Pochettino, Özil, Navas, Shaw + PL strikers

Pochettino
Levy wants Tottenham to be in the top-4. That's been the big target ever since Redknapp was sacked in 2012. Villas-Boas and Sherwood have got canned since then for failing to reach that target. Tottenham finished 5th, but never looked like seriously mounting a top-4 challenge. Had it not been 21 goals from Harry Kane - a player Pochettino only realized should be starting for them in November - their season would have been far worse. Tottenham don't look like going anywhere fast under Pochettino and if Levy applies the same criteria to him as to his previous managers, Mauricio will be shown the door.

Özil
4 goals and 6 assists in the Premier League this season from someone who is supposed to be a world-class attacking midfielder playing for one of the best teams in the league. Özil has been a flop and should find himself on the bench next season rather than starting as many games as he has been. Or perhaps a return to Germany?

Navas
Jesus Navas plays winger for the second best team in the league and featured in all but three of City's PL games this season - starting the majority of them - and didn't score a single goal. That is a shocking stat and City need to replace him asap.

Shaw
Ryan Bertrand replaced the £30m Luke Shaw as Southampton's left-back and has been among the best in the league, voted in the team of the year, too. Luke Shaw had a forgettable season at Manchester United, sidelined a lot and not exactly catching the eye when he did play. Did Southampton make Shaw look better than he is?

Premier League strikers
Aguero 26
Kane 21
Costa 20
Austin 18
Giroud 14
Berahino 14
Benteke 13
Rooney 12
Pelle 12
Diouf 12

That's the top-10 strikers by goals scored in the PL this season.
And my question is that how bad is the quality of strikers in the PL right now? I think the list speaks for itself.


Discuss.

I thought Ozil played well after returning from injury. At least a number of Arsenal fans seemed to think so.

Also, there is a curious lack of "Liverpool" in your list.

Not only did they go a massive step backwards, they also managed to waste the entire Suarez money on scrubs.

I wanted to highlight some under-the-radar flops. Everyone knows already that we were crap in every way.

Calling Pocchettino a 'flop' is very harsh considering Spurs have had a strong finish to the season.Give him another season before labeling him a flop.Spurs have a lot of competition in front of them.

5th is a decent finish for Tottenham, but I think Tottenham were carried by individuals (Kane, Eriksen & Chadli) rather than Pochettino's work. Frankly, I think the table flatters to deceive Tottenham's real level. Yeah, it would be harsh to sack him, but Levy sacked Redknapp when they finished 4th, so...

Ozil missed three months of the season through injury and was one of our best players in the second half of the season. Calling him a flop is ridiculous, as is the claim he's going to find himself benched next season.

GoonerJay29 wrote:Ozil missed three months of the season through injury and was one of our best players in the second half of the season. Calling him a flop is ridiculous, as is the claim he's going to find himself benched next season.

Art bases his opinions on stats tbf.

Art morte wrote:not exactly catching the eye when he did play

I dont know which all matches you watched but I can tell you majority of the games (70%+) in which he was fully fit (and thats the key word, he was rarely fit this season), he looked a real deal. A gem of  a player. And for a boy his age, through despite all that other factors including stepping up to a big club et al, he did really well.
That 30 m fees will look like a bargain 2 seasons or 3 seasons later if things work out as planned, can assure you at least that. The lad's a proper talent.

Tottenham have unreaseonable expectations if they aspire to make the top 4. Yes, they can get Top 4 from time to time ala Everton has done a couple of times, but there's no way they can compete regularly to get into the Top 4 with their squad and their income.

They are way below City, Chelsea, Arsenal, United and Liverpool economically.

I agree. Spurs have been in the top 4 how many times in their history? I bet less than 5.

How did Ozil flop? You lack a clear understanding of the game if you think he flopped. That doesn't surprise me as most people that watch the epl exclusively know little of the sport.

What was Ozil brought in to arsenal to do? You bring up goal stat when he has never been a prolific goal scorer in his life. Did anyone expect him to score goals? Really? I'll let you answer that one.

On the assists,  anyone with sense knows you can only assist if there are people to pass to. Who could he pass to at the start? Gironde want making a lot of runs behind the defence and was either static or had his back to goal. So that removed a passing option from the front. Who else was there? Alexis started deeper than him and was the only one making any telling runs. Ramsey dropped deep to collect the ball and was a holder for a fair few games. Walcott was out and He had welbeck to pass to in front of goal...

Again if you bring in a guy whose exclusive skill set is to make the final pass, what use will he have of there are few options to make the final pass? I'll leave that to you again. Once again stats were thrown out without any context.

