Tottenham - Nottingham Forest

[Sniffer Dog (Admin)]

Dennis needs coaching. There is a player in him but he's not showing it. He's far too predictable, just tries to cut inside every time and the opposition know it, he's far too easy to defend against. Not sure why the coaching staff have been unable to get a better tune out of him.

[JollyLolly]

Sniff, I agree with your statement regards Dennis and coaching but this could apply to many of the signings we made this season, technically not up to standard an no discernible improvement to date. Based on some of the fees we payed out for incoming players who fall into this category (no names but I would assume most understand who they might be) have we wasted our money and now seeing the results of poor recruitment?

[Sniffer Dog (Admin)]

In my opinion I think we recruited well well you consider the scale of recruitment that was needed. There will always be signings at every club that don't come off. I think we have some very good player's although we are nowhere near the finished article.

[JollyLolly]

Sniffer, no issue with the scale, its the quality and the joined-up thinking in recruitment we we have different opinion's on. I also think that technical issues with certain players recruited have not been addressed by the coaching staff as I see no improvement in said players.

[zicorice]

Dennis needs coaching. There is a player in him but he's not showing it. He's far too predictable, just tries to cut inside every time and the opposition know it, he's far too easy to defend against. Not sure why the coaching staff have been unable to get a better tune out of him.

Some players just don't listen. (and I'm not suggesting this is Dennis  I really don't know)

[wassy04]

In my opinion I think we recruited well well you consider the scale of recruitment that was needed. There will always be signings at every club that don't come off. I think we have some very good player's although we are nowhere near the finished article.

I'm fine with the recruitment personally, the only signing I didn't like at the time pretty much was Dennis. A number (Kouyate, Aurier) have proven much better than expected too. As you say hit rate on signings is never going to be that high. There's a number of reasons why it won't work for some players in different scenarios. 

This is why this year was always going to be so tough, we only had two players that have proved capable of stepping up and Brennan took time to reach that level too.

[zicorice]

In my opinion I think we recruited well well you consider the scale of recruitment that was needed. There will always be signings at every club that don't come off. I think we have some very good player's although we are nowhere near the finished article.

I have to agree here. Signing 30 players (3 of whome are GKs due to circumstances and at least 2 more were sent immediately out on loan) was more about ensuring if player A didn't work out quickly enough then player B could come in or even.player C.. Eg. The starting full backs. 

Also thank goodness we signed loads of midfielders- Yates  Konate Mangala OBrien all been our injured at various times. The CB situation is unfortunate and left us one red card/injury from disaster.

Up top is where the quantity over quality appears to be hampering us a bit, though the fees have been most of our biggest. Dennis, MGW, Wood, Taiwo and Scarpa costing North of £90 million I believe. 

MGW is class (despite his worst game for us yesterday)  Taiwo was starting to look the part but arguable-penalty miss aside- Ayew has looked the best of the rest up top so far from signings this season. If one more can click- sooner rather than later and Niakhate can be half decent we are a better outfit. It nearly always is harder for attacking players to get going at a new club.

Henderson, Boly, Yates and Taiwo would make us a much stronger side overall if they were all fit at same time. But they are not. We are putting out a starting XI that in some departments is seriously outgunned. "14th because of Cooper not in spite of him" was another great point made somewhere earlier-not that the online managers seem to understand this.