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OMT - Tottenham Hotspur v. Everton - Sunday, February 9th - 13:30

indianspur said:
he is not quite up to doing that yet. He goes missing, is very hit and miss. Ajax fans and pundits criticized him for not dominating games in Holland, so to expect it in the PL is a bit hopeful imo.
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Well he did it away at Southampton and at home to West Brom.
I dont wanna see him play how he did at Ajax. At Ajax he played on the left side of midfield 3 with responsibly to get into the final third and make things happen.
I want him to sit deep and spray the ball around ala Carrick and Modric.
 
Modric THFC said:
Well he did it away at Southampton and at home to West Brom.
I dont wanna see him play how he did at Ajax. At Ajax he played on the left side of midfield 3 with responsibly to get into the final third and make things happen.
I want him to sit deep and spray the ball around ala Carrick and Modric.
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He looks a lot worse defensively than both of them and also considerably worse defensively than Bentaleb.

He might become that player one day, but I really can't see him being ready for that role at this point.
 
braineclipse said:
He looks a lot worse defensively than both of them and also considerably worse defensively than Bentaleb.

He might become that player one day, but I really can't see him being ready for that role at this point.
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Isn't "looks" a lot of this about perception like when Madrid signed Graveson as a dm (even though he clearly wasnt) because he looked hard".

When Eriksen played in the middle with Dembele against Southampton for 50 minutes Eriksen made 5 sucessful tackles and one interception while Dembele made 1 tackle and no interceptions. If we're gonna play 3 in the middle surely there's a role for a player with his passing ability.
 
Modric THFC said:
Isn't "looks" a lot of this about perception like when Madrid signed Graveson as a dm (even though he clearly wasnt) because he looked hard".

When Eriksen played in the middle with Dembele against Southampton for 50 minutes Eriksen made 5 sucessful tackles and one interception while Dembele made 1 tackle and no interceptions. If we're gonna play 3 in the middle surely there's a role for a player with his passing ability.
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Used that word to indicate that this is how I see things and that I can't know for sure.

I don't think stats like that from a single game tells us much. He gets bullied by players of even moderate strength and playing from the left he's looked far from impressive defensively.

I would think that if he plays as one of the central 3 in a 4-3-3 or 4-2-3-1 type formation he would fill the most attacking role of that trio, not a deeper Carrick-like role.

Although he's obviously a very talented footballer and long term could play many roles so far he's been at his best whenever he's been on the ball in the final third. One of his biggest assets so far has been how well he strikes the ball with both feet, either for shots or for crosses into the box along with the ability of skipping past a player. I feel that playing him deeper would severely limit how much he would get on the ball in the final third and thus make him less effective for us at this point in time.
 
Modric THFC said:
Well he did it away at Southampton and at home to West Brom.
I dont wanna see him play how he did at Ajax. At Ajax he played on the left side of midfield 3 with responsibly to get into the final third and make things happen.
I want him to sit deep and spray the ball around ala Carrick and Modric.
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have you actually seen eriksen play? he has two great feet, can score from any angle, run with the ball with pace and score from close range - to have him sit deep is a waste off a player. thats like asking rivaldo or vdv to never cross the half way line. terrible suggestion

i do agree with the fact we need somebody in transition but thats more the managers style of play than the player. you would love FDB at spurs, hes shares the same philosophy as Pep to have a Busquetts, Schweiny, xavi type dictator but also insists on multiple players in attack all supporting each other so a player never has to resort to long balls or hopeful passes.

think liverpools 4123 against arsenal yesterday. thats the FDB style
 
Liverpool yesterday reminded me a bit of Bayern with the way Gerrard sat as a QB between Toure and Skrtel. There are differences in the way the two play, but the 343/3331/361 formation they play when in possession is similar
 
Just back in from the match.

Wow, how did we get away with it? I suppose plenty of times in the past its been the other way around, so its about time we got one go our way.
Well taken goal from Ade, credit to Walker for the quick-thinking.
I look at that league table and cant help smiling when you think how ourselves and Liverpool have played this season, and we are still only 3pts (4 with GD) behind them.

2 big away games coming up next. Could do with picking up 4pts min from them to stay in the hunt
 
paxtonwolf said:
Just back in from the match.

Wow, how did we get away with it? I suppose plenty of times in the past its been the other way around, so its about time we got one go our way.
Well taken goal from Ade, credit to Walker for the quick-thinking.
I look at that league table and cant help smiling when you think how ourselves and Liverpool have played this season, and we are still only 3pts (4 with GD) behind them.

2 big away games coming up next. Could do with picking up 4pts min from them to stay in the hunt
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We are a different side away from home, unless we are playing a top quality side. 6 points.
 
One thing with Dembele today…his strength and ability to hold his own in a physical game was immense and vital today (in Sandro's absence), but his non-ability to get the ball forward quickly once won, or to find a quality out-ball, was crippling us. I've read a lot of complaints about Lennon, for christ's sake, the geezer got hardly any service! For me, when fit, Sandro walks in, takes his shirt and plays alongside Bentaleb, who again looked very crisp and tidy overall to me.
 
thfcsteff said:
One thing with Dembele today…his strength and ability to hold his own in a physical game was immense and vital today (in Sandro's absence), but his non-ability to get the ball forward quickly once won, or to find a quality out-ball, was crippling us. I've read a lot of complaints about Lennon, for christ's sake, the geezer got hardly any service! For me, when fit, Sandro walks in, takes his shirt and plays alongside Bentaleb, who again looked very crisp and tidy overall to me.
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I think I agree with you.

