5 Best ... And 5 "Worst" ...in our current squad

[NLS]

My problem with trying to pick the best 5 is that I would have to include players who are not as bad as some others but really have not done that much...

Our big problem is consistency and over the last 2 and a bit seasons, my question is who has performed CONSISTENTLY well?

Bale in 2012/13 and Lloris (although he has his moments). Kane never lets us down but still young etc and beyond that nobody comes to mind. There is still not really a clear starting 11, no leader on the pitch and personally I think there is something wrong at the club where so many players CONSISTENTLY under-perform.

As for the reason why Kaboul was made Captain, words fail me!

 

[Rorschach]

......and your teams are???????

I didn't realise my opinion meant that much to you. I'm flattered.

To be honest I'm not too sure how to approach this thread. People will pick players on form or players that have done it in the past, those that have potential they are not realising yet and then pure personal bias. That's why I think the thread will be interesting.

The only two I see no real future for at the club for are Paulinho and Chiriches, and even those two have had a few highlights. Just not that many. They are better players than they are showing but they're in a such a dip of form I doubt they'll be given the time on the pitch to turn it around.
It actually takes a lot for me to mentally turn on a player. I still try see to signs of a turn around in all our players form when they are on the pitch but these two are almost done for me.

Of the other players I think everyone else's form is good but patchy, bar Lloris who has found some level of consistency. Walker was very good before the injury but who knows how long it will take for him to get back to full speed, figuratively and literally.

Bar Lloris I think Dembele is best player in terms of raw footballing ability but he doesn't have the mental fortitude to use his ability properly.

 

[Roland Beurre]

Keepers

Eriksen
Dier
Mason
Kane
Walker

Dumpers

Paulinho
Paulinho
Paulinho
Paulinho
Paulinho

 

[clevelandspur]

We do have a lot of meh players in the squad but looking at the bright side I cannot remember when we have had such a crop of young talent. Granted most of them are at different stages of development but Kane, Bentaleb, Mason, Eriksen, Walker, Lamela, Dier, Townsend, Stambouli, Rose, Davies, Carroll all 24 years of age or younger.

 

[Pirate55]

We do have a lot of meh players in the squad but looking at the bright side I cannot remember when we have had such a crop of young talent. Granted most of them are at different stages of development but Kane, Bentaleb, Mason, Eriksen, Walker, Lamela, Dier, Townsend, Stambouli, Rose, Davies, Carroll all 24 years of age or younger.

Excellent point, well made.It just makes me sad that if we had bought just few real established star quality players to supplememt these guys, then we could really be motoring. What a missed opportunity. Going for quantity over quality is not a good idea - ever.

 

[clevelandspur]

Excellent point, well made.It just makes me sad that if we had bought just few real established star quality players to supplememt these guys, then we could really be motoring. What a missed opportunity. Going for quantity over quality is not a good idea - ever.

Yes for sure sadly the "quality" we looked to buy simply has not worked out. Almost 80 million spent on Chiriches, Paulinho, Soldado and Lamela. None of them have really worked out and probably only Lamela may have a long term future with us. Quite sad really I can understand missing on some transfers but our spending spree in 2013 has set us back greatly. If we got in just one key players to add to our young talent we could be in a much better position.

 

[braineclipse]

Yes for sure sadly the "quality" we looked to buy simply has not worked out. Almost 80 million spent on Chiriches, Paulinho, Soldado and Lamela. None of them have really worked out and probably only Lamela may have a long term future with us. Quite sad really I can understand missing on some transfers but our spending spree in 2013 has set us back greatly. If we got in just one key players to add to our young talent we could be in a much better position.

Yeah. Not sure how breaking our transfer record three times in a window is seen as going for quantity over quality. For me we did need quantity too last summer with our squad being rather imbalanced.

 

[SpurSF]

See comments in post above.

I notice you haven't put Soldado or Ade in either category. So which one would you " least mind being sold"?

