Give Martin Jol a Break

[Geez]

SPURS NEWS

By: N7teen Vitalfootball

Not only did I have to endure the 3-0 drubbing whilst sitting next to a Gooner season-ticket holder in an Arsenal section of the Immigrant`s Stadium, but I then returned home to read a load of criticism all pointing at Martin Jol. Apparently he is to blame for an unmotivated team, poor team selection, and poor tactics. What a load of cobblers.

Our team were lacklustre, they gave the ball away, they didn't concentrate, they didn't close their opponents down, and they let their heads drop. Poor individual performances that not surprisingly led to an atrocious team performance. I`m sure I could go on and on, but the fact is, we were abysmal.

We may have looked overawed and lacking motivation, but can Big Martin Jol be blamed for that? If today`s performance was to be repeated against Southend (no disrespect to them) in a couple of week`s time, yes the fans would be right to blame the gaffer. But against our bitterest rivals, no player needs a manager to motivate them. Our guys knew how important today`s game was to the fans, and when they`re paid over ten grand a week, we have a right to expect better from them.

So in addition to the fact that our team failed to turn up today, Jol has also been criticised for his team selection and tactics. I wasn`t surprised with the starting eleven. With few injuries, BMJ was able to pick his preferred first eleven, and I think we fielded a strong side. If I was the boss I may have started with JJ instead of Tainio, but then I don`t know whether he was considered fit enough to last for 90 minutes. I`d have also played Young-Pyo at left back (as I would have done all season), but I know that Jol holds Assou-Ekotto in higher regard than I do. Never the less, the starting eleven was pretty similar to what I`d have chosen, and if the players had performed as they have for the majority of the season, it would have been a different story.

Robbo can`t be blamed for any of the goals, but as for the rest of the defence, I thought they were out of sorts all afternoon. Pascal lacked concentration, Dawson seemed far too nervous, King showed he`d been out of action all week, and Assou-Ekotto was nothing more than a joke until he was replaced at half time by Young-Pyo (who played reasonably well in the second half).

In midfield, none of our players could string the passes together we`d expect, they failed to find space, and repeatedly put their team-mates under pressure. Zokora was particularly weak (Huddlestone MUST start in his place on Tuesday), Lennon failed to cope with the occasion, and Tainio lacked his usual grit combined with an attacking push. I thought Malbranque and Jenas played alright, but unfortunately only got 45 minutes each.

The below par midfield didn`t provide the service that our attackers needed. Berbatov showed glimpses of brilliance, but wasn`t able to assert himself on the game (he`s no Rebrov though - give him time and he will prove any doubters wrong). I felt Keane was our best player today, but he had to keep playing too deep to really be effective up front.

So was Jol at fault tactically? I think not. I was actually impressed that he reacted at half-time to the issues we faced on the left flank during the first 45 minutes. Most managers would have waited until the hour mark, but BMJ replaced the disastrous Assou-Ekotto and switched Lennon from the right to the left. Unfortunately this meant a premature end for Malbranque who looked alright, but I could see what Jol was trying to do. What I would have particularly liked to see was Lennon going wide and not continue to cut inside. The pitch at the Immigrant`s Stadium is supposedly wider than any other in the country and we failed to make good use of it. Not necessarily the fault of BMJ though as Lennon has had a tendency to this all season (especially when playing on the left).

So all in all, a disastrous 90 minutes. Maybe there were things that Jol could have done better, but as far as I`m concerned the biggest villains today were the players. Our defence were off-colour and justifiably got punished against one of the highest scoring teams in the league. And our midfield was even worse.

I`m not even going to mention the referee`s decisions, partly because I haven`t seen the penalty incidents on television and partly because even if we`d had a ref that was biased in our favour, on today`s performance we`d have still lost.

It is painful to admit, but the best team won and the Spurs players need to take responsibility for that.

[Archibald&Crooks]

The last sentence says it all. The worrying thing is that it could have been written about almost any away game in the league.

