summer 2011 and squad review

[Spurs_Q8]

as always, i need to start with apologize for any things which i failed to explain better do to my poor english.

GK: Friedel - Gomes - Cudicini
RB: Corluka - Walker (Kaboul/Gallas)
CB: Dawson - Kaboul - Gallas - Bassong - King (Huddlestone/Corluka)
LB: Ekotto - Rose (Bale/Bassong/Corluka)
CM: Modric - Parker - Huddlestone - Sandro - Livermore (Kaboul/Kranjcar)
RM: Lennon - Giovani (Pienaar/VDV/Walker)
LM: Bale - Kranjcar - Townsend (Giovani/Pienaar)
AM: VDV - Pienaar - Falque (Kranjcar/Modric)
FC: Adebayor - Defoe - Pavchenko - Kane (Giovani/VDV)

29 players, only five unproven :

29 players in the squad, each position had at least one decent backup
24 players with enough EPL experience, apart from Rose, Livermore, Townsend, Falque, Kane.

* Rose converted as LB last season, when Ekotto suffered his injury at end of last season, he did reasonable job and could still improve with more games in Eroupa League and Carling, but the most important part, it seem we've a lot of options in Winges, like Lennon + Pienaar + VDV + Bale + Kranjcar + Giovani, and even Modric could be an option if Bale switched back to LB, which made LB safe.

* Livermore, there are four players above him in pecking order for 2 positions, it's true that if we picked 2-3 injuries in one time, we could be in trouble there, we need to be a bit lucky there until Jan. discover that we are short of 1 proven man in this position, unless Kranjcar improve there, which is expected if he played next to one of Sandro or Huddlestone or Parker. The fact he could be better with all apart from Modric, might only Modric with him against average teams, Livermore impressed me everytime apart from OT, so still no problem for me if he gets more games and confidence with easier sides.

* Towsend, it's seem a lot of positon until finding ourselves about the need to gamble him in touch game, he is promosing youngster who plays in safe position which couldn't be problem if needed.

* Falque, same to Townsend.

* Kane, 4th as striker, still safe considering we are using only one upfront these days, and Giovani dos Santos could push for that position as second striker if he is needed in 4-4-2. Kane impressed me vs Heaets and expect him to improve if he is given some cups games or played with better XI which was used vs Hearts.

New Additions :

* Friedel, from what i saw, he is doing excellent job at this moment, we could be been beaten with more if it's not him, promsing start considering our defenders not enjoying their best moments. He is the one to push Gomes to do better, no loss here considering he is a lot better than Cudicini and joint for Free.

* Walker, get some EPL experience with Aston Villa, considering Hutton didn't what we expected from him, i think Walker could be big hit here.

* Parker, more aggressive than JJ and def. better passer than WP, can't say he is 4th option here, but made the first 4th options in the middle more better. Good addition and could score goals from Mid. more than WP and Jenas !

* Falque : Don't know enough about him, my only optimistic, if it's true Juvi didn't released him before siging his new contract.

* Adebayor, if he retain to his form with Arsenal, i think it's safe to say he can give us at least 15 goals with us, He had Crouch abilities on the air and a bit of Defoe pace, which allowed him to do better IMO. Also, i think he could be good partnership with Defoe or VDV, which is advantage considering to only succeseful partnership in half season between VDV & Crouch.
Team for Now, with current injuries :

vs best best 10 teams in EPL :

Friedel
Corluka - Dawson - Kaboul - Ekotto
Lennon - Huddlestone - Parker - Bale
Modric
Adebayor
​

vs average teams, specially at home :

Friedel
Walker - Dawson - Kaboul - Ekotto
Lennon - Parker/Hudd - Modric - Bale
Defoe - Adebyor

* with a view of Corluka as RB, and Bale as LB, and using both of Parker & Huddle in the middle, and Modric as LM, which i believe this is stroming team for this situation.


for those who are Pessimistic with our season :


1) patience is needed, all of Parker, Falque, Adebayor are yet to be involved, Friedel & Walker looks good addition from what we've last season. Als Gallas & King ( who helped us to beat Liverpool away from home )are out and we could still improve with them, and we are yet to gain our benfits from Pienaar due to some injuries. Sandro is out as well, when is back, he would be a big boost for our current poor start.

2) yes we are clearly behind City, Utd & Chelsea squads, but we don't have CL football this season, Arsenal lost two key players and still have CL football, Liverpool are good but we should still push them, if not in the first half, we can be close until better investment in jan. which i believe it's easier to shift Bassong & Pav for 2-3 first team signings.

​

 

[OmarsComing]

Good post

 

[cabinfever]

Well thought out Q8. As always, you make sense!!

