nayenezgani
Jimmy Neighbour
I love him as a player, I hope the rumours of his difficult attitude during new contract negotiations and now this supposed national team hiccup aren't true.
Pochettino: “From the beginning, he had a problem. He missed 17 or 18 games with re-injury. The team moved on and another player had the opportunity to play.
“But we keep a very good relationship with Nabil and be sure that, if he works like he works in the last few weeks, he will have the possibility to play. It’s always about a football decision, and performance.”
Good game by Nabil. I think Dier will soon be able to have a rest.
He's getting minutes in the cup side and will probably feature on Wednesday night in the replay. He's not being frozen out, he's just up against Dier and Dembele (and Carroll to a certain extent) in terms of selection for the starting XI.
Very useful player to have in the squad.
Pochettino: “From the beginning, he had a problem. He missed 17 or 18 games with re-injury. The team moved on and another player had the opportunity to play.
“But we keep a very good relationship with Nabil and be sure that, if he works like he works in the last few weeks, he will have the possibility to play. It’s always about a football decision, and performance.”
i'd heard he had an 'unauthorised' night out when away with Algeria that Poch wasn't too happy about.He's definitely not been frozen out. But it has taken quite a bit longer than expected after his reported return from injury (and playing for Algeria so being fairly fit) and him actually getting games. Not just Dier and Dembele, but seemingly behind Carroll and not getting as many cup games as one could expect.
Could be something going on behind the scenes. Slower recovery from injury or fear of a returning injury. Some extra work on aspects of his game that Poch felt needed to improve quickly so focus was on training. Or perhaps a slight conflict and punishment.
Whatever it is he's now getting those cup appearances. And Poch has only good things to say about his attitude - been a solid trend for a long time that good things have been said about Bentaleb's mentality in training. This continuing now and I'm not at all afraid that he's "resting on his laurels" @nayenezgani
Sounds right on track
...if you add two B's, an O, two L's, a D, and take away an A. Well spotted.Nabil Bentaleb..... is an anagram of Bill, Ben and lobbaleb.
He's got talent but was over hyped and he might be having trouble coming to terms with not being an automatic starter. It looks to me a typical Poch show me you can do as I say and I'll give you a chance. This season we have virtually eliminated (hope I've don't jinked us) that suicidal habit of giving the ball away 5 yards from our box and Bentaleb was one of the worse culprits.
Lack of focus today. Maybe even a little arrogant in his approach but he probably wasn't the only one out there.
Some of his decision making had nothing to do with who was in goal or who the CB partnership was or the bowel movements of his midfield partner (I'll go get my coat). Being sloppy is his fault alone and I would expect a player of his experience and caliber to be a little more tidy, at the very least....a CB partnership which has barely played this season, reserve goalie, a midfield 'partner' who has not been regular...he played a couple of slack passes but I think that once again,he is getting unfairly caned. Context perhaps?
Some of his decision making had nothing to do with who was in goal or who the CB partnership was or the bowel movements of his midfield partner (I'll go get my coat). Being sloppy is his fault alone and I would expect a player of his experience and caliber to be a little more tidy, at the very least.