Pirate55
The Last Man Standing 17/18
I accept that “spine” may not have been the right word. Maybe “foundation” may express it better. Our foundations are certainly shaky at the moment !!
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Is our crumbled English spine the root of our problems?
- Thread starter Pirate55
- Start date
I accept that “spine” may not have been the right word. Maybe “foundation” may express it better. Our foundations are certainly shaky at the moment !!
Baleforce
Arthur Rowe
what did they win?
MKSpur
Christian Ziege
Agreed. I think we are paying the price for an over reliance on a very good first x1 but of the non English players I mentioned none of them are really what I would call leaders on the pitch, whereas peak Rose, Walker, Alli, Kane, maybe even Trippier were perhaps the engine room in terms of aggression, setting the tempo for the games and maybe training too, so their decline / absence has also been sorely felt.
Whilst I do feel Poch has made some poor selection and tactical decisions recently I do feel that Levy has an aversion to spend money just to stand still and tends to invest in the squad in a reactive way.
Bedfordspurs
Mark Falco
Massive players
Genuinely
One made a mega difference at RB
And the others were top notch for that season
Obviously sterling has carried it on to be one of the best players in the world
Bedfordspurs
Mark Falco
each to there own
I’m gonna guess these there played more games than the players you mentioned
That was steroids that won that (allegedly)
Baleforce
Arthur Rowe
nah, EPO and blood transfusions
Cochise
Steve Carr
Spine, yes. English, no.
On the pitch, I think the spine of the side was the strong midfield of Dembele, Wanyama and Dier in front of Toby and Jan. Kane and Eriksen were probably the only other members of our spine aside from Lloris, as all of the fullbacks rotated as did Lamela, Dele and Son. Off it, Walker was a big part, but you can probably see from multiple press releases who is part of the "spine".
Going from what we have heard elsewhere the core group made up of senior players is important to the direction of the club. They are responsible for a whole host of things that the manager is not, they are the ones that are respected and the younger players take their cue's from. This group are "the dressing room" so to speak, but more importantly need refreshing as time goes by.
In short, our spine is in pieces, both on and off the pitch. The midfield screen is gone, the defenders are not as solid and our midfield maestro has stopped pulling the strings. Off it, the players we have left are disinterested in the club but still held in high regard. I guess from a management side, they need to be cut out so a new "core" can grow into their place.
On the pitch, I think the spine of the side was the strong midfield of Dembele, Wanyama and Dier in front of Toby and Jan. Kane and Eriksen were probably the only other members of our spine aside from Lloris, as all of the fullbacks rotated as did Lamela, Dele and Son. Off it, Walker was a big part, but you can probably see from multiple press releases who is part of the "spine".
Going from what we have heard elsewhere the core group made up of senior players is important to the direction of the club. They are responsible for a whole host of things that the manager is not, they are the ones that are respected and the younger players take their cue's from. This group are "the dressing room" so to speak, but more importantly need refreshing as time goes by.
In short, our spine is in pieces, both on and off the pitch. The midfield screen is gone, the defenders are not as solid and our midfield maestro has stopped pulling the strings. Off it, the players we have left are disinterested in the club but still held in high regard. I guess from a management side, they need to be cut out so a new "core" can grow into their place.
Modric THFC
Jimmy McCormick
Stop acting like English players are some special case or have some special status within the squad.
Guardiola won the league last season with 2 in his team .
This whole Tottenham team and manager isnt performing
Guardiola won the league last season with 2 in his team .
This whole Tottenham team and manager isnt performing
The problem has very little to do with the spine
- The squad is actually very good, is it top 3 or 3 good, probably not, but it isn't 11-14th bad (11th being where we are, 14th being our form over more than a season worth of games, 44 actually)
- The issue is we have one of the best set of attacking options in the league, and two big problems
- First problem is we don't know how (or have a plan) to get the ball to them (is it the FB's? is the midfield, is in through the middle or wide, on ground or in air)
- We don't know (after almost 3 years) what the best frontline is, which out of Kane, Son, Lucas, Lamela, Dele, Eriksen, so we typically play Kane +someone and depending on availability rotate, stick as many of the other players in regardless of position or duties asked.
- The defense also has two fudging stupid problems
- We ask the FB's to go up and add width to the attack, regardless of if the FB is good enough to do it, or recover if exposed by turnover of possession
- With the FB's up, the CBs often get exposed to 2-1, 3-2 type attacks, we are again depending on a DM that we know longer have/play
- We rotate so much, the fudging players are confused
I'll get the excuses bit now ..
The problem is bricky management
- We are not adapting to make the best of the players we have, nor chose tactics to support them. We simply stick to what worked 3 years ago and keep failing.
- We do not leverage the strength of the squad (early Pool and current Scum had similar problems, not great defense with amazing attacking, but they stuck to attacking), if we were losing 5-4 I could potentially understand. Somehow we aren't fixing our defense but at the same time are not giving the attacking players anything, so we are losing with a whimper most days.
- The squad is actually very good, is it top 3 or 3 good, probably not, but it isn't 11-14th bad (11th being where we are, 14th being our form over more than a season worth of games, 44 actually)
- The issue is we have one of the best set of attacking options in the league, and two big problems
- First problem is we don't know how (or have a plan) to get the ball to them (is it the FB's? is the midfield, is in through the middle or wide, on ground or in air)
- We don't know (after almost 3 years) what the best frontline is, which out of Kane, Son, Lucas, Lamela, Dele, Eriksen, so we typically play Kane +someone and depending on availability rotate, stick as many of the other players in regardless of position or duties asked.
- The defense also has two fudging stupid problems
- We ask the FB's to go up and add width to the attack, regardless of if the FB is good enough to do it, or recover if exposed by turnover of possession
- With the FB's up, the CBs often get exposed to 2-1, 3-2 type attacks, we are again depending on a DM that we know longer have/play
- We rotate so much, the fudging players are confused
I'll get the excuses bit now ..
The problem is bricky management
- We are not adapting to make the best of the players we have, nor chose tactics to support them. We simply stick to what worked 3 years ago and keep failing.
- We do not leverage the strength of the squad (early Pool and current Scum had similar problems, not great defense with amazing attacking, but they stuck to attacking), if we were losing 5-4 I could potentially understand. Somehow we aren't fixing our defense but at the same time are not giving the attacking players anything, so we are losing with a whimper most days.
Baleforce
Arthur Rowe
Gonna take these one at a time.
Id say, based on previous individual performances, we have, at the absolute worst, the third best squad in the league.
Agreed, although we should, because we have the players to make it easy.
We do, it’s Kane up top, Alli in the hole, Son down the left and Lamela down the right.
That’s fine, assuming we have pace in the line up, Sanchez in the fastest and strongest player in the PL, he should play every minute of every game and have been better coached to use his physical superiority.
Players are only confused if they have not been prepared correctly, for all of the matey training japes and rondo videos put out by the club social media channels, how much time are the players spending in the film room studying tape of upcoming opposition players?
My conclusion is the same as yours mostly, the coaching staff are not doing their job properly, I’ll add that the players are not working hard enough either.
Bullet
Andy Thompson
Not true at all and you know it. His pace and strength are fine, but not the best.
His running style is inherently off-balance as he is knocked off the ball by any decent shoulder charge.
Baleforce
Arthur Rowe
Only because he’s doing it wrong, a quick fix in coaching.
afsoc4life
Vedran Corluka
I think if we sort the midfield out then we would be good.