I don't think either are ****, but I don't think either deserve to be in the team every week. I generally would prefer Soldado, because I like his build-up play, passing, movement, and desire. He's not a perfect player and could really stand to be upgraded, but I just would rather him play little triangles and at least get into scoring positions, even if he is missing chances. I also think that Adebayor hasn't done enough to keep the shirt, and I'd like to see Soldado get a run w/ our axis of Chadli, Lamela, and Eriksen in the team with Kane continuing to get minutes in cups and Europe. The most important thing for me is Kane getting at least 20/25 games in all comps this year.

I think that both could be replaced in coming years, but I'd rather let Ade walk and replace him with a Berahino type young striker. I don't really watch enough teams other than Spurs to say exactly who that would be, but I'd love to see a younger, pacy striker come in to go w/ Kane and one senior forward (Ade or Soldado) going forward for next season.

 

[Pirate55]

Yeah. Not sure how breaking our transfer record three times in a window is seen as going for quantity over quality. For me we did need quantity too last summer with our squad being rather imbalanced.

We bought 7 players in that window. We sold one, albeit a superstar, from a team that finished 5th. To my mind 7 is quantity. What we didnt buy were quality players in positions that were needed to balance a woefully imbalanced squad. Just how many midfielders do we need? We already had a relatively successful Dembele-Sandro axis. We only had one forward (after Defoe left) and one left back. Utter madness and a great opportunity squandered imo.

 

[Pirate55]

I don't think either are ****, but I don't think either deserve to be in the team every week. I generally would prefer Soldado, because I like his build-up play, passing, movement, and desire. He's not a perfect player and could really stand to be upgraded, but I just would rather him play little triangles and at least get into scoring positions, even if he is missing chances. I also think that Adebayor hasn't done enough to keep the shirt, and I'd like to see Soldado get a run w/ our axis of Chadli, Lamela, and Eriksen in the team with Kane continuing to get minutes in cups and Europe. The most important thing for me is Kane getting at least 20/25 games in all comps this year.

I think that both could be replaced in coming years, but I'd rather let Ade walk and replace him with a Berahino type young striker. I don't really watch enough teams other than Spurs to say exactly who that would be, but I'd love to see a younger, pacy striker come in to go w/ Kane and one senior forward (Ade or Soldado) going forward for next season.

A fair and balanced post.

 

[Jordinho]

We bought 7 players in that window. We sold one, albeit a superstar, from a team that finished 5th. To my mind 7 is quantity. What we didnt buy were quality players in positions that were needed to balance a woefully imbalanced squad. Just how many midfielders do we need? We already had a relatively successful Dembele-Sandro axis. We only had one forward (after Defoe left) and one left back. Utter madness and a great opportunity squandered imo.

Gallas
Caulker
Parker
Huddlestone
Dempsey
Livermore (loan initially)
Bentley

 

[mudshark]

Eriksen
Mason
Dier
Walker
?

Paulinho
Townsend
Chiricheș
?
?

Since Lloris was specifically excluded from the A list, I was unable to decide on a 5th member. I was tempted to put Kane down, but I have to say I'm still not convinced of his quality. I certainly wouldn't rate him above Adebayor on best form at this point in time. If pushed to select a 5th, I'd probably go for either BAE or Friedel.

On the B list, I could only think of 3 that I would definitely class as complete and utter basket cases as of now, although Soldadud avoids inclusion only by the skin of his teeth in terms of sheer failure to represent any sort of a return on investment. If the Аrѕe had bought him and had the same result, we'd all be ріѕѕing ourselves.

...all of which only supports the conclusion I came to in the very beginning, which is that the vast majority of our current players are no more than mediocre at this level.

 

[Raoul Duke]

Best:

Walker
Kaboul
Soldado
Eriksen
Capoue

Worst:

Chadli
Lennon
Dembélé
Adebayor
Paulinho

 

[Lemonade Money]

Eriksen
Mason
Dier
Walker
?

Paulinho
Townsend
Chiricheș
?
?

Since Lloris was specifically excluded from the A list, I was unable to decide on a 5th member. I was tempted to put Kane down, but I have to say I'm still not convinced of his quality. I certainly wouldn't rate him above Adebayor on best form at this point in time. If pushed to select a 5th, I'd probably go for either BAE or Friedel.

