TOTTENHAM ARE STILL A BIG CLUB!

Vintage stuff this

It's easy to say it

But sissoko has been comically bad tonight apart from popping in his finish.

His retention rate cannot be fifty percent and he's not even created anything for all of his risky flicks and touches

lol wtf is going on there?

Didn't want to clog up the premium thread

Think that spurs are in a very interesting place rn

The current position (not the most recent very poor form, but the stuttering bumps with only a handful of decent team performances and a reliance on solidity with one or two moments of quality to get the results) is more honest imo as a reflection of the longer-term project and where we are with it.

the realisation that this team is in a fight for cl qualification would be a very healthy one for our younger players and I think lloris meant this when he said it very bluntly recently.

The bigger clubs with better squads were always going to come back, two seasons in a row of the majority of them stinking the place out was a happy fluke for poch in establishing himself firmly- hopefully that happy success gives him the base required to slug this next period of adjustment out because afaict he is now in a position where quite a few of the players on whom he has relied and who have thought themselves title challenging players are now pretty squarely in the way of the development of the club and it will be a massive challenge to coordinate their efforts now that they are in demand, have international recognition etc etc

There's a few Lee sharpes waiting to be fucked out imo, hopefully poch gets rein to do what he reckons is necessary

Would rather we started again with youth players and poch than keep watching Alli and Dier in particular play like they did tonight for much longer.

Can't help but think that Rose has contributed heavily to the whole thing, even if his on-pitch commitment can't be questioned. Even leaving his summer fuckaboutery aside, the constant dripping of shittalk to the press since he presented back fit for duty four or five games ago is a stark contrast to how this team was running when it was performing.

Also.....I enjoyed his book but he somewhat puts a few first team players in their place in it....and we've been shit (in the league) since it's release

Obviously we've been killing it in the Champions League and we're within touching distance of everyone that isn't City so this is hardly a crisis just yet, but these things neede addressing.

- Lack of a defensive midfielder when Wanyama and Alderweireld are both injured. We don't need to be playing five at the back against Leicester or West Brom if it means no real defensive presence in midfield. We need to be moving Dier back into midfield, where he's actually good. Our attacking players were much better last year when they were playing in front of a defensive base in which everyone clearly had full confidence. Vertonghen and Sanchez have both looked merkedly less assured since Toby's injury as well.

- Overreliance on fullbacks for width. Chelsea, United and City all play with two wide forwards either side of the CF, Kane is usually flanked by Alli and Eriksen who are really twin number 10s, so we look very narrow in attack. This doesn't always work against teams who defend deep and loses a little something on the break against teams that don't. We looked a lot more threatening with Son and Lamela on the pitch, which won't work against everyone and necessitates moving Alli into a deeper role, but he can do that.

- Dodgy team selections. The system and the balance of the team worked perfectly last year but moving Sissoko and Aurier in and out of the team for no real reason has unbalanced things. Aurier will get there but Sissoko should be nowhere near the team.

merkedly otm

Other thing

Nobody ever in the box. Ever!

Like a team afraid to do anything but show for the ball on the halfway line and play it quickly back to where they found it

Poch unassailable obv but I think the absolute adherence to some aspects of the doctrine at all times gives players a place to hide

the movement in the final third is very uncoordinated; without many attempts to make runs or move defenders, players slow down as they approach the box and see nothing on. aurier in particular kept passing backwards when he received the ball in good positions. rather than work opportunities players optimistically punted the ball in to a densely packed box and it was easy to defend. at times it feels like the team is blunt and can only grind opponents down and exploit mistakes, especially when the team selection skews so much towards the powerful dribblers; aurier, rose, dembele and sissoko felt excessive especially when not playing on the counter. lamela's quick, short one-touch passing was a very welcome relief, and with winks and even trippier back in the side I think they'll move the ball around quicker. I confess I really enjoyed the end of the match even though it was frustrating, it was just fun to see such an attacking team out there. also sanchez remains fantastic.

lads

God now what

Goran Bunjevcevic fuck. I was only thinking about him while watching Serbia yesterday.

It's extremely fucked up that two members of our early 00s squad are dead already.

what

He had a stroke a few days ago apparently.

lamela signing a long term deal is it a good thing i feel we can discuss here

also lack of transfers either in or out is it enough to keep what we have and trust that the mgmt team improves them incrementally, that injuries dont hurt us as much this season, that the rest of the top teams have enough underperformances in them, etc

or would sixth, out of cl in groups and a uefa run be a result

liverpool are looking stronger, city & united similar, arsenal and chelsea are unknowns. fourth would be lovely.

utd due jose collapse

Or the opposite.

But, yes, can't see them carrying on like last season.

Seem to be conflicting reports on Grealish since Villa's new investment.

Some saying deal is done barring medical this week and others that he wants to stay and Villa no longer need to sell him.

Pretty confident we'll make at least a couple of signings before the start of the season, even if the stadium is clearly looming over everything.

It would be enough just not to sell players TBH, but a dynamic central midfielder and another CF have to be the priorities.

https://www.thesun.co.uk/sport/football/6838337/harry-kane-booed-scottish-fan-the-open-tottenham/

seven up for sale

janssen llorente alderweireld rose nkoudou dembele edwards

three if fit and contracted walk into first team, two didnt solve a problem we still have, two never solved a problem that im not sure we still have

highly doubtful that more than say four of the above leave, and three of em in that scenario would be janssen, nkoudou, edwards.

injuries being kinder this year that leaves the squad no worse off tbh

quite enjoying how pochesque this team of subs and youngsters are looking tbh

oooh woof nkoudou

Currently top of the ICC league for what it's worth

Spurs - Barca in the CL!

PSV and Inter too. Should be fun.

That's a pretty tough fourth seed team looking at the other groups

Lmao we are SO fucked

So great that for the first time we take on youse Spurs. #ilxmassive

Barcelona was always my dream fixture, maximally psyched

woof

are there dates for these matches yet

not yet but might you be around these parts, ohhh psv-spurs would be a hoot to go to, will keep an eye out

thats the thought alright

Wait, what?

There is a change this season - with games not being played at 19:45 BST anymore.

Most games will kick off at 20:00 BST, but two group matches every day will start at 17:55 BST - so get ready to leave work quickly on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.

yeah thats late for leaving work

Dyche out.

... wrong thread.

https://www.fourfourtwo.com/features/aaron-lennons-greatest-superfan-meet-20-year-old-turk-who-cant-get-enough-burnleys-no25

something to warm your cold, cold hearts

As someone who got into football (and Tottenham) right around the time of Jol/Lennon/Robinson, I guess 2006-2007ish?, this hit me right in the heart, thank u for this. also gave me an idea for a new dn

This is probably the best best place to talk about Sissoko. Is it really just a matter of switching him into central midfield? Perhaps he should have been there all along, Lord knows he's barely competent on the right but that's where he seems to have played on every occasion prior to this season.

well...his form was awful in an individual control/pass/position way regardless until even three or four games ago

but a run of games and maybe knowing he had a run coming due to fixtures and injuries definitely seems to have solidified that aspect

tactically then, playing with aurier on his right and behind him definitely suits, theyre both better for the way they naturally move and cover each other.

but the move to central formally (hes always been a central midfielder, this craic of callin him a rw because he gets up a bit of speed never looked right) and carving out a destroyer/carrier role in a tweaked tactic has definitely given him the platform for the last two performances. worth remembering that he destroyed us in that role on more than one occasion as a newcastle player, so im not sure im ready to call it a flash of genius to find that in him all of a sudden

i think not being the last line of defence in front of the centre halves nor being tasked with quickly recycling the ball with a bit of craft four times a minute definitely avoids two of his big weaknesses

hey presto we now have a way of taking the ball seventy yards and pulling an entrenched opponent asunder without dembele

got to credit his mentality too, even if im slightly dubious about his technical limitations not putting a ceiling on his reliability

aurier and sissoko's synergy was woven in toulouse ofc

Yeah he may have always been a central midfielder but he never seemed to start there, he usually would start in one of the wide positions. These tend to be fluid revolving attacking positions when Eriksen/Dele/Lamela* start there but Sissoko had neither the tactical quick thinking or the passing ability, he'd tend to run at the fullback and then not be able to cross particularly well at the end of it. It wasn't just that he was being played too wide, he was also too far up the pitch.

Whereas he's fantastic pressing and harrying players and rampaging through the middle. The Dembele role is absolutely the best one for him in our team (and it's an essential one for us I think).

*I'm excluding Son and Lucas from this as their roles tend to be more direct.

Admittedly two of his recent notable contributions have come from a decisive pass from an advanced position on the right, but he's clearly bringing more than that to the team now.

He was France’s best player by a mile in the Euro 2016 final at CM, more or less, and talked up by the Telegraph at the time as ‘a successor to Yaya Toure as the Premier League’s most complete central midfielder’ but I guess Dembele and Wanyama’s excellent season after he joined meant he was shunted out right.

He's always been able to summon the occasional monster performance. First couple of months at Newcastle people were talking about him as the signing of the season. I'm sceptical that he's going to start delivering it on a consistent basis at this point in his career though

they should have two off already obv