The Player Improvement Thread

[scat1620]

Kyle Walker needs to work on adding -Peters to his surname.

As someone who thinks you've been disproportionately harsh on Walker over the years, will hold my hand up and say that that sentence made me laugh out loud. Fair play.

 

[eddiev14]

Useing your opposite foot for lamela is more than likely a confidence issue
I am sure he can use it but it's more about training your mind then just having a practice
Do you ever try to write with your wrong hand ? It's just not natural it feels awkward and normally at adult age is a incredibly difficult thing to learn

It's why we now try to teach kids as young as possible to use both feet so it becomes a normal thing for the mind to process.

The more you practice something the more confident you become. I think he's become used to just using his left because he's talented enough to get away with it. He'd be far more dangerous if he sharpened up his right foot and used it more though, far less predictable.

 

[UpTownSpur]

Eriksen's delivery from corners is one of my biggest annoyances at the moment. Great player, but how can you be that great at free-kicks and that poor at corners?! I'm sure I heard in the commentary the other day that we've scored the most goals from set pieces this season - you could add a few more to that if our delivery from corners was better. We seem to play short corners more and more often these days, surely we have someone capable of whipping in a decent ball.

This has been discussed before. Three goals have come from Eriksen corners this season, a total not many players in the league can match. All the goals came from a Spurs players beating the opposition's "first man" I.e. He's aiming for that area and it's inevitable sometimes the first man will get it most of the time. It's a high risk reward statgegy that has paid higher dividends than Lamela's floaty corners, that have led to no goals this season.

All goals that come from corners are caused by bad defending and a success rate of one goal per ten corners would be exceptional.

 

[danielneeds]

Want to see Vertonghen bringing the ball into midfield with those surging runs of his more often. It almost always results in the opposition defensive block being disrupted, and more often than not a decent chance comes of it.

And with Dier there to drop back in alongside Toby, the risk factor is minimal. Obviously I'm not saying do it every time he has the ball, but definitely more of it please, Jan.

 

[tooey]

This has been discussed before. Three goals have come from Eriksen corners this season, a total not many players in the league can match. All the goals came from a Spurs players beating the opposition's "first man" I.e. He's aiming for that area and it's inevitable sometimes the first man will get it most of the time. It's a high risk reward statgegy that has paid higher dividends than Lamela's floaty corners, that have led to no goals this season.

All goals that come from corners are caused by bad defending and a success rate of one goal per ten corners would be exceptional.

There is no point in trying to argue with facts against people that sit on their sofa's with their carlings screaming "fackin ell Eriksen beat the first fackin man".

 

[guy]

Son needs to cut out the back heels

Jan has improved immeasurably on all fronts from last season to this, so well done to him.

Eriksen definitely needs to improve his corners or let lamela take them.

On corners, the short option pretty much never works, mostly we just end up losing the ball around the 18 yard box. Why give up the chance to whip in an unopposed corner? Especially with beasts in the air like Toby, Dier & Harry

 

[Chris12]

This has been discussed before. Three goals have come from Eriksen corners this season, a total not many players in the league can match. All the goals came from a Spurs players beating the opposition's "first man" I.e. He's aiming for that area and it's inevitable sometimes the first man will get it most of the time. It's a high risk reward statgegy that has paid higher dividends than Lamela's floaty corners, that have led to no goals this season.

All goals that come from corners are caused by bad defending and a success rate of one goal per ten corners would be exceptional.

Didn't Lamela have more assists from corners last season? Lamelas corners are put into the danger zone more often than Eriksens, it's not exactly his fault people aren't utilising those chances.

There is no point in trying to argue with facts against people that sit on their sofa's with their carlings screaming "fackin ell Eriksen beat the first fackin man".

But that's a fact as well. A lot of his corners rarely beat the first man. Those people aren't wrong. Especially considering how many corners Eriksen does takes, he should be creating a lot more chances.

 

[Borks]

This has been discussed before. Three goals have come from Eriksen corners this season, a total not many players in the league can match. All the goals came from a Spurs players beating the opposition's "first man" I.e. He's aiming for that area and it's inevitable sometimes the first man will get it most of the time. It's a high risk reward statgegy that has paid higher dividends than Lamela's floaty corners, that have led to no goals this season.

All goals that come from corners are caused by bad defending and a success rate of one goal per ten corners would be exceptional.

Using stats only from this season is bollocks, especially when you're comparing 2 players that don't take the same number of corners. "3 from 60 attempts" compared with "0 from 12 attempts" may offer a bit more clarity but I'd be interested to see Eriksen's assist tally from corners in his 3 seasons at Spurs because last season for example he had 2 assists TOTAL in 38 league games. Not exactly the stats you'd expect from the playmaker, corner taker and free kick taker.

