The Fantastic Four

Okay, enough!  I’m tired of seeing all the post West Ham mortem articles and comments. We are still strong and remember, Champions are not made over night. Let’s get realistic, it took Manchester City with that much money invest and players bought in at least two seasons to settle down well. Give it time and we’ll be fine.

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That being said, this article isn’t about our whole team. Rather, it just focuses on our back four, an area which AVB clearly has confidence in for obvious reasons. If you didn’t figure it out, it’s because we didn’t invest much there.

So, contenders? Walker – Naughton – Dawson – Vertonghen – Chiriches – Kaboul – Rose – Fryers

Winners (starters as of now, put forward by AVB) : Walker – Dawson – Vertonghen – Rose

Right Back

I think every player has their ups and downs. Walker did so last season. He is being more consistent this time around and that’s a really good thing for us. Is it because of the fact that he wants to fix himself in that Starting XI spot for the England National Team? I don’t know, but I don’t care as long as he plays well. He has shown his strengthen in tackling and communicates well with whoever is on the right wing, which is an important thing because it’s no hidden fact that he loves to attack. His power crosses keep getting into the box and that’s a great thing for us, especially with someone to finish that, with the likes of Soldado.  I would love to see some more killer goals from him though…

Naughton is a good replacement. He isn’t amazing, but he is good. He gets the job done and I think with time he will improve.

Centre Back

Four really good centre backs for us. I think we have the best centre back in the world, Jan Vertonghen a.k.a Super Jan. The main job of a centre back is to stop the attacker from scoring no matter what you have to do. Whether it be pull your opponents shorts down or getting a red card. Just make sure that you don’t let him pass by you and he gets that done. He is an overall player and has fix his spot in the team since the first day he arrived at Spurs.

Michael Dawson. Captain? Yes. Deserved? Yes. Quality? Average. He makes these little mistakes which become costly for us. He is a good player, not amazing, but a good player. It’s surprising with all the experience he has that he still tends to make the errors which you would expect him to not make. I think towards the end of last season he started getting into his best form. He is a proved leader but he wouldn’t be in my starting XI with Kaboul as an option.

Younes Kaboul. I miss him in the team. He is like the French Ledley King a.t.m. We need him but we can’t risk him. He is a great player and for a centre back, along side Vertonghen, he can be a force that’ll say “You shall not pass!”. To be honest, I feel he and Jan can have an amazing relationship if played together because one loves attacking and the other a just…a wall?

Vlad Chiriches. Still yet to see him play in the Premier League. Otherwise, he is a well deserved starter as well. We are lucky to have two Vertonghens. He loves attacking too, and his freakishly tall that means opposition corners? No problem. I believe he is going to be a competition for the Left Wing as well due to his versatility.

Left Back

Okay hate me if you want but I MISS BENNY! He was lazy but he was really good in this position. His crosses would’ve been perfect for Soldado and his afro was quite cool. But really, he is a really good player. I hope he and AVB make up soon.

Danny Rose. He lacks something. I think that’s consistency?  He is quick, not tall, but getting stronger strength wise. He makes amazing runs up and down the pitch. But defensively he still has alot to learn. He is the unfinished youth product we still have. I think over the season he’ll become a really good player but that’ll be too long. We need action, like right now!

Zeki Fryers. A good youth. Upcoming talent. Lacks confidence but he is young so you can’t blame him. I’m so glad AVB ruled out on purchasing a LB this season because he wanted Fryers to improve his career. So, I think he believes in him and he might as well give tough competition to Rose soon.

AVBs back four: Walker – Dawson – Vertonghen – Rose

The only reason I see AVB playing this back four is because as a manager, you’d want your back four confident around each other, have a good understanding and that’ll help keep the back strength. I believe in that too, but I also believe that this is not a very very strong back four with the players we have in our squad.

My back four: Walker – Kaboul – Vertonghen – Chiriches

We play attacking football. We play counter. We need strength, pace and quality. This is all of it. The only reason I’d put Chiriches in LB is because he is a better defender than Rose.

But, I’m not AVB, and I can’t decide on our fantastic four. So this is just my opinion on it, make sure you share yours!