FORMER Manager Watch: Nuno Espírito Santo

[spurs-r-us]

Conte but levy needs to put his hands in his pocket!

Conte plays boring football too and leaves teams in the lurch at a whim. We need to stop looking in the wrong places.

 

[TH1239]

There are three intertwining issues that need resolution quickly if Nuno is to succeed:

#1: Dele, Bergwijn and Moura appear to be first choice players Nuno is counting on to supplement Kane and Son in attack. This, despite the fact that these three players only scored 4 league goals combined last season and have struggled in the final third so far again this season. I don't know how many matches these three will get without scoring goals before they are dropped, but I suspect we won't see the likes of Gil starting league matches any time soon once Bergwijn and Son are back fit.

#2: The preference for several attacking players without end product is compounded when Skipp and Højbjerg are seemingly undroppable in central midfield. Even those who are remarkably bullish on the prospects of these two as a CM pair would likely admit that they aren't going to give you all that much creatively going forward. The argument for starting them is that they are supposed to create a dominant platform defensively to allow the attack to have large spells of possession. Thus far, Skipp and Højbjerg have been completely outplayed in the two away matches against Wolves and Palace, and I haven't yet seen the attacking benefits of playing them both, instead of just one. I cannot see a way in which these two players start every league match, coupled with two of Dele, Bergwijn and Moura starting, and Spurs being able to score the 70 goals we'll need to just finish 6th this season.

#3: There are a lot of calls for Lo Celso, Gil and Ndombele. I think all three players are actually underrated at this stage and have a lot to give, but they need a chance to showcase themselves. However, Nuno has not shown he is remotely ready to give any of three a start in the league. He opted for Winks today instead of Gil and would certainly opt for Son, Bergwijn and Moura over Gil, too. Nuno froze Ndombele out entirely, so I'd be very surprised if he dropped Dele or Skipp any time soon in the league for him. As for Lo Celso, he was available for the first three league matches and Nuno didn't start him once. So, those thinking he will get starts once he is available may be disappointed, as I think it'll take at least another half dozen games of underperformance before Nuno makes changes to the Dele-Skipp-PEH midfield.

 

[dtxspurs]

 

[DCSPUR64]

One bad result and we are writing Nuno off.
Look how many injuries we had!
Three players in quarantine.
I agree, the team looked wounded against palace and the 3 midfielders together, destine for failure but lets get behind the team and hopefully we get a bloody miracle next Sunday.

 

[CanadaSpurs]

Erik ten Hag (Ajax) in the summer

As if he’d come after getting the runaround from us last summer.

 

[DannyNZ]

There are three intertwining issues that need resolution quickly if Nuno is to succeed:

#1: Dele, Bergwijn and Moura appear to be first choice players Nuno is counting on to supplement Kane and Son in attack. This, despite the fact that these three players only scored 4 league goals combined last season and have struggled in the final third so far again this season. I don't know how many matches these three will get without scoring goals before they are dropped, but I suspect we won't see the likes of Gil starting league matches any time soon once Bergwijn and Son are back fit.

#2: The preference for several attacking players without end product is compounded when Skipp and Højbjerg are seemingly undroppable in central midfield. Even those who are remarkably bullish on the prospects of these two as a CM pair would likely admit that they aren't going to give you all that much creatively going forward. The argument for starting them is that they are supposed to create a dominant platform defensively to allow the attack to have large spells of possession. Thus far, Skipp and Højbjerg have been completely outplayed in the two away matches against Wolves and Palace, and I haven't yet seen the attacking benefits of playing them both, instead of just one. I cannot see a way in which these two players start every league match, coupled with two of Dele, Bergwijn and Moura starting, and Spurs being able to score the 70 goals we'll need to just finish 6th this season.

#3: There are a lot of calls for Lo Celso, Gil and Ndombele. I think all three players are actually underrated at this stage and have a lot to give, but they need a chance to showcase themselves. However, Nuno has not shown he is remotely ready to give any of three a start in the league. He opted for Winks today instead of Gil and would certainly opt for Son, Bergwijn and Moura over Gil, too. Nuno froze Ndombele out entirely, so I'd be very surprised if he dropped Dele or Skipp any time soon in the league for him. As for Lo Celso, he was available for the first three league matches and Nuno didn't start him once. So, those thinking he will get starts once he is available may be disappointed, as I think it'll take at least another half dozen games of underperformance before Nuno makes changes to the Dele-Skipp-PEH midfield.

Good thoughts. I think the challenge for Nuno is does he have the ability and will to adapt and to integrate the more talented Footballers like Gil and GLC (maybe Ndombele) at the cost of functionaries like Skipp, PEH, Dele and Moura. Watching Kovacic feed Lukaka was poetry, watching our guys was a labour.

