"assisting the assist"

[Vecellio]

I too will join the Luka love-in. Overall he's our best footballer i reckon..Yep, even slightly shading VdV and Bale. So when teams are stopping us playing football or we aren't attempting to, that is when he can sometimes look a bit average.

Luka would slot in seamlessly at Barca imo. That says it all really.

 

[jamesc0le]

07-04-2010, 07:08 PM



modric is an exceptional player. he could cover a variety of positions, though his strongest are CM(442),INSIDE LEFT & free role attacking mid.

he could play as lone striker. in some crazy fucked up extended injury situ. he could adapt to it if we kept the ball down, and use his intelligence to make the best of a surreal situ. only other player who could cope with the position, albeit with different strengths is wilson, he has the brute and deteremination to possibly make it work. neither would score goals but would rely kranjcar,lennon and bale to fashion some shots and get as many corner opps as possible. even less desirable option would the big men mids as lone target men or bale. cheers but no.


he could easily do a job in either fullback position.


he was not good on the right, but given his intelligence, i have absolutely no doubts he would adapt to that role over a short number of games if there was absolutely no other option.


he's not a big man, if he were this poor excuse of a thread would not exist, not least because we'd never have signed him and he'd be in his fifth season or so at barca or real m.

given his ardiles type frame and style he cannot just be thrown into the middle of any midfield 4 and be expected to perform at his highest level. like mil1 said he needs intelligent players or at the very least the most suitable midfield in any given injury situ. if not intelligent players, then at least,experienced. in football, intelligence and experience can be very closely linked. not saying bale isn't intelligent but he doesn't have the necessary experience of playing at left midfield to suit an attacking modric in the cm of a 442. even if he remained at wing/fullback he could acrue some experience by training in that position on occasion. basically, learning when to hold his runs forward, and different uses of the ball.

it's funny gibbs should use malbranque in his futile argument, because a tough as boots steed at lm would enable modric to operate nearer to his best in a cm 2,
or a proper attacking & backtracking,hardworking winger like lennon is most of the time. or simply kranjcar.

davids


ekotto


lee young pyo



ziege



atouba


huddlestone, the left mid rock who converts int cm at 2 seconds notice, nah mean


modric's best partner would obviously be a fully fit wilson, but i suspect that the much improved hudd, livermore or parrett would provide exceptional foil for him in a cm2. not sureabout corluka , though im sure he'd be good with wilson.


for modric to be of best use in the middle, the team needs to retain possession more often. i don't know why but bale's crosses just seem dangerous . lennon's play seems more focussed too. however, bentley's crossing just doesn't seem deliberate enough, more crossing by numbers, and when he does retain possession it's in the completely the wrong way holding the ball and slowing the game down at the wrong times. he will improve if he gets slated enough.


so yh modric does need the team to be set up correctly when we choose to field him in a cm2, but that was obviously always gonna be the case, and wholly acceptable since he is one of our best players and probably the most intelligent.



imtelligence.



there is no doubt the defence and midfield against sunderland should have looked like


kranjcar - wilson - modric - bentley
bale - bassong - kaboul - walker/ekotto


i'd always play a half fit wilson at these crucial times of the season if he himself thought he could perform well. i don't know where steed has been playing for them, but if i suspected he would play in cm then that would have raised a doubt re. wilson, but still this is not the time of the season to be gambling on young players like livermore/parrett in tough away games.

or is it




we may have still lost even if we had fielded our best available setup, but we needed our best shape to stand half a chance, you need look no further than the fulham fa cup game at the lane to see that.

the left side shape has become a real strength to spurs in recent months, and we've messed it up quite a few times now unnecessarily.



hidden in this maze, gibbs, is the correction to your error. you deserve a puzzle because your lack of respect for modric is puzzling. let this be a lesson to all gibbsy's out there, who try to ruin these special moments for the stylish supporters of our stylish club.



from the messi article:


''People are expecting circus tricks and something special in every game. It is the dilemma of the big name star in today's football. ''


''The overkill of the marketing industry means that there is more focus than ever before on the top individuals - at a time when the physical and tactical development of the game makes football more collective than ever before.''


''Now, more than ever, the rule applies that the stars appear when the balance of the team is correct.

It is impossible to judge the contribution of the gifted individual without reference to how he fits in to the collective context.''


''But in today's climate this elemental truth can be hidden. With all the individual endorsement deals, FIFA World Player of the Year awards and so on, it can be easy to lose sight of the fact that football is a team game. ''


''On the evidence of last month's 1-0 win away to Germany, Argentina have also worked out how to use Messi as a decoy. He drags the opposing defence over to the right, creating space for Angel Di Maria to fly down the other flank.''


''This is something that national team coach Diego Maradona understands well. In his finest hour, the 1986 World Cup, he took out England and Belgium single handedly on the way to the final, where he met the full force of the German marking. What did he do? He dragged his markers all over the field and provided passes for his team-mates, like the one from which Jorge Burruchaga scored the winning goal. It was superb individual talent placed at the service of the collective - and that is the mark of the truly great player.''



M

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d

r

i

c






Mtime,the clock









M

 

[3Dnata]

It's nice to have a thread like this without somebody ruining it. But that person woould ruin a thread about our back-up goalkeepers in the 1960's with his views about Modric.

 

[tooey]

It's nice to have a thread like this without somebody ruining it. But that person woould ruin a thread about our back-up goalkeepers in the 1960's with his views about Modric.

lol, so true.:grin: