I think Dav is your nailed on Romero backup at this point. He doesn't have nearly the passing awareness and full-on eccentricity, but he (maybe to a much lesser extent Tanganga who hasn't figured out how to do it yet without just fouling) is the only one who can replicate at least some of the aggressive pressing up front-foot defending Romero does.
Likely correct, and certainly from a footballing perspective. But if financials go into the equation, Rodon is another right-footed aggressive type CB who can also fill in at CB (CCB? MCB??). Rodon is better with his feet but certainly not as sure as an actual defender. Dav is also a specimen and his speed doesn't get mentioned enough. Dav has also shown to be pretty damn good in the air and had some nice goals to close out the year. But Dav is worth $20M more than Rodon and if that difference finances another transfer, then I have to think that's a possibility.
I think we know the score with Dav. He's an elite physical player; great leaping ability, strong in the air, has great speed to recover and get challenges in. He lacks awareness and is prone to falling asleep on set pieces, which nullifies some of his aerial talents. He's been good when paired with a cerebral partner (like whenever he was with Belgians) but has struggled outside of that. Dier and Sanchez were always a risky pairing because they had similar issues on that end. In a back three it's a little more forgiving (I think Ben Davies has benefitted a lot from that) so he can be less of a risk.
GLC's issue is that Conte's preferred 3-4-3 doesn't really have room for a midfield playmaker. GLC is probably not quite defensive enough to play in Conte's midfield two and doesn't offer enough attacking value to play in the front 3.
You may be right, but I think he could reprise the Deki playmaker role on the right, he could be a terrific 3rd CMF in a 3-5-2, and could be a more attacking CMF option (likely as a sub to your point) when Spurs are chasing a result. Role fit is one thing, but Conte also wants very 'automatic' players who are good at following very specific instructions. That may also play a part in this, although that's hard to know. Eriksen famously chafed at this approach at first (and sat on the bench accordingly) before coming around and becoming a Conte favorite in Milan.
I'd like him back too, but I saw a quote of his (or maybe it was someone close to him) that said Eriksen values new experiences and that led him to ManU.
Spurs will listen to offers for non-touring foursome
Yeah this was great. Even Bissouma, coming out last, on his phone, got a big reaction from the crowd there haha.
Thats going to be a novel calculation this year with the packed schedule and a number of key players heading to Qatar for a month. Guys like Son and Kane who are essential to both club and national team are going to need lots of rotation and recovery.
Parrot is interesting to me in terms of team shape because quality aside (which is a big "other than that how was the play Mrs. Lincoln?"), he's the only person near the roster who is close to Kane in terms of play style and role fit as a kinda 9/10 hybrid guy.
That's awesome. It's easy to forget, but for a young man who may have grown up in hard circumstances to get to travel the world and be cheered like this must be quite a wild feeling. Good for them, good for the Koreans, and good for COYS!!
This was friggin outstanding. On one of the Spurs pods they were talking about the Romero-Richy dynamics and 2 things jumped out. First, regardless of whether they get along or not, the first time Richy goes down and the opposition stands over him or gives him shit, and Romero comes bursting in ready to enforcer the shit outta them will be when the Richy-Romero friendship begins in earnest. OTOH, if Romero doesn't come busting in...
I love this sport, but fuck that looks awful. I don't think Conte will have any trouble managing the squad to peak at the right time. The team has built a ton of depth, and probably isn't quite done. Keep in mind that if some of his depth isn't good enough, or there are injuries, Spurs can reload in January. I trust Conte so friggin much. I think this will be a lot like earlier Barca iterations where you see some funky lineups in 2022, see a shortened rotation in January and February, and by March (i.e. UCL knockouts) we know our best XI (and probably extend that to 13-14) and you ride your horses to the finish.
Oddly, it's not easy to buy Spurs gear in Korea.
He can score, he can create, but if you watch him week in, week out, this is why you love Richarlison. In hockey terms he's a fantastic forechecker. Again, for a team with Son, who is the most ruthless player on a counter I've seen*, this is gold. Richy will run himself into the ground to get that ball high up the pitch, and all he needs to do is leak it out in front of Son and he's off to the races with nothing but fifty yards of green between him and the keeper. You're going to slice up the soft underbellies of so many sides this year.
Conte's won more silverware than I have, but this makes me cringe. It's a very long season, and there's the WC, and Spurs have CL too. The injuries that affect players the most are stress injuries to muscles - hamstrings, quads, etc. - I think this will hurt more than help. What do I know, etc.
The answer must be one of these two things, but I don't know which yet.
It cuts both ways. You can get those injuries by not having the endurance to playing a full game too. Most likely is the players had the last month off with minimal training so they were really feeling it.
That's correct. That Asian Cup gold got the team, including Son, off the military duty.
I don't know. We heard talks about the Patriots running springs up the hills at training camps and how that grueling effort paid off later. We shall see...
I like the shirt alright, but it does look like a training shirt as opposed to a match shirt. As always I'll defer to @dirtynine but I think the 3 centralized elements (the cock, the swoosh, A1A) look too cluttered. The swoosh should be near the shoulder or down by the waist. To a lesser extent, there's something to be said for having the badge/cock over the heart. But I think if the swoosh were moved elsewhere I'd be OK with the cock in the middle.
Paratici is a bad bad mofo. That's likely it for incomings, yeah? Lots of work to do on outgoings still, but this could very well be the squad.
Moura as a starter or as even one of your critical bench options is an issue because of his consistency, relying on a guy who's like "roll the die and hope for a six" is a problem.
