Bale + Lennon = 3 assists

[Bus-Conductor]

What it says really.

Is this really good enough ? Don't get me wrong, despite my frequent criticism of the pair of these I like them both, they both have obvious merits, but that tally really is shockingly poor isn't it. To be fair to Bale, he did chip in with 7 goals, nearly all in the first half of the season, but Lennon only managed 3.

Modric, played almost entirely in CM equaled Lennon's tally, and I was a bit disappointed with his goal/assist tally but at least he does everything else and sees the ball about 1200 times a game.

I don't think they were always helped by the poor movement and performance of our rather insipid strikers, but you have to say that despite this, 3 assists from a collective 4700 minutes of football is piss poor from the players who, lets be honest, don't take a shit load of responsibility for much else but trying to create.

Bale, clearly has a fuckit load of potential to be something special, but I personally think he is getting very little input from the coaching staff, certainly we've seen no sign of it any way. But is Lennon ever going to fulfil our wishes ?

I don't want Lennon offloaded, I like what he offers to a squad, but I think we must improve on him, and we must start coaching Bale better.

 

[Spurger King]

Says more about our strikers really. Bale and Lennon can hardly be blamed for Defoe, Pav and Crouch consistently failing to convert the chances put in front of them.

 

[ItsBoris]

Some good points but I think their lack of assists is down to the quality of our strikers.

Our strikers are actually so bad imo that 4 or 5 goals are more than they deserve, in a midtable team they probably wouldn't have any goals. Modric, Bale, and Lennon in United/Madrid would have many assists. Part of it is because our strikers are woeful at finishing, but our strikers are even worse at positioning. They are terrible at getting into good positions, and even when the ball falls to them luckily they do not put it in. It's a joke, but with new strikers Bale and Lennon should have plenty of assists.

 

[vonn]

http://yahoofantasyfootballuk.blogspot.com/2011/04/bale-wins-pfa-player-of-year.html

"There is no doubt Bale was outstanding up to January, destroyed Inter Milan, scored 7 league goals & also had a misleading assists record. Up to January, Bale was 2nd in the "goalscoring chances created" Opta stats - it's not his fault Spurs' strikers aren't good enough to finish those chances!"

 

[Casparian]

With all due respect to BC may I ask where you found the stats that show 3 assists? Not intended in a sarcastic manner just curious.Since off hand I recall atleast 2 assists vs Inter alone one for Pav one for Crouch.So I am as you can imagine bemused that he either did no more or that Lennon mustered just 1.

However I must also add that it's unfortunate where stats regarding assists are used they dont really reflect what normally happens for example a Bale/Lennon cross knockdown from Crouch volley in by VDV who gets listed for the assist? >>Crouch.Again as i said above not a dig just curious where the stats were from,besides that I agree with your advice regards Bale requiring better coaching and Lennon also.

 

[Spurger King]

The stats issue is always going to role on and on. I can see why some see it as important, and it certainly provides some cold, hard 'facts' about what has happened, which does help to paint a picture of how things have gone.

However...there is so much that cannot be understood through stats. The number of passes a player completes can never measure the ambition of the passes being attempted. The amount of kilometers run by a player cannot indicate the amount of unnecessary chasing down undertaken, or the intelligent but controlled use of positioning. The number of shots a striker makes in a game can never tell us whether those shots were pointless wastes of time, or whether they were down to excellent positioning and opportunism.

In short..I don't hold statistics in a particularly high regard.

 

[Kendall]

Aside from 2 awesome inter performances Bale has been overrated this campaign and his inclusion at left wing makes us more flimsy.

 

[Casparian]

Gotta learn to appreciate what we got as the saying goes...besides you dont win the player of the year award for two performances regardless how great they were.....gotta love wiki suppose...

2010-11

On 21 August, Bale scored twice in a 2–1 win at Stoke City, the second of which was a head-high volley into the top right hand corner of the goal.[37] On 25 August, Bale set up all four goals to help Spurs overcome Young Boys 4–0 (6–3 agg.) in a Champions League play-off at White Hart Lane.[38] Although Assou-Ekotto had already returned from injury, Bale continued his good form and cemented his place in the starting eleven, moving forward to left wing to accommodate Assou-Ekotto at left back. On 29 September 2010, Bale scored his first Champions League goal for Tottenham in a 4–1 home win against Dutch champions FC Twente in their second game of the group stages. In recognition, he was named Welsh Player of the Year by the FAW.[39] On 20 October, Bale scored his first senior hat trick against European champions Internazionale at the San Siro in the Champions League. Tottenham lost the match 4–3, having been 4–0 down inside the first 35 minutes and playing with ten men for over 80 minutes of the match after goalkeeper Heurelho Gomes had been sent off in the eighth minute for a professional foul on Inter's Jonathan Biabiany.[40] In the return match at White Hart Lane on 2 November, Bale provided a man of the match performance, setting up goals for Peter Crouch and Roman Pavlyuchenko to earn Spurs a memorable 3–1 win.[41]
On 4 November, Bale stated that he intended to remain at Tottenham for the remainder of his recently-signed four-year contract, despite reported interest from other clubs.[42] On 19 March 2011, Tottenham announced Bale had extended his stay at the club until 2015.[43]
On 17 April 2011, Bale was honoured with the PFA Player of the Year award, as voted for by his peers. In doing so, he became the only fourth Welsh player to win the PFA Player of the Year award (the others are Ian Rush, Mark Hughes and Ryan Giggs)


