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Player Pape Sarr

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Timberwolf said:
Yeah...there's a lot to like about him but his best qualities are his stamina and off-the-ball work. I think we need a bit more from him on the ball for him to be a viable regular starter and I'm not sure he's got it in his locker.

In most cases I'd be happy to keep him around as he's a v.useful squad option to have and better than many squad players we've had previously, but we've built the squad in such a way that something has to give and we can't keep all these players for the sake of it.
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If we want to win things, we have to start being ruthless with players, and start to learn accept when they are not giving enough, rather than giving the a decade to improve.

The squad needs an overhaul and I am tired of holding on to players that are just not good enough.

And it's a shame.
 
GinolasLeftFoot said:
If we want to win things, we have to start being ruthless with players, and start to learn accept when they are not giving enough, rather than giving the a decade to improve.

The squad needs an overhaul and I am tired of holding on to players that are just not good enough.

And it's a shame.
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Yeah I think we're in a bit of a Catch-22 atm. We've gone young so the players naturally need time to develop, but we also need to win now to meet fan/financial expectations.

It's like trying to do a Brighton model but with Spurs expectations - you can't have both at once.

Think we need to correct the balance, sell a couple of the less brilliant youngers and spend big on some either super talents or established stars to improve the level of the team.

I think Bergvall, Gray, Vuskovic and Odobert is about the right balance of young talent for a team with our aspirations. Especially if we manage their minutes and aren't expecting them to be the real deal right away (e.g. Odobert should be an understudy to a top class LW). When you add in Tel, Sarr, Takai, it's just too many kids/prospects to be workable and share minutes around.
 
Timberwolf said:
Yeah I think we're in a bit of a Catch-22 atm. We've gone young so the players naturally need time to develop, but we also need to win now to meet fan/financial expectations.

It's like trying to do a Brighton model but with Spurs expectations - you can't have both at once.

Think we need to correct the balance, sell a couple of the less brilliant youngers and spend big on some either super talents or established stars to improve the level of the team.

I think Bergvall, Gray, Vuskovic and Odobert is about the right balance of young talent for a team with our aspirations. Especially if we manage their minutes and aren't expecting them to be the real deal right away (e.g. Odobert should be an understudy to a top class LW). When you add in Tel, Sarr, Takai, it's just too many kids/prospects to be workable and share minutes around.
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We are in a bit of a catch 22. One of the first I said when I joined the forum the team needs to balanced with top quality players, good starting 11, and the best of the up and coming youngsters.

Instead we have a team of players who have repeatedly let us down, never going to get a chance, over loading of players in one position like RCB.

And the current crop of youngsters really don't have anyone to look up to.

So correcting the balance is one of the biggest things we need to do.

But it's going to take a lot of time, as the club has been so mismanaged on the football side for so long.

And then, you need to add an unknown layer of competency of the new owns and their willingness to invest.

And no one knows how it will turn out.
 
BJK said:
What follows has nothing to do with the goals, one of which was a case of Romero setting him up really.

Him being only 23, emphasis since it's not that young really, is not very relevant here; just like how someone like Johnson being only 24 is not something to cling on to in his case.

There is so little technical ability to work with that I don't ever see him amounting to anything more than a prototypical box to box midfielder in a mid-table/bottom half counter oriented team where he could cover a lot of ground without getting involved with the ball much.
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Agree


BJK said:
Sissoko is his ceiling basically,
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Too far.
 
nicoclaesen said:
Can someone seriously tell me what he brings to a game of football?
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I think when he plays that roving role higher up the pitch he can win a lot of balls and make things difficult for opponents. He did that in the early games for Frank but back in the Ange days as well.

When he has to play box to box he's pretty poor, he doesn't pass the ball crisply and is scared to turn away from his own goal when he receives the ball.
 
Kaz Hirai said:
He's being told by the coach to sit. He had various opportunities tonight to run into the box to make up the number in attack but didn't. Something he would do previously

Can't judge any of our creative or attacking output right now imo
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If he's not being asked to hunt, press and make late runs into the box he's no use to us...
 
Him at 23 is certainly not a brighter prospect than Tel,Odobert and Gray are at their respective ages of 19 or 20. I use the word prospect quite loosely here by the way,as Sarr is quickly moving past that stage to become a finished product.

If you have already given up on some members of the latter group while keeping your hopes high on the former,you might have to reconsider either one of these stances for consistency purposes.Probably the Sarr one.
 
I think all he offers is legs to run around press the ball higher up which might be useful here and there but don't want to see him in our half when trying to get the ball moving forward, lacks the technique and the brain imo
 
This point is not exclusively about Sarr but could be extended to all the players that fit the following description.

I can't overlook how unconfident he looks on the ball, even if it doesn't necessarily lead to a terrible outcome. Footballers are not stupid, they can pick out this kind of stuff from the body language of their opponents.

They over the course of a game must be adjusting their approach in terms of how tight they will mark him or how intense they will close him down. You don't have to fully commit to clumsy players like him for example, as some kind of token pressure would be enough to put them into fight-or-flight mode. Happens with someone like Vicario too. You can redirect your energy towards other players more capable on the ball instead. It's like regularly helping off of a non-shooter in basketball as a defender.

Or if/when you feel like you have no choice but to fully close him down, you can do so comfortably knowing that he has little chance of getting by you in a calm and composed manner.

Poor technique doesn't always cost you in the form of giveaways in dangerous areas. It disrupts the flow with accurate but highly imperfect passes, it increases the burden the more gifted ones have to shoulder on a regular basis and so on.
 
BJK said:
Him at 23 is certainly not a brighter prospect than Tel,Odobert and Gray are at their respective ages of 19 or 20. I use the word prospect quite loosely here by the way,as Sarr is quickly moving past that stage to become a finished product.

If you have already given up on some members of the latter group while keeping your hopes high on the former,you might have to reconsider either one of these stances for consistency purposes.Probably the Sarr one.
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Wow.
 
BJK said:
This point is not exclusively about Sarr but could be extended to all the players that fit the following description.

I can't overlook how unconfident he looks on the ball, even if it doesn't necessarily lead to a terrible outcome. Footballers are not stupid, they can pick out this kind of stuff from the body language of their opponents.

They over the course of a game must be adjusting their approach in terms of how tight they will mark him or how intense they will close him down. You don't have to fully commit to clumsy players like him for example, as some kind of token pressure would be enough to put them into fight-or-flight mode. Happens with someone like Vicario too. You can redirect your energy towards other players more capable on the ball instead. It's like regularly helping off of a non-shooter in basketball as a defender.

Or if/when you feel like you have no choice but to fully close him down, you can do so comfortably knowing that he has little chance of getting by you in a calm and composed manner.

Poor technique doesn't always cost you in the form of giveaways in dangerous areas. It disrupts the flow, it increases the burden the more gifted ones have to shoulder on a regular basis and so on.
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Something ominous about a few of the players vibes. Form collapse in quite a few of them. I maintain we have brought too many players of thd same profile so none are getting the specialist development in their position. Sarr can and has influenced games , I've pointed out before he has been central to some of our best wins against better sides. But he is certainly limited in some aspects of his game. They ALL are. We need to understand how we intend to progress the ball before we work out of hes worth retaining and honestly not sure if Frank knows how or what he wants.
 
If anyone thinks it's a good idea to sell Sarr then they have serious issues.

He's an unbelievably talented player (who proved it by being out best player earlier in the season) that is handicapped by the system and continuously being dropped for no reason.
 
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