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Ben Davies

High bar for Davies. If you can't keep Salah in your pocket you're not good enough.

Anyway Conte's no mug, he knows its a mismatch. I suspect what he'll do is focus on choking the passing channels into Salah, so he'll get the ball in less favourable positions and then we can get Davies help quickly.
 
High bar for Davies. If you can't keep Salah in your pocket you're not good enough.

Anyway Conte's no mug, he knows its a mismatch. I suspect what he'll do is focus on choking the passing channels into Salah, so he'll get the ball in less favourable positions and then we can get Davies help quickly.
Definitely not what I meant. I like Davies, but recognise that he's not quite up there with the best of 'em. Agreed about it being a team responsibility to keep Salah (and the rest of them) under control.
 
He only had a brief period at ajax
Just over a year, as it turns out, and even then he only signed when he was 20. I thought they'd signed him as a youth.

That explains a lot. In hindsight, spunking £42M on a young defender who'd had one season in a biggish league was madness.
 
Just over a year, as it turns out, and even then he only signed when he was 20. I thought they'd signed him as a youth.

That explains a lot. In hindsight, spunking £42M on a young defender who'd had one season in a biggish league was madness.
TBF he was very very good there and in Europe
I honestly don’t think we have made bad signings
I think the key has been that players haven’t reached the level expected for varying reasons
on Sunday we had 2 players starting that have joined in the last 4 years …. Two
 
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Thanks for that nugget :p.

He lacks pace, doesn't have a great leap to head a ball, his passing is bang average, his tackling is decent, his positional play is average, his work rate is brilliant.
Another weakness is his judgement in tricky defensive situations, especially when playing at CB. Too often he will allow a low cross in front of goal to go by rather than attempt to hook it away, for fear of risking an og. Seen us concede on more than one occasion as a result, when opponents burst through on his blind side to ram home the loose ball.
 
I always liked and rated Davies.
Held his own and seldom let us down, slotted in where ever we needed.
Often played out of position or not in his favoured system, didn't complain and just got on with it.

Same here, glad to see that there are others who feel that way.
 
Tanganga and Sanchez I think will do better with their better mobility and pace.

The problem with Sanchez is that despite all his pace he looks very uncomfortable on the ball and if you target him and close him down whenever he is on the ball he tends to become every unsure of himself and is prone to making mistakes. I guess that is why Jose chose to target him at Man Utd in the UEFA Cup final
 
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The problem with Sanchez is that despite all his pace he looks very uncomfortable on the ball and if you target him and close him down whenever he is on the ball he tends to become every unsure of himself and is prove to make mistakes. I guess that is why Jose chose to target him at Man Utd in the UEFA Cup final
His passing is horrendous for a pro player
 
TBF he was very very good there and in Europe
I honestly don’t think we have made bad signings
I think the key has been that players haven’t reached the level expected for varying reasons
on Sunday we had 2 players starting that have joined in the last 4 years …. Two

We haven't signed bad players, but we've failed at signing players that suit our system. In recent years perhaps in part due to several manager changes, instability, no clear vision that's allowed to settle.

Before that though. Pochettino frequently talked about being brave on the ball, we put that into great effect on the pitch, then signed players that were and are unsuited to that kind of style. Despite the importance of players like Vertonghen and Alderweireld being obvious.

Hopefully with Conte, a very clear plan for style of play and a DoF in Paratici that knows Conte and his style this will no longer be the case.
 
We haven't signed bad players, but we've failed at signing players that suit our system. In recent years perhaps in part due to several manager changes, instability, no clear vision that's allowed to settle.

Before that though. Pochettino frequently talked about being brave on the ball, we put that into great effect on the pitch, then signed players that were and are unsuited to that kind of style. Despite the importance of players like Vertonghen and Alderweireld being obvious.

Hopefully with Conte, a very clear plan for style of play and a DoF in Paratici that knows Conte and his style this will no longer be the case.

Pochettino failed when he deviated from his own style of play in my opinion. He never replaced the marauding full-backs adequately and the fearsome midfield duo of Wanyama and Dembele. I get that Dembele was an anomaly but we failed to address that. He froze out players when there wasn't really sufficient cover in walker, rose, Alderwierald.
 
At fault for one goal yesterday, but honestly at fault in the way I like to see. Being brave on the ball.

Other than that kept Salah as quiet as I've seen Salah in years. Not alone in that, couldn't possibly do that alone, but did his job very well. And down that side on general at looked more or less in control.

Another very good game for me, another showing of why he's so important for us right now.
 
He also sounded like a right c€&t in the BBC when asked about their penalty which was class
He is well brought into the new team
Fair play to him
 
For a full back or wing back, yes he's slow. For a wide centre back in a three he's fine. Would be better if he was faster, sure, but it's not a big problem.

Trouble is he's also not particularly tall or strong either.

I think he's a solid player, but I think his lack of physical attributes will always hold him back from being a level above that, in any position.

Certainly agree he's not our biggest problem at the moment though!
 
Another weakness is his judgement in tricky defensive situations, especially when playing at CB. Too often he will allow a low cross in front of goal to go by rather than attempt to hook it away, for fear of risking an og. Seen us concede on more than one occasion as a result, when opponents burst through on his blind side to ram home the loose ball.
Got to blame poch for the lack of succession planning. We had jan and toby who were great and it was much easier then to apprentice the young ones.
 
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