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Swansea Vs Tottenham: Match Thread

we_all_loved_freund

Well-Known Member
Apr 6, 2006
1,692
987
Has he ever played as a natural lefty?

Someone should have thought of supplying Soldado with crosses and cut-backs from natural wingers in August 2013. I suspect it's a wee bit late now,

I don't think he has ever played as a natual leftie. However that's probably because he has been good enough, in the leagues he's been playing in, to be able to cut inside, beat 3 players and stick it in the top corner.

I'm not a Lamela fan on the performances I've seen so far and" if he continues as he is, he has to be dropped. However rather than just give up on him, i think there are ways that we can use him to make things a bit easier for him. He's always looking to do something brilliant. I think that is a combination of the fact that he has always been able to do something brilliant and feeling that he needs to justify the price tag. He is simply not cable of doing something brilliant (constantly) in this league (at the moment). Take the pressure off him and stick him on his conventional wing where is errors may be less costly and he won't have to be as brilliant to be productive.
 

Lawrence

Active Member
Jun 9, 2011
133
167
I really think Poch is still learning his trade with us. The fact he has big names having to learn to high press and players missing in certain positions make him mixing and matching. It ain't pretty.

I think he will be better off putting soldado and Lamela in Europa games where there is more space. Ask both to improve their upper body strength. Sell both in the summer.
 

Gaz_Gammon

Well-Known Member
Apr 16, 2005
16,047
18,013
He wasn't great. But he wasn't that bad - I've seen footballers have far worse games of football than that.

But what we don't need is our own supporters carrying out a senseless and quite obsessive vendetta against him, magnifying everything he does poorly, ignoring anything he does well, and superimposing the former on the latter to try and portray it as his sole contribution. THB.


Lamela has been hooked twice by Poch in successive games and that should tell anyone that he has been struggling and has bugger all to do with a "vendetta" against him. He has simply not played good enough, been creative enough or connected the attack in any way through midfield. In fact today (and according to Graham Poll) was lucky to stay on the pitch today and anyone who witnessed the bizarre elbow to face challenge made by Lamela cannot argue against that fact.

The thing is no other Spurs player (on this forum) get's as much slack for performing well below the standard required in professional football, hell our joint (i think) PL goalscorer was dropped today to accommodate him. I for one want to see ALL Spurs players play well, but at the same time feel that a player should earn his right to play and not get an automatic start because of his price tag which as far as i am concerned over the whole of this season is the only reason that Lamela is being selected. What other reason could there be?

Perhaps had Lennon been fit then he would have started in front of Lamela? One things for sure and that is if it's a question of accommodating either Eriksen or Lamela into this Spurs side then it's obvious which one of the two is should be. Finally if the season ends with Lamela in the same form i would if i were Poch look to loan him next season in order for him to get up to speed as currently he seems so far off the pace it's hard to see any hope for the poor kid. I mean does anyone think that all of a sudden Soldado will start banging in goals so long as we keep starting him?

I really hope Lamela makes it but we cannot afford to carry a player in this league, and over the past few PL games he has really in all honesty been a passenger.
 
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Gaz_Gammon

Well-Known Member
Apr 16, 2005
16,047
18,013
He's Fcuking 22 you moron.
It's called bad form, no player has ever encountered this in your world I know.
But in reality.
Players take time to adjust to a new league and find form.
The only Fcuking player to come here and play from the off was VDV.


Berbatov did, oh so did Klinsmann and Keane. As well as Archibald, and Crooks. I mean if you could even say Gilzean and MacKay. I think (and cannot be bothered to look it up) Colin Lee scored four on his home debut against Bristol Rovers ( i think we won 9-0 that day) He was just twenty one years of age at that time.

I am fortunate to have seen them all in the flesh many times, and can honestly say that your assumption that VDV was the "only Fcuking player to come here and play from the off" is in all fairness:

upload_2014-12-14_19-11-50.jpeg
 

Mustard

Well-Known Member
Nov 14, 2012
10,781
20,141
Berbatov did, oh so did Klinsmann and Keane. As well as Archibald, and Crooks. I mean if you could even say Gilzean and MacKay. I think (and cannot be bothered to look it up) Colin Lee scored five on his home debut against Bristol Rovers. Shame on me because i was there.

