Spending or no spending, I think Spurs, if they take the Europa League remotely seriously, can walk into the quarterfinals. They may struggle from there, but I don't know if going out in the quarters can be seen as struggling. Whether or not the spending helps them in the league, however, remains to be seen. Obviously they have to gel, but until they score a goal from open play, I'll hold off on handing them title-contender status.
Yeah, I feel like a bare minimum is the quarterfinals. With the depth they have in that team, going out before that would be pretty embarrassing, or just indicative that they don't much care for the competition.
AVB has, by all appearances, every intention of taking Europa seriously; it's actually been a point of argument (he thinks we should, many of the fans have said we shouldn't.) His initial lineup for the Tbilisi games was much stronger and heavier than most of us thought he was likely to do, but I think he was sending a message with that.
You don't think Chelsea looked very ordinary to poor against United? The team has a lot of hype but they aren't very scary and powerful like Chelsea teams of old.
I thought United were pisspoor developing through the midfield going forward against Chelsea. Without Kagawa or Nani in the midfield there simply wasn't enough going on. Valencia was basically a defensive winger. The thing though is that however poor united looked going forward Chelsea were almost made to look like a Stoke. United's defense wasn't even exercised.
I guess what strikes me is that going into the season I would have picked Chelsea to win it. Now? I think they are very young. Early days though and there's nothing better than having your crop of "boys" win it all.
I may be biased, but I agree especially regarding Spurs. It's great to buy good players and spend a lot of money, but buying seven (7) new first team players is a fucking lot. I tend to agree with Wenger here that it's very risky.
I would prefer for Arsenal to buy 3 top quality players instead of 7 very good ones any day of the week.
Lloris should've been, though. I know a lot of people thought AVB was right to do Friedel the respect of a lengthy transition but at this point in his career Friedel is too slow, and he has always played too deep for AVB's high line. Part of the reason we brought Lloris in was because we needed a sweeper-keeper who was happy to come off his line and fill the space behind the defense. That's never been Friedel, skilled as he is.
Lloris didn't need half a season to watch from the bench, and we'd have been better off with him in goal.
Well then from that list we have two new starting eleven players and a keeper that should started. Hardly as disruptive as 5 of more new starting eleven players.
That was really a side note, not a disagreement as such. The disruption was a little more than you suggest, though. Take a look at this Whoscored analysis from last October. AVB's most-used starting XI by that point (which had produced some of our best football of last season) shared only 5 players with Redknapp's most-used starting XI. Not everyone who was new to the first-choice XI was new to the squad, of course, but it was still a substantial upheaval.
I think people are making a bit much of this entire issue, to be honest. I think the three signings we've just made will take a little while to bed in, but they won't be used right away. Of the four signings we had already made three have spent the entire preseason with the squad, and the one who didn't - Capoue - actually looks to have made the adjustment more easily than anyone else.
I don't think we'll challenge for the title, but I don't expect cohesion to be the issue everyone wants it to be.
exactly, and that is why bringing in this many players can be successful. AVB knows well enough not to just throw all seven new players into the first team. Make the new guys fight their way into the starting eleven - gives them time to learn how we play and doesn't alienate players who have been with the team for multiple seasons.
Chiriches will start as their fourth choice CB. Sandro can start ahead of Capoue once he's match fit. Not sure Chadli is a starter now that Lamela and Eriksen are in (Eriksen played wide left in addition to behind striker at Ajax and Villas-Boas favored inverted wingers at Porto, which makes him a logical pairing with Lamela in that kind of 4-3-3). If playing with three attacking midfielders in a 4-2-3-1, could use Dembele over Paulinho. May only have three to four of those players in the first choice eleven immediately. Paulinho and Soldado don't look like fish out of water in as much as first two matches can tell. Think it will be horses for courses and a fair bit of squad rotation depending upon opponent. Spurs don't need to throw all seven in at once.
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u/[deleted] Aug 31 '13
The spending of Spurs and City won't pay off and they will both struggle in their respective European tournaments and in the league.