BBC Match Report: Udinese 2-0 Tottenham

[Geez]

Tottenham's problems continued to mount as they lost to Udinese in an eventful opening match in Uefa Cup Group D.

Udinese led when Spurs keeper Heurelho Gomes failed to clear a backpass then fouled Fabio Quagliarella - and Antonio Di Natale scored the resulting penalty.

Things got worse for Spurs when Jamie O'Hara was sent off after being booked twice inside a minute for rash fouls.

Darren Bent's header forced a fine save from Samir Handanovic but Simone Pepe's cool finish sealed victory for Udinese. <!-- E SF -->

With his expensively assembled side bottom of the Premier League and speculation mounting over his future, Spurs boss Juande Ramos would have hoped for some respite in Europe; particularly in a competition he has won twice in the last three seasons with Sevilla.

But his build-up to this game was not helped by David Bentley's outspoken comments about Tottenham's poor start to the season and Ramos's response was to exclude the England winger from his matchday squad in Italy.

On the pitch it was the same old sorry story for Spurs as they again failed to translate some decent attacking play into a positive result.

Udinese poured forward purposefully in the early stages and the clever movement of their forwards caused Tottenham plenty of problems.

The presence of Ledley King in central defence, however, helped Spurs soak up most of the home side's pressure and meant Udinese's only effort on goal during that spell was an Andrea Coda header that drifted wide.

And Spurs were soon threatening themselves when Jermaine Jenas's cross found Bent at the far post, but his header was weak and straight at Handanovic.

It was a promising start for Ramos but all that good work was undone by Gomes's mistake, which came after 24 minutes when he attemped to control Benoit Assou-Ekotto's backpass but stumbled and allowed Quagliarella to nip in.

The Tottenham keeper attempted to salvage the ball but grappled with Quagliarella as he did so and, although the Italian striker's dive was exaggerated, it was a definite penalty which Di Natale despatched with ease.

Gomes has not been the root of Tottenham's difficulties this season but he continued to look nervous for the rest of the half, choosing to palm away Marco Motta's long-range shot when the ball could easily have fallen to a Udinese boot.

And by now Tottenham were creating far less, although Alan Hutton and O'Hara should both have done far better in front of goal when Handanovic failed to deal with a corner.

Udinese, in contrast, were growing in confidence and it took a fine save from Gomes to stop Quagliarella doubling their lead with a low shot after the break.

Spurs were still in the game at this point but their hopes were not helped by O'Hara's dismissal on 57 minutes.

German referee Felix Brych had just booked the England Under-21 star for his challenge on Alexis Sanchez when O'Hara repeated the trick to become the third Tottenham player to receive his marching orders in two matches.

Udinese's response was to up the ante and only two more superb Gomes saves, the first from close range to deny Maurizio Domizzi and the second to acrobatically keep out a Di Natale lob, stopped them from killing the game off.

Tottenham's 10 men were looking tired so it was something of a surprise when Bent almost snatched a late equaliser - his header being tipped over brilliantly by Handanovic.

But that was as good as it got for Ramos as, four minutes from the end, Pepe rounded off a quick breakaway move with a neat finish off the post that put the game beyond Spurs.

Att: 22,000
Ref: Felix Brych (Germany).
BBC Sport Player Rater man of the match: Udinese's Antonio Di Natale

[JC-Rule]

Bent can't hold up the ball well enough to lead the line. So playing one upfront is not good enough. Can't see us winning a game for a while. Not enough goal in our current team. Tough, very tough tough times ahead

[The Original Yiddster]

great interview from Woodgate on BBC site.....well worth a listen

[birdm]

Bored of losing, bored of hearing excuses from spurs. We are playing no different from the first game of the season. No fight, no passion, no idea.

This is quite possibly the worst team/coaches/chairman in my 30 years as a supporter. Can't wait for sunday..zzzzzzzzzzzz

[birdm]

great interview from Woodgate on BBC site.....well worth a listen

Woody is superb, shame we dont have 11 of him. HE should be captain no doubt. He tells it how it is

[jolsnogross]

We don't even look close to winning a game at the moment. And that's been the case since we played Boro on the opening day. We're just completely lacklustre, with no cohesion and have almost no attacking threat. Events are spiralling now and Ramos just doesn't seem to have an answer or a response. Listening to Woodgate about how rudderless we are.... well, it says a lot and it says a lot that Woodgate wasn't chosen as captain instead of Jenas.

What's fuckin hilarious aswell is that all those who were shouting for Jol's head, are now asking for unity and patience!!!!! And even funnier is that a subset of those people are now blaming Comolli and saying Ramos isn't to be blamed at all because this is all about players being foisted on him or being left without options. I just can't see a win in us at all, unless it's against really poor European opposition.

