Modric who?

[Twizzle]

that Dembele fella goes OK but we wouldn't have him if we didn't sell VDV and Luka

 

[wishkah]

i agree at the moment we might be a better TEAM. But we don't have that same star quality. We've compensated one with the other. We now have some fantastic talent upon which to supplement our STAR. I still miss the little chap, think tottenham miss the little chap although with the current set-up would modders play? or are we playing this way to supplement the lack of modders?

I'll be saying 'Modric who' when Moutinho is doing the same role more effectively in a Spurs shirt.

 

[JUSTINSIGNAL]

Let's not start fapping ourselves into a coma just yet.

If Dembele, Lennon or Bale are injured then all of sudden we don't look as threatening.

I decision not to replace Pienaar or Kranjcar could come back to haunt us badly.

 

[chiversandgilzean]

Um, not so much VDV in my opinion. Great player with a good goal scoring record but he lacked the pace and energy levels required to play to a style that AVB would like.

Modric with Dembele would have been awsome but Modric ain't coming back and neither is VDV. The poster who referred to us looking more of a team has hit the nail on the head in my view, it is clearly less about individuals and this in itself will make us stronger.

Yes we miss Modric's abilities but not so much him as an individual.

We'll have to agree to disagree (strongly I think) on VDV then. The VdV hampered by hamstring and other niggling injuries might struggle, as would most players, but a fit and free of injury VdV would have the energy levels and his reading of the game allows him to compensate easily for any presumed or exagerrated lack of pace. He's not a carthorse, even in the modern game. He's showing this for Hamburg already, playing 90 mins midweek and at the weekend. He showed it for us too many times in the later stages of games.

The side may look more of a team than under Harry, though it has looked a right mess at times too this season. Do you mean because of AVB's structuring of the side over Harry's shape which looked more to the key players to make the difference? I can sort of see and agree with that, if such an analysis is in danger of being overplayed. But that doesn't change the point that Modric and VDV, for me, are far better players than Sigurdsson and Dempsey and would improve the present side. Both would be fine in the system(s) we've seen so far and add a great deal to the side imo. All sides great and small, no matter how rigid their system is or rather is perceived to be benefit from key/star players, the ones with an extra bit of class that make the difference. Modric and VDV offer that to any system.

To labour the point, it may be that we turn out to be a better side than the one under Harry, but it's a little too early to be patting ourselves on the back? Would the same system(s) (AVB's not as rigid/dogmatic as the media would have us believe I think) with Modric and VDV not be better still? I think yes, others don't.

No neither are coming back, though that wasn't what the OP or discussion is about I think.

 

[Greenspur]

and parker

And Jenas.

 

[Qualsonic]

How's Modric getting on at Real, anyway? Is he starting for them? Getting good reviews?

 

[Lo Amo Speroni]

We'll have to agree to disagree (strongly I think) on VDV then. The VdV hampered by hamstring and other niggling injuries might struggle, as would most players, but a fit and free of injury VdV would have the energy levels and his reading of the game allows him to compensate easily for any presumed or exagerrated lack of pace. He's not a carthorse, even in the modern game. He's showing this for Hamburg already, playing 90 mins midweek and at the weekend. He showed it for us too many times in the later stages of games.

The side may look more of a team than under Harry, though it has looked a right mess at times too this season. Do you mean because of AVB's structuring of the side over Harry's shape which looked more to the key players to make the difference? I can sort of see and agree with that, if such an analysis is in danger of being overplayed. But that doesn't change the point that Modric and VDV, for me, are far better players than Sigurdsson and Dempsey and would improve the present side. Both would be fine in the system(s) we've seen so far and add a great deal to the side imo. All sides great and small, no matter how rigid their system is or rather is perceived to be benefit from key/star players, the ones with an extra bit of class that make the difference. Modric and VDV offer that to any system.

To labour the point, it may be that we turn out to be a better side than the one under Harry, but it's a little too early to be patting ourselves on the back? Would the same system(s) (AVB's not as rigid/dogmatic as the media would have us believe I think) with Modric and VDV not be better still? I think yes, others don't.

No neither are coming back, though that wasn't what the OP or discussion is about I think.

I dont think we disagree that much. No way is Sigs as good as VDV and I seriously doubt he ever will be. I suppose the point I was making is Modric is a bigger loss than VDV who for me,sometimes played too deep.

I accept what you say about a fully fit VDV, I just dont think we would ever see a fully fit VDV, more is the pity.

The point you make about AVB,s structuring is well made, it is clearly far more fluid than the media suggests but he does have tactics for each game and I believe has the skills to change a system that isn't working.

