If its not perfect it can be improved.

[JimmyG2]

Let me start by paying my respects to Harry for all he has done for us and to Robbie Keane for the fine player that he is and his contribution to the club over seven years, off and on. Secondly I am happy with the position we are in and certainly prefer it to last season.

However I belong to the, 'If its not perfect it can be improved' tendency rather than the, 'If its not broken why fix it?' school of thought. Nor do I regard Robbie Keane as some sort of talisman who must play every game for fear the football gods might punish us.

I don't believe in conspiracy theories: 'must play' clauses in contracts; secret love children; incriminating photos of Harry and the like. They are the result of frustration and overheated imagination. I don't believe that Harry has favourites but chooses players for their perceived effectiveness.

We are in the Top Four but are clinging on by our fingertips. Games in hand might see us slip out out the Champions' League places. Clubs that might have been above us have made poor starts, Everton and Liverpool, or slipped up recently, Man.City and Aston Villa. We were lucky to beat Sunderland who would otherwise have gone above us. Its never a good sign when your goalkeeper is man of the match too often.

More important to me though is that we are not playing consistently well, either as a team or individually. And you cannot succeed over 38 games by riding you luck as we have lately. (Portsmouth and Sunderland spring to mind) Firstly there is the Robbie Keane situation. He is visibly off form but as captain starts every game and is then subbed regularly on the hour. Effective team formation is being sacrificed to the requirements of fitting him in.

Secondly there is the Crouch problem and though much debate on here centred around the usefulness of having a tall striker as a tactical option when required it has begun to affect the way that we play, particularly when he starts. He is like Darren Bent in that the style of football that we play is altered for the worse in order to fit him in.

Thirdly individual players are off form. Now whatever reservations you may have about Huddlestone and Jenas they have both, in general, stepped up and at the moment Wilson 'best thing since sliced bread' Palacios has not. He certainly adds an element that has been missing from the Spurs midfield but of late has appeared distracted.

His tackling is suspect, he gives away too many free kicks in dangerous positions and his passing has been poor. He should play in the centre of the three midfielders, Huddlestone to the left and Jenas to the right. At the moment the backup widely deemed vital to be purchased in January could well be his replacement.

Without Lennon and Modric who give us width and creativity we need Kranjcar to operate on the left, with Bale as a possible substitute if we need more pace. We seem more effective when we play 442 with Keane, if he has to start, up front with Defoe. Crouch should be an impact sub alternating with Pavlyuchenko while he is still here. Defoe and Pavlyuchenko could also be tried in order to establish the most effective partnership.

Dawson and Woodgate should be the first choice centre backs while Bassong is injured and King should be backup until his recent spate of injuries on top of, or because of his ongoing condition, is sorted out.

What am I trying to achieve? A more effective team, playing more fluent football securing even greater success. The table doesn't lie, we are doing very well but in my view with the team, the squad and manager that we have we could be doing better and be more secure in our challenge at the top. With Modric and Lennon to return and a better balance to the squad this should certainly be possible.

What we need are minor adjustments, a little fine tuning, far less than the wholesale import of new players demanded by some in January who may or may not integrate into the team and the Premiership. We cannot just hope for the best or rest on our laurels.

 

[sebo_sek]

Robbie will NEVER get the chop doesn't matter how badly and without position he plays. Pav and Defoe upfront together? Hysterical!

Kranjcar is our best option at creativity but his spot is more often than not occupied by the Irish maestro (no racism intended).

This means that the headless chicken that can sometimes clap his hands and say 'come on lads let me trip over the ball so that is goes in' just has the opportunity to waste time and space.

Sorry but while I agree with your notion, I find it completely unrealistic and in the eyes of Harry - unfathomable.

 

[JoeT]

I agree with your comment re: a back-up center-midfielder to either play alongside or back up W.P. Your comments regarding the center-backs I feel are dependant on a fit Woodgate for the next month or so (sorry, but I am disregarding King as a reliable player back there), so things could (again) look a bit thin if things take a turn for the worst. We must either be prepared to go with Corluka (is he really good enough in the middle?) or bring in another player.
Keane UP FRONT I can live with....alongside Defoe or Crouch; as long as he plays as a striker.
Also, Luka must be getting closer to a place on the bench shouldn't he?

 

[THE.FIEND!]

disagree about both Crouch and Palacios. Crouch is great on the ground (although not so great at dropping back into midfield as we saw last week. If we just lump it to him thats the culpa of the whole team. Having a player with an attribute (ie height and heading ability) and saying that it makes the team worse means, if you follow that logic, you would win the world cup playing with a team of justin edinburgh's. Its like saying maradona was bad for argentina because the other players just gave it to him...

