Lack Of Depth

[TDub]

''Pretty well'' is still a fucking depressing state of affairs for that kind of money for a club with our budget. He needs to be winning a few games for us but instead we are just happy to see him not fucking up.

Pretty well was much better than most players today. I'd say he played well even. Brilliant pass to Kane on the assist too. Worked extremely hard on defense too.

And he won one game for us with a beauty from outside the box. Sunderland wasn't it? He's still young, works hard and I truely believe that he'll be brilliant in a year or two. I wouldn't be so quick to judge. He's got the right ingredients.

 

[Aussie Ardiles]

Agree completely. Rose was terrible but he tried and looked tired. He's been good this season and everyone has bad games. Now Paulinho, he is just scared. I forgot to add terrible mentality to my list of problems with him. I can't remember who said it but somebody said Pauli was gonna turn into the Brazillian Jenas once he came he and he absolutely did. I'd take Jenas over him to be honest though.

I've been calling him that for quite sometime. He just ghosts in and out of games and somehow gets on the scoresheet without doing an awful lot at all. Stoke game aside he has never looked like one of the better players on the pitch

 

[FightingIllini]

Yes it was, but is that enough? Has he done enough in his time here so far to even get close to justifying the investment?

I'm not sure Harry Kane has done enough to justify the money we spent on Lamela, but lets not get dragged down into the sunk cost fallacy here. Lamela is not one of the players in this squad who doesn't belong.

 

[Aussie Ardiles]

Yes it was, but is that enough? Has he done enough in his time here so far to even get close to justifying the investment?

Forget the price tag and watch the game. Does he dominate games yet? No. But I thought he did his job tonight and in general this season has looked decent. There's only so many players who can dominate games going forward. At the moment it's Kane, Eriksen and to a lesser extent Dembele.

 

[Deadwood'sPostMatch]

Probably the best game Lamela has had in the Premier League

Ewan Roberts ‏@EwanRoberts 11m11 minutes ago
Standard post-match shout-out to Erik Lamela. Ran the furthest (12.13 km), most tackles (6) on either team, 3 chances created and an assist.

Also robbed by Dracula

Yeah I'd given up on him, thought he was shit on Saturday BUT he put a shift in.
He put a shift in tonight and set up Kane's goal with some nice play. Nothing else came off for him.

 

[Deadwood'sPostMatch]

Lamela really is trying to make things happen.

 

[Hazza]

I'm not sure Harry Kane has done enough to justify the money we spent on Lamela, but lets not get dragged down into the sunk cost fallacy here. Lamela is not one of the players in this squad who doesn't belong.

Even if Lamela had scored half of Kane's goals, I'd be content right now, but he is nowhere close. The money thing is important because for us that kind of investment is fucking huge. Chelsea paid around 30m for Hazard and look at the difference he has made for them compared to Lamela. Atleti paid around 30 for Griezmann, and he was bossing the game against RM the other day. When you pay that much for a young player, surely you should expect a significant return even in the first season, let alone this far into the second.
I'm not trying to pick on Lamela, he is not our worst player by any means, but he is emblematic of the careless way that we have spent what little money we have.

 

[Guido 🇺🇦]

Complete knee jerk thread, seeing we have games coming thinck and fast every three days or so. In order to answer this we need to see who and what the rotation will be over the next few games to answer the question. Both us and Pool are the "in form" teams in the league right now and nothing but our strongest starting 11 would have meant a loss. The fact we lost and not drawn the game is hard luck, but in The words of our leader "this is football.

 

[pdxspur]

Could've used Capoue or Stambouli today.

I feel like when we are forced to switch to 4-4-2 late in the match it's time flick the switch on the TV. Can't think of atime when it's worked out for us late.

Anyways as many have pointed out this will hopefully be sured up when Poch is able to get in players for his system in summer and move on those that dont fit. I'm pleased he's been able to scrambled together a first XI that has performed as well as it has with what he was given.

 

[JDK]

All goes back to ending up with at least four useless players from the Bale money that have proved impossible to unload because we clearly are paying them huge money. That window set us back at least two years. Thank god for the academy.

With the massive new TV deal and the international ones still coming, Levy can no longer cry poor. Pochettino and Mitchell need to be given what they want this summer.

 

[The Swellhead Spur]

Imo the players Poch trusts are;

Lloris, Vorm, Walker, Fazio, Dier, Vertonghen, Rose, Davies, Mason, Bentaleb, Stambouli, Lamela, Townsend, Eriksen, Dembele, Chadli, Kane

I think Yedlin will feature abit more too as he gets up to Pochettino's desired fitness, so we'd need a CB, CM, Winger/AM and a Striker or two, will be sorted out in the summer imo!

If I was in charge I'd go and get Reid, Ayew, Ings & Gignac all for free!

 

[Yossarian]

Now do some of you get why it was a bad idea to let siggy go. Would of been that sub to give us that quite random goal. And we still have paulinho. Real sad, but need to move on.

WALOB







I can't stand people who refer to themselves in the third person.

ochlol:

 

[Yossarian]

Could've used Capoue or Stambouli today.

I feel like when we are forced to switch to 4-4-2 late in the match it's time flick the switch on the TV. Can't think of atime when it's worked out for us late.

Anyways as many have pointed out this will hopefully be sured up when Poch is able to get in players for his system in summer and move on those that dont fit. I'm pleased he's been able to scrambled together a first XI that has performed as well as it has with what he was given.

Never want to see Capoue in the first team again. We would have been massacred had he started. Stambouli not on bench, probably due to injury. Unlucky for us, but highlights just how paper thin the squad is.

