Steven Caulker

[90291Spur]

Caulker will never make it, just isn't good enough. He's regularly caught on the back foot ball watching and out of position, he has weak left foot and always passes sideways or into touch. Looks nervous and out of his depth. Not good enough for a top 4 team. Watching him makes me nervous. And he's not young any more, by now he should have progressed, he hasn't.

Yeah, the lad is 20/21. Over the hill. And it's well known that defenders are best when they are young, which Caulker isn't according to you.

 

[GLENROYID]

Absolutely pathetic to write off Caulker when hes only 21 and hasnt done much wrong at all.

 

[RunTMC]

I did watch a few times at Swansea last season and he looked the same, nervous and lacking in confidence. He made forward runs but they always ended in a weak pass sideways or a short pass forward, no vision, no defence splitting passes, just running into empty areas and releasing the ball. Ashley Williams was continuously covering for his poor positional sense and ball watching. I'm still seeing the same, no real progress.
I really would be happy if he matured into something better but I honestly don't see it in him.

You'd be hard pressed to find a CB in world football with these skills. And TBH even if they did they are rarely far enough up the field to do it.

I like Caulker. I think he has a bright future. I especially like the fact that he's comfortable with the ball at his feet. He'll get better with experience. More confident and less ball watching

 

[Mumorn]

I've seen some real impressive passes from Caulker. Can't remember who it was against but one of them was a 40 yard pass with the outside of his boot that found Defoe perfectly.

 

[Rorschach]

Caulker is going to be a fantastic defender and I hope he fulfils his footballing ambitions at Spurs. In saying that I do understand some of the concerns posted in this thread. The main area he needs to improve on IMO is his reading of the game. His anticipation is not brilliant and at the moment he seems to be just reacting to events. This is something that only comes with experience, and some good coaching, and so I just see the boy improving every season from now on. He has the rest of the tools.

I predict in about 3-4 years he'll be an England regular.

Slightly OT but the best young defender I have seen in years is Varane (at RM). He's going to be amazing.

 

[punk_is_back`]

Caulker is going to be a fantastic defender and I hope he fulfils his footballing ambitions at Spurs. In saying that I do understand some of the concerns posted in this thread. The main area he needs to improve on IMO is his reading of the game. His anticipation is not brilliant and at the moment he seems to be just reacting to events. This is something that only comes with experience, and some good coaching, and so I just see the boy improving every season from now on. He has the rest of the tools.

I predict in about 3-4 years he'll be an England regular.

Slightly OT but the best young defender I have seen in years is Varane (at RM). He's going to be amazing.

I always think that the a good defender very rarely needs to go to ground, and I've hardly ever seen Caulker do that. Experience with Positioning will come with time, but he actually is ok at that.

 

[Danishfurniturelover]

I always think that the a good defender very rarely needs to go to ground, and I've hardly ever seen Caulker do that. Experience with Positioning will come with time, but he actually is ok at that.

yep, also king was not great to start with nor was campbell centre backs improve with age more than any other position in my view and when caulker gets more experince he will get even better. I think this is why some of our youngsters never progressed in previous years because they never got enough football under their belts. Caulker is getting a decent amount of game time this season so is not to bad but it might have been better for him if he had gone on loan.

Mind you i think playing with better players helps him even more, if verts was in his second season then i think he would be helping caulker even more, we need the naybet figure to help bring caulker on, as im sure others have mentioned already but i have not read through the whole thread.

 

[braineclipse]

Surely GGyid is just trolling us? "He's not young anymore" about a 21 year old central defender... :ross: That can't be taken seriously.

 

[Spur of the moment]

Seem to remember Bale having a 'mare for most of his first two seasons with us after an impressive start. How long was it before he eventually managed to finish on the winning side?

Moral: keep the faith.

