Townsend is hardly having a "shit season." He could do better in the numbers column, but it's not as if the entire team has been putting up big numbers anyway and with the dross play of our midfield, he is almost always predictably double-teamed. Some of you assess this game so skin-deep I don't know how you ever remain entertained.
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Townsend is hardly having a "shit season." He could do better in the numbers column, but it's not as if the entire team has been putting up big numbers anyway and with the dross play of our midfield, he is almost always predictably double-teamed. Some of you assess this game so skin-deep I don't know how you ever remain entertained.
Compared to his peers: Top 4. He is having a shit season.
One prem goal (a cross) and zero assists is a diabolical return. People have brought up that other top players have had slow starts, but at what age? He's almost 23. And the big clubs would not invest any more important games in someone with stats as poor as his by April. Players with potential show a lot more when they are into their 20's when it comes to finishing, crossing, shooting and decision making. Especially ones like Townsend who has not had acceptable scoring or assists at many of his loan spells at lower levels.
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Wanted to agree + funny.
I think wingers are most useful in counter-attacking football.
This does not really exist, tactically, this season, so wingers have looked undervalued & underused tactically.
The tactics seem to be suited to crosses into a box full of 8 or 9 opposition players, rather than quick driven crosses
Trust me on this my friend: if we ever get a decently fluid and dynamic midfield, Townsend will be one of the first to reap the benefits. His aggression and mobility in a very stagnant offense makes him extremely easy to target and shut down. With an open field of play, I guarantee you the visible improvement in his play and results will be more dramatic than most.
How can you come to that conclusion, when Townsend has been terrible when it comes to decision making? If we get that midfield you want, he is not going to be able to read their game. They will be passing it into space, preempting runs etc and he will be ball watching or going through the motions.
Townsend has been a large slice of the footballing IQ problem we have had. There is nothing fluid about his game, it's head down and charge. He is all gods gift natural ability and no footballing brain to take him over the edge.
This is that "skin-deep" thing I was talking about. This is one of the few notions that have build up around the Spurs online community with such momentum it's simply stunning. As I said, there is room for him to improve, but the direct cause for most of our noticeable problems is our central midfield. Further compounding this fact is the incredible psychological pressure placed on Townsend from the past year he's had. How many players have gone from nine loan spells, to finally a successful Prem loan, to starting for the club you've known and supported your entire life, playing in the position just left behind by a recent club legend and the most expensive player of all time, to England starter and media darling in the course of eight months? For him to have just "clicked" or "fallen in" would have required him to be nothing more than a machine.
With a new manager, some humbling, and a few acquisitions in the midfield (CM and LW) more suitable to our actual needs, I guarantee you Townsend will go on to be a winger appropriate of a level of a top four side. He has all the tools to succeed, just needs a bit more honing.
Sorry mate but this is just wrong. There are masses of olayers who take time to develop. I'll not bother going into much detail other than to say that Didier Drogba didn't make his first team debut with Le Mans until he was 21 and didn't play in Ligue 1 until he was 23.
Ian Wright didn't get a professional contract until he was 22 with Crystal Palace.
I can't see Townsend being so alert, fizzing balls into space and linking up with a fluid attack. I can't see it. He does not have the footballing brain to fit that type of system, and he certainly does not have the finishing or killer pass in him. I hope I am wrong, but last season he was only good enough to go on loan. All of Townsends problems come to a head in the final third. That is where these killers thrive. He lacks confidence there.
Take his shooting. It was awful, so he shoots les probably due to instruction. But now he's stopped shooting when he SHOULD shoot! That is part of that decision making and intelligence. He got it wrong both ways: First he took too many shots too far away..And when he changes up his game, he stops taking shots when he is much closer.
IMO if you remove Lennon and Townsend, it will really help out Soldado and Walker. There is no click, they are on different wavelengths and have had vastly different coaching. We seem to be on opposite ends, where I blame the Townsends, and you blame the slow build up from midfield.
Perhaps both of us are right. However I think my opinion is correct, because the clean sheets the midfield were a big part of winning battles and retaining possession. We have the base IMO, we just lack intelligence on the wings to capitalize.
Exactly my point.
We don't have that base. We can have all the possession in the world, but if we don't do anything with the ball and make things difficult for opposing defenses, it's very easy for them to target and isolate the more dynamic threats. But if you're still of your opinion I've nothing left to convince you. Just keep an open mind when you watch the games, and evaluate as you watch our midfield. With how cumbersome and predictably we move the ball, it's honestly a remarkable feat that we're still in with even a small shot at fourth.
That is cherry picking. Drogba was world class. There are literally 1000s of players who did the opposite. He is an exception not the rule.
We actually have had excellent attacking stats all season. The problem was the ability of the player to seal the deal in the final third.
Townsend has been the weakest link in that respect. We have allowed him to take over 50 prem shots. Failing to score with all of them. It is the sheer amount of opportunity we gave him to make an impact that got his goal. Another scuffed cross that went in.
We put up fair numbers of chances, but the quality of them is very poor and dependent on an inherent degree of luck considering how many of them come in from the wing against a stacked box with defenders facing away from goal. We typically lob it in because of a high pressure environment at the Lane and a lack of better ideas. I'd like to see those numbers drop for a rise in quality over quantity.
I think you are ignoring the interplay seen between ade, eriksen, soldado and most recently Chadli.
The problem is not potential buildup, the problem at spurs is the head down shooting, crossing and intelligence of Lennon and Townsend.
The green shoots of progress have had nothing to do with Townsend.
That current level of interplay is acceptable to you? I call it limping along on the back of individual quality, but it is almost plain as day that a level of understanding that is demanded to succeed at this level simply is not there at the moment. The reason we have performed so poorly against the clubs above us cannot logically be pinpointed at the winger situation. It is a problem, on that we certainly agree. But it is not the reason we struggle to break down weaker sides and look entirely hapless against the current top four.
Klose was playing in the lower leagues in his early 20s and then won the golden boot a few years later at a World Cup.
Luca Toni played in the lower leagues until he was 26. He won a World Cup.
Di Natale was 26 before he made it into the Serie A and has gone on to score over 200 goals for Udinese in all competitions.
These are just the high profile examples, there are literally hundreds of examples of players only becoming effective as they mature.
What about low profile players like Jimmy Bullard? He couldn't buy a game at West Ham and had to rebuild his career at Peterborough. He was 28 when he finally made it to The EPL.
So Townsend has no product in his break out season... Shocker! He actually had 10 goals and assists in 10/11, 9 in 11/12 and his performances for QPR last season was enough for us to call him back to the fold.
He's outrageously wasteful because he's trying to impress too hard but most of what else you say is pretty baseless.
Hate it for the poor kid. In a season where passion and character has been a major problem, we actually have a player who wants more than anything to succeed for Spurs and England, and he's replaced Dempsey as our scapegoat in offense. Not a doubt in my mind he'll go on to great things with Spurs.
I think he will, but in his rush to prove himself ready to claim a starting berth, he badly overextended himself in the earlier parts of this season. In recent appearances he has played more conservatively within the means of the strengths currently at his disposal, as opposed to the start of the season wherein he was seemingly on a mission to make everyone forget the name of Gareth Bale, and it simply wasn't working.
He's a direct, pacy, and troublesome winger, and that's great, but his goal-scoring instinct and decision-making in the final third currently leave much to be desired. I don't think he can be characterized as a scapegoat given that he's been an irregular piece of our attacking setup at best, but his early attempts this season were certainly far from productive and looked more like a lesson in trying to turn the ball over rather than providing any real creativity or cutting edge in attack.