[Pillbug]

I disagree quite significantly. Jol does not put any emphasis on playing with OR against pressure of the kind Arsenal's young team placed against the defense. I noted in another htread that the team appeared to be completely flabbergasted in the face o the constant pressing of Arsenal, who played a full-field game. So many passes were misplaced or poorly timed because Spurs had no counter to this pressure, and Jol seems not to have trained the team for pressing. Nor, given that this has happened before, has it seemed Spurs have improved over the course o the season.

Jol was out-coached on the day by that gobshite. I'm not calling for his sacking, although I think this is an area that I think most might agree, the team needs to improve dramatically at.

Someone else pointed out one other perennial Jol foible. It seems to me that Teemu was in the starting lineup almost solely because of his performace against gooners last year. Teemu was clearly not ready and settled into the midfield. Huddle or even Davids should have played instead.

[GenericID]

Teemu was clearly not ready and settled into the midfield. Huddle or even Davids should have played instead.

It's good you mention this, because that might also be a factor why Davids didn't start, considering the red last season and Poll being the ref. Of course, I doubt he'll do any worse than the sorry lot yesterday, quite the contrary.

[stevenqoz]

Jol is still learning as a coach and I feel the lesson to learn here is that changing a winning team can be demoralising. This is made worse by the reality that Jol does not know what his strongest eleven is. We have 15 players who can feel that they should be starters. This can be good or bad. It is interesting that we have performed best against sides in Europe who only press in the final third. In England the likes of Bolton and Reading do not give you the time to play. I am constantly amazed by the many Spurs fans who credit Keane with being MOM. To me he only creates froth with his arm waving and running that leaves him just short of actually winning the ball. Against Arsenal and Reading he was guilty of leaving Berbi exposed up front on his own. Whether this is Keane or Jol's fault it does not matter. Keane is not a midfielder. If we wanted five in midfield we should have played a central three of Zokora, Jenas (Davids) and the Hudd. If you want to mirror Bolton's midfield effectiveness put the players in who could do it for us, don't use the arm waver because he is not up to it.

[StockSpur]

im in total agreement with your keane statement stevenqoz, i would prefer pace and guile upfront rather than his slow approach to the odd glimpse of flair

[speroni]

I also agree with Stevenqoz, it seems that Jol prefers Keane to Defoe on occasions when he'd like to put out a "stronger" midfield. Keane covered a lot of ground but created no forward impetus for the team.

[avonspurs]

I watched the match via Sopcast - we were poor, extremely poor....but what concerns me most is some supporters (some, not all!) arrogant belief that we are due to break into the top 4 teams. The top 4 were, and still are, Man U, Arse, Chelsea and Liverpool. There are a group of about 5 or 6 teams behind which are fairly evenly matched - of those, we are one of them. This league has shown that, on the day, aside from Chelsea and Man U this season, any team can beat any team: Bolton beat Arsenal; Bolton lose to Reading; Fulham beat Arsenal but then lose to Blackburn; Spurs can beat Chelsea, but lose to Reading. I'm not saying that we shouldnt aim high; but the gap between us and the very top teams is still there and, as much as I hate to admit it, Arse are still a top team. Looking at teams on paper yesterday, there are not many Arse players that I would have preferred in our team - but what they do have, and continue to have, is a winning mentality that comes from consistently being near and at the top....any player coming in to that environment will use it to their advantage. We dont have that yet. We will though, I know we will.....we just need a few more years. Give BMJ time....and stop saying silly things like "get rid of Commoli"!! Thats just a backward step.

[sebo_sek]

I agree about keane. I was quite sorry to have seen him step out, especially that wigan was the first time two strikers scored in the same league game. I think this will be the partnership that works for us. last season Defoe was given a run of about 10 games before he was dropped for his ineffectiveness. Keane has scored one ONE goal in the league this season and his cup and Eurpean campaigns aren't much better. Defoe is our top goal-scorer (6) but still gets the bench. What gives? I love Jol and his passion and grit, but he has to start giving Defoe a go, otherwise He will leave and destroy us in the future.