If there's no way out with the current regime, who next? In my dreams it'd be Roy - but that would involve Levy ditching Comolli, Ramos and his ego: not a hope.

[riversmonkey]

Surely the financial cost of relegation by far outweighs the payoff potentially stopping Ramos from being sacked. Therefore why is Levy not removing the manager, is it a perverse sense of pride that prevents him doing so? maybe he sees the sacking of Ramos as the ultimate proof that he was wrong about hastily removing Jol.

Chances are a new coach would be unhappy working with Comolli, therefore DC also gets the boot.

[strader]

Fisrt i was angry, then upset, then sad, then worried. now i am reaching that stage of letting footbal go completely.

OK, i am getting very close to point of no return. if we cant beat bolton on sunday then thats my support for RAMOS.

I don't care about there are no easy games but with the quality of players we have this is not acceptable. Bent played up front at charlton as a lone striker and scored goals so dont give me that about 4-5-1 crap not working.

If it doesnt chnage at BOLTON we are going down. this is getting silly and the players are sensing RAmos losing the plot as its fing clear from up here he is losing the fing plot and trust me i am not upset.

[CliffJones]

This is like the Jol situation, you hope and pray the next game is the turning point but it never happens. I wanted Jol to work, now I want Ramos to work, but neither of them can deliver.
I'm very low at the moment and tempted to jump on the Ramos out band wagon. Bolton begins to be a very big game.
With the last drop of positivity I have........COYS

[spurs mental]

One word; MARE

[jolsnogross]

This is like the Jol situation, you hope and pray the next game is the turning point but it never happens. I wanted Jol to work, now I want Ramos to work, but neither of them can deliver.
I'm very low at the moment and tempted to jump on the Ramos out band wagon. Bolton begins to be a very big game.
With the last drop of positivity I have........COYS

This is nothing like the Jol situation. When results were going poorly just before Jol got sacked, we still scored goals, still carried a threat, still had a team ethic, still had fighting spirit. We hammered Fulham with some class football, but inexplicably let them back in for a 3-3. We capitulated to Villa at home, but drove our way back to a 4-4. We drew 2-2 away to Liverpool and had a league win and some cup wins under our belts. We had a manager who made his big break with us, not elsewhere.

It was far from satisfactory, but it was nothing like the spineless, empty performances now. This is more like the end of the Hoddle period - don't look like winning in a million years because the performances are abject and attacking threat non-existent. Ramos needs to earn his money to drag this one out of the crap.

[spud]

I am now officially worried.

Not because of the result against Udinese. Not because of the way that we played, as I didn't see the game. The reason that I am worried is that we have one of the best attacking midfielders in Europe in Modric and our coach / manager can't find room for him in a five-man midfield. In our five-man midfield!

It was bad enough when Modric was being played out of position. It is far worse when he isn't playing at all. And if anybody is thinking that we shouldn't be playing 'luxury' players in our situation, please remember the words of the great Danny Blanchflower, who (rightly) said that it's the bad players who are luxuries, not the good ones.

Modric is a very, very good player. He should be the first name on the team sheet, so to find him on the bench is extremely disturbing.

[nidge64]

This is like the Jol situation, you hope and pray the next game is the turning point but it never happens. I wanted Jol to work, now I want Ramos to work, but neither of them can deliver.
I'm very low at the moment and tempted to jump on the Ramos out band wagon. Bolton begins to be a very big game.
With the last drop of positivity I have........COYS
Sorry but this is nothing like the Jol situation! This is much worse...Jol cant deliver? Jol takes over from Santini. About the same time in the season as Ramos took over from Jol... With the same squad Jol gets us to within 1 win off UEFA cup football..The next 2 seasons we finish 5th, Fair enough we had a dodgy start to the next season, But i had more optimism then than i do now, Who nows as a put in an earlier post Jol might have gone on to win the Carling cup last season? Until Ramos (Grandma's Haircut) proves something anything in the LEAGUE im Baffled as to know why this guy is probably getting paid twice as much as Jol & for what?

[CliffJones]

This is exactly like the Jol situation, maybe for different reasons, but the end result is we can't win a fuck*ng game of football.
We can't defend, our midfield does not defend, or create and our stikers don't strike.
We've paid a lot of money for players who should be able to do it (all over the pitch) but they don't.
Please don't play 4-5-1 at the weekend, play 4-4-2, don't pick Jenas, look at our "development squad" because our "developed squad" have fallen way short.
Don't blame Levy, the man is gold. But he needs to get someone next to him that is football.............if only Danny were alive.

