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Tom Carroll

camspur said:
Not at all, I see him making challenges for sure but i can recall at least 3 times he was "muscled" off the ball last night, when it happens in the centre circle you don't notice it as much but it happens.
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Maybe I just missed it. In general when I see him in situations he's not a player where I think 'he's going to lose possession here because he's not strong enough'.
 
He can get outmuscled for sure, but we are looking at a player here with enough energy, resolve and bite to more than compensate. At one point last night when he probably got too easily dispossessed on the edge of our area he immediately fought back tigerishly to eventually (with the help of a colleague) regain possession and come away with the ball.
 
Millsy_Yiddo said:
This comes up all the time on here. Yet I don't really recall him being muscled off the ball much and I don't recall him ducking out of challenges either.

Looks to me like people have looked at his slight build and went 'yeh, strength of a kitten'. Pretty much the same thing they done with Modric when he first arrived.
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Guilty as charged! :oops:

Mind this Messi chap is vastly overrated....
 
I'm slowly being won over by Carroll. I haven't been a critic or anything, but he's never impressed me the way he has some others. "Decent squad player" was about where I saw him. The last handful of games have started to change that though. He still has a ways to go before I'd put him in my starting 11 (current midfield priority for me: Dier, Dembele + 3 from Lamela, Alli, Son or Eriksen) but he's definitely moving in that direction and for the first time I'm seeing glimpses of the "Modric-type" player that parklane1 and others are going on about.

Mind you; the others around him are all roughly the same age - and they're all improving too. So I'm not sure he will make it as a regular starter for Spurs, but I'm starting to believe he might.
 
DublinSpur said:
I'm slowly being won over by Carroll. I haven't been a critic or anything, but he's never impressed me the way he has some others. "Decent squad player" was about where I saw him. The last handful of games have started to change that though. He still has a ways to go before I'd put him in my starting 11 (current midfield priority for me: Dier, Dembele + 3 from Lamela, Alli, Son or Eriksen) but he's definitely moving in that direction and for the first time I'm seeing glimpses of the "Modric-type" player that parklane1 and others are going on about.

Mind you; the others around him are all roughly the same age - and they're all improving too. So I'm not sure he will make it as a regular starter for Spurs, but I'm starting to believe he might.
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That echoes my sentiments really. He looks like he's starting to feel more at home and more relaxed on the pitch now too. This passing ability I've heard others talking about is starting to present itself.
 
He seems to be getting better and better. I'd like him to compete with Alli for that spot in the team, because his passing is good enough to 'pick the lock' and he showed against Norwich that he has a decent shot on him. It does seem that most of our centre midfielders are equally happy playing deep or higher up.

dier/bentaleb
dembele/mason
alli/carroll

that's a very decent group.
 
the dza said:
He seems to be getting better and better. I'd like him to compete with Alli for that spot in the team, because his passing is good enough to 'pick the lock' and he showed against Norwich that he has a decent shot on him. It does seem that most of our centre midfielders are equally happy playing deep or higher up.

dier/bentaleb
dembele/mason
alli/carroll

that's a very decent group.
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I would add (purely hopefully) Eriksen/Pritchard to that list

If they could all developed it would be great
 
I'll just chime in again with how impressed I was with the pass that lead to Son breaking the deadlock. We need people who can knock the ball about at pace in order to unlock the defences of teams that like to sit back and he can do that all day. I still wouldn't start him ahead of Dembele, but he's been good for us. Especially his combination play with Eriksen.
 
camspur said:
Not at all, I see him making challenges for sure but i can recall at least 3 times he was "muscled" off the ball last night, when it happens in the centre circle you don't notice it as much but it happens.
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Don't forget that big lads often give away free kicks for outmuscling opponents e.g. Huddle stone and Livermore would often outmuscle someone small and the ref blows up when the midget collapses. Carroll needs to learn how to collapse under pressure whilst diving onto the ball; the old classic
 
This perception of Tom Carroll issue isn't even about his height/weight.
He's bigger than Wheelchair or Grealish who never get the 'lightweight' thing thrown at them.
Football is littered with nasty little players who people didnt go near.