 

[whitesocks]

He is fielding 3 CMs because
i) he had to change his defense - CBs & RB
ii) Same game he didnt have a midfielders & 2 forward wingers.

Nuno went defensive - that's totally understandable given the circumstances. Another 6 month on job - if we play the same way, I can understand people being upset & wanting him out.

I agree with this apart from where you suggest we might be more attacking in 6 months.
The core of the team is defensive and unchanged from last season. We are not a passing possession based team any more- we play best on the break.
The players are pretty much midtable level and so is nuno - they are a good fit.

What might be different in 6 months, is we are lower midtable, and circulating around the plug hole. Even if he has a good record in the derby games, then given very few wanted him in the first place, I think he will have to go.

But first we get to see it all unfold - who knows, unlike his press conferences, he might be inspirational and do well.

 

[cliff jones]

Deeply worried by yesterday’s team selection and tactics.

Not writing him off but wtf?

Levy will never fund Conte, which means the next coach needs to be a high pressing progressive type- Germany produces plenty of these. Watchable football feels like a dream at the moment.

In the meantime it’s going to be a tough watch, including for Kane- those pointing the finger at him can’t see the wood for the trees.

Nuno did not make proper use of what he had at his disposal yesterday, but Levy has left him well short of the depth required to compete.

 

[rossdapep]

There are three intertwining issues that need resolution quickly if Nuno is to succeed:

#1: Dele, Bergwijn and Moura appear to be first choice players Nuno is counting on to supplement Kane and Son in attack. This, despite the fact that these three players only scored 4 league goals combined last season and have struggled in the final third so far again this season. I don't know how many matches these three will get without scoring goals before they are dropped, but I suspect we won't see the likes of Gil starting league matches any time soon once Bergwijn and Son are back fit.

#2: The preference for several attacking players without end product is compounded when Skipp and Højbjerg are seemingly undroppable in central midfield. Even those who are remarkably bullish on the prospects of these two as a CM pair would likely admit that they aren't going to give you all that much creatively going forward. The argument for starting them is that they are supposed to create a dominant platform defensively to allow the attack to have large spells of possession. Thus far, Skipp and Højbjerg have been completely outplayed in the two away matches against Wolves and Palace, and I haven't yet seen the attacking benefits of playing them both, instead of just one. I cannot see a way in which these two players start every league match, coupled with two of Dele, Bergwijn and Moura starting, and Spurs being able to score the 70 goals we'll need to just finish 6th this season.

#3: There are a lot of calls for Lo Celso, Gil and Ndombele. I think all three players are actually underrated at this stage and have a lot to give, but they need a chance to showcase themselves. However, Nuno has not shown he is remotely ready to give any of three a start in the league. He opted for Winks today instead of Gil and would certainly opt for Son, Bergwijn and Moura over Gil, too. Nuno froze Ndombele out entirely, so I'd be very surprised if he dropped Dele or Skipp any time soon in the league for him. As for Lo Celso, he was available for the first three league matches and Nuno didn't start him once. So, those thinking he will get starts once he is available may be disappointed, as I think it'll take at least another half dozen games of underperformance before Nuno makes changes to the Dele-Skipp-PEH midfield.

I agree with this but in fairness to Nuno he went with Skipp, Hojbjerg and Alli because they had been first available and he knew he could count on them (not wanting to leave/not travelling to S America in future).

The problem is we beat City with that set up, meaning that those players earnt the right to play.We then won the next two and when you are a new coach at a club you don't start messing around with the team too much - build a foundation first/consistency.

Lo Celso then had a stinker versus Pacos, which may have led Nuno to feel he's not up to scratch yet.

Now, will be the interesting point because he may have realised he can't depend on some And if Ndombele plays well and proves himself Thursday, he may force himself into the fold.

I was looking at when Poch first arrived. He persisted with Capoue and Bentaleb in centre midfield for a while before he finally decided Dembele had to play a part and he also integrated Mason. He also did that with Kaboul at CB, replacing him, Lennon at RW replacing him with Townsend and Adebayor, finally replacing him with Kane.

I believe Nuno will do the same. I think the fears about Winks, Alli, Hojbjerg and Skipp starting many games together are not justified. Nuno was forced into it and there's no way he'll stick with it if we are playing poorly and losing.

 

[AnotherSpursFan]

Supposely we have two very good midfielders in GLC and Ndombelee but so far have rarely seen them play together.

Utter disgrace

 

[SpursSince1980]

I’m sorta guessing those that hated Jose from the off, wouldn’t be thrilled with Nuno the moment we lost our first game. So, just like last year, this manager thread will be filled with dread and vitriol.

Bummer, as Nuno seems like a good dude. A good man. And, despite what some may feel, he is a good coach. But, will be disliked by 70% of the fans by November, I would wager.

