Quote Originally Posted by Joker View Post
Dembele has been excellent whenever I've seen him play. Yes he's more of a defensive minded player but his dribbling with the ball is comparable to Modric's IMO. Sigurdsson has still made a difference in a few matches, I remember him assisting Bale's goal against us. In any case, now that Bale's been converted to a sort of creative midfielder/centre forward, the fact that Sigurdsson hasn't set the world alight doesn't matter that match.
And when I say they've gone up a level I mean not just the midfield but collectively. They're on course to get more points than they did last season, had a very good Europa League run so I think it's fair to say Tottenham have improved this season.
Dembele's passing isn't as good as Modric's, though they basically score the same amount of goals (which is next to nothing) granted, VDV sadly was very effective indeed, especially in dismantling the poorer teams in the league, which I don't think Dembele and Sigurdsson particularly have the ability to do.

Perhaps they've been inhibited because they have such poor strikers but I would suggest VDV and Modric were far more likely to create things between passes through the middle and most importantly, the interplay between those two players themselves.

Very good Europa League run? Not sure about that in truth. Last minute scrape against Lyon, hammered against Inter but squeaked through in extra time and couldn't beat Basel in either leg.

In most games they are very laborious, with long periods of matches looking like they are passing the players by. At the very least they are about where the were last season - I think they had better players last season but an inferior manager, that about cancels each other other out. They've scored less than last season, conceded more, possibly will lose the same amount.

I don't think they have shown much progress at all, certainly they haven't gone up a level - they wouldn't be fifth if they had.