I would also like to say, although I'm not in the "we miss Carrick" band-wagon, that we really DID miss Carrick this time. He was the driving force at Highbury, and yestreday we had none. Zokora should really think about was he wants achieve and start playing like he did at the WC. Give huddlestone a go and Davids or even Murphy should start against physical teams. Jenas showed that he is a really good offensive midfielder and after he came on things started happening. If I were Jol I would have taken off Zokora at halftime not Malbranque, for he gave it his all (at least in my opinion)

Is Jol to blame? Very partially, but he must change his starting XI. Defoe for Keane, Lee for Ekotto (the first time I'm saying this), Huddlestone for Zokora, and Jenas for Tainio (love him and I think he did well, but like I said things started happening after Jenas came on).

[Ryan]

Of course Lennon cuts inside when he plays on the left - he's right footed ffs! You play your best players in their best position and stop rotating so much. If your gonna rotate all the time you run the risk of pissing everyone off rather than the person who is sub all the time.

Our team cost considerably more than that arsenal team yet the difference was huge. If Jol really is that good then he should be able to sort these problems out without having to spend yet more money.

[bigspurs]

How dare you you blame the manager blah, blah, blah. I blame everyone for that, but how would anyone expect us to beat a top class team with a pussy midfield, especially when we had better options?!

It was obvious Huddlestone or Davids should have started. As soon as people saw the lineup they knew that there was no way Spurs were gonna boss the Scum's midfield. As a result they totally outclassed us, scored two before half time and effectively ended the contest before Jol knew what had hit him!

I think Jol is great bloke and has done fantastic things for us, but he's got to learn how to play to his strengths.

[sloth]

I makes me laugh how people always try and make sweeping judgements based on the evidence of one match...

Were Juve shit and their coach awful when they lost to Arsenal last season...?

Were we a much better team last season because we outplayed them for 120 of 180 minutes? Better than the team this season?

If we'd won on Saturday, if Malbranque had scored instead of missed, would we now be on a par with Arsenal? Ready to take our rightful place amongst the Big Five??

The point is that Arsenal on their day, when they're up for it, can play anyone off the park and I mean anyone. Today it was our turn to suffer at their hands. Next time maybe it'll be our time to turn the screw on them??

MJs selections were wrong?? Pull the other one, everyone agreed on the line-up the only real quibbles being over Defoe or Keane and Tainio or Jenas... if you want to make a big issue out of this cos your pissed of and want someone to blame that's up to you, but if you're man enough then you'll also be honest enough to say we were outplayed and would have been whichever team and whichever tactics we played yesterday.

[devonte01]

You know what mate, this piece of gabbage that you call an 'Article' should have been titled "What a load of Cobblers".

Full of contradictions. Absolute Shite! :stupid:

[parosyiddo]

I have to say that the performance against the arse yesterday was one of the most gutless I can remember in over 40 years of North London derbies. That sort of effort would not have been allowed in the days when we used to regularly "take" the north bank. So why ?
We seem to have too many players who are either not of Premiership standard, out of form or are young and still learning the game - young players should be introduced when the side are playing well.
So, looking through the side yesterday what do you see - Robinson ( off form - not the player of the last couple of seasons) Chimbonda (OK) Dawson (OK - but needs competition for his place)King ( off form - although due to recent injury) Ekotto ( sadly not up to standard) Lennon (OK) Tanio ( only squad player at best) Zakora ( Looks like he needs a long rest) Malbranque ( should have stayed as a big fish in a small pool at Fulham)Keane ( no service so ended up running around like a headless chicken) Berbatov ( again no service - so started planning the remainder of his weekend)
Then there is Martin Jol who obviously thought that you can ignore midfield and still give Arsenal a game, which is either extreme confidence or stupidity - you decide !
The Hudd is left on the bench, why? - because he played well in the last game? - because he can tackle? - because he knits the midfield together? NO - I expect Jol heard that The Russian Crook was watching the game on TV and he did not want him to see how good he is agaainst a top side - he never plays Tom in top games!!!

