The Curious Case of Lewis 'Out of Favour' Holtby

You forget these players were allowed to be fair players because of a forgot hero... Steve Perryman, he did the work that allowed the others to shine.

 

Holtby is going nowhere he's too important for this squad with his versatility and his team and work ethic. he may not be the best flair type player going around but he is creative and clever and energetic.

 

Holtby is perhaps your ' marmite' player. You either love or hate him but I am firmly In the first camp. He tracks back and works hard, has a good left peg and frees up more creative players to do their bit. Another of my favourites, Freund was hardly what you would call pleasing on the eye, but he was a real team player and every team needs a strong team player who does the dirty stuff. That is why Perryman and Hoddle were so good together.
I would be sad if he left, but as I have said often right here, I trust that Pochettino has a firm plan and if certain players don't fit into that, then sadly we move on as whatever happens, we have a great squad that most teams would be very happy to have at their disposal.
Levy being levy though, I still wouldn't be surprised to see at least one more face at the lane come the end of September the first!

 

Levy offered Holtby good pay to get his signature on his contract fast. The intention to sell him is not a result of anything Holtby does or does not. Like many things Levy does, is was planned ahead, I think. MP , in my opinion, was told to showcase the young man, which was done successfully in pre-season and at Upton Park. The only way Holtby may be kept is if MP would come to Levy/Baldini and says that he absolutely needs the boy. Also, if Scheiderlin is a possibility, Holtby definitely would be a surplus as he has tried and succeeded so far to present himself as SchneiderlinLite.

 

His talent or commitment is not called into question , does Poch want him or will he fit into his tactical plans.Sentiments and tolerance does not get us the champions league spot or be taken as realistic title contenders.Game plans and tactics will never translate onto the field if the top hierarchy of the club will dictate signings and playing personal to such an extent that players know and allow the indecisiveness to creep into their game. Best thing will be to show the door to those that are not needed , bring in talented players that can fit in and the confidence will show on the field. We must accept we are a squad of individuals and not a team, or that we do not play like on.
I hope Poch will turn around our fortunes and do so with us playing exciting football...COYS

 

I thought that Holtby was unlucky not to get a start at WH his pre season form was good and he looks fit and ready to go but I don't see that as a sign that he's out of favour or that he's about to be moved on. He's also just made some comments on the Spurs official talking about how great it is at Spurs and the teams belief and character. He's not the best player or MF at the club but with an engine like his with his commitment and ability to fit into poch's system, why would we sell him? there's lots of cup games this year and I expect him to be prominent in those games as well as some league games.

 

Problem is with this squad that is 'bursting with potential' is when are any of them going to start producing thats if they produce at all? Weve seen where the endless wait for lennon to achieve his potential has got him hes become a defensive 'winger'.
Now its ok looking for potential but to fill/over load the squad with players all only showing bits and pieces of talent is going to get exposed in the EPL as it did last season if we dont get more quality consistant established players in.
Poch/Manager/Coach can only implement so much after that its about Players standing up and taking responsibility. We have too many lost puppies not enough cutting edge. Levy will have once again failed us and to back his false promises of top 4 and trophies if he doesnt add some much needed Quality and cut a number of average inconsistant players.

 

I think it is difficult when any new manager comes in to know who to chop and who to keep. Poch will have done his homework and only he truly knows who he feels is good enough for the club.
I agree that we do have a team with lots of potential and as fans we want to see that potential turned into reality on the pitch.
It may mean we have to be patient for a little longer yet. Whether the new manager will be allowed that time still remains to be seen.
Even with my 'love' for levy, I don't think he dare be seen to have hired another manager and then sack him after a year. Poch will be given at least two seasons to get things moving....I hope!

 

But again Matt, the new manager is being stiffled/smothered by Levys grip on transfers. AVB had arrys rejects, Tim took on AVBs, Poch is taking on Tims & AVBs.
There is no way that Poch genuinely thinks/thought vorm, davies & dier are the missing ingredients, and due to the merry go round and stock piling of average/may take 5yrs to come good players we cant/wont get players in of the type of ilk/caliber that will get us all where we want to be.
Levy/Enics policies are failing the club and fans big time, if all we want is 6th and financial stability glory days look no closer now than 8yrs ago.

 

Where do u get that dier vorm Davies aren't poch signings... Y would levy want to spend 5m on a res goalie??? Why wouldn't poch want two promising young Brits?? Secondly alls I'm hearing about holtby is how hard he works and puts a shift in.. I work hard can I get a start then. Its nonsense . Its all about quality and consistency and he has simply never shown enough.

