31 Aug 2026 10:31:39
My spuds supporting brother has gone relatively quiet, but we were discussing the demise of the playmakers in football, Maddison has been a big miss for spuds but as my brother pointed out successive Spurs managers consistently omitted him as a luxury they couldn't afford or take a risk on.
He asked me who is our best passer, which got me thinking who would we say were our top three incisive passers of a ball?
Wilson definitely top three but I'm struggling to say anyone else jumps out as an excellent passer of the football.
Brentford have very strong technical players across the midfield and forward positions at a telling stat from yesterday Brentford completed 101 passes in the final third compared to our 62, that's obviously where key chances are created.
But reasons to be despondent, no not at all for me, we are in very different stages in our epl journey to Brentford they have had six seven more transfer windows than us to get that technical level higher.
Of course we want more, better players but consider that stat above, and how Thiago gets a lot more quality balls, service, than DCL gets and yet he still gave us an excellent return and scored the equaliser yesterday when Farke to his credit, went for it and we eventually pushed a very strong team back, through team spirit and togetherness.
In summary, I'm saying it's going to be a tortuous season for some if you're comparing player for player every game, now team for team is what matters most for me and yesterday despite a football lesson in the first half and yes better opposition players in the main, our team dug in and fought for that point to remain unbeaten.
Finally, every change, we make in player recruitment must improve the team ethos while we all say we want an exciting 10 can we truly accommodate such a player at this time in our journey?
1.) 31 Aug 2026
31 Aug 2026 11:02:56
Great post, class!
2.) 31 Aug 2026
31 Aug 2026 11:11:26
7 seasons on ..and..
I still really miss King Pablo Hernandez.
..genuinely high quality baller ..very exciting.
3.) 31 Aug 2026
31 Aug 2026 12:30:58
Been too long since replacing. I did like Saiz too. Last flair players were Raphi or Georgi.
4.) 31 Aug 2026
31 Aug 2026 13:34:26
Good post there, Class, and I do think the same way.
Our passing was quite good against Forest, and I felt it was an improvement from last season. The problem is, against some of the more technically experienced teams, they do keep the ball a lot better than us, and we rely on a very good, structured defensive system to nullify their attacks.
The way we played in the second half is not sustainable for the full 90mins; we just don't possess that high technical ability throughout our squad. But what we do possess is a desire and team spirit to constantly be a pain in the ass to our opponents.
I think Farke has installed that belief into all our players, that's why, even without a skilled playmaker, we are still able to thrive and be a constant threat.
We are what we are on this journey. Constantly bemoaning not being able to spend a huge amount of money is just a waste of time; it's not going to change anything. I believe in this process for the first time since Wilkinson's tenure. It's got something very real about it. Patience is required.
5.) 31 Aug 2026
31 Aug 2026 14:27:19
I think fans need to appreciate we don't have a team of Mbappes, and at the end of every game, they shouldn't bemoan any player who didn't perform like him. We are definitely an example of something better than the sum of all the parts.
We have some really decent players, who, as a whole, perform great as a team. Like O/P said, Farke has, with back room, developed a really good spirit amongst the group.
As to the original question, who is our best passer? Well, hmm, Wilson in theory, I guess (though it's not shown through just yet) . Oddly enough, Nmecha sees a good pass, as shown yesterday (to me he was the big difference yesterday) . We don't have any great passers, though, on occasion they all are capable of that defence splitting pass, just not often enough.