Player Watch Player Watch: Oliver Skipp

[swarvsta]

Personally I think he looks scared shitless out there on the pitch. If he receives the ball it's mostly to give it straight back like cushion on a billiard table. He just doesn't have the confidence to turn, look up, pass forward... and it makes me seriously nervous when he plays, knowing that such a key position in the team is not offering enough to help dominate the opposition. We should not forget the leicester result was probably the flukiest two goal margin victory in football ever. We were atrocious and never in control. Had the result been fair not many in here would want Skipp playing again anytime soon.

I also feel when we have possession he hides a bit by not actively seeking space, plus team mates are reluctant to feed it to him.
Maybe he shows something else in training and its a lack of confidence that is obscuring some talent or, perhaps, there isn't much about him other than a willing presser and chaser to be used when the squad is at its bare bones, like right now.

This post is an absolute disgrace. You are talking about an 18 year old kid playing at Wembley Stadium in a title chasing side.

You need a reality check.

There is much I could write, but I fear it would be wasted on you. Sorry to be harsh, but hey - you were harsh on Skipp, so fuck it.

You need to think about how many GREAT players looked ordinary in the first season or seasons... let alone games/minutes!!

Some examples:

Kane, Lampard, Beckham, Ashley Cole, De Gea, Drogba, Henry.

Go and read the first 30 pages of the Kane thread.

 

[markdadude]

This post is an absolute disgrace. You are talking about an 18 year old kid playing at Wembley Stadium in a title chasing side.

You need a reality check.

There is much I could write, but I fear it would be wasted on you. Sorry to be harsh, but hey - you were harsh on Skipp, so fuck it.

You need to think about how many GREAT players looked ordinary in the first season or seasons... let alone games/minutes!!

Some examples:

Kane, Lampard, Beckham, Ashley Cole, De Gea, Drogba, Henry.

Go and read the first 30 pages of the Kane thread.

If you are played at 18 in a top side it should be because you already stand out. As of right now when he plays the opposition will target that as a big area of weakness
Who needs a reality check exactly? You or me...

I was harsh on Skipp but wish him all the best. This is purely an objective discussion about what he offers on the pitch, try to keep emotion out of it.

 

[ToDarrenIsToDo]

I really want the guy to do well. It looks like he has a great attitude. But playing devils advocate, is he as good as Guendouzi who is of similar age. Or was he as good as someone like Jamie O’Hara when he first broke through for us? We have to put these things into perspective.

He will be as good as he is able to be. Until then can't we just support a young man who's getting his chance to cut his teeth at not only his boyhood club, but at one of the biggest clubs in the world, which comes with huge pressure as mistakes will get highlighted far more than somewhere like Wolves, Everton etc.

What will be will be, let's all support a young lad who's been mixing first team football at our prestigious club with doing his A Levels this year

 

[yankspurs]

It's hard to say the experiment worked when we turned in such a horrible performance. I know Poch made a point of saying he shouldn't have taken Skipp off as we got worse when we did, but I think he was just protecting the kid.

I am all for seeing young kids develop at Spurs, but not at the expense of us dominating and controlling the midfield in games. I would suggest Poch is off his marbles if he watched the Leicester game and thought that our midfield was working. I thought for the majority of the game it was like playing with 10 men.

Sissoko and Winks played well actually, and Winks has improved the last few weeks, but we are certainly not as defensively strong as we were last season, Tripper is a big part of it, but I think our CM is too. Something isn't quite working from a defensive point of view, the balance isn't right.

We did get worse though. Before that, Leicester only attacked down the right flank and targeted Trippier. After Skipp came off for Toby, we lost our shape and although we then had 3 CB’s, they were now attacking down the right and the left of the midfield which is the space Skipp occupied. It was left to Rose to cover the entire left side. They were then coming at us from both sides and we could barely get control of the ball. Skipp did the job pefectly fine in a position in the midfield he hasnt really played before. IMO, it was the wrong sub. If he wanted to stop there attacks, the right sub would have been KWP or Aurier in a straight swap for Trippier who was letting Leicester waltz right past him for 90 minutes

 

[ostrov]

We did get worse though. Before that, Leicester only attacked down the right flank and targeted Trippier. After Skipp came off for Toby, we lost our shape and although we then had 3 CB’s, they were now attacking down the right and the left of the midfield which is the space Skipp occupied. It was left to Rose to cover the entire left side. They were then coming at us from both sides and we could barely get control of the ball. Skipp did the job pefectly fine in a position in the midfield he hasnt really played before. IMO, it was the wrong sub. If he wanted to stop there attacks, the right sub would have been KWP or Aurier in a straight swap for Trippier who was letting Leicester waltz right past him for 90 minutes

That's right. Poch said exactly that on Sky. He said he regrets he'd taken Skipp off.

