He was a much better player than Sarr. He could take the ball and wriggle away from players. He played in centre mid with a partner as well as a sitter. He also played further forward at times. He was on another level from where Sarr is just now. That’s not to say Sarr will develop into a great player. His form dipped massively second half of the season too but that was to be expected with his first season of playing regularly and he had the Afcon to deal with.
-
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
I'm sure he will answer the question when ready.
I think he like many of us is, a passionate fan who, is sick of the lack of direction or ambition over the past couple of decades.
Whether the club means business only time will tell, history is not on our side here.
We all have to hope that, the club finally has a long term plan in place for future success, I hope they do, but I seriously doubt there will be much difference to what we have seen previously.
I really like Sarr but he’s not going to be a 6 receiving the ball from centre backs on the edge of his own box. I don’t think he’s got the ability with his back to goal or awareness to do that. As I said he might progress into that but he’s miles away from being that type of player just now. If he plays to his strengths and drives at players and make great runs he can be the goalscoring midfielder we need.
Last edited:
Not at 21 he wasn’t.
Sarr was carrying a back injury when his form dipped but that’s also something players need to learn, how to maintain your form when playing with a knock. Often young kids are under the illusion that the majority of their career won’t involve carrying at least 1 knock
Activate "get Summerville and Arche Gray on the cheap" will commence in 3-2-1
Given some of the names bandied about we could do a hell of a lot worse. Send Rodon the other way.
Massive fan of Gray. If there's any chance they're willing to sell Gray, I would hope we would be in the conversation but imagine they can probably get the money they need selling Rutter, Gnonto and maybe Summerville.
Weeds not getting promoted we should capitalise and get summerville. KWP will join as well i reckon. Bigger club.
Would take gray now offer rodon and 25 should do it
Isak, Foden and Mainoo. I am not accepting anything less.
Ahhh..... The latest bingo adaptation of " some fans won't be happy unless we sign Messi / Ronaldo / Mbappe .
I like it
Agreed, he could and likely will be.
All I'm saying is that he's far too young for anyone to be saying that there are roles in the midfield that he can't do.
I've posted before that I personally think that the DM, or #6, role is an outdated concept. I'm not a fan of shoehorning players, particularly midfield players, into specific roles. I used Rodri as an example of this as I really don't think he's this DM that everyone seems to think he is. His heat maps over the season show that he's as prolific in attack as he is defence, moreso in fact.
I think Sarr has the ability to do this, I've seen him break a press often enough to have confidence that he could play anywhere across the middle, whether he has his back to goal or not.
You never saw him at 21 so you can’t comment on how good he was then.
There was definitely something off with him second half of the season but we can be more lenient on him this season with a loss of form due to being his first full season. He’ll be a big player for us next season but he needs to get a good rest in the summer and let his body recover.
Im with you on that as midfield players should be able to do the lot and I agree on Rodri’s game. The thing is in our system is the sitter doesn’t really have the freedom to move because everyone else around him is. Its different if we played two sitting then one can pick and chose times to go as you’ll still have cover there.
Fair point, but then have a look at us when we were playing at our best at the start of the season. We didn't really have a deep lying midfielder. We may have started with Bissouma in the deepest position, but we were waxing lyrical about him weighing in with goals if his finishing matched his dribbling ability. At times he was ending up as our furthest advanced player.
That mostly arose because of the communication and understanding in our midfield, particularly between him and Sarr. You don't have to be a midfield double pivot to achieve this, you just have to understand that when your midfield partners are advanced, you need to take the responsibility to hang back as support or protection.
When we were purring, all of our midfielders worked in this way. Maddison was dropping in to pick the ball up and dictate tempo. He was slowing the game down then speeding it up at will, and the team responded to that. Sarr and Bissouma interchanged around him, sometimes ahead, sometimes behind, but always with that understanding of how to interact with each other.
That impetus and understanding was wrecked during the Chelsea game, where we lost Bissouma and Maddison to suspension and injury, and we never really got it back until very late in the season.
I don't like rigid roles because they're predictable. If you have a DM, it's just a matter of time before your opposition works out a way to either nullify it or bypass it. However, if you have a fluid midfield, where players can interchange going forward and backwards, you keep the opposition guessing. It's another reason why I hate the rigidly drilled "patterns" that seems to be the latest fad in Football. If you empower your players to find solutions on the pitch, they can adapt to change much better than those who are drilled into robotic movement, rather than thinking on their feet.
Transfer window dont open till mid june. Ange wants business done early. Levy will spend rest of summer shifting the dross.