 

[Spursidol]

Well thought out Q8. As always, you make sense!!

Good summary, but couple of minor tweaks

• Townsend can cover as left winger and right winger (although a left winger his debut was as a rught winger where he was MOM)
• Falque I haven't seen but am told he can cover as left sided midfield, centre midfield and support striker.
• Kane is very inexperienced, good prospect but difficult to judge how many appearances he will make - I think Harry will play it by ear.
• There are other youngsters such as Carroll, Parrett etc who I think may make some appearances, and like Kane, Harry will judge their devopment at the time

 

[ardiles]

Nice work. :up:

Wouldn't it be better if you could also add another team list with our best first eleven (assuming that everyone is back from injury). This could give us a rough comparison to the other top teams in the division.

 

[sloth]

Good stuff Q8

 

[jonathanhotspur]

I'm baffled as to why nobody is talking about the morale of the players and coaching staff right now. To me, it appears to be just about rock bottom.

Between Modric wanting to leave and possibly souring the atmosphere in the dressing room, a number of players being completely out of form and the manager said to be unhappy at a lack of new faces, what makes people think that Adebayor is going to be some kind of panacea?

 

[sloth]

I'm baffled as to why nobody is talking about the morale of the players and coaching staff right now. To me, it appears to be just about rock bottom.

Between Modric wanting to leave and possibly souring the atmosphere in the dressing room, a number of players being completely out of form and the manager said to be unhappy at a lack of new faces, what makes people think that Adebayor is going to be some kind of panacea?

Mate that's a good point. You should start a thread on it

 

[jonathanhotspur]

Mate that's a good point. You should start a thread on it

I don't know, sloth. I think people are looking for positives at the moment and won't appreciate it one bit.

 

[beats1]

I'm baffled as to why nobody is talking about the morale of the players and coaching staff right now. To me, it appears to be just about rock bottom.

Between Modric wanting to leave and possibly souring the atmosphere in the dressing room, a number of players being completely out of form and the manager said to be unhappy at a lack of new faces, what makes people think that Adebayor is going to be some kind of panacea?

Totally agree, they look tired of the modric situation imo and it doesn't help that we got some tough games yet to come

At least, modric staying may help the team picking themselves up but in a way we have got some new signings in the form of GDS, Walker, Ade and parker since friedel came in

This is main issue I see between us and liverpool they feel they are on the up and we are on the down, Beat liverpool everything changes

 

[jonathanhotspur]

Totally agree, they look tired of the modric situation imo and it doesn't help that we got some tough games yet to come

At least, modric staying may help the team picking themselves up but in a way we have got some new signings in the form of GDS, Walker, Ade and parker since friedel came in

This is main issue I see between us and liverpool they feel they are on the up and we are on the down, Beat liverpool everything changes

I find it significant that Ledley King was moved to comment on the Modric situation recently. We have no idea when he's going to kick a ball for us again but all of a sudden he appears out of nowhere to say that it has affected the dressing room.

"The sooner it's done, either way, the better. I don't think it (the speculation) helps at the end of the day. We've had this issue before with Berbatov. It was a similar start for us then.

"I don't think it helps in any way. As players you try and get on with the job the best you can. We, as players, want the window to close now so we can get on with the squad that we've got and get on with business."

http://www.espn.co.uk/football/sport/story/108414.html

 

[tttcowan]

I'm baffled as to why nobody is talking about the morale of the players and coaching staff right now. To me, it appears to be just about rock bottom.

Between Modric wanting to leave and possibly souring the atmosphere in the dressing room, a number of players being completely out of form and the manager said to be unhappy at a lack of new faces, what makes people think that Adebayor is going to be some kind of panacea?

Agreed... The difference between us and Manchester United is more to do with morale and attitude not the quality of players.

 

[am_yisrael_chai]

I find it significant that Ledley King was moved to comment on the Modric situation recently. We have no idea when he's going to kick a ball for us again but all of a sudden he appears out of nowhere to say that it has affected the dressing room.

"The sooner it's done, either way, the better. I don't think it (the speculation) helps at the end of the day. We've had this issue before with Berbatov. It was a similar start for us then.

"I don't think it helps in any way. As players you try and get on with the job the best you can. We, as players, want the window to close now so we can get on with the squad that we've got and get on with business."

http://www.espn.co.uk/football/sport/story/108414.html

He didn't appear out of nowhere neither did he voluntarily offer an opinion, he was leaving the training ground when he was stopped by SSN and asked a bunch of questions, one of which was about Modric and he replied diplomatically, what exactly did you expect him to say "nah it's all fine we really aren't bothered if Luka stays or goes" ?