I am fortunate to have seen them all in the flesh many times, and can honestly say that your assumption that VDV was the "only Fcuking player to come here and play from the off" is in all fairness:

View attachment 16842

I like you Gaz but fuck me you are a depressing ****
 

Gaz_Gammon

Well-Known Member
Apr 16, 2005
16,047
18,013
I like you Gaz but fuck me you are a depressing ****


What's depressing about lauding players distant and not so distant. See, i get youth and all it's innocence when it comes to the history of this great Club that we all have followed since we were cutting our first tooth. What i cannot cede is when for whatever reason one of us goes off on a tangent sating all sorts of stuff that plainly is not true, and not even really, really close to be ever-so closely true.

It does nothing for those players status in a Spurs shirt who gave their all (excluding one or two of those i mentioned) as to suggest that until VDV came along they were all mostly urchins, unprepared for the rigours of the game of football...............:wideyed:
 

StartingPrice

Chief Sardonicus Hyperlip
Feb 13, 2004
32,568
10,280
Lamela has been hooked twice by Poch in successive games and that should tell anyone that he has been struggling and has bugger all to do with a "vendetta" against him. He has simply not played good enough, been creative enough or connected the attack in any way through midfield. In fact today (and according to Graham Poll) was lucky to stay on the pitch today and anyone who witnessed the bizarre elbow to face challenge made by Lamela cannot argue against that fact.

The thing is no other Spurs player (on this forum) get's as much slack for performing well below the standard required in professional football, hell our joint (i think) PL goalscorer was dropped today to accommodate him. I for one want to see ALL Spurs players play well, but at the same time feel that a player should earn his right to play and not get an automatic start because of his price tag which as far as i am concerned over the whole of this season is the only reason that Lamela is being selected. What other reason could there be?

Perhaps had Lennon been fit then he would have started in front of Lamela? One things for sure and that is if it's a question of accommodating either Eriksen or Lamela into this Spurs side then it's obvious which one of the two is should be. Finally if the season ends with Lamela in the same form i would if i were Poch look to loan him next season in order for him to get up to speed as currently he seems so far off the pace it's hard to see any hope for the poor kid. I mean does anyone think that all of a sudden Soldado will start banging in goals so long as we keep starting him?

I really hope Lamela makes it but we cannot afford to carry a player in this league, and over the past few PL games he has really in all honesty been a passenger.

I never said it was wrong (or a mistake) to sub Lamela.

I never said he played well. I said he didn't play as badly as some are making out.

The reference to a vendetta against him wasn't a blanket condemnation of everyone who ever criticises him. It was a direct address to one poster - the one whose post I quoted. He never acknowledges when Lamela has done something good or had a good game, even when Lamela's harshest critics do. He magnifies ever mistakes Lamela makes. Virtually every topic in virtually every thread is an excuse to slag Lamela off. He creates threads just to slag Lamela off - or did I make that bit up :) He rarely comments on anything else other than how rubbish Lamela is and how much he hates him. I have no objection to a fair and well-reasoned critique of Lamela - I criticise him myself, sometimes.

He was lucky to stay on the pitch. I never denied that. I didn't mention it largely because I wasn't arguing to the contrary, but because I was arguing that he is being played out of position, like Sigurddson...and like Eriksen who always contributes more the minute he is moved inside.

I would disagree with you - I think the amount of slack any given player is given is related almost entirely to the preferences and prejudices of the poster commenting. Some are way too harsh on some and way too easy on others, others are the opposite.

Suggesting players get a start due to price tag is exactly the opposite to my opinion. If you waded through my references on the subject you would find that I state time and time again that I really don't give a monkeys cajonas how much a player costs, only how good he is. In fact I would prefer all of our players to cost zilch but be great players - the club will benefit from that. Most of my opinions are pretty simple in this way. It is other posters who go on and on and on about spending money and breaking transfer records. I couldn't care less, I follow what is being done in the youth set-up, am quite excited by it and would love it if we produced a totally home-grown squad. That said, I don't think Lamela has been as bad as some have made out. My main issue with starting him is that he is out of position, not that he is being started per se.

