MIDFIELD!!!

  • 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...

    Get involved!

Latest Spurs videos from Sky Sports

Sort by date Sort by reaction score
jonomarch

jonomarch

They are basically only two decent mids in our squad Holberg and Skipp and thats it.

Locelso - is bang average and the worst thing is always injured so there is no consistency with him.

Dele - doesnt have the tools to be a mid he is a second striker and a very limited one as well

Ndombele- talent yes no passion no grit no consistency.

WInks- destroyed his career when he was played as a dm so he instinct is to play safe side to side and he cant tackle for shit.

GIL and SARR To be determined.

Even our defense is afraid to pass to the midfielders because they don't trust them for shit.
 
Ndombele and Dele ( loath to defend them as they're both obviously flawed, Dele in particular has offered nothing in his last 4 appearances) really aren't the main culprits in us conceding 3 first half goals.

Heading into a game intending to punt the ball long and have these thoroughly unsuitable players hoover up loose balls, that's where the issue is. It's a stretch to say they even played in midfield at the weekend. A manager can make a decent midfield out of Skipp, Hojbjerg, Ndombele, Gio. I'm not sure if this manager can, but it can be done. Dele seems a spent force.
 
Last edited:
AlabamaSpur said:
The problem with Skipp and PEH being in at the same time is that they are basically the same player.
Click to expand...
You could have at least 8 Kevin DeBruyne’s in the team and you’d be leading the league.

The problem with this team is that it can’t pass the ball. PEH is hopeless in that regard and Skipp is bang average. We need dot-connecting players.

This was supposed to be Ndombele, but alas.

I’d kinda like to try Kane and Lucas in a two up top and then a Winks Skipp Lo Celso midfield.

Lo Celso can’t tackle and is liable to turn into garbage or get hurt at any moment, but in the absence of Sonny we’ve got to try something novel to present any threat in possession.
 
Bazali said:
Well they’re making excuses for PEH saying he’s been overplayed and thus tired

Bless him
Click to expand...
PEH has one strength, if he is mopping up with another team mate near him. That's it.

Left on his own he seems to have no real attributes other than to rant, scowl, flail his arms and talk.

His whole "Brilliant player" thing only came about because he kept Winks out of the team.

Future Captain?? That really was a funny
 
Can honestly say we don't have a proper good midfielder on our books anywhere.

Whoever you put in there has serious limitations. Ndombele and Lo Celso are about as fair-weather as it comes. Will look decent in a handful of games that don't matter over a season, the rest they're an absolute liability.

Skipp and Hojberg are so limited on the ball we can't play them both. Skipp at least puts himself about, Hojberg is an absolute pretender.

Alli doesn't even warrant being included in the discussion, what even is he at this point in his career? Finished.

The whole midfield needs gutting out and rebuilding.
 
We don't have any properly good midfielders.
Like it was in the 90s for so long.

When I mean properly good, I'm looking at the likes of Eriksen, Dembele, Modric, Carrick.

None of our midfielders will have Real Madrid or whatever sniffing around.
Skipp could be good, but he isn't that level right now - which doesn't help us right now.

Though I have lost all faith in them, there was a spell over several months Lo Celso looked like he was getting towards that kind of level and flickers from Ndombele - but obviously not enough, not sustained, and feels like a distant memory. Their levels now are poor to average.

Top teams going back the 30 odd years I have been a football fan nearly always have 1 or 2 fantastic central midfielders. Until we have that, I don't see us dining at the top table.
 
Find replacements for
:dembelefingers:
And
:eriksenserious:
and see how we grow.
We were very fortunate to have these guys at their best. The blight on Poch’s tenure is that the squad should have got over the line in at least one competition. We were brilliant in that period.
Something went wrong with recruitment when it really mattered though.
:levystare:
 
jonomarch said:



I miss this!!!
Click to expand...

it's not his passing that made him a top player, it was the vision for the pass
he could see what was possible and put the ball there
if you watch our players now (other than Kane) they look then look again and sometimes look a third time before passing, that space/movement has gone by then
 
