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Roberto Soldado

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Robbie Savage said this about Soldado in one of his latest articles on Spurs:

At Valencia last season, he also played on his own up front so he can operate as a lone striker - and he scored 24 goals in 35 La Liga games.

But all of those goals came from inside the box and only four were headers. More often than not they came from low crosses or pull-backs from the bye-line, and Tottenham are just not creating those kind of chances for him.

This is what we should be aiming to do, playing a leftie on the left and a righty on the right, just until we can get the inverted wingers tactic right, in which we could just use in cup/European games IMO.
 
Elspur said:
Robbie Savage said this about Soldado in one of his latest articles on Spurs:

At Valencia last season, he also played on his own up front so he can operate as a lone striker - and he scored 24 goals in 35 La Liga games.

But all of those goals came from inside the box and only four were headers. More often than not they came from low crosses or pull-backs from the bye-line, and Tottenham are just not creating those kind of chances for him.

This is what we should be aiming to do, playing a leftie on the left and a righty on the right, just until we can get the inverted wingers tactic right, in which we could just use in cup/European games IMO.
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It is spot on.

The problem is not even those inverted wingers. The thing with our inverted wingers seem to be, that they truly are no very good at it.

An inverted winger is a winger, whose starting point is out wide aligned with or wide than the fullback. When he gets the ball he is already on the move, either with the ball at pace when facing the fullback or already in the space between the FB or CB when recieving the pass at pace.

Our inverted wingers? For all their quality, most of the time they recieve the ball deep in the middle third and/or within 5 yards of a fullback, back facing the FB and the opposition goal.

I do realise it is not just their fault but also a problem relating to our slow passing and lack of movement.

What is their fault, however, is the constant ambition on running with the ball, inside not only FB but also the CB, effectively just making them horisontal driblers taking the ball across the line of the back 4, at times, literally all across all of the back four.

That is most definately not how you play the position.

If we can't get the midfield 3 to pass quick or well enough and get the IW's to make those pre-pass runs inside the FB, then we may as well swap AT to the left and AL to the right and just play classic wingers.
 
I think in the particular game against Everton Lennon would have had more success finding Soldado if he was on the right, similar to Townsend if he was on the left. However, I believe that AVB can see the same issues we all see. There is a distinct lack of through balls and cut-backs to Soldado. But AVB must see something else as well that clearly needs patience to implement. I don't think he is the kind of manager to play to all of the players' existing strengths. He believes the players can learn to adapt as part of his philosophy and develop these aspects of their game. The game he is playing in general is a lot longer than the one at Goodison Park.

Mourinho at the weekend mentioned he made 11 mistakes - yes, it is worth remembering that Chelsea had a worse result than us. But he was making the point that he has 11 other players who he can choose to believe in instead. It's not a message to the other 11 though, as much as it helps their morale too. What he is doing is admitting he puts his balls on the line believing in the 11 he picks - re-selecting Mata and Torres and playing them out of their favourite positions is a clear example of this. He once played Eto'o as an inverted winger, which would be the equivalent to AVB asking Defoe to play there, and it won him the Champions League. For the record Eto'o didn't get along with Mourinho at all at first and thought he was nuts.

AVB is not an idiot. He knows exactly what his players have done in the past and what they have been good at. He knows it is harder for them to play for him in the positions that he asks. But the only way we improve as a team is if they continually go out of their comfort zone and believe that they can do it. You only have to look at how his high line was criticised last season. I honestly never thought I'd see a Spurs team this defensively solid. Fair fucks to the likes of Dawson for adapting to it against all odds. Maybe I will be saying the same things about Lennon or Townsend in the future. Or maybe Lamela will eventually step-up like Lloris and Vertonghen did.

Either way, it is as much of an opportunity for the future as it is a current problem.
 
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HyNdZee said:
I honestly never thought I'd see a Spurs team this defensively solid. Fair fucks to the likes of Dawson for adapting to it.
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Completely agree with everything you've stated above. It's no secret we do need more goals and I'm confident these will come, but if you don't concede you can't lose. The one thing that astounds me is how solid our defence looks this season in comparison to how we have historically shaped up. We have kept SEVEN clean sheets, we only had 9 in the whole of last season. That's not luck.
 
lovetheshirt said:
Completely agree with everything you've stated above. It's no secret we do need more goals and I'm confident these will come, but if you don't concede you can't lose. The one thing that astounds me is how solid our defence looks this season in comparison to how we have historically shaped up. We have kept SEVEN clean sheets, we only had 9 in the whole of last season. That's not luck.
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If Hugo stays healthy the whole season then I have no doubt he'll break the record. Cech and Van der Sar hold it with 21. Hugo is on pace for almost 30.
 
