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Etienne Capoue

He played one outstanding pass over the top on thursday but his defensive positioning and anticipation was so poor. He is forever trapped in the wrong place wrong time.
 
didn't want to post this but his partner Bentaleb was equally bad IMO... but it was a poor game for the team overall. Did well for Saudi Sportswashing Machine then this one game... wouldn't get too excited... yet.
 
didn't want to post this but his partner Bentaleb was equally bad IMO... but it was a poor game for the team overall. Did well for Saudi Sportswashing Machine then this one game... wouldn't get too excited... yet.

Did you see it as Bentaleb partnering Capoue? As I saw the game Capoue was clearly holding as the deepest midfielder and Bentaleb and Paulinho were the runners getting up and down the pitch from fairly similar positions.

I was hoping we would drop Bentaleb deeper to try to get him to control the game actually.
 
Paulinho was given the role to move furthest forward to support the striker or act as the late incoming midfielder into the box. Bentaleb to me had to support both Paulie and Capoue in his role, and I felt that given the circumstances Bentaleb chose wrongly to continue to go forward intsead of helping out with defence for a while to get the game under control.

That said would you think that the dnipro players were asked to close down on Bentaleb or at least intercept his passes?
 
Paulinho was given the role to move furthest forward to support the striker or act as the late incoming midfielder into the box. Bentaleb to me had to support both Paulie and Capoue in his role, and I felt that given the circumstances Bentaleb chose wrongly to continue to go forward intsead of helping out with defence for a while to get the game under control.

That said would you think that the dnipro players were asked to close down on Bentaleb or at least intercept his passes?

http://europa-league.squawka.com/fc-dnipro-vs-tottenham-hotspur/20-02-2014/europa-league/matches

To me Paulinho's and Bentaleb's passing maps, heat maps and action areas look fairly similar. At least Capoue is the standout of the 3 as the most defensive, much more so than Paulinho as the stand out attacking player. Similarly to how I saw it really. Perhaps Paulinho with a bit more attacking freedom than Bentaleb, but really only marginally so.

I'm guessing Bentaleb did what he was instructed to do. Capoue is the pretty clear holding/defensive midfielder in that setup and since we were going for the win Bentaleb tried to get forward.

Dnipro might have identified Bentaleb as the biggest passing threat of the central 3, wouldn't surprise me at all. He was closed down quite a lot, but no more so than I would expect him to deal with had the pitch been a bit better.

More worried about Capoue's defensive contribution than anything, thought he was involved in a lot of Toon's chances and against Dnipro he got it wrong a lot. If he starts today he has to do better.
 
That's where experience comes in... you see the more experienced players get marked out try a different position, a different starting point to shake off their markers. Bentaled was only thinking about going forwards despite the number of brick wall he'd run into. I am guessing but I think the Dnipro tactic was to rattle the young guy to lose possession, and with numbers ready to stage a quick counter attack : If Bentaleb loses the ball, its probably 2 attackers against 1 capoue.

Not saying that he should have come down to pair up as two DM's, but helping out with the defence would have changed the dynamics of the game significantly - drawing the dnipro players out but having capoue alongside to share the pressure. The flip side is then giving Paulinho more space to attack. But its not something easy to do if we haven't trained for it as a team; it will be something to come with experience.
 
That's where experience comes in... you see the more experienced players get marked out try a different position, a different starting point to shake off their markers. Bentaled was only thinking about going forwards despite the number of brick wall he'd run into. I am guessing but I think the Dnipro tactic was to rattle the young guy to lose possession, and with numbers ready to stage a quick counter attack : If Bentaleb loses the ball, its probably 2 attackers against 1 capoue.

Not saying that he should have come down to pair up as two DM's, but helping out with the defence would have changed the dynamics of the game significantly - drawing the dnipro players out but having capoue alongside to share the pressure. The flip side is then giving Paulinho more space to attack. But its not something easy to do if we haven't trained for it as a team; it will be something to come with experience.

I don't quite see how you can make conclusions like that without knowing what he's been instructed to do.

Could just as easily be that Sherwood wanted him higher up the pitch to make the telling final third passes like he did against Saudi Sportswashing Machine and that Sherwood trusted the defenders and Capoue to find the right forward passes.
 
