He's been out injured. But when he's back I don't see him replacing Dier (except in rotational cover), so IMO he'll be competing with Mason and Alli for the other CM slot ... and from I've seen it's a competition that Alli will win in the longer run.
The Spurs thread
- Thread starter GlastonSpur
- Start date
-
In the latest episode of the United Hour Podcast, Nik (@Rood) is joined by CEO Duncan Drasdo and Financial Director Andy Green from the Manchester United Supporters Trust for a special episode on all things behind the scenes at Old Trafford including a brief history of MUST and their aims today, views on INEOS and Sir Jim Ratcliffe so far, and the Old Trafford regeneration.
He's been out injured. But when he's back I don't see him replacing Dier (except in rotational cover), so IMO he'll be competing with Mason and Alli for the other CM slot ... and from I've seen it's a competition that Alli will win in the longer run.
Alderweireld-Vertonghen was a brilliant CB combination for Ajax in FIFA 11, I loved that team.
They have the makings of a better and more settled team now especially in midfield. Could go well. I like the look of Alli.
The conversion of Dier to a DM and partnered with the more explosive Deli Alli has been a boost for Spurs and if Lamela can kick on from the performance against City and finally deliver on his talent they can maybe compete this season for that CL spot, as I think they know Kane and Eriksen can produce and the CB partnership and keeper are good.
City, Utd, Arse, Chelsea still likely top 4
Spurs, Liverpool next 2
Same old same old
Spurs, Liverpool next 2
Same old same old
I don't think there's a good chance at all they will make top 4. Chelsea, United and City are much stronger and have more depth while Arsenal are obliged by law to finish well ahead of Tottenham.
They should try to win Europa League as they're possibly better than all teams in the competition bar maybe Dortmund but knowing PL teams they probably won't bother.
I like their CB pairing and Alli. They rarely concede stupid goals so far, which was a trademark in the previous years. The Clinton fella has some tricks in his locker, i liked his dribbling and cross for the Lamela goal.
Spurs will probably fight with Liverpool for the 5th spot.
Spurs will probably fight with Liverpool for the 5th spot.
The conversion of Dier into a DM started at Sporting with Jesualdo Ferreira. He played there multiple times. He started playing as DM in March 2013 in a game against Porto which ended 0-0.
http://www.maisfutebol.iol.pt/jesualdo-elogia-dier-pode-ser-um-enorme-medio
The interview where he said Dier can become a great midfielder
Dier basically was a DM when he came to Spurs.
I did say maybe!
It depends on a few things, how long Chelsea's malaise lasts, if Kane starts firing, if Son and Lamela can maintain some form. I think it's going to be a competitive and interesting season.I stand corrected, thanks for the link Sly. I wonder if he can develop enough in the role to play for England as we are short on good DM's.
time to give this another bump. Tottenham really look good. Very solid in all departments. Pochettino is really putting it all together.
Poch is an annoyingly likable fecker.
Looking good right now. Might be able to put up a decent fight for a CL place along with Liverpool (providing us, City and Arsenal are top 3), unless Chelsea really improve.
Much steelier under Pochettino, would have conceded again and draw 2-2 in years gone by.
If we carry on playing the rubbish we're currently playing and with Rooney up front, we won't be top four.
Yup. I remember wondering if his season at Southampton was a bit of a lucky one, but he really does seem to know what he's doing. It'll be interesting to see how they do this season.
I would love for Spurs to get CL football, I really like them as a team.
Pochettino has done a brilliant job this season. His only PL loss was a defeat to Utd at Old Trafford in the first game of the season which was decided by one of the shittest goals ever.
Pochettino has done a brilliant job this season. His only PL loss was a defeat to Utd at Old Trafford in the first game of the season which was decided by one of the shittest goals ever.
With Chelsea looking increasingly likely to finish mid-table and Liverpool still being very much work in progress for Klopp Spurs have as good a chance as ever to make it into CL. This is a team with a very young core too so they could build on whatever success they are capable of achieving, maybe they could even make a good run in Europe considering the competition in EL is poor this year.
I remember how much vitriol the decision to appoint Pochettino at Soton was met with. That decision was vindicated quickly, and the decisions to appoint him at spurs is equally brilliant. He's a great manager tactically and he seems well liked by his players. That could go a long way, until he ends up in Spain at a bigger club.
There's no chance. Something will go wrong for them as usual.
They are a few injuries away from falling away.
Then again, maybe so are we.