Eriksen will never move to a club bigger than Spurs as he has no desire to improve. For as much as I dislike the bloke, Ronaldo has become the second best player in the world through sheer determination to practice at every opportunity. Does/will Eriksen do the same to fulfil his potential? Even though I don't feel any real affinity to Eriksen, I recognise his potential, but that's all it is at the moment and I think Pritchard will provide more key passes/assists from that role in a year or two.

 

[dagraham]

Agree about the Kane selfish play thing. All strikers are selfish, but Kane is taking it a bit far by shooting from some ridiculous angles. The thing is, his passing and all round game is so good that if he could improve his decision making he could get a lot of assists.

Also agree about Ali and the show boating. However, he's young and enjoying himself and I wouldn't want to put the brakes on him atthis stage.

Walker needs to stay behind after training and practice crossing the ball. Study someone like Sagna for example.

Lamela's work off the ball cannot be faulted. However his contribution with the ball still leaves a lot to be desired imo. He is a very good passer of the ball, but doesn't create enough clear cut openings for me, nor threatens the goal enough. In the tight games he rarely comes up with a match winning contribution.

 

[JimmyG2]

A lot of the time that tempo is dictated by Hugo who can be in a few minds as to who to give the ball to when he has more than one option.

Yes, that too.
But I was thinking more of when the ball is eventually played out.
The slow paced passing along the back four.
I understand the intention to allow our players time to make runs,
switch the focus of the attack, lure them out
as per coaching manuals
but we need to be quicker at doing it and making the forward pass.

Better now that Toby and Jan are making forward runs with the ball.
But generally speaking teams are happy
to see centre halves come over the half way line
and not Eriksen,Dembele, Mason,Lamela or Ali with the ball.

 

[Deleted member 29446]

Eriksen's corners are hit with such- and the most power in the Premier League. And as the guy above me said, these powerfull corners allow players like Toby/Dier to get infront of the defenders.

I'm 100% sure that Eriksen could hit corners that remind of Lamela's all the time, but that's obviously not the strategy from Poch & the team. A strategy that's has resulted in Spurs being the most scoring team on set pieces this season so far. Who woulda thought that about Spurs.

 

[dudu]

Eriksen's corners are hit with such- and the most power in the Premier League. And as the guy above me said, these powerfull corners allow players like Toby/Dier to get infront of the defenders.

I'm 100% sure that Eriksen could hit corners that remind of Lamela's all the time, but that's obviously not the strategy from Poch & the team. A strategy that's has resulted in Spurs being the most scoring team on set pieces this season so far. Who woulda thought that about Spurs.

Genuine question - are we also the most goals per set piece or just the highest scoring? Two very different stats.

 

[thinktank]

Yes, that too.
But I was thinking more of when the ball is eventually played out.
The slow paced passing along the back four.
I understand the intention to allow our players time to make runs,
switch the focus of the attack, lure them out
as per coaching manuals
but we need to be quicker at doing it and making the forward pass.

Better now that Toby and Jan are making forward runs with the ball.
But generally speaking teams are happy
to see centre halves come over the half way line
and not Eriksen,Dembele, Mason,Lamela or Ali with the ball.

I think we've improved with that on the whole and Dier/Alli/Eriksen/Dembele/Mason usually drop very deep to give verts/toby options to generate play quickly.

Before stoke we were ok with this. I think Stoke's physicality took us back a bit and fazed us and we couldn't get our game going properly. They did a good job in disrupting us. Anyone who goes there will have a big problem if they have those particular players fit and they play like that.

Saying that, I would be slightly concerned if we played at the same pace against Newcastle. But I don't think we will. They will be wide open imo.

Agree about the Kane selfish play thing. All strikers are selfish, but Kane is taking it a bit far by shooting from some ridiculous angles. The thing is, his passing and all round game is so good that if he could improve his decision making he could get a lot of assists.

Also agree about Ali and the show boating. However, he's young and enjoying himself and I wouldn't want to put the brakes on him atthis stage.

Walker needs to stay behind after training and practice crossing the ball. Study someone like Sagna for example.

Lamela's work off the ball cannot be faulted. However his contribution with the ball still leaves a lot to be desired imo. He is a very good passer of the ball, but doesn't create enough clear cut openings for me, nor threatens the goal enough. In the tight games he rarely comes up with a match winning contribution.

I think it's more asking him to pick and choose his moments more carefully than putting the brakes on. I'd rather he get that into his head asap and not develop unhelpful habits that become totally ingrained. It would actually allow him to progress at a greater rate imo.

