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Manager Mauricio Pochettino

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VirginiaSpur said:
No, you're twisting my words. I said that Bentaleb and Mason together in the middle was a major problem and I stand by those words, but I didn't say that it was our "main issue". Stop fucking going off on your paranoia regarding Southampton, your witch hunt is sad.
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Apart from saying they were a major problem last season, you also said:

"Our already weak defensive line was greatly exposed by the double-pivot of Mason and Bentaleb"

So I'm twisting your words? We were already weak defensivly and they "greatly exposed" us? And you said I am twisting your words?

You also said this:
"I believe that opinion is validated by Dier's move into midfield as the more defensively dedicated midfielder."

Dier is having a good time of it BECAUSE of the STERLING work of Mason and Bentaleb. Being surrounded by players like Dembele, Mason and Bentlaeb allows Dier to play well because he is only worrying about his own patch.

When Poch introduced Lamela into Masons position, Dier got cut to ribbons and we dropped points.

Do you watch games? I hate to revert to this, but do you stream games or listen on the radio? I have no idea why you would say such ignorant things about Bentaleb and Mason unless you are just going from a teletecxt headline that Bentleb was at fault for a goal so you think he's bad because of it.

Dier is a great player. But you put your grass is greener pussies next to him and see what happens. Careful what you wish for. After Poch tinkered it was Eriksen and Lamela next to Dier and him and Walker got fucked almost instantly.
 
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I'm just watching BVB-St. Pauli over my lunch break and it's amazing how much Tuchel's version of Dortmund look like Spurs with a bit of extra pace. I think it's probably a good preview of sort of our style once we've got Son and N'Jie featuring regularly.

Also, they seem to be even more vulnerable to balls over the top than we are. Hope we play them in the Europa knock-out rounds.
 
gibbs131 said:
You said Bentaleb and Mason in the middle was our main issue last season? That's such an ignorant outlook on the season. They helped us get 5th. They were a positive. So much so everyone (that didnt go to sleep wearing Southamoton grass is greener pajamas) was clamoring to nail down Bentalebs contract.

It was Solddo missfiring, Townsend, Paulinho, Chiriches, Lamela, and earlier Lennon that were more to blame for our softness and misfiring season. .

We were 3 points from 4th because of them:

Paul Scholes on Nabil Bentaleb and Ryan Mason’s midfield partnership

Manchester United legend Paul Scholes has been singing the praises of Tottenham Hotspur duo Nabil Bentaleb and Ryan Mason in The Independent.

"Tottenham are currently sixth in the Premier League table with 50 points from 28 matches, just thee points behind fourth-placed United. Mauricio Pochettino’s side will take on the Red Devils away from home in the league on Sunday."

You don't remember what happened. I do. Andros Townsend happened. Poch put him back in the team

BBC Sport - Manchester United 3-0 Tottenham Hotspur

"The match was running away from Spurs at such a rate that coach Mauricio Pochettino made a tactical change after only 30 minutes when Mousa Dembele was introduced at the expense of Andros Townsend."

Around that point of the season, Poch re intrroduced Townsend and all hell broke loose. We crashed out of the Europa, the race for 4th wasnt just him subbing Townsedn early against Utd, he also did the same with Townsend gifting Liverpool our right hand side. What else happened? Poch brought Towsend back for the cup final.

It was wet paper bags like Townsend and non events on the pitch like Soldado that fucked our season. It was all to play for. In the final stages of Europa, 3 points from 4th and in a cup final. That was the platform they gave us.

We fixed the issues, we got new wide men and the REAL issues you ignored are either playing for other teams or out of the starting 11. We didn't get new Masons and Bentalebs because they are not the reason we choked last season.
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I remember what happened!

Bentelab giving the ball away needlessly and us conceding a goal because of it like he did this season!

You can't blame Townsend for that unless you're in Gibbsy world!
 
Err, we scored the 5th highest amount of goals last season but conceded more than relegated Hull. I think that probably tells you that our deeper midfield / defence wasn't working as it should. We need to control the central midfield better to stop the chances.
 
