The Football (Soccer) Thread

[Mentor]

And just like that, Spurs season is basically already over. We lost the past 2 games, but the reason we lost it was mainly due to the fact that we have become a hospital, the among of injuries is pretty rediculous at the moment. Look at this list:

Richarlison (Just had knee surgery, will be out for at least 2-3 months)
Perisic (Long term absentee, could be out 4-5 months)
Romero (Still out due to his straight red)
Johnson (just recently came back, forced into the main lineup due to injuries)
Bentancur (just came back, not in full form yet)
Porro (has a knock, but could play)
Solomon (out long term, they said he could miss the year)
Van de Ven (out for 3-4 months)
Udogie (did not travel for the international games due to an injury)

But the one injury that hurts the most is Madisson, he wont play until the next year, could be out for 2-3 months they say. We have no replacement for him. 

Basically we have 6 of our main 11 out at the moment, we lacked a proper bench to begin with, but damn that is harsh. With the upcoming xmas schedule coming at us fast and furious, i cannot see us surviving this and still being a top 4 team. So we went from outsiders for the title, to unlikely top 4 over a 2 week space.

 

[BenhornbyMMA]

COME ON YOU PIESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

[popart]

9 hours ago, Mentor said:

And just like that, Spurs season is basically already over. We lost the past 2 games, but the reason we lost it was mainly due to the fact that we have become a hospital, the among of injuries is pretty rediculous at the moment. Look at this list:

Richarlison (Just had knee surgery, will be out for at least 2-3 months)
Perisic (Long term absentee, could be out 4-5 months)
Romero (Still out due to his straight red)
Johnson (just recently came back, forced into the main lineup due to injuries)
Bentancur (just came back, not in full form yet)
Porro (has a knock, but could play)
Solomon (out long term, they said he could miss the year)
Van de Ven (out for 3-4 months)
Udogie (did not travel for the international games due to an injury)

But the one injury that hurts the most is Madisson, he wont play until the next year, could be out for 2-3 months they say. We have no replacement for him. 

Basically we have 6 of our main 11 out at the moment, we lacked a proper bench to begin with, but damn that is harsh. With the upcoming xmas schedule coming at us fast and furious, i cannot see us surviving this and still being a top 4 team. So we went from outsiders for the title, to unlikely top 4 over a 2 week space.

 

Cest la vie. It's dissapointed but with the perspective of Kane leaving, no one was really expecting top 4 until that great start. I fully believe in this Big Ange project

[Mentor]

On 11/14/2023 at 11:49 PM, popart said:

Cest la vie. It's dissapointed but with the perspective of Kane leaving, no one was really expecting top 4 until that great start. I fully believe in this Big Ange project

The problem with Ange is that he has just one strategy and he sticks to it, even if you need to adapt. His strategy is the full backs close in to cover the midfield and offer passing options. Madisson has the free roaming role and links up the play. The wingers cut in and make runs behind and we push way up when defending, relying on speed and control of our Central defenders to cover ground if somebody goes behind the line.

The problem with all this is, he uses this strategy even if we are playing with 10 or 9 men! He even said he will play the same way even if we had 5 players (which is why we got thrashed 4-1 against Chelsea). Also other teams have started to figure it out, we have lots of space on the sides against fast wingers (Arsenal scored twice via the right wing and we was playing with our luck as Udogie was on 1 card all game). This tactic wont work at all as Romero and Vert are out. Dier and Davies lack the pace to do the same job. Plus we now lack the key peice which is Madisson, who can play the roaming playmaker role? We have zero options in that position. Maybe Kane could of done that but he is not here, Kulisevski maybe? I doubt it, but he has the skills. Possibly Le Celso? In theory we bought him for that, he just did not show he can do that. 

In short, being a one trick pony with the wrong personnel wont work. We need to think about a new tactic / approach, at least until our players come back.

[Mentor]

 

On 11/16/2023 at 7:17 PM, Mentor said:

The problem with Ange is that he has just one strategy and he sticks to it, even if you need to adapt. His strategy is the full backs close in to cover the midfield and offer passing options. Madisson has the free roaming role and links up the play. The wingers cut in and make runs behind and we push way up when defending, relying on speed and control of our Central defenders to cover ground if somebody goes behind the line.

The problem with all this is, he uses this strategy even if we are playing with 10 or 9 men! He even said he will play the same way even if we had 5 players (which is why we got thrashed 4-1 against Chelsea). Also other teams have started to figure it out, we have lots of space on the sides against fast wingers (Arsenal scored twice via the right wing and we was playing with our luck as Udogie was on 1 card all game). This tactic wont work at all as Romero and Vert are out. Dier and Davies lack the pace to do the same job. Plus we now lack the key peice which is Madisson, who can play the roaming playmaker role? We have zero options in that position. Maybe Kane could of done that but he is not here, Kulisevski maybe? I doubt it, but he has the skills. Possibly Le Celso? In theory we bought him for that, he just did not show he can do that. 

