Priorities

[P-L-P]

Plus Bale...

Eactomondo! Do you ever feel people disagree with you for the sake of it? Eek

 

[paul_1979yid]

cm - Ball winner, tough tackling kind of player.

Left Mid

Not sure which way round but we have been lacking both for a few years now

 

[Has1978]

There's alot of talk flying about regarding various players in various positions, but I was wondering what everyone thinks should be our list of priorities this summer with regards to transfers?

For me the list should be, in order of importance...

1. Goalkeeper
2. Defensive minded central midfielder
3. Creative central midfielder
4. Left sided midfielder/winger
5. First class centre back (assuming Ledley won't be fit again)
6. Left back (as backup to Bale)
7. Right winger (this increases if Lennon leaves)
8. Another striker (especially if Bent leaves)

Those for me are the priorities. Obviously if Berbatov leaves then that changes everything and a quality striker becomes one of our top priorities, and I suppose 3 & 4 are fairly interchangeable...we just need some creativity from somewhere.

i'm very very close to that. probably have goalkeeper as slightly less urgent than the two centre mids but otherwise spot on.

 

[InOffMeLeftShin]

I don't think I disagreed with you for the sake of it P-L-P, not really my style, in fact I think I was quite constructive in your thread that got locked.

However I will state further my reasons for a LW. If you take into account Ramos' supposed style of play compact in the centre, high tempo, attacking flair down the wings and the current trends in formations, I hope my explanation will at least be valid enough for you to at least believe I wasn't just countering your statement.

If all of our attacking play is coming down the wings, we will need full backs who are great going forward and have huge engines on them, i.e. the purchase of Hutton when we already had Chimbonda (who often didn't seem to have the energy to bother running back after going up the field and whipping in a cross that went into the stands). Bale is exactly the left back Ramos is probably dreaming of, full of energy, can run all day, has the ability to overlap the winger effectively and can put in decent crosses. As I already stated the defensive side of his game and in particular his positioning will no doubt improve a lot with experience and hard work. Gilberto is a stop gap backup to Bale in this exact same role.

Why can't he use the same skill set as a winger with a left back behind him. A couple of reasons I can think of off the top of my head.

Firstly he is unlikely to ever be someone who is a natural outlet in terms of having raw pace and isn't going to beat a man repeatedly and get crosses in from the byline. I know not all wingers have to do that, but if you don't then his crossing may as well come from slightly deeper or on the overlap as a Ramos style fullback as they are up there most of the time anyway and so an out and out winger will offer us a second attacking approach.

Secondly is the trend toward the 4-5-1/4-3-3 formation. In a formation like that Bale would end up being a wing forward who would be relied on greatly as a goalscoring/goal assisting double threat. Whilst his crossing isn't in any doubt and he will always chip in with the odd goal because he has a great left foot I don't think he could ever adapt to a wing forward role.

On the right I am far happier with having Lennon or Steed in that role than I ever would be with Bale or Gilberto on the left. Yes Steed could do it on the left to an extent but wouldn't have that same ability to stretch the front line like you need in that formation and would drift in far too much and just make us narrow.

So for me a right side with Hutton/Chimbs(Gunter) with Lennon/Malbranque is far more naturally suited to both formations than we would be with Bale/Gilberto/Malbranque on the left side.

I think what I am trying to get at is when attacking I expect our full backs will be like second (crossing style) wingers, with our wingers more direct and naturally able to add width and pace. Right we can, left we can't.

 

[spursyido1]

steffen freund

 

[Yid-ol]

1. Ball winning central midfielder with guts and leadership
2. Ball playing central midfielder with the ability to dictate tempo
3. Left winger who can beat a man and get a cross in regularly with their left foot
4. Goalkeeper
5. Experienced centre back with proven quality
6. Another central midfielder

i agree this this :up: would also add top quality Goalkeeper coach

 

[sloth]

I think I agree with TSH.

 

[talkshowhost86]

I think I agree with TSH.

Yeah baby.

As to the left wing issue I think Ramos will use Bale as a left back. I think Ekotto and Lee may both be off and Gilberto looks massively off the pace of everything so far.