I'm going off topic now, so in my view Modric is a loss, VDV too but less of a loss than Modric.

 

[Spurs_Bear]

How's Modric getting on at Real, anyway? Is he starting for them? Getting good reviews?

Mourinho is playing him too far forward at the moment.

 

[Qualsonic]

I dont think we disagree that much. No way is Sigs as good as VDV and I seriously doubt he ever will be. I suppose the point I was making is Modric is a bigger loss than VDV who for me,sometimes played too deep.

I accept what you say about a fully fit VDV, I just dont think we would ever see a fully fit VDV, more is the pity.

The point you make about AVB,s structuring is well made, it is clearly far more fluid than the media suggests but he does have tactics for each game and I believe has the skills to change a system that isn't working.

I'm going off topic now, so in my view Modric is a loss, VDV too but less of a loss than Modric.

How come you get an advert in your post? I want adverts! Do they pay you?

 

[chiversandgilzean]

I dont think we disagree that much. No way is Sigs as good as VDV and I seriously doubt he ever will be. I suppose the point I was making is Modric is a bigger loss than VDV who for me,sometimes played too deep.

I accept what you say about a fully fit VDV, I just dont think we would ever see a fully fit VDV, more is the pity.

The point you make about AVB,s structuring is well made, it is clearly far more fluid than the media suggests but he does have tactics for each game and I believe has the skills to change a system that isn't working.

I'm going off topic now, so in my view Modric is a loss, VDV too but less of a loss than Modric.

Yes, I think we are mainly in agreement. I think I took your first post to be dismissive of VdV and that he wasn't a loss or capable of playing in AVB's system. Which I see I misunderstood.

Like you I had/have doubts about VdV ever coming back to full fitness for a long period, though he seems to be doing well in Hamburg (even having the stat of most ground covered vs Dortmund last week), though I appreciate it is only just turned October and there are a lot of games to be played yet. He does have injury issues it must be said, which affect stamina. I am moved to say 60-70 mins of VdV is better than 90 of many a good player, however trite or even accurate that may be in reality.

Mind, I'd play Huddlestone in midfield with Sandro and Dembele, as it stands, as my first choice midfield. And he definitely hasn't the mobility or pace or stamina to play in an AVB side? Or so they say. I'd love to see him given the chance, though, as we still lack some passing ability, having essentially swapped Modric's class and probing for Dembele's class and running in the centre of midfield.

I too think AVB's going to be an improvement on the side under Harry in the medium to long term, if not necessarily the short term, but with either Modric or VDV or both I'd be looking at a title push!!

 

[Lo Amo Speroni]

Funny I dont see one in mine but I do see one in Spurs Bear's post. Maybe they alternate. SC making money rather than me mate.

 

[Mr Pink]

And? It could so easily have been 5-3 to United at full time or even worse on Saturday and you know that if you saw the match. The ironic thing is that I was one of the few who were optimistic about gaining something from the game against United, because we look better away when we have more room (at home we lack the creativity when the away team is defensive). I was viewed as optimistic by people on here. But the reason we won was because United had a bad first half, we had a good one and utilised the space afforded to us, the referee for once made decisions that went our way - on most other trips they'd have at least two penalties and RvP would bury his chance 9 out of 10 times and we'd have lost. So I don't understand the point you're trying to make. Because we were lucky this time means Harry was shit in creating a team and AVB is a god at it? Is that the level of argumentation we are at now?

And the time under Redknapp when we were up 2-0 at Old Trafford, we looked good for it up until 60 minutes until the referee gave United a shocking penalty call. It was a horrendous decision, truly laughable and after that United and the home fans got a huge boost and we imploded - much like what transpired in the second half on Saturday but we held on this time by hard work and much luck.


Were we not lucky against United? Did we not win 3-2 at Emirates after trailing 2-0 under Redknapp? If there was one thing under Redknapp that was usually praised it was the team spirit - we were known as the comeback kings in our CL season because we won so many points after first conceding. Must've been a terrible team and spirit in that side.

Are people actually trying to revise history and say we weren't playing as a team under Harry with Modric and VdV? How on earth did we manage 4th - 5th and 4th place if that was the case?


Do people really think we're much better off without Modric?

Have we not been playing badly at home so far this season?

Is this the twilight zone or something?

I don't get the need to try and shit on everything Harry ever did and hail AVB as some sort of Messiah after winning at Old Trafford. I didn't hail Redknapp as a demi-god and thought we'd win the league after we won at the Emirates. I praised the team though. What is the agenda, and what purpose does it serve other than belittle our most succesful manager since I started supporting Tottenham and put needless pressure on our new manager, who's already under enough pressure as it is.

