Tottenham Hotspur vs Fulham FC

[Nick Real Deal]

Poch probably 'love' Dier and made him undroppable because he can cover for defence when one of the centre defensive guys are injured especially with Toby's situation being so volatile. The other reason probably is that Dier is the best friend of Dele and selling or sidelining him may result in poor morale.
For me, I long for the Wanya/Dembo pivot but Wanya seemed like a long term croc now with his 'no-knee' situation.

Dier is like a utility player but can provide the odd bit of quality in passing and set piece headers. He is resilient physically and can cover 3 positions fairly well. I am ok with him and don't expect too much dynamically .

 

[raphaellau]

Harry hit the cross bar. Imagine if Moura had scored that header. Their goal was offside. Ours were AWESOME.

I guess for me, just like Poch being not too thrill with the performance, our hitting bars etc, are par for the course because it is expected. But for them to cut through us many times like hot knife through butter, well, that is not expected and if Fulham was just a stronger team, it would be hasta la vista baby. We just need to orgnanize ourselves quickly and really up the energy level like the last 15 minutes of the Fulham game. Manure coming up.

 

[raphaellau]

Dier is like a utility player but can provide the odd bit of quality in passing and set piece headers. He is resilient physically and can cover 3 positions fairly well. I am ok with him and don't expect too much dynamically .

I wouldn't say sell him straight away but he needs some kick up his ass e.g. some benching so that he ups his game. I really long for the kind of commanding and determined tackles which we saw in abundance in his first season. They are now few and far in between. All we have is a guy jogging around. He needs serious competition. So does Alli. U can see it a Citeh. The guys who play knew that if they don't perform, they are history and the other guy in that position would take over.

 

[muttley]

For me, Dier's body shape is now all wrong. He's put on too much muscle and it is making him cumbersome on the pitch. The Dier of 2 years ago was so deceptively quick over short distances and could intercept and break up play. He's now too big a unit to be effective against the smaller, cleverer midfielders that he comes up against. He now looks like a centre half out of place in midfield.

 

[Nick Real Deal]

I wasn't too impressed with our MF on paper yesterday because I have seen how Fulham play. We needed terriers in there, hustling and pressing. Winks can do it, as can Skipp and Amos. Fast and agile players. Putting big strong lumps in there is not the answer . I like to see creativity and high energy play in MF with protection deeper.

 

[Critical_Spur]

I hadn't realise that Moura was two footed. His power drive of a goal v Girona was right foot and the awesome curler v Fulham a lefty.

Watching his game y'day, clearly the reason why he hadn't been selected before was due to his lack of pressing and defensive play. He certainly showed he's prepare to adapt and put in a shift. Well done lad.

I also think Eriksen plays his natural game when Dembele is marshalling the midfield, allowing him to roam and ping passes. In Dembo's absence, he was effectively playing two roles. Don't want another utility player! Here's hoping Winks returning can share the central role with Dembele and Sissoko is restricted to a cameo role.

 

[Real Deal]

I liked the diamond formation change. That really worked a treat. I hope we use that again this season.

 

[Real Deal]

For me, Dier's body shape is now all wrong. He's put on too much muscle and it is making him cumbersome on the pitch. The Dier of 2 years ago was so deceptively quick over short distances and could intercept and break up play. He's now too big a unit to be effective against the smaller, cleverer midfielders that he comes up against. He now looks like a centre half out of place in midfield.

He isn't good enough at CB either. He is now a weak link.

 

[10Hoddle]

Interesting remarks on Dier. I actually thought he was Ok in that role, however I see the point you make that he's carrying some muscle which appears to be a hindrance. Overall we deserved the win, against a fairly poor performing Fulham. We wouldn't get away with this performance against most other PL Clubs, but you can only play what's in front of you. Lucas missed two sitters. Glad he scored though otherwise his confidence may have been shot, and our opinions of him in front of goal. Great to see Lamela set up the goal for HK. Ben Davies did well. I much prefer Tripps and Ben to Serge and Danny.
Max points! Arse on zero, UTD on 3........Happy Days. great start, however next game at OT will be a huge test on our ability to step up.

 

[Walthamstow wanderer]

Watch it again. He was offside.

You know what 80. You are the only one that has called it offside . I am convinced it was offside . I have replayed it at least ten times and cannot understand how it was allowed . I just thought it was me until I read your post

 

[Walthamstow wanderer]

I think Eriksen is missing Vic . He brings so much cover for the creative midfield to be able to play with freedom . Dier doesn't give them that same security

 

[Spursex]

Needed Lamela to put it on a plate for him. Lung busting run from Erik, almost Gazzaesque, very impressive, looks strong , good close control and deft pass to Kane.