Palacios has had a dip in form, maybe suffered from playing too many games and not getting a proper rest. For me he remains a world class player. I'm backing him to get back on form.

As for Keane, I don't think you go quite far enough. It really is like playing with 10 men.

 

[Sauniere]

Decent summary JimmyG2, my own thoughts:

It's no coincidence that the rot set in when Defoe got sent off. Obviously the next game we lost Lennon - at 0-0 I might add. Keane and Defoe have been surprisingly effective much to most people's surprise (but not all - coyboy etc have always said they can play together). Breaking up that partnership has cost us. Defoe returned in in unfamiliar 4-3-3 formation and we were lucky to beat Sunderland but we did. I think the problems against them were down to the formation not down to the personnel.

Whilst you are right about Palacios's lack of form I again feel it's down to the other people we're missing rather than him. Without an outlet to either Defoe or Lennon he finds himself struggling with who to pass the ball to, more often than not annoyingly passing it to the opposition. Big Wilson is like a little boy looking for his teddy, once he gets his favourite players around him again he'll get back to being awesome, mark my words.

I think HR is keeping Keane playing because he knows as soon as he gets Defoe alongside him Lennon and Modric back it will be business as usual. Robbie does the Heskey role for us, lots of unrewarding build up and feinting that ultimately gets him slagged off and no goals. However he can still be key in the team performance.

In a couple of weeks time it will be Modric and Lennon back in the line up, Defoe & Keane up front with Crouch as sub and Pav still looking for a way out, we'll have strung a few more wins together and be talking about going into January in the top 4.

That's my opinion anyway

 

[spurs_viola]

Good and carefully thought out article. I have expressed the same point that the current table position has been reached in no small measure through luck more than judgement, and certain decisions must be made to improve the balance and performance of the team. I agree that perhaps main decisions concern the Crouch factor limiting the team to ineffective long ball game and Keane's ever presence unbalancing the team most of the time since his comeback.

Keane and Defoe may have seemed to work mainly because of Defoe's blistering form at the beginning of the season, when he was scoring no matter where and who he played with, for club and country. Now that Defoe has had a small dip in form, the goals have dried out and the K+D partnership has been shown to be far from effective.

Also agree that Palacios has been showing worrying signs of a decline in sharpness for several games now. I wonder if there are some fitness/training issues here, what with all the injuries we are having this season.

 

[Matthew Wyatt]

Good post, Jimmy. I agree about Keane; wish we hadn't re-signed him; adds little. Disagree about Crouch; not his fault players play the long ball when he's on; Harry needs to tell them to play it along the ground; slap them hard if they don't; footballers are like children, or dogs, and need to be treated as such.

 

[jolsnogross]

We are in the Top Four but are clinging on by our fingertips. Games in hand might see us slip out out the Champions' League places. Clubs that might have been above us have made poor starts, Everton and Liverpool, or slipped up recently, Man.City and Aston Villa. We were lucky to beat Sunderland who would otherwise have gone above us. Its never a good sign when your goalkeeper is man of the match too often.

Some of the teams you've mentioned are lucky to be where they are. We've proven ourselves over a dozen games to be better than Everton and Sunderland and equal enough with Villa and City. Liverpool have underperformed and are the ones clinging on in my opinion -they've opened an opportunity for the rest of us because the top 3 are looking too good to hang on to, yet again. I think clinging on is an overly-negative outlook on our start to the season. We've been as good or better than everyone but the top 3.

Firstly there is the Robbie Keane situation. He is visibly off form but as captain starts every game and is then subbed regularly on the hour. Effective team formation is being sacrificed to the requirements of fitting him in.

Keane was not being subbed (early) for the first 7 games. He's been subbed at the hour mark in the last 5. This is consistent with his performances and suggests a manager is acting rationally. If his deteriorated form continues, a rational manager may drop him to the bench - we'll see. Playing Keane up front does not compromise our formation. And another aspect to consider is who replaces him. It's not like the alternatives have forced an iron-clad case to take Keane's place. As you said, Crouch's play does not always compensate for how the team plays with him. And Pav simply has not stepped up.

Thirdly individual players are off form...at the moment Wilson 'best thing since sliced bread' Palacios has not [stepped up]. He should play in the centre of the three midfielders, Huddlestone to the left and Jenas to the right. At the moment the backup widely deemed vital to be purchased in January could well be his replacement.

