Not it if you aim for 3rd and get 5th, instead of aiming for 4th and getting 4th...
Team for Norwich...
- Thread starter Mr Pink
- Start date
Not it if you aim for 3rd and get 5th, instead of aiming for 4th and getting 4th...
SEANSPURS1975
Well-Known Member
- Sep 21, 2005
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Lloris; Walker, Alderweireld, Wimmer, Rose; Dier, Dembele; Son, Alli, Eriksen; Kane
Bus-Conductor
SC Supporter
- Oct 19, 2004
- 39,837
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What you seem to be Sloth, is a highlights pundit.
I guess if you have only watched MOTD you could say Alli's performances have been fantastic. If not then you are demonstrating a staggering level of misunderstanding of what you've been watching. I can't remember the last time Alli put in a fantastic performance. He was decent as a CM against Liverpool but was far from fantastic. He's been varying degrees of meh to pretty awful in the last couple of months - in terms of his overall performance.
What Alli is right now is a player capable of producing great moments but who is struggling to find a 90 minute role in a format that doesn't accommodate him very well, hence him being played in various positions from CM to ACM to last couple ALM.
What we have in Bentaleb is a player who proved over a whole season he consistently performs well for 90 minutes but produces the very odd bad moments. I would hope that as a 20yo they would decrease with experience, but even so, he is not alone, all our other midfielders make the same errors so I don't really understand why Bentaleb should be singled out, unless you are biased against him.
If we are going to play a 4231 then I want a central midfielder like Bentaleb in the CM2, not Alli or Dembele. I want a player who constantly shows for the ball, recycles the ball quickly and efficiently, is dynamic enough to do this for 90 minutes - especially if the other player in there is the more positionally disciplined Dier.
I am not saying that every minute of every 90 minutes we have been playing badly. Far from it. I am saying there are facets to our overall performance that I think can be improved. We need to move the ball quicker and more incisively from CM at times and we need to be able to control and recycle the ball more at others (like when we are leading in games). We could have very easily lost games against relatively weaker teams like Watford and Palace before we eventually won them. We did lose at home to Leicester. Only if you don't look past result and actually look at performance can you say everything has been fantastic.
If we are going to play 4231 then we have players (Eriksen, Lamela, Son, Chadli, Njie, Pritchard, Onomah) who can produce moments but also fit roles the attacking midfield format better. We have players like Mason, Bentaleb, Winks and on a good day Dembele who are all better central midfielders in a premiership CM2 than Alli is right now.
The way you portray Bentaleb as being virtually a total liability every time he plays and comparing my assessment to him with my assessment to Walker is ridiculous. Walker is a - relatively speaking - a footballer with low intellect who for the majority of his time with us hasn't defended any better than most RB's (and worse than many) in the EPL, continually wastes the vast majority of attacking situations and also makes diabolical, goal costing errors.
There were only 5 midfielders who saw more ball in games than Bentaleb last season and 4 of them are the best in the league (Matic, Fabregas, Yaya, Schniederlin). Only two of them gave the ball away less. Bentaleb isn't perfect, he has learning to do, we (those that rate him) all acknowledge this, but he was a 20yo having his first full season last year and was one of our most consistent performers, and one of the best box to box CM2 players in the league last year - unless you are only watching MOTD highlight reels of course. Surely logic says a kid with the temperament and intelligence to have got himself to being a mainstay in a top 5 team and consistently perform well there, has the potential to keep learning and improving ?
He dad a bad first game. I said so. He then got a bad injury and then another injury in his come back game. Bentaleb in all the games he's played hasn't had a game as 90 min bad as some of Alli's lately.
I repeat, I am not saying I would drop Alli, I would play a 433 and accommodate his skill set that way.
But just like last year with Chadli, or Yaya etc at ManC or Gerrard at Liverpool (remember when they demolished us at home - no Gerrard, but a 433 with Allen instead) or Real Madrid I don't believe that a team having all it's "moment" producers on the pitch at the same time is always the best recipe for balance, harmony or efficiency
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stevenurse
Palacios' neck fat
- May 14, 2007
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Surely Chadli had earned his place in the team?
Dier, Dembele, Chadli, Alli, Lamela (or eriksen) would b fair enough for me.
It's great we have so much strength in depth. Chadli had earned his spot and should get a start
*coming from someone who rates Chadli the least of our attacking midfielders
Dier, Dembele, Chadli, Alli, Lamela (or eriksen) would b fair enough for me.
It's great we have so much strength in depth. Chadli had earned his spot and should get a start
*coming from someone who rates Chadli the least of our attacking midfielders
Ghost Hardware
Well-Known Member
- Aug 31, 2012
- 18,374
- 63,225
I think Chadli starting will purely be down to wether or not Poch thinks he is fit enough to play two games in four days yet. Son and Alli didn't start and Lamela came off early so I wouldn't be surprised if any two of those + Eriksen (who hardly ever gets dropped) start tonight over Chadli regardless of his current goal scoring form.
Abdoujaparov
Active Member
- Feb 7, 2011
- 325
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Can only guess how tired/fresh the players are feeling, but I reckon Poch will play:
Lloris
Walker, Alderweireld, Dier, Rose
Dembele, Bentaleb
Eriksen, Alli, Chadli
Kane
Wimmer is less proven than Dier and for an important away game in the Prem, I'd expect Poch to favour Dier. I reckon
Walker will just get the nod ahead of Trippier (excellent recently) because we need leaders on the pitch with our Vice Captain out and Walker was captain against Leicester.