 

[ostrov]

The guy is good, give him time.

 

[Armstrong_11]

Skipp is doing well imo. a bit of Dembele in that kid. Can see that he is trying to read the game, trying to anticipate who the other team will focus play too.

think he will get better with time.

 

[Always Offside]

From what i saw, he looked to want the ball played to his feet. He also looked to pass the ball forward, a lot. It often didn't come off but he was trying to thread balls through at just about every opportunity. Very very positive and did not look shit scared at all imo. It's all about opinions isn't it. Some saw a scared apprehensive player & others saw a kid trying to be positive and promote attacking football. I think we can all agree he isn't ready to start when we are at full strength but there's a lot to like in what we've seen thus far ...

 

[DanielJohnCosta]

Skipp is doing well imo. a bit of Dembele in that kid. .

literally which part of his game is comparable to the great Dembele? this comment actually has me infuriated, it's blasphemous.

 

[Armstrong_11]

literally which part of his game is comparable to the great Dembele? this comment actually has me infuriated, it's blasphemous.

the way he faces up to someone taking the ball towards him, open his body up and makes himself look "bigger" while crouching down a little to stay lower to the ground. i always see dembele do that, and i saw skip doing it a couple of times against LC.

 

[Khilari]

Personally I think he looks scared shitless out there on the pitch. If he receives the ball it's mostly to give it straight back like cushion on a billiard table. He just doesn't have the confidence to turn, look up, pass forward... and it makes me seriously nervous when he plays, knowing that such a key position in the team is not offering enough to help dominate the opposition. We should not forget the leicester result was probably the flukiest two goal margin victory in football ever. We were atrocious and never in control. Had the result been fair not many in here would want Skipp playing again anytime soon.

I also feel when we have possession he hides a bit by not actively seeking space, plus team mates are reluctant to feed it to him.
Maybe he shows something else in training and its a lack of confidence that is obscuring some talent or, perhaps, there isn't much about him other than a willing presser and chaser to be used when the squad is at its bare bones, like right now.

This post is an absolute disgrace. You are talking about an 18 year old kid playing at Wembley Stadium in a title chasing side.

You need a reality check.

There is much I could write, but I fear it would be wasted on you. Sorry to be harsh, but hey - you were harsh on Skipp, so fuck it.

You need to think about how many GREAT players looked ordinary in the first season or seasons... let alone games/minutes!!

Some examples:

Kane, Lampard, Beckham, Ashley Cole, De Gea, Drogba, Henry.

Go and read the first 30 pages of the Kane thread.

I don't see the problem with an honest critique of Skipp's performances. Sure, if you add in the caveat "for an 18 year old playing his first game" then he did ok. But that's just an assessment from a developmental perspective. Not an assessment of how the team performed as a whole.

When Janssen was poor, he's rightly criticised despite perhaps not having the same amount of PL experience that other players do. Importantly, this isn't "make or break" for Ollie Skipp who is clearly talented enough to play for the Spurs first XI. But his performance itself wasn't standout and there should be no problem saying it out loud.

I'm very appreciative of his contribution and look forward to seeing him develop, but had we lost 3-1 yesterday with our midfield being as overrun as it was, I'd have been far less supportive that he played.

 

[TheVoiceofReason]

Why the fuck are we even debating this right now?

 

[CoopsieDeadpool]

This post is an absolute disgrace. You are talking about an 18 year old kid playing at Wembley Stadium in a title chasing side.

You need a reality check.

There is much I could write, but I fear it would be wasted on you. Sorry to be harsh, but hey - you were harsh on Skipp, so fuck it.

You need to think about how many GREAT players looked ordinary in the first season or seasons... let alone games/minutes!!

Some examples:

Kane, Lampard, Beckham, Ashley Cole, De Gea, Drogba, Henry.

Go and read the first 30 pages of the Kane thread.

If you are played at 18 in a top side it should be because you already stand out. As of right now when he plays the opposition will target that as a big area of weakness
Who needs a reality check exactly? You or me...