While your comments on his form reflect his performances, your solutions are ridiculous. Playing between 2 other centre-mids would definitely "sacrifice effective team formation". And obviously this 3-man-center-midfield idea doesn't jive with your subsequent calls for 2 up front with Modric and Lennon out wide. Also, the suggestion he'll be replaced is absurd short-termism. His form is poor and maybe a spot on the bench is merited, but replacing him based on the 12 games so far is typical Spurs-fan over-reaction (replace and disrupt) and contrary to your conclusion that whole-sale changes are not needed.

I'm not entirely sure what your argument is here. I agree with some points - Crouch is problemmatic to pattern of play, King is too injured, some players' suspect form has impacted team performances. But you claim we're lucky and clinging on - I think that is only true of a minority of individual games and not a reflection of a season that is almost 1/3 complete. You'd like to see minor changes but some of your suggestions (3 center-mids or replacing Palacios) are pretty major.

I think the main problems we've had are:
1) a lack of clean-sheets and continuity among our back 5. We had an amazing home defensive record last year and it's not happening this year.
2) when we deviate from 442 (or play 442 with 3 strikers), we haven't done the business. It's the trend I'm most worried about and hope the return of our wide players puts an end to it.
3) a general timidity when playing the big boys. It's pervasive among the staff and players - tentative formations and tactics have bred insular performances and little to no threat of scoring.

 

[spud]

Keane and Defoe may have seemed to work mainly because of Defoe's blistering form at the beginning of the season, when he was scoring no matter where and who he played with, for club and country. Now that Defoe has had a small dip in form, the goals have dried out and the K+D partnership has been shown to be far from effective.

I don't know how you can say that.

Defoe hasn't had a 'small dip in form'; he hasn't been playing. First he hurt his fingers, then he got a 3-match ban. Then when he got back into the team he was partnered up front with Crouch - he hasn't had Keane as his striking partner. How can you say the partnership has been 'far from effective' when it hasn't been used?

 

[spud]

I think clinging on is an overly-negative outlook on our start to the season. We've been as good or better than everyone but the top 3.

Agreed. There seems to be a general tendency to dwell on the negative ('we were lucky to beat Sunderland') rather than the positive ('we didn't play well but still beat Sunderland') - and let's not forget that we were playing 5-a-sides in Stoke's box and were 'unlucky' not to win by 5 or 6.

I think the main problems we've had are:
1) a lack of clean-sheets and continuity among our back 5. We had an amazing home defensive record last year and it's not happening this year.
2) when we deviate from 442 (or play 442 with 3 strikers), we haven't done the business. It's the trend I'm most worried about and hope the return of our wide players puts an end to it.
3) a general timidity when playing the big boys. It's pervasive among the staff and players - tentative formations and tactics have bred insular performances and little to no threat of scoring.

Pretty much spot-on.

Factor in the loss since August of our best player and the recent absence of Lennon and fourth isn't too bad. It provides a good platform for the rest of the season IF your first two points are addressed.

 

[JimmyG2]

Jolsnogross. re 3 man midfield

Sorry I realise that it might be a bit unclear. I am proposing a four man midfield(442) with Palacios,Jenas and Huddlestone + one other. Krancjar until Modric or Lennon is fit and Bale as back-up for Kranjcar.
Who drops out when either of these two is fit is down to form though I admit that Palacios offers us something different. Injuries are bound to disrupt this anyway but I am definately not proposing a three man midfield.
I don't think we will see a fully fit Modric until after xmas unfortunately.

 

[JuanRebelde]

Interesting read and the point about crouch is very true and was one of the reasons why a few of us knew he would not be a good signing - unless that is he is coming on with 15 minutes to go to save a game or win it. But then why spend so much for a 'part-time' player.

I also agree with those who say it is not Crouch's fault that we play long ball when he starts but this is what happens and so we become predictable and give away possession due to it. Again what a few of us were saying in summer when he was bought to 'add something different'. We now we have seen what it is and many don't appear to like it.


Apart from the sometimes enforced break up of K+D for me the inconsistent form of late is down to the loss of Modric and then Lennon. Our two outlets in midfield and the two who create space merely by their presence. When they return our form will also.

 

[Coyboy]

We were lucky to beat Sunderland who would otherwise have gone above us. Its never a good sign when your goalkeeper is man of the match too often..

Yes but we were unlucky to lose to Stoke and other than Pompey, I cannot think of many other games where Gomes has saved us on his own.

