Nabil Bentaleb

  • The Fighting Cock is a forum for fans of Tottenham Hotspur Football Club. Here you can discuss Spurs latest matches, our squad, tactics and any transfer news surrounding the club. Registration gives you access to all our forums (including 'Off Topic' discussion) and removes most of the adverts (you can remove them all via an account upgrade). You're here now, you might as well...

    Get involved!

Latest Spurs videos from Sky Sports

Sort by date Sort by reaction score
koppel said:
Why do people assume Bentaleb is somewhat of a bad character around the club? I've only ever seen a player that gives 100% and demands 100%. Someone who cared an awful lot more than 99% of the dross that's played in his position for us before him. There was even quotes saying that he and Kane were the one digging players out in the dressing room when they didn't give their all.
Click to expand...

That's a fair shout and I have to admit that my comment is only from what I have seen in the past and could well be off the mark. I just get the feeling with his hot headedness, his age and his general conduct on the pitch that he could be prone to a tantrum or an outburst which would not go down well in Poch's regime.

Again, would be happy if I was wrong and he was Mr Nice Guy behind the scenes!
 
koppel said:
Why do people assume Bentaleb is somewhat of a bad character around the club? I've only ever seen a player that gives 100% and demands 100%. Someone who cared an awful lot more than 99% of the dross that's played in his position for us before him. There was even quotes saying that he and Kane were the one digging players out in the dressing room when they didn't give their all.
Click to expand...
Also Dier mentioned that Bentaleb is one of the highest scorers on the endurance tests. I reckon he gives his all consistently. Especially since last season Poch was awarded places on merit based on training effort.

I genuinely believe the reasons he's not playing much now are simple

- Dembele most important player arguably after Kane
- Rise of Alli/Dier
- Bentaleb has just got back from a very long injury and it will take a while to get fit let alone fit enough for Poch's style

That's it. Carroll has made some decent appearances and is probably more up to speed with the demands of the system currently. I expect Bentaleb to get lots of games tbh.
 
The only way I can see Bentaleb getting back into our team is through injuries. And to be honest I'm not disappointed he's not playing at all he plays blind sideways passes and does to much in dangerous positions which gives the opposition chances.I'm convinced our improved defensive record is partly down to him not in the team. At this stage Dier and Dembele are much better and failing that I'd prefer Alli drop in and play Son in the attacking midfield
 
Agree with all that but he is young and maybe Poch can bring him on as I do like his aggression and desire!
 
Great to see Nabil back with a full 90 minutes under his belt. Bar one shaky moment he played great, was diligent on the ball, switched play and marshalled the space in front of the defense.

Dier has been superb this season and Bentaleb has a fight on his hands to get back into our team, especially when you also consider Dembele's form, but to have him back is a big bonus to our squad.
 
Not such a fan, makes a lot of mistakes , average passing , with far better options in his position.
Central midfield looks better without him ,
Dem, Ali, Dier etc.
As others have said he is young and maybe he
may improve under Poch, as I have been proved
wrong before. At the moment a average back up
 
Fidel Castro said:
Not such a fan, makes a lot of mistakes , average passing , with far better options in his position.
Central midfield looks better without him ,
Dem, Ali, Dier etc.
As others have said he is young and maybe he
may improve under Poch, as I have been proved
wrong before. At the moment a average back up
Click to expand...
I think a 21 year old with world cup experience that has the talent that he does, is not an average back up. It's bloody good back up.
We know that Dembele is prone to breaking down and Alli is being used further forward, so I think Nabil definitely still has a big part to play. And I hope we do our best to retain and use him.
 
Had a decent first game back last night... (everyone had a decent game last night to be fair!)
He's more likely to be welcomed back 'into the fold' by Poch than Townsend, who, after all, shoved a senior staff member... at least Nabil's only 'crime' was to want to play for his country... the fact he aggravated an injury in doing so serves both as punishment enough... and a valuable lesson learned.
WHEN POCH SAYS 'STAY'... YOU STAY! :pochwtf:

...Good Nabil!:bentalebscream:
 
Think it was quite clear that he hasn't had much competitive football recently, his usually solid first touch was a bit skew whiff for the first 10-20 minutes, but he definitely grew into the game and had a nice range of passing.

The commentators kept highlighting how he was dropping in between the centre backs to receive the ball, but I'm pretty sure Dier does that when he plays and it's nothing new, Barcelona were doing it under Guardiola.
 
I think Poch is very focused on avoiding costly fuckups. It's evident in our passing game, how often our defensive players clear the ball instead of trying a riskier control+pass solution, and in how defensive players drop off instead of trying to win a 50/50 if our defensive shape and balance is compromised.

It seems to me that people screwing up in this regard will find themselves benched quickly. I think that, in addition to his injuries of course, is why we haven't seen Bentaleb.

He has an arrogant style of play that a bit too often provides great opportunities for our opponents. He provided MU the winner in the first game, he gave Drinkwater a big chance yesterday, he's done similar things pretty much every game in between, and he did it too often last season.

He needs to rid himself of those mistakes, or he can't be a CM or DM for a team that wants to challenge for titles. Those are the mistakes that can lose games we are dominating.

While working on eliminating the fuckups from his game, he could be played in a more risk free environment, further up the pitch. I do think he has the qualities to provide some magic as an AM.
 
------------------------------------Passes per 90 min--------------Completion rate %
Bentaleb (last season): -----------64.16--------------------------87

Mason (last season):-------------61.20--------------------------84

Dier (this season):----------------55.34----------------------------83

Dembele (this season):-----------53.94-------------------------89

Alli (this season):-------------------40.62--------------------------77


With the exception of Dembele who saw 16% less ball than Bentaleb, nobody gave the ball away less, and then it was still only 2% less.

Last season, (CM's) only Yaya, Fabregas, Cazorla, Matic, Barry & Schniederlin saw more ball in games than 20 yo Bentaleb having his first season. Only Toure (88.9%) and Cazorla (89%) of those players gave the ball away less than Bentaleb.

The midfielders with the highest passes per 90 this season are Cazorla 82.1 - 90.3%, Fabregas 70.2 - 83.9%, Ramsey 67.6 - 86.3, Barry 64 - 83.2%. Only Cazorla has given the ball away less than Bentaleb did last season.
 
Bentaleb is developing into a solid midfield player.
But I don't see him as a starter, given the competition in midfield. He's not good enough defensively to be a defensive midfielder and doesn't have the goals in him for an attacking role like Dembele or Ali.
He will be a cover player, and a sub for Premier League games but rotated into the first team for the cups.
Nice to have, nonetheless.
 
Bentaleb just needs to stay patient and wait for chances. He has the potential to become an extremely good player for us. We will need him again, injuries will come at some point.
 
SydneySpur said:


I wonder if he did this by his own volition.
Click to expand...


I'd say his place in the squad is under threat right now.

His ego seems to have taken a massive knock and I'm not sure he has the belief in himself to pull through this hard period. Might be he'll complain he wants to leave this summer if he doesn't get more game time.
 
Jayc1 said:
I'd say his place in the squad is under threat right now.

His ego seems to have taken a massive knock and I'm not sure he has the belief in himself to pull through this hard period. Might be he'll complain he wants to leave this summer if he doesn't get more game time.
Click to expand...
jerry-lewis-looking-into-crystal-ball.jpg


he scored
 
It's natural that Winks, Onomah and Bentaleb (the three that get the least minutes at the moment) play for the u21's when there's not a midweek game.

He was the best player on the park by the way. Along with Walker-Peters who just looks better and better everytime I see him.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom