Player Watch Player Watch: Giovani Lo Celso

[$hoguN]

I get where you're coming from.

When we were looking at Bruno I always felt he had the potential to be a Luis Suarez type of player. The type of player that truly transforms a team and takes them from being an also-ran to a genuine challenger. That leadership, arrogance and pure intention that only certain players have. Bruno was THE man at Sporting and absolutely bossed the entire Poruguese league for 3 seasons: it takes some serious cojones to do that, regardless of ability.

Lo Celso, on the other hand, is just a marvelous player. Technical, hard working, with vision and commitment but not quite that same level of leadership. I think we are truly lucky to have him and at best he'll be a club legend, and at worst he'll earn us a shitload of money. But he just doesn't have that same leadership value that Bruno brings to a team.

I think if we'd brought in Lo Celso and Bruno, rather than Lo Celso and Ndombele, we'd be right up there competing for 3rd right now. I love Ndombele for his ability, but our team needed that leadership and full blooded commitment in those shaky late-Poch times.

This may be true in the short term. Let’s actually give Ndombele a chance to have a full preseason under Mourinho, settle, and be fully over all the niggles from this season before we categorically say too much more.

He has all the ability to run the league like a peak Yaya, and I’d think we just all need to be a bit patient with him.

 

[coy-spurs1882]

should have gone for bruno at the same time instead of spending 40m+ on sess (sorry sess) and clarke

 

[punkisback]

I have to say I still can’t believe the people who said they’d rather have Lo Celso than B.Fernandes. I like Lo Celso a lot, he’s probably even my favourite Spurs player at the moment and rate him very highly and think with more time he will be a top top player we can build around but I’m sorry B.Fernandes right now is on a completely different level to Lo Celso.

B.Fernandes is arguably THE form player in the whole PL over the last 5-6 games and he’s completely transformed the way Man.Utd play, he links play, gets goals, assists, can pass, shoot, dribble, vision and can take penalties and corners and free kicks. Sure i’m very happy with Lo Celso and his potential but if it was a straight choice between the two right now I’m sorry but it’s a no brainer as B.Fernandes is an absolute gem of a player and I’m very gutted that we missed out on him. Also a shame we couldn’t add both as I’d love to see them linking up and think if that was Poch’s plan then the re-build would be looking pretty tasty.

I sort of see them as the difference between Modric and VDV with Bruno being the latter. Well a Rafa with 2 good knees and more mobility. You would need a deep lying playmaker to get the most out of Bruno just as you need an AM who can score and shoot to get the most out of Lo Celso.

 

[fishhhandaricecake]

Absolutely love this from Mou. GLC can be world class and he seems to have the right attitude. Can't wait to see how bright his future is.

Jose is world class in the press conferences to be fair

 

[fishhhandaricecake]

I sort of see them as the difference between Modric and VDV with Bruno being the latter. Well a Rafa with 2 good knees and more mobility. You would need a deep lying playmaker to get the most out of Bruno just as you need an AM who can score and shoot to get the most out of Lo Celso.

That’s true they are different players and good comparisons.

 

[danielneeds]

Bruno was just ready for his move. He’s further along his development than Gio or Ndombele. He was a leader and main man at Sporting, carried the team in difficult times. He’s a bit older.

I’ve got to say, i had doubts about him last summer. There was no doubting his skill, but I wasn’t sure his physique was good enough, that he had that little burst of acceleration you need as a creative player, but he’s done amazingly. Such a shame we couldn’t move Eriksen after the CL final. An out the box, ready to go player like him could have changed the whole dynamic of the team and maybe even meant Poch could have got hid rebuild going. Sidling doors and all that.

 

[DiVaio]

should have gone for bruno at the same time instead of spending 40m+ on sess (sorry sess) and clarke

This doesn't work like that. We should have gone for Bruno and at the same time we would have Eriksen, Bruno, Dele and Lo Celso - 4 players worth combined more than 200m competing for just one position?

 

[fishhhandaricecake]

High praise.

For those of you thinking Ndombele’s spurs career is all but over, remember Lo Celso was in a near identical position under Jose at the start of his tenure. Things can change.

He also made some very interesting comments about how when he wasn’t selecting lo celso that he didn’t complain, no drama or fuss or stories to the media from
His family or agent etc, he just got his head down and said I will Show you how good I am And here we are...

pretty obvious dig at nbdomble and his entourage there.

 

[fishhhandaricecake]

This doesn't work like that. We should have gone for Bruno and at the same time we would have Eriksen, Bruno, Dele and Lo Celso - 4 players worth combined more than 200m competing for just one position?

We aren’t allowed lots of nice things as spurs fans

 

[Japhet]

I have to say I still can’t believe the people who said they’d rather have Lo Celso than B.Fernandes. I like Lo Celso a lot, he’s probably even my favourite Spurs player at the moment and rate him very highly and think with more time he will be a top top player we can build around but I’m sorry B.Fernandes right now is on a completely different level to Lo Celso.

B.Fernandes is arguably THE form player in the whole PL over the last 5-6 games and he’s completely transformed the way Man.Utd play, he links play, gets goals, assists, can pass, shoot, dribble, vision and can take penalties and corners and free kicks. Sure i’m very happy with Lo Celso and his potential but if it was a straight choice between the two right now I’m sorry but it’s a no brainer as B.Fernandes is an absolute gem of a player and I’m very gutted that we missed out on him. Also a shame we couldn’t add both as I’d love to see them linking up and think if that was Poch’s plan then the re-build would be looking pretty tasty.

