The Daily ITK Discussion Thread - 3rd January 2013

[Gbspurs]

Sir Alex knows that forwards win titles hence why he splashed the cash on RVP. Despite consistently having one of the worst midfields out of the top 4, they still come up with the goods. This isn't anything new either, SAF has always known the importance of a striker and will invest heavily in that part of the team regularly.

We always have a great midfield, but trip up during the season. If we had a 25+ goal a season forward it would change out situation massively. Not saying they are easy to find but you don't get them by not taking risks.

I think that buying Bent and Pav has burnt our fingers a bit but we need to keep going as once we hit gold we will be a real theat at the top of the table.

 

[talkshowhost86]

The midfield needs to be creative more than being a direct goal threat. We're 3rd in the league and we haven't had a serious goal threat from midfield all season - yet are 4th highest goal scorers in the prem, not sure we necessarily need more of a threat from midfield right now, just more creativity to provide chances for our strikers. And more stability to stop shipping as many goals.

I think Dembele could definitely be more of a goal threat if he wasn't forced to play so deep as we at times need him to play right now.

A think a midfield 3 of Sandro - Demebele - Moutinho would be the best in the league and a great mixture of defence, ball retention and creativity.

Don't get me wrong I think that would be a great midfield, but a lot of people are complaining about a lack of goals from midfield. I'm not sure you get a lot in that area from those three.

Hopefully though they'd feed the likes of Adebayor, Bale and Lennon enough.

 

[MisterC]

Me too. Levy will no doubt have Blamed Harry for the decline last season....i know theirs been alot of talk about Mouts and that for me was a long shot £20m+ in January?? il love it IF it happens but lets be right we've been here before!! we ended up with Nelson or whatever his name is and Saha!!. Along with that Creative mid we also STILL need a Prolific goal scorer. I see Damiao's name spring up AGAIN!! im sick of the guy tbh and not to mention how much his transfer will be! 15m+ and i think that's being very optimistic. I know its only the 3rd but for once i will not build my hopes up Levy has form for NOT bringing home the goods in Jan...for once i wont have a melt down when it doesn't happen.....but hold out hope that he proves us wrong!! Back AVB or the board should do one!!.

It's quite clear they have shut up shop at Spurs leaks ITK etc etc... Even the journos are finding it hard to dream up a story..... Shame cause I thought Mort or Snijeder could be real, clearly more bs.

 

[Spursidol]

In a nutshell:

Sold: Kranjcar, Pienaar, Modric and VDV
Loaned: Jenas and Bentley
Decided no good: Huddlestone

Bought: Demebele and Sigurdsson

Dempsey is not a CM or any type of midfielder really.

So that puts us at 4 first team squad players down and only 2 up.

There is certainly room for at least one more midfield player.

PLUS - this is Moutinho we're talking about, one of the best midfielders in the world right now, versatile player and gets on well with AVB and his style of play, regular CL player, nearly 50 caps for his country at the age of 26, just hitting his prime, and we have a chance to sign him.

You are correct we used to have more players than could fit into a 25 man squad. That was recitified over a couple of TW's so it issn't the first priority to sell each TW.

I certainly don't want to return to a situation where we have to see first before we buy.

We now have :

Wingers - Lennon, Bale,
DM - Sandro, Parker, Livermore
Creative : Dembele, Huddlestone,
AM - Sigurdsson

We also have youngsters such as Carroll/Mason/Townsend/Falque.

So your main issue I suspect is whether we can upgrade Huddlestone, which is fine, but not to have a £20m stuck on the bench. So if Moutinho comes in we almost certainly need to sell Dembele and bring in a younger cheaper player.

Better solution maybe is to bring in the younger cheaper creative player ?

 

[$hoguN]

Yes we struggled without Dembele. Though we have Parker back as cover now and i think he can contribute a lot- although on Saturday as soon as Dembele went off and was replaced by Parker our control of midfield was lost.
BUT we could hardly sign Moutinho as cover for Dembele and Sandro could we? At £22m or whatever he would be our record signing and would expect to play. If that is the case, who would he play instead of? My point is that when you go into that choice, we don't actually want him.