In short, being a one trick pony with the wrong personnel wont work. We need to think about a new tactic / approach, at least until our players come back.

I am reading over my post and it happened exactly as i expected. In the last game Ange made some major changes against Villa. He moved Kulisevski in the creative Maddison role (roaming playmaker) and although he was not Maddison, he was good in that role. He made some major changes in the middle, bringing in Bentacur and Le Celso, which also added to our creativity. In the back he did a drastic move, playing 4 full backs in a 4 man defense! (Davies and Royal in the middle). 

The midfield moves were great, we moved up 1-0 but then Bentacur got injured and Villa started to take advantage of the fact that we had no central defenders. We let in a goal via a header, then we ended up losing 2-1 on a counter attack. Overall we did not deserve to lose, but a loss in a loss. 

This weekend we have City away, we have a great record against them, i guess you could say we are their boogie team, lets see.

[Mentor]

4-1 vs Newcastle today, finally we got on the winning trail after 5 games without a win. I think we was unlucky to not get some results during that 5 game run, today it all clicked and it was good that Ange made some tactical changes. Put in Sarr in the place of Le Celso (which was not easy to do as Le Celso had 2 goals in the past 2 games), put Johnson on the right and Son on the left (even though he is our top scorer), with Richarlison playing down the middle, moving Kulisevski in the "Maddisson" #10 role. 

The result? Son 2 assists and a goal, Richarlison 2 goals, Johnson hit the post 2 times, Sarr was probably the best player, so yeah, the plan worked. Forrest next on Friday.

[Mentor]

Another win for Spurs, 2-0 vs Forrest. The bad news is that Bissouma got a red, so he will be out 3 games and Udogi got a yellow, so he is also out of the next game (or maybe 2, not 100% certain). Johnson also got a bad hit that split him open and could be out due to concussion. That is 3 lost players from 1 game, not good. Especially Johnson because that will mean Kulisevski will need to play on the wing, which means we play without a playmaker, Ange puts Skipp to play in that role (he did that 2 times in the past 3 games), but he clearly is not cut out for that role, we will likely bring in Lo Celso instead, he was playing good before Ange made some changes in the past 2 games. Emerson will need to replace Udogi, which means going forward we will be less effective, Emerson is also a natural right back, not left back, so he will be playing on the wrong foot. Hoiberg will replace Bissouma, which actually could be good news, because Bissouma is a catastrophe waiting to happen. 

 

 

[Mentor]

2-1 for Spurs vs a team on form Everton (who won 5 out of 6 going into this). We were less than impressive, Ange went for Skipp for Bissouma and frankly he is a degrade, when Le Celso came in, it gave us much more punch in the last 20 minutes. 

Overall it was not a stellar display, but we got the 3pts and now back in the top 4. It was generally a good weekend for us, Pool and Arsenal drew 1-1, Newcastle somehow lost to Luton and Villa had a 1-1 draw against lowly Sheffield United. 

[Mentor]

Spurs active on the transfer market. 

Dier sent to Bayern on loan (i do not understand why we loaned him, we are litterally playing with 4 full backs and no center back at the moment). Either sale or keeping him as backup would make the most sense. It seems Ange does not like Dier though, which is probably why. 

Radu Drăgușin has been brought in. A 21y old center back, Romanian international. Big (191cm), strong, fast, played in the Italian league with Genoa. We 100% needed a center back, especially since we sent Dier to Bayern and with Romero out and Van Der Vert out. Not sure this guy totally fits the Spurs profile for center backs (he is not that technical from what i see), we shall see, this guy is a project for sure.

Timo Werner brought in on loan with option to buy from Chelsea. He kind of flopped in Chelsea, but he fits the Spurs profile. Technical, can play left wing and in the center of the attack. 100% we needed someone like him, especially with Son out 5-6 weeks with Korea and Richarlison unreliable as the first (and only) attacking option. Timo is a low risk / potentially high rewards transfer. He is also still just 27y.   

 

[Mentor]

Radu Drăgușin's agent basically has already stated that the end goal is that he will play for Real or Barca, not the best way to start your career, considering that he has not played even one game yet. 😁

[Mentor]

Spurs got an important win over Villa last weekend (4-0 away), which puts us still in contention for the 4th spot. If we win our game in hand (against Chelsea), we will go 1 point over Villa with 10 more games to go.

If we finish top 4, i would be happy, i think 3rd is out of reach. Considering we did offload Kane and did make a lot of major changes, including changing the coach, 4th is still higher than where we was last year. We play entertaining football and we have a young squad, so the future is bright, but we still need to get the job done.