The "lack of experience" factor.

[NorwegianSpursFan]

First of all, I love that we have a policy of promoting youth, and are giving our talented youngsters a fighting chance to make it. We have many very talented youngsters that I have high hopes for, several of whom have already started to make a name for themself.

That being said, to me our performances in our three first games (the Stoke and Leicester games in particular) tells me that we are severly lacking in the experience department. A coupple of experienced heads to calm things down when the preassure is on is in dire need. We lack the real leaders in the middle of the park.

And here is where my thoughts center. To me, this summer seems like a summer of missed oportunity transfer wise. There has been several good players moving to clubs that we should have no problem competing against, for sums that we should have no problem paying.

For example Cabaye, Cambiasso or even Nzonzi I think would have made a massive difference to our central midfield in these games. We are having big problems breaking teams down, would a Shaqiri or a Ayew have helped solve our issues? Kane needs some backup, would Mitrovic have been a good shout?

I'm not saying that we should sign all these players, but I am wondering if our stubbornes in sticking to our "policy" is hurting our short term results? And I also think that our young players could learn alot from a seasoned veteran like, for instance, Cambiasso or Cabaye.

So, in short, I think we have had many oportunities to sign good experieced players who could have improved our team short term, and helped our very talented youngsters improve even more.

I'm very interested to hear other posters take on this so please chime in.
(This is my first thread so be nice )

 

[glorygloryeze]

I wonder whether the more experienced players hear about Poch's hard training regime and think 'nah, fudge that'...

 

[NorwegianSpursFan]

I wonder whether the more experienced players hear about Poch's hard training regime and think 'nah, fudge that'...

Could be, but I can't really see Cabaye picking Crystal Pallace over us if we tried to sign him, even with the Pardew connection. Or how about Payet for instance, West Ham over us, not to mention that we could probably offer higher wages aswell.

 

[Raziel]

I wonder whether the more experienced players hear about Poch's hard training regime and think 'nah, fudge that'...

Or they see another AVB .. bunch of talk about systems, tactics, fitness, etc. and all it really is = a box of instructions that kills individual freedom/expression and style and creates a grindfest that even the players don't enjoy?

 

[glorygloryeze]

Could be, but I can't really see Cabaye picking Crystal Pallace over us if we tried to sign him, even with the Pardew connection. Or how about Payet for instance, West Ham over us, not to mention that we could probably offer higher wages aswell.

Cabaye - probably on good wages generally and i suspect may not have been easy for him to go from easystreet on PSG's bench to intense training sessions with us esp at his age now.

Payet - had a great year last year but apparently has been inconsistent for many years before that.

I doubt we were truly in for either player. And imo if we were in for Cabaye, he'd likely have preferred the relative easystreet of Palace anyway

 

[glorygloryeze]

Or they see another AVB .. bunch of talk about systems, tactics, fitness, etc. and all it really is = a box of instructions that kills individual freedom/expression and style and creates a grindfest that even the players don't enjoy?

Kane, Chadli, Eriksen, Bentaleb and the fact only the the top four last season scored more then us each say hi.

However, the grind of Poch and Bielsa's method may very well be what may make players (esp defenders) wince/think twice

 

[Mr_B]

Decent, "experienced" players don't want to play in the EL

 

[Raziel]

Kane, Chadli, Eriksen, Bentaleb and the fact only the the top four last season scored more then us each say hi.

However, the grind of Poch and Bielsa's method may very well be what may make players (esp defenders) wince/think twice

Freedom of expression and goals are not the same thing ..

Lets be clear, Poch's mentor is a guy that things never really end well for ... not sure what that says

 

[NorwegianSpursFan]

Cabaye - probably on good wages generally and i suspect may not have been easy for him to go from easystreet on PSG's bench to intense training sessions with us esp at his age now.

Payet - had a great year last year but apparently has been inconsistent for many years before that.

I doubt we were truly in for either player. And imo if we were in for Cabaye, he'd likely have preferred the relative easystreet of Palace anyway

I don't think we were in for the players either, and that is sort of what I'm asking, should we have been?

Decent, "experienced" players don't want to play in the EL

I really don't think players would think, I'm gonna join a worse team on lower wages because I don't want to play in the Europa League. They probably don't like it, but they wouldn't pass up Spurs because of it.

Freedom of expression and goals are not the same thing ..

Lets be clear, Poch's mentor is a guy that things never really end well for ... not sure what that says

This could ofcourse be an issue, but Bielsa is imo in the extreme end of the spectrum, and I haven't seen anything to indicate that Poch is quite as crazy as him.

 

[glorygloryeze]

Freedom of expression and goals are not the same thing ..

Agreed. But this "freedom of expression" thing you've got going on is just gonads. You can't complain about our porous defence, our lack of protection for them and then talk about "lack of expression." Make your mind up what you want!

Lets be clear, Poch's mentor is a guy that things never really end well for ... not sure what that says

I do worry about this a little

 

[Bedfordspurs]

What were lacking is energy

We play a lethargic brand of keep ball with no dynamicism

Maybe an experience head could get the players changing the tempo and upping their games as well as claiming things down when necessary but with the players playing this slow football its fudging hard to change things

 

[Gazzasrightboot]

What were lacking is energy

We play a lethargic brand of keep ball with no dynamicism

Maybe an experience head could get the players changing the tempo and upping their games as well as claiming things down when necessary but with the players playing this slow football its fudgeing hard to change things

I agree with you. The pressing is not there to make the opposition make mistakes like we seem to make in our own half. I want to see us to do more with the possession that we have i.e. being more direct.