Oh well, another new signing whose début season has pretty much been a write-off.

Hopefully Etienne will be able to contribute more next campaign having had a year to settle in London and a full pre-season to help him adjust to the pace of the English game.

Tim Sherwood: Erik Lamela and Etienne Capoue will play no further part in Tottenham’s season - Football - The Independent
...Capoue started strongly at Spurs but has not played for seven weeks and is unlikely to feature again this season.

“I am not sure how far he is away,” Sherwood said, “but it is very doubtful whether he will play between now and the end of the season.”
 
It wouldnt surprise me at all if we saw neither again in a Spurs shirt. I am starting believe something really isnt right with these two
 
Sherwood doesn't rate him or Lamela apparently (depends on what sources you read) no doubt if they don't play he can ship them off for cash that he can then use to buy proper English players with heart and desire.
 
Such a shame, looked so promising before the injury at the goons. Who knows, might still have a future at the club but all the signs are he doesn't want one.
 
Can't blame him, he got injured, came back and got pushed into central defence, got mugged off by Sherwood and then put in a decent performance against Saudi Sportswashing Machine in his natural position. Unfortunately another injury has ruined his Spurs season and might have put his World Cup spot at risk.
 
I highly doubt Lamela will be sold in the summer, because of the blow that would be to Levy's pride: however, Capoue is probably gone. If that means reintegrating Livermore (home-grown, came through our ranks and is quite good, judging by his performances at Hull this year), then it's not too bad. Unfortunate for Etienne, but that's the way it is.
 
I highly doubt Lamela will be sold in the summer, because of the blow that would be to Levy's pride: however, Capoue is probably gone. If that means reintegrating Livermore (home-grown, came through our ranks and is quite good, judging by his performances at Hull this year), then it's not too bad. Unfortunate for Etienne, but that's the way it is.

From our midfield I would sell lennon, CAPOUE, Livermore, Paulinho and Dembele and bring back Holtby, Carroll and sign Claise.
 
From our midfield I would sell lennon, CAPOUE, Livermore, Paulinho and Dembele and bring back Holtby, Carroll and sign Claise.

So who's the tough-tackling back-up/rotation option for Sandro? All it takes is one injury to the Beast (and he's not exactly resistant to injuries) for us to line up like we did today, only without even the pale imitation of a tackler that Paulinho is.

Nah. In my eyes ,a good summer (midfield-wise) would be selling Dembele, Paulinho, Chadli and Capoue and bringing back Carroll, Livermore and Holtby, plus signing some adaptable attacking midfielder who can operate both in the centre and out wide (think Lallana).

Lennon, Lamela, Holtby, Carroll, Sandro, Livermore, Bentaleb, Townsend, Lallana, Eriksen.

There's a midfield to savour. Home-grown lads who bleed white and blue (Carroll, Townsend, Livermore and possibly Bentaleb), a trio of mercurial attacking midfielders (Eriksen, Lallana and Lamela) and Lennon, Holtby and the Beast.
 
From our midfield I would sell lennon, CAPOUE, Livermore, Paulinho and Dembele and bring back Holtby, Carroll and sign Claise.

Agree with your list but i would definitely not sell Dembele. I would sell one of Siggy/Chadli as well as the others you mentioned (leaning towards Siggy being sold sadly). I don't know anything about Clasie and i don't think carroll has a future here sadly.

Playmaker, Dembele, Sandro, Holtby, Benteleb.......that should be our central options next season imo.
 
I could live with your team.

There are some rumours man u might get rid of Powell and if that happened we should be all over it because he is going to be a star. I like siggy but I sometimes wonder where he fits in with us.
 
Agree with your list but i would definitely not sell Dembele. I would sell one of Siggy/Chadli as well as the others you mentioned (leaning towards Siggy being sold sadly). I don't know anything about Clasie and i don't think carroll has a future here sadly.

Playmaker, Dembele, Sandro, Holtby, Benteleb.......that should be our central options next season imo.

Again not a bad list, I have gone right off dembele after calling for us to buy him, maybe LVG can get him back to his best. One thing is for sure we have far to many midfielders and I do no think we look settled as a team because of this. The midfield is the engine room of any side and it is why we have no direction it stems from the midfield in my opinion.
 
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