Ulrika Jonsson said:
I’ve watched the replay of Woolwich game a number of times. I think our midfield is a big problem. Here’s why.
1. Woolwich put our CB’s under pressure (pressing) and they hoof the ball forward. We looked like a longball team for a significant part of the match because the midfield didn’t present options.
2. Neither PEH nor Skipp are go forward players. Skipp in particular only passes sideways or backwards. When he passes backwards it puts our CB’s under pressure and they hoof the ball forward. See 1.
3. i think PEH was the worst player on the pitch. He didn’t DM and he didn’t go forward. He seemed to be a passenger.
4. Ndombele was quite good. Whenever he got the ball he was looking to go forward and create something. He wasn’t passing responsibility to his teammates like PEH and Winks Skipp
5. We were slow in transition. We won the ball in Woolwich half a few times but people then sat on the ball and waited for support. Also meant Woolwich got organised. We don’t seem to have the counterattacking confidence we had in the Man City game.
6. First two Woolwich goals happened from where the DM should be ie. cutbacks. I can’t blame the CB’s for that.

tl/dr? Here’s the summary
- I didn’t think Ndombele had a bad game.
- PEH was shite
- Dele was better than PEH
- Skipp’s passing is no better than Winks.
- midfield needs to present options for CB’s when in possession
Click to expand...

Have to agree with most of that. For whatever reason, Holjberg kept progressing forward into the opposition half. When Skipp wasn't on the field this was leaving a huge gap in midfield and our CB's completely exposed - especially since our full backs had also pushed up.

Given that it happened the entire first half, I can only assume this was the instruction has was given.

My only guess is that the tactic for the first half was

1. Get the ball to Sanchez
2. Full backs to half way line, midfield 3 to final 3rd, front 3 end of 18 yard box.
3. Sanchez play long ball to Kane.
4. Kane knock out to the wings.

This didn't work at all since Kane lost the ball EVERY TIME. He has bad ankles and doesn't compete for headers effectively anymore.

As soon as we lost the ball, our midfield 3 and fullbacks were way out of defensive shape and it was then a mad dash (or light stroll for Ndombele) to get back in position.

All the while Nano stood motionless and silent with his arms folded on the sidelines.
 
Ulrika Jonsson said:
I’ve watched the replay of Woolwich game a number of times. I think our midfield is a big problem. Here’s why.
1. Woolwich put our CB’s under pressure (pressing) and they hoof the ball forward. We looked like a longball team for a significant part of the match because the midfield didn’t present options.
2. Neither PEH nor Skipp are go forward players. Skipp in particular only passes sideways or backwards. When he passes backwards it puts our CB’s under pressure and they hoof the ball forward. See 1.
3. i think PEH was the worst player on the pitch. He didn’t DM and he didn’t go forward. He seemed to be a passenger.
4. Ndombele was quite good. Whenever he got the ball he was looking to go forward and create something. He wasn’t passing responsibility to his teammates like PEH and Winks Skipp
5. We were slow in transition. We won the ball in Woolwich half a few times but people then sat on the ball and waited for support. Also meant Woolwich got organised. We don’t seem to have the counterattacking confidence we had in the Man City game.
6. First two Woolwich goals happened from where the DM should be ie. cutbacks. I can’t blame the CB’s for that.

tl/dr? Here’s the summary
- I didn’t think Ndombele had a bad game.
- PEH was shite
- Dele was better than PEH
- Skipp’s passing is no better than Winks.
- midfield needs to present options for CB’s when in possession
Click to expand...
A few good points but Ndombelly was gash throughout but not alone
 
Bazali said:
A few good points but Ndombelly was gash throughout but not alone
Click to expand...
Some good points above. I thought NDom did ok too, better than PEH and Dele who are atrocious footballers. Been almost 12 months since PEH looked good, he’s woeful. Face facts
 
Lloris
Royal Romero Rodon Regulion
Skipp PEH
Bryan Ndombele Son
Kane

Lloris
Tanganga Romero Rodon Regulion
Skipp PEH
Bryan Lo Celso Lucas
Son

I wouldn’t mind the old Poch system. Skipp and PEH for energy and Ndombele forward enough not to hurt the defence.

You could easily swap Tanganga in for Royal, Lucas in and push Son up to replace Kane for extra speed and when Ndombele gets tired replace him with Lo Celso.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom