Spurs Chat and Tottenham Transfer Talk
Spurs Chat and Tottenham Transfer Talk
Antonio Conte once again tried to educate our supporters by insisting we have to look at the game as two points dropped.
A winning mentality sets a bar, it looks for the positives and it continues to push to improve.
He has been able to spend some time working with the squad on his system and it showed.
It takes a season to master a new system, until then there are ups and downs before consistency hit, but the initial signs are encouraging with us being unbeaten in the Premier League since his arrival.
Jurgen Klopp showed what a nasty piece of work he is when things don't go his way.
On we go to an important game that I think we'll field a reasonably strong side against.
Dele and Winks showed vast improvement from recent performances.
Obviously the slate is clean for Winks who went running to the press under Mourinho and for Dele under a new boss.
He is fine when things are going his way but is mentally poor when they are not so we can only hope Conte is getting through to him mentally and instilling the right positive winning mentality.
We are yet to see what he can do with Lo Celso.
Tottenham Transfer Talk
Tottenham need a replacement for Davinson Sánchez and probably Joe Rodon too.
Many of you may not have noticed but in the lead up to Liverpool's first goal, the Liverpool runner simply sprinted past Sánchez and Dier had to come out of his central position to deal with the attacker.
Sánchez then started to run to replace Dier centrally and could cut out the ball played in front of him, then couldn't mark Jota in the box and let him have a free header unchallenged.
He is the defender, he should be in charge of that situation, he wasn't.
Ndombele in front of him was better defensively than he has been and worked harder but he does still look lazy and as if it is something he really doesn't want to do.
The problem he showed against Liverpool was ball chasing.
He was running from player to player to close them down but when the ball was played inside and Winks came out to close his man down, Ndombele did also, leaving a free unmarked Liverpool player in a dangerous area.
It's small but it is what creates a defensive hole the opposition can exploit, it is a weak point defensively and with Sánchez the centre-back behind him you have to be concerned teams will target that.
He must maintain defensive discipline.
Anyway, onto Tottenham Transfer Talk and news that Fabio Paratici is interested in Barcelona centre-back Clément Lenglet.
Clément Lenglet
The 26-year-old (27 next June) French international (15 caps, 1 goal) has a contract until 2026 but doesn't figure much for the Spanish giants, he has only played 277 LaLiga minutes across 8 games.
Lenglet has played 144 LaLiga games since he joined Barcelona from Sevilla on 12 July 2018 for £32.31 million (€35.9m) on a five-year contract.
Stats
2nd in LaLiga for passes completed (92.8%)
7th for passes into the final third (215)
6th for successful presses (36.4%)
9th for touches (2,506)
5th for progressive carrying distance (5,859)
5th for yellow cards (11)
2nd for red cards (2)
2nd for own goals (1)
He is a defender happy to put his body on the line to block a shot, a cross, a pass and has been likened to John Terry and Jamie Carragher in that regard.
That shows his level of desire is high, he is also noted for his recovery tackles to prevent goals.
However that raises a problem, his reading of the game.
Toby Alderweireld, for instance, read the game so didn't need to make too many last ditch tackles.
A defender who has to isn't reading the game well enough and is reactive rather than proactive.
I'd have concerns about him in that area in today's game and that would appear to be backed up by his red and yellow cards.
He isn't slow but isn't quick either, has a weakness when pulled out of the centre of defence. His body shape is wrong making him less effective in these areas.
His record shows he isn't good at preventing crosses from wide and gets beaten too easily, suggesting he could perhaps only play centrally in a back three.
However, he is left-footed so surely we are looking at him for the Ben Davies position, on the left of a back three.
With attacking full-backs he will get exposed when having to cover out wide and will commit fouls to stop play, especially against a fast opponent who will simply beat him for speed.
On the plus side he is an excellent long ball passer.
One strength is keeping the attacker away from goal and forcing the play wide where our left-back can take over immediate defensive duties.
Centrally he is very solid so we have to weigh up his central strength and excellent diagonal long ball passing ability (not great when playing vertically, i.e. to pick out a Dele run centrally), against his weakness when pulled wide.
Florian Grillitsch
Sky Sports Germany report Tottenham interest in Florian Grillitsch, a defensive midfielder who can play centre-back.
As you can guess from the source he plays in the Bundesliga, currently for TSG Hoffenheim after his transfer from Werder Bremen in July 2017.
He is a 26-year-old (27 next August) Austrian international (33 caps, 1 goal, 2 assists, 3 yellow cards).
This season he has played 5 games as a defensive midfielder in Bundesliga games against Mainz 05 (7th), Arminia Bielefeld (14th), Wolfsburg (2nd), Stuttgart (13th) and Greuther Fürth (18th).
He has played 7 games as a centre-back against FC Köln (6th), Bayern Munich (1st), Hertha Berlin (10th), Vfl Bochum (14th), RB Leipzig (5th), Bayer Leverkusen (3rd) and Borussia Mönchengladbach (14th).
In all he has played 172 games in the German top flight (6 goals, 14 assists).
A general enquiry to find out about his possible availability and ballpark price have been made, standard practice when in the assessment process.
We'll keep it brief again today, coz it tis the season to be jolly, have fun folks.
- Don't forget to share this post on social media
- Visit the THBN website each day
- If you are a supporters group, distribute the article or direct members to it
- Americans share share share, it's a big audience over there and we want to spread the Spurs word so more choose Spurs to support
- Outside UK - share and you'll get the Spurs name reaching more people
COYS
Previous Articles:
A further selection of Recent Posts:
Post a Comment