Tottenham Talk on Tuesday

Well, today it is a magnifying glass trying to read an enlarged screen and everything is a blur so it is a question of whether I can correct all the mistakes, there are sure to be some I miss that don't get highlighted in red or green for me.

What are we going to chat about today, on this sunny day by the coast as I wait for the window cleaner to arrive and perhaps the roofer to look at the still leaking roof he has repaired!

I revealed in my last article that we were sending a scout to Turkey to watch Trabzonspor goalkeeper Uğurcan Çakır (Spurs Scouting in Turkey) play at the weekend and as a bonus let you know there would be over 2.5 goals in the game, in other words, 3 goals or more. The score finished 2-1 to Trabzonspor.

If I get a chance I'll perhaps a recording and see his performance. Çakır is valued at around £5.4 million and Verdat Muric, the Fenerbahçe striker we are watching, around £7.89 million

Nearer to home, we made heavy weather of beating an Aston Villa side we cut open time and time again but kept missing chance after chance.

Dele once again missed a hatful, Son was greedy and in trying to make something for himself spurned players in better positions. It is the team that counts and not the individual. Both need to up their game, strange thing to say when a guy has scored 2 goals but even I knew where he was going to place the penalty.

Are you comfortable with him taking them? I'm not, his run-up restricts what he can do when he arrives at the ball. He waits for the goalkeeper to move, but if he doesn't then his options are very limited. He has no forward momentum to the ball and would have to open his body up to place it to the right, telegraphing what he is going to do, thus his penalties all go to his left, the natural place for a right-footer.

That gives the goalkeeper a greater percentage of saving the kick than he should have. If he is to take all penalties while Kane is out, he needs to work on them.

Now, of course, it seems Son is out for a number of weeks with a fractured arm so either Steven Bergwijn or Lucas Moura will be our striker.

Ronald Koeman, the Dutch national manager did say when he was signed that Jose Mourinho was going to use Bergwijn as a striker.

Lucas Moura scores goals but also misses some he shouldn't in games where we need them, another who has to step up to the plate and improve. Despite not being ready, Parrott might have to have some cameos simply to rest players.

What his injury does mean is that we have to improve defensively and quickly.

I would suggest we are going to score less goals and therefore we are going to have to perhaps go after 1-0 wins. That means the defence improving, Aurier not attacking as much if we take the lead, Davies regularly at left-back and sorting out the screen in front of the back-four.

Oliver Skipp might struggle to get a chance, Ndombele has positional issues, he creates but looks lazy in defence, Lo Celso is an attacking screen, Dier a defensive one. That area may be key to our season.

Hugo Lloris has not improved his decision making. Against Southampton he let a long ball enter the six-yard box and Danny Ings hit the crossbar. Against Manchester City, he could easily have given away a penalty right after a penalty, which wouldn't have been the first time.

Against Aston Villa, Toby Alderweireld put the ball in the back of his own net from inside the six-yard box with Lloris not taking command again.

I had expected him to return mentally refreshed but his frailties are still evident. Yes he makes some super saves to keep us in games but should we be accepting his mistakes that cost us goals or look for a long-term replacement?

Perhaps that is how we see Uğurcan Çakır. We couldn't get Pau Lopez for what we thought he was worth and Paulo Gazzaniga is decent but not top class. His howler against Chelsea shows a mental problem. A keeper has to be brave, that incident shows he isn't. He tried to kick a ball he should have simply caught because he didn't want to get hurt but I fail to see how he would have done.

If it happens once then a mental abhoration can happen again when under pressure. It is at those time that you find out what a player has mentally, not in the easy games.

Jose Mourinho pointed out in his pre-game press conference that he gave Danny Rose a chance, he played him against Bayern Munich, Liverpool, and one other game. Rose says he wasn't given a chance.

Herein lies a mentality problem. A winning mentality sees a game he is picked for as an opportunity to impress and force the manager to pick him again. If you are given that chance, you take it immediately. If you fail to do so it is your own fault.

Someone playing to win but without a winning mentality thinks he should get a run in a side to prove himself, he doesn't. That is how the majority think, which is why players like Harry Kane stand out.

When Sherwood picked him at the end of a season he seized his chance and has never looked back. Gary Neville commented that Nabil Bentaleb looked like he was an experienced Premier League player on his debut, Harry Winks' performances demanded continued cameo roles as understudy to Mousa Dembélé, Dele Alli's introduction demanded further games.

Why then, should an experienced Premier League performer require a run of games? Sorry but that is mental weakness.

talking of mental weaknesses, Serge Aurier was again making mistake after mistake in the first half particularly, be it rash tackling, tackling in the wrong areas, passes to the opposition or clearances that go in the wrong direction.

Quite why some are singing his praises and his improvement on Twitter is beyond me. He has licence to join the attack but defensively he is still a big worry and the next mad moment is always just around the corner.

New baby, no sleep, 8 hours travelling, perhaps Toby Alderweireld had excuses but he looked all at sea with an unreliable defence around him.

Eric Dier simply hasn't regained his early form under Pochettino and doesn't look like a long term solution alongside Harry Winks.

Giovani Lo Celso will no doubt return for the RB Leipzig game and the big Chelsea tie. A fit Ndombele would help but I worry that we are not going to see him fully rested and fit until next season now. It always restricts carrying an injury, the same reason Victor Wanyama isn't near the first team.

Plenty for Jose to improve or upgrade. Should be an exciting season next season, this season is a struggle but we are fighting for a Champions League place from a poor beginning.

Now is the time to adopt a siege mentality, an everything is against us but we are going to succeed anyway mentality,.

It is a time for everyone to stick together but of course, we have an element that are anti-Spurs, that never stop trying o change the hierarchy because they don't understand how the football business works or indeed how Tottenham work.

It was Jose Mourinho who decided the prices being asked for the strikers we were looking at were too much, that they were not worth the money for what Mourinho wants to build, a winning side. Stop gap solutions are not a part of his agenda.

Why blame Daniel Levy or even more stupidly, ENIC for that!

Finally, I'm expecting The Poole game in the Southern Premier to have Over 2.5 goals tonight.

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