That's just your guess. You don't know. For example, United might have wanted him and wanted to offload Shaw in the other direction, but Poch didn't want Shaw.
Toby Alderweireld
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That's just your guess. You don't know. For example, United might have wanted him and wanted to offload Shaw in the other direction, but Poch didn't want Shaw.
Danny Rose is a good player but a total crock. His appearance record is similar to Phil Jones.
City? I have a funny feeling it’s Barca though. Of course Tony could say United or nothing, and Levy could say fine your staying put and we still get £25M next summer. Hell he could still sign a new contract who knows, we will find out soon though, the window is open soon and the World Cup soon after that.
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City? No. Barca? Yeah, I guess. I was just baiting Glaston.
In any case, Spurs wouldn't have this problem if they offered more wages. It sounds simplistic but surely there is a way where you can be in line with top clubs considering enormous amount of revenue your club generates. And that's taking into consideration your new stadium. The way I see it: keep your best players at whatever (reasonable cost, enough to make them think about staying) and do what you have been doing.
If you want me to be totally honest I don’t think the Tony situation is solely about wages. I think we offfered Toby a contract in excess of £100K a week, I don’t see any reason why we wouldn’t have. He is a senior player, playing well. Both Kane and Hugo got similar contracts even before the new stadium. I’d say we will see our next run of contracts our top players all getting between £100k and £150k a week with probably other bonuses on top.
With Toby I think he is at the age where he wants guaranteed silverware and an elite club, as much as I luv my club we aren’t in that elite bracket... yet.
Full backs were poor as well, but Smalling and Jones have still made crucial errors leading to goals. Don't get me wrong at times they have been great, but they are prone to making errors. Apart from Bailly the whole defense needs to be reinforced for me
See I think that is exactly the situation. 100k contracts aren't in line with what top player are getting. I mean, weren't top player in the PL getting offered 150k, 10 years ago?
They don’t need to, but they do it anyway.
If you pick any random goalie, yes maybe ten goals but if you pick any other top goalie it is another story. But anyway, the whole thing about the good defence this season shows that there would have been room for more offensive play from the back, but Mourinho chose not to.
Yeah, they (particularly Matic) did it plenty when even Lindelöf was in the team.
At which clubs though? West Ham and Crystal Palace paying wages and ending up fighting relegation. While we continue to grow, I’d rather get a player who wants to be here than him be her cause he gets the most money. ENIC will never run us like that, it will always be sustainability first, and honestly considering how far we have come I’m proud of it. Having said that a lot of people media included make our like we don’t pay high wages or some how we have a team of underpaid slaves. Our wage bill is the 12th highest in Europe.
Too many people suck up media headlines like a sponge and believe what they read. We will continue to get bigger and I’m in no rush, we will get there.
They do it because they need to. A team shape exists for a reason, players don’t unnecessarily drop deep, they come to pick up the ball because if they don’t the ball doesn’t come forward. Just watch any game of ours and pay attention to it.
Think about it, if the opposition are blocking obvious passing lanes to our midfielders and allowing our cbs to have the ball, what are they gonna do? They have no one to make a simple pass to and they don’t have the composure to bring the ball forward or pick out a more difficult pass. All they can do is simple passes and it’s so easy to counter press or block off passing lanes when that’s the case. If a cb is comfortable making complex passes it changes the whole game because the opposition can’t just sit off him now and it opens up space for the midfield.
Smalling made a few, Jones a little bit more but you'll find that from all the CBs out there. There is no CB who doesn't make a mistake now and again. Smalling managed it for most of the first half of the season though before he did have a couple of off games
I have the same feeling that he might go to Barca.
He's great and his improvement is impressive because IIRC he looked like a disaster at Atletico, seemed to make a huge mistake every game.
The fact he’s been used sporadically has probably allowed the injury to fully heal too - I know he’s been training and played a few games, but it’s generally in matches that hamstrings go due to the superior intensity and he’s effectively had 6 months off to repair it.
Ofcourse Verthongen was the better player Alderweireld hardly played this season
Also before the injury, Verthongen has improved a lot and is imo our best defender.
He's coming. Rom and Fellaini told him.
Most people would say the same don’t worry, even the majority United fans would.
We must be hearing the same little birds.
Maybe! Just a feeling, don't think he'll play in England next season, but you never know and with his age I think this will be his last contract so money + prestige will probably be deciding factors imo.
