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Match Ratings Ratings vs Southampton

MOTM

  • Lloris

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Aurier

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Sanchez

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Verts

    Votes: 25 9.2%
  • Rose

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Dier

    Votes: 2 0.7%
  • Dembele

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Son

    Votes: 9 3.3%
  • Eriksen

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Dele

    Votes: 33 12.2%
  • Kane

    Votes: 201 74.2%
  • Sissoko

    Votes: 1 0.4%
  • Lamela

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Winks

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Poch

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Undecided

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Total voters
    271

BPR_U16

Well-Known Member
Jun 28, 2006
1,783
2,603
Dier - few dodgy moments and attempts the crowd pleaser ball too often. Solid enough though but really can't wait to have Vic back./QUOTE]

Don't quite understand this. Whilst I agree it will be good to have Vic back, it's no surprise that as soon as Dier slots back into a CDM position that the flowing football returns.
His positional sense and awareness of responsibility is repeatedly overlooked.
He drops into a form a 3 when FBs push on, makes space centrally to pick up from back (And doesn't automatically just pass it back which has become part of the issue with Winks), couple of times broke play up high up the pitch and looked to join attacks too.
Dier is an all round footballer, the sort that any side in the modern era needs
 

sly1

Well-Known Member
Sep 25, 2004
451
1,270
...

Kane 8.5 OK, it's a bit churlish to go here, but I'm going to do it anyway. Obviously, it was great display of all-round striker play, especially finishing, but here's what struck me. Last season there was a personal record to be achieved - he wanted the Golden Boot - and he scored 7 goals in 2 matches. This season there were personal records to be achieved - Shearer's EPL calendar year total and the most prolific striker in Europe - and he scored 6 goals in 2 matches. If I were Harry Kane, I would be meeting with my sports psychologist and exploring how he can achieve the level of intensity that he brings when a milestone is in view in his weekly play. He raises his game. It should be possible for him to analyse what happens when he does that, so he can tap into some of it without the personal milestone as motivation. Just pips Dele to the MotM today.

...

I don’t find this argument particularly plausible. Or, at least, I don’t think there is enough evidence to make this argument.

1) The two examples you give (golden boot last season and the last couple of games) are not enough to generalise from.

2) The two examples are not sufficiently dissimilar from his form of the rest of the season (in which he scored several other hat tricks and many braces)

3) In order to be in the position to get the individual records he was required to be in excellent form for the whole rest of the season.

4) The games that you have pointed out were not just exceptional individual performances from Kane; they were games in which the whole team were playing well (in the last two games in which Kane scored 7 goals, we won with an aggregate score of 13:2).

5) Kane’s hat trick against Hull in the last game of the season came when he was already the top scorer in the season.

6) Before Kane scored his hat trick against Burnley, there were several games in which he was just as close to the record but didn’t score.

7) There have been several occasions where Kane would desperately have wanted to score to enhance his own reputation and hit a patch of bad form - e.g. the Euros and every August.

In short, I don’t think there is good evidence that there is a simple psychological trigger for his moments of unbelievably good form.

I also doubt there is a way to create a psychological state where he is always at his best goal scoring form (i.e scoring a hat trick every game).
 
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