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The best Spurs team of the PL era - central midfield

Who are the best two central midfielders to play for Spurs in the Premier League

  • Total voters
    41
  • Poll closed .
milo

milo

Jack L. Jones
A quick recap of what we are doing

Right. It's time to stop moping and choose the best Spurs team of the Premier League era.

We'll have a different thread for each position over the coming weeks. The thread will be open for a while for nominations and the most frequently mentioned players will be going into a poll on the same thread.

The only criteria to be nominated is that the player must have played for Spurs in the Premier League.

The team will line up 4-2-3-1.

Reminiscing about favourite players past and present is encouraged.

Anyone who comes into the thread, doesn't read what we're doing and posts their full best team of all time, gets laughed at.
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Sixth and seventh positio up for grabs - central midfield or defensive/holding midfielder if you prefer.

We'll take this position as a pair and each have two votes when the poll is added.

Have a chat and come up with but nominations, make a case for who you think is best. A poll will be added when it looks likewe have a few players to pick between.
 
Modric, Carrick and Sandro (in that order) the 3 standout for me.

Maybe Huddlestone for the shortlist
 
milo said:
I'm going to find it difficult to look beyond Carrick and Modric for this one
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Agree, modric is the best playmaker we've had in the Prem era and carrick was excellent in the holding role. Only thing we're missing in there is the ball winner characteristics, but with them two we'd prob have 65% possession most games anyway.

Honourable mention for Dembele as well but he's directly up against modric for me and Luka has to take it.
 
Gazza Dazzla said:
Agree, modric is the best playmaker we've had in the Prem era and carrick was excellent in the holding role. Only thing we're missing in there is the ball winner characteristics, but with them two we'd prob have 65% possession most games anyway.

Honourable mention for Dembele as well but he's directly up against modric for me and Luka has to take it.
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Both were very good at winning the ball. They were just so good at intercepting it that they never really had to resort to making that many tackles.

I'm not sure we should have Dembele on the shortlist yet. 3.25 poor-to-mediocre seasons, followed by 0.75 great season isn't enough for me. Another year at that level, then sure.
 
We've had some good players, but unfortunately they were usually way past their prime (Saib, Berti, Davids). I shudder to think of the days of Redknapp, Sherwood, Poyet. How could I even think we would go anywhere back then?
 
What about Poyet? Scored 14 goals in his debut season and was best of a bad lot during the Graham-Hoddle era.

Or Freund? More than 100 apps and always put in a hard shift.
 
Gutter Boy said:
Both were very good at winning the ball. They were just so good at intercepting it that they never really had to resort to making that many tackles.

I'm not sure we should have Dembele on the shortlist yet. 3.25 poor-to-mediocre seasons, followed by 0.75 great season isn't enough for me. Another year at that level, then sure.
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How many good seasons did Sandro have?

milo said:
I challenge you to make it interesting by making a case for Jenas and Zokora ;)
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How about Nicola Berti? I always liked Nicola Berti...
 
Gutter Boy said:
2.5 IIRC

10-11
11-12
Autumn of 12-13
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He started 11 league games for us in 11/12, along with 3 CL games. 17 and 22 starts in the league in the following two seasons.

Sandro was great at his best, and promised so much more before his injuries. But for me he wasn't good enough for long enough to warrant much of a mention in this thread. And he wasn't good for any more than Dembele has already been good.
 
Gutter Boy said:
Both were very good at winning the ball. They were just so good at intercepting it that they never really had to resort to making that many tackles.

I'm not sure we should have Dembele on the shortlist yet. 3.25 poor-to-mediocre seasons, followed by 0.75 great season isn't enough for me. Another year at that level, then sure.
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Think the Dembele thing has been done to death elsewhere, but why does he only get 3/4 of a good season? He was quality all last season, no?

Add in the second half of 14/15 when he played a few games further forward and then his partnership with Sandro in the first season and I'm not quite sure your numbers add up?! I don't even think I'm being biased in my evaluation there either?
 
Carrick and Modric are the names that stand out, but you could argue they are competing for the same role, to play alongside a more dynamic defensive partner. On the other hand, who expected Modric and Huddlestone to work well together, and Carrick is better than Huddlestone. Plus we have had a long history of failing to find this defensive player, which makes the choice easier.

I think the best partnership was the brief one between Davids and Carrick. For the half season before Davids was injured they were fantastic, but he was never the same afterwards.

Perhaps Howells and Freund are worth a mention for inclusion on the list, perhaps alongside Huddlestone. Palacios and Parker briefly did a job and Zokora tried. Carrick and Modric it has to be.
 
Well Modric is a shoe in ( imo) he is/was truly world class, Carrick was under rated by some Spurs fans but again he was a very good player. Not sure any of the others were of the same ability.
 
Also, consider that both Carrick and Modric went on to show what they could do in better teams and won some major trophies.
 
I'm definitely with Modric and debating between Carrick and Dembele. When Dembele first came to the club, he was very good and I'm sorry @Gutter Boy, but saying that Dembele was mediocre is, I think a tad unfair. I don't think this is just about longevity of performance, it is also about the height of performance and I can't think of many players who have had a better season or more of an impact than the one Dembele has just had.

Other notable mentions to Sandro, Poyet, Huddlestone and Jenas, but for me Modric, Carrick and Dembele are the standout 3. Palacios was also impressive in that first season!
 
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