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OMT - Tottenham Hotspur at Wolverhampton Wanderers

I imagine Adama Traore is a player that most see twice a year and think they should sign him as he looks incredible, however I imagine Wolves fans are pretty sick of him missing great chances and no final ball.
The Wolves fans love him…. I was there yesterday and the crowd lifts massively every time he gets the ball.
 
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How did they react when he missed the second game changing one on one in a row?
Was that the one after Dier’s terrible brain fart where he decided to stride up the pitch only to lose the ball cheaply? I was too busy holding my head in my hands at that point to notice their fans’ reaction. Seeing it again on MOTD last night, Traore absolutely should’ve scored there, though I think we also need to credit Hugo with a good save, I think Traore’s shot there would’ve beaten most PL keepers.
 
Was that the one after Dier’s terrible brain fart where he decided to stride up the pitch only to lose the ball cheaply? I was too busy holding my head in my hands at that point to notice their fans’ reaction. Seeing it again on MOTD last night, Traore absolutely should’ve scored there, though I think we also need to credit Hugo with a good save, I think Traore’s shot there would’ve beaten most PL keepers.

It was brilliant work by Hugo, made himself big, didn't commit early, made Traore have to make a shot, then good foot save.
 
I imagine Adama Traore is a player that most see twice a year and think they should sign him as he looks incredible, however I imagine Wolves fans are pretty sick of him missing great chances and no final ball.

I thought he did enough for them tbh, lost the ball a few times, but also provided the ball to team mates in decent positions - they just finished terribly. He's got an x-factor though, I wouldn't mind us signing him.
 
According to über-ITK Hercules, Traore is badly wanted by Nuno. Hopefully Paratici has other ideas or the ITK is wrong, again.
Would be happy if he signed for us. Note sure he's the best value for money signing we could make, more sure he's exactly what we need. Would be happy though.
 
Would be happy if he signed for us. Note sure he's the best value for money signing we could make, more sure he's exactly what we need. Would be happy though.

So the theory being put forward is (see my link earlier)

- We are struggling to get an alternate striker of the right quality
- Idea would be to use Traore wide and push Son into 2nd striker in middle with Kane
- Using Traore for the space he creates for others vs. expecting him to do the damage
 
So the theory being put forward is (see my link earlier)

- We are struggling to get an alternate striker of the right quality
- Idea would be to use Traore wide and push Son into 2nd striker in middle with Kane
- Using Traore for the space he creates for others vs. expecting him to do the damage
We could all see how many problems Traore caused us yesterday. I would be genuinely curious about the impact that would have with players like Kane, Son, Alli etc around him to exploit the space and chaos he causes.

He would add physicality if played when Kane wasn't playing because of injury/rotation. Not a target man in the traditional sense, but someone you can ping the ball to in a close duel and expect him to keep possession fairly often, unlike what happens too often when we play without Kane, able to keep the ball and let us progress down the pitch. At the same time a great threat on the break.

And he's only 25. He's matured quite a bit from the player he was 4-5 years ago. Can he take further steps? I don't know, but I know who should know and that's Nuno.

If a striker good enough to be a viable backup for Kane, who is either happy as a backup or capable of playing other roles to get games with Kane is available and gettable that would be my preference. But I could definitely see the value in going for Traore.

The price seems a bit steep. But he is PL proven and 25.

Don't think it's particularly likely, the cost seems high and we have other areas to focus on too, but personally I would be happy if we managed to sign him.
 
The difference with last season is that after we get the lead, we actually create a few more high probability chances (leaving aside the atrocious final pass or finishing). Last year after we scored we did fudge all. With a little better concentration and finishing we can put these games away and make them look more comfortable wins than what they end up being, even if we play the same.
Like if we had a world class CF on the pitch, you mean? Or even an actual CF! While I love Sonny, he's not suited to playing up top on his own.
 
Yesterday was a good indication of how we might play if we don't get some deals done in the next week.

We don't have the options in cm or up front to change up how we are playing if things aren't going our way. We surely need a back up striker?

CM is a problem and has been for some time. This is essentially the same team as last year, minus a very experienced defender, the first choice RB, the goals of Bale, and our star striker. I consider it a great win in the circumstances
 
Yesterday was a good indication of how we might play if we don't get some deals done in the next week.

We don't have the options in cm or up front to change up how we are playing if things aren't going our way. We surely need a back up striker?

