Capoue / DM

[philip]

I'm getting very worried by the way our midfield gets sliced through. Mason and Bentaleb are very very good players and Mason in particular can out himself about a bit, but neither are proper defensive midfielders.
Dembele keeps the ball well and uses his strength and Stambouli hassles and harries the opposition but again neither really protect the defence and our defence is being put under a lot of pressure because of it. Today there were a number of times when our we were very lucky not to concede.

Capoue is our only proper DM and when detailed to play as such has done excellently. I agree that when be tries to create or pass he's not great but as a DM he is. I really think that against Chelsea in particular we'll need a proper DM.

 

[Nick]

I don't think Pochettino has any faith in Capoue at present, actually neither do I!

 

[jamaican_spurs]

Really not good enough for us.

 

[BPR_U16]

Has had his moments but sadly number of indifferent performances outweigh good games.

Know Bentaleb goes to ANC but would rather keep faith with two home grown players for matches available and see where we and they are at season end.

As an alternative to Mason and Bentaleb would bring Milos back from Boro and include him in the mix

 

[Syn_13]

I think Poch hasn't been selecting him purely because he doesn't think he's a hard enough worker. He is a good player, I think those that have seen him play in Ligue 1 will agree with that. He's a good tackler who reads the game well and likes to keep that ball ticking, but unfortunately plays at one pace and is guilty of bouts of laziness. He doesn't tick the right boxes for Pochettino and isn't suiting the style he wants us to play, which is why he's going for youngsters like Mason and Bentaleb who have bags of energy. He started the season well but if you look back at a few of the goals we conceded when he was in the team he just wasn't putting in enough effort to get back.

 

[prawnsandwich]

I didn't see much of Rooney slicing through Mason.

 

[jurgen]

Not sure Poch will trust the French Tom Huddlestone against Chelsea.. he won't have the change of pace to keep up with their advanced midfielders.

 

[sim0n]

capoue is surplus and not committed to the cause -- hoping he is the first sale of the winter window thank you very much...

 

[EllenAlex]

If he could just Capoue Diem a bit more often, I'd certainly keep him as our DM option.

 

[ClintEastwould]

Capoue is lost and statuesque in games that are not played at his pace, which is mind numbingly slow and ponderous. Chelsea would run rings around him.

 

[CornerPinDreamer]

Hows Sandro doing btw?

 

[SlickMongoose]

Hows Sandro doing btw?

Always injured....

 

[CornerPinDreamer]

Always injured....

Ah well.. good luck to the guy

 

[Nocando]

I remember when Tim was getting a hard time on here because he was picking Bentaleb ahead of fans favourite Capoue. A lot of people had watched a lot of youtube and were not happy at being denied the opportunity to witness and benefit from the talents of Capoue.

So what happened? Where has the Capoue love gone?

http://www.spurscommunity.co.uk/index.php?threads/etienne-capoue.105755/

There was a hell of a lot of love for him in this thread. Where's the support for the lad when he needs it most? Come on you're letting yourselves down.

 

[Krafty]

Our team as a whole failed to get to grips with Utd's 3-4-1-2 system yesterday, and its something in the long term I would like to see Poch address (in the short term I think we need to work on us rather than adjusting to the opposition), but a good covering midfielder is something we need.

Bentaleb looks a better player when allowed to get forward, Mason is a box to box player who will get stuck in, Stambouli doesn't look up to the pace of the Prem yet...

As for Capoue, his issues are two-fold - not athletic enough in the middle of the park, and happy in anonymity.

If you look at Matic, he isn't super mobile, but he wants to get involved. Capoue doesn't. I think he loses too many individual duels, is not a great organiser, and a bit like a few others will do enough not to be solely responsible for a loss/goal, but won't break his balls to stop the opposition.

 

[Nocando]

Our team as a whole failed to get to grips with Utd's 3-4-1-2 system yesterday, and its something in the long term I would like to see Poch address (in the short term I think we need to work on us rather than adjusting to the opposition), but a good covering midfielder is something we need.

Bentaleb looks a better player when allowed to get forward, Mason is a box to box player who will get stuck in, Stambouli doesn't look up to the pace of the Prem yet...

As for Capoue, his issues are two-fold - not athletic enough in the middle of the park, and happy in anonymity.

If you look at Matic, he isn't super mobile, but he wants to get involved. Capoue doesn't. I think he loses too many individual duels, is not a great organiser, and a bit like a few others will do enough not to be solely responsible for a loss/goal, but won't break his balls to stop the opposition.

It's an interesting one because the midfield players are central to the whole system. I have been quite impressed with Newcastle's midfield trio of Tiote, Cissoko and Colbeck. All offer similar yet different qualities but other than Cissoko I don't think would fare well here or under Poch's system. And the reason why I think Cissoko would fare better is, yes because he's technically the best, but also because he is more mobile and has more to his game. Yet at Southampton Poch had less mobile DMs, so perhaps its the combination of Poch and Tottenham (i.e we've never been a ultra successful defensive team so shoe horning 1 dm doesn't seem to be as effective here).

Interestingly City (Fernando), Chelsea (Matic) and Utd (Carrick) all do better with a more natural DM, even Arsenal (Arteta) do better with an unconventional player acting as a DM (its changed a lot recently with their injury issues). Then there is Southampton who under RK look a lot more fluid in this area with (Wanyame, Cork, Davis and MS) and then there's of course Liverpool with the aging Gerrard in this role (but have done better when bringing back Lucas).

Tim got a lot of stick for going for a more mobile midfield, but I think all in all it seems we perform better (or get better results) when we have this type of combination. Ultimately it could be that we over hype our existing and previous DM's and that if we got a truly class one in, then they'd improve the system but who knows?

 

[worcestersauce]

Sorry Philip but I don't think Capoue is the answer to any problem perceived or actual I'm afraid.

 

[Japhet]

Capoue is lost and statuesque in games that are not played at his pace, which is mind numbingly slow and ponderous. Chelsea would run rings around him.

We're much more likely to see Chelsea run rings round Mason and Bentaleb.

 

[parklane1]

For me our CM is our weakest spot, we have no real DM and because of that our CB's have been put under far more pressure then they should be. In Jan we really need to find a player who will protect our CB's better then what we have at the moment.

 

[Cravenspurs]

This has been my drum as of late.

I remember loving Mason and Capoue in preseason. They looked like they gelled real well, but Capoue does get stuck in one speed to often. Sadly he is the only one with some mettle.

It has been pointed out in this thread by @Nocando that most top teams have a CDM that can control and protect the CB's.

As of right now we have no one suited to read and react and I am glad people are starting to see that Bentaleb isn't the answer in regards to being the midfield general. He needs to be pushed up the pitch to utilize his control.