verlaine1979

Apparently the club has a prevailing philosophy that is meant to ensure seamless movement from the youth teams to the first team, and provide continuity when there are changes of manager. Based on everything that was said when Poch started making headlines, this philosophy revolves around a style of football based on a progressive, sophisticated approach that venerates technical ability and tactical flexibility (playing from rather than in positions) above the English sacred cows of getting stuck in and getting it forward. I don't really care who comes next as long as it someone committed to this approach, but that means I doubt we're going to find them in the UK, and they should probably be 40 or under...

Solent commentator also said it was Davis in his round-up fwiw.

Can you really be said to dictate games in which you fail to create more than 1 or 2 meaningful chances? Only listened to this game, so perhaps our 5 shots on target were all going in barring exceptional saves from Hennessey, but in general, over this poor run of games (and further back in fact, a few unrepresentative results aside) we've been toothless in attack and created mostly half chances snatched at by players not renowned for the efficiency of their finishing. Dictating possession without laying a glove on the opposition is the very definition of propaganda football.

He's got two in the Europa League as well, though I did acknowledge his return this season is worse (I also suggested him as a bargain basement Mane replacement, not as my preferred #10 option). That said, last season Sisto scored 8 in the league. Remind me, over the course of the season (and a half) before this one, how many goals did our much derided midfielder score?

Pione Sisto from Midgetland looked like a decent player in the two qualifier games, though I note his goals return this season is comparatively weak. Would definitely fit the 6m replacement mark...

He'd an exciting player, but when we played Palace, I thought both Bolasie and Zaha put in performances that were markedly more dominant than any individual game I've seen Mane play for us. Maybe they both had season highs when we played, but it seems unlikely...

First half Norwich spurned a couple of very good positions (the 2 on 1 they had after VVD gave it away in particular) to match Long's fluffed chances. We probably edged the first half on possession and Long's 1 on 1 with the keeper, but it was hardly a dominant performance, unless the meaning of 'dominant' has changed significantly over the new year? We've been a dull, predictable attacking force throughout 2015, barring one or two misleading high points. A better finisher would convert a greater number of the snap-shots and half chances being spurned by Pelle and now Long, but let's not kid ourselves that we're tearing sides apart barring the application of a finishing touch.

Pass, pass, pass, cross, clearing header. Repeat.

Out of interest, where would Davis/#10 come in your list of priorities for where the first 11 needs strengthening/replacements? As far as I can see, the only possible argument you could make is that we need a first choice right back more, and even that would probably be a hasty claim considering Cedric has only had half a season to bed in. Otherwise this is the main position where we've been lacking genuine first 11 quality for at least two seasons now, which makes the general Davis love-in on here a bit odd.

To be perfectly honest I saw no qualitative difference between before and after he went off. First twenty aside we were a shambles the whole match, and created our best chance right at the death with Davis long gone.

But he's so important to the way we play!

The second half of Poch's last season I felt we'd started to become a bit stale in attack, then last season, if you discount the two freak results against Sunderland and Villa (neither of which look remotely like recurring this season) and expand our 36 game average over the whole season, you end up with 42 goals. This would have placed us 14/15 in the league for goals scored, which to me is a fairer reflection of the attacking potency of a team whose top scorer had a 20 hour barren streak, and who only managed 1 goal in 5 matches in February. Perhaps I'm wrong about Pochettino's team falling off towards the end of the season, but even if that's true, the three primary goalscorers of that team aren't playing for us anymore.

Yup, gone are the days of playing from a position rather than in a position - Koeman has obviously instructed the wide players to stick rigidly to the touchline. Among other things, surely this means our attacking approach is completely telegraphed.

A few people on the match thread thought it was him who gave it away for the first goal, but it was Davis, which might explain some of the more overtly negative reviews. I thought he did okay first half, playing some good first time through balls to the attackers, but like the rest of the team, he was pretty much invisible second half until he was subbed.

Watching Dembele and Eriksen yesterday (and Kane and Lamela when they dropped deep) it was really apparent how many more players Spurs had who were willing and able to run with the ball past an opponent. Same with Watford just now. Perhaps it's just the case that after a few years of teams being caught out by pressing and pound-shop tiki taka, equilibrium has returned and once again you need match-winners if you want to win matches?

Let's be under no illusions here. Spurs completely soft-pedalled the second half, and could've pushed for more goals if they'd cared to. Dembele and Eriksen drove through our midfield seemingly at will. We fluffed our two presentable chances, but we didn't deserve a draw and probably wouldn't have got one even if Mane and JWP scored.

To answer my own question from the match thread, it was Davis who gave it away for the first, not Clasie (Clasie slid in for one of the ineffectual challenges).

Was it Davis or Clasie that gave it away for the first goal?

Come on, he shouldn't have tried beating Sterling so close to his own penalty area, knowing that if he lost the ball he would be completely outmatched for pace. That should be obvious to any player with a modicum of common/footballing sense. You rarely even see players like Iniesta trying to shimmy round an opponent on the edge of their own box, so a specialist defender should know to play the percentages in that position regardless of whether they're covering at fullback or not. Mistakes in position, you have a point, but mistakes on the ball like this cannot be excused in the same way.

Absolutely right re: his mistakes. Perhaps you can forgive his positional errors when playing RB, but he's made just as many basic footballing mistakes which are inexcusable wherever you are on the pitch. And it's not as if he's flawless when playing in his preferred position, as it was his poor clearing header that directly led to the Palace goal on Saturday.

Isn't the heart of the issue that we promote ourselves as having an incredible, technically advanced scouting department, and yet rather than unearthing a Vardy or Arnautovic or some unknown who would represent great value for money, we ended up overpaying for a journeyman of limited talent? It's not that Long himself is a problem player (surely everyone knew exactly what he is capable of, and his contribution will have surprised no one), but that his signing undermines everyone's belief that the 'black box' is anything other than the same old collection of scouts in a room with more tv screens.

I assumed he was talking about Yoshida's weak clearing header that went straight to (I think) Cabaye to start the Palace move.

Both Zaha and Bolasie looked several cuts above our attackers today in their ability to take on opponents and open up space.

Yup, leaving aside the question of whether you really want your central creative player's most visible skill to be defensive harrying, there were plenty of instances last season (particularly from December on) when SD was a positive liability both in surrendering possession and marking the opposition.

Campbell has been great for Arsenal tonight.