- Jan 15, 2017
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Was discussing this last night with a mate how badly we miss him. I genuinely can't think of any that stand out. Sure, there have been a few flashes of brilliance, often inspired by Bale or Son running through teams, or Kane picking out a world class finish. But how many times since Modric and Van Der Vaart left, have we really turned on the style, taken the game to the opposition and played crisp, passing football, without Eriksen in the side? I know he was first choice for a long time and rarely got injured, but in the season before he joined, the season he left, and all the games he missed whilst here either through injury, squad rotation or even just starting on the bench, you'd think there might be a few examples of us being able to cope without him?
I've re-watched some old highlights in the last couple of weeks since the season ended, some of the passing Eriksen did was ridiculously good - not just for direct assists but in creating attacking situations for his team mates. I look at our side now and wonder, even if Hojbjerg supposedly "frees up" Lo Celso and Ndombele, who is going to do that kind of thing for us again? Most of our goals seem to come from us hitting teams on the counter when they've pushed their defence up, long balls over the top, individual mistakes from the opposition, or moments of quick footwork from one of our star players to manouvre a bit of space and get a shot away from a difficult position. There are far fewer examples of eye of the needle passes or multiple quick passes in a build-up to open teams up, nor many examples of us being able to sustain attacking dominance over a period of time. I'm not expecting us to be Bayern Munich, but watching them the other night I have to wonder if I could ever imagine our current squad creating so many chances even against one of the newly promoted sides, let alone a Barcelona.
Mourinho sides have been famous for being well organised defensively. But all of the successful ones have had a top class attacking playmaker who can really hurt the opposition, even when up against an organised defence of their own. Real had Ozil, Chelsea had Lampard and then Fabregas, Inter had Sneijder, Porto had Deco. Who currently plays this role for us? Lo Celso appears to be better deployed from deep and Alli appears to be better running in behind, unless Ndombele steps up we have a gaping hole in our attacking unit as far as I'm concerned. Worryingly, AM seems to be fairly low down the priority list of signings if transfer rumours are to be believed, and whilst we clearly need improvements at full-back and someone to take the burden off Kane, I really think this is a position that we should be prioritising more than we appear to be.
To answer the original point - best we could come up with was beating Leicester 6-1 on the final day in 2017, which was great but it was a final day game so not much to take from it. Other than that, maybe the first half against West Ham last season? Hardly top class opposition though. Any others people can think of?
I've re-watched some old highlights in the last couple of weeks since the season ended, some of the passing Eriksen did was ridiculously good - not just for direct assists but in creating attacking situations for his team mates. I look at our side now and wonder, even if Hojbjerg supposedly "frees up" Lo Celso and Ndombele, who is going to do that kind of thing for us again? Most of our goals seem to come from us hitting teams on the counter when they've pushed their defence up, long balls over the top, individual mistakes from the opposition, or moments of quick footwork from one of our star players to manouvre a bit of space and get a shot away from a difficult position. There are far fewer examples of eye of the needle passes or multiple quick passes in a build-up to open teams up, nor many examples of us being able to sustain attacking dominance over a period of time. I'm not expecting us to be Bayern Munich, but watching them the other night I have to wonder if I could ever imagine our current squad creating so many chances even against one of the newly promoted sides, let alone a Barcelona.
Mourinho sides have been famous for being well organised defensively. But all of the successful ones have had a top class attacking playmaker who can really hurt the opposition, even when up against an organised defence of their own. Real had Ozil, Chelsea had Lampard and then Fabregas, Inter had Sneijder, Porto had Deco. Who currently plays this role for us? Lo Celso appears to be better deployed from deep and Alli appears to be better running in behind, unless Ndombele steps up we have a gaping hole in our attacking unit as far as I'm concerned. Worryingly, AM seems to be fairly low down the priority list of signings if transfer rumours are to be believed, and whilst we clearly need improvements at full-back and someone to take the burden off Kane, I really think this is a position that we should be prioritising more than we appear to be.
To answer the original point - best we could come up with was beating Leicester 6-1 on the final day in 2017, which was great but it was a final day game so not much to take from it. Other than that, maybe the first half against West Ham last season? Hardly top class opposition though. Any others people can think of?