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Player João Palhinha
- Thread starter The Fighting Cock
- Start date
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Depends what the club think for next season. If we are worried about being in another relegation battle then you 100% keep JP. If you really want to back RDZ and try push to get back into Europe then you cut your losses and get in a better playmaking 6.
If we stay up and are in another relegation battle next season something has gone extremely wrong - with RDZ at the helm and no European distractions it simply can't happen. We have to aim high and act like a big club. If we keep Palhinha it has to be because we think he can help us get into Europe, not stay in the league.
Admittedly I would've said the same at the start of this season about Frank, but I think we've already got definitive proof that RDZ is a serious manager and can handle a club of our size whereas Frank ended up managing us like an overpromoted intern.
I trust RDZ to make the right decisions about the future of our squad. He's a manager that knows where each player should play, and actually plays them there too.
Problem we have in keeping him is that we need a midfield passer and if he stays we'll be too stacked in midfield to bring anyone else in and thats assuming Sarr is sold. We'd have Palhinha, Bentancur, Gallagher, Gray and Bergvall in a non European season.
Gray and/or Bergvall could probably do with a loan instead of playing a bit part with us
He’s a mentality monster which we’re desperately short of.
I’d be trying to make sure there’s room for him in the squad.
Bissouma and Sarr will be off so that is extra room plus our injury situation.
The issue is we have only 2 number 6’s Bissouma and Palhinha so if both go we still need two. Lange and the club for some odd reason decided we needed a ton of 8’s. So we have Bentancur, Gray, Bergvall, Olusesi, Sarr all looking at one spot depending on formation.
The reason I use 6/8/10 is that clearly when you play players out of position they often fail. Play Gallagher as a pressing 10 and he looks good, sit him deep and he looks poor. Team balance is as important as quality.
100%
Frank kept talking about how we need to be like Woolwich and told us we'd lose games. Then he just looked like a man looking for sympathy and making excuses after every poor performance. He couldn't handle the boos or any of the pressure associated with managing a big club. He was out of his depth.
Meanwhile RDZ appears to be relishing the challenge. His interviews are the total opposite. He's demanding we don't feel sorry for ourselves or make any excuses. He's clearly go through to the players now and found something which we didn't think existed a few weeks ago. Its called ambition. A club like Spurs needs ambition. We've been the poor little brother of the big 6 for a long time and we can't be told to accept being midtable. We need a manager who wants us to compete against the other big 6 and relish the challenge. Someone who relishes the pressure. RDZ's ambition resignated with our players and fans. Same as Ange (love him or hate him, he was ambitious and got a tune out of our players whether you liked his tactics or not). We can never have someone like Frank ever near a club like this again! He could have set us back generations
I said when we brought him in, Ive nothing against him - I think he is excellent at what he does, but...
...I think signing him signals something about the team you want to be
Look at Bayern, immediately ditched him because they want to play proper football.
I think we should do the same.
I like him a lot, I absolutely love his mentality. As a ball winner/midfield enforcer he might be the best there is, but in a team that really wants to play proper football - he doesnt have the game.
I would return him to Bayern with great gratitude for his efforts this year, considering his goals etc its not exaggerating to suggest he played a bigger part than most in our staying up (when we do!)
But we should be aiming higher.
Spot on. When you're at a club like Brentford with one of the lowest wage bills in the league survival is an acceptable ambition and anything above that is a bonus.
When you move to a club like spurs you have to level up your ambition. Frank proved he simply wasn't capable of that and dragged us down to his level rather that raising his own to ours.
At the risk of derailing things - Ill be putting a cheeky £10 on us winning the league next year
Leicester style - game a week - best 11 every game - strong bench = we should be looking to win every week (we wont, obviously, but that should be the mentality)
In a year where Chelsea, City, Liverpool will all be under new management/transition
Might seem fanciful, but fuck it - we should be dreamers
Kompany wants to play Tiki-taka in a one horse league.
The Premier League is a different beast entirely and Sunday demonstrated there’s a use for JP and we weren’t exactly playing hoof ball either.
But different for him at Bayern. They have half a dozen tough matches a season, all in Europe. Maybe two against Dortmund every few years. They can play expansive football. We have growing to do. Hard work to undertake.
I enjoyed us against Villa because Gallagher was pressing like a lunatic and if ever a player got past him, they slammed straight into JP. I was actually laughing at this a couple of times. It was lovely to see.
Playing the “Spurs Way”? Bringing back memories of Hoddle, Waddle, Ginola? Fuck no. What we need in the next couple of seasons? Fuck aye.
I’d be looking to play Pal in front of the back four and have Gallagher and a creative ten further up. A sort of 41221 formation.
Have opponents, who want to go through the middle, to have to deal with Gallagher, Pal and then a big handy bastard centre half and we’d see some skid marks on shorts.
Great minds.
On the contrary, there's a danger of underrating him based on nasty, shitty team performances.
We've all been guilty of singling out individuals through all this turgid shite and missing the fact the whole team was awful.
Unlike certain players, who for the benefit of fairness I won't name this time, he has at least always put in 100% for every minute of games.
If he wants to stay and if we can bring down the transfer fee I would try to keep him. (If RDZ wants him)
Rather replace Sarr and Bissouma with one quality addition in CM, a player who can pass and create.
Rather replace Sarr and Bissouma with one quality addition in CM, a player who can pass and create.
Plus I think we need to know if Gray can kick on again and sit in that midfield with Bentancur behind Gallagher. Right now, I struggle to see how Madders and Simons play much. Maybe Gallagher doesn't offer the creativity of Madders or Simons but neither of them offer the pressing that Gallagher gives and I think De Zerbi likes his 10 to press hard and force turnovers high up the field. Bergvall looks like a natural for that 10 role too which means one or both of Madders and Simons are probably surplus to requirement.
What a load of complete fucking rot.
Who you aiming for that does a better job then?