He'd probably be a CM, and coach would flip the triangle and go to a 433 with one DM, and 2 CM including Holtby, Dembele. My read on it anyway.
Haven't watched Holtby play all that much, but Sandro is pretty much a pure defensive midfielder, even if he does jaunt upfield too much for his manager's liking. Holtby sounds more like an attacking mid, with the ability to play straight CM as well (as was proved last year). NOTE: Just saw jcsd's post, and concur.
The Telegraph's football page this morning has a slideshow of the worst penalty takers. Being a little worried Clint was on the list, i had to check it out. Dempsey was not, but if had made it he would be in good company: 10 Steven Gerrard 15/21 - 71% 9 Robin van Persie 10/14 - 71% 8 Michael Owen 14/20 - 70% 7 Wayne Rooney 14/21 ... Incl miss on wednesday 6 Johnathan Walters 6/9 5 Ashley Young 5/8 - 63% 4 Kevin Phillips 11/18 - 61% 3 Steed Malbranque 6/10 2 Jermain Defoe 8/14 - 57% 1 Juan Pablo Angel 5/10 Anyone know the PL stats for Dempsey?
That miss a few months ago and the miss against Chelsea when he was still at Fulham. Probably close to a 60% completion. ONly had like 6 or 7 penalties taken
I'm guessing Matt Le Tissier with 47/48 = 97.91% is the best penalty taker (of those who have taken a significant number of penalties). I'm not sure Dempsey even has a 50% record with penalties - not one of his strengths.
To be sure. DiMaria has gone beyond though with some of his crap in the Barca matches (and I'm no Barca fan). He embodies a lot of the worst of contiental and south american football.
I think he's 2 for 5 in the PL. He made one in the FA Cup last season as well, so overall I think he might be at 50%.
Bale is not better than Di Maria. But let's not argue about that in this thread, it's just my opinion. I hope Dempsey gets the start next game, Tottenham have cooled off a bit.
Article: Spurs new Dilemma Not a fan of this Michael Cox article. He makes a few accurate points in my opinion, but has been shallow with Sig and Dempsey. I wonder how realistic expectations are for new players. Consider this: Gareth Bale didn't win a single match during his 24 appearances with Tottenham in 09-10. This can be viewed a few different ways, but Cox's short term analysis is problematic and neither of the formerly mentioned players (Sig and Demps) has been given credit for Spurs being in third place. Sig especially has been effectively shat (excuse me) on.
But Clint matches Matt in the foot speed department. I think he grossly overestimates how good Defoe and Adebayor are together. Whereas they are not.
Completely ignores Dempsey's creative play (arguably MOTM a couple of times ?) just prior to his injury. Ade/Defoe pairing has resulted in few goals from either striker though it's possible their link up play has been invaluable (I don't see that Ade is contributing any more than Dempsey). Siggurdson has also been playing better lately but he has not gotten the chances Dempsey has had.
Gotta love people calling for new players when Dempsey and Siggy are RIGHT THERE and haven't been given a shot as that attacking midfielder they so desperately crave. Never wanted to root against a team our of ours is on more.
With Caulker/Dawson, Dempsey, Ade, Verto, and Bale, Siggies set piece delivery could be their number one offensive weapon in some games, especially ones like QPR and Wigan where they sat back so much. But something makes me think this kind of scoring is beneath the manager. Also, where do you fit Siggy, Dembo, Dempsey, Ade and Bale all on the same pitch? Either you admit one 'Bale' style player is enough and jettison Lennon or you drop your #1 goal scorer, albeit one on a major dry spell. --------------Ade------------------- ---Bale----------Dempsey-----Siggy ---------------Dembo------------------ -------------------------Parker----------------- --BAE--------Verto------Caulker/Dawson-------Walker---
Ya can't... That's why we can't wait to see if AVB just plays 4-4-2 again. Dempsey for Ade... Kinda like the Old Trafford game (after ten min.). This will b fun!!!
To my eye Demps has brought more than Siggy so far this season. Lennon has been dangerous last few games, Defoe is a bit off the boil. Adebayor actually seems to have gone ACN, so for now there is only one party goer with a chair.
If I had my hands on a massive stats array for the Spuds, I would like to see if two Siggy spot kicks = 20 Lennon runs and 'outcome TBD.'
AVB is bringing Siggy in as a sub and talking to him before he comes on. My sense is that he sees Siggy as a flexible attacker who can come in and fix what aint working or add a new dimension to the attack. Who else could he do that with?
But even if you got the same, or even more goals from 2 Siggy free kicks as you do from 20 Lennon runs (and Siggy is not the only decent free kick taker on Spurs) that is a fairly naive analysis of the situation. Lennon brings a lot of attention, defensively, and forces teams to make tactical adjustments - and he also brings a certain rigidity to Spurs line-up. Demps/Siggy are able to switch if AVB wants them to - much more fluidly than, say Lennon/Demps or Lennon/Sig. So it's really a tactical approach - do you want to be more completely a fast-paced touch-line attack that forces defenders out wide and leaves room for a Demps or Siggy or Adebayor to operate in the hole, or do you play a more unbalanced attack with your touch-line winger on the left and Demps in the hole, with siggy and inside RM more than a winger. I tend to prefer, theoretically, the unbalanced which allows for more adjustments on the fly, but it is hard to argue with Lennon's effectiveness the last couple of games. His flat out quickness gave Spurs at least two goals over the last few games. It's a good problem to have but I think with Ade gone you choices are tactical. Demps up front for Defoe if you are playing cagey - which Spurs tends not to do. Lennon out wide right if you are going to run a team down - and then either Demps or Siggy in the hole. I think Demps has shown himself to be more effective across the field, but it's not like Siggy's been a total disaster either and I don't think we've seen the best of him yet.
Apparently there's a mini-struggle going on at Spurs about the people AVB wants to bring in vs the money the front office doesn't want to spend. Dempsey was a club signing not a coach signing, so I guess that explains some and why AVB wants his own guys.