No wonder Tottenham’s backline has been a revolving door this season. The quality of the players simply hasn’t been there. When a club has had two simply exceptional defenders in Jan Vertonghen and Toby Alderweireld, they cannot be replaced on the cheap.
Verts effectively retired and Toby is marking out time to do the same. Sanchez hasn’t worked and whilst Dier tried to give it a go this afternoon, when it came to it, he ended up more interested in trying to start a barney with Paul Pogba than seeing out the game professionally.
A successful passing accuracy of just 74% reveals how pressured the game became for the Englishman. The 3 blocks and 4 clearances were good, but it is tough to make a compelling case for a good performance.
The answers do not lie in our current squad. I’ve now hit a point where I’d be delighted to see a new coach in order to prove the case.
OGS is awful, but Utd can always throw money at the problem until the issue is fixed. Wan Bissaka (£50m), Maguire (£80m), Fernandes (£60m), Donny VDB (£35m) all bought by OGS plus he has spent £300k a week on Cavani. His cheap buys are what Spurs buy (Diallo, £20m, James £16m and Telles £13m).
Yesterday Utd had the former world’s most expensive footballer, Shaw who was bought for a world record fee for a teenager (£30m) and players from a successful academy set up (Henderson-who they stole, McTominay-who they stole, Rashford and Greenwood-who they stole). Just like Chelsea blagging that Hampshire lad Mount is one of their own! They also had expensive duds like Fred (£50m) and Lindelof (£30m), again players we are more likely to be associated with.
OGS has been lucky and has used his money not to improve, but stay ahead of floundering teams (Arsenal, Spurs, Liverpool and Chelsea). That isn’t his fault but I am not convinced OGS has got a tune out of that team. He got knocked embarrassingly out of the Ch Lg and is hoping he can win a second rate European trophy on the back of it so save his career. He manages a cash cow of a team and is only just ahead of Leicester et al. Whenever he comes up against a team at the top of their game he invariably fluffs his lines tactically (Leicester in the FA Cup), hence why he has yet to win a trophy. Utd are flat track bullies, they beat the rubbish. OGS is lucky that there is so much of it about, Spurs being one of them. Mourinho would have done better if Utd had allowed him to get rid of Pogba, and that is where all the issues stemmed from. Pogba plays well once in a blue moon, like yesterday (because he had a point to prove), but he soon follows it up with 10 drab performances. He is talented but his attitude stinks.
Yes, the quality and depth isn’t there, but the fact is H, Toby is STILL our best CB by every metric and Mourinho hasn’t been playing him. In fact I would venture to suggest that Jan Vertonghen, at 34, who had been recovering from a bad concussion last season, is STILL a better defender than Sanchez or Dier, but Mourinho didn’t re-sign him.
None of the above exculpates Lewis and Levy from chronic under investment in the playing squad, but factually Mourinho picks the team, he chops and changes the players and he rode his favourite Anglo-Portuguese warhorse Dier, until he finally realised what we all knew, that he was crap at CB and benched him.
Then inexplicably he restored him today, against United, ahead of Toby and behold the result. He totally loses Cavani on the cross for the second goal, which was his man, not Aurier’s and we lose a game we might have salvaged a point from. As a footnote, Dier gave away the needless penalty that cost us 2 points in the same fixture last season.
Sell Sanchez Dier Doherty Aurier Davies Lloris project rebuild but please not on the cheap
You are looking at a symptom not the cause. You have a player on the back line, who plays for a dinosaur; one of the few modern managers who has absolutely no clue how to properly break a good press (Man Utd’s press is one of the worst in the league too). Dier’s turnover rate was high because he had no outlets and was forced to hoof the ball away. It wasn’t like he was doing a John Stones and giving opponent’s the balls in a great position. (HH – 9 months away and one of my first posts is to disagree with you – just like old times – I bet you haven’t missed me 🙂 )
This club will continue to get defeated in semi-finals, finals and important league games, despite who is manager. It will get your hopes up and deliver nothing, yet empty you of your time and money.
For me the one worrying thing is everyone I see is saying sell sanchez but why are they not including dier. I would sell all three Toby dier and sanchez.
The Man U players were ecstatic when Mourinho was sacked.
They bought in a championship manager in OGS, look at the difference between the two teams today.
Hnmmmmm.
I would love to see a new manager come in, pick a good one, you never know, he may do an OGS and turn water into wine.
Mourinho is turning water into sewage