[Durbs]

Spurs which includes chairman Daniel Levy have misunderstood this entire European DOF & Manager situation which they had seemed to grasp in the beginning.
Frank Arnesen (DOF), Santini (Manager/ Head Coach), Jol (1st Coach) and Houghton (2nd Coach) which was the correct way and working like all good continental teams.
Santini then resigned (thank f...) and moved on to be replaced by Martin Jol which is all good and fine. Everybody (mentioned above) happy and doing a good job and knew their roles (Santini not happy - could not see the beach)
Then Chelski actually ended the understanding between everyone and stole Arnesen to go to the bridge in a lowly position - but what a fat pension cheque he would receive considering they paid Spurs in the region of 10 mil.
PROBLEM now started - in comes Commoli - good scout and not a bad DOF but how well are his people skills - communication. Suddenly Jol has to start working with someone he does not like / share same ideas..
Good season followed by a terrible start in that new players that were on 1 persons wish list on not the others. Players bought were not getting played and the players sold were now missing - OK - Sack Martin Jol (Tell the enrtire world before telling the man himself - pathetic approach).
Now instead of following the chain of line, in comes Ramos (DOF seems to like him) wins the Carling Cup and approx. 2 more matches before the end of season.
16 new players in/ 18 players out (example) - seems to be going OK through pre-season however Keane & Berbatov were still to leave (if they did not know Levy would sell Berbatov at a price then fuck knows)
Now we sit in the position with strikers Bent (good championship player), Pavlechenko (only played in the Russian side due to an injury to their best striker) Frazier (on loan from Man Utd - when we send our players on loan to divisions below us, so what was the possible thinking behind this) he played for Hull, but in the championship.
So where to from here - either scrap this continental way and bring in a manager who buys the players only he wants and sells the players he wants (obviously within budget) or go and get 2 friends - 1 who can be DOF and 1 can be the Manager - but we need to ACT soon.

[noiseboy55]

We are toothless - why can everyone see that a 4-5-1 formation doesn't work for us but the manager? We will score no goals without support for the striker; we've got enough players in the squad who could step up and play the Keane role (Dos Santos, Modric, Campbell even Lennon), so why we persist with this crap I don't know. The team look spineless; Zokora has a heart but can't pass for shit, Dos Santos comes on and gives the ball away which leads to teams scoring, Bale looks half the player we signed last season and Bent hasn't got the skill to play up front on his own. The team is bereft of ideas which leads to whoevers on the ball trying to run past 5 players, and losing possesion. Theres no patient build up like in the Jol era, no movement and looking for possesssion and no confidence in each other. Gomes constantly looks to get the ball out quick by playing it short, but then we end up nearly always giving it straight back to the opposition. Lennon was excellent in the first half, but half way through the second half he'd given up as no-one looked to pass it to him. The worst thing is the King situation. Lets face facts, hes fucked. Why persist with someone in the captains role who can only play one game a month?? Constantly changing the defence is the worst possible thing you can do. We should buy a replacement and Ledley can play back up to them; I know its harsh but its utterly ridiculous hoping that hes suddenly going to be cured, because hes not. I'm absolutely fed up of this; I've been pro Ramos to this point but the man looks like he hasn't got a clue or an answer to any of these problems. I hope he resigns. I don't know who to replace him, but needs to be someone with a fiery temper who can kick this lot into shape. The whole management structure needs ripping to pieces like the idiots ripped a team to shreds that got 5th to seasons in a row and replaced great premiership players with mediocre european ones. We need to fix this shit now or we will definately be relegated.

[Ryan]

This is like the Jol situation, you hope and pray the next game is the turning point but it never happens. I wanted Jol to work, now I want Ramos to work, but neither of them can deliver.
I'm very low at the moment and tempted to jump on the Ramos out band wagon. Bolton begins to be a very big game.
With the last drop of positivity I have........COYS


I agree! Jol had lost the dressing room and you couldnt see where the next win was coming from - people seem to forget this even though it was only a year ago. The only difference was that we had Keane, Berbatov and Defoe and therefore able to score goals (hence 4-4 with Villa, 3-3 with Fulham) but were still losing the other games.

Jol might have done good things at Spurs and gone on to do good things (so far) with Hamburg but his time was up at Spurs - just like Ramos' is now.

[Coyboy]

How do you know Jol had lost the dressing room? Keane's reaction are virtually every match and Kaboul's after the Villa game suggest otherwise.

[dan2706]

Best post of the day, a very precise summing up of our situation.

All I hope for is the fans on Sunday really get behind the team, give them as much support as they need and we somehow scrape a win, for if we dont..Championship here we come!

