Giovani dos Santos at Tottenham Hotspur F.C. Vol. IX [R]

Highly doubt Gio starts tomorrow.

Making the bench is a whole different story.

 

well Liverpool does need an exciting midfielder to help out Gerrard, sad they just seem to be a mid table team this year but if Gio plays regularly that would be great

 

Never gonna happen, but I can dream can't I?

-------------------torres----------
j.cole------gerrard-----------gio
------------------------lucas-----
---------meireles/poulsen--------

 

Mario Gomez from Germany might get signed too.

 

man lucas sucks, sometimes I think they are better off playing with 10

 

Not trying to get off topic, but he looked good for Brazil against the nads. Xabi leaving left a big hole to fill and Lucas is not a playmaker.

 

Gio on the bench

SUBS - Pletikosa, Palacios, Sandro, Kranjcar, Giovani, Pavlyuchenko, Keane.

 

That is actually a good sign that Gio made the bench and Bentley did not and from looking at the glut of attacking options on the bench I think Gio will be the direct replacement for Lennon.

 

Gio in

 

Gio in for Rafa Van Der Vaart.

How does he look?

 

Bad. Everytime he got the ball he just passed it back. The whole team was bad though, so yeah.

 

Gio barely touched the ball. He did track back a few times to help defend.

 

I thought it was a good sign that Gio played today. I thought we would not see much of him going forward. Harry must see something in him still. He just needs his first EPL goal to get him some confidence.

 

good sign indeed. Especially after a bad showing in the carling cup.

 

He looked like garbage, In those 15min he was in.

 

Why dosent he run with the ball and break defender's ankles? Maybe Arry wants to see some selfishness out there.

 

Man cry cry was loading his plate up

 

I dont think Gio gets arry's system. There was a time where arry was yelling at Gio to come back for a pass.

Really poor game from Giovani, as a sub you should make an impact and he didnt do anything. Pav at least took some shots from distance.

 

He played 13 minutes and touched the ball three times. Completed two passes and Barrera intercepted the other one.

Made three runs when Spurs was attacking and only received the ball near the box once. Actually he didn't, Pavlyuchenko tried to dribble past three dudes and then just kicked the ball in Gio's direction.

When Spurs didn't have the ball, he tracked back to defend and covered some ground in the midfield, even got called for a foul on Boa Morte.

Somewhat ineffective but a bad game? Again, he only played 13 mins.

Gio is still learning and the only way you'll see him excel is if he's given a run of games in order to raise his confidence and get some match rhythm. He's playing sporadically and being given scrap minutes every now and then and some of you expect him to light it up?

VanderVaart and Modric played almost the whole game and couldn't muster any offense for Spurs but Gio's rusty ass is supposed to come in and save the day?

no mamen

 

What is he supposed to do then? Just walk around and keep passing the ball back?

 

He's supposed to do whatever is asked of him.

In case you haven't noticed, Gio isn't the focal point of Tottenham's attack like he is with the Mexican NT.

West Ham's wide players were having a field day with Hutton (and Bale to a lesser extent) so for all we know, Redknapp asked Gio to help keep the right side from being completely shredded while Spurs looked for an equalizer.

I won't speculate as to what Redknapp has in store for Gio but it's very obvious he's low in confidence. He probably thought he was going to get a good amount of minutes this season based on the fact that he started most of their pre-season games but that hasn't been the case.

Either way, the lack of thorough analysis when it comes to the Mex Abroad section is sad. If dudes don't score then they're scolded, if they only play 20 mins they're scolded, if they don't play at all they're scolded.

 

Good posts here. The one thing that concerns me is that Spurs were down by one and the only reason Gio was put in was to help tie up the game. Gio is not a very good defensive midfielder so I have to believe he was put in for offense and he offered very little in that regard. I will not judge him form these 13 minutes but from the bad 45 midweek.

 

Whatever it is he is doing, it must be good to keep on playing. I guess you all are right. Hes like a holding winger i guess.

 

I think Redknapp sees his potential and is trying to bring him along slowly but the only times Gio has had consistent playing time have been with Ipswich Town, the NT and Galatasaray and that's when we saw flashes of his true potential.

With that said, I'm not blind to Gio's tactical (and mental) shortcomings. It's easy to say now in retrospect but Gio cut his own development short when he left Barca.

Gio's best games with Barca took place when he started from the midfield line and made runs into the attacking third and combined with other players. When he was asked to directly replace Messi, he looked lost.

Messi took a similar path. At first he was playing as a midfielder on the right but he would drop back really deep to get the ball from the defenders or midfielders and would then run with the ball and combine with other players. Once he found his comfort level, he was able to push up and roam around the attacking third while being just as effective, if not more.

Gio on the other hand, hasn't found his comfort level, he tends to think he can run past players and he certainly can but not all the time and if he gets by one or two defenders, the third will come in and steal the ball from him. Most of his coaches know he can do damage from different parts of the field but the problem is he's not really all that effective in any of them since he hasn't played consistenty in any of those positions.

Redknapp once said Gio got glowing reviews from Roy Keane.

Roy Keane played Gio on the right wing and Redknapp seems to be following suit.

The difference is that Keane gave Gio some freedom to roam behind the strikers and needless to say, the Championship is a tier below the Premiership quality wise.

 

Didnt Roy Keane say hes too good for the championship when their fans wanted him to be bought?