On the B list, I could only think of 3 that I would definitely class as complete and utter basket cases as of now, although Soldadud avoids inclusion only by the skin of his teeth in terms of sheer failure to represent any sort of a return on investment. If the Аrѕe had bought him and had the same result, we'd all be ріѕѕing ourselves.

...all of which only supports the conclusion I came to in the very beginning, which is that the vast majority of our current players are no more than mediocre at this level.

What about if Liverpool had bought him and had the same result, and then referred to him as one of their 5 best players?:-k

 

[AdamB]

Agree with the few people who have said that we have a lot of 'meh' players now - gone are the days when we had particuarly exciting players or players which the top 4 wanted. You look at the team sheet now and there arent many stars which jump out at you - really places the emphasis on Poch to develop a team from a group of less names, as opposed to our recent past where we've relied on individual brilliance from a small number of players. Anyway, my best/worse are:

Best:
Lloris
Verts
Eriksen
Walker
Soldado

Worst (ignoring BAE and Khumalo given they dont have squad numbers)
Paulinho
Dembele
Chadli
Naughton
Chiriches

 

[NWND]

Part of the problem with this squad is this is far more difficult to answer than it should be.

We don't really have any obvious star players and to be honest, we have got rid of anyone who was really hanging around picking up wages without the ability to contribute (apart from maybe BAE - do we still have Khumalo?)

Our squad is still probably a bit too big and the quality level is too much of a muchness.

Hopefully under Poch we will see some develop and really take the spots in the XI by the scruff of their neck.

We've gone from some obvious star performers along the spine of the team in King, Modric, Bale and Van der Vaart to struggling to name who our best and worst players are.

Also, what counts as best?

Ability wise, i'd say Dembele is the best in the squad in terms of pure talent, as he does stuff nobody else in the squad are capable of. But would you say he was in our top 5 performers? Probably not.
Also, would you class Lamela as in the top 5 performers? But in terms of potential, he probably is right up there and if any of our squad was available, he's still the most marketable asset and the player we'd get the biggest offers for, particularly from Italian clubs. Again, he also does stuff from time to time where you think wow, doubt anyone else would be capable of doing that.
Has anyone other than Lloris really cemented themselves as undroppable and irreplaceable?

 

[Roland Beurre]

Agree with the few people who have said that we have a lot of 'meh' players now - gone are the days when we had particularly exciting players or players which the top 4 wanted. You look at the team sheet now and there aren't many stars that jump out at you - really places the emphasis on Poch to develop a team from a group of less names, as opposed to our recent past where we've relied on individual brilliance from a small number of players.

I agree. I think Spurs are now one of the dullest teams in the Premiership.

 

[Gutter Boy]

Agree with the few people who have said that we have a lot of 'meh' players now - gone are the days when we had particuarly exciting players or players which the top 4 wanted. You look at the team sheet now and there arent many stars which jump out at you - really places the emphasis on Poch to develop a team from a group of less names, as opposed to our recent past where we've relied on individual brilliance from a small number of players. Anyway, my best/worse are:

Remember the WC, where all the teams reliant on superstars flopped, and all the teams with a philosophy, a system and high-level organisation (offensive as well as defensive) did really well? That's the direction of travel at the moment (no matter how much Sky Sports marketing department want to deny it).

Stars paper over the cracks. A proper unit means you are resilient, grow organically and create your own stars. If Poch gets this right, we'll have our own production line like Dortmund, Seville, Porto, Ajax or even Southampton.

Chadli, Capoue, Dier, Mason, Kane, even Naughton and Rose, have been excellent this season. They aren't hyped names, but they've been very effective.

 

[clevelandspur]

Chadli amongst the five worst for some is that a windup? He and Rose been our two best outfield players by some distance this season.

As someone mentioned in another thread I think prices we pay for certain players (low or high) affects people's opinions of our players

 

[Pirate55]

Gallas
Caulker
Parker
Huddlestone
Dempsey
Livermore (loan initially)
Bentley

If you are going to look at it over an extended period then we should include

Holtby
Fryers
Ade
Vorm
Friedel
Davies
Stambouli
Fazio

Those are in addition to the "magnificent" seven, another seven. So. 14 additions. And has the quality improved ?