This post is not to praise Redknapp or to slate AVB, I just don't understand why we just can't stay level-headed for one second around here, try and analyse objectively without hyperboling the crap out of everything.

I don't really agree with a good chunk of this. Firstly you might want to consider that AVB in his fifth game has just won at a place that we havn't won for 23 bloody years. Secondly we played better for 40 minutes than I've ever seen us do at OT- we were fluid, composed and very effective/progressive in possession, United looked lethargic but we were partly the reason for that. Thirdly, yes we sat deep in the second half and invited all that pressure but United didn't actually create that much given the amount of possession and space they were afforded, in fact we defended well, albeit very deeply, when you consider the aforementioned - we were nowhere near as open looking, at any point in the game, than we have seen before in some games and consequently been ripped apart.

We had the rub of the green for once up there, but lets not forget that we had much the better of them in the first half. Its not like the game was all United and there was a fluky sucker punch at the end, we earned those three points from defending a lead we had very much deserved from our first half performance.

As for Modric, he's a class player who we have missed at home so far - but as this team gels and comes together better I don't believe he'll be missed long term. I think we look better away from home with our current midfield, in fact I would say we definitely look much stronger in that respect. Dembele is a fabulous all round midfield player IMO, a perfect box to box player. At home we have missed that visionary finesse Modric brought to the side, but I see us building a different side now which bring other skill sets to the table, and I think we'll be better for it in the long run.

We need to be more aggressive and on the front foot at home, and I don't think the quiet (and dissatisfied in some quarters) atmosphere at the Lane has helped the side recently either. The win at OT should see a new level of confidence, and perhaps we'll see a performance against Villa with a bit more freedom to it now. I hope we do anyway.

Bottom line for me is, I think we'll be a stronger side down the line with the current squad AVB has. We already look stronger and much more powerful, qualities you need to do well in this division, and we still have great quality on the ball as well. Dempsey is no VDV, but I tell you what he knows how to take up good positions in the box - I'm betting he outscores VDV, and he works bloody hard. Sig will get better no doubt, and Dembele is a class act - key player for me this season.

 

[nferno]

Don't kid yourselves, Modric still shits on everyone in our whole squad (apart from LLoris). You'd all take him back in a heartbeat, I know I would.

 

[MisterC]

Let's not start fapping ourselves into a coma just yet.

If Dembele, Lennon or Bale are injured then all of sudden we don't look as threatening.

I decision not to replace Pienaar or Kranjcar could come back to haunt us badly.

As with every team ! If we buy a centre mid & a winger like we tried to in August that will help the depth should it not.

 

[base615]

I miss the Modric of 2 years ago and I think we would be a stronger side if he was still around but we're stronger now than the side that had last year's Modric. He played last season at barely 65% of his potential and I'm glad he's gone on to a club he wants to play for where he can once more reach his full potential.

 

[chinaman]

No one is irreplaceable. Manure lost Ronaldo and the Arse have lost quite a few, and they are strong as ever. A good coach or manager can always devise ways around the loss of certain players.

 

[tobi]

How's Modric getting on at Real, anyway? Is he starting for them? Getting good reviews?

He's doing OK, he isn't seeing as much of the ball as he's used to, needs time.

 

[StockSpur]

Move on ffs

 

[HobokenSpur]

I just don't get posts like this. Did you even see the second half against United? We were terribly lucky. We had a good team and spirit under Redknapp too. What would you say about the 3-2 win at Emirates under Harry then?

And we have been abysmal at home so far too, far from playing as a team.

Yes I did see the game. Twice actually. I don't think we were abysmal at all considering it was old trafford, being 2-0 up and after the obligatory hair dryer treatment from SAF. My original post was somewhat of a troll. I respect Modric as a talented player and I completely acknowledge his impact to us but my aim was to highlight that we are far more cohesive and have more options now.

And the 3-2 at emirates - a great game but certainly not the pressure faced at OT. I don't actually think we had a good spirit under redknapp if I'm honest. Very little rotation, very little opportunity ( if my opts stats were right I think we had used the same players in 81% of our matches ). I don't doubt Harry's ability to man manage but don't confuse it with team. 25 players believe they are part of a process rather than 11.

 

[AngerManagement]

How's Modric getting on at Real, anyway? Is he starting for them? Getting good reviews?

I was just about to ask this myself.

Haven't been able to watch as much La Liga as I would normally

I get the impression he's being eased in and will take time to settle and find his form

I'd imagine the REAL test of how well he will do there will come toward the middle and end of the season