 

[metalgear]

i like caulker.

very economical and effective; no fuss no drama.
no dirty tricks, no finger pointing or outbursts, just keeps on ticking
especially like him going forwards, looks confident and comfortable on the ball

 

[onlyme]

Seem to remember Bale having a 'mare for most of his first two seasons with us after an impressive start. How long was it before he eventually managed to finish on the winning side?

Moral: keep the faith.

I see where you are coming from but Bale was great from day one and the fact is that we did not have a good team around him. He had no "mares" IMO.

 

[thfcsteff]

I think Caulker will be an excellent player and I think AVB's recent use of him has been very very smart. He's been out of the firing line for a few matches, and I think that's great, he needed some respite. He does need to keep working on his concentration (Everton away was a fine example) but he is strong, brave and smart. It's another level playing for us than Swansea in term of expectation and pressure, thus I concur that he will absolutely be very very good indeed...

 

[onlyme]

I like Caulker.

very economical and effective; no fuss no drama.
no dirty tricks, no finger pointing or outbursts, just keeps on ticking

Edit

I agree. Plays in the Spurs tradition. Hardly noticed him against Saudi Sportswashing Machine. Previous couple of games I think he carried the can for Verts' failings.

We are probably now the second best side in the country and that is in great part down to our excellent set of CBs.

 

[Spur of the moment]

I see where you are coming from but Bale was great from day one and the fact is that we did not have a good team around him. He had no "mares" IMO.

He started off very well, remember him scoring direct from a FK in one of his earliest games and saying to myself, wha-hey, we've got something here. Your opinion is he had no mares, maybe so,I was referring generically to that long spell when things didn't go for him, he certainly had a few very poor games at LB and was totally unrecognisable from the player he is now. Wasn't it said that Arry was about to let him go just before DAE got injured?

Of course Caulker's not in the same bracket, wasn't suggesting he is, just that even the most talented young players can have periods when they don't do justice to themselves.

I repeat,, keep the faith !!!

 

[greatwhitenorf]

Very happy to see him getting regular play this season and doing well. We bought him, Walker and Naughton at about the same time and loaned them out to develop. By the necessity of injuries, they have all been handed chances, with Walker blossoming first. Now the other two are worthy of regular participation in our defensive rotation. Not many other clubs have such quality depth at the back with young players.

 

[braineclipse]

Very happy to see him getting regular play this season and doing well. We bought him, Walker and Naughton at about the same time and loaned them out to develop. By the necessity of injuries, they have all been handed chances, with Walker blossoming first. Now the other two are worthy of regular participation in our defensive rotation. Not many other clubs have such quality depth at the back with young players.

Caulker signed for us as a youth player actually. While Walker and Naughton were both signed and immediately loaned out Caulker came up through our academy and was then sent out on loan.

 

[Mosquito_Coasting]

I've seen some real impressive passes from Caulker. Can't remember who it was against but one of them was a 40 yard pass with the outside of his boot that found Defoe perfectly.

I liked it when Bale started only passing with the outside of his boot for a five minute spell.

 

[Mosquito_Coasting]

Like AVB don't think we could ask for much more from Caulker this season. I think he's going to be first choice for us for a decade (starting in 18 months max).

 

[Armchair Expert]

I agree. Plays in the Spurs tradition. Hardly noticed him against Saudi Sportswashing Machine. Previous couple of games I think he carried the can for Verts' failings.

We are probably now the second best side in the country and that is in great part down to our excellent set of CBs.

We're the second best side in the country? Not sure about that at all.

As for Caulker, I think he's been a revelation this season. He must be delighted with the amount of game time he's getting too.

Really impressed with him. Hope he can on to represent Spurs for at least a decade.

 

[Lost Mango]

I see where you are coming from but Bale was great from day one and the fact is that we did not have a good team around him. He had no "mares" IMO.

He was 'great' going forward from day one but there were numerous times for both both us (& Wales) when he had 'mares' defensively. He also had numerouse mares in his Saints days as a LB. The potential was obvious but so were his limitations as a LB.

But then defenders get judged differently to attackers.