What do we do now?

[Stamford]

The day after Liverpool lost the final last year they bought Fabinho. Not to sound like a spoilt brat but we need to forget the other day and start looking forward asap.

 

[Gassin's finest]

https://www.football365.com/news/spurs-beware-how-last-five-first-time-cl-finalists-coped

 

[carmeldevil]

https://www.football365.com/news/spurs-beware-how-last-five-first-time-cl-finalists-coped

Sample size = 5. Bad. Very bad.

 

[Maske2g]

One thing I will say is that we should be safe in the knowledge that our 'core' will largely stay in tact. This makes it easier for others to bed in.

A rested and reenergised first 11 of;

Lloris
Aurier/KWP Sanchez Jan Rose
Sissoko Winks Dier
Son Kane Alli

Can hold the fort to start the season, then new signings can be gradually eased in. Although as @Trix states if we get 2 early incomings then we should be able to bed them in and get them accustomed to Poch's way and understanding with other players.

The other new additions can be gradually integrated.

Look at Liverpool, Van Dijk and Allison bedded in immediately. Fabinho took a couple of months and Keita started strong but faded. They were all signed early too, so in that respect two early additions will see us through I'm sure.

Honestly that 11 makes me feel a bit sick. It's so stale.

 

[daryl hannah]

Lots concerned about RB - For me LB equally as important. I'd keep Rose and move Davies to CB cover for Verts and emergency LB.

Watching Robertson and TAA for pool whip in crosses accurately and dangerously show exactly what we're lacking. The fact our fullbacks can't do this with any regularity dictates how much width we play with and to an extent determines how often the ball gets passed backwards or rotated round to the other side of the pitch.

For my money, Grimaldo would be the perfect upgrade in this respect.

 

[WalkerboyUK]

Lots concerned about RB - For me LB equally as important. I'd keep Rose and move Davies to CB cover for Verts and emergency LB.

Watching Robertson and TAA for pool whip in crosses accurately and dangerously show exactly what we're lacking. The fact our fullbacks can't do this with any regularity dictates how much with we play with and to an extent determines how often the ball gets passed backwards or rotated round to the other side of the pitch.

For my money, Grimaldo would be the perfect upgrade in this respect. Is it asking too much to recruit competent personnel in KEY positions?

Requires a change of playing style as much as a change of personnel.
Although we have played with wing backs at times, it's been a long time since we did so with the intention of firing in crosses.
It's often been done just to push the opposition full-backs backwards, and then we knock the ball inside to Dele/Eriksen.
Even when we play with 4 at the back, the wide midfielders don't really cross. They look to come inside an awful lot.
Kane rarely plays as a target man, so it's not often that he's actually in the box looking to get on the end of a cross.

 

[daryl hannah]

Requires a change of playing style as much as a change of personnel.
Although we have played with wing backs at times, it's been a long time since we did so with the intention of firing in crosses.
It's often been done just to push the opposition full-backs backwards, and then we knock the ball inside to Dele/Eriksen.
Even when we play with 4 at the back, the wide midfielders don't really cross. They look to come inside an awful lot.
Kane rarely plays as a target man, so it's not often that he's actually in the box looking to get on the end of a cross.

The main reason I mention recruiting personnel who can cross, is because Davies and Rose can't. For the life of them. They try. But they can't, and it often ends up with a turnover of possession after not beating the first man.

I'm not saying we need to only fire in crosses, but if you've got the option, you can mix up your final third play a bit. Rather than failing to create anything and passing the ball backwards and inside.

 

[brasil_spur]

Honestly that 11 makes me feel a bit sick. It's so stale.

Agreed, it needs to look a lot closer to something like this:

Lloris
AWB Toby Jan Rose
Sissoko Winks
Alli
Son Kane Bale

That's only two signings costing less than what we get for Eriksen (assuming Bale on 2 year loan). Ok we will lose money on Toby by getting no fee next summer, but it's worth it IMO.

AWB should hit the ground running after the season he's just had in the prem and we all know what Bale can do.

That then gives whatever our summer budget is to re-enforce the rest of the squad, LB (Sess) and a couple of midfielders to come in and we're looking much stronger for next season IMO.

 

[CoopsieDeadpool]

I believe Poch will see this opportunity to go back to what made us successful in his first couple of years now we're back home. He knew going to Wembley, we had to change the way we played due to the size of he pitch and therefore this season was always going to be hard to try and change our approach mid season when we returned.

I think that is why the majority of our targets are going to be a good age and with pace to be able Poch to return the team to high press and make us more aggressive across the pitch ala Liverpool.

Our pitch is exactly the same size as Wembley (and Old Trafford).

The association football pitch of the stadium has a standard dimension of 105m x 68m, same in size as the pitches at Old Traffordand Wembley Stadium, but 440 square metres larger than the pitch at White Hart Lane.

 

[rossdapep]

Honestly that 11 makes me feel a bit sick. It's so stale.

I think it would cope as there's enough quality there but make no mistake I don't want to go into the season with this only and if we only made two signings we'd still run into issues.

Just an example to show that we'd be okay to start.

The crossroads article is very accurate. We can go the way of Liverpool - make significant investment and sign real quality and go for the title whilst pushing ourselves further into the elite. Or can go the way of Arsenal, tread water, make top 4 the goal but eventually be overtaken by the likes of United and eventually Wolves, Everton and Leicester.

Huge couple of months and if by mid July we haven't got a couple over the line, I'll be very concerned.

 

[yankspurs]

We need to make significant investment if we want Poch to stay. Unfortunately, the Levy way is to either not invest or do the bare minimum to keep people from not criticizing too much. So what do we as supporters do now? Expect the same as usual. But hope for things to finally be different.