Steed has done well this season on the left but for all his good work we still look unbalanced on that side. O'Hara won't cut it as a left mid and although both Bale and Gilberto could both play there it would be much better to actually have a proper left wing option in the squad.

 

[tRiKS]

If all of our attacking play is coming down the wings, we will need full backs who are great going forward and have huge engines on them, i.e. the purchase of Hutton when we already had Chimbonda (who often didn't seem to have the energy to bother running back after going up the field and whipping in a cross that went into the stands). Bale is exactly the left back Ramos is probably dreaming of, full of energy, can run all day, has the ability to overlap the winger effectively and can put in decent crosses. As I already stated the defensive side of his game and in particular his positioning will no doubt improve a lot with experience and hard work. Gilberto is a stop gap backup to Bale in this exact same role.

Why can't he use the same skill set as a winger with a left back behind him. A couple of reasons I can think of off the top of my head.

Firstly he is unlikely to ever be someone who is a natural outlet in terms of having raw pace and isn't going to beat a man repeatedly and get crosses in from the byline. I know not all wingers have to do that, but if you don't then his crossing may as well come from slightly deeper or on the overlap as a Ramos style fullback as they are up there most of the time anyway and so an out and out winger will offer us a second attacking approach.

Secondly is the trend toward the 4-5-1/4-3-3 formation. In a formation like that Bale would end up being a wing forward who would be relied on greatly as a goalscoring/goal assisting double threat. Whilst his crossing isn't in any doubt and he will always chip in with the odd goal because he has a great left foot I don't think he could ever adapt to a wing forward role.

On the right I am far happier with having Lennon or Steed in that role than I ever would be with Bale or Gilberto on the left. Yes Steed could do it on the left to an extent but wouldn't have that same ability to stretch the front line like you need in that formation and would drift in far too much and just make us narrow.

So for me a right side with Hutton/Chimbs(Gunter) with Lennon/Malbranque is far more naturally suited to both formations than we would be with Bale/Gilberto/Malbranque on the left side.

I think what I am trying to get at is when attacking I expect our full backs will be like second (crossing style) wingers, with our wingers more direct and naturally able to add width and pace. Right we can, left we can't.

nicely put dude. i would add a layer to that though. Like with Alves, on occasion Bale will play infront of another full back. UEFA cup. Sevilla at home had Alves RB and Navas RM ... away Alves was RM and another FB behind him. Now that possibly was becasue Navas does have an acute touch of the BA Barracas's but there were other RW alternatives available to ramos but he chose Alves to affectively play a slightly more defensive steel to that side away from home. AS seville looked more and more like challangeing for la Liga Sky put on more of thier games post chirstmas last year and the same use of Alves was apparant in some away games.

I would suggest though Bales position will be overwhelmingly LB... actually in the 4 games Ramos had Bale for 3 were at LB only 1 at LM .... my guess would be that Ramos would play him in those two positions over the course of a season at about the same split 75% LB 25% LM.

a side note. Bale is quicker than it seems you give him credit for.

 

[InOffMeLeftShin]

nicely put dude. i would add a layer to that though. Like with Alves, on occasion Bale will play infront of another full back. UEFA cup. Sevilla at home had Alves RB and Navas RM ... away Alves was RM and another FB behind him. Now that possibly was becasue Navas does have an acute touch of the BA Barracas's but there were other RW alternatives available to ramos but he chose Alves to affectively play a slightly more defensive steel to that side away from home. AS seville looked more and more like challangeing for la Liga Sky put on more of thier games post chirstmas last year and the same use of Alves was apparant in some away games.

I would suggest though Bales position will be overwhelmingly LB... actually in the 4 games Ramos had Bale for 3 were at LB only 1 at LM .... my guess would be that Ramos would play him in those two positions over the course of a season at about the same split 75% LB 25% LM.

a side note. Bale is quicker than it seems you give him credit for.

I would definately go along with that. I am sure there will be opposition, or even at certain times in a match, i.e. defending a narrow lead where a slightly more cautious approach will be needed and certainly Bale can be used as a left mid with a more defensive minded full back behind him.

Sorry I wasn't saying Bale was slow by any means, just not a direct runner with that change of pace where he will skip by a fullback.

