God rest their departed souls...
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Transfers January 2021 Transfer Thread
- Thread starter The Fighting Cock
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In summer 2019 Spurs signed Ndombele and Lo Celso to play as CM's but despite Ndomnbele having a full pre-season and whilst Poch starting him frequently he also 'hooked him' frequently after 45 or 60 minutes : in his first season he did not appear to settle and reproduce the form he showed at Lyon.
Lo Celso joined Spurs after Copa America and his 3 week holiday to miss preseason 2019 and sadly after a couple of sub appearances he was badly injured in an international and missed the remaining first half of the season. But did fine in the 2nd half of 19/20. Sadly seems to be carrying an injury so far in 20/21
In summer 2020 Hojbjerg joined and despite a number of posters assuring everyone 'he's not a proper DM' has turned that round in the last 4 or 5 PL matches to be one of Spurs best players.
So Spurs have signed 3 CM's in the 12 month period from summer 2019 to summer 2020, including sadly 2 who have missed a lot of time through fitness issues.
20/20 hindsight to say we didn't sign enough CM's despite signing 7 players this summer to fill a variety of positions.
Did you foresee Lo Celso's injury hit start ? Can you tell us when he will be fully fit to alleviate our CM issues ? And ditto why has Ndombele only completed 357 minutes in 7 starts ( average almost 60 mins this season) Tanguy Ndombélé - Stats 20/21 If not why not ?
And if not would you have expected almost £100m of cm players would be not fit enough at the start of the season ? And do you want to buy more players to cover injuries if you expect Ndombele and Lo Celsos to be fit within a month or two ?
Perhaps you understand the dilemma a little better when you understand some players injuries (and many posters were insistent that Ndombele was the best CM to sign - including I recall you - yet his not playing 90 minutes in most matches is part of the problem you are complaining about)
Sound like his wage demand is crazy for Bayern to fail in agreeing a new contract. Doesn't sound like the kind of wage we can afford.
Move Dele and Sissoko out and give Alaba the wages ..Levy can surely work something out
It's not just about being able to afford for a player. It may be the beginning of raising the whole team wage cap. A dangerous game. Bayern Munich didn't see him worth it, so we need to be careful.
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This place is going to be hilarious when we don't sign Alaba in January and people have worked themselves into thinking that it is a surefire thing.
He looks a lot better than Aarons in my opinion. I never got the hype with Aarons, who is no better than OK going forward but can't defend.
It's not 20/20 hindsight. Some of us have said in 2019 that the players we signed, Lo Celso and Ndombele, weren't going to solve all our midfield issues. We said the same when we signed Hojbjerg.
we have been proven right so far. Especially as Mourinho seems to want to play Ndombele mostly as a 10/ACM and often plays Lo Celso as one, and even when the opportunity to play a midfield three has presented itself, in just about every game he's chosen not to, and is still playing Sissoko in a CM2, which is utterly inadequate.
And as I have continually pointed out all along, and reiterated in the post you quoted, none of our CM's, including those purchased in the last two seasons are really equipped to play in CM2 systems, especially without a proper tenacious and dynamic footballing 6 next to them.
That is why none of what you posted presents a rational counter argument to what I said. Because of the players we have, and because of the system Mourinho continually chooses to play, and even because of the injury issues you allude to, we still need another CM or even two to replace at least the inadequacies of Sissoko who's still being picked to play there.
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He said the other day it is just a matter of conditioning. Once they are both up to speed he plans to play Lo Celso and Ndombele together.
We'll see if he sticks to that or if they are always carrying injuries that don't allow them to play together or if they are all of a sudden new reasons for him not to do it once they are healthy.
I am very skeptical that it ever happens and certainly not on a regular basis.
He wants 300k a week or something crazy.
I don't see what the issue would be.
They could play in a 4231 with Lo Celso as part of the 3 and Ndombele with Hojberg in the 2.
The issue is that I don't think Jose wants to have two attacking/creative midfielders in the squad who will have the team playing a more attacking style of play. He sees that as too risky and prefers the idea that guys like Sissoko are "safer" because they are unable to make passes and don't run the risk of making a mistake by trying to move the ball forward.
There is no issue playing them both as it would be by far our best midfield no matter what the formation is, but doubt that Jose wants to see that much skill in the line-up at the same time.
But will it be in a CM3 (how they would work best) or with me of them as an AM/ACM as he has been doing?
He could play a cm3 now, with Sissoko/PEH/Ndombele but he hasn’t.
Ndombele's work rate in the last 2 games has been light years ahead of what he was doing before. He is getting there.
Jose said Lo Celso played through an injury at the end of last season because the team needed him (before the lockdown and in the "bubble" games). His minutes are being controlled in Premier League games now because the intensity is higher than in Europa League and he is not fully recovered.
What you are saying isn't addressing the point(s) I'm making though. we could be using Ndombele in a Cm3 now, and we aren't. Even if Lo Celso gets fit, are we going to keep playing CM2 systems? If so then none of the combinations of CM's we have now are ideal. We still need to get at least a proper, fully functioning 6 type.