Mountinho would play with both Dembele and Sandro ffs. How many times have people pointed out AVB's favoured system and where players would fit in. If we signed Mountinho we would play 4-3-3, with players playing in one of 3 predefined midfield roles, so we would have:

DM: Sandro or Parker

CM: Dembele or Mountinho

AM: Dembele or Sigurdsson

This formation would not lack goals providing Ade was used as the loan striker as it is all about creating chances from the wing and with intricate passing to allow the Striker to score goals and bring the AM and the wingers into play. The system would also suit a player like Dempsey coming in from wide far more too as it is closer to the position he has played for the last few years at Fulham.

So yes Moutinho is needed, because AVB clearly wants him.

Back to the news of Llorente being in talks with Juve, is anyone really surprised? We were never going to sign him, so it affects us very little. It has been clear for a couple of years now who we really want to sign and that is Leandro, so I imagine that will continue.

 

[Only 1 Spurs]

Sir Alex knows that forwards win titles hence why he splashed the cash on RVP. Despite consistently having one of the worst midfields out of the top 4, they still come up with the goods. This isn't anything new either, SAF has always known the importance of a striker and will invest heavily in that part of the team regularly.

We always have a great midfield, but trip up during the season. If we had a 25+ goal a season forward it would change out situation massively. Not saying they are easy to find but you don't get them by not taking risks.

I think that buying Bent and Pav has burnt our fingers a bit but we need to keep going as once we hit gold we will be a real theat at the top of the table.

I think the strikers are their to be taken Llorente, Villa Damiao any of these would IMO be an upgrade on what we already have. and although wages might be a factor we must go big Villa would be immense imo i know £16m for a 31 year old is alot but he is quality 2-3 good seasons left in him cement us as a top 4 side and that in itself opens doors to bigger fish...Levy needs to see this and although i dont expect him to go mental and throw wages at players he must accept that for quality you must be willing to loosen that grip just a little.

 

[duffster]

All the talk of Moutinho i find a little odd now that we bought MD, GS and CD in the summer. We were in the top 5 spenders in world football over the summer and generally in the cm positions so i cannot see us spending another £20+m on that position especially considering we also have the likes of sandro and PArker there too. I do feel we lack the creativity without Dembele in the team but we need to replace that on the cheap (mabe this english german). If there are any funds they need to be spent on grabbing a striker as we only have two and then a left sided forward to replace Bale. These could of course be the same person as we will eventually move to the 433 formation once we have that wide striker we need

I was under the impression that we turned a profit (again) in the last transfer window.
So if we were one of the highest spenders it certainly wasn't in net spend.

 

[Spursidol]

Mountinho would play with both Dembele and Sandro ffs. How many times have people pointed out AVB's favoured system and where players would fit in. If we signed Mountinho we would play 4-3-3, with players playing in one of 3 predefined midfield roles, so we would have:

DM: Sandro or Parker

CM: Dembele or Mountinho

AM: Dembele or Sigurdsson

This formation would not lack goals providing Ade was used as the loan striker as it is all about creating chances from the wing and with intricate passing to allow the Striker to score goals and bring the AM and the wingers into play. The system would also suit a player like Dempsey coming in from wide far more too as it is closer to the position he has played for the last few years at Fulham.

So yes Moutinho is needed, because AVB clearly wants him.

Back to the news of Llorente being in talks with Juve, is anyone really surprised? We were never going to sign him, so it affects us very little. It has been clear for a couple of years now who we really want to sign and that is Leandro, so I imagine that will continue.

Not sure we can afford to have £20m sitting oin the bench week in and wek out.

We need the £20m to be working for us - maybe as a striker for example

 

[$hoguN]

I think the strikers are their to be taken Llorente, Villa Damiao any of these would IMO be an upgrade on what we already have. and although wages might be a factor we must go big Villa would be immense imo i know £16m for a 31 year old is alot but he is quality 2-3 good seasons left in him cement us as a top 4 side and that in itself opens doors to bigger fish...Levy needs to see this and although i dont expect him to go mental and throw wages at players he must accept that for quality you must be willing to loosen that grip just a little.

