Spurs have to go mental

[miles_64]

Gomes
Hutton (c) Corluka Woodgate Bale
Bentley Jenas O'Hara Lennon
Pavlyuchenko Bent

O'Hara must go in - the kid's a fighter.

 

[mawspurs]

Does the club employ a sports psychologist?

I've asked the same question myself on more than one occasion. But if we think about we either don't or he is the worst one in the business. I suspect that we don't is the right answer but we sure as hell should do. You can bet that Manure and Chelski do.

 

[mawspurs]

I need to see a spark. Where players suddenly run and pass to the right areas and confidence returns with shots on goal, goals scored and victories. The thing is i can only believe in it when i see it and as we are at the moment, i know not when that will be.

It's a shame you haven't seen the Hull and Stoke matches because there have been periods in both of those games where we got things right.

I really thought Stoke was going to be the game where we turned things around despite all the indications being otherwise. But just about everything that could go against us did in that game.

Home to Bolton could be when it happens though if the players are able to take the positives from that period against Stoke.

Our biggest problem though (apart from a general lack of leadership on the pitch) has been we do not have any aggression and that is a vital ingredient at top level and especially in the situation we are currently in.

I agree with much of what Provence said in the original post though and as BBlG has said Ghaly is an option we should be looking at, a player with a bit of passion despite any faults he may have. In fact I think Juande needs to have a rethink about the players he has confined to the reserves and see if they have anything to offer that can get us out of the whole we are in. This is no time to be stubborn, its a time to look at all the available options.

COYS

 

[spud]

I thought bentley played ok yesterday, his radar seems to be realigning

I haven't seen all of the matches, but if Bentley was better yesterday then he must have been some kind of crap before!

I thought he was out-and-out useless, and his being subbed was well overdue when it happened.

 

[spurs_viola]

I have said it before and nothing so far has made me change my mind: the one constant in the three years since 2005-2006 season has been the Jenas + Zokora combo in midfield - and it is where we have lacked most since then. With these two at the core of our midfield, we have consistently lacked the edge in competitiveness and creativity, and it is what frustrated players like Berbatov and ultimately Keane.

I believe that not replacing at least one of them (Jenas or Zokora) has been as big a contributing factor to Spurs demise as not replacing Berbatov and Keane. I believe we should have made that a priority instead of going for players like Bentley.
Renato Gattuso would have been good for his experience, spirit and support behind Modric - if only for a couple of seasons. Yes, he is probably past his peak now, but that makes him a more realistic target for Spurs and he can probably still provide the Davids factor for a young team like present Spurs, where he can command respect and provide the badly missing steel.

Jenas will never make it now that his time of "potential" has passed. His lack of awareness and concentration, coupled with lack of leadership qualities have become too regular a feature and has damaged Spurs team performances too much, if only by holding us back instead of helping us progress, much as his sideways and backward passing does regularly on the pitch. If you don't progress, you regress. And that's what's been happening with Spurs midfield - and the heart of the team - since after Carrick/Davids partnership.

One of the biggest failures of Jol (and one of my biggest problems with him) was his seemingly unbreakable belief in Jenas, coupled with his contribution to driving Davids and Mendes out of the club.