Has the squad improved since last season?

  • 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

Has the squad improved since last season?

  • Yes

  • No

Results are only viewable after voting.
Sort by date Sort by reaction score
Spursinho

Spursinho

The Big Man of TFC
IN:
  • Toby Alderweireld – CB (Atletico Madrid, £11.5m)
  • Kevin Wimmer – CB (FC Köln, £4.3m)
  • Kieran Trippier – RB (Burnley FC, £3.5m)
  • Clinton N'Jie – AM (Olympique Lyonnaise, £12.2m)
  • Son Heung-Min – AM/FW (Bayer Leverkusen, £22m)
RETURNING LOANS:
  • Dele Alli – AM (Milton Keynes Dons)
  • Tom Carroll – CM (Swansea)
  • Alex Pritchard - AM (Brentford)

OUT:
  • Paulinho – MF (Guangzou Evergrande, £9m)
  • Lewis Holtby – MF (Hamburg, £4.6m)
  • Etienne Capoue – MF (Watford, £7m)
  • Younes Kaboul – CB (Sunderland, £3m)
  • Benjamin Stambouli – MF (PSG, £6m)
  • Ryan Fredericks – RB (Bristol City, £250k)
  • Grant Hall – MF (QPR, undisclosed)
  • Vlad Chiriches – CB (Napoli, £4.5m)
  • Roberto Soldado – ST (Villarreal, £10m)
  • Aaron Lennon - MF (Everton, £5m)
  • Ismail Azzaoui - AM (Wolfsburg, undisclosed)
OUTGOING LOANS:
  • Dominic Ball (Rangers)
  • Connor Ogilvie (Stevenage)
  • Nathan Oduwa (Rangers)
  • Grant Ward (Rotherham)
  • Shaquile Coulthirst (Wigan)
  • DeAndre Yedlin (Sunderland)
 
Last edited:
Yes.

Keepers: Same as last year.
Defence: Better - added a good first team CB and two hopefully good backup players. Lost Kaboul and Chiriches, who was mostly disastrous when they played last season. Walker back from his injury means we're stronger at RB.
Midfield: Most likely better. Haven't seen Son and N'Jie yet, but with how the outgoing players played last season it is likely that the new will be better.
Attack: Better. People complain that we lack backup for Kane, but the same people wanted us to get rid of the players that were backup last year. A random fan of the stands would be better than Adebayor up front. Sadly, Soldado didn't cut it either. Not having them, and using other alternatives instead of giving Adebayor or Soldado game time will make us better.


We had the youngest team last year, and probably still do. These youngsters given one more season of experience should mean that they are better.
 
Judging by the fact that we shifted players that were confirmed failures for new players with the potential to succeed, yes our squad is better off than last season.
 
Our defence is better and Dier has been better at DM than Capoue by a fucking mile. So answer is yes, especially considering that this was the massive issue for the past two seasons.

As for the rest of the team (Midfield and attack) it remains to be seen how it all nits together.
 
ArtyB said:
How many starts did the outgoing players have last season?
Click to expand...

BPL Starts 2014/15
  • Paulinho – 3
  • Lewis Holtby – 0
  • Etienne Capoue – 11
  • Younes Kaboul – 11
  • Benjamin Stambouli – 4
  • Ryan Fredericks – 0
  • Grant Hall – 0
  • Vlad Chiriches – 8
  • Roberto Soldado – 7
  • Aaron Lennon - 3
  • Ismail Azzoaui - 0

Total - 47

Toby should be close to that by himself
 
Last edited:
I don't think anyone that left was coming close to a first team start. Perhaps Stambouli, id have liked to keep him i thought he looked pretty solid whenever he played. But the rest, nah. Who's picking Capoue over Bentaleb?
Or Soldado over Son? Son might be absolute shite but id rather risk the unknown than go with Tried and true in that scenario.

Then theres the team morale issue. Even ignoring rumours, having players like Kaboul around, that have been there a long time, that aren't playing, cannot be good for team morale. Same with Lennon.

So yeah, i think we are better off. But for the sake of the narrative, no. We're doomed. We're gonna finish bottom on 9 points.
 
I agree with Tomo's point. We filled some glaring holes in the starting 11, however we went from having 2 poor backup options for Kane to none. We also went from having no clear DM to maybe developing one in Dier with no cover.

We clearly needed better wing forward options and hopefully Son, Pritchard and N'Jie come good but way too early to tell.

One thing which can be said for certain is we strengthened our defence. Trippier looks a good backup option that can push Walker and Alderweild looks class. Wimmer as well looked very good in preseason.

I think we were two players away from having an excellent summer that being said it was the two positions we probably needed to get most.
 
Hard to say. We are such a Jekyll and Hyde team. I think Kaboul was a big sore spot for us last season, so without him we are better in a sense, but since he didn't see much playing time towards the end of the season, does it really matter other than improved depth?

Dier and Toby have solidified the back, but out offensive has yet to get its groove on.

Unleash the Son
 
I think our starting eleven are definitely better than last year. I also think we have much greater depth in our back four this year and we are probably going to have more exciting options in the attacking midfield. However, we are unacceptably shallow at striker and defensive midfield. If we suffer injuries at either of those positions we could be completely fucked.

Overall, I'm looking forward to watching our growth this year. But I'm afraid despite having a better core, we will probably finish in a lower position.
 
Yes. You'd be a fucking moron to think otherwise.

We have improved our defence. Got rid of most players who were never going to play and added nothing to the side. Promoted players who are hungry and want to succeed. Dier has shown already in four games that he offers a lot more in a defensive position than Capoue did, I'm not going to add Stambouli as I don't feel he was even given a proper run of games to even be considered. Got some exciting quick young players in the team like Son and Njie who provide something we lacked last season too.

We have a great base to build on and if we have a spine that consists of Lloris, Alderweireld, Dier and Kane, I'm a lot happier.
 
Last edited:
People say we have no cover for Kane.... But Harry Kane isn't a number 9 anyway. He's been leading the line but i don't think its his best position, or the best way to use him.

I still think personally, he's better playing off a front man. Like he did a lot early on last year. For example, when he scored that hatrick and ended up in goal. He loves to come deep, go past a man and have a shot from distance, and he's not doing that as the furthest forward.

So considering that, and that way we play, i see no reason why Son, Chadli, Lamela, or Clinton couldn't take his place. Its almost a false 9 at times with Kane coming deep. If the rest of the midfield were to bomb forward a bit more, i don't really think theres a problem.

If it comes to it, we could always go 4-2-1-3 and have Eriksen drop deeper in a free role with Chadli Son and Clinton as the front 3. Our attack is so fluid these days we'd barely notice the difference. Plus with Eriksen freed up and a bit of pace up top, we'd be a lot more dangerous on the counter.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom