Scott Parker has undoubtedly been instrumental in Spurs’ unbeaten run that has seen them rise from the bottom of the table and towards Champions League territory since his arrival at the club on the final day of the transfer season.
However, his arrival has meant that our find from last season, the Brazilian Sandro, had to make do with a place on the bench at the weekend and the selection headache that comes with this scenario had led to more rumours over the Brazilian’s future.
There were many stories linking Sandro with transfers to Italy and Spain in the summer, but these were quickly dismissed as a new contract was signed but while he stays out of the team, the rumours will just persist.
The AC Milan story has emerged once again this week but ultimately, a January departure seems unlikely to say the least. However, it does highlight the selection problem that Harry faces in the months ahead.
Scott Parker is un-droppable, but should Harry somehow find a place for Sandro, one of the most talented players in this Tottenham squad?
Right now, you’d have to say no. Which of those six from midfield to up top would come out for Sandro? Lennon’s absence has shown that neither Modric nor Van Der Vaart are suited to right midfield, hence our best performance of the season with him back in the team. None of the others can be dropped on current form, so Sandro has to wait his turn.
An opportunity will come at some point and, if he does his job and performs well, he can lay a genuine claim to a first XI place. This is how football works – you wait for your chance and you grab it when it comes. You don’t moan and move to another club – and so far he’s shown no sign of doing that. I’d say he could learn from Parker and be Tottenham’s long-term solution – age is on his side…
There’ll be plenty of opportunities for games this season. We’ve still got european games and when other players return from injury it won’t be seen as just a side of kids and players angling for a move.
There will be FA cup games after christmas also and we should have enough about us to make it to the latter stagers of the Europa League while hopefully still in touch of the champions League places.
No need to worry about having enough games to keep him happy
This is indeed a tough one to manage…..Long term , Sandro fits in perfectly at the Lane and can be the starting CDM for years to come ….But , Parker has been a beast early……
Give Sandro the start vs Fulham…..keep him happy….work him in….Sit parker and let him rest and need his energy tank in a good spot for March-May timeframe..i’m pretty sure Parker would be fine w/ it. Work a 2-Parker / 1-Sandro rotation…….Of course, knowing Arry, he wont rotate anything…..
Play him in a 4-1-3-2 or another combo
Sandro or Parker in front of back 4, Sandro/Parker with Mod in centre mid, Bale left, RVD & Ade up front
I’ve been wondering this for weeks, I have to admit that Parker has done better than I expected, but Sandro has so much quality, probably more than Parker as he gets about the pitch better. Sandro does lack the vision for a great pass, but he makes up for that with sheer presence, power and dominating the midfield. He has a much longer life span for the team to.
Every top flight club that has an abundance of top class players in the squad faces the same dilema. Thankfully Sandro who is undoubtedly one of our outstanding young players, recently signed an extension to his contract therefore any idea the Italians might have of trying to prize him away in January or anytime soon is a nonstarter however, back to the dilema Redknapp faces now that Sandro is nearing full fitness. It is unthinkable for him now to drop Scott Parker in favour of Sandro the reason is self evident by Parkers displays to date. In view of this, Sandro who is an intelligent quiet lad, must know that his chances are at the moment limited to coming off the bench for the time being. Spurs will not want to part company with this young midfield enforcer and his chances will come again as Parker isnt getting any younger and his attitude and experience will rub off on the youngster. It’s now all about patience on Sandros part. Does he grow with this emerging force in the EPL of push to leave for pastures new through lack of opportunity to start all over again in a foreign country. My feeling is that he will stay with us and grow into a great for us. The twats that bring this up are mearly speculating which is nothing new partricularly with Spurs players. I wont fret too much, no substance to the story which is exactly what the Italians are spinning and nothing else.
Sandro all the way. Play him and Parker all the time every time they are both fit. Modders in fornt of them and Bale, Ade, Vdv up front. Kyle can push on up the right wing when required.
lol can i push up on you :0
Sandro will be ok, he’ll play his fair share of games this season, we can’t keep everybody fit all the time. He’s still young
It is Sandro’s bad luck that he was injured when the season started. Parker came in and took his place incredibly well. Sandro is back, and has to wait for Europa league and cup games – and sub apps. This was the reason why I was apprehensive about signing Parker…but after sitting in the stands witnessing Dzeko score Citeh’s fifth goal…I didn’t care! Our centre was soo soft, and having Parker AND Sandro makes us stronger. Parker still gets the nod, and occasionally games will require us to play both Parker & Sandro (Chelsea, Arsenal, City, Liverpool away). The thing about Parker is his consistency. Combine that with Modric’s consistency, and it is a central midfield made in heaven. Poor Hudd too, but they will have to wait.
