Not to mention that it's a moot point because Aaron Lennon is fucking injured!
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If I could I'd give a gazillion thumbs up. THREE FUCKING GAMES indeed
While I cant stand posts that claim people who rate someone differently "doesnt know football", I agree somewhat with your sentiment.
I dont know if Lamela will be more effective for us than Lennon has been in the past, and while Capoue looks fucking great, he could end up like Parker or Palacios.
Its too early too judge the new signings either way.
The best thing is to just sit back and give them time, and see exactly what they are about.
Threads like these (not just this one) so early in the season: WTF?!
That is all.
That is all.
Its one thing not to rate the player as high as others, but its ridiculous for people to say that someone like Chadli is flat out bad. That is what people have been saying on here and its been driving me mad. And I've been watching Lamela play for Roma for two years, and Soldado play at Valencia for three years. That have been two of my favorite players and I am ecstatic that we've bought them. You will be amazed by what they can do.
"Now we have four decent CBs...two wasted each week."
I thought I was gonna read something interesting ... and here I find out that it's actually shit.
I mean, this thread is pointless.
It's utterly stupid, or that we are so freakin bored by the international week.
But if anyone is serious about this article (aka like the one who started this thread) ...
FFS, whether the signings are deemed to be a success or a failure, there is no way that anything should be judged right now.
I mean, what ... only 3 games in ... and this already?!:avbfacepalm:
I mean, this thread is pointless.
It's utterly stupid, or that we are so freakin bored by the international week.
But if anyone is serious about this article (aka like the one who started this thread) ...
FFS, whether the signings are deemed to be a success or a failure, there is no way that anything should be judged right now.
I mean, what ... only 3 games in ... and this already?!:avbfacepalm:
Maybe Carlito used "fucked" in a good way
Sammy is good entertainment. After you got to respect someone who repeated corrects people on their grammar but doesn't know that "alot" is actually two words.sammyspurs..the word is signed..SIGNED..have a rant man but least spell proper lol..joke inside this sentance somewhereoopps there he is.
I love how people on here only read what they want to and not the bits that actually trouble them.
#NEVERRED
Fuck it. Fuck it. Fuck it.
We're shit. We're going to get relegated with a record points low.
We're going to finish bottom of the Europa League group. Scunthorpe will put us out the FA Cup.
Or maybe it's far too early to properly form an opinion on what might happen. Five games for fuck sake. Four of them with a shut out. And an narrow loss at arguably our second or third most difficult away game.
Granted, we're not exactly swashbuckling but despite a team getting to know one another on the park we've done ok. I expect there is more to come...........
We're shit. We're going to get relegated with a record points low.
We're going to finish bottom of the Europa League group. Scunthorpe will put us out the FA Cup.
Or maybe it's far too early to properly form an opinion on what might happen. Five games for fuck sake. Four of them with a shut out. And an narrow loss at arguably our second or third most difficult away game.
Granted, we're not exactly swashbuckling but despite a team getting to know one another on the park we've done ok. I expect there is more to come...........
We could have sold bale for ozil and di Maria and still had change for soldado.
Then we solve the left wing issue, get in the creativity, we have Lennon and Townsend on the right.
Sandro and dembele middle.
Job done....instead we have bought in a raft of coffee coloured monsters who look / play exactly the same.
We're going to retain a lot of ball....and score fuck all goals.
Then we solve the left wing issue, get in the creativity, we have Lennon and Townsend on the right.
Sandro and dembele middle.
Job done....instead we have bought in a raft of coffee coloured monsters who look / play exactly the same.
We're going to retain a lot of ball....and score fuck all goals.
Problem is that they probably weren't interested. We don't have Champion's League football to offer, and also those players will demand more wages than our wage structure is likely to allow. From all reports, di Maria is still quite insistent that he wants to fight for his position, as well.
Now, I am firmly among those that believe Woolwich is on a downward trend, and even with Ozil they've still got massive holes in their squad, and they didn't exactly fix what needed fixing. Ozil is an upgrade, but they already had a top creative playmaker in Cazorla. I think they'll still be vulnerable to meltdowns.
No cover? That's a monster midfield, but both are injury prone, and Dembele hasn't exactly inspired me in the first couple of games. Do you agree with Huddlestone and Parker out? If so, surely we'd short in midfield. I'd rather keep the "coffee-colored monsters" and retain some semblance of depth.
What you're suggesting is fine and all, but I think it's a tad unrealistic, and leaves serious holes in central midfield. On the two occasions last season when we lost one of Dembele or Sandro for significant portions of the season, our entire team fell apart.
We've got Soldado who, if I remember correctly, was the one player that you were quite intent on as being "Spursy." We've also got two of the top creative and attacking talents in all of Europe in Eriksen and Lamela, respectively, and Capoue and Paulinho have great resumes, as well.
