Matchday discussion

From the BBC:
https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/51787532
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TEAM NEWS
Fit again forwards Harry Kane and Son Heung-min will both start against Manchester United, according to Tottenham head coach Jose Mourinho.

Giovani Lo Celso will have an injury assessed and Dele Alli is banned for a social media post mocking coronavirus.

Manchester United forward Marcus Rashford has recovered from a stress fracture in his back.

Paul Pogba is also available after an ankle problem but defenders Axel Tuanzebe and Phil Jones are injured.
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Feels like the latest match was an age ago.... Formation wise I have not much of an idea and line-up possibly even less.... Three central defenders and two strikers? Two central defenders and one striker? Who'll play in the midfield?

 

Bit worrying watching Southampton destroy Norwich who beat us last week.I know it was a friendly but defensively they are awful and we only scored one

 

Interesting line up
No Alds or Vertonghen in defence, Dier over Alds is a brave call!

at least with all the subs changes we will get to bring on lo celso and Ndombele later- didn’t see Moura on the bench?

 

Dier at centre back Toby on bench decelso on bench and ndombele what is going on??are they injured or is this a master plan .I give up trying to understand Mourino anymore

 

Actually thought Dier played well until..
Sissy was good, Lamela made a difference with pressing first half .Kane looked shocking
Tactics wrong, we sat back and let them at us in the second half

 

Defending way too deep and standing still as well. & if it is intended to be defending that deep and having players standing still then have the one standing still be up at the halfway line to keep the opposition defenders from pushing up so high. I thought Sissoko was guilty of a lot of the standing still and defending too deep.

Would have been nice to have had Moura on instead of Kane if the tactic is to defend so deep. But he wasn't even on the bench.

Lamela used where I like it, he and Alli are competing for the same position.

 

Don’t know what to say about that Dier played well until the penalty .But why do we sit back and encourage teams to attack us.Once again our right back gives the ball away for fun and causes panic every time he gets the ball.When the penalty was conceded Winks was standing watching instead of covering Dier Which would probably have stopped the penalty.lamela works hard but had at least 3 good chances to set a chance up but his final ball was poor.Kane was totally anonymous.Our play was screaming out for someone with skill but they were on the bench.All in all we were lucky that Pogba was not on earlier

 

The reason we sit so deep is because the midfield is so piss poor, it's got next to no muscle or talent in it.
There's no battling or dictation of the ball which leads to the Attack being stranded and them all holding hands with the defence in an attempt to shield the clowns weve stock piled in there.
Winks is the biggest fraud of a player going he is the epitome of bang average talent wise n has nothing else about his game to warrant a place in the squad let alone the 1st team. But as he's the academy poster boy he gets a game no matter what.
Gedson is also bang average, Sissoko is incredibly poor but at least warrants a place by covering ground and putting a foot in , the rest of our midfield options are just pathetic.
Aurrier is the worst RB I can remember at Spurs period.
The whole side lacks a solid spine so until that's sorted out we're pissing against the wind for the long term forseeable.

 

I thought it was a good performance. Looked really good on the counter and utd struggled to contain us didn't get our 2nd goal. Lamela 2 or 3 times missed glaring opportunities to thread teammates in despite him playing really well. Serge again guilty of some poor final balls into the box and finishing. Bad header from Sonny at one nil. They made good subs at the right time, dubious pen and they managed to push us back when we ran out of legs and ideas. Kane should have been hooked his legs had gone and he gave ball away cheaply on our counter leading to thier goal. Had we been able to throw on Lucas, Alli, parott etc we could maybe have continued to counter rather than contain. Probably should have used sessagnon rather that gedson as an outlet.
Agree with felon on the centre mid although winks had one of his better games last night but he's not good enough especially in a double pivot he's more suited to a middle 3. Cash in and reinvest for me on him.

