mawspurs
05-12-2006, 09:13 AM
SPURS NEWS
While some players might seek to blame Graham Poll’s poor refereeing, Spurs fans have grown angry at their club’s latest failure to win away from home.
Source: Footballingworld
Forget that the Emirates have as yet gone unbeaten at their new corporate entertainment facility, and forget that Spurs have not won away in the league since April. Derby’s defy such logic and this match has raised serious questions.
Spurs fans are angry, and perhaps rightly so, about what seems to be a complete lack of cohesion in the squad. In Europe we can play a calm game, be patient, and use the time and space afforded us. In England we can’t and some one must fix on an alternative.
This means something must be done to address the lack of order within a squad that in no way lacks talent. With Lennon there is pace out wide. But he is just one man and there are two wings. With Huddlestone and Zokora there are two holding midfielders, but no free-shooting, goal-scoring midfielder to partner either of them. Up front there are four proven goal scorers but not one proven partnership.
Take the strikers. Mido, Berbatov, Keane and Defoe can all score goals and have done so. But Berbatov attacks space, Defoe prefers to shoot on the turn, Mido likes everything in the air, and Keane drops deep. There is plenty of scope for a blinding partnership there. But until some one decides how best to attack, we don’t know which players will fit best together.
The defence contrasts with this and it shows. The first four are an automatic choice, along with England’s number one behind them. And while they officially conceded three this weekend, that hardly reflected conventional defensive weakness.
Further up the field though, no one knows what to do to overcome the lack of balance.
Lennon often hits a brick wall because defences can move their entire back four to their left hand side so as to crowd him out. And the reason they can do that is the lack of a second winger. Spurs play almost entirely in just the right hand half of the pitch, and thus don’t stretch defences or midfields to create any space at all. They move Lennon to the left, and the phenomenon just shifts the other way.
If Spurs want to hit teams wide and with pace then a left winger is needed.
But that isn’t the only option. A more central line of attack is also available. It is easier if wide men stretch defences, but doesn’t depend on that. With Zokora clearly a top class player it should be possible to put a more goal minded attacker ahead of him. But Spurs don’t have one.
So if Spurs want to play forcefully through the middle, an attacking midfielder is needed.
Again, it needs saying there are other options. Huddlestone, Malbranque and Murphy could all play it Wenger’s way, feed balls behind defences, and watch fast runners score quick goals.
Or Spurs could play high balls from deep, or a physical game, or an athletic game, or any sort of game at all.
Three years ago there were no options. A dearth of talent meant simply coping each game was as much as could be hoped for. The talent is there now to do a great deal more than that. But some one must decide how Spurs want to play, and then decide which of our talented squad can best play it.
And until then, our settled European game will continue to succeed against the backdrop of some appalling domestic performances.
While some players might seek to blame Graham Poll’s poor refereeing, Spurs fans have grown angry at their club’s latest failure to win away from home.
Source: Footballingworld
Forget that the Emirates have as yet gone unbeaten at their new corporate entertainment facility, and forget that Spurs have not won away in the league since April. Derby’s defy such logic and this match has raised serious questions.
Spurs fans are angry, and perhaps rightly so, about what seems to be a complete lack of cohesion in the squad. In Europe we can play a calm game, be patient, and use the time and space afforded us. In England we can’t and some one must fix on an alternative.
This means something must be done to address the lack of order within a squad that in no way lacks talent. With Lennon there is pace out wide. But he is just one man and there are two wings. With Huddlestone and Zokora there are two holding midfielders, but no free-shooting, goal-scoring midfielder to partner either of them. Up front there are four proven goal scorers but not one proven partnership.
Take the strikers. Mido, Berbatov, Keane and Defoe can all score goals and have done so. But Berbatov attacks space, Defoe prefers to shoot on the turn, Mido likes everything in the air, and Keane drops deep. There is plenty of scope for a blinding partnership there. But until some one decides how best to attack, we don’t know which players will fit best together.
The defence contrasts with this and it shows. The first four are an automatic choice, along with England’s number one behind them. And while they officially conceded three this weekend, that hardly reflected conventional defensive weakness.
Further up the field though, no one knows what to do to overcome the lack of balance.
Lennon often hits a brick wall because defences can move their entire back four to their left hand side so as to crowd him out. And the reason they can do that is the lack of a second winger. Spurs play almost entirely in just the right hand half of the pitch, and thus don’t stretch defences or midfields to create any space at all. They move Lennon to the left, and the phenomenon just shifts the other way.
If Spurs want to hit teams wide and with pace then a left winger is needed.
But that isn’t the only option. A more central line of attack is also available. It is easier if wide men stretch defences, but doesn’t depend on that. With Zokora clearly a top class player it should be possible to put a more goal minded attacker ahead of him. But Spurs don’t have one.
So if Spurs want to play forcefully through the middle, an attacking midfielder is needed.
Again, it needs saying there are other options. Huddlestone, Malbranque and Murphy could all play it Wenger’s way, feed balls behind defences, and watch fast runners score quick goals.
Or Spurs could play high balls from deep, or a physical game, or an athletic game, or any sort of game at all.
Three years ago there were no options. A dearth of talent meant simply coping each game was as much as could be hoped for. The talent is there now to do a great deal more than that. But some one must decide how Spurs want to play, and then decide which of our talented squad can best play it.
And until then, our settled European game will continue to succeed against the backdrop of some appalling domestic performances.