There are so many conflicting sides to Romanian defender Vlad Chiriches that there will undoubtedly be mixed opinions after his first season at White Hart Lane. The 24 year old arrived at Tottenham in a bizarre transfer from Steaua Bucharest which at one point was conducted by the Romanian Club president from inside his jail cell.
Vlad subsequently signed up on 24th August 2013 and in his first Premier League game for the club he was voted Man of the Match by Tottenham supporters. That’s where the confusion lies with Chiriches because there seems to be no middle ground with him.
Further encouraging performances followed including another MOTM display against Manchester United on New Year’s Day but on occasions, the player resembles an outfield Heurelho Gomes. A basic error allowed Sunderland to score towards the end of the season and that was followed by a complete meltdown at West Brom that saw Vlad replaced by Zeki Fryers at half time. Another error went unpunished by Aston Villa last Sunday.
Moving forward, we have seen videos from his Steaua days which show the player bursting forward into the opposition box, Beckenbauer style, but while we’ve seen no real evidence of that, his solitary goal against Fulham was one to remember.
Chriches’ behaviour off the pitch has incited criticism too: In January he was filmed stumbling around Bucharest after a night out while he received some stick for going straight on Instagram after his West Brom shocker.
Injury has obviously interfered with his first season but should a new manager look to move him on or does Vlad Chiriches have a big future at Tottenham?
Like so many of our new signings , bloggers, media, columnists and pundits have been very quick to dismiss and criticize Chiriches. I think all players will need to be properly looked at by the new manager, whoever that is, and determine his best starting 11. There will be winners and losers but at least the Europa league does give the opportunity to see (one saving grace). For me Chiriches plays a lot like Bobby Moore so he shouldn’t be considered a centre half as such.
I am certain given time Vlad will be a top player he is a risk taker and while adjusting to the premier league has and will make mistakes,
players like that take time to settle because they need to understand the boundary of what they can get away with
I believe he has shown some great qualities even in a overall bad season
give him time and reap the rewards
I like Vlad the Impala, he does take risks but he is good on the ball and is good at timing his challenges, needs to play on the right of the CB’s though beacsue he is not briliant with his left foot. He is young and must be kept.
Move him on. His distribution has been woeful and we are lucky that not more of his errors have been punished.
Before I completely ruin you what do u think of Dawson?!
He has the technical ability to play in central midfield. I am surprised that he hasn’t been tried in that position.
The boy has magic in his feet, a little bit of coaching and he’ll be a top player for us.
He has great passing, shooting and dribbling ability. He also wins a lot of tackles. He doesn’t appear to be strong in aerial duels like Dawson. Not sure that central defence is his best position. Maybe better as a sweeper or box to box midfielder.
Very good player and will only get better, he adjusted to the PL very quickly. He’s not very good on aerial balls but he’s very good on the ball and a good tackler, reads the game very well.
Only a blind moron would want to get rid of him when our other centre-backs have been so much worse than him. Vertonghen should be straight out the door, Chiriches has been vastly better than him.
Poor in the air, passing >3ms woeful(watch AV match), tackles well but intercepts better, positioning usually good but will not sacrifice self to stop a goal and his up field surges were suicidal without a decent DMC. Typical gutless Eastern European CD and had better improve if he wants to stay. 5.5/10. Wants a move to Chelski according to his agent? You are joking.
What gutless like vidic?! Try watching football before commenting on it
Oh and did Ledley king ever throw himself in front of things?! No because he was so good that he didn’t need to so throwing yourself in front of last ditch shots don’t make u a good cb! Get back to the kitchen
Seen more matches than you and a hell of a lot more good CDs also so maybe you should realise that not everyone has to agree with you. King was a rarity and a class act but even he was not perfect especially when he had the knee problems (mind you, still better than all others) and dear Vlad is a long way off even his shadow. You lot really scare me and not just in your views but how you attack those who disagree with you.
Hes a good defender but needs fine tuning….he has all the ability in the world but needs to know when to take risks, a proper manager will be able to do that.
Tim Sherwood although I liked him in interviews had no system and was whatless, he is a brilliant salesman but with a shit product unfortunately
Chriches under a De Boer would be class
Good player. He has made mistakes (allowed in humans by other humans) but has shown classy, cool play that suggests he is worth spending time on and, if need be, discovering what his best position is.
Absolutely keep him.Younger than, and with much more potential than Dawson & Kaboul. Agree, he had a few blips this term, but then our defense has been woeful all year, we can’t single out Vlad for that.
I’ll be furious if we sell and of him, Lamela & Soldado this summer. You don’t become a bad player overnight, all 3, I think, can blossom next year with the right manager employed.
Bang on!
Couldnt agree more… branded as spurs flops….will flip next year and will come good. Coys
kab0ul was pathetic, when he was playing rare cleansheets can be seen, first rem0ve him…
Vlad has looked abit suspect at times this year but what defender hasn’t in the squad, even vetonghen has at times but that is to be expected when we get over run in the midfield as we did countless times this year. Kaboul is constantly out of position and a blunder merchant when he plays we leak goals. You only have to look at the west ham game to see we was better at the back with 10 men when chireces (or however you spell it) came on then we was before kaboul get sent off! However the main issue in this game was the weak midfield of pauliniho and siggurdson, for me Sandro is the first name on the team sheet, he breaks up the play and allows the other players to go and do there thing team for me lloris, walker daws vertongen rose,
Sandro pauliniho dembele, eriksen lamela soldado
Throw in Chiriches instead of Dawson and I am with you.
Chiriches to stay……
In Levy we trust (especially when he gets de Boer)
COYS
The main problem in the WBA game was the full-backs, as well as Kaboul’s wandering as you mention. The midfield’s pressing was poor too, but WBA didn’t play through the midfield hardly. Also, whilst I agree with you about Sandro when he’s on form, he’s as big a liability as anyone when he’s as out of form as he was post-Xmas
worries me at times too much last ditch defending but may improve in time.
He gets a lot of stick for that performance against WBA, some deserved, some absolutely not. The main issue in that game was not Vlad himself, but the total and utter lack of anyone co-ordinating the back-line, combined with the complete ineptness of our RB, Kyle Naughton. Naughton simply isn’t good enough anyway, but that game was particularly shocking for his positional play. “Going walkabout” doesn’t do justice to Naughton’s wanderings in that game, and Vlad’s supposed partner at CB, Younes Kaboul, was not much better and often out of position. Vlad frequently found himself as the sole defender, having to drop deep to cover the thru ball that was allowed by Kaboul pushing up beyond the halfway line, as well as having to watch his flank that was exposed by Naughton being, well, somewhere else on the pitch. Vlad just never knew whether to stick or twist and so ends up doing neither, stuck in 2 minds whether to press the ball, mark the runner or cover the space. I think that by the 3rd occasion this happened, he just seemed to give up. I do wonder whether language is the issue, CB’s need to communicate with each other which may not be the easiest with a Romanian and a Frenchman, and even if basic communication is achievable, is Vlad capable of dishing out the sort of rollocking Naughton severely needed to stop repeatedly gallivanting off up the pitch even when Spurs weren’t in possession of the football? Vlad was not entirely blameless, and for him to give up, whilst understandable to a degree given the hopelessness of the task left to him by his team-mates, was never really acceptable, but he seems to have shifted the focus of criticism away from the rest of our defenders and they were, in my opinion, more at fault than him in all 3 goals.