Luka Modric will be sold to Real Madrid. It may be today, it may be tomorrow, it might be deadline day, but one way or another we will end the transfer window without our influential Croatian playmaker. This clearly leaves us weaker in the midfield department given his classy performance on a consistent basis for […]
Tottenham squad: all Mod cons…
Luka Modric will be sold to Real Madrid. It may be today, it may be tomorrow, it might be deadline day, but one way or another we will end the transfer window without our influential Croatian playmaker. This clearly leaves us weaker in the midfield department given his classy performance on a consistent basis for the last 4 seasons. Despite this, I am not fully convinced it is essential we replace him right now given we are a day from the season starting, and a replacement would cost 20 million pounds at the cheapest, and a focus on investing in some much needed forwards is far more prudent.
The season starts tomorrow. Bearing this in mind, our Modric replacement will not have the benefit of a pre-season with the team getting to know AVB’s tactics. Joao Moutinho in fairness knows AVB well from their time at Porto together, and therefore knows the AVB way of playing far more than most. However, Moutinho has no previous experience of playing in the Premiership, and unless you are a freak of nature it takes a good few months to get used to playing in the Premier League. It certainly took Modric a few months to adjust. Imagine this scenario: Modric leaves, we then proceed to splash out 25-30 mill on Moutinho, and he doesn’t have the start Spurs fans hoped for. Not only would this heap a lot of pressure on AVB from the media for a big money signing not playing well, but it would turn (a few) idiotic Spurs fans against him. Moutinho would suddenly be under a lot of unnecessary and artificial pressure.
[linequote]If Siggy can produce the form he showed last season for Swansea he could take VDV’s position currently, and contribute with many goals and assists.[/linequote]
As well as this, now we have Gylfi Sigurdsson in our ranks, this is an opportunity to deploy Rafa Van der Vaart in a deeper position. During Holland’s miserable Euro 2012 campaign VDV really impressed me from playing in more of a Modric role. If Siggy can produce the form he showed last season for Swansea he could take VDV’s position currently, and contribute with many goals and assists. I also think VDV would continue to score many goals from a deeper position, therefore we would now have more goals in our side since one of Modric’s weaknesses was his lack of goals. Moutinho also isn’t a regular goalscorer. There is also young Tom Carroll who deserves a run in the Europa League to demonstrate if he has the potential to play to Modric’s level one day (unlikely, but he is talented!) So our team could look like this:
Friedel
Walker Kaboul Vertonghen BAE
Lennon Sandro/Parker/Livermore VDV Bale
Siggy
———-
This leaves me to my final point. I’ve left the striker position blank because we have left ourselves in a very vulnerable position. It will Defoe or Kane on Saturday, but this simply won’t do for the rest of our campaign. If we recieve around 30 mill for Modric I would be very tempted to go all out for a sizzling striker. Llorente is an option if he doesn’t go to Juve. Adebayor will do because he knows the way we play, but his actions this summer make this deal less attractive for Spurs fans. We have been bidding for Spanish striker, Soldado who by all accounts is an impressive player. To be honest, I don’t care which striker(s) arrives at the Lane, but whoever does sign must be proven and MUST score a lot of goals if we are to achieve the goals we all desire. Yes losing Modric is a massive blow to our squad, but replacing him at this moment in time might not be the most sensible action when there are gaping holes in other areas of our squad.
[author name=”Joe Alexander” avatar=”https://twimg0-a.akamaihd.net/profile_images/2251583663/Spurs_and_School.jpg” twitter=”JoeAlexander1″ tag=”JoeAlexander[/linequote]
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8 Comments
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17/08/2012 @ 11:40 pm
Joe, I mostly agree with you on pretty much all the points you’ve made above. Yet always lost in teh mix to 90% or more of the writers in this place is our young superstar in teh making (if not already) Giovanni dos Santos, who we have treated rather shabbily since his arrival at the lane in 2008 with just 17 thinly spread appearances. In terms of potential, he has the most or is top 3-5 on Spurs if given the opportunity he so carves. he’s Mexico’s number 10, creative, skillful, a fair bit of pace and an eye for goal. He is better than lonnon who may beat him in teh pace and experience department, but nothing else. he’s a better option up front and on thd wings for Mexico than anyone else they have, including Javier Hernandez and Carlos Vela. Yet it seems most of us (not including me) can’t wait to see the back of him. I’m a football fan, not big on individuals in the game and their massive egoes along with it, but I’m certainly rooting for Gio, that even if he leaves, I hope he shines. On Newcastle v. Spurs, I hope we can impress away from home with a 3-1 victory, with Defoe grabbing a brace and either Siggy or Bale sealing the deal.
18/08/2012 @ 12:25 am
Hi Andrew,
I’m assuming that Gio is on the way out of Spurs, but agree he is an exceptionally talented player. Tottenham doesn’t seem to be the right club for him though, and London certainly isn’t the right city – he likes to party! Could well be the next Kevin Prince-Boateng for Tottenham.
18/08/2012 @ 1:03 am
Gio, I believe, hasn’t been given a chance — 17 appearances over 4 years and mostly 2 minutes here and 5 minutes there under Harry. Just a farce to have a star of currently officially the best national team in the world and all we want to do is get rid? If AVB doesn’t have more nous than that he’ll nosedive in my estimation. Gio’s kind of talent should be able to shine anywhere — build the team, or at least the right side, around him if necessary.
18/08/2012 @ 1:37 am
disruptive late on parade party boy hombre, jog on.
18/08/2012 @ 4:02 am
I would like to see what Gio has to offer with regular appearances and more confidence. If he can show such talent on the international stage why is he different playing for us. One reason I read somewhere is that he is more used to playing in the 4-4-3 type scenarios that AVB favours, if this is so we could have a player that could not possibly fit in with our previous 4-4-2 setups under Redcrapp but will be perfect for our new style of play. If he does shine under AVB we may struggle to get him to re-sign given all the abuse he gets from these types of fan pages.
Just imagine having having all 7 of the front players in the 4-4-3 being regular scorers and not specifically titled as strikers. When Defoe was at his most dangerous was when he had other spurs players around him and the defenders were stretched to mark them this should happen a lot with how the team is building. we need to have a lot of players that score regularly rather than having a single player that we rely on Like RVP at Le Arse. We definitely need a good sweeper type goalie to realise AVBs style of play though.
18/08/2012 @ 5:16 am
I think the writer sucks, vdv not too excellent either for holland or spurs, for you to be impressed by his performances in a loosing team means you must be a mediocre or wishful thinker, and that’s what cost Harry his job ,to be satisfied with 4th place or mediocrity just doesn’t suit some teams or fans, On ur comments on Defoe, manages 17 goal in all competitions despite being wrongfully benched for vdv and you still find it difficult to praise or encourage his ability, similar thing happened to giovani,deserved more playing time, I just hope u r nt a racist, if so then you r the only one who has left yourself in a miserable position, most spurs fans are optimistic and looking for the team to win &win not condemning what we already have.
18/08/2012 @ 7:00 am
I think if gio had 4 years on his contract it would be a no brainer gio would till atleast jan to see if avb could use him in the 1st 11. He is coming into the last year of his contract and I think its pretty safe to assume he would not sign an extension. Leaving on a free is not in levys plans for gio.
18/08/2012 @ 9:53 am
Adebayor will sign next week once settlement reached with city. If not plan b could be damio, llorente or the polish striker. Given gio’s contract is soon to run out, it would make sense for levy to do a player exchange for ceaser or lloris. We could do with adam johnson he has expressed a desire for more first team football and would fit in well me thinks. Coys!