 

[LexingtonSpurs]

Easy:

Lloris
RB Sanchez Vertonghen Rose
Dier
Lo Celso NDombele
Son Kane Bale​

Gazzaniga, Aurier/KWP, Foyth, Winks, Sissoko, Lucas, Sessegnon

Davies, Lamela, Wanyama

 

[THX2208]

Easy:

Lloris
RB Sanchez Vertonghen Rose
Dier
Lo Celso NDombele
Son Kane Bale​

Gazzaniga, Aurier/KWP, Foyth, Winks, Sissoko, Lucas, Sessegnon

Davies, Lamela, Wanyama

I like it a lot but not sure about Dier. In my personal opinion he has had far too many injuries and probably should be moved on.

 

[SamR]

Poch looks objectively at the Squad, decides who can move on and then invests in first 11 pushing players to come in and help us progress. We are looking at 4 players In, unless Toby and Eriksen go, which might force us into another 1-2.

We're in a unique position to capitalise on our successful from a commerical perspective now. Bringing in high quality talent will yield more global exposure and likely increase sponsorship opportunity. It was risky last season to invest significant £ when we were at Wembley all season. The conservative approach worked in our favour and now there is significant less risk to throw down £150m on players as we will be redeeming costs via increased Stadium Revenue, Merchandise Revenue, Sponsorship Revenue etc. Spending More can Yield us more this time around.

I do think Bale In would considerably increase our brand exposure and revenue opportunity too. He might cost a bomb, but he is a match winner and it's a statement that Spurs have arrived on the Big Stage.

 

[hellava_tough]

Does anyone know if the money available last summer will be available this summer?

Perhaps it's too simplistic, but you'd like to think that it's an increased transfer fund this year.

 

[JCRD]

What we do now is show intent that we mean business next season. As someone posted earlier, Liverscum lost the final last season but they continued to push on and meant business. We must do the same.

Id also keep Toby and dont care about the 25m, he and Verts were exceptional in the final in my view. If Eriksen wants to leave so be it, id bring in a couple of midfielders to add to Sissoko and Winks. Sell Trippier for a quick RB.

Id bring in a back up striker and a wide/creative forward too.

We need to push on from this, we are still in a strong position with both Arse and Manure floundering and Chelsea with some uncertainty around the transfer ban and their manager.

This is as crucial a summer as ever if not the most crucial and a crossroads we are at.

 

[Gassin's finest]

Get that Idrissa Geuye chap from Everton. Midfield solved.

 

[felmani26]

Easy:

Lloris
RB Sanchez Vertonghen Rose
Dier
Lo Celso NDombele
Son Kane Bale​

Gazzaniga, Aurier/KWP, Foyth, Winks, Sissoko, Lucas, Sessegnon

Davies, Lamela, Wanyama

If Dier is in the first 11 on paper after this summers transfer window patrolling midfield then we've done something wrong.

 

[PLTuck]

I think now the dust has settled, I think there's a few things we need to improve on.

Poch is an outstanding manager however if we're going to take that final step then he needs to be willing to change two things which are basically one thing.

- Needs to drop players from starting 11 if they're going through a bad run, Eriksen and Dele spent far too long in starting 11 this season despite struggling for form even when there were other options
- This is the big one for me, but he needs to not be scared to sub off his favourites, not only was it criminal that Liverpool made 2 subs before we made one but to take Winks off instead of Dele, Eriksen or Kane was a terrible decision. It's not the first time either, he regularly sacrifices balance and takes off the perceived lesser players to favour leaving on his favourites who are not peforming.

I think we need to remove the single player dependency on our passing game, you can't have a situation where your fluidity all hinges on whether Eriksen has a good game or not.

I also think we need to not base our game around Kane as our main attacking outlet, he's an incredible footballer but you look at Liverpool, City, Barca and when Ronaldo was at Madrid, the key players are in those wing positions where they have space, Kane has incredible ability to hold the ball up and pass, I know he's a freak at scoring but I think if we adapt our style to favour our wing players, Kane will still be a scoring phenomenon but will have so much more influence on the game with his all round play. He can be a large part of the solution for fixing our Eriksen shaped hole along with improving the passing ability by signing great midfielders.

Agree with this but I think the bolded part is due to our lack of quality in depth. Both Eriksen and Dele can be match winners, so if they are going to be dropped, we need better quality to replace them with. If these guys knew that a few bad games would see them dropped for the likes of this Argeninian CM that people are raving about (Lo Celso?), or Ndombele or another QUALITY player, their game form would improve imo.

My main hope is that we can get in some real competition for places with quality that will push the likes of Dele to another level. Remember the season Lennon had when we got Bentley? He finally had real competition for his spot and stepped it up 2 or 3 notches, culminating in one of his best seasons for us. I know Bentley turned out to be a duffer (apart from THAT goal obviously) but still ,the effect of bringing him in was great for us as a team.

 

[wrd]

Agree with this but I think the bolded part is due to our lack of quality in depth. Both Eriksen and Dele can be match winners, so if they are going to be dropped, we need better quality to replace them with. If these guys knew that a few bad games would see them dropped for the likes of this Argeninian CM that people are raving about (Lo Celso?), or Ndombele or another QUALITY player, their game form would improve imo.

My main hope is that we can get in some real competition for places with quality that will push the likes of Dele to another level. Remember the season Lennon had when we got Bentley? He finally had real competition for his spot and stepped it up 2 or 3 notches, culminating in one of his best seasons for us. I know Bentley turned out to be a duffer (apart from THAT goal obviously) but still ,the effect of bringing him in was great for us as a team.

Yeah I can agree with that, there was moments in the season where Poch wouldn't give Moura minutes when we were doing shit which was really frustrating. I agree completely we need depth to give these players something to think about.