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*** OMT - Tottenham Hotspur v Everton - OMT ***

Benny_Lad said:
Yes that is a possibility. The problem with him or Gil coming in for Moura is you’re not adding to the attacking personnel - but I would welcome someone with a bit of guile. For the 3 at the back to work you really have to get the wing backs contributing.
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Our WBs have played further forward than the CMs so they're getting forward, but agree that we need them to be more of a threat.

I think we're too easy to play against at the moment though. Two CMs who don't create, two of the 3 forwards who are dribbly types rather than creators and Kane. The balance between those 5 isn't right IMO
 
Benny_Lad said:
Yes that is a possibility. The problem with him or Gil coming in for Moura is you’re not adding to the attacking personnel - but I would welcome someone with a bit of guile. For the 3 at the back to work you really have to get the wing backs contributing.
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With Gil you have dribbling and passing
Add another passer and a DM aim midfield and you will look better
The issue with players like Moura is there play is unfocused and so instinctive your can’t create set plays around them
 
I can see Hoijberg being taken out of the team. We need a creative spark in there and Skipp has been the best performing of the two. I also think Lucas will be replaced. I think we are playing this formation until January as Conte thinks that it’s the best fit for our current squad. When we sign new players in January, and expect a couple of early January signings, then we may see a different formation used.

I have a feeling Hoijberg may not be with us next season. I think he will move to a team like Everton. I think he’s been good for us, but think Conte will look elsewhere.
 
Reggie had that shot over the goal. Royal the header. Reggie also had an opening where he shot on his right foot. They had the space Son and Kane didn't today. But weren't able to convert. The team are a little pressured in attack, low confidence. But we were away, so we were going to ensure we defended well. We did. We also passed well. And you can see a plan coming together.
 
I think it was a very solid 6.5 performance out of 10. We're not troubled at the back, albeit against a lack lustre Everton side.

We don't look like a real threat going forward at the moment but had some nice patterns of play.

At the very least I can see how Conte wants us to play and we have a system that will take a little time to implement.

For me though it's too safe to play two CMs in Holjberg and Skipp who are happy to play it simple and not do much else with the ball.

Emerson Royal and Cuti were good, Dier looked comfortable. Harry Kane, Son and Moura looked tired after 50 mins.
 
1pt off sixth. Not all doom and gloom.

Width of a post and we would be 6th and things would look much rosier. Hopefully come the week before Christmas we might be looking a lot healthier
 
I liked the intensity from us, it was like a derby, lots of commitment and 50:50s and trying hard.

I did notice that Lo Celso and Ndombele were jogging when they came on though, do they not realise that you have to SPRINT in capital letters in the Prem, you have to absolutely give it the beans, not jog towards your man and jog to the press, SPRINT and put them off and those tiny tiny details make you win.
 
Wonder whether he's playing two DMs due to not trusting the CBs? We need a dominating CB and one with some pace IMO and then keeping whichever of Tanganga, Dier, Davies, Sanchez and Rodon the boss thinks given the best balance in terms of cover
 
Bullet said:
I liked the intensity from us, it was like a derby, lots of commitment and 50:50s and trying hard.

I did notice that Lo Celso and Ndombele were jogging when they came on though, do they not realise that you have to SPRINT in capital letters in the Prem, you have to absolutely give it the beans, not jog towards your man and jog to the press, SPRINT and put them off and those tiny tiny details make you win.
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I thought scoring goals and not leaking goals, but I guess the sprint is where its all at.

No but seriously you can see why the pair are on the bench at the moment, with some more commitment they should be knocking on contes door asking why they are not starting but instead they just don't have that burning desire in them from what I have seen.
 
Re Hojbjerg, maybe it’s just me but it feels like when we signed Palacios in the sense that he was exactly what we needed at the time I.e. an enforcer to break up play and make us solid and harder to beat as we had a porous spine but ultimately neither of them are particularly great passers so we needed to upgrade on Palacios and bring in someone who can perform a similar role but can pass. Not saying we should ditch Hojbjerg but it’s blatantly obvious that neither him or Skipp are the creative type. Also I don’t think Hojbjerg is playing near to the level he was last season when he was breaking up play almost every attack.
 
We defo need another CM. Been saying it for years it feels like - well it is years :D

Gary Stevens was doing some punditry on my stream (with Zamora who's also decent). A nice article on him here, a horrific tackle by Vinnie Jones and he never recovered fully. Still played for his country and the best team in the world.
 