More important to me though is that we are not playing consistently well, either as a team or individually. And you cannot succeed over 38 games by riding you luck as we have lately.

No but who is? Chelsea and Arsenal, to a lesser degree. I'll take that. We cannot keep being 'lucky' without some merit- Liverpool, West Ham, Hull, Birmingham, Burnley and Pompey were to differing degrees deserved victories.

Secondly there is the Crouch problem and though much debate on here centred around the usefulness of having a tall striker as a tactical option when required it has begun to affect the way that we play, particularly when he starts. He is like Darren Bent in that the style of football that we play is altered for the worse in order to fit him in..

I don't see it as a problem because a) having a long ball option isn't taboo for me and b) it doesn't happen as frequently as people make out as Crouch is probably our most talented striker with the ball at his feet in close situations and uses the ball more effectively that the other three. He is not like Darren Bent at all, look up how many times the two touch the ball in a game.

Dawson and Woodgate should be the first choice centre backs while Bassong is injured and King should be backup until his recent spate of injuries on top of, or because of his ongoing condition, is sorted out.

So do you know more about King's fitness and ability to play then himself or the coaching staff. King should be picked when he is fit to play. Rednapp has acknowledged the instrinsic danger of him picking up knocks, but that will always be a risk and his presence and class wins us games.

I think you underestimate the loss of Modric and then Lennon, and are just looking for faults that aren't there and just fade into stereotypes; King isn't reliable, Crouch effects poor football, Palacios is a poor passer and tackler, Defoe is off form (another adherent poster I know). To even suggest that Palacios should be replaced after a couple of poor performances is completely contrary the stable thinking we need.

 

[davidmatzdorf]

​

However I belong to the, 'If its not perfect it can be improved' tendency rather than the, 'If its not broken why fix it?' school of thought.

It's a false distinction. No such two groups exist. Suggesting that there are two groups, one of whom thinks things are perfect as they are, sounds as ridiculous as it is, when I put it like that. Suggesting that there are some people who don't want improvement is the fan equivalent of bad journalism and just gives the paranoid ranters something to chew on.

We were lucky to beat Sunderland who would otherwise have gone above us.

Writing that, without also pointing out that we should have hammered Stoke 4-0, is more slanted writing.

Without Lennon and Modric who give us width and creativity...

And there, along with the on-off availability of several key central defenders, is all the explanation you need for why we have not continued to win nearly all of our matches.

What we need are minor adjustments, a little fine tuning, far less than the wholesale import of new players demanded by some in January who may or may not integrate into the team and the Premiership.

And there, right at the end of the article, is a point that we can agree upon - along with the majority of supporters - thus proving my first point above :wink:.

 

[kernowspur]

Jimmy have to agree with most of what you write, except perhaps the 3 man midfield.
At last someone has said that Palacios has not been playing well lately and that he is a liability in terms of the free kicks he gives away in dangerous positions. I was beginning to think that JJ and Hudd would get all the criticism (including my own criticism of Hudd) but that Palacios was above criticism by most on here.

 

[newbie]

Theres a saying its better to have a lucky genral than a good genral, in Rednapp we have both a lucky and a good manager

I think we were unlucky to loose against stoke, and chelsea, ManU played the best game they will against us they proberly will all season i watched the sunday supplement, they all said we played very well just ManU had one of those days.

Our midfield and front line = 6 players 3 have been missing for the last month. when they are all back fit we will look good again. Modric and Keane play very well together there on the same page.

Crouch when the weathers rubbish and the pitches are shite we will love the big man.

Defence, we have had no luck if King had stayed fit against chelsea i think we could have won, he had drogba in his pocket. we had all 4 CB out at one point, then 3 out of 6 atting players and we are 4th.

All in all rednapp is what Ramos is not, both great managers Rednapp can step in and has a bit of luck and gets results. the players like him i like him so i with we would kick back and enjoy the ride after all 22points is not bad tooks us forever last season to get out of the bottom 4 and yet you ppl are not happy!

Personally i think someof you like to moan, yea when we are rubbish moan but we have been far from and we are picking up results. I know we have had some bad matches but hey every team will have a bad month at some point.

 

[newbie]

Oh and i never want to hear 3 man midfield on here again its an ugly word, we are spurs we are 4-4-2 (actually we play more 4-3-3) with Keane Lennon and Defoe

 

[Paxtonite]

I think the main problems we've had are:
1) a lack of clean-sheets and continuity among our back 5. We had an amazing home defensive record last year and it's not happening this year.
2) when we deviate from 442 (or play 442 with 3 strikers), we haven't done the business. It's the trend I'm most worried about and hope the return of our wide players puts an end to it.
3) a general timidity when playing the big boys. It's pervasive among the staff and players - tentative formations and tactics have bred insular performances and little to no threat of scoring.

