The Mirror have reported that Spurs have dropped out of the race to sign the Newcastle attacking midfielder Georginio Wijnaldum.
Rated at £25m by the Magpies, it’s claimed that Tottenham have decided the valuation is too high, leaving Liverpool as the favourites to sign the Dutchman.
It will be interesting to see whether the interest from the club has ended merely because of the valuation, or due to the probable signing of Georges-Kevin Nkoudou.
By bringing another wide player into the squad there is less need to play either Dele Alli or Christian Eriksen on one of the flanks, after a season in which both spent some time cutting in from wide positions. With the likes of Son Heung-Min also able to play in a central role if needed, does Mauricio Pochettino have enough options in this position now?
Much could depend on who departs, with the likes of Son, Nacer Chadli, Clinton Njie and Alex Pritchard all linked with moves away at various times this summer. Do you think Spurs still need another attacking midfielder to help to compete next season?
Spurs need signings that are going to get in the side, not warm the bench, we’re not improving the team we’re only improving the squad, some might be happy with that but I think each season we should get one or maybe two proven quality players that should that would walk into the side. Buying as we are players that have potential is ok if they make the grade but recently very few have so where they might have been cheap on arrival turns out to be a waste of money.
Don’t know how you can say that very few of the players with potential have made it. Eriksen, Alli, Dier all young players brought in who are 1st team regulars. Yes a couple of big name players would be good from a fans perspective, but I think under current management it is about the team rather than individuals and a philosophy which is far easier to teach to younger players. The only others that we should consider are those who are used to the high pressing system we now use, which is why I guess we were in for goetze.
If we get nkoudou we don’t need anymore signings maybe another center back or left back in case rose gets injured or something
SPURES will SIGN 1.SOFIANE BOUFAL 2.CHRISTIAN TELLO to replace lamela
We still need an excellent passer in deeper central midfield for the final pass to break up teams who park the bus against us. I’m surprised we are not even being linked with that kind of player up till now…
Of course we still need a central attacking midfielder as we dont have one. Almost all of last season we had Eriksen and Lamela as wide creators (which they are in our system as in the vast majority of our attacks, Rose and Walker play the wings whilst Dembele and Dier cover the fullback’s advance).
Eriksen and Lamela are not suited to the central attacking midfield role. We have therefore seen Dele Alli and Dembele (both box to box mids) played there. Dembele dominates the central position and creates huge headaches for opposition but doesnt create or score enough. Dele is played more there and always has an eye for a pass or a goal but doesnt have the presence or dominance of the position that dembele has which sees Alli turning over possession probably 20 times per game.
We therefore need a real number 10, not just to boss that area but also to allow us to retain creativity when Eriksen or Lamela are injured or have to be subbed off.
Look at the Arsenal home game. We were battering Arsenal with the score at 2-1, Lamela was on a yellow and Poch made the decision to sub him off. Suddenly Arsenal (with 10 men) were able to neutralize eriksen and take the game to us.
Wanyama and Jannsen are great signings for having a top end midweek and weekend team but for me we still have a gaping creative hole in central creative attacking midfield and no one in our squad is ideally suited to plating there.
I think the only reason to buy Nkoudou is because we must believe he is going to be immense but with how we play Im not sure if hes tailormade for our system. I really rate Son and Chadli (Njie Ive not seen enough of) but I think that largely they suffer from the fact that we have to take off creative players like Eriksen and Lamela to bring on Son or Chadli. Only a central.creator can bring them into the game.
As long as we are lacking the central creator we’ll be forever buying wingers and never being happy with them. Remember how good Sturridge, Sterling and Coutinho looked playing around Suarez. Thats the importance of a dominant central creator
Your right bro and I’m happy you know football and know your team very well #coys
Spot On!!! A decent creative AMC is a must. I gather that Poc’ has high hopes for our 18(?)YO USA CD as that is now the only other unpadded area.
I get what you’re saying here but disagree. Eriksen is not a wide player and is out of position on the left drifting in. His real damage is done centrally, so rotate him with Ali or play both when tactics allow.
Your example about Suarez is wrong because he was their main striker that season and finished top scorer for them. Yes he also has that creative element but he’s not a central attacking midfielder.
Eriksen may not be a wide player in the conventional sense but he is a creator who needs space. He has only ever succeed centeally at Ajax when he played a deeper role. He has never been, nor has he ever looked like a number 10. He disappears whenever played centrally because he doesnt have skillset to dominate his marker.
