Brilliant tactical set-up by Pochettino. Twin Centre Forwards who both hold the ball up, which provided two outlet balls whenever Spurs won possession, occupied both Centre Backs, and allowed Spurs to get up the pitch. Genius. Llorente's signing was obviously made precisely for this type of match, especially as he ain't gonna be intimidated by playing at the Bernabeu having played there a number of times before.
The one thing that Pochettino has never been afraid to do is to give English youngsters a chance - and if they aren't good enough (Mason, Caroll, Pritchard etc) then he will off load them but if they are then he will give them a run.
I believe that Chelsea, for example, do not have in their current first team squad (i.e. not out on loan) a single English player who has come through their ranks and started a League match.
Bruce Millington in the Racing Post has picked up on this mentioning that Reuben Loftus-Cheek and Tammy Abraham have been allowed to go out on loan with no right of recall.
It appears to me that Conte clearly doesn't fancy the now 24 year old Batshuayi (just 3 League starts in the last year, brought Willian to replace the injured Morata against City and brought him off after 57 minutes on Saturday) so, with Morata out, the opportunity to give Abraham a chance would have presented itself - he's scored 5 goals in 8 starts for Swansea (23 in 40 for Bristol City last season) so why wouldn't he do at least as well, if not better, at Chelsea who will create more chances?
Let's also not forget how Rashford came on to the scene - he only made his debut for United after Martial got injured in the warm up and scored twice. He's not 20 'til the end of the month but has already played 74 games for United and 13 times for England. But had fate not taken a hand and given him that opportunity, would he be in the same place now? Lingard is the only other English player brought their academy in the first team squad. How have they got to here from the Beckham, Neville, Neville, Scholes, Butt, Brown, Giggs and Sharpe era?
Lukaku isn't English but was still a promising young player at Chelsea. What did they do? Well they afforded him just one League start in his three years at the club and then offloaded him for a net profit of £10m when he had scored 32 League goals in 49 starts for Everton and WBA. And three years later he is sold by Everton for almost £50m more than they paid Chelsea for him!
No club pays more for its academy than Chelsea does or has more players on loan. Perhaps if they paid a bit more attention to integrating some of those players in to the first team squad then they might do even better. And yes I know that they are the current Premier Champions. But, effectively, they did a "Leicester" - no European commitments and very few injuries massively aided their cause. And that success has papered over the cracks. Because for every John Terrys there are half a dozen Costas with little or no affinity or loyalty.
It all comes down to two things - the desire for immediate success and the influx of foreign managers. There is no time now for top Clubs to "bed" their youngsters because the desire to win the PL or, at the very least, qualify for the CL is vital. Which makes what Spurs and Pochettino are doing even more laudable - how many of the other top clubs are heard regularly singing "he's one of our own"?
^^^^^^ great post .. and raises a few interesting points .. e.g. who at 'big' clubs decides on who to sign, and if a 'mistake' is made, it the seems that the same clubs can afford to lose large sums of money on these 'mistakes' .. the player can be sold on or loaned out at a loss or 'written off' against tax .. foreign players can fill an immediate need, whereas of course home grown need tending and nurturing .. foreign managers often have more insight into overseas based players and perhaps like to sign from the same 'culture' as themselves
not just big clubs by the way, clubs in all divisions with various financial situations make mistakes and bad signings all the time .. except some cost more than others .. CAFC is a good example .. money wasted in Duchatelet's' early years' impacting on the money available now for new signing players
The one thing that Pochettino has never been afraid to do is to give English youngsters a chance - and if they aren't good enough (Mason, Caroll, Pritchard etc) then he will off load them but if they are then he will give them a run.
I believe that Chelsea, for example, do not have in their current first team squad (i.e. not out on loan) a single English player who has come through their ranks and started a League match.
Bruce Millington in the Racing Post has picked up on this mentioning that Reuben Loftus-Cheek and Tammy Abraham have been allowed to go out on loan with no right of recall.
It appears to me that Conte clearly doesn't fancy the now 24 year old Batshuayi (just 3 League starts in the last year, brought Willian to replace the injured Morata against City and brought him off after 57 minutes on Saturday) so, with Morata out, the opportunity to give Abraham a chance would have presented itself - he's scored 5 goals in 8 starts for Swansea (23 in 40 for Bristol City last season) so why wouldn't he do at least as well, if not better, at Chelsea who will create more chances?
