Matchday discussion

The manager prefers a 343 formation although he will play a 3412 if he has two quality strikers... he doesn't at Spurs

So essentially no need for a number 10... which is why he shipped out 3 of them... Ndombele is more a central midfielder than a 10 but equally also in a 343 those positions are double pivots... which he is not and why he's gone

Conte knows Eriksen from Inter... and liked him in the end... but has no need of him at Spurs

 

Yes. You can only blame Levy and can't comment on anything else. Who appointed you as censor?

 

It’s just my opinion guest and I suspect a lot of other fans feel the same.Do you just take issue with comments or do you have an opinion yourself

 

Well what a beautiful day it is, having moved on the human pipe cleaner Dilly Dally who is the football equivalent of a college drop out destined for a career at sports direct.
Then also moved on the I'm to good to run Tanguy and the bow legged dwarf LoShitshow.
It feels like a dark cloud of attitude and ineptitude has been lifted.

Let's hope the new bench warmers can actually contribute something to the lost cause.

The squad looks p;ss thin but then when doesn't it?

Hoping that having the man child's moved on a more professional approach will be adopted by the team.

 

Early days but both new buys looked promising in short cameos fingers crossed

 

Bentancur looks really calm and decent in the air. Kulu seems to have pace, a decent touch and really good awareness. Very promising indeed.

Think back pre Conte for a couple of years…what a change we are starting to see…let’s hope we can keep him

 

The two new boys are good… you don’t play for Juve… particularly as a foreign import… if you don’t have quality

Bentancur is an immediate upgrade in central mid… though when two of your options there are Winks and an inexperienced Skipp that’s not saying a great deal

Kulu as an option at wing back is intriguing… saw the Milan derby yesterday and was again impressed how Conte transitioned Perisic (one of the best wingers in the world these past 10 years) seamlessly into that role

But yes… Conte showing what a top manager brings to a club…we need to do all we can to keep him happy at Spurs for as long as possible

 

Happy to declare the bleeding obvious here... particularly for those reprobates who've been bleating on these past two years about how they'd rather have Leicester's squad or that Jose's antiquated 'counter-punching' style was pure brilliance while the aforementioned sat Bale for 20 odd games as we plummeted down the table

Yep the same Bale who would hit double digits by season's end and at a faster clip then any other player in the EPL

Spurs... withstanding any major key injuries... will canter into the top 4

Bank it

 

Sanchez and Royal are really bad…it’s quite amazing that we paid what we did for Royal. His positioning when defending is terrible which continually leaves people unmarked. Sanchez always seems to take 2 steps forward which again leaves him out of position and often attempts to win balls that he shouldn’t be going for instead of defending the attackers.

Its pretty bad at the back when you miss Eric Dier and we really need to sign 2 x CB’s and a RWB in the summer window because the ones we have just aren’t good enough.

On another note, if Real Madrid offer £40m for Regy, we should absolutely take it. I’m certain we can find another LWB with more quality in the final third for less money than that. His crosses are hit and miss and his finishing is Sunday league (despite occasional flashes of quality in every game).

 

Jose’s ghost says we will be top4 no problem .Not with Winks Sanchez and Emerson in the team.Tonight we we’re lucky not to be at least 3 down at half time.Our defending of crosses is not even championship standard.Surely we must have defenders somewhere in the club even the under 23s who are better than Sanchez and Emerson.The one and only plus tonight Betancour looks class.Never thought I would want Dier back

 

Are we still pretending Sanchez Davies Winks etc are transformed?

 

Same players different coach, still championship level n useless

 

Emerson is awful. We all lnow it. Sanchez and Davies are bad too. We all know it... But when you play without any good players in midfield l you cannot hope to win any Premier league game... Winks can only play when he has the ball (if not lost....). So we are just 10 when we défend. Hojberg and winks have no pace and little power so we défend at 9,5 player when both are on the pitch. The main problem is in midfield.... plus the rest :-(

 

Which clown chose Emerson over the full back who went to Arsenal.I know Conte likes to play 3 at the back but when your wing backs can’t do the job surely you switch to a back 4.play 3 in midfield Bettancour Skipp and one other but not Winks.Unfortunately we don’t have anyone who can play full back.Time for Moura to be rested because we can’t afford one good bit of play every third game.We really are a mess and only the addition of about 6 class players will change anything.Conte gone at end of season and then maybe the support will wake up to the reality of Enic

 

Agree completely about Sanchez and royal Royal just seems scared to make an error so tries to give it back as soon as possible. I think he is scared to be found out, that he isn’t actually very good!

Disagree about Regie though, he gets in better positions, crosses more often and I can’t find it now but I read a stat that he has the most successful crosses in the league, better than Trent Alexander etc

Right hand side was frightening today though, Sanchez to Royal to Moura just looked like they had never played together before. I’d get rid of Royal, move Romero to the right , Dier in the middle and maybe re-invent Moura as a wing back, he’s at least going to cross and give it a go

 

Good call on Moura, for the rest of this season that must be better than Royal who cannot defend or cross at all.

With Regy, take a look at this link - https://www.premierleague.com/players/39606/Sergio-Reguilón/stats

Crosses - 131
Cross Accuracy - 31%
Tackle success - 55%
Duels won - 203
Duels lost - 216
Aerial battles won - 52
Aerial battles lost - 56

 

Overall, the team are playing way better in each and every game since Contes arrival. The problem is being let down by infldividual errors. Sanchez stepping forward to throw his positioning off…Royal covering Sanchez by standing in the space directly behind him, far too close and paying no attention whatsoever to the attacking players which takes both of them on that side out of the game. Winks &. PEH making sloppy mistakes which lead to chances for the opposition.

No one has said we don’t need to make signings/changes but the team should have been performing better than they were under JM & Nuno…they are now. If we can eliminate the individual errors we would be miles stronger. The problem is, Sanchez and Royal are full of errors so the only fix for them is replacement

 

Interesting stat from Southampton game - Royal and Sanchez lost the ball 17 times each which was most out of the Spurs team that played. It also coincides with the fact that the Southampton goals were all scored from chances created in the spaces they should have been covering

 

The difference between the two sides tonight was evident... one side tried to manage the game... the other was aggressive and came to win

Conte bears the brunt of the loss here... Spurs far too passive first half and once again when they took the lead late... attempting to conserve yourself when you have 3 games in a week is understandable but it's also unacceptable to approach home games this way

Southampton are a middling side... they're not very good under the press (few are) as was obvious when we finally decided to pressure them second half... the go-ahead goal was just a matter of time... but then to just go soft again once you score? you're asking for trouble against a side that has nothing to lose

If you want to talk personnel... Winks is a Championship player and that's always been the case... he wouldn't look out of place in League One some days... Davies is generally solid but nothing more than average at best... the two wing backs have potential but both look like natural fullbacks... Emerson particularly

 

With regards to the wing backs...

Yes they need to defend... but that is auxiliary in this formation

You already have 3 centre backs and 2 holding midfielders... how many defenders do you want?

It's in the final third where they need to impact... and you saw tonight too many glorious opportunities wasted there by both men

Regardless... Spurs would have won this game easily had they actually played to dominate... that's entirely on the manager