Silva is a good comparison as a player, but us and Emirates Marketing Project are not in any way comparable as teams. Apart from any thing else their midfield is way more experienced.
Our midfield is there yet, not because any of them aren't good enough, but because they lack experience. I honestly think if we can keep the youngsters together for another two seasons we will reap the rewards.
They are still finding their best roles and growing into them.
Eriksen, mason and bentaleb can be our core.
If he was able to release the ball more accurately it wouldn't be an issue.
We have to accept Eriksen isn't at the level of someone like Silva at present. If he was then he wouldn't be at Spurs. Obviously I hope he continues to improve.
Its very hard to do that when some of his team mates are not moving into space. We have a couple of players who ball watch far to often.
If you haven't got it at 23 then you're not going to have it better at 29. The raw skills and attributes that make a special player special he already has when he's a young man. People think that a good player might become a great player at 26 onwards. The great players are already great by their early 20s.Very true, but he is 6 years younger so he has the time to improve.
If you haven't got it at 23 then you're not going to have it better at 29. The raw skills and attributes that make a special player special he already has when he's a young man. People think that a good player might become a great player at 26 onwards. The great players are already great by their early 20s.
I'm not saying that Eriksen hasn't got it but he's a very good player, not world class and not by any means a great player. We have probably seen the best that he is going to get to.
No completely agree Parklane. I never said you said he was world class just saying that I don't think he is. He is our best player of natural talent, there is a possibility he can become a better player, but I think he is at his best now. He needs to play with players on his level which can then make him a better player.
We'll miss him when he goes: I don't think we really fully realize how good he is now, or what he brings to the side. He presses more than a typical player in his position does, he's outstanding when it comes to playing slide-rule passes into tight pockets of space, and he's obviously gifted when it comes to both free kicks and finishing. I largely agree with @parklane1 : his struggles are down to us not having pacy players that can run onto his passes in behind and create space for themselves/finish, and in the absence of such players, he's largely forced to slow down and wait for Chadli/Lamela/Kane to chug up into threatening positions, by which point the opposition usually gets back into shape and the chance disappears.
Give him the runners he needs around him, and I think we'll see a player who can blow to smithereens any output that the likes of Ozil and Fabregas can come up with: I really do think he's that good. And if we let him go instead....we'll end up dearly regretting it, imo.
are we talking about eriksen?would've put this in the Pritchard forum, but i'd not be too disappointed if he was sold at the end of the window.
He doesn't fit what Poch wants to do (i.e. he's too slow and slows down our counter attacks way to much). I think he's disposable now with both Njie, Carroll, and Pritchard and feel we'd score a lot more goals from open play than we do with him in the team.
Sure he scores plenty when the ball is sitting still but I'd like to see us create more in open play and think we wouldn't be missing too much if he were to be moved on. He's just not what we need in that front left position in midfield and doesn't play as a VDV type off of Kane in the position just in behind.
maybe in another team or formation but not in ours
he's outstanding when it comes to playing slide-rule passes into tight pockets of space
I agree with Yoof on this. He is actually not that good at those balls slid in to the runners. I was hoping to see a lot more of that type of thing really. In saying that we don't have that many players willing to run in behind often enough.Is he really though? I think people want him to be a an Ozil/Silva type but I haven't seen much evidence of this supposed craft/guile/vision. His best form has been as a wide midfielder where he can drift undetected and this allows him to get amongst the goals, when he's played in the pocket it's all too congested for him and he's easily nullified as he just isn't sharp/quick/agile enough to really escape defenders. He's been getting a free pass for a while now, he has one goal in his last 20 games and that was a cross, he doesn't effect the game nearly enough to make up for the lack of output and I disagree that we missed him yesterday, we were no worse than the majority of games Eriksen has taken part in over the past six months.
He's one of our best players and we are a better team with him in it than when he's not.