 

[UpTownSpur]

Didn't Lamela have more assists from corners last season? Lamelas corners are put into the danger zone more often than Eriksens, it's not exactly his fault people aren't utilising those chances.

But that's a fact as well. A lot of his corners rarely beat the first man. Those people aren't wrong. Especially considering how many corners Eriksen does takes, he should be creating a lot more chances.

This is true but his corners have no pace and they're easier to defend against, and goals scored from his corners are generally just rank bad defending - whereas goals from Eriksen's corners tend to be 50-50 between bad defending and good attacking play.

If Lamela took direct free kicks I've no doubt less of them compared to Eriksen's would hit the wall or go over, but he'd still score less goals! Or would you blame that on the keeper somehow being better at saving Lamela's shots!

Using stats only from this season is bollocks, especially when you're comparing 2 players that don't take the same number of corners. "3 from 60 attempts" compared with "0 from 12 attempts" may offer a bit more clarity but I'd be interested to see Eriksen's assist tally from corners in his 3 seasons at Spurs because last season for example he had 2 assists TOTAL in 38 league games. Not exactly the stats you'd expect from the playmaker, corner taker and free kick taker.

Eriksen will never move to a club bigger than Spurs as he has no desire to improve. For as much as I dislike the bloke, Ronaldo has become the second best player in the world through sheer determination to practice at every opportunity. Does/will Eriksen do the same to fulfil his potential? Even though I don't feel any real affinity to Eriksen, I recognise his potential, but that's all it is at the moment and I think Pritchard will provide more key passes/assists from that role in a year or two.

The stats were calculated in another thread, and before the West Brom game, they were, from League games only:

Lamela: 18 corners, 8 chances/completed passes - no goals
Eriksen: 26 corners 7 chances/completed passes - 2 goals

So that's one goal every 13 corners, which is absolutely exceptional I can assure you.

The average seems to be around 1 goal per 40 corners:

http://talksport.com/football/surprising-stats-pl-teams-most-likely-score-corners-150127133651

If you judge a player solely by how much they resemble the Duracell bunny when playing, then Eriksen comes off badly compared to others, but if you judge him on his ability to find space, see passes and strike a football with both feet with power, then Eriksen looks a rather good player.

 

[Matthew Wyatt]

Genuine question - are we also the most goals per set piece or just the highest scoring? Two very different stats.

I'm confused. How is "most goals" different to "highest scoring"?

And on Eriksen's corners, I agree with @UpTownSpur's suggestion that aiming at the first man is likely the intention, and practised in training. If it comes off you get a beauty like Toby's last goal, and if it doesn't people think he hasn't hit it high and floaty enough. It's a better percentage strategy than Lamela's corners.

 

[dudu]

I'm confused. How is "most goals" different to "highest scoring"?

And on Eriksen's corners, I agree with @UpTownSpur's suggestion that aiming at the first man is likely the intention, and practised in training. If it comes off you get a beauty like Toby's last goal, and if it doesn't people think he hasn't hit it high and floaty enough. It's a better percentage strategy than Lamela's corners.

most goals "per" set piece.

Meaning that we can very well be scoring the most amount of goals from set pieces but it may still be taking us twice as many set pieces to score that amount than other have had.

 

[thinktank]

Look at Draxler here...



This is the sort of thing Harry needs to do to develop his game and add colour to it. 'What's the best way for us to score here'...

 

[Kiedis]

A general problem with Vertonghen, Rose and Walker is their general tendency to give away needless fouls around our box. The amount of times these guys see it necassary to hack down some dude that's facing the corner flag or their own goal is pretty annoying. It is possible to be aggressive without being retarded.

 

[whitelanefever]

A general problem with Vertonghen, Rose and Walker is their general tendency to give away needless fouls around our box. The amount of times these guys see it necassary to hack down some dude that's facing the corner flag or their own goal is pretty annoying. It is possible to be aggressive without being retarded.

All 3 0f them picked up needless yellows against Chelsea for needlessly diving into tackles. It's something that really annoys me when defenders go off there feet.. it should be a last resort like Danny v WBA that was fine good play because he had to do it.. but when they do it there's always a risk of a red card if it goes wrong. Great defenders like Baresi , Nesta, Maldini & even King how many times would you see them diving into tackles.. very very rarely because the worst thing a defender can do is take themselves out of the game if you go to ground in the tackle that's exactly what they are doing.. if there positioning is right they shouldn't have to.

 

[Luka Van der Bale]

There is no point in trying to argue with facts against people that sit on their sofa's with their carlings screaming "fackin ell Eriksen beat the first fackin man".

Yep. I know less about football than you because, being from Northern Ireland, I can't attend matches and watch them on the TV. Makes perfect sense.