Not too bad, methinks. Ozil to Woolwich was a massive slap in the face, but I think you're overreacting a bit. I wouldn't be surprised if one or both of di Maria and Ozil were sought, but that's not how it worked out.
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If you really want to judge the new players that have been brought in, you really should be judging them on the roles they have been given within the team. Paulinho and Capoue have been brought in to supplement Sandro and Dembele in the middle of the park, to ensure that we control the midfield battle and retain possession, pushing us up the park. Last season, our average possession was 53% (8th best in league), while the ratio of time that the action took place in the Spurs half/middle of pitch/Opposition half was 26%/46%/28%. So far this season, they’ve done excellently. We have dominated possession in each of our 3 games so far, averaging 54.2% possession (6th best in league) despite playing in 2 of those games against the #1 and #5 teams last season in terms of possession. The action areas in those 3 games was 22%/48%/30%. Again, bearing in mind the calibre of 2 of those teams we’ve played, those figures are impressive. Also in those 3 games, we’ve taken the 2nd most number of shots per game, 17.7, bettered only by Everton. Bearing in mind that Everton have averaged 64.1% possession, and have played Norwich, West Brom and Cardiff to date, you would expect them to take a lot of shots against that opposition with that much time with the ball.
Chadli and Soldado have been brought in to supply opportunities and to convert some of them. Bearing in mind Soldado’s reputation as a goal poacher and an instinctive, one-touch finisher, it is rather disappointing that only 4% of our shots to date have been from inside the 6-yard box, with 42% inside the penalty box, the remainder being potshots from range (this may be a legacy from last season, when our solution to not being able to break teams down was for Bale to lash one in from outside the area). In fairness to Soldado, I can’t think of any big chances that he’s missed yet, and he converted his 2 penalties with aplomb, something both Defoe and Adebayor have been unreliable on in the past. Chadli has shown flashes of what he can do, and in his 3 PL games to date has had 9 key passes, the same number as Walcott and only bettered by Marveaux, Hazard, Baines and Cazorla with 10 each. Where he could do with some improvement is with some wayward shooting to date, with 0 shots on target out of 8, but his stats from last season are very good – 18 goals was a massive goal return for FC Twente from only 26 appearances, 3 as substitute. It’s still early days but if this guy can find his shooting boots or get off the mark early this season to get the crowd off his back, he could be a very valuable asset to have.
Onto the newer arrivals, Eriksen and Lamela will be the ones who will be given responsibility for “picking the lock”. Our midfield will be dictating the game, gaining us the lion’s share of possession and pushing us up the pitch, which will force opposing teams to get more and more men behind the ball and force us to be a bit more clever about finding a way to goal. This is what we’ve been missing in the games so far, but we can’t really blame these 2 yet, as they were only brought in after the season had started. It is worth bearing in mind, though, that in the space of a couple of years we’ve gone from a team which was probably more comfortable to invite teams onto us and then hit them on the break with sheer pace and powerful running to exploit spaces in behind teams, to a team which tends to dominate possession and push high into the opposition half. Last season we had a get out of jail card when teams chose to defend deep against us, as Bale had the ability from distance to find a yard of space and subsequently the top corner, or alternatively use dead balls to punish teams for fouls in and around the area, something we’d been missing for years. But last season we also sorely lacked a playmaker, especially since the departures of Modric and Van Der Vaart. Bale went from being a creator of chances to a scorer of goals, and we suffered through missing out on Moutinho, who could’ve given us the guile we needed in tight games. I’m very excited by the arrivals of Eriksen and Lamela, both definitely have an eye for goal and can pick a pass, whether they can replicate their form in other countries to the Premier League remains to be seen, but one thing is certain – negativity from the crowd and unrealistic expectations won’t help. These guys are young, talented footballers, they may hit the ground running or they may take a while to settle, or perhaps one or both will never live up to their promise, but they should be allowed the chance to show what they can do. Even the best attacking player will occasionally lose possession or pick a stray pass, but the great ones will continue trying and will eventually get there. Destroying a player’s confidence during that bedding in period, however, is completely counterproductive. Modric took half a season to start turning in decent performances for us, Bale took a couple of years, these guys have come with big price tags and expectations but they may need our support rather than our disdain to make it in this league.
Chiriches, by all accounts, is an accomplished young defender, versatile, skilful and pacy. He probably faces the biggest step up of all to this level, as he’s come from the weakest league of all of our 7 recruits. His reputation meant that he was being chased by a host of Italian teams, who tend to be able to spot a defender, which would lead me to believe that he’s probably got all the right attributes. It remains to be seen whether he will be a first team or squad player, but my guess is he’ll be happier than most to gain experience this season and be one for the future. If he comes good a bit earlier, great, but as a replacement for Caulker, I’m happy to wait and see how he turns out. I never thought Caulker was anything more than 4th choice for us, and since rumour has it that he burned a lot of bridges with his behaviour in pre-season, then I think Vlad will appreciate this chance at a big club a lot more than Caulker did. He could also provide competition/backup for Walker/Naughton, which can’t be a bad thing.