Jurgen the German said:
Re Hojbjerg, maybe it’s just me but it feels like when we signed Palacios in the sense that he was exactly what we needed at the time I.e. an enforcer to break up play and make us solid and harder to beat as we had a porous spine but ultimately neither of them are particularly great passers so we needed to upgrade on Palacios and bring in someone who can perform a similar role but can pass. Not saying we should ditch Hojbjerg but it’s blatantly obvious that neither him or Skipp are the creative type. Also I don’t think Hojbjerg is playing near to the level he was last season when he was breaking up play almost every attack.
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I was thinking exactly the same in midweek. He’s a modern day Palacious signing.
 
There are a few things we need to address in this 3-4-3 Conte seems to have settled on, imo.

  • The first is that the two wing-forwards, Son and Lucas, aren't providing any support to the wing-backs by coming deep when we're being pressed - Everton sprung out of the blocks with an extremely high, aggressive press, and we were pinned in a lot to the point where it felt they had two or three more players than we did. That wasn't the case - but Son and Lucas took up positions more suited to breaking than to beating the press by passing through them. This meant that, often, Kane came deepest to support by providing a passing option, but then, he's so unfit and off the pace that he couldn't execute the passes to Son/Lucas on the break that he would have done last season.

  • The second is that, while we're now clearly trying to keep the damn ball on the deck - which is a *huge* improvement from both Mourinho and Nuno's hell of low-percentage long balls aimlessly lifted forward - the two central midfielders, Hojbjerg and Skipp, just are not gifted at that style of play. Skipp is a bit more able on the ball than Hojbjerg, but curiously, he seems to be the one more centrally positioned with less remit to get around the field, while Hojbjerg is the one tasked with drifting everywhere to offer a passing option. But both have the problem of just not being gifted forward passers - Hojbjerg tries, but it's 50:50 whether he succeeds or just gives it away, and Skipp doesn't try much, preferring sideways passes or simple balls into the middle.

  • The third is, of course, fitness. Credit to @alekaras - he predicted a more managed game than the frenzy at Vitesse, and he was right. But the fact remains, Everton looked like they had a gear on us the whole game - even when we were on top, they were able to close us down more easily than we were able to when they were pinging it around. Mourinho, Nuno or both - someone has utterly destroyed our fitness levels to the point where I can confidently say we are the poorest in the league at that, and it remains utterly shocking to me.

The fixes are straightforward to see, imo - but difficult to execute.

  • For the first, drop the 3-4-3. Conte liked the 3-5-2 at Inter, at Chelsea, for Italy and at Juve - you don't need the extra forward. Drop Ndombele or Lo Celso into the starting eleven, and our passing and ball retention will immediately improve just by players having more passing options - while Kane can stay higher to compensate and retain that attacking threat.

  • For the second, *buy* a better midfield partner for Hojbjerg or Skipp. A passer who is adept on the ball but prefers sitting deep - Marcelo Brozovic in January would be my top pick, but Ruben Neves, Mikel Merino, Kalvin Phillips - players like that aren't in short supply on the market right now. Sacrifice Bergwijn, or Doherty, or any one of the other wasters we're presently not using.

  • For the third, just time. I wish we had the tradition of a 'ritiro' like in Italy, where players are taken away from their WAGs and their houses to train in a group environment for a few weeks when results are bad - but we don't, and have to make do with what we have. But treat the rest of the season as less a tactical adjustment, more a fitness session to get players up and firing. Get them in next summer for the tactics bit of it - the damn WC will happen in the winter, anyway, so there will be time to do it.

The most encouraging thing from today was just the evident instruction from Conte to *pass our way out of the press* - pass, pass, f*cking pass it out. Don't panic and hoof it. It's been too long since we tried that, and barring one typically brainless, aimless long ball from Davies, we genuinely tried at that today.

All else will come with time, and (most importantly) investment.
 
I was in with the Everton fans so had to keep quiet but you guys were on song!

I had no idea they hated Sonny so much for what was an accident.

Son should have scored his chance 2nd half but I agree we didn’t look too troubled in defence.

Hilarious being in with their fans when the pen was chalked off just chuckling to myself :D
 

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stinkfoot said:
I was in with the Everton fans so had to keep quiet but you guys were on song!

I had no idea they hated Sonny so much for what was an accident.

Son should have scored his chance 2nd half but I agree we didn’t look too troubled in defence.

Hilarious being in with their fans when the pen was chalked off just chuckling to myself :D
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Its a bit like old WHL right? One of the few old grounds from that era left.
 
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