Ozil has done fine. Put him in a team like Dortmund were there are people constantly breaking and you will get his true abilities. Putting him out on the wings which happened a lot of the time also reduced his passing options even further. Before anyone throws the great players find a way bs, no...they simply don't if they don't have the minimum required environment to succeed. The Ozil at Madrid had CR and Higuain and Benzema.
Kane as you noted wasn't a regular for spurs till late, Aguero was injured for a fair few months and giroud was injured for a while as well. If anything that list exposes how pathetic the defending in the epl is. Costa scored 20 goals on 1 leg...

Luke Shaw was injured a lot and was adapting to a new club. His last few performances have been very good actually. Do you watch any of these people play or do you just go to whoscored?

Again Navas is doing what he has always donext,  why would anyone have expected anything different? Why do you keep bringing up goals? For a team that used him for width and for his crossing? Navas has always been a down the line player and cross so I don't get why anyone that has seen him play would be surprised. Spanish Valencia.

Mangala, anyone? Can't get a game ahead of Demichelis. Might as well take that £32 million paid for him and give it to Falcao

tbf to players like di maria and ozil. in England they will get put under pressure when they have the ball. mid table teams in England wont lay down and die at the feet of the top teams. its not something they are used to.

MR BOND wrote:tbf to players like di maria and ozil. in England they will get put under pressure when they have the ball. mid table teams in England wont lay down and die at the feet of the top teams. its not something they are used to.

Thats a myth.

MR BOND wrote:tbf to players like di maria and ozil. in England they will get put under pressure when they have the ball. mid table teams in England wont lay down and die at the feet of the top teams. its not something they are used to.

Again it's got nothing to do with pressure. Di Maria was doing fine till van Gaal changed the system. Di Maria is not a winger or a SS. His best position where he is at his most effective is mf left of a diamond or the driver of a 433 that plays on the break. We use neither one of those things. He should be sold just on the basis that he won't fit in. Amazing player of used correctly.

jibers wrote:

MR BOND wrote:tbf to players like di maria and ozil. in England they will get put under pressure when they have the ball. mid table teams in England wont lay down and die at the feet of the top teams. its not something they are used to.

Again it's got nothing to do with pressure. Di Maria was doing fine till van Gaal changed the system. Di Maria is not a winger or a SS. His best position where he is at his most effective is mf left of a diamond or the driver of a 433 that plays on the break. We use neither one of those things. He should be sold just on the basis that he won't fit in. Amazing player of used correctly.

di maria started well. then teams sussed him out and got men to close him down. he then started losing the ball left right and center. he got benched and lost his confidence.

S wrote:

MR BOND wrote:tbf to players like di maria and ozil. in England they will get put under pressure when they have the ball. mid table teams in England wont lay down and die at the feet of the top teams. its not something they are used to.

Thats a myth.

whats a myth. that in England there is more pressure on the ball and you have less time to play.

I haven't seen many spurs fans calling for his head, I think they are generally happy with Pochettino and the direction of his team. You have to give manager 2 seasons to prove himself of he is competent and I would be surprised to see him go.

Naval has never been a goal scorer, of city bought him it was not with he expectation that they would turn into one. That being said they really need to add a quality width player.

Besides la liga which league has a stellar list of top scorers? That list is fine, Spain just makes everyone else look bad.

MR BOND wrote:

S wrote:

MR BOND wrote:tbf to players like di maria and ozil. in England they will get put under pressure when they have the ball. mid table teams in England wont lay down and die at the feet of the top teams. its not something they are used to.

Thats a myth.

whats a myth. that in England there is more pressure on the ball and you have less time to play.

What does this mean? Where is there less time to play?

If you close down space in one place, you leave it open in another. That's football.

Im curious as to what you really mean.

Lex wrote:Mangala, anyone? Can't get a game ahead of Demichelis. Might as well take that £32 million paid for him and give it to Falcao

Strange because when he was partnered with Demichelis we won our last 6 games on the bounce.

Art Morte wrote:
Navas
Jesus Navas plays winger for the second best team in the league and featured in all but three of City's PL games this season - starting the majority of them - and didn't score a single goal. That is a shocking stat and City need to replace him asap.

Err yes because although scoring miles more goals than anyone else in the premier league this season a couple of goals from a winger would have made all the difference.

jibers wrote:

MR BOND wrote:tbf to players like di maria and ozil. in England they will get put under pressure when they have the ball. mid table teams in England wont lay down and die at the feet of the top teams. its not something they are used to.

Again it's got nothing to do with pressure. Di Maria was doing fine till van Gaal changed the system. Di Maria is not a winger or a SS. His best position where he is at his most effective is mf left of a diamond or the driver of a 433 that plays on the break. We use neither one of those things. He should be sold just on the basis that he won't fit in. Amazing player of used correctly.

Di Maria is not a winger? Come on, Di Maria excels as a right winger.

WAT.

He's *bleep* crap as a right winger, it's the position he's worst at above all else.

I think free is being sarcastic