It was impressive, the 'waddle' has now gone, his pace from a standing start was the best I've ever seen from him.

It really does look like his musculoskeletal issues are solved.

Best of all, he laid the ball off when it mattered and that flags an improvement in his decision making (which often happens when a player starts having confidence in his body and touch again).

If he can build on that huge set of confidence boosters that every player dreams of after the nightmare of the last couple of years, he may well turn up and be the player so many thought he would become.

If he does that, he could even turn Rich around LOL!

 

[Spursex]

Way more positives than negatives for me.

As for Davies, I hope Poch has a plan to help him get his form back. His positional sense for their goal was simply horrendous and Sanchez didn't come out with huge credit a few times either. Davies is looking the weak link in the side, but interestingly looked a whole lot better when Dembele came on. Not sure whether it was Dembele's experience that takes him out to that area and help Davies out.

Apart from that, chuffed to bits with the way the game unfolded. Our squad depth was too hard for them to handle. Dembele for Sanchez was an inspired sub and we never looked back. Dele was superb today and Moura made huge progress in a Spurs shirt. Great to see Lamela back, and what a run and offload at the right time. Lloris also did everything right and Kane broke his PL August duck. 6 points ahead of Arsenal after 2 games !!!

Tripps scored the goal that redeemed his performance, as he looked slow and rusty before that and both he and Davies's deliveries were woefully inadequate.

But there really aren't many excuses left for Davies, he's had a full preseason and should be showing much more than he is.

Very worrying, and I hope it's prompting a rethink about Rose, no matter what he/his agent might be trying to pull off.

 

[Spursex]

I was pleased to see Moura start the season how I expect him to carry on, which I hope will stop some of the short-sighted poor criticism of him that some seem to revel in.

 

[Greavesaboveall]

I went to the Amex to watch Brighton deservedly beat Utd. Utd are there for the taking at the moment.Press them all over the pitch like Brighton did & get good crosses into the box .Their defence was all over the place.

 

[Topspur1]

It was impressive, the 'waddle' has now gone, his pace from a standing start was the best I've ever seen from him.

It really does look like his musculoskeletal issues are solved.

Best of all, he laid the ball off when it mattered and that flags an improvement in his decision making (which often happens when a player starts having confidence in his body and touch again).

If he can build on that huge set of confidence boosters that every player dreams of after the nightmare of the last couple of years, he may well turn up and be the player so many thought he would become.

If he does that, he could even turn Rich around LOL!

Your being an optimist if you think he'll turn rich around, he's the only midfield player we have that can go past players at pace. That coupled to his willingness to work for the team makes him a very useful player IMO.

 

[Spursex]

Your being an optimist if you think he'll turn rich around, he's the only midfield player we have that can go past players at pace. That coupled to his willingness to work for the team makes him a very useful player IMO.

He's got skills; if his decison making improves in step with his physcial condition (which it often does with players) - who knows what he might do - including convincing Rich :eek!::eek!:

 

[Nick Real Deal]

Erik will have to put in possibly 2 seasons of consistent positive contribution for Richmond to change his mind. Even then he will still point to the stock comment of 5 seasons of averageness. Which is not true anyway.

First season he came to us injured and had to adjust to the prem etc. He had to bulk up and then we saw improvement. Then his hip problem took him out for over a season and he then had to bulk up again. I think we have had 2.5 seasons maybe of him contributing usefully out of 5. 1.5 of those down to injury.

 

[BlueWhite]

Goal is already given bro. What was more unsettling was that during that period, the guy hit our post and then had an opening when our goon defenders all ran towards the ball and the ball was passed out to this Mitrovic guy and thankfully, he fluffed. Imagine what it would be if we had gone 2-1 down.

Our defenders may have

Tripps scored the goal that redeemed his performance, as he looked slow and rusty before that and both he and Davies's deliveries were woefully inadequate.

But there really aren't many excuses left for Davies, he's had a full preseason and should be showing much more than he is.

Very worrying, and I hope it's prompting a rethink about Rose, no matter what he/his agent might be trying to pull off.

Tripps wasn't making good deliveries, but still an improvement on Walker's in that he was at least getting the ball into the box. I imagine he'll have put a lot of time in on that come Monday.

 

[freundorfoe]

I've always liked Lamela, and felt like there was another gear he could go to if he could just stay fit for more than a year and develop his weaknesses a bit, but both times he looked close to moving into that space he got a long lay off. After his last injury I was thinking it might be time to cash in but I'll be delighted if he can stay fit and be the player I believe he can.