As for suarez comment, I can only assume you either didnt watch that season and are trying to blag it or you just didnt know whatt you were watching. Suarez came into his own with the signings of Coutinho and Sturridge and the playing of Sterling. Suatez dropped into a number 10 role. Sturridge played the number 9 role and Coutinho and Sterling either side, Henderson and Gerrard largely in behind. Suarez was the player everything went through, he created scored and dominated his position. He was the best bits of Eriksen, Dembele and Alli all rolled into one player and was unstoppable with a hand in about 60 goals for the season (despite liverpool only focusing on prem that year and him missing the first 8 games).
The improvement suarez brought out of Sturridge, Coutinho and Sterling illustrates perfectly how important an advanced central creator is in a team playing 4231…
I have to wonder if we’ll see Kane playing in a more traditional number 10 role, with Janssen in front of him, because Poch has intimated that Janssen was not brought in to be a bench warmer, so he must be planning on playing them together one way or another.
yunus malli could be our final piece of business… he is a number 10 and technically gifted… without eriksen in the 1st ganes last season we struggled breaking defences… thats why we desperately need another playmaker or another central midfielder who is able to link up play, create chances abd scores.. I think we shld get kovacic and yunus malli plus nkodou then will have a good team capable of challenging for the title again…
So my assessment of our midfield options is as follows:
Eriksen and Ali should be the creative No.10 options behind the main striker. Currently the wide midfield options are Lamela/Son (on the right) and Chadli/Njie (on the left). We also have Pritchard & Onomah as back ups to these. The N’Koudou signing I’d imagine is to upgrade the left side with neither player impressing last season. I’d expect Chadli or Njie to leave if we get him.
The central midfield options are Dier/Wanyama (holders) and Dembele/Mason/Benteleb (linkers).
If anything it’s competition for Dembele that we need so we can ship off Mason & Benteleb (and Carrol who I haven’t mentioned). I’d bring in Sissoko for that role.
To answer the original question we don’t need another central attacker as we should be rotating Eriksen and Ali or playing both when appropriate. The real necessity at the moment is proper competition for Dembele’s role, especially as he’s banned for the first 3 matches.
We need to spend 40 million on a player like icardi
Am I the only one wanting a CM for back up to Dembele? I can’t see dier and wanyama playing together. If you combined Mason, Carroll and bentaleb then we may have a decent back up, but separately they are not up to our standard.
Totally agree Sam, see my post above.
I agree that we should have a backup for Dembele. The last 2 matches in last season without him, our mildfield completely lost control, and Mason was clearly not the right person to replace Dembele.
But I think Both Dier and Wanyama will play together at least in the first 3 PL matches.
Paul Yid is spot on with his comments. Although I have never seen Bentaleb as a link player, because his forward passing is very poor. Bentaleb was playing in the Dier role, in the season before last.
The 2 positions where cover is needed are for Dembele and Alderweireld. Carter-Vickers always seems to play as a left sided centre back. Spurs need a right sided centre back. Dominic Ball is a right sided centre back, so Pochettino is obviously looking at him in pre season. Maybe Mason can step up a gear to cover Dembele, but ideally Spurs will sign a top passer.
Yes agree re Bentaleb, he was our holding player, just not very good at it. The tracking back element was a particular issue if I remember correctly. We’ve upgraded that position significantly now with Dier and Wanyama so I can’t see him getting back in the team in any capacity really.
How about Carter-Vickers as the Alderweireld cover? I know he’s only 19/20 but he’s been getting rave reviews for sometime now. Alderweireld has a great injury record and is one of the first players on the team sheet so CCV wouldn’t be rushed in before he’s ready. How likely are we to find a quality centre back who will play back up to Toby? We are very fortunate to have Wimmer on the other side of the defence.
Just seen confirmation of N’Koudou medical today…COYS!
Agree with most of what’s already been said.
Definitely need a couple more signings at CB and CM, ideally one of a CAM or attacker who can play wide.
For my
Joel veltman or Fabian schar in defence
Someone like wiegl the young German (although unlikely) or even badlej or rabiot for CM
And gotze would be nice (again unlikely) failing that someone like davvy klaasen or a lacazette, draxler,
Brozovic, wijnaldum, dries merhtens, Isco
A few of those signings and be somewhere near the title at the end of the season!