Perhaps a tad harsh on Dembele who brings so much to our team when on form and who seems full of effort and is a wonderful combination of skill, power and discipline.

In tougher games I would like to see a midfield 3 with Dembele, Sandro and Bentaleb. But against most teams a Sandro - Bentaleb combo looks very good on paper at least.

That being said I'm a firm believer in not relying on very young players too much. Bentaleb wasn't poor today, but also wasn't as good as he's been in some previous games. Wouldn't be as utterly opposed to placing him on the bench as I was a couple of weeks ago.
 
braineclipse said:
I think I agree with you.

Perhaps a tad harsh on Dembele who brings so much to our team when on form and who seems full of effort and is a wonderful combination of skill, power and discipline.

In tougher games I would like to see a midfield 3 with Dembele, Sandro and Bentaleb. But against most teams a Sandro - Bentaleb combo looks very good on paper at least.

That being said I'm a firm believer in not relying on very young players too much. Bentaleb wasn't poor today, but also wasn't as good as he's been in some previous games. Wouldn't be as utterly opposed to placing him on the bench as I was a couple of weeks ago.
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Overall I think he is learning exceptionally quickly from games such as this, Gooners in the cup and so on…what I like about him is that he looks for a quick, smart pass and rarely loses the ball. Late in the game today he let one drift by, but other than that he really managed to hold his own. At one point midway through the first half, he looked like the only solid sitting midfielder we had, an immense role for him to perform so well given his relative inexperience. For me I'd take the gamble and leave him in the first 11 for the rest of the season unless he starts having 'mares. I say this 'possibly' because I am starting to lose deep hope that we will finish top 4, and thus would like to 'bed' Bentaleb in for next season. I know it's only a 3 point gap, but in fairness, for us to sneak 4th we are going to have to hope someone above us ****s up monsterously just like we did in 2012, because all 4 sides there now are clearly better at this point in time.
 
good shout regarding Walker's quick thinking....

he gets panned for his brainfarts so should be heaped with praise for his einstein moment!
 
thfcsteff said:
Overall I think he is learning exceptionally quickly from games such as this, Gooners in the cup and so on…what I like about him is that he looks for a quick, smart pass and rarely loses the ball. Late in the game today he let one drift by, but other than that he really managed to hold his own. At one point midway through the first half, he looked like the only solid sitting midfielder we had, an immense role for him to perform so well given his relative inexperience. For me I'd take the gamble and leave him in the first 11 for the rest of the season unless he starts having 'mares. I say this 'possibly' because I am starting to lose deep hope that we will finish top 4, and thus would like to 'bed' Bentaleb in for next season. I know it's only a 3 point gap, but in fairness, for us to sneak 4th we are going to have to hope someone above us ****s up monsterously just like we did in 2012, because all 4 sides there now are clearly better at this point in time.
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I agree with you fully on his skills, learning curve and potential ability. If I ever was part of any "forum phalanx" as one is often accused of being it would have to be the "pro Bentaleb phalanx"!

The idea of not relying too much on a youngster isn't just for the benefit of the team though, it's also to help young developing players out. I'm not sure if putting that kind of pressure and asking them to perform week in week out is great for development. He seems to be doing well so far though so I wouldn't drop him or anything.

If Bentaleb can keep learning and improving and keep doing the things he does so well consistently well he could play a big part in our season as we chase that 4th spot you will surely soon be back to being optimistic about ;)
 
Pirate55 said:
Not much better, but still better. He was playing out on the left. Minimised Colemans second hat threat, and on one occasion cut inside, made room for a shot, got it away although it was blocked. Bearing in mind it was his first game back after injury, he at least caused them some problems.

The main issue today IMO was a lack of support for Ade. No one got close to him to help out. Lennon, Eriksen, Pauli and Dembele were all culpable of this, especially in the first half.
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Lennon wasn't great today, didn't show for the ball enough and was uncharacteristically lax in his defensive work too, but Townsend really disappointed me with his lack of effort out of possession. He barely tracked back at all and had me shouting at my telly to get back on more than one occasion. Strangely this didn't seem to work though as he continued to do it for the remainder of the game.
 
Was pleased to see Sherwood start with the one striker and go 4-3-3, with the idea to press Everton deep in their own half . Ade up top with both Lennon and Eriksen in support was how I saw it too.

However, we seemed to fall deeper and deeper into our own half and we quickly went into a shell by going to a 4-1-4-1 formation . Both Eriksen and Lennon were poor again on the flanks just as they were last week at Hull and just didn't support Adebayor at all. Dembele and Paulihno were the two most advanced central midfielders with Bentelab asked to hold back. The two World Cup bound midfielders, like the flankers, also showed little support to the lone striker Adebayor. There wasn't much positive from four of our five most advanced players. Invariably, Adebayor was outnumbered by his Everton markers and with his ball control not at it's best today, possession was often lost with him . But he didn't stop running and kept at it , his persistence rewarded with a quality goal .

Was a disappointing performance in terms of cohesion and we're at the moment having to rely on a slice of luck and individual brilliance.

At the moment its all about the result so right now, I'm a happy Spurs fan.

I'd take another grubby 1-0 at Saudi Sportswashing Machine thank you .
 
Wait wait....i'm watching the first half on sky now and you're telling me that those half chances from Osman were the ones that people claimed he 'should have scored a hat trick'? such drama queens:ross:
 
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