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Djed Spence

NaijaSpurs said:
There are some of you that say Conte is right not to play Spence because he is obviously not good enough.

Looking at the rest of our defence do you honestly think they are significantly better in their respective positions than Djed Spense would be if he started a game and actually played as an attacking wingback?

Do you think he would be vastly inferior to the rest of them? Personally I do not think that is possible.
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I thought Royal had a very good game last night. I very much doubt that Spence would've handled Grealish as well as Royal did. The RHS was really strong for us last night both defending and going forwards.
 
NaijaSpurs said:
I mention Spense to make a broader point, and that is I am questioning judgement.

Son, a player I really like, has been atrocious all season barring one sub appearance and he starts every match. That he lasted 77 minutes was diabolical.

His stubborness to a system that consistently results in us being swarmed in midfield does my head in.

Playing 3 three central defenders will not make us defend better when we do not have 3 quality players to play.
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I'm at a loss with Son too mate, he, like a few others need time out of the firing line and it is frustrating seeing options like Richy and (to a less degree imo) Spence not being used. We could talk until the cows come home about Son, Conte's use of the squad or the back 3 pros and cons but the Spence thread does seem an odd place to do it appreciating that I am not the forum police.
 
spurspinter1 said:
I'm at a loss with Son too mate, he, like a few others need time out of the firing line and it is frustrating seeing options like Richy and (to a less degree imo) Spence not being used. We could talk until the cows come home about Son, Conte's use of the squad or the back 3 pros and cons but the Spence thread does seem an odd place to do it appreciating that I am not the forum police.
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I agree Emerson had a very good game yesterday in comparison to the rest of the defence. But as you know my views re the RWB debate are not based on one game.

My problem is that I no longer fully trust Conte's decision making.
 
NaijaSpurs said:
I mention Spense to make a broader point, and that is I am questioning judgement.

Son, a player I really like, has been atrocious all season barring one sub appearance and he starts every match. That he lasted 77 minutes was diabolical.

His stubborness to a system that consistently results in us being swarmed in midfield does my head in.

Playing 3 three central defenders will not make us defend better when we do not have 3 quality players to play.
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We've tried 352 a couple of times this season (utd and liverpool). Didn't help.
 
NaijaSpurs said:
I agree Emerson had a very good game yesterday in comparison to the rest of the defence. But as you know my views re the RWB debate are not based on one game.

My problem is that I no longer fully trust Conte's decision making.
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Not just 'in comparison to the rest of the defence', Royal had a very good game full stop. Romero was also excellent last night and I thought Davies played well also.
Perisic cannot defend, several other games this season have shown me that and I don't think I am alone in thinking that Dier isn't a good enough player to be playing for a team with top 4 aspirations (though I am always a bit puzzled that he gets an easier ride on here than some players who are no worse than him).

I'd love us to have a RWB with better delivery quality than Royal. However I don't think us getting one of those would make much difference while Hugo and Dier are still in the team or while we're asking Perisic to do anything other than a minute amount of defending.
 
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Finney Is Back said:
I thought Royal had a very good game last night. I very much doubt that Spence would've handled Grealish as well as Royal did. The RHS was really strong for us last night both defending and going forwards.
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I thought he was good as well, he has looked lost in his earlier games but he seems to be getting the idea of how to play in the system. Not saying he will but he has just turned 24 so maybe he will carry that form on.
 
parklane1 said:
I thought he was good as well, he has looked lost in his earlier games but he seems to be getting the idea of how to play in the system. Not saying he will but he has just turned 24 so maybe he will carry that form on.
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He has a poor final ball but I think the rest of his game is good. He is positionally sound, good defending one on one, fast enough, good in the air, gets into good attacking positions and quite good at playing in tight spaces.
 
harr1984 said:
I don’t think it’s as simple as that. I don’t think Conte looks at Royal, and then looks at Spence and thinks ‘I prefer Royal, he’s got better attributes to perform as wingback for me’.

Conte is extremely precise about his requirements and requires a lot of time with the younger players to show them exactly what he wants. Sarr and Gil have got their opportunities after Conte had the whole World Cup period to work with them in training. I don’t think Conte looks at Royal and thinks he’s better than Spence. It is annoying, but I guess patience is a virtue and in Conte we trust….
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Sarr was at the WC so can't be the reason he's getting minutes now.
 
Finney Is Back said:
He has a poor final ball but I think the rest of his game is good. He is positionally sound, good defending one on one, fast enough, good in the air, gets into good attacking positions and quite good at playing in tight spaces.
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I said this months ago. He's actually better at this than Doherty and that's what leads to the ott frustration. He constantly gets into seemingly good positions in the final third but he's just so hesitant about putting a ball in that some fans get really worked up about that but don't realise it was his good work in the first place that got him in that position.

He's not without his faults, but he's a very defensively solid and as as rb option I wouldn't want to lose him.
 
Finney Is Back said:
He has a poor final ball but I think the rest of his game is good. He is positionally sound, good defending one on one, fast enough, good in the air, gets into good attacking positions and quite good at playing in tight spaces.
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Agreed; and a huge amount of our play is to work the ball out to RWB. So your first point is killing up to half of our forward play
 
Bishop said:
He's not without his faults, but he's a very defensively solid and as as rb option I wouldn't want to lose him.
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It would help if we actually played with a back 4 as opppsed to with wingbacks where over the best part of one and a half years he has been very poor offensively.
 
NaijaSpurs said:
It would help if we actually played with a back 4 as opppsed to with wingbacks where over the best part of one and a half years he has been very poor offensively.
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I definitely cant disagree with you. Ultimately he is poor offensively mainly because he is very hesitant. It's a shame because he's very good at working the space and he gets in multiple good positions per match but he's clueless what to do once he's there.

I'd keep him as an option for if and when Conte leaves and we move back to a back 4. Or even as the right sided CB, I feel he'd be decent there in a 3 of course with a very solid central CB.
 
Finney Is Back said:
Not just 'in comparison to the rest of the defence', Royal had a very good game full stop. Romero was also excellent last night and I thought Davies played well also.
Perisic cannot defend, several other games this season have shown me that and I don't think I am alone in thinking that Dier isn't a good enough player to be playing for a team with top 4 aspirations (though I am always a bit puzzled that he gets an easier ride on here than some players who are no worse than him).

I'd love us to have a RWB with better delivery quality than Royal. However I don't think us getting one of those would make much difference while Hugo and Dier are still in the team or while we're asking Perisic to do anything other than a minute amount of defending.
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Perisic needs to play left in a front three for Son or not at all.
He's not good enough defensively for a wing back in the PL and he's only going to get worse as he ages.
Romero was excellent on Thursday , the only one who stood up physically to Haaland and made that great tackle on Grealish in the penalty area and while on a yellow along with Royal who was also good.
 
seaside spur said:
Perisic needs to play left in a front three for Son or not at all. He's not good enough defensively for a wing back in the PL and he's only going to get worse as he ages.
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Likewise Sessegnon is not good enough going forwards.
Likewise our RWBs are not good enough.
So let's persist with playing wingbacks in every game, eh?!
 
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