This is pretty much spot on. As for the original article by JimmyG it started off well and then just turned into him playing champ manager!

I agree with the fact that the continual inclusion of a below par Keane could well be an obstacle to our progress and that Crouch in the side alters our tactics whether intentionally or not. I disagree with those that say Crouch is "great on the ground" because he plainly is not. Yes we have ridden our luck in a couple of games but in between we were seriously unlucky against Stoke at home.

I don't think that Wilson has lost that much form to be fair. He was always a bit reckless in the tackle and prone to picking up yellow cards and hence why we need an able replacement for him as he will miss games each year. However, no one can legislate for the continual interuption to his schedule by the incessant international breaks at the start of this season and his coming and going to South America. Also the guy's brother got kidnapped and then murdered. That has to have some impact on anyone's psychological state. I know Defoe went through something similar with his step brother (the loss of life i mean not the rest of the stuff), but people react to things differently. Also i agree he has missed Modric and Lennon as outlets from midfield. Jenas is too conservative as a midfielder and Hudd just keeps looking for that Hollywood pass i fear. Oh and against sunderland Redknapp played him on the left of a diamond FFS and he was totally ineffective until we went back to 442 and he played in the middle.

Talking about our width (or lack of it) this could be one reason why we haven't been as solid defensively so far this season. Our full backs have been exposed to often and we need to cover these key zones in front of them.

We need to become meaner defensively, but we are not going to do that until we have a settled back line which is not happening because of injuries at the moment. Some of our midfield may have "stepped up" but have they really stepped up enough?

Redknapp needs to address these issues. He will also have to show his mettle as a manager too when he handles the crouch and keane issues but playing them to the perceived detriment of the team is one reason why people cry out that there is favouritism.

 

[JimmyG2]

Generally speaking I have ignored the impact of injuries as all teams get them although we have perhaps more than our fair share in that we have had key players injured Several other teams might say the same.(Liverpool, Everton, Man.Utd amongst them.)

Davidmatzdorf
Of course there aren't just two attitudes to life or football. Its just a way of describing two general ways of looking at things, broad groupings if you like. A (Lazy) journalistic device if you must.
Not being broke doesn't neccesarily mean its perfect either.It could mean its doing the job as far as it goes but parts are wearing out and need looking at before they break.
.
My point about Sunderland is true. If they had beaten us they would have gone above us . We had already unluckily lost to Stoke and it was not the point I was making.

Modric, Lennon King Woodgate, Defoe were or are missing and in the meantime we have to make the most of what we have got. My article was about how best to deploy our resources and to suggest how things could be managed better.
With all or most of these players available I certainly agree that we would be comfortably third or even higher.
A lot of people think that there is no problem, we are doing fine considering. I think that we need to address problems which I have defined now before we slip out of contention for our best finish in years.
And David thankyou for your response I was beginning to think I was on your 'ignore ' list.

Please please note everyone I did NOT suggest a three man midfield.

 

[billnick]

Not so long ago it we'd have lost against Sunderland, and myself and many - I seem to recall including the author - were in agreement that we need to learn to pick up results when playing badly.

Now we're doing exactly that, and our league position is down to "riding our luck".

It is broken, we're missing Modric and Lennon. Expecting the same level of performance when missing those two, plus continued forced chopping and changing of our defence, is a bit much I think. It's no surprise that certain players, especially Keane and Palacios, have looked off-form. They're having to compensate more, without the usual outlets we have. Everybody else gets this too, and you see it in resorting to long balls to Crouch. It would be great if Harry could fix this, but I've done it myself when playing - you look around, you're under pressure, the runs you normally look for aren't there, you don't want to lose the ball - and then some big guy stands there like the Holy Grail - so, possibly against your better judgement, you launch it. Unfortunately, from an aesthetic football point of view, it's less Holy Grail and more Funeral Urn.

Look at Liverpool, they lost two key players and have looked a joke at times. If anything, we've been hit by injuries more than they and yet we're still in quite a strong position. Our recent bad form looks bad for the few losses we've picked up, but the games against Man U and Chelsea you can actually afford to lose if you want to challenge for the title - you have to pick up results against the other teams, it's the logical route to success. Aside from Stoke, in which our finishing let us down, we've done that.