Chadli has to play after his recent performances - would send a terrible message to the players if he left him on the bench. You have to reward success if you want to get the most out of your squad. He'll take Eriksen's place on the left cutting in and Eriksen will switch out of position to the right where he'll drop a little deeper and inside to create play. Bentaleb is a bit of a risk, but is showing signs of coming back to form and will be less exposed (he has some serious quality around him) than our CBs who could easily lose us the game. For that reason, I'd rather have Bentaleb at CM than Wimmer at CB.
Lloris
Walker, Alderweireld, Dier, Rose
Dembele, Bentaleb
Eriksen, Alli, Chadli
Kane
Wimmer is less proven than Dier and for an important away game in the Prem, I'd expect Poch to favour Dier. I reckon
Walker will just get the nod ahead of Trippier (excellent recently) because we need leaders on the pitch with our Vice Captain out and Walker was captain against Leicester.
Chadli has to play after his recent performances - would send a terrible message to the players if he left him on the bench. You have to reward success if you want to get the most out of your squad. He'll take Eriksen's place on the left cutting in and Eriksen will switch out of position to the right where he'll drop a little deeper and inside to create play. Bentaleb is a bit of a risk, but is showing signs of coming back to form and will be less exposed (he has some serious quality around him) than our CBs who could easily lose us the game. For that reason, I'd rather have Bentaleb at CM than Wimmer at CB.
Abdoujaparov
Active Member
- Feb 7, 2011
- 325
- 82
FWIW, I reckon Norwich will give us a real game. We've had it too easy against Norwich in recent years and it will be difficult to guard against complacency. Naismith is a good signing too. Norwich really should have beaten Liverpool a couple of weekends ago.
Borks
Well-Known Member
- Jun 22, 2014
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Arguably our best outfield performer behind Kane last season, a few poor performances this season doesn't convince me that he's not good enough for the league.
I think its a bit of a push to claim he was our second best outfield player last season, Eriksen and Chadli notably better IMO.
His composure is impressive for someone of his age and I think much of the hype of last season was based on potential and future ability rather than any particular impressive performances. Despite a solid season I can't really remember too many matches where he has been the standout player.
Time will tell and I hope of course he turns out to be a good player for us but I just think he is largely overrated by our fan base.
Lighty64
I believe
- Aug 24, 2010
- 10,400
- 12,476
I want us to win the EL, in fact I want us to win every trophy we compete for
Lighty64
I believe
- Aug 24, 2010
- 10,400
- 12,476
so if we manage to get top 4, is there any point playing in the CL next season? or are you expecting us to spend 2-300m on the squad so we can compete
Everlasting Seconds
Well-Known Member
- Jan 9, 2014
- 14,914
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Apart from Davies being the best LB this season.
Not that I care much for either one of them.
Borks
Well-Known Member
- Jun 22, 2014
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See I can remember quite a few games where he absolutely bossed the midfield; lets not give MOM awards out just because someone scored a goal. Chadli and Eriksen are both prone to going missing for large periods of a game but have scored vital goals, so which contribution is greater?
robbiedee
Mama said knock you out
- Jul 6, 2012
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He was out for a while so his match sharpness will improve. He's made a couple of howlers in his last 2 games but we managed to come out of them unscathed. He'll get back to where he was with a few games under his belt.
However...Bentaleb and Carroll as our middle 2 two leaves us weaker in front of defense. I'd like to see Dier back in DM and Wimmer dropped into CB...which completely contradicts my first sentence. Can Dier play with Bentaleb or is that uber defensive???
I don't think it's any coincidence that we've performed well with Dier as DM. Why interfere with that piece of the jigsaw when we have a ready made CB in Wimmer???
I haven't got a bloody clue! Nice to have so many bloody options I suppose...
Hugo
Walker Toby Wimmer/Dier Rose
Dier/Bentaleb Dembele
Lamella Alli Eriksen
Kane
Supersi32
Well-Known Member
- Jul 23, 2008
- 2,525
- 2,754
He`s definitely good enough, young players make mistakes, that's part of the process, the slightly annoying thing with Bentaleb is that he keeps repeating the same mistake...
Lighty64
I believe
- Aug 24, 2010
- 10,400
- 12,476
how very dare you
I copied your OP but must admit I was being lazy
Lloris
Walker
Toby
Wimmer
Rose
Dier/Dembele
Alli/Dembele
Son
Eriksen
Chadli
Kane
think we need to get at them right from the start, the only thing about this game is if we were to fall behind early I feel we could still win it, especially after watching their game v Liverpool
garryparkerschest
Well-Known Member
- Apr 24, 2012
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Team v Norwich, Lloris, Trippier, Davies, Alderweireld,Wimmer, Dier, Dembele, Chadli, Alli, Eriksen and Kane.
I was thinking about starting with Walker but Trippier played so well against Colchester I think it would be unfair if fit not to play him.
Same with Chadli who was outstanding against the U's, he offers more of an attacking threat than Lamela and I do think Norwich will be on the back foot so the onus will be for us to attack.
I was thinking about starting with Walker but Trippier played so well against Colchester I think it would be unfair if fit not to play him.
Same with Chadli who was outstanding against the U's, he offers more of an attacking threat than Lamela and I do think Norwich will be on the back foot so the onus will be for us to attack.
