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Eric Dier

Bedfordspurs said:
Upemecano is off to Bayern. Id love a signing like that
Maybe, just maybe Rondon is the answer and needs time to get games
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Even if Rodon is an answer we still need one more.... Sanchez not good enough, Toby getting on now, Dier only borderline whether good enough for first team or as a back-up (although still learning the position I accept).
 
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Finney Is Back said:
Even if Rodon is an answer we still need one more.... Sanchez not good enough, Toby getting on now, Dier only borderline whether good enough for first team or as a back-up (although still learning the position I accept).
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Sanchez is now a huge issue
He has a high material value to the club but a low value I would assume to the “industry”
 
Finney Is Back said:
Even if Rodon is an answer we still need one more.... Sanchez not good enough, Toby getting on now, Dier only borderline whether good enough for first team or as a back-up (although still learning the position I accept).
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Agreed, and there were rumours early this week that Jose was targeting a quicker, ball-playing centre-back.

That would make sense to me, with Dier as the bigger CB and Rodon as his under-study in that role.
Put them alongside Toby or the new guy, and I think you have a decent balance.

Then ship out Sanchez, and see whether Tanganga is good enough to eventually replace Toby
 
Bedfordspurs said:
Upemecano is off to Bayern. Id love a signing like that
Maybe, just maybe Rondon is the answer and needs time to get games
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If a truly top class centre back is available, if he's someone Mourinho rates for his system, if the deal is possible financially...

That would be great. Then again a central midfielder that can do what Sissoko does at a very good level whilst being useful on the ball would also be great.

Difficult to guess what can be done financially, but my guess would be that we might have to identify another Hojbjerg type signing (lower profile, lower cost, perfect match) for something to happen in January. That will be difficult too of course. But fingers crossed.

Looking forward to seeing more of Rodon.
 
I’ve always felt Toby makes good decisions but it seems he may be on the way out physically. Dier needs some leeway as is still building experience, my biggest concern with him has been some risky distribution decisions. What’s hard for defenders nowadays is they can spend a large part of the game working hard and second guessing every opponents move, even if they are bigger or faster and every goal gets micro analysed to how they could have done something differently.
I have high hopes for Tanganga, just need him to stay fit and I think he can be a mainstay for us as he seems to have both strength and defensive nouns and good technique and decision making on the ball.
I don’t see any future for Sanzhez, Toby’s deal is until 2023 so if we do go big for a replacement then Tanganga is going to find games at fullback hard to come by. (Davies and Doherty his competition as first reserve)
 
braineclipse said:
If a truly top class centre back is available, if he's someone Mourinho rates for his system, if the deal is possible financially...

That would be great. Then again a central midfielder that can do what Sissoko does at a very good level whilst being useful on the ball would also be great.

Difficult to guess what can be done financially, but my guess would be that we might have to identify another Hojbjerg type signing (lower profile, lower cost, perfect match) for something to happen in January. That will be difficult too of course. But fingers crossed.

Looking forward to seeing more of Rodon.
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I see the Sissoko upgrade as being of secondary importance right now. Our weakest position in the team is the centre of defence, I think Jose is trying to cover that up by playing so deep.
 
Finney Is Back said:
I see the Sissoko upgrade as being of secondary importance right now. Our weakest position in the team is the centre of defence, I think Jose is trying to cover that up by playing so deep.
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Perhaps. Dier and Alderweireld have done rather well though and we have Rodon still waiting to prove his worth.

In terms of being able to turn more possession wins into useful counter attacks, being able to play through pressure and break down teams sitting deep a central midfielder would make more of a difference imo. Though we have options there too with the potential at least of starting Lo Celso and Ndombele.

I think with it being January it will be as much about who is available as about what is seen as most important. Unless somehow we end up with the luxury of having high quality targets in both positions being realistic.
 
Bedfordspurs said:
Wasn’t that gonna be fixed by signing Hojdjberg?
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In part Hojbjerg has fixed it (along with Sissoko), them staying so close to the centre halves is leaving them far less exposed. I suspect though that Jose is leaving the two CH’s deep because of their lack of pace.

It was actually the problems at full back that I said signing Hojbjerg would help solve, I said he would do that by stopping our opponents having acres of space and time on the ball in central attacking areas to be able to thread balls between our full backs and CHs for the opposition’s wide forwards or wing backs to run on to, I think that has happened
 
Finney Is Back said:
In part Hojbjerg has fixed it (along with Sissoko), them staying so close to the centre halves is leaving them far less exposed. I suspect though that Jose is leaving the two CH’s deep because of their lack of pace.

It was actually the problems at full back that I said signing Hojbjerg would help solve, I said he would do that by stopping our opponents having acres of space and time on the ball in central attacking areas to be able to thread balls between our full backs and CHs for the opposition’s wide forwards or wing backs to run on to, I think that has happened
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But we still have sissoko covering right back
And that even with the improvement in Aurier
I do think the issue may be that the defence only has one out all in midfield through PEH which negates the pressure
Get someone in midfield who can run and actually pass well (Like PEH) and that dynamic changes a lot
I mean if our CBS were failing more we wouldn’t have the best defence in the league would we?
 