He has had a few injuries. He would played against Newcastle when Livermore played, and he might get chances in tough away games. Only problem is that the balance is messed up
I agree with the general view. In fact the team for the Rubin Kazan game could well be a strong one:
Gomes/Cudicini
Livermore
Gallas
Bassong
Rose
Pienaar
Sandro
Carroll
Dos Santos
Defoe
Pavlyuchenko
I’d suggest the only contentious inclusion there is Livermore at right back in the presumed absence of Corluka, but Livermore has already proved his versatility in playing Centre Back.. I’d say this is a very strong team which enables all of the preferred first choices to stay at home ready for Fulham on Sunday, with youngsters such as Townsend, Kane, Nicholson, Luongo, Falque and Parrett or Fredericks on the bench.
So Sandro and others get to improve their match fitness in a match would could decide who finishes first in the Europa League group.
This is quite a luxury “problem” to have, as Sandro is pure quality as a DM. I believe Harry rate him, although not as highly as Park. Thus, I do believe he will get plenty opportunities in important PL games during the course of the season, partly due to injuries (which will come) and partly due to change of tactics in certain games (especially away games).
Assuming we are injury free, I still see Sandro fitting in when playing away against good opposition. Before the season I would have preferred him to VdV, with Modric playing in the hole behind Ade and Lennon on the flank. This is not my preference at the current time, for obvious reasons. Thus, Lennon has to be sacrificed with Modric playing from (not on) the flank. We can live with Modric drifting a bit with both Parker and Sandro as DMs as – in contrast to VdV – Modric pretty much consistently tracks back also when playing on the right (not good enough against Newcastle, though).
Love Sandro. If we keep him we will have the equal (or more) to the Parker of this season for several seasons to come. That’s proved to be pretty important this year.
LexS
Ultimately Sandro is already better than Parker, and will not wait around for long.
You can maybe play both in tough away fixtures but not at home to anyone bar the Manchester teams.
Against tough teams away i would play him and Parker in front of our back four bale right and modric left bring Lennon on later in the game. Team for Thursday
———————–Cuddicini——————–
Walker———–Gallas——-Bassong———Rose
Gio————–Sandro——–Livermore——Piennar
——————-Defoe——–Pav——————-
Bench- Gomes-Townsend-Carrol-Kane-Falque
I dont think its an issue, the reason being:
Sandro isn’t fit at the moment.
Harry will play both Parker and Sandro in tough away games.
We are in three competitions.
Parker won’t stay injury free all season.
There will be busy spells during the season, especially over Christmas where I can see Parker being rested.
Sandro started as our last choice midfielder last year and worked his way up, he has a good attitude.
What do you think?
I still thank that the way to keep everyone happy would be to play the barcelona formation that is very succesfull
4-1-2-3
AT HOME
———————–FRIEDEL——————————WALKER—–KING————KABOUL——–AKOTTO————————-PARKER——————————————MODRIC————-VAN DE VAART—————-DEFOE————————————-BALE—————————-ADEBEYOR————————–
**Bring on Sandro as sub for parker if winning + lennon for defoe
AWAY FROM HOME 4-2-1-3
———————–FRIEDEL——————————WALKER—–KING————KABOUL——–AKOTTO————–PARKER—————SANDRO————————————VAN DE VAART——————————-MODRIC—————————-BALE———————————-ADEBEYOR————————–
**Bring on Defoe/ Lennon as sub for VDV and switch Modric to centre in 2nd half
Barcelona won stuff playing like this ..as did chelsea under mourinho – I think this should be tried instead of our predictable 4-4-2 every week.
———————–VALDES——————————ALVES—–PUYOL————–PIQUE——–ABIDAL————————–FABREGAS—————————————-XAVI—————INIESTA————————-VILLA———————————-PEDRO——————————-MESSI——————————-
***Current Barca Team – Best in the World?
————————-CECH——————————-FERREIRA ——TERRY——-CARVALHO——GALLAS————————-MAKELELE—————————————-ESSIEN————-LAMPARD———————-DUFF———————————-ROBBEN——————————DROGBA—————————
***Chelsea Team didnt lose a home game for 3 years
bollox didnt align properley – Try again!
