-
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...
Player Rodrigo Bentancur
- Thread starter The Fighting Cock
- Start date
Latest Spurs videos from Sky Sports
He had some great forward passes but in defence like others have said he either lost the ball or was disposed. Also I think he was at fault for the their first goal by standing off 10 yards not attempting to close down cross. However I think I’m the 2nd he was much energetic and ran around a lot more. May be some HT team talk.
ManCity is probably the toughest team he will ever face, and probably a big step up on teams he's faced before particularly in terms of speed, and therefore how quickly he needs to think.
He's survived that, and will probably learn from that too.
Far too early after 2 full games and a 30 minute sub appearance to give a definitive judgement - that needs to wait until the end of the season or even into next season to give a definitive judgement. But so far I think he improves our CM both in terms of defensive qualities but he's also not afraid to make a few ambitious passes to move play forward.
So atm I'm more than happy we've signed him - and our CM options are now Bentancur, Skipp, Hojbjerg and Winks (plus Sarr available next season) which is a decent base to start from, although obviously if we find someone to improve that quartet in the summer that would be even better.
He's survived that, and will probably learn from that too.
Far too early after 2 full games and a 30 minute sub appearance to give a definitive judgement - that needs to wait until the end of the season or even into next season to give a definitive judgement. But so far I think he improves our CM both in terms of defensive qualities but he's also not afraid to make a few ambitious passes to move play forward.
So atm I'm more than happy we've signed him - and our CM options are now Bentancur, Skipp, Hojbjerg and Winks (plus Sarr available next season) which is a decent base to start from, although obviously if we find someone to improve that quartet in the summer that would be even better.
I must admit that I thought him disappointing in getting dispossessed in dangerous positions several times when I watched the match.
He looked (much) better when I went over the highlights later in the day.
An early impression based one early positive or negative action sometimes leads to confirmation bias.
He looked (much) better when I went over the highlights later in the day.
An early impression based one early positive or negative action sometimes leads to confirmation bias.
Deleted member 15314
Guest
Yes, same here. I was a bit unimpressed in the first half but he was great in the second. The link up play for Kane's saved shot was pure class.
Showed a bit of his ability wriggle out a tricky situation just after the handball on Romero, would never see Winks or even Skipp doing that.
Oh... and both him and PEH put in a couple of good "clever" tackles to break City's attack high up the pitch.
Last edited by a moderator:
This isn't right in my view. I just rewatched the first half as far as their goal and Bentacur was arguably the best player on the pitch. He didn't do anything sexy but he completely nullified KDB and others in that area of the pitch just with his presence. I counted 28 times up to that goal where he closed down KDB, Rodri, Sterling etc. in the area of the pitch where they string their attacks from, in each case he started in exactly the right position, jogged out to them at exactly the right pace, and forced them to pass the ball out wide, then promptly returned to his position. He was a guard dog that chased them away time and time again. It is the reason why KDB looked like a very limited player yesterday (which he is not of course).
KDB usually pulls the string for City but he had no time to pick out the killer pass. The one time he attempted it despite being closed down he had to rush it and overcooked a cross that went out for a goal kick.
Bentacur did not even need to tackle, his prescense was enough to control what City did in a way they couldn't hurt us. And the more he did it the more you could see KDB becoming frightened of him. One time Bentacur did tackle (someone else other than KDB I think) got the ball, one two with Kulu, to Kane and Kane to Son, which had Son managed to take the ball in his stride he would have been through on goal. In truth Kane hit it behind him a little. It could easily have led to a goal, started by Bentacur.
When they scored, Sterling was able to cross the ball in, he had time, and that was as you say because Bentacur was not there closing him down quickly enough, but in fact that was because Bentacur had been pulled out of position having had to track one of the other City players, where he had successefully closed that player down. It was a combination of good passing, dribbling by City and luck for them. It certainly wasn't Bentacur's fault. Someone else on that side should have seen the problem developing and closed him down instead.
This was all in the first half. Maybe he had a terrible last ten minutes, I haven't looked yet, only as far as the goal, but he was quietly devastating in my view. I don't know what game you were watching to reach the conclusion you have above. The only foot he put wrong was where he regained possession high up the pitch and took one too many touches before passing and the ball got away from him and he then lost the possession he had gained. Everything else was sublime. I wasn't sure about him when we signed him but I am convinced having watched his performance yesterday - and you say he was even better in the second half so I look forward to watching him closely in the rest.
edit: just watched the last ten of the first half. Bentacur did lose possession twice in that ten minutes. He wasn't he only one to be fair, as the team was a bit shook up from conceding. Sess lost the ball twice (being given a dubious free kick one time), Hojbjerg too, and worst of all Dier gifted them the ball with a terrible clearance/pass, which was cleared up by...Bentacur, with a brilliant sliding tackle. Bentacur also made another key tackle sliding in on KDB after one of our attacks broke down, again stopping a dangerous City attack. Overall he was very impressive. To say he is an upgrade on Winks would be a huge understatment, he clearly strengthens us significantly.
Last edited:
I like it.
Yep, definitely need some new chants.
Took me a while...
She's Electric by Oasis.
I don't know if it's an original idea or if another team has used it, but new songs are always welcome as far as I'm concerned. Don't know how we get them from the pubs to the terraces these days though. Those blokes are probably spread all over the place in the stadium.
I am unsure on if Hugo covering 5K as a goalie is impressive or not. Anyone know what the standard is for a goalie?
I'd suggest impressively high at first thought.
But to be fair goalies do walk from side to side of the goal as play takes place (something which I guess we don't really take much notice of) as well as leap to get to the ball when required.
I guess the real measure is that when out walking for 90 minutes do we think 5kms is really taxing ? I'd suggest its just normal pace.
I walk the dog every weekday morning and I do 5 miles (8km) in about 85 minutes. That's constant walking at about 120 steps/min. But that does keep me more than warm. So no 5Km in 90 mins is not taxing whatsoever.
Fucking love it!
look at the pass and move from Bentancur from the edge of our area to the edge of theirs. What other midfielder at the club can do this?
Right in the centre of creating that chance fromt he start. Loving this guy.
2
Exactly what was needed players who can make an impact now and play a full 90 minutes and positively affect the game.