- Jan 7, 2009
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Bale has obviously been disappointing, but I thought he actually looked sharper when he first turned up.
Not sure, I doubt whether many people had very high expectations after last season so I also doubt whether many people are disappointed THIS season. For me he has done alright so far this season and he has clearly upped his game, but there is still a lot of room for improvement.
Not really, all it says in this case is that he has got a very high ceiling and that he hasn't reached it yet, which is perfectly normal for a 23 year old who grew up in a completely different (football) environment. Same can be said about Reguilon and I certainly wouldn't call him a disappointment either.Anyone who has 'a lot of room for improvement' in their byline surely is a disappointment.
Not really, all it says in this case is that he has got a very high ceiling and that he hasn't reached it yet, which is perfectly normal for a 23 year old who grew up in a completely different (football) environment. Same can be said about Reguillon and I certainly wouldn't call him a disappointment either.
Not really, all it says in this case is that he has got a very high ceiling and that he hasn't reached it yet, which is perfectly normal for a 23 year old who grew up in a completely different (football) environment. Same can be said about Reguillon and I certainly wouldn't call him a disappointment either.
You can still be justifiably disappointed by a player’s lack of development or improvement season to season.Maybe because this thread is about the players who have disappointed/ underwhelmed. What you've stated about Lucas the majority of Spurs fans have come to expect, therefore, it's standard Moura imo
ffs Dele?I'd be fascinated to see the responses if this thread had been started before Palace....
Yeah, get ridKane and Son, I thought they’d have more goals and assists by now.
So to summarise your evil plan was to bash Toby in the view of getting your son a trial for SC?I know I got a lot of possibly-deserved flack for calling out Toby (when even I admitted he's been pretty good this year) but my main gripe was about the set pieces, which are killing us. C'mon: who doesn't hold their breath and count backwards from ten every fucking time we're whistled outside the area, or give up a corner or whatever...and isn't that at least partially down to our (de facto) CB captain to help sort out/stop? Am I wrong? Serious question- I never played soccer and have learned everything just by watching it and falling deeply in love w/Spurs around 2003 (don't ask why...it's a long story).
Anyway- funny enough- my son is 8 and honestly (I swear I'm not being "proud papa" here) my kid is good. He's a way better athlete than I ever was and I made him- a born righty- be left footed (I literally forced him into it/fooled him into it starting at age two to the point where he just thought that his left was his "kicking foot"-- and he is now the captain of what [for us here in New York City] is a fairly high level travel team- not to mention one of only two "lefties" on the squad-- and in the open field he nutmegs kids and goes past them like they're orange cones. If you watched his games you'd clearly see that my son and one other kid are heads and tails above the other kids on the team. He loves soccer- and Spurs- as much as I do; the boy's a fucking DIEHARD Yiddo. Ok so what's my point- wtf does this have to do with Toby Alderweireld lol?
Well, my son, as good as he is driving forward offensively- is not a good defender. He plays Left Back when their coach want to close out games they're winning (with the other talented kid moved to Right Back) primarily because- at the very least- when it comes to defense my son's high "soccer IQ" means that he doesn't (usually) make horrifically stupid mistakes (like tepidly passing it back to the Keeper with opposing players hovering around just waiting for one of our kids to panic and do just that)- and so he does what he can, getting stuck-in and trying but mostly getting by-passed and ending up chasing the opposing player from behind and funneling it out for a corner for them. Basically, it's damage-control defending most of the time-- particularly if the opposing player is any good.
So, in sum, my son is (relatively) talented- and some of it is definitely down to me- a guy who never so much as kicked a soccer ball as a child and who- these days- only does Judo- yet who was actually able to teach my 3-4-5-6-7 year old son basic soccer skills (passing with the inside of your foot, "snapping" the foot a quarter-turn from "toes-pointed-straight-on" to "foot-sideways" a millisecond before making contact with the ball, one-touch passing, using both feet, passing with the outside of the boot, and so on) without even looking at YouTube for ideas. I've been able to help him with his power and his accuracy (plus like I said he's 100% lefty lower-body-wise: surfs goofy foot, puts his left foot up on a bike to get it started, kicks an American football with his left foot, plays Judo lefty, etc.-- he's completely lower-half lefty)- and having coached other sports I could literally intuit what we needed to work on offensively whenever he and I would practice at the park. Anyway, the absurdly long-winded humble-brag I've just put you lot through is finally going to be justified...I promise.
I knew (at least on a low/child-beginner's level) how to get him better offensively just through sheer watching so much Tottenham over the years. However- I didn't- and don't- have ANY idea about defense: how to coach it, what to stress, how to see it, what the fundamentals are, etc.,-- so here I am criticizing one of the world's best Center Backs because to my (feeble) mind it's "his" (Toby's) job to deal with free kicks and since we suck at defending them then he must be a major component of that suckitude. Am I wrong? Is Alderweireld not to blame? Is this not really his job? Is my (admitted) soccer ignorance producing opinion-piece drivel? Or am I correct in thinking that Toby needs to help get this sorted- sharpish- and that, indeed, the fact that he hasn't yet done that merits a "disappointed"-rating?
Apologies for the Dickens-length post; my larger point is that I just want to begin fathoming the other, darker, less obvious side of football: that of defending. I realize that there's far more to it than meets the eye (particularly the untrained eye), which is why I'm asking for help. Doesn't VVD take charge of set pieces for the scousers? And isn't Toby our "VVD?"`
What am I not getting?