*** OMT Tottenham Hotspur FC v Aston Villa ***

[Bishop]

He brings verve and personality, as well as a fierce determination to go forwards/attack/seek opportunities. I have seen a few inklings of passing in him. He won't ever be a Pirlo that's for sure, but at 19 (and when he settles down a bit with regards to charging around) I think he could develop an element of that in his game. We will have to start making decisions with regards to Sarr, Bergy and Gray for sure.

I definitely hear you on the personality part and he's definitely got the drive I just think we actually need a passer as the ball can move faster than any one man can run. It's also the inherent risk of him driving with the ball means he's more likely to be out of position after he's moved with the ball even more so if he gets dispossessed up field something that is quite likely to happen as it already does. He's not secure enough on the ball to play the role the way a Dembele does, so for me I don't really believe he's the solution although he might well be a reasonable option for certain matches playing that role.

I agree with this. Ideally a Luka. Sigh...of course, I'd love this to be a problem the manager wants to solve. As it stands, we are going to be working the ball wide and sligning it in the box, so elite level passing through the middle does not seem to be a priority sadly...

I think Frank is trying to make the best of what he's got. I was never a massive follower of his intricacies at Brentford but I know he played first with Eriksen and then Damsgaard in midfield which suggests to me that he's not against passing quality in CM. Truthfully we just don't really have that player. We didn't last season and we didn't address it this summer so he's working largely with what he's inherited. I'd expect with the type of additions we have made under him that a pass first capable CM will be relatively high on his want list.

 

[thfcsteff]

I definitely hear you on the personality part and he's definitely got the drive I just think we actually need a passer as the ball can move faster than any one man can run. It's also the inherent risk of him driving with the ball means he's more likely to be out of position after he's moved with the ball even more so if he gets dispossessed up field something that is quite likely to happen as it already does. He's not secure enough on the ball to play the role the way a Dembele does, so for me I don't really believe he's the solution although he might well be a reasonable option for certain matches playing that role.

I think Frank is trying to make the best of what he's got. I was never a massive follower of his intricacies at Brentford but I know he played first with Eriksen and then Damsgaard in midfield which suggests to me that he's not against passing quality in CM. Truthfully we just don't really have that player. We didn't last season and we didn't address it this summer so he's working largely with what he's inherited. I'd expect with the type of additions we have made under him that a pass first capable CM will be relatively high on his want list.

I think how he used Eriksen and Damsgaard is important...FWIW I really wanted us to sign Damsgaard before Brentford did!!!