Let's also not forget how Rashford came on to the scene - he only made his debut for United after Martial got injured in the warm up and scored twice. He's not 20 'til the end of the month but has already played 74 games for United and 13 times for England. But had fate not taken a hand and given him that opportunity, would he be in the same place now? Lingard is the only other English player brought their academy in the first team squad. How have they got to here from the Beckham, Neville, Neville, Scholes, Butt, Brown, Giggs and Sharpe era?
Lukaku isn't English but was still a promising young player at Chelsea. What did they do? Well they afforded him just one League start in his three years at the club and then offloaded him for a net profit of £10m when he had scored 32 League goals in 49 starts for Everton and WBA. And three years later he is sold by Everton for almost £50m more than they paid Chelsea for him!
No club pays more for its academy than Chelsea does or has more players on loan. Perhaps if they paid a bit more attention to integrating some of those players in to the first team squad then they might do even better. And yes I know that they are the current Premier Champions. But, effectively, they did a "Leicester" - no European commitments and very few injuries massively aided their cause. And that success has papered over the cracks. Because for every John Terrys there are half a dozen Costas with little or no affinity or loyalty.
It all comes down to two things - the desire for immediate success and the influx of foreign managers. There is no time now for top Clubs to "bed" their youngsters because the desire to win the PL or, at the very least, qualify for the CL is vital. Which makes what Spurs and Pochettino are doing even more laudable - how many of the other top clubs are heard regularly singing "he's one of our own"?
Would also add the done the same with Kevin DeBruyne who i think at the moment is the best player in the Prem this season
Comments
PSG making light work of this year's CL so far. Their £400m+ strike force all scoring tonight.
Benfica/ManUtd 0-1
Bayern/Celtic 3-0
Juve, PSG and Basle all win
It appears to me that Conte clearly doesn't fancy the now 24 year old Batshuayi (just 3 League starts in the last year, brought Willian to replace the injured Morata against City and brought him off after 57 minutes on Saturday) so, with Morata out, the opportunity to give Abraham a chance would have presented itself - he's scored 5 goals in 8 starts for Swansea (23 in 40 for Bristol City last season) so why wouldn't he do at least as well, if not better, at Chelsea who will create more chances?
Let's also not forget how Rashford came on to the scene - he only made his debut for United after Martial got injured in the warm up and scored twice. He's not 20 'til the end of the month but has already played 74 games for United and 13 times for England. But had fate not taken a hand and given him that opportunity, would he be in the same place now? Lingard is the only other English player brought their academy in the first team squad. How have they got to here from the Beckham, Neville, Neville, Scholes, Butt, Brown, Giggs and Sharpe era?
Lukaku isn't English but was still a promising young player at Chelsea. What did they do? Well they afforded him just one League start in his three years at the club and then offloaded him for a net profit of £10m when he had scored 32 League goals in 49 starts for Everton and WBA. And three years later he is sold by Everton for almost £50m more than they paid Chelsea for him!
No club pays more for its academy than Chelsea does or has more players on loan. Perhaps if they paid a bit more attention to integrating some of those players in to the first team squad then they might do even better. And yes I know that they are the current Premier Champions. But, effectively, they did a "Leicester" - no European commitments and very few injuries massively aided their cause. And that success has papered over the cracks. Because for every John Terrys there are half a dozen Costas with little or no affinity or loyalty.
It all comes down to two things - the desire for immediate success and the influx of foreign managers. There is no time now for top Clubs to "bed" their youngsters because the desire to win the PL or, at the very least, qualify for the CL is vital. Which makes what Spurs and Pochettino are doing even more laudable - how many of the other top clubs are heard regularly singing "he's one of our own"?
foreign managers often have more insight into overseas based players and perhaps like to sign from the same 'culture' as themselves
not just big clubs by the way, clubs in all divisions with various financial situations make mistakes and bad signings all the time .. except some cost more than others .. CAFC is a good example .. money wasted in Duchatelet's' early years' impacting on the money available now for new signing players