No-one really has any idea if Villa is still the player he was before his long injury, he is not getting too much time at Barca from what I have seen and judging by the fact they are willing to let him leave I think it leaves bigger question marks over where his game is right now. Villa prior to his injury would have been worth a punt, now it is a much bigger gamble... Also we have had zero ITK on Villa so I have no idea why I am talking about him.

*prepares lube for when A&C sees this*

Has wiskah turned up this morning as there would be little point in a guy working very late on his old portfolio unless the work needed to be done quickly.

 

[crokey]

Not sure we can afford to have £20m sitting oin the bench week in and wek out.

We need the £20m to be working for us - maybe as a striker for example

Why do you not understand that he won't be on the bench? It's not complicated.

 

[$hoguN]

Not sure we can afford to have £20m sitting oin the bench week in and wek out.

We need the £20m to be working for us - maybe as a striker for example

Not sitting on the bench, playing, like this:

Sandro​

Moutinho-----------​

-----------Dembele​

 

[Spursidol]

I was under the impression that we turned a profit (again) in the last transfer window.
So if we were one of the highest spenders it certainly wasn't in net spend.

Other than ManCity and Chelsea most clubs churn their squads, its not new money going into fees.

ATM its better to be sitting on money rather than needing to see before we buty which has ben the positionin the last few TW's because of a bloated squad

 

[PlayerX]

For those of you without access:

Adam Suter ‏@Adam79Suter
Moutinho doesn't need charming/convincing by AVB that's already done! Down to him now #THFC

Other questions to him:

Is the money right?
All agreed

Is Holtby nearly done?
Close not quite done

Suter has been backed by Gards as being legit, but its the first window I am aware of him so cannot say either way yet....

 

[faulks]

Not sure we can afford to have £20m sitting oin the bench week in and wek out.

We need the £20m to be working for us - maybe as a striker for example

AVB doesn't want to play 442 though. He wants 433.

Therefore if you are going to buy another CF you are dropping Adebayor and Defoe to the bench. Ideally you'd buy Willian or a similar kind of WF who can play either side in a 433.

 

[Spursidol]

Not sitting on the bench, playing, like this:

Sandro​

Moutinho-----------​

-----------Dembele​

As pointed out before DEmbele was used in that role at Fulham, was not great there so moved back.

Why is he suddenly definitely going to be such a successs moving forward. And why is he suddenly going to scoire more goals - major part of playing as a forward AM ios to score goals - he's never done that

 

[Gollorius]

I can't believe people are talking about getting rid of Dembele. He and Sandro are arguably the leagues best midfield pair!

Get some perspective...or pass me some of whatever you're smoking

 

[Dancing Dozzell]

Not sure we can afford to have £20m sitting oin the bench week in and wek out.

We need the £20m to be working for us - maybe as a striker for example

He wouldn't be sitting on the bench! He would add to the midfield and give us more options in terms of formation and tactics. His ability to spot a pass is vital, especially with the increasing number of teams parking the bus. We need someone who can be slightly cleverer than we currently are.

I agree that we need another striker, and it worries me about what happens if Lennon or Bale are out long term... However I also think we need to listen to AVB and let him build the team he wants (within our budget)

 

[Spursidol]

I can't believe people are talking about getting rid of Dembele. He and Sandro are arguably the leagues best midfield pair!

Get some perspective...or pass me some of whatever you're smoking

Those that are determined to get Moutinho are desperate to find a role for him playing which he's proved to be unsuitred to before so as not to sell him.

 

[JohanTheYid]

Why do you not understand that he won't be on the bench? It's not complicated.

This, if Mouts does sign (Please Jebus) then we will switch to AVB's favoured 433 with a ball winner (Sandro), a play maker (Mout) and a box to box man (Dembele)

 

[keithtighe93]

I'd love Moutinho Holtby etc. etc. but forgive me what is Gylfi's preferred role and tactic? Isn't he a creative passer. Isn't he the supposed to come good at the 10 spot the guy just needs more playing time.. He's looked decent recently.

meant to like this, on my phone so made a mistake will change later. sorry