I was harsh on Skipp but wish him all the best. This is purely an objective discussion about what he offers on the pitch, try to keep emotion out of it.

Remember Ronaldo (the arrogant ****, not the great Brazilian striker) when he first played for United? What was he, early 20s? Yet I can remember clearly, VERY frustrated supporters & pundits, because this young "show pony" had tricks and flicks, but zero intelligence or end product.

How did his career go again?

 

[hellava_tough]

This might seem a bit 'left-field', but the brain's prefrontal cortex doesn't full develop until 24/25 years of age in most humans:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3621648/

(See 'Prefrontal Cortex' section)

This is what wiki says about the pre-frontal cortex:

"This brain region has been implicated in planning complex cognitive behavior, personality expression, decision making, and moderating social behavior.[3] The basic activity of this brain region is considered to be orchestration of thoughts and actions in accordance with internal goals.[4]

The most typical psychological term for functions carried out by the prefrontal cortex area is executive function. Executive function relates to abilities to differentiate among conflicting thoughts, determine good and bad, better and best, same and different, future consequences of current activities, working toward a defined goal, prediction of outcomes, expectation based on actions, and social "control" (the ability to suppress urges that, if not suppressed, could lead to socially unacceptable outcomes)."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prefrontal_cortex



Presumably this is why (or at least it's a big factor) some footballers don't look that great until they're 23, 24 or 25 years of age.

Skipp is only 18, so there's another 7 years of physiological development to go.

 

[bigfrooj]

This kid is outstanding. He will be a superstar unless his confidence is destroyed by his own clubs supporters. End of debate.

 

[DanielJohnCosta]

This kid is outstanding. He will be a superstar unless his confidence is destroyed by his own clubs supporters. End of debate.

what's he done to earn outstanding?

 

[Yid-ol]

If at the start of the season you told me our CM players would mostly be Sissoko, Winks and Skipp, I would have expected us to be mid table or lower! The fact we are 3rd and still close to the top two is impressive!

Yes he isn't a long term answer to CM just now as still have a lot to improve on, but is still young and improving. A good squad player for now, but then so was Kane and others,so never know how far he can push on yet.

 

[swarvsta]

If you are played at 18 in a top side it should be because you already stand out. As of right now when he plays the opposition will target that as a big area of weakness
Who needs a reality check exactly? You or me...

I was harsh on Skipp but wish him all the best. This is purely an objective discussion about what he offers on the pitch, try to keep emotion out of it.

I don’t mean to be rude, but your opinion is based on watching him for less than a few hours in top level matches. He has shown so much class and ability in the last two years in the development squads.

If you had watched him in the u23s etc you would not be feeling this way.

I am 100% confident he will be a top Premier League player for years to come.

 

[coys200]

Personally I think he looks scared shitless out there on the pitch. If he receives the ball it's mostly to give it straight back like cushion on a billiard table. He just doesn't have the confidence to turn, look up, pass forward... and it makes me seriously nervous when he plays, knowing that such a key position in the team is not offering enough to help dominate the opposition. We should not forget the leicester result was probably the flukiest two goal margin victory in football ever. We were atrocious and never in control. Had the result been fair not many in here would want Skipp playing again anytime soon.

I also feel when we have possession he hides a bit by not actively seeking space, plus team mates are reluctant to feed it to him.
Maybe he shows something else in training and its a lack of confidence that is obscuring some talent or, perhaps, there isn't much about him other than a willing presser and chaser to be used when the squad is at its bare bones, like right now.

This is obviously OTT. I think there’s a difference between scared and nervous. Yes I’d agree sometimes he looks a bit uncomfortable receiving the ball and I get worried what he’s gonna do. But as for hiding, definitely not. He’s always demanding the ball even after having a bad touch. I certainly don’t think being scared or hiding are flaws in his game, in fact the opposite. What I’d imagine pochettino likes about him is his character and bravery.
And as for discussing him and voicing opinions. I’m sorry but what with social media if he can’t take a bit of stick or criticism then he’s got no chance in the modern game.

 

[DogsOfWar]

He's been excellent in his first couple of outings performing a specific role in the middle.
He'll obviously be under orders not to be too expansive as Poch will try to protect him initially and anyone who watches the u23s will tell you he can do much more.

As with Winks, we'll see more adventure from him as he develops.

For me, I'd be moving on Wanyama and giving Skipp his playing time.