Oliver Skipp

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I was screaming today for folk to "go to the ball" in a defensive way, he does shut things down, good block for the goal. Young lad, him and Winks in the same game, pretty impressive that we can do that and come away with 3 points. COYS.
 
Today and Palace in the cup were just a step too far too early for him imo, physically, positionally and even confidence wise he's not quite ready.

He did very well to close down the ball for our second goal though.

Think investing in Skipp at this stage will pay dividends in a couple of years , i love seeing Skipp starting in meaningful games
 
Think investing in Skipp at this stage will pay dividends in a couple of years , i love seeing Skipp starting in meaningful games


True, but we still have an outside chance of winning the league - there will probably be plenty of games at the very end where he could play in dead rubbers (obvs hope not).

Not sure who should have played in his place today......the mythical 'new signing' I guess
 
True, but we still have an outside chance of winning the league - there will probably be plenty of games at the very end where he could play in dead rubbers (obvs hope not).

Not sure who should have played in his place today......the mythical 'new signing' I guess
Skipp starting today was just as much necessity as Poch wanting to give him minutes. If our midfield was fully fit he would probably be getting the dead leg minutes. But as things stands the boy gets a baptism by fire. And as long as his confidence doesn't get shot and the coaches handle him well he will come out of this a better player.
 
True, but we still have an outside chance of winning the league - there will probably be plenty of games at the very end where he could play in dead rubbers (obvs hope not).

Not sure who should have played in his place today......the mythical 'new signing' I guess

Think he was playing today partly to build up his experience - but as much to rest our forwards ahead of Dortmund as without Kane, Dele and Lamela we played Son, Eriksen and Llorente and rested Moura (on bench).

If we had played yesterday we might have chanced playing Moura in his place but with Dortmund coming up, he was a decent option

He's 18 and will put on more muscle over the summer so better able to compete next season, so its a decent investment for Spurs, and I think many fans would say there were worse players on the field today, so he wasn't out of his depth.
 
Worth saying that today was Skipp's 2nd PL start and has also made 4 appearances off the bench playing a total of 187 minutes

He's also played 6 minutes in the League Cup and 190 minutes in FA Cup (2 starts against Tranmere and Crystal Palace).

So very early in Skipp's career, and he's made a very decent start - I seem to recall Kane missing a penalty in his first appearance and didn't pull up any trees...and he turned out alright !


 
He's finding his feet in the league, the team and still isn't fully developed physically so needs time to bed in on all fronts. I think he's done very well for an 18 year old kid being thrown into must win games against good opposition. We had a team consisting of Skipp, Winks, Sissoko, no Toby, no Harry, no Del and won 3-1 against a team that gave us a good old go. The lads deserve all the praise they get for how they've dealt with the last few weeks of football. Fair play to them, including Skippy who has really taken huge steps for his career in the last few months.

A kid doing his A Levels to a man playing his part in a League Title push, wonderful young man keep it going
 
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Not my style to. Knock. A homegrown Kid and never will there's a maturity and calmness about the lad and he obviously has talent.. There arnt many 18yr old playing premiership football..
What I will say to some of you is get over to Stevenage and see some of the other future talent.. There's some real good kids Imho knocking on poch's door.
 
Barely 18 years old. I'm not going to criticise any part of him. Had a hand in the important second goal and that's good enough for me. I was a bit surprised to not see him just sit in front of the defence though and instead play the role of the midfield two in front of Winks, but Poch knows best and all that.

He's clearly trusted and that's not only important for his development but it's important for his confidence. Not many 18 year olds start for a team competing at the top of the table.

Do you know how many 18 year olds have started in the league for Man City this season? None.
Do you know how many 18 year olds have started in the league for Liverpool this season? None.
Do you know how many 18 year olds have started in the league for Chelsea this season? None.
Do you know how many 18 year olds have started in the league for Woolwich this season? None.
Do you know how many 18 year olds have started in the league for Man Utd this season? None.

Yet we've started Skipp TWICE in the Premier League this season. Won both of them.