Bazali said:
I remember what happened!

Bentelab giving the ball away needlessly and us conceding a goal because of it like he did this season!

You can't blame Townsend for that unless you're in Gibbsy world!
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Right. You wanted him to leave the club because of that and called him a cunt. Some people don't melt quite as hard as you over one instance where he lost us a game.

You don't scratch the surface. Like when he was on the pitch, Utd didnt have a single shot on goal..

Not one. At home. By the way, you said you would stop swarming me:

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You are seriously giving me a rash.

Time will tell if Bentaleb is the "cunt' you say he is.
 
Deadwood'sPostMatch said:
Easy tiger. Bit early to make such a call.
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My point was he is a great player but you can't compound his issue (pace) by having people like Dembele, Kane, Lamela and Eriksen next to him. So Poch needs to sort the pace out. It's not a knee jerk. I was worried he would do this before the season started. He's got goals in him. I think we do need someone like Poch. We have looked solid defending, attacking corners etc for a change plus dier won us a lot of points going forward last season. He kept us in the hunt for 4th.

IMO if you replaced Lamela with a pacy player, it would up Dembele, Kane and Diers game.
 
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gibbs131 said:
Right. You wanted him to leave the club because of that and called him a cunt. Some people don't melt quite as hard as you over one instance where he lost us a game.

You don't scratch the surface. Like when he was on the pitch, Utd didnt have a single shot on goal..

Not one. At home. By the way, you said you would stop swarming me:

11147251_877255485689638_9003015935191281792_n.jpg


You are seriously giving me a rash.

Time will tell if Bentaleb is the "cunt' you say he is.
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I have never said that I wanted Bentelab to leave the club as I think he has potential!

Stop telling lies you fat, Welsh, Swansea supporting slaphead!

You really are a joke!
 
Jenas throws some massive shade at Juande Ramos in this article on LVG:

EXCLUSIVE: Jermaine Jenas: LVG should heed Utd warnings - or pay with his job

Really good example of how managers may be good at some things, but horrible at others. If he'd been able to figure out a better diet and understood players' emotions better, he could have been quite good. Instead, he made them nearly suicidal.

This seems to be one side of the game Pochettino is good at. He's got the players to be fit, but also happy. I'm not saying he's perfect, but it seems this is a pretty fundamental issue coaches need to get right.
 
gibbs131 said:
I'm gutted that Mason and Bentaleb are getting so much shit in this thread. If anything they are saving our bacon from the failure of the Bale money.
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They're not getting shit in this thread, are you daft? Saying that they lack the qualities to have a good partnership in the midfield doesn't mean that people don't like them as players. It means that they lack qualities to adequately protect the defense which led to us conceding more goals than half the premier league. I still love them both as players but I'd much rather have Dier and Benteleb or Mason and Dier than Mason and Benteleb.
 
TDub said:
They're not getting shit in this thread, are you daft? Saying that they lack the qualities to have a good partnership in the midfield doesn't mean that people don't like them as players. It means that they lack qualities to adequately protect the defense which led to us conceding more goals than half the premier league. I still love them both as players but I'd much rather have Dier and Benteleb or Mason and Dier than Mason and Benteleb.
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That soft aspect was Soldado, Townsend, Lamela, Eriksen and Holtby and Lennon earlier. If you blame our defense on Bentaleb and Mason then you were watching a pretty shitty stream. Our WINGS were NAILED ON the main reason we were so soft.

It was Bentaleb and Mason that had us in with a shout of 4th. We were 3 points behind United, in a cup final, in the final stages of Europe at the tail end of the season and poch reintroduced Townsend and ended all hope of a trophy.

Get back in the transfer threads wishing away our midfield.
 
gibbs131 said:
That soft aspect was Soldado, Townsend, Lamela, Eriksen and Holtby and Lennon earlier. If you blame our defense on Bentaleb and Mason then you were watching a pretty shitty stream. Our WINGS were NAILED ON the main reason we were so soft.

