In the quiet of

[HotspurFC1950]

the lounge couch some hours after and lots of play backs.

We can always expect a team to come back at us on those type of situations such as this game at Soton.

Take that as given.

What's needed in that situatiuon are players who keep possession, take the sting out of the situation, frustrate the opposition and their fans and quiet things down.

Two types of players can do this.

First a Scottie Parker type player who keeps and encourages tidy possession in deep positions.

"We are the boss here not you " is what we are saying to the opposition.

Second a keeper who comes out catches and holds the ball for as long is permissable and even rolls it out gets it back gives it to defenders to keep the ball again for a short time.

Same again "we are the boss".

Brad has been good for us but he's not that type of keeper and should also have prevented their goal by coming and claiming the ball for the cross before the corner. Constant "away away" is not what's needed. It brings renewed pressure and hyped opposition with their fans at their back.

Substitution - wise instead of Dempsey up front replacing JD I believe Bale should be moved central for that last bit (i dont mean start there). He's either going to be a great player that can play and worry defences from two or three forward positions or not

I think he would cause far more problems and occupy defences much more than our other options with Ade unavailable.

Ok fellow Spurs' get your teeth in to that lot !

COYS. !!!

 

[dk-yid]

Good points made.

Not sure I would agree with the Bale up front though - in a game like yesterday I doubt he would have got a touch.

I would also say that we need a player with Modric'esque ability to come and get the ball take it to a safe area and allow for other players to get in a position to get it from him. Modric did this excellently at times when we were under pressure and I think that Dembele has the same ability. He just isn't such a tidy passer of the ball when pressured.

So basically Parker and Dembele back in midfield and a bit of work on Dembele's passing.

 

[HotspurFC1950]

And Lloris is a must. Brad invites pressure.

 

[Jimmypearce7]

I think the key is the keeping possession part. We are good going forward and defensively but the key to keeping goals out, as we have seen from the top teams, is not to have to defend and certainly avoid waves of attacks from which a goal is all but inevitable by keeping the ball.
We cant do that. We couldn't do it against Man U or Southampton. Would it be better if Dembele was fit yesterday? Possibly but he played against Man U. Can Sandro do it? I dont know but you could hardly drop him for Parker. Perhaps they are outnumbered with only two in the middle but again we are not going to leave out Bale or Lennon.

Siggurdson would probably help keep possession better than Dempsey but Dempsey has other attributes.

So failing to keep possession is the problem but i dont know the answer!

 

[sammy j]

Ade and lloris please

 

[CosmicHotspur]

Lloris yes, Bale the wing/wing half position where he does most damage crossing the ball or speeding it forward himself to make some of those amazing shots.

When our injured players come back and hit good form, the team will be so much stronger. Let's hope it happens soon. We were a bit lucky to hang in there yesterday for the win, but we're entitled to a bit of luck as we've had plenty going against us.

Being 4th in the table with our present, less effective squad is really not all bad.

 

[HotspurFC1950]

You can drop any player no matter how good he's playing if the replacement serves the team better.

Sandro is a very good player but he's no Parker, he's no calming keep possession type player like Parker and that would be the reason Harry preferred Parker too.

Sandro needs to develop Parker like attributes to add to his tackling ball winning.

 

[CosmicHotspur]

Completely agree that we're missing Parker, the 100% plus man. He should be made permanent captain too when he returns.