I am hoping he does well, and that the team succeeds as a result. But, he’s on a very short leash. And I think that has a lot to do with the fans and Levy’s fixation with his personal PR. With stadiums full, Danny will hate the booing of the team, if group think takes hold and the majority get angry about the style of football straight from the off.

Hope I’m wrong, but it feels like this might be a year of lots of discontent and squabbling again.

 

[DanielJohnCosta]

seeing wolves fans rejoice playing under lage and realising what watching real football looks like again is proper depressing. Nuno was banging on all pre-season about 'to dare is to do' and how we need to recover our 'DNA and yet, besides the City game we have looked atrocious.

We all had our concerns and this was based on a wolves team last season that had the worst football in the league, I can't see how he is given more than a season if this is what he has to offer. We have had 2 seasons of this under Mourinho.

 

[Church]

So who is starting the “next manager discussion” thread ?

Nuno is not Naive. The fans and club won’t tolerate that sort of performance for very long.

However I’m not going to crucify him over that performance considering the injuries/absentees.
Fitness levels and defence look better this year. Hopefully the main positive from yesterday is that N’dombele and Gil get integrated into the team quickly.

 

[jolsnogross]

Nuno needs to establish an attacking identity and go with it. Trying to contain Palace, whether he planned that or not, is a joke. And playing winks, dele, PEH, and Skipp together is just poor, one paced, and simply not good enough.

He looks like he's settled on 433 and that's fine. But we have certain players who can drive us forward or are deadly finishers, and at least three of those must play or we will not test opposition defences. Son, moura, bergwijn, gil, kane. If 3 of those are available, he's got to pick them.

 

[Karol]

Why would you rebuild with a manager who seemingly doesn’t align with the much spouted ‘DNA’ the club wants moving forward.. doesn’t make too much sense?

Cheap and a yes man?

 

[glacierSpurs]

If we are all very honest, we were great at the start of the season under Mourinho, until to wet spam game that he got so fixated on not conceding and not losing things after and all went South. If Nuno is showing us already what he's intending to do with us in just these 4 games, I'm afraid things, which as they stand are already worse than Mourinho IMO, will only get worse than worse if his ideas are not corrected soon enough. He wouldn't last this season.

 

[nedley]

By the time he got linked again we were in the disastrous Gattuso stage of things so any competent body was looking like a good option, and my real fear was Martinez so once NES was appointed I was fairly satisfied.

Prior to that I wanted Nagelsmann like everyone else, never wanted Poch to come back and really wanted ETH for the vast majority of the summer.

Whilst NES wasn’t in my top 3 choices I certainly wasn’t totally against him. We’re at the very beginning of a difficult rebuild period, he’s had a literally perfect run of initial results and now the thin squad has been absolutely devastated by the international break. I’m not going to start throwing my toys out of the pram yet - we’ve got months of difficulty to come before we can expect the team to gel and start to perform, and I expect at least two more summers of turnover before the job is done.

So far this feels a lot like the start to Poch’s reign, and he was almost sacked early on at one point. He certainly didn’t have us top of the league with three wins out of three including against the champions.

This is the point I'm getting at: acceptance.

I can't understand how the links around other managers can influence and change somebody's opinion of him.

He was a questionable appointment at the begining of the summer, and a questionable one at the end. The situation we found ourselves in doesn't change that for me.

 

[allatsea]

Not sure who ok'd Sanchez, Romero and Lo celso to travel but what an absolutely ridiculous decision that was.

Never miss an opportunity to criticise the club even when you are factually incorrect.

 

[Mattspurs1982]

Do worry about this start from Nuno. Yes we scrapped through three 1-0’s but as others have said, only 1 goal from open play and yesterday was a disaster. Hoping to see a more attacking approach going forward but fearing it will be another slog watching this tottenham when we all hoped that was over with Jose’s departure

 

[Nick-TopSpursMan]

What do you expect he would of done? We were 2nd best long before Tanganga went off, yet he sat there and did nothing. 0-1 down with 10 mins to go, he sat there and did nothing while Gil and Ndombele sat in the bench with their thumbs up their arse

Yes we were missing players, but instead of replacing one of the missing front 3 with an attacker or creative player, he shoehorned another defensively minded midfielder and move Dele out of the position he has performed moderately well in into one he is utterly unsuited too

Spot on.

Yesterday was a complete disgrace from the manager and has gone a long way to proving he isn’t good enough and is yet another defensive manager.

How on earth could he sit there for 45 minutes and not make a single change, either in personnel or tactically, at half time?!! He just sat there looking clueless the entire match.

We are 19th for shots per game and 15th average possession. God knows how bad our chance creation stats are.

And how stupid is he to play the diamond formation and move away from the 433 when he had Gil there who could have played wing forward.

This is only going one way unless he changes dramatically. If he doesn’t, he’s gone before Xmas because our fans will turn very quickly.