Ignoring his defending (which is typically immense but has been more suspect than usual in the past couple of seasons, IMO anyway) - we need his leadership on the pitch now more than ever.
No surprise that the three recent second-half capitulations have been when he wasn't playing against Bournemouth, Sporting and Brighton. When the going gets tough then we need somebody on there to act like a captain, even if he doesn't have the armband, and rally the players.
We don't have that at the moment. The sooner he's back, the better.
Desperate for the lot of them to be fully fit and back.Desperate for him to be back.
But, Spurs League Cup aside, this slump has coincided with his absence from the team. If Dias is playing indifferently, he is still worth having on the pitch for his organisational qualities. We weren't playing well before his injury but we were conceding roughly a goal every game. Since he's been out of the side, we've conceded 15 in 5 matches. By every metric we've gone to shit defensively since he left the side. I'm not saying he's the solution to ALL of our problems, but we are markedly better with him in the team than without.Amazing how a player when he's not available becomes a superstar warrior who would sort everything out. He had been playing no better than ok so far this season and as for last night not happening with him on the pitch? People forgetting he played a starring role in the champions league semi collapse against Real a few years back. Rubens won't be the silver bullet everyone is hoping for. The system is the problem more than the personnel.
That's fair enough I just don't see him being the catalyst. The goals we keep conceding are primarily because we play such a high line. Ruben isn't any quicker than Akanji, Gvardiol or Ake and slower than stones and walker so the ball in behind will still kill us.But, Spurs League Cup aside, this slump has coincided with his absence from the team. If Dias is playing indifferently, he is still worth having on the pitch for his organisational qualities. We weren't playing well before his injury but we were conceding roughly a goal every game. Since he's been out of the side, we've conceded 15 in 5 matches. By every metric we've gone to shit defensively since he left the side. I'm not saying he's the solution to ALL of our problems, but we are markedly better with him in the team than without.
Agree, he's not going to be the elixir to fix it all. But I think we'll see less mistakes from the back line and our offside line will be much more cohesive. There was a post with screen shots in another thread that showed our line was a fucking mess.Amazing how a player when he's not available becomes a superstar warrior who would sort everything out. He had been playing no better than ok so far this season and as for last night not happening with him on the pitch? People forgetting he played a starring role in the champions league semi collapse against Real a few years back. Rubens won't be the silver bullet everyone is hoping for. The system is the problem more than the personnel.
Tbh I thought he’d been playing crap all season .Amazing how a player when he's not available becomes a superstar warrior who would sort everything out. He had been playing no better than ok so far this season and as for last night not happening with him on the pitch? People forgetting he played a starring role in the champions league semi collapse against Real a few years back. Rubens won't be the silver bullet everyone is hoping for. The system is the problem more than the personnel.
Amazing how a player when he's not available becomes a superstar warrior who would sort everything out.