Is Nabil Bentaleb as good as Sherwood thinks he is?

[SargeantMeatCurtains]

Nabil Bentaleb is a good player. Does he deserve to be starting? No.

I covered this in more detail in the Sherwood thread, but since his debut he has played every single minute since. Sherwood seems to exonerate him of any mistakes he makes, and frankly he is managing the boy horribly. Young players need dropping or at least subbing when they aren't performing. He is also burning the boy out just before the most important part of the season.

 

[FinnYid]

Nabil Bentaleb is a good player. Does he deserve to be starting? No.

Sadly goes for quite many of our players.

 

[Ribble]

He's a good player with plenty of potential, but not currently anywhere near the player Sherwood seems to be managing him as.

If the DM position is where Bentaleb used to play I can kinda see why he has moved so often before arriving at Spurs, as his qualities only really come to life where he can directly affect play without worrying about whether the back door is shut, as it were. He's yet more competition in the already crowded CM spot ahead of Sandro & Capoue, which really does look overcrowded now.

 

[wooderz]

No /thread

 

[Syn_13]

He's a good player with plenty of potential, but not currently anywhere near the player Sherwood seems to be managing him as.

If the DM position is where Bentaleb used to play I can kinda see why he has moved so often before arriving at Spurs, as his qualities only really come to life where he can directly affect play without worrying about whether the back door is shut, as it were. He's yet more competition in the already crowded CM spot ahead of Sandro & Capoue, which really does look overcrowded now.

So crowded that we loaned out Holtby. It's funny really because we've never truly given Holtby the chance to play in the role Bentaleb is playing in now. With an anchorman in Capoue and a box-to-box player in Paulinho, Holtby could've done a good job as the metronome player, a position that he himself professes is his best position despite never getting to play in it.

 

[Air Jordan 3]

Good young player with a bright future and I don't want to be harsh on the lad but the minute you play in the first team, you needs to be praised/criticised as any first team player, regardless of age.

Performance levels at best were good and have gradually got worse over 9 games culminating in his performance today. Not his fault and you do not need to look any further than the management team.

We have lots of talent in that position and he needs to be taken out the firing line and used in the Europa league and off the bench here and there.

 

[Ribble]

So crowded that we loaned out Holtby. It's funny really because we've never truly given Holtby the chance to play in the role Bentaleb is playing in now. With an anchorman in Capoue and a box-to-box player in Paulinho, Holtby could've done a good job as the metronome player, a position that he himself professes is his best position despite never getting to play in it.

Probably the most baffling thing about AVB's tenure was that Holtby only really played there once, which just happened to be against Man City when we took them to pieces in the second half.

 

[eddiev14]

I'd love know what percentage of Bentaleb's passes go sideways or backwards. I bet it's over 85%

 

[Ghost Hardware]

Nabil has been given the starts that Lamela and Eriksen should have had from the start of the season. I think he will be a good player in time but he is not going to get us top four. He should be used from the bench and in cup comps (not that we will be in any by the end of next week).

 

[SEANSPURS1975]

Bentaleb has great potential. He looks very good in patches and out of his depth in others. His performances certainly doesn't warrant starting every game. The last thing we or he needs is to be linked with Sherwoods (soon to be) failure as our manager. Tim's instance on starting him every game is baffling. I cannot believe he started and played 90mins today after playing the full game Thursday night. He quite clearly needs a rest, why can't Tim see this. With everyone fit he doesn't get in my match day squad.

 

[dk-yid]

You beat me to it DK!

I apologise. Let me delete comment then....

 

[TheChosenOne]

Adel Taraabt in disguise ?


One for the future, maybe a new Zizou but needs to learn his trade and also take out the niggly little kicks and elbows or he'll be banned a lot.

 

[Kendall]

I think he's a great player but as with any player at 19, particularly in midfield, he will be prone to the odd error and the odd really poor game. That's all part of his development.

His amount of good performances so far have by in large been an excellent return on the number of games played. If we're going to be critical of anyone in midfield, it should be the supposed senior guys that cost more than 10m.

 

[hodsgod]

Do we know hoe good Sherwood thinks he is?

I like him, he had played more good than bad games, but he is still only 19. He will make mistakes, and he should improve.

 

[Sir Henry]

He's still a boy, he's 19 and he's still learning and will be for years to come. We have to give the lad a break. Yes he'll have some not so good games, he might have a stinker or two and will have some great games, its all part of his development. While I think he is a good player and will improve, I feel personally he should go on loan.

 

[dav3j]

I really hate to come out with such a tired and hackneyed old analogy, but if he was called Nobby Bentley would he be raved about?

He can retain the ball well enough (forgetting about how he messed up in yesterday's game) and make the simple pass. We had another young player who was exactly the same, he's on loan at Hull and his name's Jake Livermore. Anyone clamouring for him to come back? As an analogy, I think "The French Jake Livermore" works pretty well.

Edit: And to play him ahead of the likes of Eriksen is just criminal.

 

[Ribble]

I really hate to come out with such a tired and hackneyed old analogy, but if he was called Nobby Bentley would he be raved about?

He can retain the ball well enough (forgetting about how he messed up in yesterday's game) and make the simple pass. We had another young player who was exactly the same, he's on loan at Hull and his name's Jake Livermore. Anyone clamouring for him to come back? As an analogy, I think "The French Jake Livermore" works pretty well.

Edit: And to play him ahead of the likes of Eriksen is just criminal.

I think Livermore was criticized to an unfair degree last season mainly for almost the entirely reverse situation - a more defensive player asked to play a much more creative role than he's used to.

So in that respect I'd entirely disagree with your assessment. The only thing about them that's really similar is their build.

 

[Mr Pink]

A tired performance yesterday but he wasn't alone obviously.

He was great against Newcastle. Compare the two situations for both the opening goals in both games.

Muscles off a strong Sissoko to set up our first, yesterday gets knocked off the ball too easily in the build up to us conceding.

 

[BringBack_leGin]

Yesterday should have seen Eriksen start in place of him. If we are to play a 3 man midfield, not having our most creative central midfielder as parted of it (and worse, reducing him to being an unused sub and behind Lennon, Townsend and Chadli in the pecking order for a position that he shouldn't even have to be fighting for) is lunacy.

 

[RButch]

It is kind of funny that Bentaleb starts in front of Eriksen. Bentaleb is a huge prospect, but Eriksen is light years ahead of him.