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The Spurs Youth Thread - 2017/2018

Spurzinho

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Jan 24, 2016
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There just hasn't been the room for a striker like Griffiths to be effective. It feels like the sort of game where you want someone like Roles playing as a false nine. Dropping off into pockets for runners off the ball.
 

Spurzinho

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Jan 24, 2016
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Everything has been in front of them. We've had very little width, very little penetration. We haven't moved them about at all. They've been very compact and we just haven't stretched them at all. You can't hope to break through a side this experienced and good whilst being predictable.
 

Hengy1

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Aug 7, 2014
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poor today but a decent showing overall in the comp.

Missed Edwards in the knockout rounds hugely
 

mancman

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Aug 24, 2006
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688
Disappointing. We really missed Sterling and Edwards. Moving the ball across the back four so slowly allowing the Porto players to organise themselves is something I really do not understand. I do not like the habit some players have of passing back (taking the easy option!) rather than to show courage and positivity. Possession football is fine if you are really dragging/moving the opposition all over the place but in this match its just pointless. Hinds, Eyoma, Duncan and Shashoua were my stand outs. What is important is not the result so much but how many (if any) will make the first team. Over the current season Eyoma, Austin, Skipp and Sterling look good prospects. George Marsh (who I have always liked) is not going to make it sadly.
 

Spurzinho

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Jan 24, 2016
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Disappointing. We really missed Sterling and Edwards. Moving the ball across the back four so slowly allowing the Porto players to organise themselves is something I really do not understand. I do not like the habit some players have of passing back (taking the easy option!) rather than to show courage and positivity. Possession football is fine if you are really dragging/moving the opposition all over the place but in this match its just pointless. Hinds, Eyoma, Duncan and Shashoua were my stand outs. What is important is not the result so much but how many (if any) will make the first team. Over the current season Eyoma, Austin, Skipp and Sterling look good prospects. George Marsh (who I have always liked) is not going to make it sadly.

Its only one game but sadly fairly indicative of where everyone is at. They're all some way off the first team. Ignoring the competition he's up against I probably rate Hinds as the most promising in terms of being closest to where he needs to be. Skipp is, as we saw today, still quite careless at times although he wasn't, and often isn't, helped by some rank play around him.
 

coys200

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May 22, 2017
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I think today shows how far ahead of the rest Edwards is. Was exactly the game we needed his magic. Just hoping his absence from Norwich is fitness and not ability which I’m sure it can’t be.
 

Blake Griffin

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Oct 3, 2011
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I think today shows how far ahead of the rest Edwards is. Was exactly the game we needed his magic. Just hoping his absence from Norwich is fitness and not ability which I’m sure it can’t be.

farke basically said he's still not good enough off the ball, seems he's happy to persevere with those who aren't so good on the ball though.
 

Spurzinho

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Jan 24, 2016
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farke basically said he's still not good enough off the ball, seems he's happy to persevere with those who aren't so good on the ball though.

When you're dealing with a player like Edwards its always a cost-benefit analysis. Is he THAT good that you can accommodate him? It really isn't at easy as it sounds. If Edwards isn't doing his job off the ball then it means you have to delegate that job to someone else which means you lose something somewhere else. Its very tricky. I completely understand the caution being shown. Poch & Farke look at Edwards and they clearly don't believe that he's THAT good yet. He's good, maybe even very good but not good enough to start dismantling what was already there to accommodate him. Very few coaches these days build from the front. They start with a very clear picture of their defensive unit and their defensive shape. If you don't concede you can't lose. I know the inverse is true but losing is treated with more trepidation than a victory is treated with boundless joy.
 

Ethan Blakeman

Active Member
Jul 18, 2017
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“Jesus Perez just walked off to take a phone call and then returned about five minutes later to speak with Poch. Now my mind is swamped with wild and rampant Harry Kane speculation”
 

Bus-Conductor

SC Supporter
Oct 19, 2004
39,837
50,713
I just finished watching the game. I didn't think it was a terrible performance in general. Porto were incredibly well drilled defensively and got their two goals very fortunately and then just shelled the rest of the game.

The first half was a very even game that ebbed between the two sides. We tried to do the right things, pass the ball, give each other options, but they were very good at the back, and we weren't great in the final third. But they weren't great either in the attacking third, just that we scored an own goal at a corner and then gifted them a second. If we'd have got couple breaks like that we'd probably be going through.

I thought Eyoma looked really good as CB, so much better than as a RB. Marsh worked extremely hard and showed some good tactical flexibility, dropping between or even to the side of the CB's, and then Skipp second half dropped back and also did a decent job, but neither really shone with the ball.

Porto made it extremely hard, but none of the forward players played particularly well either. Griffiths showed very little by way of game play. Bennetts continues to do that wingery thing, some good take ons but some poor end product, Shashoua started ok and seemed to find it harder and harder and was quite disappointing. Hinds tried hard to be involved and looked a bit KWPish at times.
 

faze_coys

Well-Known Member
Dec 14, 2010
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4,796
farke basically said he's still not good enough off the ball, seems he's happy to persevere with those who aren't so good on the ball though.

Its a pretty annoying comment when he hasnt even been given the chance in a proper match. If he fails to put the effort in during a match that means something then you can slate his effort and say hes not good enough off the ball.
 

Spurzinho

Well-Known Member
Jan 24, 2016
2,513
8,342
Its a pretty annoying comment when he hasnt even been given the chance in a proper match. If he fails to put the effort in during a match that means something then you can slate his effort and say hes not good enough off the ball.

What players do on the training ground is just as important. As Poch likes to say "You sign to train". He decides if you get to play. Attitudes to training have changed hugely since the days of the likes of Redknapp where it was not treated at all seriously. Coaches these days monitor everything. If Edwards won't train the right way during the week then he's not going to get picked on a Saturday. This is a question of Edwards humility, professionalism and dedication. If he's the sort of lad that thinks he can coast then you've got to get him out because it only gets worse. He'll never reach his potential because you only do that by having humility, professionalism and dedication. Fergie's famous young side didn't achieve what they did by farting about and phoning it in, not even in training. Those that wouldn't or couldn't meet the highest of standards were show the door and I can't think of any of them that proved Fergie wrong.

What would happen to Poch's authority if he let Edwards do less than everyone else? What message would that send to the rest of the squad?

Its far too early to give up on Edwards just yet but he needs to show some progress in this loan spell. This Farke bloke isn't some little englander stuck in the 70's he's a modern, European coach with modern attitudes. He dropped their best striker a couple of weeks ago because he'd let his standards slip on the training ground and got a bit too big for his boots. Farke left him out and told to assess his attitude and behaviour. Its exactly what Edwards needs.
 
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