IMO, Hugo just edged it from Verts and Dele, as he made three vital saves, but TBH, it was only 9mm between them 
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We played like we had a point to prove to all those poxy journos whom write rubbish about us not buying anyone. This is a very tight squad we have who know each-other very well and we have a fan base that is just brilliant and this was acknowledged by Verts and Deli straight after the game, proud to be a Yid!
Long term I would see Oliver Skipp succeeding Eric Dier - a much greater range of football skills. But as I say that's a couple of seasons hence.
We bought Eric Dier for circa £4m as a versatile player able to play as CB, DM and RB - and he's ok at all. But like many who do not specialise in one position, he's not world class in all but a very good PL standard - remember before we bought he looked to have cemented his position as DM for us.
Wanyama looked an upgrade to Dier - but injury seems to be a problem for a while, will he get back to his best ? If not Dier is a decent alternative - and w3e do not have an alternative.
Dembele as we know is fading through age, and was expected to leave this TW. But he hasn't and I guess we need to limit his playing to say 20 matches this coming season - probably just over 1/3rd of our matches Sadly Winks has been injured for about 8 months now - just have to hope he comes back to play the other 2/3rds.
Sissoko seems to be Poch's 'go to' man - I'm not a fan as his only real attributes seem to be power and speed.
So unless Wanyama gets back to his first season's form our main DM looks to be Eric Dier partnering Dembele or Winks - with Sissoko possibly the alternative to cover eithe4r CM or DM positions.
And I really like Eric Dier when the alterative is Sissoko, don't you ?
Thought when Amos came on he was reall timid and got bullied quite a bit. I thought Dier was in control, but tired in the 2nd half like many others. Moose looked like his usual boss self when he came on gliding past defenders and holding them off nicely. Just can’t wait for September for Kane to start scoring again. He looked off the pace today. Still, huge 3 points and COYS!!!
Stats don't tell the whole picture ... Dier was better than Sissoko ... but apart from the fact that a) people have a preconceived view of Sissoko and b) he's an ungainly cunt .... just compare their numbers ...
Dier:
Passes 55 success rate 87%
Tackles 3
Dispossessed 1
Yellow Card 1
Sissoko:
Passes 51 success rate 84%
Tackles 1
Dispossessed 1
Yellow Cards 0
So Dier had the edge and no doubt had a better game ... but were they that different that one is many people's 'MoM' and one is a 'Dog' ....
Dier:
Passes 55 success rate 87%
Tackles 3
Dispossessed 1
Yellow Card 1
Sissoko:
Passes 51 success rate 84%
Tackles 1
Dispossessed 1
Yellow Cards 0
So Dier had the edge and no doubt had a better game ... but were they that different that one is many people's 'MoM' and one is a 'Dog' ....
I'd put Alan Mullery on the team sheet before him
We can only guess but I'm not sure that all decisions are down to Poch. In some cases like Sissoko were last minute panic buys and l think the board put these options to him as take it or leave it. Poch may be feels that is better than nothing as his first/real targets are rarely obtained. If they were Poch's targets then they were incredible cock ups of judgements but l think many of these are made at a higher level. Look at this summer's farce . A champs league club not buying anyone to improve the obvious weakness of the first 11 and our only attainable target was a squad long term prospect which the board fucked up.
Moura may come good but tatically he needs playing in space . Aurier is a disaster a total downgrade.
My point is l think Poch's hands are rather tied by the incompetence of the board in transfer dealings .
It's not a preconceived view at all, it's a self evident fact.
He's Dumbo on Ice skills wise and Frank Bruno power and strength wise.
Yup ... they're chalk and cheese (no puns) but the combination gets results .... if we take out Sissoko where's the next 'Frank Bruno' coming from ????
Do we need brawn?
I'd prefer to go for skill and guile, backed up by a strong defence. Mobility outplays muscle every time
Winks was looking like that man, let's hope he restarts at the point he reached prior to his injury
I prefer skill as well. I'm not sure Winks ( l hope im wrong ) is talented enough .
It has been very strange since Modric we have moved away from creative ball players in that position .
Winks is talented enough, he bossed modric last season in the CL. The acid test is will he regain that form when he returns from injury?
Same for wanyama.
Like others I am amazed that we did not purchase another midfielder in the transfer window but I am guessing we will buy in January if the need arises?
If we didn't address an obvious problem in the summer then we will muddle through as usual.
Jan, Hugo and Eric Dier played well, Eriksen, Davies, Alli, Sanchez, did alright, Harry was so far off it, but I can’t put him in the same category as Sissoko and Aurier. Lucas Moura looked lost. Seemed like Harry would drop off and Lucas was spearheaded of attack on a number of occasions, and we would play long balls up to him. He didn’t suit our play yesterday and felt sorry for him.
Aurier just does want he wants to do and has little positional awareness and discipline. Sissoko is not a spurs player. His technical ability isn’t good enough for our passing style and he should sign for a we team that plays counter.
We were really poor in the second half and really feel needed to sign a ball playing midfielder that can thread passes through to the attacking third. We go from side to side too much.
Aurier just does want he wants to do and has little positional awareness and discipline. Sissoko is not a spurs player. His technical ability isn’t good enough for our passing style and he should sign for a we team that plays counter.
We were really poor in the second half and really feel needed to sign a ball playing midfielder that can thread passes through to the attacking third. We go from side to side too much.
It’s not really just about percentages. If one player has 70% pass rate but every pass that makes it sets up a chance then he must be bloody good.
Issue with Sissoko is that he is so slow to move to ball and he passing choices are very conservative. Even Dier from the base can sometimes put in a really good forward ball.
Simply without a proper passer we often transition slow, we also don’t have many players when the game is going against us who can put their foot on the ball and slow it down.
Absolutely, for me only Winks plays the way that would suit our system in terms of quick passing and forward passing from central midfield unless we pull Eriksen into the number 8 role as it where.
We didn’t even need a big transfer window, just sort out that part of the pitch and done. Now we have to hope we can get Winks back after a year or so out to full form.
Dembélé age is playing against him, Sissoko can be effective in a certain role but we shouldn’t be relying on him and Id rather we didn’t have to pull Eriksen deep but we may need to.
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Do you have Lucas' pass completion from yesterday?
I think you may have made that point before once or twice.