 

The match was interesting overall and I was surprised in well by some players like Lloris, Dier (apart from his inability to understand that contact is better managed in this area), Sanchez, Sissoko and Lamela. Otherwise, I was very disappointed by Aurier (why Mourinho does not play Alderweireld who is rear right in his place in this case?), By Winks from the 60th minute (he has no ability to defend!) And by Kane who should have left the field after 60 minutes. Mourinho imposes tactical choices on us which are the reverse of Spurs DNA! Defend too low in 2nd half as we did in almost every game under his orders ... It's sad and tasteless! Nothing to do with the Spurs I love! Why stay with Ndombele on the bench when the opponent brings in Pogba and Matic to further strengthen his midfielder and continue to see us suffer like that was the case all the 2nd half? If Ndombele is in place of Winks on Dier's penalty, Pogba is never alone in the box! Son should have taken Kane's place in the 60th and that would have allowed the team to have a complementary midfield to help the defense hold up better. We will see where we will be in the ranking at the end of the season but I do not believe in Mourinho and even less since yesterday! I hope I am wrong ...

 

I was a great supporter of hiring Mourino but unlike the poch lovers who could not admit when he was wrong I am doubting my judgement now.I admit that if Lamela could thread a pass we may have been 2 up and may have hung on for a win but that does not hide the painful tactics. and the selection problems.Kane and Winks should have been off after 60 mins.We desperately need someone who can provide for the front men so theydon’t spend the game defending our penalty area.A decision has to be made over ndombele because if Mourino does not rate him then get rid while he still has a value and what does Gedson give us.Our scouting is really poor and has been since we gave our best scout to the team that trounced us in the champion league recently.lets hope Man City win their appeal and keep in the champions league so Chelsea miss out .I wish!!!

 

Do we have a solid Keeper? No
Solid CB pairing? No
Solid CDM? No
A quality playmaker? No
A quality CF? We had a quality CF but he looks broken (thanks Poch & Levy) and is now injury prone.

People can waffle all they like about who should play where n who needs to be given a chance etc but until all that above is sorted out this side isn't going to be realistically contending for top 4 or any honours for a long time.
This is the minimum of repair needed before dealing with the appalling full back situation & the stock pile of non entity error prone wage thieves (thanks to Poch & Levy again)

Pure neglect and woeful transfer policy has got us here there's no point blaming JM until he's been given time and money to sort this monumentally poorly put together squad out.

 

I agree that Mourinho should have done better. I forgot about Sessegnon on the bench. Kane off, Son go central and never below the halfway line and Sessegnon in on the left.

Kane is a great player but the tactics, or the match how it was played, was not according to his strengths. When a team is pushed back as much as Spurs was then what is needed is a threat on the counter.

When was the last time Kane was substituted? Is it in his contract that he has to play every match and all match?

Btw, I think I saw something (or heard something) about Sissoko only having 8 touches on the ball in the first half. If true then that is very low for a central midfielder and if it is true then for Sissoko then that might have been receiving the ball once and passing the ball once

 

Difficult to envisage Jose lasting until the end of next season at the moment. Results aside, the counter football is dreadful to watch (we should not be ceding 60% possession to this United side on our home pitch). I don't care how he is spinning it today because it will be different tomorrow... Jose is a victim of his own style. He is too cautious, too passive and too reactive regardless of the opponent. That is not going to cut it at Spurs. The best we have looked this season has been chasing games... it should be mandatory because our backline is not strong enough to invite opponents onto us. So if we're going to concede let's at least go after the opposition in the process because that is happening far too infrequently these days.

The argument can be made that our central midfield is not good enough presently to dominate the ball but again the manager is not maximising his resources here. Jose is cutting off his nose to spite Ndombele... this is a big mistake and the team suffers as a result. The only measure by which Winks is superior is work rate. A good manager should realise that not all players are created equal in this sense and running around like a chicken with its head removed should not be the primary metric by which all players get a game. Jose made this mistake with Pogba and Hazard as well. He lost Pogba and consequently his job... he was lucky not to lose Hazard as well (despite his best efforts) because Jose would have won nothing at Chelsea during his second stint without him. Again, look at Shaw last night. He has always been a quality player... easily one of the very best left backs, if not the best, in England. Jose purposefully wasted him and he is absolutely doing the same with Ndombele, a clearly exceptional talent. The manager is failing the club here with this nonsense and he needs to rectify it quickly for his sake and ours.