 

[tRiKS]

I would definately go along with that. I am sure there will be opposition, or even at certain times in a match, i.e. defending a narrow lead where a slightly more cautious approach will be needed and certainly Bale can be used as a left mid with a more defensive minded full back behind him.

Sorry I wasn't saying Bale was slow by any means, just not a direct runner with that change of pace where he will skip by a fullback.

ok thats fair enough. He certainly can't go from stand-still to flat out in 2 stpes like Lennon can but once his stride opens i think he's decent. Anderton was deceptively fast i think Bale is possibly deceptively quicker than that.

 

[N10toN17]

I pretty much agree with everything said above by IOMLS and triks. Well said.

Also tsh your not too far off the mark either and I agree with much of what you said also.

I'm really not too happy with all this agreeing malarky. :grin:

 

[stemark44]

My list of priorities would be-
1 - Goalkeeper someone that the rest of the team will have confidence in.
2 - Ball playing - tempo setting central midfielder.
3 - Attacking left sided midfielder.
4 - Attacking right sided midfielder.
Ledley King healthy and injury free.
Replace any 1st teamers that leave.

 

[juande.is.a.yido]

Gk
Lm
Acm
Dcm

 

[guy]

1. Ball winning MF
2. Goalkeeper
3. Creative MF (either central of left)
after that i dont really care!

 

[Beni]

As many have said, my priorities are pretty much on the same lines:-

1) Creative Midfielder
2) Defensive Midfielder
3) Goalkeeper
4) Left Winger
5) Centre Back

Hopefully the squad will look something like this:-

Goalkeeper - New GK, (Robinson)

Right Back - Hutton, (Chimbonda), (Gunter)
Left Back - Bale, (Gilberto), (Ekotto)
Centre Back - Woodgate, (Dawson)
Centre Back - King/New CB, (Kaboul)

Right Mid - Lennon, (Malbranque)
Centre Mid - New AM, (Jenas), (Boateng)
Centre Mid - New DM, (Zokora), (Huddlestone)
Left Mid - New LW, (O'Hara), (Bale)

Striker - Keane, (Bent)
Striker - Berbatov (Bent)

Looking at some of the rumours, potentially/hopefully we could some of the below coming in:-

GK - Amelia/Kameni/Stekelenburg

CB - Jarque/Garay/Laursen

DM - Poulson/Diarra

AM - Modric/Barry

LW - Capel

 

[Barmy_in_Palmy]

1: GK
2: Playmaker CM
3: LW with a left leg.
4: CB

 

[ackie]

There's alot of talk flying about regarding various players in various positions, but I was wondering what everyone thinks should be our list of priorities this summer with regards to transfers?

For me the list should be, in order of importance...

1. Goalkeeper
2. Defensive minded central midfielder
3. Creative central midfielder
4. Left sided midfielder/winger
5. First class centre back (assuming Ledley won't be fit again)
6. Left back (as backup to Bale)
7. Right winger (this increases if Lennon leaves)
8. Another striker (especially if Bent leaves)

Those for me are the priorities. Obviously if Berbatov leaves then that changes everything and a quality striker becomes one of our top priorities, and I suppose 3 & 4 are fairly interchangeable...we just need some creativity from somewhere.

Apparently, Ramos has said he wants to build a squad around Berba and Keane.
So, hopefully Berba stays for at least one more season. IF he decides to stay, his agent will always be causing unease for Spurs and us.
Here are my priorities considering the fact that Berba stays!

Defensive midfielder - strong and commanding with ood passing ability
Creative midfielder
Goalkeeper
Left side midfielder/winger

I would sell the following:

Zokora
Tainio
Chimbonda
Robbo
Lee
Rocha
Ghaly
Gardner
Stalteri

We should get 15million for them at least and inject that into some midfielders!!!

 

[guy]

if we sold that lot id be hoping for 25million !

 

[PLTuck]

Im pretty much on the same wavelength as TSH and IOMLS

1. GK - defensive confidence starts here
2. CM general
3. Creative CM
4. LW with a good cross


would be my order of priority, but assumes that none of our key players leaves. If they do then the order changes. All need to be established and experienced. No Prince Bongs (copyright SS57) or Kaboooms this summer please. (Or if we do get these kind of players, it's on top of the experienced ones).