were. 2015/2017 would have been the vintage, when Kyle Walker and Danny Rose used to power up and down the outside rails. Together, they were the emblem of Mauricio Pochettino’s Spurs: gifted and incendiary, the battery supply behind wave after wave of power.

With less than three weeks until the new season begins, the current situation is rather more vague. Walker is long gone, Danny Rose is finally expected to depart and, within the coming hours, Kieran Trippier will complete his move to Atletico Madrid.

Which leaves Pochettino with what, exactly?

Most likely, having to find creative solutions. Before much longer, Fulham’s Ryan Sessegnon’s is expected to move up and across London and, if so, he’ll understudy a range of positions down the left side. The right is more troubling though. Serge Aurier is a pejorative caricature of a modern full-back, while Kyle Walker-Peters is neat but unconvincing. It’s a long way from being an embarrassment of riches.

But perhaps the question at the heart of this issue is wrong? Spurs have spent the last few years chasing the memory of that Walker/Rose axis, but their need to do so was instructed by broader dependencies. When Pochettino first arrived, the full-backs became important almost by default. Without any truly vertical players in midfield and an absence of natural wingers in the squad, all of Tottenham’s width had to come from deep.

Walker and Rose were tent pegs; they provided gear changes and exhilarating surges, but their main function was to create space for the side’s internal dynamics – they opened passing angles for Christian Eriksen, space for Dele Alli’s mischief, and an avenue out of defence for the centre-halves and goalkeeper.

Those imperatives are becoming outdated, because Tottenham are evolving. Particularly in midfield, where the strengths and weaknesses are changing. At the time of writing, Christian Eriksen is still likely to leave and, of course, Tanguy Ndombele has already been signed. On the basis that the club covet Real Betis’s Giovani Lo Celso – a player who can carry and drive the ball, as well as using it to scheme – the objective is evidently to create a more thrusting department, capable of much more dynamic football.

Which would be no bad thing, because that midfield has become too much of a possessional merry-go-round. It needs to take more risks, it needs fresh ideas and, when camped in an opponent’s half, it does have to do more than push the ball around the penalty box’s perimeter. It’s been a very gifted department, but it’s grown increasingly passive and, reassuringly, the club are moving to change that.

The ripple effect might be to facilitate another Pochettino experiment. Behind the successful 2015/16 season lay his decision to convert Eric Dier into a holding midfielder and, while not quite as dramatic, it wouldn’t be a surprise to see the club pass on the opportunity to invest on the right side of defence and, instead, install Juan Foyth in that role permanently.

It would hardly be a revolution. Foyth has played as a full-back for Argentina and has occupied the role for the club before. Unfortunately, he remains associated with the fresh-in-the-mind hilarity of his cameo at Bournemouth, but behind that comedy lies a technically impressive player. One with defensive naiveties and a rash disposition, certainly, but also the base skills to be more than credible in the position.

Foyth was bought as a centre-back. He has the height for the role, but he remains too slender to be trusted. The Niall Quinns and Les Ferdinands of the division may have all died out, but in the middle of defence Foyth looks like a boy in a man’s world. He appears vulnerable and overly eager to exert himself and, tenuously, that might even be the cause of his more impulsive moments. He’s too eager to exert himself and too aware of his fragility; it’s like an over-compensation.

But push him outside and those issues recede. He is not an archetypal full-back in the Olympic sprinter sense, but his close control, willingness to receive and pass the ball under pressure, and core footballing ability make him viable. Perhaps not more so than a brand new, £50m off-the-peg signing – a Youcef Atal-type, perhaps – but Tottenham probably cannot afford to address all of their issues in a single summer.

So with that comes this opportunity to experiment. Or the necessity of doing so. Pochettino is a staunch defender of Foyth, he was particularly bullish following that two-penalty night at Molineux, and he won’t be cowed by any clamour to replace Trippier. In fact, he’ll likely enjoy the contrarian act of not doing so, playing as it would to his reputation as a carver of components. He’ll no doubt be pleased at the ambition Daniel Levy has shown this summer, but his identity – his brand even – is entwined with water-into-wine ideals and doing a lot with a little.

Repacking Foyth would scratch that itch. It would draw scepticism, as Dier’s conversion did, but Pochettino wouldn’t care in the slightest. He likes having to be creative. He wants to be known as an anti-Guardiola/Mourinho type, as someone who doesn’t just solve problems with heavy spending. Moreoever, when he thinks he’s right about a player, it usually manifests in a stubborn determination to prove his point.

Which isn’t to present this as some egregious risk. Many of the arguments against Foyth would centre on that old, out-dated perception of what Spurs need from their full-backs. Yes, the basic principles of the role remain the same, and the team still requires width, crossing supply and precise positioning, but the ratios are different. If the demand is for a more technical player and less of an athlete, a slower-pulsed type who compensates for that changing tactical emphasis, then Foyth might just be pliable enough to warrant another leap of faith.

Seb Stafford-Bloor
 
Good article that. Not having the full back busting forward at every opportunity (and often also when there really wasn't an opportunity to go forward), might help us getting a defence that is better at.....ehhhh.... defending!
 
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