 

Big Fran, they may have been Poch signings and they may be good aquisitions and yes Levy has sanctioned them (being theyr all cheap) but lets not kid ourselves they are not going to miraculously get us challenging the top 4. And your not telling me that anyone thinks that these signings are enough to take us forward. We are stagnating badly, with AFCON this season as well Ades going to miss a chunk and have an inevitable dip in form so whos going to score goals? Soldado? Kane? People are dreaming if they think thats enough to sustain a challenge on any front.
Facts are we keep buying hopefulls, baulking at real quality, blaming the manager, and starting all over again.
I will say it again we are no closer to glory now than we were 8years ago, the on pitch success model has and is failing miserably Levy/Enics transfer policies only make money it is completely flawed in football terms.

 

Are we stronger at left bk than last year. I would say yes. Are we stronger in the goalkeeper dept. Again yes. In central defence again I
would say yes with dier added who can also cover rb. Also being stronger in left bk Jan will play more at centre half I would say. Could we do with another centre half I would say yes and the club are clearly trying as they are for a forward. Now I'm not pro Levy I'm pro spurs. Utd have money to burn we do not. They still cannot attract top talent even with there status. Its not easy competing with clubs that have stadiums of 55;000 plus a match and or in some cases a rich sugar daddy. We clearly can't compete til we get our stadium and that unfortunately don't come cheap. We've had two top 4 finishes in recent years Cl quarter final a Carling cup win and had some fantastic players vdv bale modders berba who all wanted to move on. The transfer policy we buy on the cheap and sell for a fortune and most of the cash has gone bk in. Was it levy who squandered 100m or the manager/DoF...? I will say the club or levy did miss a trick in the Jan window when we only signed saha and nelson but somewhere along the line the gaffers gotta take some responsibility. When most managers leave clubs these days in order to get their Max payout they agree to be gagged in order to not say exactly who signed this or that player. If avb had anything about him he would have waived this at both spurs n Chelsea and said his piece. But no on to zenit and another fat pay day. What do u constitue as glory ?

 

Picking up more than a league cup in over a decade would be a good start.
I genuinely cant believe people actually celebrate this feeder club mentality, buy young hope/pray they come good and if they do sell them for as much as you can get. Its embarrassing how are we ever gona get success with ideoligy like that??
Glory is certainly not being happy with 6th and selling all your best players when/if they come good.

 

What are we an academy for the big clubs??
Where have we gone since the CL QF??
When will the Mythical stadium ever be built??
An upgrade on Danny Rose, a 40yr keeper and Daws thats not strengthening its a nessecity!

 

Matching arsenal for trophies then over that period who are probably the most financially stable self self sufficient club in uk. Who I may add lost rvp fabregas song Petit viera overmars to bigger clubs to fund the new stadium they are now housed. Now they are able to compete to sign the ozils and Sanchez and that is the blueprint my mate

 

Lets base our 'success' on compairing it to Scums failings whilst they built a new stadium paid it off and finished above us and in the CL every season while doing so over turning point advantages held by us completely mugging us off in the process?

 

I would love to see a clip of the type of passing that took your breath away. I like his energy and he reminds me of Scott Parker in that way. He has better skill than Parker obviously and has a more attacking nature to his game than Scotty.

I just haven't seen anything that seems to be top class in his game. Much like he is excellent at all but master of no single attribute. Perhaps he is caught between identities? Is he a provider of chances with creative play or is he a sure ball handling midfielder who can help relieve pressure switching between flanks? Does he want to be the focal point and all play will go through him like Modric? Or is he more suited to being a deeper lying ball handler who will be asked to focus more on closing down opponents and being an outlet?

I can't tell and it is great that he is as verstile as he is. However at some point won't he have to make a choice to either be a backup of Eriksen or one of the backups of Paulinho?

In all honestly it wouldn't surprise me greatly to see him being loaned out again as we have seriously good talent in the position. If he chooses to work on becoming a creative playmaker then it would help the team give Eriksen some rest and not be lacking someone that could provide tge killer pass. He isn't quite there yet in my eyes as someone we can rely on to run the offense. Bentaleb has begun to establish himself as a close down outlet man. Dembele is an enigma as far as what he would look like in this offense and I would like to see him used further up attacking and providing but he is perhaps our best man at handling the ball and is hard to get the ball off of. Paulinho can be a great player when his effort matches his attitude and can score goals seemingly being a magnet to loose balls and loves to make runs into the box. I thought he did well during the second half of the 3rd place game against the Dutch. He showed the passion that makes him very dangerous. It is a shame that not many of his teammates showed up or his efforts that second half would have been well noticed.

I would really like to see a stronger sign of world class potential in Holtby basically. He is young and I hope he can find a direction to put his high motor towards that will make him a must have on match day. I just haven't seen it yet sadly.

 

I can see the point regarding Holtby but I don't see him as being one of those players that will ever stand out as amazing, but a player who is efficient and will chip in with the odd goal and make space for others. Players such as Freund and Nielsen never set the world on fire but both were great players in the spurs teams they played in and Holtby can reach that level.
This season will be about pochettino learning which players are best for HIS squad and I thnk we will see quite a few different teams over the coming weeks until he identifies his best team.
This may be a touch annoying at times, but we must give the new manager time to build the team in his way.