After two weeks of transfer dealing and international football, it’s back to the matter in hand this weekend as Spurs take on Norwich at the Lane in what will be seen as a must win match for this new look squad. Ahead of the game, many are discussing the best choice midfield following an influx of new arrivals in the centre of the park but Andre Villas-Boas will have almost as many permutations in defence.

Vlad Chiriches has arrived to offer some competition to Jan Vertonghen and Michael Dawson while Younes Kaboul seems pretty much back to full fitness following his year on the sidelines. Those four are arguably the best defenders at the club right now and while four into two won’t go, will AVB be tempted to find starting slots for each of them?

On the flanks, Kyle Walker and Danny Rose seem to be unchallenged although Kyle Naughton is used on occasions, most notably in the Europa League so are their positions safe at right back and left back respectively?

We know that Kaboul can cover on the right and Vertonghen was more than comfortable on the left last season – apparently Chiriches can play at left back too. So what is your first choice back four?

On the subject of Chiriches, the Romanian looks more than useful going forward – have a look at the Graham Roberts netbuster on one minute.

 

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37 COMMENTS

  1. Walker seems to have come of age, so no longer consider us weak on the right. On the left Rose leaves a hole when he goes upfield that is still to easily exploited by better teams. To counter this I would prefer to see Vertonghan on the left, with Kaboul and Dawson in the centre. A midfield two of any of our current four, Paulinho and the beast being my ideal. Three attacking midfielders of Lamila on the the left, Erikson in the centre once he has adjusted to prem ,(Holtby or Siggurdson) in the meantime with Townsend or Lennon competing for the right wing. One striker upfront. I guess you would call that a 4 2 3 1. But I’m comfortable that this season we can pick and choose depending on opposition any combination com 442 to 433. Aren’t we lucky this year

    • Agreed Mike

      Harry had the “Jobs for the Boys” mentality when it came to picking the team. We were crying out for a striker for years, we now need a good solid left back.

      Verts is our best LB at the moment but is not his position. Although Rose has developed, in my opinion he is not quite at the level we need.

      We certainly have the squad this year to avoid fatigue, it’s up to AVB to now utilise these assets to their best ability and keep them all fresh and competing right through ’til May.

      Non footie related, have just been made redundant from the army and have been making a vlog on youtube (link below) just for a bit of fun. Please check it out.

      http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCyU0e0F45uQLG25qOJSKARg

    • Walker come of age????? Seriously? I swear the boy is gonna give me a coronary coupled with my high blood pressure he has already given me. He can get away with being young and ‘potentially good’ for only so long

    • “>Walker seems to have come of age” ??? Sorry, are you looking at the same “Walker” that I am ? Cos’ I don’t think so pal…Naughton or even Kaboul ahead of him at the moment…

      • Lloris
        Kaboul-Chiriches-Vertonghen-Rose
        Sandro-Paulinho
        Lennon-Eriksen-Holtby
        Soldado

        Friedel
        Walker-Dawson-Veljkovic/Fryers-Naughton
        Capoue-Dembele
        Townsend-Lamela/Siggy-Chadli
        Adeba/Defoe

        If that team doesn’t finish in the top 3, AVB can pack his bags&leave.

        • 30million sitting on the bench? no chance! Lennon’s gonna have to come up with some goals if he’s gonna stand any chance of establishing himself as a regular!

          Kaboul and Vertonghen are our 2 strongest centre halves, so it doesn’t matter how weak walker is, kaboul should be centre half. When everyones fit, I think this could be our strongest 11 come the end of the season;

          Lloris
          Walker Kaboul Vertonghen Rose
          Capoue Paulinho
          Lamela Holtby Eriksen
          Soldado

          In bigger games and away from home, I expect to see lamela right eriksen left, and 3 in the middle, of dembele paulinho and capoue/sandro. But against the likes of norwich at home, we can afford to play a more attack minded player than dembele, maybe push lamela inside and townsend on the right, as holtby isn’t quite ready yet, but I expect big things from him this season!

  2. Hope he doesn’t “find starting slots for each of them”. ‘Arry did this. He picked HIS best 11 and started with them, even if they were totally playing out of position. Not a good idea because, if you are a natural in a particular position, you don’t feel particularly valued if someone from another position is shoehorned into your spot above you. Also, if the same 11 are getting picked every week, you soon get tiredness creeping in, and they don’t really put the effort in because they start to feel that they’re going to get picked whatever they do on the pitch.
    Pick your starting 11 and let them know that EVERY position is up for grabs if they let you down on the pitch. After all, haven’t we been congratulating ourselves because we have players fighting for every position?

