Tottenham Hotspur vs Chelsea FC | Page 3 | Vital Football

Tottenham Hotspur vs Chelsea FC

Pollo said:
With Kante, Jorginho and Barkley/Kovacic in their mid, we will have a rough day.

I'd really consider dropping Ali and Eriksen to CM in front of Dier, as they have the work ethic, intelligence and box to box capabilities to allow us to control that midfield.
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I'm one of the few that believes Alli best position is CM, this allows him to have more influence on the game IMO.
With Moura, Lamela and Son I don't think he's needed that far forward. My midfield trio would be Winks, Dier and Alli, Moura and Eriksen in front of those three with Kane up front.
 
Topspur1 said:
I'm one of the few that believes Alli best position is CM, this allows him to have more influence on the game IMO.
With Moura, Lamela and Son I don't think he's needed that far forward. My midfield trio would be Winks, Dier and Alli, Moura and Eriksen in front of those three with Kane up front.
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Eriksen IMO can do what Modric does at Madrid. When he dropped deep next to Dier last season he was unstoppable. He controls the pace of the game like nobody else.
 
Pollo said:
Eriksen IMO can do what Modric does at Madrid. When he dropped deep next to Dier last season he was unstoppable. He controls the pace of the game like nobody else.
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I would have no problem with that, the only reason I would take Alli over Eriksen is that he would get stuck in.
 
As I wrote, I'd take them both in a midfield of 3.

Just a note, Eriksen's work rate and defending is really under rated. His positioning and awareness are incredible.
 
I also think when Alli is playing further forward is he can be a little wasteful in possession, he looks after the ball much better when he is deeper.
 
Topspur1 said:
I'm one of the few that believes Alli best position is CM, this allows him to have more influence on the game IMO.
With Moura, Lamela and Son I don't think he's needed that far forward. My midfield trio would be Winks, Dier and Alli, Moura and Eriksen in front of those three with Kane up front.
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Agreed.
 
Pollo said:
Eriksen IMO can do what Modric does at Madrid. When he dropped deep next to Dier last season he was unstoppable. He controls the pace of the game like nobody else.
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But if you blow on him or put a hand on his shoulder he falls over and give you the ball. Good player, but physically weak and too easy to dispossess. Unstoppable he is not.
 
The jury's out on me for Dele's best position. I felt last season that he was still trying the skills rather than do the simple thing in deeper positions and, despite his work rate, at times was bordering on a liability defensively.

I think the World Cup helped him develop as Southgate's naivety sacrificed his attacking flair and turned Dele into a water carrier. The England manager allowed Young to get away with never getting chalk on his boots in wide left areas and also allowed Maguire to keep pulling Young in to mark his man defensively. What that left was Dele running round like a madman trying to cope with 2 or 3 players coming at him. In the end against Croatia, it was a complete disaster, and most pointed the finger at Dele for having a "poor World Cup". Some even said that Dele shouldn't be in the England team. In reality, he was just as confused as we were in what he was told was his role in the England setup versus what happened every time he stepped onto the pitch due to tactical suicide by the manager.

What we're left with is a better player. Dele can play as a false number 9, as an attacking creative midfielder and he can also play as a box to box or deeper midfielder. He has it all and Poch and Spurs fans knew that anyway. We just need to see more of Winks, Eriksen and Dele together and let them express themselves.

I'm still not convinced Southgate has a clue how to use Dele, even though he has moved back to a flat back four and got rid of sub-standard players like Young. All I know is that when he came on against the likes of Modric, Brozovic, Lovren etc on Sunday you could see the respect and nervousness of those players in the first few minutes of his impact. For all of Dier's and Delph's efforts plus Barkley's guile, Dele looked at another level. I hope he doesn't go the same way as Scholes with England managers past preferring lesser players like Gerrard and Lampard over their most precocious talent.
 
muttley said:
The jury's out on me for Dele's best position. I felt last season that he was still trying the skills rather than do the simple thing in deeper positions and, despite his work rate, at times was bordering on a liability defensively.

I think the World Cup helped him develop as Southgate's naivety sacrificed his attacking flair and turned Dele into a water carrier. The England manager allowed Young to get away with never getting chalk on his boots in wide left areas and also allowed Maguire to keep pulling Young in to mark his man defensively. What that left was Dele running round like a madman trying to cope with 2 or 3 players coming at him. In the end against Croatia, it was a complete disaster, and most pointed the finger at Dele for having a "poor World Cup". Some even said that Dele shouldn't be in the England team. In reality, he was just as confused as we were in what he was told was his role in the England setup versus what happened every time he stepped onto the pitch due to tactical suicide by the manager.

What we're left with is a better player. Dele can play as a false number 9, as an attacking creative midfielder and he can also play as a box to box or deeper midfielder. He has it all and Poch and Spurs fans knew that anyway. We just need to see more of Winks, Eriksen and Dele together and let them express themselves.