No agent Pogba?
Belgium Boys
That’s the way I see it, there will be takers in most big clubs.
But he’s in big with Lukaku, maybe they will double team him..... ohhhh errrrr.
Pogba's fired from agent duties after what happened with Griezmann.
Lol yeah Griezmann was a bit of a whore on that one.
Barcelona agree deal with Lenglet
Sevilla centre-back Clement Lenglet has agreed to join Barcelona for the 2018-19 season, according to Mundo Deportivo.
The 22-year-old will sign a five-year deal with the Catalan side, who now must agree a fee with Sevilla for the promising French defender.
Lenglet was initially hesitant to join Barca due to concerns over playing time, but has now decided he is ready to fight for his place with the Blaugrana.
https://www.google.co.in/amp/www.go...e-deal-with-lenglet/hkyw5pzjwf9z159ll4yblybru
Makes much more sense for them than Toby.
Lenglet is younger, cheaper, on lower wages, acclimated to La Liga, happy to sit on the bench, can be slowly integrated into the squad.
Also goes with their recent policy of signing young players
In some games, yes, in other games the midfield has dropped deep without the need for it. I have in particular seen this with Lindelof where mainly Matic and sometimes Pogba either meet him and demand the ball or even physically block his way. At some times he has been very frustrated about it. Despite what people say and think, Lindelof is good at passing through opponents midfield along the ground or in the air, and also knows how to advance forward with the ball at his feet. He is also decent with both feet. This has hardly been utilised at all in United.
When the midfield drop deep, they kind of take away the purpose of a CB going forward plus they are not available as receivers further up.
The central defence has been blamed for most goals this season and now also being blamed for the team not scoring more (despite the fact that Smalling has four goals). But tbh I have seen a lot of mistakes in the midfield creating chances for the opponents. What if it works two ways? All the mistakes in the midfield make a necessity of CB to stay and defend.
Edit: Arsenal game showed some promising signs of Lindelof going forward. In this match, the midfield did not drop deep all the time. Especially not in first half.
Sorry for adding a video about another player in to this thread but I think it illustrates what I mean.
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Let's get this one done early
Yes I agree Lindelöf is pretty good at it but I don’t think him on his own is enough to affect our build up significantly. The problems still exist when he plays and the midfield don’t drop deep for nothing, let me show you some videos to explain
These are from the 2 games this season against Brighton where we struggled in both. What pattern do you notice in both? In both when Rojo/Bailly are on the ball the Brighton players start pressing them, when Smalling is on the ball the players back off and he gets all the time in the world. This is why our midfielders have to drop deep because Smalling can’t do anything with the ball at his feet, he’s so weak on the ball that all Brighton have to do is cut off simple passing lanes and we have no build up. They figured it out and we struggled in both our games against them, lost one and won the other by an own goal. If Smalling could bring the ball out the midfielders wouldn’t have to drop deep and support the defence in build up.
Now compare to this clip of City
Starts off in a similar situation but the cbs are very comfortable holding the ball, bringing it forward and passing it forward. The opposition then back off because they can’t press them in the same way and it allows the City midfield to push forward and by the end the whole city team is in the opposition half apart from the CBs. It’s a world of difference from our situation.
Do you see how a simple thing like this can affect the whole shape and build up of the team? It’s not about blaming our cbs for our attacking failings. Things like this are important for any team that wants to dominate games and play attacking football. Building out from the back is a very important aspect of attacking football and it shows that we struggled in both those Brighton games after they did such a good job of limiting our building out from the back.
Besides in an attacking team that expects to dominate every player on the pitch has to attack and defend. Do our attackers not work hard to help the defence? Are they not all expected to track back and do a lot of defensive work? Yet our defenders get a free pass and don’t have to contribute to the attack? Our defenders should be as good at passing and bringing the ball out as our attackers are at pressing and tracking back. This is how fluid football works not that each section of a team does one job only and the attackers attack and the defenders defend. This is certainly not how Pep, Klopp or any other attacking manager plays.
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Dammit, I like this guy he’s gonna be a star
Not really sure. From the little I've seen of him, he kind of reminds me of Lindelof with a bit more physicality.
