The Mighty Poch Men vs. Everton

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The clear takeaway for me from yesterday is that Dier and Wanyama are too similar in what they bring to the side- neither did an effective enough job of dribbling or passing into dangerous areas in the opposition third to replicate that attacking drive that Dembele gives us.

Could just be a coaching matter- Poch might be able to successfully get one of them moving the ball between the lines- however I think I'd rather see Alli dropped back into centre mid (where he thrived for the first half of last season) in order to provide us with that creative influence from deeper positions.
 

....not quite only about our own team.... there's also QUITE A FEW (anti)ArseAnal songs...
But I get your drift. .. I imagine many other Lairy Cockney away fans bang on about Dole queues and Pens in hands etc.
So yes, refreshing to hear we're not one of them!
 
The clear takeaway for me from yesterday is that Dier and Wanyama are too similar in what they bring to the side- neither did an effective enough job of dribbling or passing into dangerous areas in the opposition third to replicate that attacking drive that Dembele gives us.

Could just be a coaching matter- Poch might be able to successfully get one of them moving the ball between the lines- however I think I'd rather see Alli dropped back into centre mid (where he thrived for the first half of last season) in order to provide us with that creative influence from deeper positions.
It was Wanyama's debut - let's give him time
 
Not sure it is a good idea to drop,Wanyama after 1 match when he did not play badly. 1 week to get them playing better together and take him off this time if not working after 60 mins.
 
Not sure it is a good idea to drop,Wanyama after 1 match when he did not play badly. 1 week to get them playing better together and take him off this time if not working after 60 mins.
I'm sure he'd understand it's more to do with going with different options at home in the league as opposed to dropping him.
 
I'm not saying he played badly- just that in a tactical sense it looked like he and Dier were being asked to do roughly the same thing, which is something Poch will need to sort out for next week.

The thing is that they are roughly the same type of players, both defensive midfielders. One or both of them seriously need to step it up going forward if Pochettino insists on playing them together. Otherwise we'll continue to struggle against teams that defend narrow like Everton did. Just not enough creativity between them to open up such a defence. After the Janssen sub we started playing a lot better, not just because Janssen came on, but also because one of the defensive midfielders in Dier came off. Personally I think that unless the intention is to defend and counter-attack (which is generally not our style, certainly not at the start of a match), playing two defensive midfielders is overkill, we saw that under AVB as well. Maybe it's Poch's intention to convert one to be more attacking, but I'm sceptical whether that will work. They are not exactly playmakers are they... at the end of the day they are defensive-minded players at heart, both of them.
 
I'm the one in need of steadiness? Pogba and Gundogan haven't even played in this league! Statistically he's performed better than all of the above in the past 2 seasons (including Pogba in a very much inferior league). Just on the eye test with and without Cazorla/Fabregas/Fernandinho their clubs have put in great and poor performances. Kante was very good last season, but let's see him do it away from whatever the hell was on at Leicester last season.

Objectively, the only thing the above outperformed Dembele in over the past few seasons is press adoration. And it's pretty clear that with Dembele in recent seasons we've been championship form, without we're lower half/relegation form. Clearly no player has the impact for their team in the midfield that Dembele does.

Tottenham's Mousa Dembele named Europe's best box-to-box midfielder

Weekly Post 149
 
So, Liverpool's attack already up and away.

Our opening day performance looked drab and reminiscent of those many games of inert ideas and empty possession football. Hope that Janssen makes it into the team and gives us another option. Kane, for all his great points, still goes missing or is completely useless at times.

But really, for Poch to come out and say we lack energy, on the first damn match of the season is pretty pitiful.

These footballers have to run hard for 90 minutes and they can't do so.
 
The thing is that they are roughly the same type of players, both defensive midfielders. One or both of them seriously need to step it up going forward if Pochettino insists on playing them together. Otherwise we'll continue to struggle against teams that defend narrow like Everton did. Just not enough creativity between them to open up such a defence. After the Janssen sub we started playing a lot better, not just because Janssen came on, but also because one of the defensive midfielders in Dier came off. Personally I think that unless the intention is to defend and counter-attack (which is generally not our style, certainly not at the start of a match), playing two defensive midfielders is overkill, we saw that under AVB as well. Maybe it's Poch's intention to convert one to be more attacking, but I'm sceptical whether that will work. They are not exactly playmakers are they... at the end of the day they are defensive-minded players at heart, both of them.

I don't think it would've been that bad a choice, to start with Dier and Wanyama, had Everton fielded a more standard setup.

The fact that they looked inspired by late 15/16 Leicester, and added an extra CB to be even more defensive, probably took Poch by surprise.

They played a 5-2-3-0, or a 5-2-2-1, with three CBs, one LB, three very defensive midfielders (one of which was played as a RB), and three AMs (one of which was given a Vardy-ish role).

Probably the most defensive setup we've ever faced in an away game.
 
Eriksen is far to weak defensively for that. Better to switch him with Alli.

Eriksen is a playmaker. Alli is a runner. The former may do his job while staying in position, the latter moves and may leave us exposed. We needed the distribution from the middle of the park, and we needed movement up front. The way the match was going, Poch made the right decision pulling Eriksen back.
 
Eriksen is a playmaker. Alli is a runner. The former may do his job while staying in position, the latter moves and may leave us exposed. We needed the distribution from the middle of the park, and we needed movement up front. The way the match was going, Poch made the right decision pulling Eriksen back.
There is no point for Eriksen being there if he's going to lose every 50-50, which he generally tends to do.
 
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