When some people see Carroll all they see is an upper middle class guy with a public school haircut.
If Carroll had a shaved head, some brick tattoos and was pictured doing coke in a tabloid, no one would have an issue with his size.

We've always had an issue with appreciating ball playing midfielders at Tottenham since the 90s. The 3 fan favourites has been Freund, Sandro and now Dier.
I mean no spurs midfielder who can away with kicking an opponent had a "What does he do?" thread.
It so easier for people watching to respond positively to a challenge than the 5th first time pass in last 2 minutes.
 
Modric THFC said:
This perception of Tom Carroll issue isn't even about his height/weight.
He's bigger than Wheelchair or Grealish who never get the 'lightweight' thing thrown at them.
Football is littered with nasty little players who people didnt go near.

When some people see Carroll all they see is an upper middle class guy with a public school haircut.
If Carroll had a shaved head, some brick tattoos and was pictured doing coke in a tabloid, no one would have an issue with his size.

We've always had an issue with appreciating ball playing midfielders at Tottenham since the 90s. The 3 fan favourites has been Freund, Sandro and now Dier.
I mean no spurs midfielder who can away with kicking an opponent had a "What does he do?" thread.
It so easier for people watching to respond positively to a challenge than the 5th first time pass in last 2 minutes.
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This has to be an early candidate for post of the year 2016 - for undiluted level of brick written, especially in the bolded bit
 
Modric THFC said:
We've always had an issue with appreciating ball playing midfielders at Tottenham since the 90s.
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So you were not around in the late 1950s then - when the magical little Tommy Harmer (the Charmer) got squeezed out by Billy Nick who decided that at 5'6" and a meagre 9 stone he was just too lightweight?

Nothing changes. :rolleyes:
 
Charlie said:
I still would pick Mason over Carroll. Both offer similar qualities in the passing/offensive game. However, Mason offers more defensively.
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I think the stats have shown that Carroll has been very good defensively IIRC

I think it's perceptions of player that make people see certain things

Both Carroll and Mason play adventurous risky passes to make the gains. Some people see them then as wasting passes ... Other see it as A positive

Carroll has win a share of interceptions and tackles in games (Everton he had the best stats in the itch including defenders) yet people said he was lightweight against cloggers like Barry!!!!

The guy behind in the Park Lane (we shall call him Cnut chops) is adamant he will never make it as a footballer and will never score for us despite scoring two goals this season (he also slags off Davies)

We love a scape goat at times and Carroll is that for some. The games he started and we lost he wasn't even on the pitch when the opposition scored yet I've heard him get the blame
 
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I'd say that Carroll is a more conservative passer than Mason, but to be honest the way we are playing this season is imo quite a bit different to last season and Mason has hardly played since the injury at Sunderland.
 
Isn't it great to have so many CM options now? Compare to last season's conundrums...

Carroll has positives and negatives. I think he'd be best in a CM with Dier and/or Dembele. Having both in the same team as Carroll is great as it compensates for Carroll's lack of physical strength (he DOES often lose out in 50-50s and can get easily muscled off the ball). He has good vision for quick incisive forward passes and he showcased this with Son's goal on wednesday.
I did fear when he was starting with Bentaleb as i fear Leicester would target them for quick dispossessions in our third before getting straight at our defence. My fears were happily proved wrong and it was great to see them both hold their own after a few scary initial moments.

As i say, we have a great set of options in CM imo and Carrol is part of that.

COYS
 
Its great to think that we have Bentaleb and Mason who have rarely featured of late, yet both talented and proven to be assets to us yet not missed because whoeverhasbeen playing has proved themselves whether it be Caroll,Dembele,Alli etc. Whoever comes in from the cold always seems to have the ability to step up.....
 
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