I have no idea what is going down with Lennon - just that if Pochettino started him over Lamela some posters would be happy and others would be spitting blood. Me, I tend to focus on supporting whichever team is picked as my opinion isn't going to change the line-up and I prioritise supporting the club over having my personal opinions vindicated.

I believe I made it clear that if it comes down to either Eriksen or Lamela, on current form alone, Eriksen is the man in pole position, and Lamela would either have to fight for his place from the bench, or adapt to a different position, or be sold.

I think loaning Lamela would be a mistake. Either accommodate him in the team/squad in a way that utilises his undoubted talent or get as much back for him as we can. My preference would be the former as I believe he is a really talented kid, he tries so hard and it looks like it means something to him.

I don't know that Soldado will all of a sudden start banging them in - but it would help if he got service that played to his strengths. He likes to play on the shoulder of the defence and be released early. Once again, today (yesterday, now), I saw him start his runs only for the player on the ball to not release it, again, but instead look around and then play it sideways or back. One of the fundamental features of Pochettino's system is an emphasis on rapidly transitioning the play forward. That would benefit Soldado's game - but it is the most disappointing element that we have failed to adapt, so far.
 
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jezz

Well-Known Member
Aug 21, 2013
5,650
8,650
Berbatov did, oh so did Klinsmann and Keane. As well as Archibald, and Crooks. I mean if you could even say Gilzean and MacKay. I think (and cannot be bothered to look it up) Colin Lee scored four on his home debut against Bristol Rovers ( i think we won 9-0 that day) He was just twenty one years of age at that time.

I am fortunate to have seen them all in the flesh many times, and can honestly say that your assumption that VDV was the "only Fcuking player to come here and play from the off" is in all fairness:

View attachment 16842
Berbatov didn't.
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dimitar_Berbatov
Read the club record with Spurs.
Scored in a few in the tin pot cup.
The one you think is hardly worthy of any footballing standards.
Robbie did well agreed, I think you find he had plenty of experience in the English league before he joined us though.
Klinsmann was good also agreed.
He wasn't exactly a youngster though 29 to be exact.
None had the impact that VDV had.
Im talking about a youngster with no EPL experience, adapting his game to our league.
Thanks for bring up some great names though, always nice to reminisce.
 

Jenko

Well-Known Member
Mar 18, 2004
5,290
4,157
Perhaps we should be playing Kane up top with Eriksen just behind. There is a reason we got dominated today, yes we didn't defend well, but maybe we'd be more robust with Eriksen playing further forward with a more combative midfield behind........

Yeah, With Chadli on the left and Lennon on the right. I don't like Lennon so much as he tends to lost his motivation as soon as his place in the team is assured but at this time theres noone better for us in that position.
 

Lilbaz

Just call me Baz
Apr 1, 2005
41,363
74,893
Lets just savour it becuase soon it will bite us in the arse Our luck will run out and we will be om the reverse on that type of result.

But that will mean change. Ala Ramos. This is just papering over the cracks.

Not saying I want rid of Poch (yet), I'll give him a season. Just want investment (good).
 

sim0n

King of Prussia
Jan 29, 2005
7,947
2,151
Now we have to start doing it at home.
Newcastle next.

Will that be Ade's return?... :nailbiting::p

between he and soldado, I don't know which one is in more turmoil... Spurs need to leave Kane in that #10 spot and get someone to play that #9 in front of him.... please... :mask::cautious::borg:
 

Blackcanary

Dame sans merci
Jul 15, 2012
5,621
12,168
He's seems different of late, more passionate. Maybe it has something to do with the bad eggs not involved in recent games. We definitely have more team spirit in recent games.

He announced his engagement recently so maybe he just feels more happy in general and that's showing on the pitch too.
 
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