 

[pdxspur]

I think Capoue can still do a job from time to time, even if it was just to come off the bench for either Bentaleb or Mason both of whom looked off it today.

 

[Trevor_Whatever]

All goes back to ending up with at least four useless players from the Bale money that have proved impossible to unload because we clearly are paying them huge money. That window set us back at least two years. Thank god for the academy.

With the massive new TV deal and the international ones still coming, Levy can no longer cry poor. Pochettino and Mitchell need to be given what they want this summer.

real reason we are not looking to move them on is surely cos the new manager has only had six months to work with them. Wouldn't make sense to sell any of the poorer performing bale money players until either the manager has had a proper chance to try to work with them in the system or their performances. No reason that capoue for example couldn't come in and do a job in a settled side that is regularly picking up points. Part of mopo's job is to get the stragglers performing.

 

[JDK]

real reason we are not looking to move them on is surely cos the new manager has only had six months to work with them. Wouldn't make sense to sell any of the poorer performing bale money players until either the manager has had a proper chance to try to work with them in the system or their performances. No reason that capoue for example couldn't come in and do a job in a settled side that is regularly picking up points. Part of mopo's job is to get the stragglers performing.

Going I have to disagree. He's done a pretty good job with most of them but he isn't magic. I'd be pretty surprised Soldado, Capoue, Paulinho, and Chiriches don't make way in the summer for players he actually wants. He seems terrified to use them barring the most desperate of times. They won't be around much longer. Can't make chicken salad with chicken shit.

 

[YIDN17]

Lack of depth, says it all really when our academy boys are doing the buisness.
Like its been mentioned before some of our signings have not made the cut and the money spent is alot for our club. At the time it did seem like brilliant investments, a wonderkid from italy, a top striker from spain, an ajax maestro, a centreback who captains hes national team, a technical winger, and a brazilian midfielder who scores goals.

But what we really have is a young boy who needs time and 30 million for a developing player who cant make an instant impact is a shit load of money so it will feel somewhat wasted.
A striker who we all believe can, but has not produced what a striker should and thats goals, his confidence is rock bottom and for the money spent it feels like we should end his misery and take a loss because at the moment it seems like there is no coming back for him in england.
An ajax maestro whos become one for us at a bargain price.
A centreback who has all the attributes of a good centreback but he cant make it into our starting eleven,but he must have something there as decent teams were sniffing around him.
A belgium winger who looks like hes settling in nicely into the prem at a decent price.
And last but not least paulinho, no words needed really, all i will say is that brazilians hardly ever do the buisness in the prem just look at the history.

So money i agree does make a massive difference to the way we judge players because if you spend big money you expect a big return on the pitch and our best signing eriksen was a bargain compared to soldado paulinho and lamela. Plus if they dont make the cut its alot easier to take a lose on 2 million then 15 million.
Going back to the main point i also feel the way we sold certain players has come back to bite us and has affected our squad depth. Feels like the transition was rushed and the team lost alot of its identity when this all happened, rose, walker and dembele are the only few that remain from all of that. The academy boys are a blessing and players like jan, lloris, eriksen are who we should focus and build our team on in the future. We also need to stop with the average signings, the players we are currently linked with ( reid, mirralles, berahino) are not stand out players who we should be trying to bring in. We can aim for top players like we have in the past ( lloris, jan, vdv, eriksen ) instead of players who can come in and fill a position we need players to come and do a job.

P.s capoue is one that i forgot to add into our signings and thats self explanatory really hes been an average bench warmer and nothing more

 

[ArcspacE]

Can't make chicken salad with chicken shit.

ChickenTonight

 

[ArcspacE]

I think this will all be sorted out in the summer time when we get rid of our dead weight and add players that fit to Poch's plan

To be fair, mate - haven't we been saying that since Jol's days?

 

[BentalebWho]

This point was raised in the OMT already but I felt it could warrant further discussion

In short - I believe our bench is extremely thin in terms of real quality. We have virtually no game-changers we could possibly bring on. Rodgers was offered this luxury tonight (albeit even modestly so) an in this case paid off - of course we should have never conceded 2 of the 3 goals but our changed were passive at best and detrimental to the overall game-plan. Possibly part of the reason neither Mason or Bentaleb could be rested after Saturday-

Many Levy apologists criticised those who expressed concern with our (chronic) stubborn impotence in the Transfer market last month but relying on Kane and Eriksen to bail us out every game is myopic to say the least. Hopefully the likes of Lamela, Stambouli and Soldado hit a rich vein of form. COYS

Wasn't so long ago that we had no one to score..

Also, Kane is a striker, and a very good one. That's what a striker does. Yes, usually teams have a lot more scorers but Kane is just putting away his chances like a good striker should. For years we've been hearing that he was the best "finisher" at the club now he's just putting that into use at the highest stage.

Absolutely cannot stand him as a player. Maybe I'm being unfair to him but I'm so tired of everything he does. Can't pass, can't shoot, can't tackle, doesn't work hard, dribblied by too often, doesn't track back enough, poor finisher anywhere further than 6 yards out. I guess he can pop up in the box sometimes and score but that means fuck all because he can't do anything else right. I don't know why he is still here to be honest. Wow that is harsh but I don't even feel that bad about saying it.

Really want to agree but there is the fact he played pretty well at International level for a period. I don't rate Brazillians that highly anyway (read: Neymar) but I'm sure he's not in the best state of mind. Smashed in the WC after a poor enough season with us and then dropped. No need to get rid completely. Leave him and see if Poch work some magic on him.