Those teams above have some pretty talented 18 year olds or younger at their clubs. Phil Foden, Ethan Ampadu, Calum Hudson-Odoi, Emile Smith-Rowe, Angel Gomes. Yet their manager hasn't trusted them enough to start Premier League games, even against lower teams and beyond Foden, Skipp plays in a harder position than all of them.

Away from the top clubs, some 18 year olds are given a bit more game-time but they're also ALOT more experienced than Skipp - you have Ryan Sessegnon over at Fulham who's been playing first team football since he was 16 years old. Of course there's also Morgan Gibbs-White over at Wolves who's started a whopping 3 games this season but has 20+ games to his name from previous seasons.

Trust the process.
 
A specific thought on the priceless experience gained by Skipp.

We often, more so than most teams I'd say, have CMs or AM's coming back towards our own end to receive the ball from CB's or the deepest CM; Winks today. With the aim to flick a pass around the corner or turn with the ball into space, if it's available. But also completely okay with just knocking a one-touch back from where it came, if it isn't available.

I loved the comfort with which Skipp did this, and his courage to always want the ball, even if tight quarters. The issue was in the first half, he time and time again was doing it, while specifically asking for the ball (rather than just being an option), and finding that he had no play other than to knock it back again. Possibly because the oppossing players gets to him faster than he's used to at youth level. You see Eriksen, Alli etc. doing this somewhere between very rarely and never. If they're beckoning to get a pass, it's because they've spotted a pass round the corner or know they can turn with the ball.

In the second albeit only for the 15-20 minutes he got, he stopped doing it (except once I think, when he did indeed have space). I think someone, whether Poch, Eriksen or someone else had an arm around his should at HT, and told him to trust Winks to get it to him at the right times, and stop asking for it every time but instead only in good spots.

Given the short time in the second half, it might just be a fluke, but I wouldn't think so, and I loved that detail.
 
A specific thought on the priceless experience gained by Skipp.

We often, more so than most teams I'd say, have CMs or AM's coming back towards our own end to receive the ball from CB's or the deepest CM; Winks today. With the aim to flick a pass around the corner or turn with the ball into space, if it's available. But also completely okay with just knocking a one-touch back from where it came, if it isn't available.

I loved the comfort with which Skipp did this, and his courage to always want the ball, even if tight quarters. The issue was in the first half, he time and time again was doing it, while specifically asking for the ball (rather than just being an option), and finding that he had no play other than to knock it back again. Possibly because the oppossing players gets to him faster than he's used to at youth level. You see Eriksen, Alli etc. doing this somewhere between very rarely and never. If they're beckoning to get a pass, it's because they've spotted a pass round the corner or know they can turn with the ball.

In the second albeit only for the 15-20 minutes he got, he stopped doing it (except once I think, when he did indeed have space). I think someone, whether Poch, Eriksen or someone else had an arm around his should at HT, and told him to trust Winks to get it to him at the right times, and stop asking for it every time but instead only in good spots.

Given the short time in the second half, it might just be a fluke, but I wouldn't think so, and I loved that detail.
Agree with this.

It's the big difference between U23 football and PL, less space and less time.

I was watching SSN last week and Phil Thompson when talking about Winks was effectively saying that in U23 football it's ok to get the ball, pass it back first time or pass it to the side but in the first team you have to take more chances in playing the ball forward.
As much as I don't like him, he does have a point (in general, not re Winks).

I suppose that is the difference between top players such as Eriksen, Dele etc and average players like Mason etc.

For what it's worth I think Winks could become a top player but I'm not sure yet about Skipp, it's too early to say.
 
Thought he was decent today. Every player was on hooks cos of that twat referee so the whole team was nervy. Not ideal for a rookie to be surrounded by people who should really have been oozing confidence but were worried about more bad decisions
 
Kept demanding the ball from places he didn't have the ability to influence the game

There's a player there. Not sure at what level he'll reach

maybe in the Scott Parker mould a DM
 
yes he is out of his depth at the moment, but its a learning curve, and as long as he doesn't cost us points its ok

Shows however that the club have not got its policy right on players. Good prospect but should not be starting in such games as today in my opinion.

It also shows how far Wanyama has fallen from his halcyon days.

We need better going forward.
 
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