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Preseason 2022

Kandi1977 said:
My take from the pre season games :
Son and Kane look better than ever! Kane looks fitter, quicker and sharper than he's done for many years. The rest is a bit meh...
Not looking fluid, and I think we actually might struggle early on if the team doesn't properly gel until the season starts.
Everyone is a bit too optimistic, so I recon something will go horribly wrong.
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I'm just watching fitness mostly at this stage, can't say we looked "supremely fitter" than Rangers or Roma but we did keep up the running despite what i saw was very heavy legs, probably due to the background fitness work.

That said - player movement has been quite good IMO. When we attacked the gap with defence and midfield seems to have closed up a bit more, and Romero has bee displaying some excellent vision and passing range from defence to attack, bypassing almost half of the players on the pitch. I believe its something worked on the training ground otherwise the normal reaction last season was for midfield to run towards him but ending up stifling instead of opening up opportunities.

Sanchez in the Rangers game was doing much the same on the left and with good crisp, forward passing too. Lenglet is known to be a baller too, so hopefully our left side can start some proper attacking moves too. Can't wait to see what Perisic and Lenglet can add on the left side.

At the front things were pretty much working so I wasn't expecting to see anything different, but as you pointed out Son and Kane do look ready. Especially Kane. I think Richie is the utility option across the front three and he will need time to build an understanding of how Son and Kane operate in order to fit in well. So I will give him time, but love his passion already.

Bissouma in the centre looks awesome already. Conte is going to have a headache between him, Betancur and Hojberg. Too bad for Skippy, you can't build a career if you can't stay fit.

We were good for top four and with the five subs rule I think the goal next season is to achieve quality depth so that we can keep players fresher and avoid performance slumps due to injury to key players. Pre season looks like a success to me in all areas of the pitch and we just need time on the left side.
 
metalgear said:
playing players out of place is also training ... knocking some sense of empathy in them.
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That's a very good point, Ajax have done it for years with their young players, it gets players to get a greater picture of the game and understand were they should be for their team mate rather than just thinking of themselves. It's hard to do with older players as they have their game and many can't adapt.
 
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metalgear said:
https://www.timesofisrael.com/how-a-tottenham-hotspur-soccer-player-saved-my-father-in-laws-life/

Interesting story, didn't know the club was this active

Sent from my SM-T865 using Fapatalk
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Some bizarre things in that article:

Captain Eddie Hapgood — who is said to have compared Hitler to his ex-girlfriend, saying she had a fuller mustache
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Sproston, then a player for Tottenham Hotspur, was no fan of the Germans, having reportedly said (with a northwest English accent), “I’m just a working lad from Leeds. I know nowt about politics and the like. All I knows is football. But t’way I see it, yon ‘Itler feller is an evil little taco (idiot).”
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Was scanning the Roma team and they have a few decent players - Dybala, Pellegrini etc. But then I saw... Chris Smalling :D
 
Yiddo said:
Seems like that is the team that will start the season.
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I can't see any logic whatsoever for having Hojbjerg in over Bentancur, especially against a team like Southampton where we'd expect to have a decent amount of possession.

Sanchez vs Lenglet is an interesting call while Davies gets up to speed - Sanchez in possession vs a natural left sider.
 
Gutter Boy said:
I can't see any logic whatsoever for having Hojbjerg in over Bentancur, especially against a team like Southampton where we'd expect to have a decent amount of possession.

Sanchez vs Lenglet is an interesting call while Davies gets up to speed - Sanchez in possession vs a natural left sider.
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Lenglet only been with us a week same as spence. Probably wants to get them up to speed first. Hojbjerg seems to be first name on the team sheet and has been the last 2 seasons.
 
Gutter Boy said:
I can't see any logic whatsoever for having Hojbjerg in over Bentancur, especially against a team like Southampton where we'd expect to have a decent amount of possession.

Sanchez vs Lenglet is an interesting call while Davies gets up to speed - Sanchez in possession vs a natural left sider.
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Hojberg is constantly higher rated by managers than people on here. He has been a constant starter for whoever is manager, run into the ground playing every game he is available for (which to his credit is almost every game) since he’s been here. Yet some seem to think we sign a new midfielder and he is going to be dropped all of a sudden. No chance….
 
harr1984 said:
Hojberg is constantly higher rated by managers than people on here. He has been a constant starter for whoever is manager, run into the ground playing every game he is available for (which to his credit is almost every game) since he’s been here. Yet some seem to think we sign a new midfielder and he is going to be dropped all of a sudden. No chance….
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Tbf though we didn't have any good options. When bentancur joined skipp got injured. He was on loan the season prior. We'll see.
 
harr1984 said:
Hojberg is constantly higher rated by managers than people on here. He has been a constant starter for whoever is manager, run into the ground playing every game he is available for (which to his credit is almost every game) since he’s been here. Yet some seem to think we sign a new midfielder and he is going to be dropped all of a sudden. No chance….
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Inspite of all that, he still can't really pass and slows our transitioning. Bissouma will be a massive upgrade once he's settled in.
 
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