 

I liked Spurs against MU. Whatever JM is doing, he is doing well. The result is fair. It was an even tie that should have been goalless. Both teams had unlucky moments: they with De Gea blunder and us with Dier penalty. Although I think the penalty was fabricated by Pogba who foolished the ref by kicking Dier's calf and falling over. Thank the FA for VAR as well.

 

God I missed the Rose coloured spectacles spurporter.It used to be about poch now you have switched to Mourino.If you think that was him doing well then be prepared to be bored witless in the future

 

This is still very much up for debate not seen much to warrant this sort of praise so far.
Between him, Lo Celso & Sessegnon have they offered any value for money so far at a combined price of about £130 million ?

(I've liked LoCelsos attitude/application)

Talent wise though considering what's gone they've not even stood us still let alone improved us.

 

Hey everyone, it’s been a while..I hope you and all your families have stayed safe.
From what I watched against MU, the frailties of a few months ago still remain and nothing much has changed during the off time as far as as I can see.
I just don’t like Dier at CB and to be honest in CDM either and he would be one of the players to be replaced for me.
If anyone can explain how Aurier gets a game, I would like to hear the logic...I have never witnessed a defender give the ball away so close to his own goal or cross a ball so badly that it’s not possible to get on the end of it who still manages to get picked.
At this point we need to sign a LB, RB and LCB as a priority.
Midfield actually looked ok in periods, the problem for me is that the side are set up to sit deep and counter attack without players that are capable of counter attacking.
We simply cannot give up possession and sit deep in such a negative way and expect to win many games.
Ndombele should be sold along with Alli and Lamela. I say this because they should generate enough between them to allow us to sign decent replacements.
Sissoko is a huge player for us and IMO so underrated, especially amongst some of our own fans.
As much as it pains me to say it, if we get a big offer from overseas for Kane, I also think that should be accepted (as long as the full amount can be reinvested into the team). The key players to retain moving forwards are Bergwijn, Son & Lo Celso (who has improved so much since his early days).
JM was a great manager who hasn’t kept up with today’s football and will continue to divide opinion between fans until he is either sacked or leaves. I personally just hope either is sooner rather than later.
The massive silver lining is the fact that we are not Gooners.....COYS

 

This is why Spurs paid 55 million for Ndombele... keep in mind these highlights are from the 17/18 season when he was 20/21 years old. Ironically, this scouting video lists 'work rate' as one of his strengths which is amusing given this is the reason Jose is making a pariah out of him.



Here is another link to an article quoting Hoddle. His word is not gospel of course (we should all make up our own minds on these things) but if anyone would know what a sublime midfield talent looks like then I think it would be one of the finest I've ever seen... and that's Hoddle.

https://www.givemesport.com/1574563-spurs-legend-glenn-hoddle-tells-club-not-to-sell-tanguy-ndombele

It's not a given that any player (particularly a young player who doesn't speak the language) no matter how good will come to England and absolutely light it up in their first season. Some adapt quickly... most don't. But I've seen enough already to know that Ndombele is on another level altogether to anything we have in central midfield... and I rate Sissoko. Winks is a good enough squad player but to regularly start him ahead of Ndombele is just laughable. Jose best show some flexibility here... and quickly... because he is not going to be given the same luxury at Spurs that he has had elsewhere of purchasing a side in his own image.

 

Here is why Ndombele was criticised earlier in the season:


& Sissoko....
-can't shoot
-can't cross
-can't dribble
-have difficulty receiving even a short pass
-have difficulty passing even a short pass
-tackling is average

Yes, he is a hard worker, yes he appears to be a great professional from which many players could learn his professionalism.

Taken together then for me he is not a starter but good to have in the squad.