Then again, maybe so are we.
Dembele's really found some good form again. One of those rare CM's who can dribble past players with ease.
Yeah, I don't mind Spurs at all.
Yeah, I don't mind Spurs at all.
Exactly, we don't have a lot of depth at all. If anything Spurs are better positioned. Imagine if Martial or Smalling got injured at United.
Probably helps that he used to be a striker back in Netherlands and I even think Fulham had brought him to play as a striker initially. He then converted into a midfielder.
We should get Pochettino to replace LvG in a year or two.
Dele Alli for £5m was a bargain. Absolute superstar in the making.
Two points from their next three games with have them languishing in 8th and at their perfectly normal level. 1.64 points per game under Sherwood, 1.7 points per game under Pochettino (soon to be 1.66 after their next 3 games). Compared to 1.90 points per game under Villas-Boas I'd say he's doing pretty average.
They've pretty much performed exactly as you'd expect this season, save the freak Man City result. Drawing at Swansea, Leicester, Liverpool, Everton and Stoke; losing to United and Arsenal; while beating Villa, Bournemouth, Palace and Crystal Palace at home.
The biggest saving grace for Pochettino is he's made some astute signings. Alderweireld, Dier and Alli particularly look like good prospects.
They've pretty much performed exactly as you'd expect this season, save the freak Man City result. Drawing at Swansea, Leicester, Liverpool, Everton and Stoke; losing to United and Arsenal; while beating Villa, Bournemouth, Palace and Crystal Palace at home.
The biggest saving grace for Pochettino is he's made some astute signings. Alderweireld, Dier and Alli particularly look like good prospects.
Hoping they can get a result on the weekend.
Pochettino looks like someone who spends a lot of time loosening his tie, mopping his brow and regretting the three ham and cheese croissants he had for lunch.
Yeah, iirc, he was even used out wide (a-la Modric) at Fulham, and even a handful of times at Spurs as well.
I always thought he'd end up being a #10, but he's done well in that box to box CM role in fairness. He doesn't have the long passing range, but his control, physique, short passing and dribbling technique makes him unique.
Like a poor mans Verratti/Modric
I still think Spurs won't make CL. Either they will self destruct and lose something silly like a 10 point lead in the space of a month or will make top 4 and Chelsea will end up winning the CL via a Chelsea bus souped up by Xhibit. Would love to be wrong.
The problem for Spurs is the Europa. But if they throw it then they could see a big dip in form like last season when they got knocked out.
Personally I think Spurs are a much better side this season though and look far more resilient at the back while starting to get Kane back in the goals. Think they're the real deal this time round, they also have pretty good depth now.
Poch at Spurs is everything I wanted LvG to be at Utd, and he's doing it with a pretty average squad.
I think he'd be a great shout to take over from LvG when he goes but at the same time he seems invested in building that Spurs side so he'd probably be very difficult to pry away.
I think he'd be a great shout to take over from LvG when he goes but at the same time he seems invested in building that Spurs side so he'd probably be very difficult to pry away.
There's a few inaccuracies in your post. You've mixed up some home and away games, the loss to Arsenal wasn't a league game (we haven't played them in the league yet), 8th isn't the "perfectly normal level" of Spurs and the club is currently averaging 1.82 points per game (not 1.7) this season so far.
But in any case, it's not points-per-game (PPG) by itself that really counts - far more important is PPG compared to your rivals. The league is more competitive this year: I'd be willing to bet that points total of the top 4 clubs combined this season will be lower than last season.
Compared to same/equivalent fixtures last season, Spurs are currently 6 points better off (and +14 better GD), which means that if we merely do as well as last season from here onwards (in the same/equivalent fixtures) we'll finish on 70 points.
You also say that Spurs will only get 2 points from our next 3 games. But what if you're wrong and we get 6 or more?
They sorted their squad out and got rid of players, who didn´t perform. The likes of Soldado, Paulinho, Naughton, Dawson, Capoue, Stambouli, Chiriches, Lennon, Kaboul and Adebayor are gone. The club is definitely going in the right direction. They play as cohesive unit and transfers start to make sense. Tottenham is in a much better position than two years ago and they´ll benefit from it. Before the season started I thought that they are short of quality in central midfield, but Poch found Dier+Alli, who are a fantastic combination.