 

[am_yisrael_chai]

Agreed... The difference between us and Manchester United is more to do with morale and attitude not the quality of players.

That's pretty silly, not only is there a clear gulf in terms of player quality but there is an even bigger gulf in terms of manager quality, those are far bigger factors than morale and attitude.

 

[jonathanhotspur]

He didn't appear out of nowhere neither did he voluntarily offer an opinion, he was leaving the training ground when he was stopped by SSN and asked a bunch of questions, one of which was about Modric and he replied diplomatically, what exactly did you expect him to say "nah it's all fine we really aren't bothered if Luka stays or goes" ?

Ok, I have only seen transcripts of the interview but it is the easiest thing in the world to keep walking. But no, what he basically says is that it has affected the dressing room in the same way that the Berbatov fiasco did. Harry says it has destroyed our preseason-take that whatever way you like-and someone claiming to be ITK said that everyone wanted to see the back of him (which is plausible, in my opinion).

 

[jonathanhotspur]

That's pretty silly, not only is there a clear gulf in terms of player quality but there is an even bigger gulf in terms of manager quality, those are far bigger factors than morale and attitude.

I think he has a point, though. People can talk until they're blue in the face about the way we lined out against Man City and how it cost us but the most basic ingredient of all was missing-effort.

 

[Spurger King]

I'm sure the morale will return as soon as we put in a good performance and get a win. The Wolves game can't come soon enough, and I also expect the players are determined to make up for the City fiasco.

It certainly looks like Parker will be a big character in the dressing room. It's something that Harry obviously values highly (such as bringing back Keane to effectively be the dressing room cheerleader.

Looking at the first-team players, there isn't a lot of leadership there. Dawson and VDV are about the only ones. King controls the defence...and I think he deserves the captaincy, but he's not a pointy shouty type.

Modric, Bale, Pienaar, Walker, BAE, Hudd, Defoe, Sandro and Lennon all seem pretty quiet. Having a team with Adebayor, VDV, Dawson and parker should provide us with more on-field motivation and drive.

 

[beats1]

Agreed... The difference between us and Manchester United is more to do with morale and attitude not the quality of players.

Agreed we were on par with Man utd and had more possession until rooney almost gave the players kick up the arse and won the ball back and we didn't see the ball for the next 30 mins, lets hope parker brings leadership and character to the team and at least he is a yid so hopefully he give it 110%

He didn't appear out of nowhere neither did he voluntarily offer an opinion, he was leaving the training ground when he was stopped by SSN and asked a bunch of questions, one of which was about Modric and he replied diplomatically, what exactly did you expect him to say "nah it's all fine we really aren't bothered if Luka stays or goes" ?

TBF, Ledley never gives interviews and you can tell he hates, so for me it was out of nowhere

 

[jonathanhotspur]

I'm sure the morale will return as soon as we put in a good performance and get a win. The Wolves game can't come soon enough, and I also expect the players are determined to make up for the City fiasco.

It certainly looks like Parker will be a big character in the dressing room. It's something that Harry obviously values highly (such as bringing back Keane to effectively be the dressing room cheerleader.

Looking at the first-team players, there isn't a lot of leadership there. Dawson and VDV are about the only ones. King controls the defence...and I think he deserves the captaincy, but he's not a pointy shouty type.

Modric, Bale, Pienaar, Walker, BAE, Hudd, Defoe, Sandro and Lennon all seem pretty quiet. Having a team with Adebayor, VDV, Dawson and parker should provide us with more on-field motivation and drive.

It's not like flicking a switch, Spurger King. The manager and club captain are saying that there's a black cloud over the place, a lot of the supporters are up in arms and our two new signings are walking into a bit of a clusterfuck and can't be expected to perform miracles.

Whatever problem we're having at the minute is the same one that afflicted us for the final third of last season. We have begun the season in the same manner we ended the last one-flat.

 

[beats1]

I'm sure the morale will return as soon as we put in a good performance and get a win. The Wolves game can't come soon enough, and I also expect the players are determined to make up for the City fiasco.

It certainly looks like Parker will be a big character in the dressing room. It's something that Harry obviously values highly (such as bringing back Keane to effectively be the dressing room cheerleader.

Looking at the first-team players, there isn't a lot of leadership there. Dawson and VDV are about the only ones. King controls the defence...and I think he deserves the captaincy, but he's not a pointy shouty type.

Modric, Bale, Pienaar, Walker, BAE, Hudd, Defoe, Sandro and Lennon all seem pretty quiet. Having a team with Adebayor, VDV, Dawson and parker should provide us with more on-field motivation and drive.

Agreed but normally our players have done well under pressure and imo liverpool and arsenal match will make or break our season