  3. need to drop clumsy colin dawson.

    id go walker , vert, chriches, rose.

    why buy player just as a backup.

    if chriches good as they say why bench him””””””””””

  4. yes that ‘Colin’ Dawson has been disappointing hasn’t he? Actually i think Kaboul will come in if fit – I’m concerned he seems to be taking along time to get back having played a full game two weeks ago, and Chiriches will be introduced gradually, as wih most new signings.

  5. It might not happen straight away but I think he’ll be tempted to play Chiriches on the left whenever Vertonghen’s playing, which should be as often as possible. Rose can tackle and is mobile but his crosses are poor and his positional play when defending is lacking because he’s not grown up playing that position.

    Walker has been frustrating for the last year or so with the mistakes he’s been making, but he’s still the best we have, has lots of potential and will be automatic first choice. He’ll get better.

    Alongside Vertonghen, Kaboul will probably get the nod ahead of Dawson, even if it is a shame to see Dawson relegated to the bench. AVB likes mobile players, which is why he tried to get rid of Dawson (thankfully seeing the errors of his ways eventually on that one) and has already disposed of The Hudd.

    The defensive midfield duo should be The Beast and Paulinho. As AVB likes his wingers to cut inside and shoot, I think he’ll play Lamela on the right. The bigger debate is whether he’ll go for Lennon or Chadli on the left. I’m not sold on Chadli yet, he’s been playing a bit too much like Krancjar on the left for my liking, so I hope he goes for Lennon as first choice.

    Eriksen will be the playmaker behind Soldado and he’s the signing who has the most potential for me, despite his smaller price tag. I can’t wait to see him in a Spurs shirt. COYS!

    • Unfortunately I think we have to be very patient with Eriksen. He is still a boy when it comes to the PL.
      He has a huge talent but I am not sure he has what it takes to play away to Stoke on a chilly January day.
      I really hope he wll prove me wrong (being Danish also for our national teams sake) but do not hold your breath. Holtby and Lamela for me in that position.
      And Dawson oly to play against teams with no pace.
      Bad mistake by AVB to play him against the arse…….

      COYS

  6. pretty well agree with you Rich, except for the assumption that Chiriches will be used on the left. not sure where this idea originated, but from what i’ve seen (only clips admittedly) he’s predominately right footed – in fact on the clips i’ve seen he’s never used his left foot! one thing we don’t need is a right footed left back!

    • Chiriches is right-footed but he plays as a left-sided centre-back or left-back. I’m normally against the idea of a right-footed left-back so I take your point, but it seems we’re going to be less about long crosses this season with Soldado or Defoe as the lone striker, so it’s not out of the question. He could take Vertonghen’s position in the centre with Jan moving to left-back but I think he’s just too good at centre-back not to be played there. The spine of our team looks strong with him in the middle.

    • If Walker is defending “like a donkey” then why are you picking him ? Seems hypocritical to me. If you’ve acknowledged that he’s been poor, then why don’t you drop him ??? Simples. There’s Naughton and even Kaboul that can play there…

  8. LLORIS WALKER KABOUL VERTONGHEN CHIRICHES LENNON PAULHINO SANDRO DEMBELE SALDADO LAMELA WITH LENNON AND LAMELA ENTERCHANGING LIKE BALE AND LENNON DID SO SUCCESSFULLY .

  9. Guys, our pace scared teams to death when they played us last season. It’s all been a bit laboured so far this.
    Get Lennon and Lamela at them!
    That raw speed will get us to the champions league this season.

  10. Anyone concerned like I am that there are so few englishmen on the team? I know the forreigners we bought probably are bether than most available english players – I’m just concerned that the they will lose some of their association to a British team

    • I’ve been thinking exactly the same thing myself.
      But then, if it gets us into the Champions League and winning trophies regularly, I wouldn’t mind if we lined up with 11 females….

    • Anyone else noticed that it is our English players who are the weak links? Walker, Rose, Dawson, Lennon are not up to the standard of the rest of our team! Sad but true!

      • Too true. I actually think Dawson gets in the team just because he’s English. Surely Walker would be dropped in he was a foreigner. Rose too!

  12. Not worried at all by the lack of British players, let the FA worry about that. I’m not sure if we will see all the new players at once and my view is we will probably see the likes of Chiriches and Chandri used in the Europa league first.
    Capoue looks a great buy and adds real steel to the midfield, same as means use to for Utd. I’m not sure if we will see Lennon much this season as his game is up and down and he had too many injury problems.
    My first 11 would be
    Lloris , Vertongin, Walker, Chiriches,kaboul , Capoue, Paulinho,Eriksen, Sandro, Lamela,Solado.
    although he may prefer to use Chandri in place of Sandro.