I'm still not convinced Southgate has a clue how to use Dele, even though he has moved back to a flat back four and got rid of sub-standard players like Young. All I know is that when he came on against the likes of Modric, Brozovic, Lovren etc on Sunday you could see the respect and nervousness of those players in the first few minutes of his impact. For all of Dier's and Delph's efforts plus Barkley's guile, Dele looked at another level. I hope he doesn't go the same way as Scholes with England managers past preferring lesser players like Gerrard and Lampard over their most precocious talent.
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I've had this debate with many of my Irish M.U. fans, while they bang about Keane and Giggs (both great players) I believed Scholes was the heart of that team.
 
Scholesy was the best of that crop, but not as good as Gazza.

I'm up for a trio of Dier, Winks and Alli. Each player has a different skill set so should work.
 
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Some good reads there my fellow Spurs - not a lot to add from me. I can't stand Chelsea (in fact it's because of Chelsea why I became a Spurs fan - take that any way you like o_O !)

So will it be this :gimp::loser::mad: or this :party::punk::guitar: after the game? I so want the latter that I can almost taste it; but we're talking about OUR team and we're talking about a surging Chavs team!

I was totally wrong about the predicted blow out against City, but the way we've played who'd bet their house on us against the rest of the Top 5 (hands up) - not me, no way no how!

I'll take the ugliest of ugly wins for this game, but most of the ones we've had to date have not been against the top opposition, so why should I expect different come Saturday? I don't, but yet there's always that part of me that really wore his heart on his sleeve about the team I've followed for goodness knows how long now (we can expect wins from our boys, but who expected Ar5ena1 or the battering we gave the Chavs in one of the cup competitions some years back - forget the year and the cup). It's the ability to do those things, completely out of the blue (appropriate colour) that has me very guardedly optimistic!

Show up lads, please (and in our next league fixture too!) because if you do, that rockin' party scene will be seen live on TV!!
 
Topspur1 said:
The biggest reason IMO as to why we are not playing well is lack of continuity, Chelski have only started 14 players in 12 league games and another 5 of the bench. I would surprised if we have not started close to 25 players in 12 games, we've used all 3 keepers, all four FB's and all four CB's. Every senior outfield player has started at least one game.
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It's worth bearing in mind that of the 11 players that went to the WC; 9 subsequently picked up injuries and arguably one (namely Harry) was so overplayed/stop start conditioning that we won't see him at his best until late into the season.

The WC has taken a very heavy toll on us both player and prep wise - most especially because our squad (quality-wise) doesn't extend in depth the way our top 4 rivals do.
 
Spursex said:
It's worth bearing in mind that of the 11 players that went to the WC; 9 subsequently picked up injuries and arguably one (namely Harry) was so overplayed/stop start conditioning that we won't see him at his best until late into the season.

The WC has taken a very heavy toll on us both player and prep wise - most especially because our squad (quality-wise) doesn't extend in depth the way our top 4 rivals do.
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I get that City and Liverpool have deeper squads than us. Not surprising with the investments they've made. I'm sort of doubtful about the rest of the top 6 though.

I actually think our squad depth has stood up this season. Gazza, Foyth, Sanchez, Sissoko, Lamela etc have stepped up. Our 5 attackers of Eriksen, Dele, Moura, Son and Lamela are the strength in the squad as are the 4 centre halves. For me, Chelsea have the first team but not the squad and the depth at Utd and Arsenal doesn't match us despite a couple of those teams spending big.

Ultimately we have 25 players, but as you say due to fatigue and tiredness have had to use them. Wouldn't surprise me if that makes us stronger as the season goes on with real competition for places.
 
Spursex said:
The WC has taken a very heavy toll on us both player and prep wise - most especially because our squad (quality-wise) doesn't extend in depth the way our top 4 rivals do.
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More reason then for us to be doing better at basic tasks, our passing, ball control, finishing & frequent mistakes have risen alarmingly, while our standards of just a few years ago have decreased. We cannot control the financial disparity and all it entails, but we can perform better to help ourselves.
 
RichmondSpur said:
More reason then for us to be doing better at basic tasks, our passing, ball control, finishing & frequent mistakes have risen alarmingly, while our standards of just a few years ago have decreased. We cannot control the financial disparity and all it entails, but we can perform better to help ourselves.
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Line-up changes, fatigue, poor tactics / formation changes can exacerbate all of the above - so I don't think our standards have dropped - they're just not meeting the expectations they'd risen to in recent years; but our mental concentration and with our often disrupted preperation, have combined to show a lower level of skills and mobility/fludity., and as you say Poch has to find a way to perform the way we know we can.
 
Spursex said:
Line-up changes, fatigue, poor tactics / formation changes can exacerbate all of the above - so I don't think our standards have dropped - they're just not meeting the expectations they'd risen to in recent years; but our mental concentration and with our often disrupted preperation, have combined to show a lower level of skills and mobility/fludity., and as you say Poch has to find a way to perform the way we know we can.
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Sorry, but I do not believe formation changes have much to do with players gaining an attacking advantage then not showing the expected level of competence to find the corner of the net and finish. After all it was the tactics that helped lead us to the position in the first place, and as Poch has mentioned on numerous occasions this season and last our finishing has to improve. So I disagree with your comment that our standards have not dropped.

The goal we conceded against pool scored by Wijnaldum, when a succession of ill directed passes & mistakes led to us going backwards from our possession on the halfway line & conceding a corner without any involvement from a pool player, was one of the most embarrassing phases of play I have witnessed.
 
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