And miles better in the air
Though considering Lindelof seems shy of heading the ball that wouldn’t be difficult
Yeah TBF people just jump on the Spurs and money thing but what's the point in having a dramatic change just to push for 1-2 years of silverware if it could potentially destabilize the club, when clearly there is progressive and sustainable growth going on. Its not a fast process and it's very unsustainable long term unless you get Qatari owners (and then it's as long as they're interested in keeping it up). Spurs' situation is one where theyll have to remain competitive as they are, and eventually selling off their players for big fees and replacing with younger players to develop. Keeps a smooth transition and a long term approach, and over time you can keep increasing, and then any success achieved as an underdog can be used to accelerate the process.
Alderweireld being sold at 29 to replace with De Ligt is exactly that. Doesnt really matter too much where he goes from Spurs' perspective IMO, as they played this whole season without him anyway, so they shouldn't drop off next year.
Why do people seem to think because we have lots of centre backs that it isn’t an area in need of improvement? None of our centre half’s are world class, closest one probably being Bailly and our best defender should not be 22/23. We need someone senior like Toby.
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And theres your big mistake. Comparing us with City.
If you give Guardiola £500 million and Mourinho £500 million they build 2 completely different teams. They play 2 completely different styles. They like and value 2 completely different things.
Guardiola is fine with a player like Yaya Toure leaving, while Mourinho fights tooth and nail to keep a player like Fellaini.
If Mourinho had exactly the same players as City have, we still wouldnt play how they play. In fact he wouldnt pick the same team. He'd look for the players who are tall and powerful and will outmuscle opponents. He would have bought a lot less of the fancy, pacy attacking players in the first place.
City are trying to move towards the Barcelona style. Mourinho isnt. Thats not what he likes or wants, he'd prefer a team full of players who can outpower those smaller technical players and beat them.
So talking about how our big physical CB cant pass as well as players in Guardiola's Barcelona-like passing system is completely pointless. He has the qualities that Mourinho likes in players and is also our best defender and bails us out time and again, second only to De Gea.
But just because its true, I'll let you know that despite what you think about opponents not being scared of Smalling on the ball so they drop back and look to try and pressure and pinch the ball when he passes it, he loses the ball in dangerous areas with passes less than any of our other CBs. He mostly ends up passing the ball left and right across the backline or to a midfielder dropping deep, just the same as our other CBs.
He does look to get on the ball a bit less often than some of our other CBs. So some of them make a few more passes than he does. But thats it.
If that’s true why did he sign Lindelöf? The exact opposite of a big lumbering centrebacks and a guy who’s known for his ball playing skills? And why would he want to sign Alderweriald, again a cb who’s known for his ball playing skills? Just think that through for a bit, does he really prefer Smalling or was he just the best option at the time given injuries and form? A guy doesn’t sign 2 ball playing cbs in a row if he doesn’t want to build out from the back.
This idea that Jose is some European Sam Allardyce is so hyperbolic it’s a joke. Yes he’s not Pep but he’s not some 19th century manager, he knows it’s important to attack and he isn’t just a long ball merchant. Yes he wants to keep Fellaini but he started him like what, 3/4 times all season? People act like he starts every game and we just hoof ball to him every game. Pep himself is criticised for having no plan b (how many CL quarter finals has he lost now?) yet Mou is criticised for having the best plan b in the game, what a joke.
Most managers in the PL aren’t Pep and look for a combination of power, physicality and technical skills. We are no different. How many little guys do Spurs have other than Eriksen? How many to Liverpool have other than Salah? Mourinho has signed Sanchez and is apparently targeting 5ft 6 Fred. Just because you want power and pace doesn’t mean you disregard technical skills completely. You can’t win games as a top team if you have no technical ability, Mourinho didn’t get so many league titles, CLs and cups by not understanding how to play good fluid football. He can do it he just approaches it in a different way to Pep but even Poch plays a style that focuses on outrunning and being more aggressive and physical than the opposition. All managers are on a spectrum but Mou is far further from the hoofball end than most people think.
The reason I showed the City example is because it’s easier to see when you show the extreme. The point is all good teams need to be able to build out from the back, it’s not like only Barca style teams do it. How can you push forward and get into dangerous positions if you can’t bring the ball out from the back? It’s a tactical failing it’s nothing to do with trying to emulate Barcelona
Not really important but Eriksen is 6ft, it’s just I had this argument with someone else in another forum
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