  13. Chriches has to work his way into the team although I think hel be a star… I love daws but I don’t think he will start ahead of Kaboul when is fully fit.. Not a massive fan of rose but I also don’t believe in playing players out of position.. So we should have for a new lb… N I think holtby will be big this year and could be our David silva on the left coming inside… My team would be…
    Loris walker Kaboul vertonghen rose….. Sandro paulinho… Lamela Eriksen holtby.. Soldado…subs friedel dawson chriches Lennon Chadli dembele Defoe.. For time being… But with players like capoue coming back n siggy n Townsend there we have great strength in depth for a change n spurs get enough injuries during a season

  14. Im sorry, but we need to drop dawson for the norwich game, he let us down with not holding the back line and played giorud on side in the biggest game of our season. He is over rated and I do think the new guy with kaboul and vertongen on the left will pay dividens this season. We need to stop sloppy mistakes and if you look at the stats most are made by dawson.

  15. I wonder if Rose could do what Bale did initially?
    Move up from left back to attacking left winger.
    OK he’s not as quick or talented, but pace wise he and Walker are exceptional coming forward, and in certain games pushing Rose up could work, with one of the centre backs filling in at left back behind him. I don’t think Lennon or Townsend are at their best when on the left anyway. It’s about keeping the balance right throughout, instead of switching players around mid-game. We have subsitutions for that. What also could work in certain games is the Ade and Soldado ‘show’. The latter looks like the sort of player who’d feed nicely off the big lummox, and Ade is looking to set his standard more on two seasons back, rather than last season. He’s here for the next 3 months at least, so allow him one more chance to get his attitude to match his undoubted class. Other than that, the squad is so strong that I don’t envy AVB picking our best team on the day to suit either the conditions/circumstances or who we’re playing, and how they’re set up. But I’m looking forward to it!

  16. This’ll never happen, but our personnel would actually be well suited to playing 3 centre backs.
    Dawson & Kaboul both very strong at marking/ intercepting . Rose & Walker both very good at going forward but a bit suspect defensively.
    Vertonghten would be a brilliant sweeper, bringing the ball out and covering across the back.

    It’ll never happen though !

    Lloris,
    Kaboul, Vertonghen, Dawson
    Walker, Rose
    Sandro, Paulinho, Eriksen
    Lamela
    Soldado

    • I too would like to see us try a backline of 3 CBs.
      Both Walker and Rose are not convincing when defending, so using them as wingbacks would make sense – especially given their speed.

      For me it would be Kaboul on the right of the 3, Verts on the left and then either Dawson or Vlad in the middle. Or possibly Verts in the middle and Vlad on the left.

      I really feel that a back 3 would be stronger defensively than having to rely on the [lacking] defensive abilities Walker and Rose.

    • I like the idea of harrys team. Not just for the 3 backs but holtby given his starting spurs. His confidence has gotta be up.two cracker games on under 21 duty n a good turn out in europa. I know opposition was weaker but the timings perfect while his mind is focused n hungry.

  19. DAWSON IS FREAKING AWEFUL. HE IS A TYPICAL ONE DIMENSIONAL DEFENDER. HE CANNOT PASS FOR SHITE. GET THE BALL AND KICK IT AWAY. WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME DAWSON SCORED? VERTONGHON NEEDS A PARTNER TO COMPLIMENT HIM. VLAD WILL DEFINATELY COMPLIMENT VERTS AS THEY WILL BOTH BOUNCE OF EACH OTHER. .. soldado looks like a lone ranger. Out of Ll rhe players we have at tottenham I cannot believe we are yet to score from open play. Nobody passes to soldado hence why eriksen will hopefully be that person who does. If dawson wasnt playing we would have without doubt won against arsenal

  20. Best team I think is 4-2-3-1
    Lloris
    Walker kaboul vertongen flyers or rose
    Sandro dembele or paulinho
    Lennon hotly or siggy or ericksen lamela(going on reputation)
    Saldado

    Sandro and dembele were the best pairing in pl last year why is everyone so quick to ditch.

  21. Vertonghen is a make shift left back, at best. He needs to be in the centre. Walker gets stick but people forget that he is 22 and will improve. Daws looked well off the pace Vs arsenal, I’d bring kaboul back in. Leave the full backs as they are. Churches to be eased in gently

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