All things considered (Fall out from Kane leaving after what's been a tricky couple of weeks for the club/ Lots of upheaval) I thought yesterday was a decent start. Granted they were missing their 2 best players in Toney & Raya, But away @ Brentford is a tricky game, plenty of good teams will drop points there !!!..... Couple of Thoughts.....
1) Bissouma & Maddison played great. You build the team around them
2) We were unlucky with the CB issue today. VDV's Pace and Romero's agression is a nice combo
3) Front 3 were appalling. Madders in particular was always looking for good movement & there was nothing.
4) The keeper is young and gets a bit of pass, The frustration of losing Raya's to Arsenal's bench for whats gonna be 30mln quid is beyond annoying!!!!! ... Levy get your shlt together.... I don't think this kid will be the answer but gotta give him time. He stinks of Cheap Parratici alternative from Italy (Tired of these)
5) Limited ability DMs don't work in this system, PEH was dropped and Skipp looked totally lost. You need to be able to play to start in this MF... Sarr & GLC every day till Bents is fit
6) The FBs have gotta figure out the right time to push inside, we were way too exposed down the channels/ In behind them in the first half But Royal & Udogie are the nailed-on starters. Better teams than Brentford will hurt us !!!
7) Son and Kulu worry me. Both are talented but so inconsistent, there's no place in this team for that with Kane gone, both have to step up massively, Son is starting to look like a guy who's living off his reputation. Kulu, as talented as he is, has got to start delivering more & develop more variety to his game. If cutting inside is all ya got then you better be as good as Mahrez or Roben in their pomp.
8) As much as I hoped Richie would thrive being the main man, he was appalling yesterday. No movement & no threat, their 2 CBs had him in their pocket all afternoon. I still think he deserves to start and prove himself, but the pressure is on. No point having Madders as a 10 if the front 3 pose no threat. Nothing to worry about yet BUT I hope we don't miss the opportunity to sign a CF or another attacking wide player this window out of Loyalty to these 3. They have been bloody awful for a year now. Kane covered up a lot of flaws in our forward line last season.
All In all... Defo some positives but work to do. I didn't expect to be more critical of the forwards than the defenders. Fair play to Sanchez, played very well coming on in tricky circumstances.
Lots of work for the club to do in the next few weeks. We need to trim the squad..... Sanchez, Tanganga, PEH, NDomnbele, Spense & Reggie all need moving on and another CB and Forward need to be signed
Onwards & upwards
Thoughts On Yesterday
posted on 14/8/23
The second half was brilliant from us , if we had a natural goal scorer we would have one that comfortably totally dominated them.
The first half was a game of errors from both teams.
posted on 14/8/23
comment by Edward Elizabeth Hitler. (U14393)
posted 58 seconds ago
The second half was brilliant from us , if we had a natural goal scorer we would have one that comfortably totally dominated them.
The first half was a game of errors from both teams.
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So a new striker will be the missing piece.
Ange alluded to it in his post match interview.
posted on 14/8/23
comment by Charlie Big Bananas (U14461)
posted 4 minutes ago
CF and CB are essential now if we are to make any progress this season. It’s there for all to see. Let’s be clear, Levy is obviously trying to rebuild this squad on the cheap.
Maddison - if he was going for £60m because Leicester stayed up, we wouldn’t have signed him. It’s a classic levy opportunistic signing, getting him for effectively £30m.
Soloman - freebie
Vicario - again, classic Levy (and Paratici) cheapo version of the quality alternative. We had Hugo 10 years, Raya is a good age, PL proven and HG, could’ve nailed that position for another decade but the lack of long term vision has left us taking a risk on a key position.
Meanwhile he negotiates our best players sale up until the opening day of the season, hindering preseason, because he wants a few Bayern shirts thrown in for his nieces and nephews. Some might say buy low sell high is the only way, and certainly the ENIC board and THFC investors - plus Joe Lewis lawyers - will be happy. But for a football club it’s the same old penny pinching, unambitious, delaying, deal loving tactics that have sold every single manager short during his tenure. THFC are now just one facet of a sports and entertainment events corporation operating out of ENIC Stadium, a vehicle for the boards broader money making ambitions, make no mistake about that.
Profitability before ambition, always.
On which basis I don’t expect Levy to do the right thing by his new manager and spend that Kane money on a quality CB and CF. I expect a token signing or two of inferior quality players, with at least a third of the takings trousered for the balance sheet and the upkeep of the NFL pitch and golf course hotel.
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I hear ya..... I do understand those who support Levy dragging out the Kane Deal to get the best price BUT that's only justifiable if he is willing to invest the money properly into the team.... Otherwise, what's the point ?
As we are clearly seeing with Chelsea/ Liverpool offering over 100mln for midfielders who have only played 1 season in the Prem, the transfer mklt is changing whether he likes it or not.
At some point Levy is gonna have to make the choice and join the big boys or operate like Brighton..... Right now he is doing neither !!
He's a poor chairman, its that simple. I dont wanna hear about the stadium, training ground, Go Karts, NFL & Concerts because he's not delivering on his promises of it all helping to take the team to the next level...... If it was, then Raya would have started in goal for us yesterday and another CF would have been signed before the whole world knew we had the Kane money and need to replace a ton of goals.
Levy has been caught in his own lies.... Using the positive PR machine than surrounds Ange doesn't change the reality.
posted on 14/8/23
comment by Edward Elizabeth Hitler. (U14393)
posted 3 minutes ago
The second half was brilliant from us , if we had a natural goal scorer we would have one that comfortably totally dominated them.
The first half was a game of errors from both teams.
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I dont think I'd say it was brilliant. It was competent and well managed, and we looked the fitter and more comfortable on the ball of the two teams with Brentford happy to camp in their back third. But we lacked any incisive attacking spark and you were always nervy when the ball went over the top for the counter, or when we were playing it around the back under pressure.
We have better teams to play than Brentford coming up, we need the back line more solid and the front 3 scoring the goals instead of defenders doing it for them while they ghost through the game.
posted on 14/8/23
comment by Edward Elizabeth Hitler. (U14393)
posted 7 minutes ago
The second half was brilliant from us , if we had a natural goal scorer we would have one that comfortably totally dominated them.
The first half was a game of errors from both teams.
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100%....... with Kane in that team we would have won by a couple of goals in the second half... Second half was so much more solid at the back, Madders and Bissouma bossed the game but we were toothless up top
posted on 14/8/23
To be fair to richarlison, even though we knew Kane was off, we played him all preseason to get a few more million out of Bayern rather than get richarlison up to speed
posted on 14/8/23
Thoughts - Levy out.
posted on 14/8/23
comment by Occa Mack (U6574)
posted 6 minutes ago
To be fair to richarlison, even though we knew Kane was off, we played him all preseason to get a few more million out of Bayern rather than get richarlison up to speed
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Agreed, Didnt make much sense. Kane told Ange on Day 1 that he wanted to leave and wanted to go to Bayern if the clubs could agree. A new contract was never gonna be signed and Levy was never gonna lose 100mln quid. I fear, knowing Levy that kane was told to go on tour to make sure fans in Asia were kept happy.... Kinda stupid.... revenue over football AGAIN
posted on 14/8/23
As I said last week, If Levy doesn't spend money properly, Misses targets (Raya, Tapsoba etc) then this whole saga over Kane will have been for nothing.
We could have sold him for 15-20mln less 3 weeks earlier, given every one more time to play preseason and given Ange more of a chance to get a style of attacking play in place that for the first time in a decade doesn't involve Kane
posted on 14/8/23
It will always be finance over football at spurs
There was no sporting reason whatsoever to sell Kane, or even play him if they decided to all him. It’s all about the money.
We have to fund levy’s 8 mill a year somehow 👍