[devonte01]

After the humiliation of yesterday by the scums, even if we beat Boro by 10-0 on Tues at the Lane, it still would not make up for yesterday. Call me fickle, I dont give a s..... You dont have to work in the same office as 6 Ars.... supporters for the past 10 years! Bastards!!

[Ryan]

You dont have to work in the same office as 6 Ars.... supporters for the past 10 years! Bastards!!

Tell me about it! If we lost one-nil but played really well then i could take it but this is gonna be a long Monday morning.

The women Arse supporters are the worst. Most of them don't even watch the games but still think they can give you sh*t.

[theMAXILOPEZpsycho]

How the hell can you argue that a manager is not responsible for an undermotivated or overawed performence?? What in gods name is supposed to be the function of a manager if not to motivate the players? You go on to argue that it is simply that the players are not up to it, beaten by a better team etc - well again who's responsible for our players not being good enough, after all the money he's splashed out??

The sordid truth of the matter is that as a team we're severly lacking in grit, organisation,flair, and out-right quality. The midfield is the area most culpable. While we have a winger whose the envy of most teams, that really is all we have at the moment - aside from Huddlestone who, while he still needs to add certain things to his game, surely must be an automatic starter; it simply beggers belief that he wasnt included yesterday. The likes of Zokora, Jenas, Ghaly and Tainio are all bottom to mid-table quality (with Davids, Murphy and Zeigler being division 1 or midtable scottish premiership level) They may be fantastic in a couple of games a season; yet in the minds of many fans that serves to vindicate them for their consistent under-performence.

Another thing that baffles me is the victimisation of certain individuals like Ekkotto. While he may have been useless yesterday; people seem to focus all their anger on him; thus ignoring other faults like Chimbonda doing hardly a thing right in the first half and Dawson gifting them a goal with a headless chicken decision to play offside.

This team is simply never going to get anywhere because they don't have any heart.

[Laudrup]

You know what mate, this piece of gabbage that you call an 'Article' should have been titled "What a load of Cobblers".

Full of contradictions. Absolute Shite! :stupid:
A bit harsh....?

[Laudrup]

I makes me laugh how people always try and make sweeping judgements based on the evidence of one match...

Were Juve shit and their coach awful when they lost to Arsenal last season...?

Were we a much better team last season because we outplayed them for 120 of 180 minutes? Better than the team this season?

If we'd won on Saturday, if Malbranque had scored instead of missed, would we now be on a par with Arsenal? Ready to take our rightful place amongst the Big Five??

The point is that Arsenal on their day, when they're up for it, can play anyone off the park and I mean anyone. Today it was our turn to suffer at their hands. Next time maybe it'll be our time to turn the screw on them??

MJs selections were wrong?? Pull the other one, everyone agreed on the line-up the only real quibbles being over Defoe or Keane and Tainio or Jenas... if you want to make a big issue out of this cos your pissed of and want someone to blame that's up to you, but if you're man enough then you'll also be honest enough to say we were outplayed and would have been whichever team and whichever tactics we played yesterday.

Well said, that man...! I didnt even bother to swear at the ref, when he gave the penalties, because we would have been beaten soundly anyway.

We were very, very poor yesterday - end of!

[whatsappnin]

ive been thinking all season if we play a decent team they will tear us apart. we were shit yesterday and thats not been the only game this season either. end of.

[DannySafer]

I have to say i agree with most of that. I'm not gonna say i dislike Keane because i dont, but i think he is better used as a player who can come on late and change dimensions in a game. JD on form, as a forward, is one of the best in the country. We all know he could walk away and become prolific in the right atmosphere but we have to let him feel that here, he is a confidence player and has to feel like No1.

This is where I distinquish between a manager like O'Neil or Harry and Jol who prefers saying that all the squad are starters. It must be demorilising for a player to score and assist in a game to know that he may not start next game.
As most of us are saying, its about time he comes out and says this is my first 11 and the rest of you have to fight for your places back off them, if that means losing a couple of peripheral players then so be it. I'd rather that then the Sunday League perfomance we got yesterday.