3 London Derbies?
You must be favourites to beat Chelsea at home
West Ham at home could be tricky
Difficult to see you getting anything at the Emirates
I'd say 4 points from 12 most likely
He had a hip injury that bothered him for the best part of 2 seasons, as it really effected his mobility. It's very popular on here to say he was over hyped after one good season at Fulham or even after 1 good game against us. But he actually had a very impressive first season at Spurs. He's now over his injury and is back to his best, which makes him one of the toughest opponents in the Prem. People go on about him not scoring enough for his ability, but hardly ever mention how rare it is to have such a skillful player who also wins the ball back so well and makes it hard so hard for the opposition to play. Defensively he's one of the best around, but all we ever seem to hear is that he's got a rubbish final ball. The guy is an absolute beast and is probably among the players opposition teams least like to face. I bet if there was a poll of CM's Prem players least like to play against, Dembele would be in the top few.
In my paragraph regarding "performing as you'd expect" I wasn't just referring to league games, but "performing as you'd expect" across the board. Four points from 3 games in the Europa League, knocked out of the League Cup and 20 points from 11 comparatively easy league games - out of last seasons top 6 teams (other than yourselves) you've played 2 home games against City & Liverpool and one away game against United with Chelsea, Southampton and Arsenal still to play before Christmas. Then looking at your second half of the season you have away games at: City, Liverpool, Chelsea, West Ham, Everton, C.Palace & Stoke. Again I'd say at best you'd say Spurs are par for the course, although I'm sure Levy would expect better in the Europa/League Cup.
The second paragraph I disagree with. To qualify for the Champions League, which is your ultimate goal generally takes a similar amount of points (around 68-73). I expect it to take a similar amount of points this season. Also points per game compared with your rivals does not take into account the trickier fixtures that many of your rivals have played, I agree in March this would be a solid way of looking at things, but not so much by the end of October.
Also "compared to last season" is again a stat that gets spouted often, but is totally meaningless. There are always a handful of games where shock results occur; each season these results will change. An example of this is you losing to Villa and drawing with Sunderland last season, 5 of the 6 points you refer to come from these two game that you'd expect to win regardless. Again this "aggregate" stat might make sense in March, but at the moment beating a couple of teams like Villa/Sunderland isn't progress unless you also beat every team you also beat last year.
"Merely" doing as well as last season in the remaining 27 games is going to be very hard. You beat Everton/West Ham/Leicester away last season, you beat Arsenal/Chelsea/So'ton/Swansea at home, you drew with Arsenal & So'ton away. If someone were to offer you 23 points from those 9 games right now you'd, truthfully you'd probably take 13-15.
If you get 6-9 points from your next 3 games I think more people will start to take note, as your results will actually look like progress. As it stands a great win against Man City aside Spurs are par for the course of a "normal" 5th-6th place finish.
@GlastonSpur out of curiosity, with Dier and Alli performing well, do you think Mason will go back to being first choice or will Poch drop him and/or change the system slightly?
If you want to discuss/grade Spurs in the league then it makes little sense to drag in results from the League Cup and Europa League.
I agree that Spurs have had a relatively easy fixture list so far, but you've exaggerated things because it's not just last season's top 6 to consider in comparing fixture difficulty, it's also this season's top 6 so far: for example, the away draw we got against Leicester now seems like a decent point.
I flatly disagree that "compared to last season" is a totally meaningless stat, although (like for all football stats) its validity increases as the season wears on. You've singled out the Villa and Sunderland results as accounting for "5 of the 6 points", but this selection is arbitrary ... you might just as well say that our beating City this time and drawing with Liverpool accounted for 4 of the 6 points. And I'd also say that a comparative +14 GD also has some meaning as a pointer towards Spurs having improved compared to last season.
As for the remaining games (and their comparison with last season), whilst it's valid for you to point to the good results from last season (e.g. beating Arsenal at home), you've ignored the bad results that wouldn't be expected (e.g. losing at home to Newcastle, Stoke and WBA). So even if lose at home to Arsenal (say), we'll still be on course for 70 points if that is balanced out by winning this time at home to Newcastle. So yes, I stand by my view that, since we've done a fair bit better comparatively so far, it's not too difficult to imagine that overall we'll do at least as well as last season from here onwards.
From what I've seen so far, I'd say that City and Arsenal are almost certainly going to finish in the top 2, with the other 2 places being a contest between Man. Utd, Spurs and Liverpool. (Chelsea are gone and won't come back this season). If you're a United fan then I'd say you're being too complacent if you think Spurs thus far are only on course for 5th or 6th, because thus far I'd say we're a definite contender for top 4.