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Gamechanger

spurs9

Well-Known Member
Aug 31, 2012
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I think it is generally accepted that no team will every game and no matter how good your attack is there will be games where you don't score.

Looking at our attacking optionsI believe we are one player short in the quick player who can take players on. Thhis is dueto N'Koudou not performing.

I beleive this is the kind of player we should be looking to purchase. Even if we do find the right player this will not gurantee unlocking every defence, but I think for most that is a given.
I completely agree. GKN does need to be replaced and we need a direct player that can dribble through players that also has end product, but IMO, the don't even need to be quick (though that would be a bonus), they do need to be agile and have good acceleration though.

But to say we don't have enough "game changers" is laughable.
 

Nebby

Well-Known Member
Dec 27, 2013
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I agree with at least 2 of those (Llorente has only just got here) but Lamela is our most productive player v the top 6.

If Lamela's still here after next August I'll be amazed. Even when fit he didn't look suited to the PL. GKN is clearly out of his depth, while Sissoko looks like a mid table player at best. As for Llorente, we need a proper alternative to Kane, not a backup who has seen better days. Attracting four or five top drawer players will be bloody hard though.
 

dontcallme

SC Supporter
Mar 18, 2005
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81,905
I completely agree. GKN does need to be replaced and we need a direct player that can dribble through players that also has end product, but IMO, the don't even need to be quick (though that would be a bonus), they do need to be agile and have good acceleration though.

But to say we don't have enough "game changers" is laughable.

I agree the term game changer is a strange one. The title of the thread and the content of the OP don't really match.

I think someone who can turn a player in tight areas and find space would be helpful. A Mahrez type as an option would be great.
 

Gaz_Gammon

Well-Known Member
Apr 16, 2005
16,047
18,013
LIverpool had 2 of those "game changers" you mention on the pitch at the same time v Utd a couple of weeks ago yet didn't score.

But in the grand scale of things, they would get a game with is would they not? I mean against teams like Swansea and Burnley...
 

am_yisrael_chai

Well-Known Member
Feb 18, 2006
6,409
10,931
Quality in the final third costs money, in both transfer fees and wages. This summer Citeh spent £40m on Bernardo Silva and don’t even play him, in my opinion he’d be a starter for us. We could have paid the Mane transfer fee but wouldn’t pay the 150k wages. I could go on. Until we have greater financial firepower we are going to have to rely on being lucky with our youth, a la Kane, and on our coach being more intelligent in team formation.

By the way this truism applies all the way up the pyramid. If you are Man U you look to Barca and ask how you buy / compete with MSN (pre this summer) or Madrid with BRB or now PSG with Neymar, Mbappe, Cavani. Teams below us wonder how they compete with Kane, Ali and Son.
 

ebzrascal

Well-Known Member
Sep 13, 2009
2,635
4,670
If Lamela's still here after next August I'll be amazed. Even when fit he didn't look suited to the PL. GKN is clearly out of his depth, while Sissoko looks like a mid table player at best. As for Llorente, we need a proper alternative to Kane, not a backup who has seen better days. Attracting four or five top drawer players will be bloody hard though.

Llorente is a useful option but we need to play to his strength how many crosses have we given him? It is a criminal waste of his ability... Having said that we do need a pacy player who can beat a man and GKN does not do that when he comes on. Is the problem the player or the coach for restricting him with orders to play safe?
 

TH1239

Well-Known Member
Jan 28, 2011
3,691
8,964
What we need now is to find a player, like Atletico did with Griezmann, who clearly has top level talent and is extremely productive at a good, but not top club, in one of Europe's top leagues.

To that end, I think our #1 target next summer should be Nabil Fekir from Lyon. He is an Eriksen level playmaker who can do everything on the pitch. We can afford to give him a wage increase, his transfer fee won't be much more than Davinson Sanchez's, and he'll be ready to leave Lyon after this season. He was destined for stardom two years ago before he badly injured his knee. He's been slowly building himself back up and is now the best player in the Ligue 1 that isn't on PSG (8 goals and 3 assists in 12 matches this season in league and Europa).
 

Hazelton

Unknown Member
Jul 11, 2011
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19,292
The reason we lost the league to Leicester and Chelsea is because we didn't have a Mahrez or a Hazard. That's what most of us mean when we say we're lacking a game changer and I think most would agree. We've got a lot of very, very good players but no 'special' player who can produce a bit of magic and win a game by themselves IMO, for example when we had Bale. That's the only thing stopping us from winning the league.
 

philip

Well-Known Member
Jan 4, 2009
1,347
2,490
Wilf Zaha
100%

The reason Sissoko is finally pricing a good purchase is because he runs at defenders. That pushes them back, scars them and creates the opposition mistakes that gives us chances.

But what we don't have us someone who can do that out wide. Poch tried sissoko there last season but it didn't work. Son can and does do that to an extent but he's not quite bullish enough to really scare defenders.

Eriksen, Lamela, all fantastic players, and great at imposing our style on the opposition, but not players who will scare defenders and immediately push them back.

Zaha would be the perfect signing imo. Fast, direct, tricky and strong. He's raw, but he's got all the attributes we need for a game changer- which we don't currently have.
 

Ghost Hardware

Well-Known Member
Aug 31, 2012
17,996
61,593
Pulisic would be ideal. Not only from a footballing perspective but also a marketing one. Considering his age and ability i think he would fit in perfectly with our current team and add something new to the team. I really hope some of the vague ITK thats been floating around regarding him being a target is true. I would imagine he would be expensive tho, and increasingly more so as he has been a stand out player for BVB so far this season.
 

