Facing facts can occasionally be uncomfortable. I don’t know about you, but I found myself groaning at Doherty a few times, then I look at the data, and it tells me that Toby Alderweireld lost possession a little more, but Sergio Reguilon blew everyone out of the water losing possession more than any Tottenham player.
A stand-out passing accuracy is no mean feat for a defender that had 100 touches, 6 misplaced passes made the Irishman the most accurate passer of the ball in our back-line.
This innocuous pass was an assist – and football is frequently about doing the right thing in the right place, at the right time. It’s not all bicycle kicks.
Here’s further evidence that supports competency, very few of those pesky black crosses. Matt’s tackling was also improved, up to 56% from his current mean average of 54.1%
Mourinho in the post-match presser called the boy’s performance ‘impeccable’, yet I still see fans bad-mouthing him on social media. Each to their own, eh?
I hear he covered more ground than Lucas
This.
“extreme damage” spot on
He was right there not even ten yards away. He was facing it too. This infuriated me, you have to block crosses. Just a lapse in concentration though, at least he didnt let this get to him. There were no more mistakes.
Exactly right.. It’s easy to get passing stats in the high 90s if you play short and easy and sideways and backwards and switching.. No risk, easy play… Its tough trying to find that killer ball and thread it through an eye of a needle. Bale loses the ball, but he’s always trying to do something constructive with it.. Extreme damage. He’s looking for an assist or goal, or at least forward.
You need to be switched on in injury time. He was at fault for their goal, he could easily have blocked that cross or at least put pressure on him. He went to sleep. Pinpointed to the 6ft 4inch Benteke, far easier to deal with and block the cross.. He redeemed himself though, didn’t let this affect him, good second half.
Winks is a great example of a player with ‘fabulous’ stats, but you’d fall asleep watching him. Spot on.
Doherty’s ability to not screw up’ could however provide him with a big career.
Probably equally as fair to say he didn’t play especially poorly; Doherty played OK, he didn’t screw up, but his lack of pace and vision left some potential attacking movement unfulfilled.
We have a lot of fixtures and need to be able to rest players when we can: what we are looking for is for players to come in and do their jobs as squad players. Let’s face it, if they were really capable of doing a great deal more (apart form on the odd occasion when they do actually have that good game), they would be in the side, not covering for those being rested.
Using stats is in my view (and as highlighted by other comments), highly suspect without context. Winks for example will make 14 million passes with just 4 going astray, great stats, great player, great game? When I was at school we played in the playground and along one side was a large dustbin which you could use to get a “wall pass” to beat a player.
Let me tell you, that dustbin had unbelievable stats!
Slightly more of an assist than Vertonghen was for Son against Burnley! It was an improved performance, but his crossing was poor and he couldn’t beat his man in the final third.
Our two CBs lost Benteke though.
Agreed he was much improved and maybe he’ll benefit from the new found sense of adventure in the side.
He deserves some slack just for taking on the role of Spurs RB which is about as precarious as being the drummer in Spinal Tap. He’s lucky not have spontaneously combusted or been eaten by a lion or something similar.
This isn’t raw data at all. I’ve watched people pick away at stats relentlessly over the years, and it all boils down to how you felt about him, which is of course subjective.
I’m as unconvinced about MD as anyone, but against a side that we thumped 4-1, he did have a good game!
…and raw data without context are of limited value. Most of those arrows point backwards and I don’t remember him completing a decent cross or beating a defender on the outside. He was better than usual, but so was everyone else. Anyway maybe he’ll draw some confidence from yesterday’s game and go on to better things. We’re going to need him.
He did the more simple stuff well and that’s a massive improvement from him and it’s often not doing that stuff that hurts us most.
Can he currently burst forward with the sureness of Reg or Aurier – on the evidence yesterday, not really. Hopefully that comes because there were a few moments I thought he’d burst past the last defender and really ask questions of Palace.
In each case he either lost the ball or looked to play it back to one of our ‘creatives’
Obviously its hard to argue with the data, but if Reguillon did lose the ball more he was generally in the latter 3rd of the pitch and/or had someone else covering…often when Doherty loses the ball hes either the last or penultimate man… a good player doesnt become bad overnight but its not asking much to be able to cross a ball & miss the first man… if we could get decent crosses in from both flanks, it would give Spurs & Vinicius more options.
If we’re honest could he get any worse ? Sure a couple of other players had an off day. In the overall scheme of things he’s got a lot of catching up to do to be the player we thought we signed. One swallow doth not a summer make.
He was about 50 yards out of position for the goal conceded. His man was unmarked and put the cross in for Benteke to score.