I cant even begin to explain my disgust at Zokora's perfomance. Suffice to say that if you leave the space of a Bus between yourself and Fabregas then your team doesn't stand much of a chance. Pathetic. Didn't they learn anything from Bolton?

[tomo]

I makes me laugh how people always try and make sweeping judgements based on the evidence of one match...

Were Juve shit and their coach awful when they lost to Arsenal last season...?

Were we a much better team last season because we outplayed them for 120 of 180 minutes? Better than the team this season?

If we'd won on Saturday, if Malbranque had scored instead of missed, would we now be on a par with Arsenal? Ready to take our rightful place amongst the Big Five??

The point is that Arsenal on their day, when they're up for it, can play anyone off the park and I mean anyone. Today it was our turn to suffer at their hands. Next time maybe it'll be our time to turn the screw on them??

MJs selections were wrong?? Pull the other one, everyone agreed on the line-up the only real quibbles being over Defoe or Keane and Tainio or Jenas... if you want to make a big issue out of this cos your pissed of and want someone to blame that's up to you, but if you're man enough then you'll also be honest enough to say we were outplayed and would have been whichever team and whichever tactics we played yesterday.

How many times have we turned up for games this season and 'not been up for it'. 1 or 2 I can handle but it's the North London Derby for fucks sake. What the fuck were they discussing all week in training, practising. What on earth were they expecting Arsenal to be like, of course cheating little wankers comes as standard. ?? They should have been expecting them to be up for it, if they weren't then the modern day footballer is dummer than I imagined.

Arse didn't win that game, we lost it, with an absolutely disgraceful performance by the team and an absolutely disgraceful performance from the management team. It's sunday and when I still think about it it winds me up. Do you think any of the people behind the scenes are like that......are they fuck.

[chico]

Was there sitting amongst a load of very smug gooners, hated it. What was really crushing was the totally inept performance by our boys. Although I/we love BMJ , he has to shoulder the blame , he selects the team and sets out the tactics , and was found wanting on this occassion particularly . Amazing how crap the scum looked when pressured by the Boltons etc , and yet we were out-powered/fought/muscled by them....very disappointing. Lets hope this was our worst performance of the season , and we can get straight back to winning ways this week. COYS.

[shivermechivers]

Do You Know What, We've Got So Many Players
We Can't Find Our Best Team. It's Like Bleeding Sudo-Q
To Many Permatations. Read The Posts Everybody's Going
On About Who Should Play & Where. It's Bonkers.
I Want To See Consistancy. Only Daws & Leds Are
Guaranteed Starters. I Think Big Marts Got A Problem With
Keeping Everyone Happy. You Know What it's Like Buying
A Packet OF Sweets, The More Choice There Is The Longer
It Takes, Then You'd Wished You'd A Mars Bar.
Big Mart's Now Disrupted The Defoe/Berbs Partnership
So They'll Have To Find It Again. Bloody Annoying.

[justfookinhitit]

Can't see how the players can really gel as a team when the teamsheet looks very different week in, week out. I know there are injuries but I'm hoping that when Santa comes down Jol's chimney and empties his big sack all over his living room, in there is a glorious copy of "Your Best Teamsheet" by J.R. Hartley.

Also, I'm hoping that Santa gives the squad a dose of reality and after taking it they collectively realise that football really is a very simple game. You chase the opposition, don't give them any space, when you have the ball you keep it, you look for space, you pass to a teammate, "Goal of the season" is worth no more than when you bounce the ball off your arse etc etc.

Just think we overcomplicate things - too many first time shots that go into row z, poorly distributed passes that go to the opposition and immediately put us in trouble, not closing opponents down so they have 5 seconds to line up a shot or pass etc etc. Anyone watching Chelski or Manure sees they don't give anyone any time on the ball, and surprise surprise they seem to win a lot. I don't like to say it but there are some things we can learn from them (but before someone says it I don't want our team to learn the "Art of Diving" by C. Ronaldo & A. Robben).