TEESSIDE1

Married, new job and Spurs on the up!
Jul 3, 2006
15,089
18,780
Eh?

The point is it's a game of fine margins. Signing a player doesn't guarantee us a win today, we have plenty of players who can assist or score out of nothing

It doesn’t guarantee but it’s best to have an alternative option as opposed to having none.
 

ardiles

Well-Known Member
Nov 24, 2006
13,228
40,308
We need to replace GKN, Sissoko, Lamela and Llorente. Not sure that Barkley is deserving of the hype.

I agree with 3 of those but not Lamela.

He may not score as many goals but his non-stop high press game puts lots of pressure on the opposing defence and allows space for our other 4 main goal scorers. His skill and football intelligence also goes well with the other 4 main attackers in our squad.

He’s been out for a year but is close to full recovery. Let’s give him some time to see if he can get back to his best before we make any judgement on whether to sell him.
 

ardiles

Well-Known Member
Nov 24, 2006
13,228
40,308
We wanted him in the summer just gone, clearly willing to spend in that area if the deal is achievable.

Yes, we wanted him last summer but I’m not sure we were willing to pay the fee that Everton were asking for in the summer.

It was ‘reported’ that he went for a medical with Chelsea but there was no report of a similar medical with us. To me, I think that showed that Chelsea were willing to pay his fee (even though the player eventually reportedly rejected the move) but we weren’t.

His fee would definitely be lower in Jan and I think Levy would be willing to challenge other clubs for the player now but the question is whether Barkley wants to come to us, remain at Everton (presumably depending on who the mgr is over there in Jan) or wants to play elsewhere.

Guess we will only know in the winter TW.
 

Nebby

Well-Known Member
Dec 27, 2013
3,363
6,377
I agree with 3 of those but not Lamela.

He may not score as many goals but his non-stop high press game puts lots of pressure on the opposing defence and allows space for our other 4 main goal scorers. His skill and football intelligence also goes well with the other 4 main attackers in our squad.

He’s been out for a year but is close to full recovery. Let’s give him some time to see if he can get back to his best before we make any judgement on whether to sell him.

But if we're talking about game changers, then you need goals. Totally agree that he works hard and hassles. But when he has the ball he's too slow, too indecisive and too predictable.
 

SUIYHA

Well-Known Member
Jan 15, 2017
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If we'd bid the Sissoko money for Zaha at the start of the transfer window, before they'd sold Bolasie, we would have signed him in the summer 2016 window and could quite feasibly have won the league last season. Unless the new 5 year contract he signed in the summer has some sort of relegation release clause in it then we can forget about this one - would guess he'd cost a good £60-70m in today's market and that's in the summer not mid-season. Shame, would have been absolutely perfect for us, an absolute monster of a player. Also a shame he's no longer eligible to be playing for England as he'd have been first name on the team sheet after Kane for the World Cup next summer.
 

St José Dominguez

Well-Known Member
Jul 15, 2014
3,592
11,648
So much of football is in a players head. If a player is not getting starts and only appearances for us is the odd league cup start and 20mins here and there it's really hard to perform.

If a player isn't starting regularly it's very easy to lack sharpness, confidence or feel too much pressure to perform and impress in a short window. It's why unless a player is going to regularly start this idea of squad depth is kind of redundant.

Very, very few players can never start and only be on bench but offer an exceptional substitute option. It doesn't work like that. Even a player like Martial, who is being used as an example still needs starts to be of use from the bench.

Any signing we could make in my opinion if not getting regular starts will be a pretty pointless squad option or gamechanger.
 

Nebby

Well-Known Member
Dec 27, 2013
3,363
6,377
So much of football is in a players head. If a player is not getting starts and only appearances for us is the odd league cup start and 20mins here and there it's really hard to perform.

If a player isn't starting regularly it's very easy to lack sharpness, confidence or feel too much pressure to perform and impress in a short window. It's why unless a player is going to regularly start this idea of squad depth is kind of redundant.

Very, very few players can never start and only be on bench but offer an exceptional substitute option. It doesn't work like that. Even a player like Martial, who is being used as an example still needs starts to be of use from the bench.

Any signing we could make in my opinion if not getting regular starts will be a pretty pointless squad option or gamechanger.

Not sure I agree with that. If you have genuine talent on the bench then they will get plenty of minutes on the pitch, including plenty of starts. Look at the way Chelsea and City can make changes without weakening the team. When we are faced with bringing on the likes of GKN or Sissoko, you can see why Poch maybe holds off too long before making a change.

We have a very good first 11, but what we don't have is a very good first 16. That's why we lost out to Leicester and Chelsea.
 

Shadydan

Well-Known Member
Jul 7, 2012
38,247
104,143
Not sure I agree with that. If you have genuine talent on the bench then they will get plenty of minutes on the pitch, including plenty of starts. Look at the way Chelsea and City can make changes without weakening the team. When we are faced with bringing on the likes of GKN or Sissoko, you can see why Poch maybe holds off too long before making a change.

We have a very good first 11, but what we don't have is a very good first 16. That's why we lost out to Leicester and Chelsea.

Probably due to the fact that they can afford to have players earning £200k a week on the bench.
 

ardiles

Well-Known Member
Nov 24, 2006
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40,308
But if we're talking about game changers, then you need goals. Totally agree that he works hard and hassles. But when he has the ball he's too slow, too indecisive and too predictable.

I was not referring to him as a game changer per se. I was just replying to your comment that we should sell him (together with the other three). I think we should see how he performs, after his long layoff, before we decide whether to keep or sell him.
 
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