I am not sure anyone has let it happen TBH mate.
Mitigation for Sat would certainly have to include no Porro, no VDV, no Kudus. I think that's fair.
RDZ didn't seem to feel Fernandes was ready for a full 90, and it is clear he makes a huge difference.
The front three are absolutely not the front three he wants to settle with, as we can see with Savinho and Marmoush.
I think the changes in conditioning/fitness approach is also going to take time, as well as keep players off the pitch so as they can really re-energise/recuperate properly.
My big personal takes re:critical thinking from the weekend debacle...
1) Lucas does not really fit RDZ's system, at the very least he cannot play in matches like this against teams like Brentford, Arsenal, etc
2) We cannot trust a right-hand side that positonally inexperienced in these sorts of games.
3) Gallagher is not a 10 and needs to be a squad player not a first-eleven starter
4) We really could do with another player who profiles like Fernandes in our squad, as Tonali is so much better with that type of player in pivot.
5) It is ridiculous to have to play Richarlison in those sorts of games because they only amplify everything he cannot do (he is a finisher who works fine when we have the ball and are not having to go long). For that reason I'd like to see a Gakpo for alternative, and would even be OK with a Mateta at this point. Otherwise we simply have to hope Solanke finds either his form or his feet or his fitness or all of those!!!!!
6) Robertson is very good, and we will not be launching attacks at speed with him starting as he has lost that yard of initial pace.
I found the pedestrian nature of performance was largely dictated by the midfield, and Bergvall was the main driver of that. He was 'off' all day. I remain suspicious his heart is fully with us or the RDZ plan.
Interested in your thoughts...
Here's where I'm at.
1. I don't know why it seems continually difficult to get fit players on the pitch. Those that were long term injured last year are still injured and we've actually added to that. Solanke, Fernandes and Udogie were not at the World Cup but have seemingly regressed since coming back into the Tottenham fold pre season. The same with VDV and Bentancur. This isn't a new thing, we are well into the 3rd or 4th year of these challenges. How is this being addressed.
2. I'm not really buying the World Cup angle and here's why. On Saturday we had the following:
Roberston - last World Cup game 9 weeks ago
Sunesi - think he played about 10 mins, last WC game 6 weeks ago
Van Hecke - last world cup game 8 weeks ago
Gray - No World cup
Bergval - Bits and pieces at WC - last game 8 weeks ago
Tonali - No World cup
Gallagher - No World cup
Tel - No world cup
Moore - No world cup
Richarlison - No World cup
I think we know these guys above as a unit are not good enough (and even individually I wouldn't have some of them near the squad). But why aren't they in peak condition and bombing around the pitch winning every second ball on Saturday.
For every World cup excuse I can point to a Declan Rice, a Saka, an Ndiaye. The 3 Brentford lads that started on Saturday. There's loads.
3. Pre season. It's absolute negligence to organise a tour of Oz and NZ on the back of US World cup. There's commercial angles and then there is stupidity. Now I know there wont have been many of the WC lads on the tour.....but thats the problem. Had we toured US instead, or stayed at home, all of the lads could have spent more time together, gelling etc. It looks to me that they are totally disjointed and pre season has essentially been a B squad cobbled together - clearly we will go in undercooked. This leads me to my next point.
4. General football operations. It just worries me. There are so many things that leave me scratching my head. All of the above and then transfers aswell. We went bananas in midfield and defence but have not prepared the attack for the season. We know by now that we wont have all of our players available, with many confirmed out for longer. We have one top level wide player. You really need 3 or 4. We have no top level strikers. It was the same in January and we signed a workhorse midfielder. You could even argue the sale of Spence was a bad one considering Porro not being ready and Udogie being injured (I rate Robertson highly too btw and think we will benfit from a proper overlapping lefty).
How confident are we in Tonali at £100m. Sangare run rings round us at the weekend and was £40m. I'd be surprised if our scouting team had ever heard of him. We seem to just sign whichever obvious player is in front of us. I hope Tonali is a world beater for us - he needs to be for that fee.
This isn't a knee jerk rant btw. I fully expected some transition time for RDZ to embed his style and the new players, and defeats are inevitable, but I was calling a lot of this out in the pre season threads and its shaping up as I expected and I think the club has to be accountable on certain decisions and planning that is (or should be) within their control.
), but we will win some as well, but it's going to be a grind, it's going to take time for our level to settle and for everyone to get settled and all of these signings some of whom might not work so we have to have patience but importantly in comparison to the previous regime have a willingness to go again if something doesn't work.