I still thank that the way to keep everyone happy would be to play the barcelona formation that is very succesfull
4-1-2-3
AT HOME
—-———————–FRIEDEL——————————
-WALKER—–KING————KABOUL——–AKOTTO
————————-PARKER————————————
———MODRIC————-VAN DE VAART————
—-DEFOE———————————————BALE—
——————–ADEBEYOR————————–—–
**Bring on Sandro as sub for parker if winning + lennon for defoe
AWAY FROM HOME 4-2-1-3
————————–FRIEDEL——————————
-WALKER—–KING————KABOUL——AKOTTO
———PARKER—————SANDRO——————
–——————VAN DE VAART—————————
——-MODRIC—————————-BALE—————
—————-——-ADEBEYOR————————–—
**Bring on Defoe/ Lennon as sub for VDV and switch Modric to centre in 2nd half
Barcelona won stuff playing like this ..as did chelsea under mourinho – I think this should be tried instead of our predictable 4-4-2 every week.
————————––VALDES——————————
—ALVES—–PUYOL————–PIQUE——–ABIDAL—
–———————–FABREGAS———————————
——-——-XAVI—————INIESTA————————
——VILLA———————————-PEDRO—————
———–————-MESSI———————————–
***Current Barca Team – Best in the World?
————————-—-CECH———————————
FERREIRA ——TERRY——-CARVALHO——GALLAS
–————————-MAKELELE——————————
———–ESSIEN——–——-LAMPARD——————
—-DUFF—————————————-ROBBEN——-
—–———————DROGBA—————————–—
***Chelsea Team didnt lose a home game for 3 years
The problem with non-4-4-2 based formations is that they are played best by foreign managers using predominantly foreign players – as Chelsea and Arsenal show. Man U still have won the most titles in the last decades using 4-4-2, with mostly home-grown players – like Spurs. That should be our template, not Chelsea.
Even Man City do 4-4-2… It is the quality of the attacking players that make it become less predictable – like when Lennon was allowed to come off his wing twice to set up 2 goals.
I am not gonna disagree with you because that is a valid point re: man u and man city; but I was saying that barca + chelsea could both be used as a succesfull template and would be a way to keep all the players we have happy at the same time- where as the 4-4-2 is more rigid and seemingly undroppable players like modric, parker, vdv, bale, adebeyor will only give players like sandro, defoe, limited bench roles and cup games.
It could be a way to keep them happy yes, but at the expense of someone else! Unless you somehow smuggle a 12th player onto the pitch! At the moment, Lennon is more useful to us than Sandro is – as long as he is allowed to mix it up a little – like he did on Sunday.
blud thanks for aligning that shhhheeeeet….brain was doing next man tings working dat out
nuff respect brrrrrrrrrraaaaaaaaaaaaaappp!!
Ultimately, this is a home game problem.
Away from home, we should be playing
Freidel
BAE Kaboul/Gallas King Walker
Bale Sandro Parker VDV
Modric
Adebayor
At home, Sandro will have to rotate until he gets his best position.
He has been nursing huge injuries recently, so he cant necessarily play 60mins yet
van der vaart wont play on the right tho!
THE BEST PLAYERS MUST BE BUILT AROUND SANDRO EVERY MATCH , IE FRIEDEL WALKER GALLAS KING KABOUL PARKER SANDRO MODRIC VDV ADEBYOR BALE 4 X 3 X 1 X 2 .
Dude. You make very bold (and unique) statements…in capitals too, and yet you do not explain your reasons. Why on earth should we build a team around a guy who has played merely 21 games in the premiership (not even a full season) – ahead of Parker who has played 200 Premier apps or so? And was player of the season? Sandro could be the future, yes, but not right now.
The reason is irrespective of the number of games played in the prem, he is a better player already with the potential to become world class. He has won the south american Champions league, what has Parker won?
…and who is left back in your team? No Ekotto?
Friedel
Walker King Gallas Bale
Sandro Parker
Lennon VDV Modric
Ade
Bale can’t defend. Stupid idea.
Parker was not outstanding against Newcastle. He is not fast enough on his own against good teams whereas Sandro is. I do think Parker brings something and still needs to start. Harry needs to try a formation that gets Modric, Sandro, and Parker all in the middle.
Rotation. Something that all top managers use. Rotation isn’t playing a B team in cups. It is changing the starting 11 regularly so everyone stays happy & motivated, players don’t get knackered and therefore get injured and lose form. When you play the same 11 week in week out the players not involved become disaffected and morale is reduced. Then when a player is injured and you need him to perform he is out of form and the team suffers. Ferguson doesn’t name the same 11 in consecutive games and hasn’t done so for over 3 yrs. Mancini rotates every game. All the top sides rotate regularly why not us? If not players like Sandro will leave and we will struggle to get a player of his quality.
Harry only knows 4-4-2. The best formation, in my opinion, certainly for away games against the top teams would be a 4-3-3 with
Walker – King – Dawson/Gallas – Ekotto
Sandro – Parker – Modric
VDV – Bale
Adebayor