It was Bentaleb and Mason that had us in with a shout of 4th. We were 3 points behind United, in a cup final, in the final stages of Europe at the tail end of the season and poch reintroduced Townsend and ended all hope of a trophy.

Get back in the transfer threads wishing away our midfield.
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Last year our most consistent source of conceding goals was a ball played over the top to a forward runner who got in a 1v1 with one of our centrebacks and forced an error. The problem was an inability to close down opposition midfielders and prevent passes. This was down to Mason and Bentaleb struggling with the off-the-ball side of midfield work. They were too often out of position or making the wrong choice.

This year Mason, while much better, has also been able to rely on having a partner in Dier who sits and breaks up the play rather than tries to go forward. Coincidentally, our midfield suddenly looks much better and all those dangerous passes seem to have dried up.
 
Juicy Sushi said:
Last year our most consistent source of conceding goals was a ball played over the top to a forward runner who got in a 1v1 with one of our centrebacks and forced an error. The problem was an inability to close down opposition midfielders and prevent passes. This was down to Mason and Bentaleb struggling with the off-the-ball side of midfield work. They were too often out of position or making the wrong choice.

This year Mason, while much better, has also been able to rely on having a partner in Dier who sits and breaks up the play rather than tries to go forward. Coincidentally, our midfield suddenly looks much better and all those dangerous passes seem to have dried up.
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I don't know, our defense still looks a little dodgy. We just haven't been completely caught out yet. Our midfield definitely has more balance now, though.
 
Juicy Sushi said:
Last year our most consistent source of conceding goals was a ball played over the top to a forward runner who got in a 1v1 with one of our centrebacks and forced an error. The problem was an inability to close down opposition midfielders and prevent passes. This was down to Mason and Bentaleb struggling with the off-the-ball side of midfield work. They were too often out of position or making the wrong choice.

This year Mason, while much better, has also been able to rely on having a partner in Dier who sits and breaks up the play rather than tries to go forward. Coincidentally, our midfield suddenly looks much better and all those dangerous passes seem to have dried up.
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As in Dembele, Kane, Mason, Dier, Bentaleb etc are not pussies?

We were 2 zero up, then Poch replaced Masons position with Lamela and Kane with Chadli. The impact was almost instant and an an easy win turned into a draw.

Dier was swamped in his previous game because Dembele was replaced by Son. Luckily Dier held up but we won't be facing the bottom of the table each time.

The sooner everyone realizes Dembele, Mason and Bentaleb are key the better. You start games with Townsend and Lamela in front of Dier for 90 mins and see his game go down the toilet.
 
VirginiaSpur said:
I don't know, our defense still looks a little dodgy. We just haven't been completely caught out yet. Our midfield definitely has more balance now, though.
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I think almost any high-line defence will if they're having to respond to a runner coming at them. I think the tactic itself may just lead to this being a recurring issue. My bigger concern personally is Lloris' horrifying distribution.
 
gibbs131 said:
As in Dembele, Kane, Mason, Dier, Bentaleb etc are not pussies?

We were 2 zero up, then Poch replaced Masons position with Lamela and Kane with Chadli. The impact was almost instant and an an easy win turned into a draw.

Dier was swamped in his previous game because Dembele was replaced by Son. Luckily Dier held up but we won't be facing the bottom of the table each time.

The sooner everyone realizes Dembele, Mason and Bentaleb are key the better. You start games with Townsend and Lamela in front of Dier for 90 mins and see his game go down the toilet.
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I am sorry, I'm having trouble connecting these into a single point?

Dembele was injured. Son was our new 22 million pound signing, and needed to start some time. After only 5 days training, he wasn't terrible. It was a higher workload for Dier, but also had more offensive potential since Son would run and make forward passes. Which Dembele didn't do.

Bentaleb so far this year has been quite dire, and cost us a draw through a horrible back pass. He's young, and still learning, but he's also easily pressed and lacking in concentration.

Our midfield last year was a problem. This year, it's much better. Our defense as a whole is also much better as a result.
 
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