- Jul 10, 2008
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- 48,791
MOTM pfftt…
The early goal, entirely made for himself by Dembele meant Villa were stuck in a collective tactical mind fuck, they now knew they couldn't just sit back but I'm guessing they'd spent all week working on "shape" and "organisation" and wotnot, things that 8 months of Sherwood have become anathema, and their tactical confusion should have played into our hands.
The early goal for a team that, if we are to believe everything we hear and know, wants to press high and hard and transition like the wind, should be nirvana. Instead we made fucking heavy weather of it.
I applaud the front four for their endeavour, and this is vital, it is one of the components that is helping us become a harder side to play against. But all them were wasteful, clumsy and careless. I've actually watched that first half again and we don't create a single clear cut chance for anyone. Dembele makes his own goal and Alli's is the result of a fortunate box ricochet. And creatively I'm pretty sure, up to the moment Lamela rolls the ball for Kane's goal, nobody else created a clear chance for a team mate in the second half either.
All of you who are likely to wet the bed if I don't declare Dier and Alli to be the best pair of slices of CM wonder bread ever better look away now. How Sky picked Alli out for MOTM or anyone on here can do the same for Dier is baffling, but let me stress again, I think picking anyone out last night as being head and shoulders better than anyone else would be a travesty, and these two equally as anyone else.
What did they have to do first half ? Villa were fucking confused/abject hybrid. What we needed was at least one CM to get on the ball and start dictating some tempo, play, move, pass, move, give, go, babing babing, babang, babang. Alli is fabulous at "bombing on", he is a bomber onner par excellence, and for 60 minutes he did bomb on exceedingly well, but a lot of what he did when the ball found him in bombed on positions was clumsy inconsequential.
When CB's needed alternative out balls he'd invariably "bombed on" and was standing next to Dembele or Eriksen. Dier on the other hand was the reverse, several times I noted him nonchalantly strolling himself just out of reach of the CB, meaning hurried balls were either humped or more often played to FB's who had men up their arses, who then had to turn back on themselves play hap hazard balls up the line, which resulted in more hap hazard sloppy play from the forwards.
And when Villa were eventually defibrillated into life in the second half and we were desperate to get hold of the ball, Dier virtually attached himself to Vertonghen's shorts and spent almost thirty minutes in our "D" - he received the ball 8 times in the last 34 minutes. Alli on the other hand by now had decided to camp in their "D". It was a horrible phase and stunk of "Stoke".
Just like our forwards, who were wasteful and created pretty much the square root of fuck all tangibly intelligent, Dier and Alli do have redeeming features. I am not saying they don't. But lots of Alli's play is very reminiscent of what Paulinho used to do (not much busy ****, lots of bombing on, plenty of clumsy wastefulness and the odd goal) and I don't remember him getting quite so much love and respect. And likewise Dier and Capoue. I appreciate that Alli is 19 and therefore we must appreciate that if he is equalling Paulinho's contribution now, it possibly bodes well for the future if he develops. Likewise Dier can be defensively robust, he's also positionally quite good at times and I can see him telling others what and where to do and these qualities are infectious and not to be underrated.
Walker seems to have given up attacking period. The payoff for that though is that when he concentrates all his pea brain into defending he's actually much better at it.
Rose was a mixed bag of his omnipresent puffy chested gusto and some of the also often present carelessness and less than diligent defending.
Loving the Belgy CB pairing. They are melding into one very impregnable unit - Aldertonghen - Most games go by without these two being noticed. usually a good sign for CB's.
The 3rd goal was also the best thing we did offensively all night. It was a slick move that went from back to front and was nice that Onomah played a small part in it. Will hopefully give the kid a lift.
But my overriding view, and the thing I like most, in fact I like very much about this side is it's collective spirit and ethos. Amongst my grumbles of the careless fuckwittery from the forwards, the complaints about the lack of metronomity (it's my post and I'll fucking make up words of I want) from our CM's, I am finding myself really liking this Spurs. It's the least lazy one I can ever remember. Youthful naivety is at least matched if not bettered by youthful exuberance and collective spirit. You get the distinct impression there are no billy big bollock charlie potato head egos in our dressing room.
I think we are becoming a team, for all it's foibles, that is a TEAM. I don't believe we are harder to beat because Dier is in CM or because Walker is now only playing in his half or because we have possibly the best CB pairing right now in the EPL or because we have a hard working front four for the first time in years. I think it is all these things.
I agree with a lot of this and in particular the part about Alli. I like the kid, he definitely has a lot of talent, but right now I would play Mason above him. Hopefully Alli develops to offer more control of matches from a deep lying midfield position but I feel he's just running on adrenaline at the moment. He doesn't play with much discipline or intelligence but i'm sure that will come with experience and age.