We've hardly scratched the surface with what Lo Celso can do for us. He'a had injuries and been overlooked and only played a handful of games with a front line coming back from injuries. IMO we need his creativity in CM whereas Fernandes has pretty much a free role at MU. I wouldn't swap him personally.

 

[danielneeds]

This doesn't work like that. We should have gone for Bruno and at the same time we would have Eriksen, Bruno, Dele and Lo Celso - 4 players worth combined more than 200m competing for just one position?

Not really. We knew Eriksen was gonna be about as much use as a chocolate teapot. Dele can play left on the three behind Kane, Lo Celo on the right or deeper where he is now. We always needed two players in Eriksen’s position or of his profile. It was one of the things that always stopped us winning things - when Eriksen lost form or ran out of gas, the team did too.

 

[fishhhandaricecake]

We've hardly scratched the surface with what Lo Celso can do for us. He'a had injuries and been overlooked and only played a handful of games with a front line coming back from injuries. IMO we need his creativity in CM whereas Fernandes has pretty much a free role at MU. I wouldn't swap him personally.

Fair enough so agree with those points and they are different players for sure, having both would be ideal and we’d go to the next level.

 

[Japhet]

Fair enough so agree with those points and they are different players for sure, having both would be ideal and we’d go to the next level.

I'd like a bit of patience with Ndombele and I'd like a decent DM in a midfield 3. Then I think the defensive duties would be less onerous and the creativity could flow. However, as long as Mourinho continues to be besotted with Dele, we're unlikely to see anything like that and I think we'll continue to struggle to get a foothold in midfield, even against pretty average sides.

 

[coy-spurs1882]

Not really. We knew Eriksen was gonna be about as much use as a chocolate teapot. Dele can play left on the three behind Kane, Lo Celo on the right or deeper where he is now. We always needed two players in Eriksen’s position or of his profile. It was one of the things that always stopped us winning things - when Eriksen lost form or ran out of gas, the team did too.

exactly, we are now over-relying on GLC just like we did when eriksen was here

 

[Vincent30]

I really don't understand the Lo Celso and Bruno debate, they are both very good players who would compliment any top 6 team. We just happen to have a shower of shit CM currently with no balance and a he came into a team with zero confidence.

Would i want to lose Lo Celso, definitely not, would it have been nice to sign Bruno, of course. But we have Tanguy and more importantly Dele who would completely block Bruno because of Jose's hard on for Dele, which i'm hoping is now reducing to a semi.

Until we actually have a DM with Lo Celso and Tanguy either side, can we stop spaffing our pants over Bruno. If we didn't sign Tanguy, yes we should of signed him, but i'd much rather we spend 40m plus on a DM right now and stop talking what ifs.

 

[danielneeds]

exactly, we are now over-relying on GLC just like we did when eriksen was here

Well, i think Gio is turning into a completely different player. He’s becoming more or a Pirlo-type deep-lying player. Although weirdly Conte has tried Eriksen there for Inter too recently.

We still really need someone who’s really creative in the final third.

 

[JUSTINSIGNAL]

I get where you're coming from.

When we were looking at Bruno I always felt he had the potential to be a Luis Suarez type of player. The type of player that truly transforms a team and takes them from being an also-ran to a genuine challenger. That leadership, arrogance and pure intention that only certain players have. Bruno was THE man at Sporting and absolutely bossed the entire Poruguese league for 3 seasons: it takes some serious cojones to do that, regardless of ability.

Lo Celso, on the other hand, is just a marvelous player. Technical, hard working, with vision and commitment but not quite that same level of leadership. I think we are truly lucky to have him and at best he'll be a club legend, and at worst he'll earn us a shitload of money. But he just doesn't have that same leadership value that Bruno brings to a team.

I think if we'd brought in Lo Celso and Bruno, rather than Lo Celso and Ndombele, we'd be right up there competing for 3rd right now. I love Ndombele for his ability, but our team needed that leadership and full blooded commitment in those shaky late-Poch times.

You make a some good points although it was clear when we bought Lo Celso It was meant as an Eriksen replacement to play as a 10 or in the attacking roles rather than 8. If he was signed as an 8 I would have been fully behind signing Fernandes as well.

Although I’m sure this conversation will be redundant when both Lo Celso and Ndombele establish themselves as some of the top midfielders in the prem next season.

 

[Shadydan]

I though Dybala was meant to be Eriksen's replacement?

 

[Japhet]

You make a some good points although it was clear when we bought Lo Celso It was meant as an Eriksen replacement to play as a 10 or in the attacking roles rather than 8. If he was signed as an 8 I would have been fully behind signing Fernandes as well.

Although I’m sure this conversation will be redundant when both Lo Celso establish themselves as some of the top midfielders in the prem next season.

IMO Lo Celso was always signed as an 8 with the option that he could probably play at 10 if needed. We weren't really sure what was happening with Eriksen at that point since he'd said he would sign another contract if his 'dream move' didn't materialise. That turned out to be bullshit though.

 

[coy-spurs1882]

I though Dybala was meant to be Eriksen's replacement?

don't agree, GLC replacing eriksen and ndombele replacing dembele was the plan
dybala was just suddenly became available