Fortunate to be virtually level with the 18 yard box Sunday, albeit in the upper tier , and time and time again could see Bobby S making runs for the ball. Fortunately he.'s no Defoe so never drifted offside. Must be so frustrating to be a striker presently in his shoes. Just pass him the FUCKIN ball.
 
gaz said:
Fortunate to be virtually level with the 18 yard box Sunday, albeit in the upper tier , and time and time again could see Bobby S making runs for the ball. Fortunately he.'s no Defoe so never drifted offside. Must be so frustrating to be a striker presently in his shoes. Just pass him the FUCKIN ball.
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He had 45% passing accuracy Sunday and 2 shots (both off target - one was an attempt at 'shift and shoot' i think), thats probably why they didnt pass to him.
 
LLB Part Deux said:
Anyone who hasn't done so already - take a look at Soldado's goals for Valencia over the last 2 seasons. The VAST majority of them are the same type and involve him running into a good position (often beating an offside trap) and receiving the ball either from a low cross or threaded thru-ball from a deeper creative player. 9 times out of 10 he then hits it first time past the keeper.

The big difference between almost all of his goals and his chances this season is that he's been playing in a team that doesn't pressure the opposition team into their final third. Compressing the play, as we do, leads to less space for beating the offside trap and no room for low crosses - it's no surprise he's starved of supply. Look at the chances he nearly scored - an opportunic backheel against the bar, a point blank block to deny him against Woolwich - he's certainly got a goalscorers instinct.
Good points! An as a result of them
LLB Part Deux said:
Anyone who hasn't done so already - take a look at Soldado's goals for Valencia over the last 2 seasons. The VAST majority of them are the same type and involve him running into a good position (often beating an offside trap) and receiving the ball either from a low cross or threaded thru-ball from a deeper creative player. 9 times out of 10 he then hits it first time past the keeper.

The big difference between almost all of his goals and his chances this season is that he's been playing in a team that doesn't pressure the opposition team into their final third. Compressing the play, as we do, leads to less space for beating the offside trap and no room for low crosses - it's no surprise he's starved of supply. Look at the chances he nearly scored - an opportunic backheel against the bar, a point blank block to deny him against Woolwich - he's certainly got a goalscorers instinct.

I genuinely have no idea why AVB (I assume) picked Soldado to spearhead his attack unless he feels that Soldado's game can adapt to our style. Given our investment, I bloody well hope he's right.

However, if he doesn't adapt then we need to find someone who can play the most effective way for a compressed tactic - someone like a Tevez, who can dribble and bully his way into a shooting position, or someone like Llorente who can physically dominate the defences in order to bring attacking midfielders into goalscoring opportunities or provide a target for higher crosses / passes into the box.
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I genuinely have no idea why AVB (I assume) picked Soldado to spearhead his attack unless he feels that Soldado's game can adapt to our style. Given our investment, I bloody well hope he's right.

However, if he doesn't adapt then we need to find someone who can play the most effective way for a compressed tactic - someone like a Tevez, who can dribble and bully his way into a shooting position, or someone like Llorente who can physically dominate the defences in order to bring attacking midfielders into goalscoring opportunities or provide a target for higher crosses / passes into the box.
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Good points! An as a result of them, an in an attempt to combat the problem, I,d like to see Siggy playing off the shoulder of Soldado but with the instruction to the pair of them, that they interchange. Soldado dropping a little deeper, in the hope of creating that bit of space in and behind the defense for a give and go with Siggy or to just draw a defender for a Mf player and Siggy to exploit that space!

So! Soldado comes deeper more often, in the hope of drawing and creating space for either himself to then spin of the shoulder into it or for others to exploit!

COYS!!
 
Eriksen used to run the show week in week out for Ajax, whether it was against some lowly Eredivisie outfit or a midweight European team. It was all about getting into his feet ASAP, often 20-30 yards from oppo's box, and turning teams before they could settle, before he would usually slip the ball through to de Jong.

As much as I'd wish for our system and style of play to suit him, currently I don't think it does. He definitely looks golden on the ball but our focus on remaining solid and reluctance to break quickly enough means he has to come a little deeper for possession. He can do it, but as mentioned above, his fitness/effectiveness will suffer, something Holtby is a bit more suited to. Still, there's always time to adapt!
 
It's worth stepping back and noticing that it's his first season in English football and he's Played 11 and scored 6, including 3 winning goals that have gained us 9 points in the PL.
 
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