Danishfurniturelover said:
Boubacar Kamara is the chap we should go for.
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Bedfordspurs said:
But we still have sissoko covering right back
And that even with the improvement in Aurier
I do think the issue may be that the defence only has one out all in midfield through PEH which negates the pressure
Get someone in midfield who can run and actually pass well (Like PEH) and that dynamic changes a lot
I mean if our CBS were failing more we wouldn’t have the best defence in the league would we?
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Well let’s see if we still have the best defence in the league if we move 20 yards up the pitch and put even a little bit of space between the CHs and the central midfield players. I said last summer our gaping great hole in the team was a player like Hojbjerg, I think I remember you feeling that we were fine with Dier or Winks in that position.

Jose has now addressed that glaring weakness at the base of the midfield and he can concentrate on the next improvement.... it seemed to me that we made a concerted effort to sign Skriniar, which would indicate that Jose thinks he needs better back there. For what it’s worth (‘not a lot’ I hear you shout) I’m not convinced Skriniar is the right man but I think Jose is right in wanting a better player back there.
 
Finney Is Back said:
Well let’s see if we still have the best defence in the league if we move 20 yards up the pitch and put even a little bit of space between the CHs and the central midfield players. I said last summer our gaping great hole in the team was a player like Hojbjerg, I think I remember you feeling that we were fine with Dier or Winks in that position.

Jose has now addressed that glaring weakness at the base of the midfield and he can concentrate on the next improvement.... it seemed to me that we made a concerted effort to sign Skriniar, which would indicate that Jose thinks he needs better back there. For what it’s worth (‘not a lot’ I hear you shout) I’m not convinced Skriniar is the right man but I think Jose is right in wanting a better player back there.
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No I said the full backs were the problem, not CM
Low and behold we have brought 2 new full backs and one CM and we still have CMs covering in the set up for the full backs
The issue still is that we only have one CM who can pass out of the two who play deeper so it’s harder to get out with the ball
It may be that Jose feels it gets the best out of the ones we have there by playing deeper as it means if for example the passing isn’t great their set to deal with the mistake
And up until last Sunday it worked well
I agree I’d like to see us play further forward but for that to happen we need a midfield that is comfortable on the ball.
we did make an effort to sign a CB and did sign one. I don’t expect us to sign another now until we have some outgoing
 
Bedfordspurs said:
No I said the full backs were the problem, not CM
Low and behold we have brought 2 new full backs and one CM and we still have CMs covering in the set up for the full backs
The issue still is that we only have one CM who can pass out of the two who play deeper so it’s harder to get out with the ball
It may be that Jose feels it gets the best out of the ones we have there by playing deeper as it means if for example the passing isn’t great their set to deal with the mistake
And up until last Sunday it worked well
I agree I’d like to see us play further forward but for that to happen we need a midfield that is comfortable on the ball.
we did make an effort to sign a CB and did sign one. I don’t expect us to sign another now until we have some outgoing
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Mate.... CMs should always cover for fullbacks, that is just the standard shape of a football team. You want our full backs exposed to one on one situations all game? The alternative (as Poch preferred) is that a CH instead pulls out wide to provide the cover and the CM slots in there to cover that space, but it seems to me that Jose likes to keep his two CH’s central (which I think makes sense to deal with crosses into the box).

We are finding it hard to get out with the ball because the whole team are so deep and there is rarely an outlet to pass to and whatever outlet we do have typically has to have his back to play with a defender very tight on him. Glenn Hoddle could be in the Sissoko role and we’d still find it hard to get out at the moment. We could perhaps move Ndombele back and ask him to dribble out but that is a high risk strategy when so deep. As I said in another thread we are playing low risk football at the moment and having some success with it.

*edit.... I think I remember you saying Aurier was the problem (as opposed to the fullbacks plural). Aurier is still here and still first choice, do you now concede that maybe he wasn’t actually the problem?
 
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Finney Is Back said:
I see the Sissoko upgrade as being of secondary importance right now. Our weakest position in the team is the centre of defence, I think Jose is trying to cover that up by playing so deep.
Click to expand...
its not so much that Sissoko needs to be upgraded but purely thru the lense of PEH getting injured/suspended, where does that leave us? A new player 100% needs to be able to play with/without PEH.

I agree re the defence, we didn't look great there earlier in the season and its hard to tell how we look there now if we basically play 10 men defending in a condensed space. I think PEH has definetly helped and you'd like to think Toby and Dier would have got better the more times they played together BUT if we play a more expansive game it'll be interesting to see if we look exposed again.

Playing out might of become harder for two reasons. 1. I think Liverpool, Palace, Chelsea are far better equipped/disciplined to deal with that than City/Arsenal 2. It's not exactly a complicated tactic to decipher...Kane drops in and plays it or someone else does to runners into the space he's created.

Leicester will be interesting as they play a largely counter attacking game as well, and then its onto the 'lesser' teams so our style may change......and all will be revealed:)
 
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