CM is a problem and has been for some time. This is essentially the same team as last year, minus a very experienced defender, the first choice RB, the goals of Bale, and our star striker. I consider it a great win in the circumstances
We had our first choice RB
 
We have had some outrageous good fortune in the last two PL games. However, thankfully it is counterbalancing all the really bad luck we had last year - soft penalties against all the top teams at crucial points, ridiculous penalties (Dier against Saudi Sportswashing Machine) and offside decisions by the width of Son's big toe!!! It is about time our luck changed.

However the really worrying thing for me is the lack of chances created in all three games (including the Conference one). Our midfield lacks control and creativity. We need to sell some of our dead wood (including N'Dombele ) and bring in a creative midfielder and another centre forward (regardless of whether Kane stays or goes). Two new CFs if he goes.
I wouldn’t say it was outrageous, teams missed a couple of decent chances against us, but we did good ones ourselves. Our goals themselves weren’t dodgy or fortunate.

Such is the nature of a counter attacking approach that you have more bodies in the way and there is more space left as the other team seek an equaliser.
I do agree on the control side of things though, which makes these type of wins more nerve wracking - will be interesting to see what the long term plan is as there’s quite a few of the team there started the last two games that would be seen as as upgradable. Son is deputising as a number 9, one of Bergwijn or Moura is deputising for Son as a LWF, Skipp and Hojbjerg seems a little one dinensional for a midfield 3 so I could see Skipp becoming Hojbjergs deputy and coming on to close games out. At least one of the centre backs will make way when Romero is up to speed so that’s almost half the outfield team that’s not at its strongest.
Midfield is the biggest conundrum for me, I don’t see Lo Celso being benched all season but he drives into space without offering much of a goal or assist threat, Ndombele is a huge cost to not play so if offloaded you’d expect the funds to be invested, yet we still have Sissoko and Winks eating up wages too. Im still bit sure if Dele is filling a hole or is the preferred box to box choice either!

I’m really hoping to see a flurry of activity which will see the exit of 4 or 5 of those looking obviously surplus to requirements and getting two or three in that will give us a little more to control the game more, especially at home.
 
We had our first choice RB

We did but our first choice RB for the past few years has been Aurier. Tanganga has come in and done well but he is learning on the job. The point I'm making is that we have let experienced squad members go and the ones that have come in to the starting 11 are kids (Skipp/Tang). If we are expecting to go away from home in the PL and play teams off the pitch with that kind of 11 then we are in for some disappointments this season.

We hung in and battled and ground out 3 points, so all things considered thats a great win on the road.
 
He would do the same for us, we all loved when Lennon got the ball.

Trick is as I said, can you use him to create space for other attackers and/or could you teach him every now and to pass the ball early
He's 25 now, and has been doing the same thing for 10 years. Barca academy couldn't teach him, so who the fudge can then?
 
The Wolves fans love him…. I was there yesterday and the crowd lifts massively every time he gets the ball.

He may lift the crowd but they are fully aware of his limitations. Was talking to several different sets of Wolves fans at the station yesterday, while waiting best part of an hour for the train, (friendly bunch on the whole and wanted to talk about Spurs and our views on Nuno), to a man they love his pace and strength but bemoan the lack of end product. I take on board his usefulness as a means of opening space for others though. An alternative to Lucas' trickery? In a sledge-hammery sort of way....
 
Ironically, this performance looked a lot like one from last season. If it wasn't for Dele's inclusion, you'd think Mourinho was still in charge. As others have mentioned, it way too early to form an opinion on Espirito Santo's tenure. You can't really complain when things go your way but that was pretty dire. We had zero attacking play before Wolves started committing more players forward as they were getting desperate. We're still half-decent as a counter-attacking team but our inability to keep hold of the ball is worrying. Skipp's and Dele's first touch really let them down at times and it's quite likely that if Wolves had a half-decent striker, the scoreline would have been quite different. At the same time, you could argue that we were missing one of the best players in the world, I guess. Kane's introduction made a huge difference, I thought, even if they made life slightly easier for us at this point.

At the moment, I'd say we look like Mourinho's Spurs with better team spirit and Dele. I'm as curious as the next guy to know where we will go from there but it's quite obvious that we need a couple of reinforcements (particularly in midfield). I wouldn't mind being excited watching a Spurs game too, because that hasn't happened very often since our win at ManUre last season...
 
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