He trusts them to run around, no doubt. Sissoko he already said very clearly earlier in the season that he doesn’t see him as a central midfielder but due to injuries and a lack of options, he plays matches there. Bergwijn and Lamela have had their injury issues which is probably the only reason Lucas is a more consistent starter, he has a higher level of fitness and can run harder for longer. A blind man can see that Lucas is an inferior footballer to both of them.
-
The Fighting Cock is a forum for fans of Tottenham Hotspur Football Club. Here you can discuss Spurs latest matches, our squad, tactics and any transfer news surrounding the club. Registration gives you access to all our forums (including 'Off Topic' discussion) and removes most of the adverts (you can remove them all via an account upgrade). You're here now, you might as well...
Latest Spurs videos from Sky Sports
He trusts them to run around, no doubt. Sissoko he already said very clearly earlier in the season that he doesn’t see him as a central midfielder but due to injuries and a lack of options, he plays matches there. Bergwijn and Lamela have had their injury issues which is probably the only reason Lucas is a more consistent starter, he has a higher level of fitness and can run harder for longer. A blind man can see that Lucas is an inferior footballer to both of them.
He would be involved in about 14 goals a season with us at his peak in all competitions.
Which to be honest, compared to modern day Spurs, isn't the best.
Jol
------
06/07 - He was behind Berbatov, Keane and Defoe for goal involvement - Involved every 1.97 games
07/08 - He was behind Berbatov, Keane and Jenas for goal involvement - Involved every 2.87 games
Redknapp
------------------------
08/09 - He was behind Pavlyuchenko, Bent and Modric for goal involvement - Involved every 2.65 games
09/10 - He was behind Pavlyuchenko, Crouch and Kranjcar for goal involvement - Involved every 1.45 games
10/11 - He was behind Pavlyuchenko, Crouch, van der Vaart and Bale for goal involvement - Involved every 3.38 games
11/12 - He was behind Adebayor, Defoe, van der Vaart and Bale for goal involvement - Involved every 1.98 games
AVB
-------
12/13 - He was behind Defoe, Dempsey and Bale for goal involvement - Involved every 3.11 games
13/14 - He was behind Defoe, Soldado, Paulinho, Adebayor, Chadli, Holtby and Paulinho, - Involved every 4.89 games
Lennons output seems to coincide with how good or bad Spurs were in a particular season really or how we played. He flourished in the two top four seasons Redknapp had with us. Especially 09/10, he was involved in about 15 goals in the equivalent to about 21 games due to his bad injury that year.
But during AVBs boring football - he was really poor productively and he played ALOT too.
Nice write up. I think his output also declined greatly post-Redknapp due to our changed style, we were quite a bit more direct and traditional under Redknapp and he fit that system rather well, compared to AVB's, where he had to do a lot more in possession than get to the byline, cross it or get into space behind the opposition defence.
Goal involvement between 1.5-3 is pretty good for a player whoose main job was to stretch the defence and stay wide for most of the game. I'm not sure he was ever a better footballer than Lucas but he fit the team better at the time.
Yeah - he was always best when Jols teams were on form (06/07) and when Redknapp had bedded in and was creating something special (09/10 and 11/12)
I think Lennon probably lacked that bit of drive to take him to the next level but I think he was underrated in terms of his intelligence off the ball, he would always make some really great runs as a winger, which Modric and Corluka would almost always take advantage of.
It's a shame we never had someone like Eriksen straight after losing Modric and van der Vaart - Dembele and Sandro weren't creative enough and Walker would tend to get in Lennons way when they did play together. Sigurdsson was mightily disappointing in the creative department too.
For sure, I think he made a lot of good off the ball movement but was always kind of caricatured as a pace merchant with little ability. I also agree his biggest issue was, like Rose, mental.
He was of course fantastic against Ajax in a very important game- but anyone is capable of a fantastic game every now and then where everything you do comes off eg Rosenthal v Southampton all those years ago. Moura has done very little since and couldn’t hold down a place with PSG for a reason.
With Lennon there was a brief period where the crowd was expectant when he got on the ball. With Moura I don’t recall ever feeling a buzz when he is in possession. Not good enough to be a starter imho
There's truth in what you are saying, but the PSG bar is an unfair one when you look at who he was superseded by....
Certainly agree about Sigurdsson. Felt he was weak for Spurs and didn’t achieve a lot. I know some people like him but I hope that yesterday’s performance might show a few on here that he isn’t that good
Maybe but my opinion is if he isn’t good enough for PSG then he shouldn’t be good enough for Spurs- even though we are clearly not the team we were
That would suggest we enjoy the same spending power, would it not? ....Which is explicitly not the case.
No i know money talks but I am just saying we should have been aiming higher than signing a PSG reserve when at the time of signing him we had just come 3rd and 2nd in consecutive seasons in the toughest league in Europe.
We're back to square one in this exchange then....
That a player was consigned to the bench off the back of a front line revamp that saw the arrival of Neymar & Nbappe, by itself, is no serious indictment of the individual. It's not like he was even brought to fill a gap in our first team anyway... He was bought as depth with the added hope he could provide competition.
2016/17 Sonny was still a bit part/impact sub what with us mainly playing 3421
2017/18 Our AM 3 was typically Son/Dele/Eriksen and Lucas was brought in that January.
In an ideal world we buy Bergwin sell Moura and use the money to buy an out right number nine a player who scores goals holds up the ball wins headers and has has a bit of pace. Oh pretty much Harry Kane circa 2017...
Jose likes him because of his work rate and aerial ability.
I am not sure we use that aerial ability in the right way though. Sure he has a good spring but he is very small and I certainly don’t remember him scoring many headers. I appreciate he works hard and I don’t dislike him but unfortunately his work doesn’t often produce results
I agree totally, but I think Jose’s thinking is that Kane isn’t the best at holding the ball up, so when it does go long, you have two targets to aim at. Lucas does win his fair share of headers.
Its a good point but it doesn’t really tell us why he’s played the last two games though does it?
Bergwijn and lamela have both been fully fit and even if he has fitness concerns about both of them, surely it would be more productive to just rotate them two and leave Lucas out of it altogether.
Its one of the most worrying persistent decisions by Jose that makes me question what the fuck he is doing. The Ndombele thing can be understood because we expect Jose to fall out with a player or two, he does it everywhere after all.
but lamela and Bergwijn are both players with great attitudes that run for the team, both contribute assists and goals, there is no excuse for Lucas to be starting ahead of them on current or historical form.
That’s one of the funniest thing about so-called pragmatic coaches - they really aren’t.