The reason for Sunday's line-up???

[brasil_spur]

Ok so i have a theory, and it is just that, nothing more.

But i reckon that Sr. Ramos has sat down and decided that there is nothing left for us to achieve this season, realistically. So he has thought that the only real thing he can do with the team is to see how versatile and how skilled our current players are.

To this end he has decided to test players by playing them out of position and in different formations.

IF this is the case then i'm all for it (well i guess i would as it is my theory and all).

I think that the most useful thing we can do between now and the end of the season is test our players to their limits and see who has the potential and skill to make the cut over the summer.

So far it looks like not many will make it.

I mean does anyone really care if we finish 11th, 10th, 9th or even 12th???

 

[paul_1979yid]

Ok so i have a theory, and it is just that, nothing more.

But i reckon that Sr. Ramos has sat down and decided that there is nothing left for us to achieve this season, realistically. So he has thought that the only real thing he can do with the team is to see how versatile and how skilled our current players are.

To this end he has decided to test players by playing them out of position and in different formations.

IF this is the case then i'm all for it (well i guess i would as it is my theory and all).

I think that the most useful thing we can do between now and the end of the season is test our players to their limits and see who has the potential and skill to make the cut over the summer.

So far it looks like not many will make it.

I mean does anyone really care if we finish 11th, 10th, 9th or even 12th???

I care.
i am pretty sure most Yids would not want us to get beat in all our remaining games too.

 

[Disconosebleed]

I don't have a problem with him experimenting and if it loses us a couple of places in the league then it's not a big problem, as long as it shows something in the long term. The problem is that the performance on Sunday was not down to players being played out of position...they just weren't interested.

In any case, I don't think the experiments were the right ones. 4-3-3 isn't a viable formation for us when our midfielders are so lacking defensively...why experiment with formations we're very unlikely to use, when Ramos could blood a few kids to see if they're good enough. That seems the obvious thing to do, maybe it says a lot about the quality of our youngsters that Ramos hasn't already done so - he brought O'Hara into the fold pretty much as soon as he took over, perhaps he'd like to throw a few other kids in but just doesn't rate any of them highly enough.

It would be good to see a few of them given a shot though. I'm talking particularly about Rose, Pekhart, Dervite (or Archie) and maybe Forecast - highly-rated youngsters who play in the positions we're going to be looking to strengthen in the summer. Rose in particular should be given a go seeing as we're so desperate for a left winger. Ramos rated him highly enough to put him on the bench for the Sunderland game, so why not give him a run out alongside an otherwise full-strength side and see what he can do. Remember, Lennon was in much the same position three years ago, coming from nowhere to become one of our most highly-rated players within a year. Giving Rose a go wouldn't end our need for a top left winger, but it seems odd that we're in the market for a young left winger like Johnson. Presumably we're not expecting to make Johnson a first choice player if we were to sign him, so why not see what Rose can do before making that outlay?

Pekhart is another one I'd like to see given a go, just to see what he can do. As things stand we only have three strikers in the first team squad, one injury to any of those and we're looking at a bench packed with midfielders...assuming we can keep all three of those for next season we would still need a fourth choice striker, so give Pekhart a go and see if he's good enough for that role. I'd rather take that risk than spend money on an 'established' striker who would be fourth choice for us.

Also, give Taarabt a start. In his favourite position. I'd like to see us give it a go, maybe not this season but in one of the summer friendlies...his talent is ridiculous, so why not give him 90 minutes where the team is built around using his talent as much as possible - maybe in a free role with the other midfielders sitting deeper. As it stands he's a huge talent but a massive risk as he tries to do too much and gets caught out too often - give him a role where losing the ball doesn't leave us short of numbers, and see what he can do.

 

[eddiebailey]

Problem is there are not a lot of youngsters pushing for a start. Taarabt, Gunter and Rose are the only real possibles, and Taarabt's substitute appearances are doing him no favours. Talents like Dixon and Davis are permanently lost to us because of injury. McKenna and Mills are missing presumed injured. Dervite and Maghoma are still rehabilitating. Daniels and Barcham are on loan, and not pulling up any trees. Pekhart is just not showing enough to justify first team involvement (if we were to blood a striker I would prefer it to be Dawkins). The others, with the possible exception of the injury prone Archibald-Henville, are just not ready.

 

[PT]

It won't take too much effort (or lack of) to find us flirting with the last team to drop down and I'm not up for that - won't accept it, whatever the justification.

In addition, the Spurs accountants will see many hundreds of thousands dropping off the turnover if we so much as drop an additional league place.

Ramos isn't simple. He will know who can do what, with stats and medical evidence and a pair of eyes watching training conclusions.

 

[chinaman]

Ramos has been reputed to want players who are versatile, thus Chimbo and Zoko had played successfully in positions other than their favourite spots. If he can assemble a squad of versatile players who can play to a high degree of efficiency in different positions, we won't need for example 5 or 6 CDs or more than 7 MFs and the like. This will in turn lead to a smaller squad, saving some bucks for a couple of superstars.

 

[llamafarmer]

I care.
i am pretty sure most Yids would not want us to get beat in all our remaining games too.

Agreed. It doesn't look great to potential signings if we drop to 15th by the end of the season and then say "Oh yeah it's ok, because we just fucked about for the last 6 games, we didn't really give a toss."

I'm sure Ramos will experiment a little now, but doing it to the detriment of our results wouldn't be acceptable. Sunday was a fucking embarrassment!

 

[Northernspurs]

I think the people who pay for their tickets care!

 

[van_Pommel]

I'd like to see a midfield of

Rose-O'Hara-Huddlestone-Taarabt

at some point. As has been said, Lennon came from nowhere and did really well. Thats never going to happen if the players aren't given the chance.

 

[brasil_spur]

I didn't say we should go out and play like idiots and loose all our games, i think the emphasis still has to obviously be on winning games (i mean who plays a game of football and doesn't want to win???).

Rather i was saying that we could expirement a bit and see if we there are better formations that could work for us.

All this talk of relegation etc... is crazy, we have been doing fine under Ramos and last games defeat to Newcastle was a hick-up, not something i would expect us to do regulalry, even if we do expirement.

I don't see why any fans would be that bothered between finishing 11th or 12th at this point in time.......

 

[eddiebailey]

I'd like to see a midfield of

Rose-O'Hara-Huddleston-Taarabt

Eek

 

[van_Pommel]

Eek

I knew somebody would react like that. Its not that bad of a midfield. We know O'Hara and Huddlestone can hack it, remember how well O'Hara palyed at the Emirates? Lennon and Steed aren't exactly setting the world alight so why not give a couple of youngsters a go. Especially considering its not the end of the world if we lose.

 

[Juande]

Has anyone actually thought that some of the first team are just not that great, i read and read on here about the players have potential, but we seem to be saying that every season, maybe alot of people should actually just hold there hands up and say not good enough. Ramos has made his point clear that next season its top six and maybe a cup, the following season top 4 and CL.
When you actually go through our first team, we are shocking in midfield, our players there are just not up to taking us into the top 4, if they were then why are the top 4 not after any of them???
I agree there is potential but, Ramos mught be right, "do these players want it enough".
And he is right to question the attitude for the Lesser games, in four months this man won us a cup, and has changed alot of things from what i have read, and i for one unlike many on here do not blame him for Sunday, he has to see if these players can adapt to different tactics and styles, and the answer is not alot of them cant, i for one think he will make alot of changes in the summer, and i have total trust in a man who is a proven winner.

 

[Disconosebleed]

I'd like to see a midfield of

Rose-O'Hara-Huddlestone-Taarabt

I don't see what that would achieve. Chances are a midfield as inexperienced as that would get rolled over - I'd far rather see Rose or Taarabt given a game alongside an otherwise first-choice team, those are the conditions they would be playing under if they were first-choice. It's unlikely we'd see what Rose or Taarabt are really capable of if they're playing alongside other youngsters or fringe players.

I'd definitely like to see Rose get a game. The fact that he made the bench once suggests Ramos considers him capable of playing at this level, so throw him into a game and see what he can do. Maybe not 90 minutes, but a good half hour or so.

 

[Bus-Conductor]

I think your theory is highly unlikely for various reasons. Ramos does not like losing. He wants to finish as high up the table as possible just like the rest of us. There were no "new" players out there sunday, all familiar faces.

He quite simply had watched Newcastle and seen them play a 433 and tried to match it up assuming that we would have the ability to outplay a side lacking in confidence who had been playing so poorly.

It just simply did not work for various reasons. Huddlestone canot cope in a 4 man midfield let alone a 3. OHara was hopelessly out of his depth at LB. Berbatove is not strong enough to play the No.10 role. Bent was like a spare prick at a wedding. Twice taking great chances off the foot of keane (who almost certainly would have made better use of them) and spent most of the game not knowing where and how to play in the system (not all his fault). Malbranque works hard but drifts around leaving Zokora hopelessly outnumbered by the very industrious and hard grafting midfield of Newcastle. Had bent made more of the other 3 chances wemight have been able to piss it, their late equaliser and early second half goals and two more floaters coming on (Lennon & Taarabt) could have been inspired if they had created a decent chance between them (or a couple) but they didn't and ended up just adding to the malais.