Our performances to date have shown that our midfield can now dominate possession (probably even more so in upcoming games than we’ve done to date, given the opposition thus far) and give us plenty of time in the opposition half, we have several goal threats from several positions in the attacking third, and once we can get some of our creative new players, plus the likes of Holtby, on the pitch, we should be able to open teams up a lot more.
Chadli and Soldado have been brought in to supply opportunities and to convert some of them. Bearing in mind Soldado’s reputation as a goal poacher and an instinctive, one-touch finisher, it is rather disappointing that only 4% of our shots to date have been from inside the 6-yard box, with 42% inside the penalty box, the remainder being potshots from range (this may be a legacy from last season, when our solution to not being able to break teams down was for Bale to lash one in from outside the area). In fairness to Soldado, I can’t think of any big chances that he’s missed yet, and he converted his 2 penalties with aplomb, something both Defoe and Adebayor have been unreliable on in the past. Chadli has shown flashes of what he can do, and in his 3 PL games to date has had 9 key passes, the same number as Walcott and only bettered by Marveaux, Hazard, Baines and Cazorla with 10 each. Where he could do with some improvement is with some wayward shooting to date, with 0 shots on target out of 8, but his stats from last season are very good – 18 goals was a massive goal return for FC Twente from only 26 appearances, 3 as substitute. It’s still early days but if this guy can find his shooting boots or get off the mark early this season to get the crowd off his back, he could be a very valuable asset to have.
Onto the newer arrivals, Eriksen and Lamela will be the ones who will be given responsibility for “picking the lock”. Our midfield will be dictating the game, gaining us the lion’s share of possession and pushing us up the pitch, which will force opposing teams to get more and more men behind the ball and force us to be a bit more clever about finding a way to goal. This is what we’ve been missing in the games so far, but we can’t really blame these 2 yet, as they were only brought in after the season had started. It is worth bearing in mind, though, that in the space of a couple of years we’ve gone from a team which was probably more comfortable to invite teams onto us and then hit them on the break with sheer pace and powerful running to exploit spaces in behind teams, to a team which tends to dominate possession and push high into the opposition half. Last season we had a get out of jail card when teams chose to defend deep against us, as Bale had the ability from distance to find a yard of space and subsequently the top corner, or alternatively use dead balls to punish teams for fouls in and around the area, something we’d been missing for years. But last season we also sorely lacked a playmaker, especially since the departures of Modric and Van Der Vaart. Bale went from being a creator of chances to a scorer of goals, and we suffered through missing out on Moutinho, who could’ve given us the guile we needed in tight games. I’m very excited by the arrivals of Eriksen and Lamela, both definitely have an eye for goal and can pick a pass, whether they can replicate their form in other countries to the Premier League remains to be seen, but one thing is certain – negativity from the crowd and unrealistic expectations won’t help. These guys are young, talented footballers, they may hit the ground running or they may take a while to settle, or perhaps one or both will never live up to their promise, but they should be allowed the chance to show what they can do. Even the best attacking player will occasionally lose possession or pick a stray pass, but the great ones will continue trying and will eventually get there. Destroying a player’s confidence during that bedding in period, however, is completely counterproductive. Modric took half a season to start turning in decent performances for us, Bale took a couple of years, these guys have come with big price tags and expectations but they may need our support rather than our disdain to make it in this league.
Chiriches, by all accounts, is an accomplished young defender, versatile, skilful and pacy. He probably faces the biggest step up of all to this level, as he’s come from the weakest league of all of our 7 recruits. His reputation meant that he was being chased by a host of Italian teams, who tend to be able to spot a defender, which would lead me to believe that he’s probably got all the right attributes. It remains to be seen whether he will be a first team or squad player, but my guess is he’ll be happier than most to gain experience this season and be one for the future. If he comes good a bit earlier, great, but as a replacement for Caulker, I’m happy to wait and see how he turns out. I never thought Caulker was anything more than 4th choice for us, and since rumour has it that he burned a lot of bridges with his behaviour in pre-season, then I think Vlad will appreciate this chance at a big club a lot more than Caulker did. He could also provide competition/backup for Walker/Naughton, which can’t be a bad thing.
Our performances to date have shown that our midfield can now dominate possession (probably even more so in upcoming games than we’ve done to date, given the opposition thus far) and give us plenty of time in the opposition half, we have several goal threats from several positions in the attacking third, and once we can get some of our creative new players, plus the likes of Holtby, on the pitch, we should be able to open teams up a lot more.