 

[Bedfordspurs]

I agree with you. The pressing is not there to make the opposition make mistakes like we seem to make in our own half. I want to see us to do more with the possession that we have i.e. being more direct.

We fanny around with the ball like a netball team without the killer pass. Shows how important Erisken is

We have no pace at all in the side though other than walker and it's bloody awful and insepid... We're currently carrying the same threat as a hedgehog

 

[Finney Is Back]

We fanny around with the ball like a netball team without the killer pass. Shows how important Erisken is

We have no pace at all in the side though other than walker and it's bloody awful and insepid... We're currently carrying the same threat as a hedgehog

Except we're not as good defensively.

 

[Bedfordspurs]

All pass no one penetration

It's like watching soft porn.... It's pretty but lacks penetration

 

[Millsy_Yiddo]

What were lacking is energy

We play a lethargic brand of keep ball with no dynamicism

Maybe an experience head could get the players changing the tempo and upping their games as well as claiming things down when necessary but with the players playing this slow football its fudgeing hard to change things

Was thinking about this the other day. Is this just football now?

I've heard the same complaint from most fans of teams in similar positions to ours. Is it just a case that the league is split into brick teams who go out and sit two banks of 4, middle teams who are good enough to keep possession against the brick teams but don't have the players to regularly create chances against them, and good teams who can keep possession and create chances.

 

[Bedfordspurs]

Was thinking about this the other day. Is this just football now?

I've heard the same complaint from most fans of teams in similar positions to ours. Is it just a case that the league is split into **** teams who go out and sit two banks of 4, middle teams who are good enough to keep possession against the **** teams but don't have the players to regularly create chances against them, and good teams who can keep possession and create chances.

if you look at the teams that are developing like palace and Leicester they play with real pace that belies there lack of technically capable players. Don't get me wrong they have some good footballers but they also have some rapid players who work hard. It makes a huge difference and is genuinely exciting

Southampton ae really struggling this season without the pace from their wing backs as they have in effect the same set up as ours (by default)

No teams is going to set themselves up to play attacking gung ho football in this league other than the top top sides now, however you can have much more flex in your style if you have variety in the squad

 

[Gazzasrightboot]

Was thinking about this the other day. Is this just football now?

I've heard the same complaint from most fans of teams in similar positions to ours. Is it just a case that the league is split into **** teams who go out and sit two banks of 4, middle teams who are good enough to keep possession against the **** teams but don't have the players to regularly create chances against them, and good teams who can keep possession and create chances.

I think the lower teams have become a lot better at being quite difficult to beat i.e. by defending in numbers. I also think that playing Spurs is a big fixture for a lot of teams as we are a bigger club and you add to that our reputation as being a bit of a soft touch, I generally think that those teams come in really thinking that they can win.

@Bedfordspurs is right in that some of the lower teams have allied this type of hard working and graft with some real pace that means that the counter attack is even more dangerous. Pace will hurt on the break like we all remember with Bale, Lennon and Defoe. For us to break down a defensive set up I think we need pace and guile. The guile can be delivered through Eriksen and, imvho, Mason.

 

[Bedfordspurs]

I think the lower teams have become a lot better at being quite difficult to beat i.e. by defending in numbers. I also think that playing Spurs is a big fixture for a lot of teams as we are a bigger club and you add to that our reputation as being a bit of a soft touch, I generally think that those teams come in really thinking that they can win.

@Bedfordspurs is right in that some of the lower teams have allied this type of hard working and graft with some real pace that means that the counter attack is even more dangerous. Pace will hurt on the break like we all remember with Bale, Lennon and Defoe. For us to break down a defensive set up I think we need pace and guile. The guile can be delivered through Eriksen and, imvho, Mason.

were a beatable big team that currently doesn't carry any fear...

 

[Millsy_Yiddo]

if you look at the teams that are developing like palace and Leicester they play with real pace that belies there lack of technically capable players. Don't get me wrong they have some good footballers but they also have some rapid players who work hard. It makes a huge difference and is genuinely exciting

Southampton ae really struggling this season without the pace from their wing backs as they have in effect the same set up as ours (by default)

No teams is going to set themselves up to play attacking gung ho football in this league other than the top top sides now, however you can have much more flex in your style if you have variety in the squad

Palace and Leicester are able to play with real pace (and make it effective) because they spend a lot of the game against teams like us defending. Slowly drawing us onto them (without us actually scoring) which gives them space in behind our back 4 to exploit.

Southampton similarly to us normally dominate teams in terms of possession. Are they struggling because of lack of pace or because they are playing a patient possession based game without the players with ability to make key decisions when it really matters which result in goals.

Honestly, I don't know. It was more of a hypothetical lets start a discussion type thing. In reality, it's probably a bit of both.

I think the lower teams have become a lot better at being quite difficult to beat i.e. by defending in numbers. I also think that playing Spurs is a big fixture for a lot of teams as we are a bigger club and you add to that our reputation as being a bit of a soft touch, I generally think that those teams come in really thinking that they can win.

I think the case is that teams come in thinking they can 'nick a win'. If they actually went for the win from the off, it would be good for us.