[dickyid]

I agree! Jol had lost the dressing room and you couldnt see where the next win was coming from

Remember *how* Jol lost the dressing room though? Remember the shameful sight of Levy in Spain tapping up Ramos? Remember the constant rumours around the club that despite reasonable success, his days were numbered? Yes it was a year ago, but I think you're having trouble remembering it yourself..

The real difference is Ramos losing the dressing room is his own doing through poor choices - Jol's was through boardroom backstabbing.

[noiseboy55]

I'm getting behind the team on Sunday, I will lose my voice, but we need to fix the issue of goals or it will be a 0-0 draw at best.

[The Original Yiddster]

Remember *how* Jol lost the dressing room though? Remember the shameful sight of Levy in Spain tapping up Ramos? Remember the constant rumours around the club that despite reasonable success, his days were numbered? Yes it was a year ago, but I think you're having trouble remembering it yourself..

The real difference is Ramos losing the dressing room is his own doing through poor choices - Jol's was through boardroom backstabbing.

Jol, lost the dressing room because the players and the board didnt believe he had the experience or tactical nous to take the club to the next level and take on the top 4.

Ramos has a different task ahead of him he needs to show he can take an ill equiped squad away from a relegation battle. This I am pretty sure is new to him and not what he was brought in to do. If we this was the expectation i.e perenial relegation strugglers as a club we would have gone for a Curbishley or an Allardyce type.

So it will take him some time, ultimately he will do it but can he do it quick enough

[Coyboy]

Remember *how* Jol lost the dressing room though? Remember the shameful sight of Levy in Spain tapping up Ramos? Remember the constant rumours around the club that despite reasonable success, his days were numbered? Yes it was a year ago, but I think you're having trouble remembering it yourself..

The real difference is Ramos losing the dressing room is his own doing through poor choices - Jol's was through boardroom backstabbing.

Exactly, when did any players speak out against him. The only evidence I can recall is in his last game at Newcastle, Berba refusing to warm up. There was no endemic loss of confidence in his ability on the part of the players, or at the very least no proof of it and if there were it is for the reasons you state. Yet people try to rewrite history.

[Ryan]

Remember *how* Jol lost the dressing room though? Remember the shameful sight of Levy in Spain tapping up Ramos? Remember the constant rumours around the club that despite reasonable success, his days were numbered? Yes it was a year ago, but I think you're having trouble remembering it yourself..

The real difference is Ramos losing the dressing room is his own doing through poor choices - Jol's was through boardroom backstabbing.

My point isn't how or why he lost the dressing room - the point is that it was lost and therefore it was the end. I also believe we have a similar case on how hands now. I dont care how it happened, it just has and Ramos has an almost impossible task on his hands.

[Coyboy]

My point isn't how or why he lost the dressing room - the point is that it was lost and therefore it was the end. I also believe we have a similar case on how hands now. I dont care how it happened, it just has and Ramos has an almost impossible task on his hands.

How do you it was lost?

[Ryan]

How do you it was lost?

ok - he 'lost the dressing room' is a bit of a generic term and is turning into a bit of a cliche but I mean the performances were poor, players heads were down and things generally kept going wrong (poor defending, poor keeping, silly mistakes leading to goals). You could tell from Jol's interviews that he was deflated (obviously due to offfield activities also etc) which transfered to the players (and could be seen in their interviews too).

Also no players came out and publically defended Jol when he was sacked in such a degrading fashion. (although some may have mentioned a few bits when they were transferred to other teams ie Kaboul)

Therefore I add 2 and 2 together and get 'he lost the dressing room'.

[Coyboy]

I believe Robinson and Keane did but I agree 'lost the dressing room' is an annoying cliche. In a sense, there was no going back after the club was caught courting Ramos. While Hicks (I believe) met with Klinsmann, no offer was made and Benitez' position was much more safe.

[spursintheblood]

Normally I go the optimistic route. Don't worry.. there is enought quality in the team etc. But we are in a tailspin and no mistake. The season is going to be over before we get going and we're out of the Prem. Nottingham Forest, Leeds. The future which looked good is now bleaker than bleak.

What we have to do is change the way we play and with who. I was all for the 433 experiment, but believe me as a scientist, when an experiment fails we should stop it. Go 442, the players have experience of this and the stikers we have are not able to hold up the ball on their own. Bent is a good player, but he needs help.

Gomes
Hutton, Woody, King, Bale
Bentley, Modric, Hudd, Lennon
Dos Santos, Bent.

Subs: any 7 of the many talents we have, but only used if injuries or disaster looms.
Keep it unchanged when we can and play our way out of this godawful mess.


Modric told to support the front and help by staying up the field. Hudd to do the opposite and shield the back four. No runs forward, but also no passes back unless he has to. Woody for Captain in the absence of King. Clear and simple instructions from the side.

Else we are in real trouble.