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3dZo469B-p0&feature=related

 

[OmarsComing]

Aside from 2 awesome inter performances Bale has been overrated this campaign and his inclusion at left wing makes us more flimsy.

Very harsh.

The fact that he scored 7 league goals in the first half of the season should give him a bit of slack with regards to him being "overrated".

 

[Bulletspur]

Aside from 2 awesome inter performances Bale has been overrated this campaign and his inclusion at left wing makes us more flimsy.

I agree. A very good player. A damn good player, but he is not the be all and end all as most here make him out to be. Isnt it very noticable how other teams have worked him out now, therefore stiffling his efforts?

 

[Kendall]

Yeah and the fact that we beat Blackburn, Sunderland, Bolton and Milan without him, then slid woefully when he came back, then beat Liverpool with him out.

Not his fault of course, I just think we expect too much of him and when he's not on song he's actually a largely negative effect.

 

[jonnyp]

The stats issue is always going to role on and on. I can see why some see it as important, and it certainly provides some cold, hard 'facts' about what has happened, which does help to paint a picture of how things have gone.

However...there is so much that cannot be understood through stats. The number of passes a player completes can never measure the ambition of the passes being attempted. The amount of kilometers run by a player cannot indicate the amount of unnecessary chasing down undertaken, or the intelligent but controlled use of positioning. The number of shots a striker makes in a game can never tell us whether those shots were pointless wastes of time, or whether they were down to excellent positioning and opportunism.

In short..I don't hold statistics in a particularly high regard.

Exactly, football stats are useless without context and thorough investigation of each individual event contained within the stats. So they're pretty much useless.

 

[C-oops]

Think you can blame the strikers. How many times has Bale hit a sweet ball across the face of goal or into the penalty area only for the nearest striker to be just arriving in the correct postcode?

 

[DogsOfWar]

The problem with Lennon and Bale is that they don't have a footballing brain and as a result it leaves us a bit light in midfield.

When you look at United they have Carrick, Scholes, Giggs, and the underrated Valencia.

We have Modric and perhaps Hudd and Krancjar. I also believe that Sandro will develop one quickly.
The problem is that none of these are proper wide men which is why I would advocate playing a 4-2-3-1 with Bale dropping to LB as we can then fit at least 3 of these players into our side without losing its balance.

2 limited wingers is fine in some situations but against 10 men behind the ball we need a set up with 1, or even no, wingers.

 

[mike_l]

I think this shows that our gameplan of get the ball out to the wings at every opportunity and cross into the box ad nauseum isn't a particularly well thought out one. I often feel it comes at the sacrifice of our 2 most gifted players also in Modric and VDV, as they would be more than capable of carving sides open through the middle, yet spend all of their time trying to work it to BaLennon instead.

 

[nicdic]

Before the last round of fixtures, we were the team to have created the second most chances in the league only behind Chelsea, yet our conversion rate of those chances was only better than Wigan and West Ham.

People keep trying to find solutions or problems that aren't our woeful strikeforce. I don't understand why.

 

[steveitr]

Nothing to do with bale and lennon as said by a few others its our strikers who have poor movement and havent got decent footballer brains.

Last few games he played before injury bale put some killer balls into the area and out strikers were no where near them because they dont know where to be at the right time.

 

[michaelden]

Yeah this says more about the STs than them. If its not scored a great cross is just a cross not an assist

 

[badajozjim]

Crouch has the highest assists in the team if i'm not mistaken, most of which are knock-downs to VDV, but they don't mention who crossed the ball to him in the first place.

 

[Ledders Army]

Nothing to do with bale and lennon as said by a few others its our strikers who have poor movement and havent got decent footballer brains.

Last few games he played before injury bale put some killer balls into the area and out strikers were no where near them because they dont know where to be at the right time.

Exactly this, Crouch's movement in the City game was especially poor, even for him. Lack of movement, anticipation and willingness to gamble from our strikers and the fact we get so few players into the box main reasons for the lack of assists.