The Unsung Heroes

[Chimbo!]

Much has been said about the improved form of individuals such as Lennon, Woodgate and Modric.

But for the first time in a long time the stats show that it is not necessarily the individuals who have dragged us out the mess we found ourselves in earlier this season. It is the team as a whole and most significantly our defence, who deserve the plaudits the most.

Excluding the period under Ramos, there are some very interesting statistics concerning certain players and our back 4 in particular.

1st Choice Defensive Team:

GK: Gomes; concedes less then 1 goal a game and keeps a clean sheet every other game on average.

RB: Corluka; concedes less then 1 goal a game and keeps a clean sheet every third game.

LB: Ekotto; started every game Spurs have won and kept a clean sheet and has a win ratio over 50%.

CB: King; Won more then twice as many games as lost with the best win ratio.

CB: Woodgate; Started all but 1 match Spurs have won.

Our 'best' back 4 have played together 9 times this season and of those 9 games we have won 7 and lost 2 (one of which was against Blackburn recently). They have only conceded 6 times and have kept a clean sheet on 4 occasions.

DM: Palacios; Has a win ration over half and his introduction to the team coincides with the team’s best run of results all season.

According to the statistics Ekotto and King are the most critical players to the Tottenham defence both having a similar win percentage. Tottenham have lost only 3 times when they have played together.

Corluka seems the least important to the performance of the defence, having been involved in far more defeats then any of the other 1st choice players. But the extra statistics are accounted for due to him playing almost every game with Dawson and Woodgate as the centre-back pairing, who have the worst defensive record.

It seems that the centre-back pairing makes the most difference to the result as every defensive pairing (played more than once) other than King & Woodgate have lost more games then won. Changes to either 1st choice centre-back accounts for over 50% of the defeats suffered under Redknapp. Especially King, where Tottenham have only won 2 matches in the 8 games he has missed.

Overall there is room for improvement at RB but not essential. However, the combination of all 4 defenders leads to the best win ration of any combination of players. This suggests that a stable back 4 is most critical to the result.

As for Palacios, it is still early days and while his introduction to the team has correlated with an upturn in results, the upturn has also come about due to King regularly starting and a regular back 4.

While you may feel that watching a player is the best way to judge him, perhaps these statistics may make you think again about your opinions. A lot of Spurs fans have never taken to Assou-Ekotto but to me he has been excellent defensively under Redknapp. I feel he has been one of our most consistent players this season and I think we should ensure he stays with us because it is clear that we have found a dependable back 4.

The only requirement to improve our defence next season is to replace our back up left-back as it astounds me that we have never won when Assou-Ekotto has not played.

Assou-Ekotto and the defence are the unsung heroes this season. Maybe our votes for player of the season should be directed to our defenders rather than the flair players who came good in the last few months. It was our defence after all that has kept our goal difference positive despite us scoring fewer goals this season then we have done in a long time.

Scored 38 Conceded 36 (12 of which were in the 1st 8 games)

.............Played Won Lost Drawn Goals conceded Clean sheets
Manager
Redknapp ...24 ...11 ... 7 ..... 6 ............ 24 ..................... 9
​

Goalkeeper
Gomes ....... 20 ... 9 .... 6 ......5 .............19 ......................8

Defenders
Corluka ...... 21 ... 8 .....8 ..... 6 ............ 20 ..................... 7
Ekotto ........ 20 .. 11 ... 5 ..... 4 ............ 19 ..................... 9
King ........... 16 .... 9 ... 4 ..... 3 ............ 13 ..................... 6
Woodgate . 21 .. 10 .... 6 .... 5 ..............22 .................... 7
All 4 Start .... 9 ..... 7 ... 2 ..... 0 .............. 6 ..................... 4

Defensive Midfielder
Zokora .......12 ... 4 .... 5 ..... 3 ............ 14 ...................... 3
Palacios ...... 7 ... 4 .... 1 ..... 2 .............. 5 ...................... 3

Defensive Pairing
Woodgate
& King ....... 13 ... 8 .... 3 ..... 2 ............ 12 ..................... 4
Woodgate
& Dawson ... 7 ... 2 .... 3 ..... 2 .............. 7 ..................... 3

The only matches counted for each player are the ones they started. Substitutions are excluded entirely.

Only Premier League matches are counted.

The defensive midfield position is given to the most defensive midfielder named in the starting line-up in the order of Palacios, Zokora, Huddlestone, O’Hara, Jenas.

 

[pheg25]

"It seems that the centre-back pairing makes the most difference to the result as every defensive pairing (played more than once) other than King & Woodgate have lost more games then won. Changes to either 1st choice centre-back accounts for over 50% of the defeats suffered under Redknapp. Especially King, where Tottenham have only won 2 matches in the 8 games he has missed."

i honestly dont know the answer to the above puzzle.... drop ledders for team stability or play him when fit because he is huge at the back for us...

 

[sebo_sek]

I hope this peice will only cement the view that we do NOT need a new LB. At last soe facts to back this up

 

[DeanoD]

What's Gareth Bale's win percentage......??

 

[davidmatzdorf]

I posted this in Spurs Chat earlier today. I guess it belongs here, too:

What is "remarkable", as well as being very "un-Spurs", is that we have founded this excellent run entirely on good defence. That is why we are 8th. Good defending. Look at the record of our last 9 league matches:

Arsenal H 0-0 D
Hull A 1-2 W
Boro H 4-0 W
Sunderland A 1-1 D
Villa A 1-2 W
Chelsea H 1-0 W
Blackburn A 1-2 L
West Ham 1-0 W

That's 5 goals conceded and 4 clean sheets in 9 league matches, home and away (we have scored 12). That corresponds to 21 goals conceded over the course of a 38 match season - and 17 clean sheets.

The three teams with the best defensive records in the Premiership at present have conceded 20 or 21 goals in 31 or 32 matches. Unsurprisingly, these three teams are filling the three top positions in the league.

Even more striking: in 12 home league matches under Redknapp, we have conceded only 4 goals and have kept 8 clean sheets (we have scored 15). That record includes home matches against all of the "top 4". That corresponds to 6 home goals conceded over the course of a 19 match home season - and 13 home clean sheets.

None of this has anything to do with Redknapp's player-trading, as Cudicini and Chimbonda have scarcely played and the other six defensive players whom we have seen regularly (Gomes, King, Woodgate, Dawson, Assou-Ekotto and Corluka) predated his arrival. [I suppose having Palacios stationed in front of the defence has made quite a difference, but we kept yet another clean sheet on Saturday without him.]

What it has to do with is steady coaching, a settled defensive line-up and a manager who can instill confidence in his players. That and six extremely talented and capable footballers.

If there is any single factor that would encourage me to think that Tottenham could achieve something next season, it is our discovery of how to defend reliably. If you look at the table, what stands out about the top clubs is less that they score more goals than the others and more that they do not concede as many.

 

[JimmyG2]

Read somewhere that four consecutive clean sheets at home is the first time we've done that in the Premiership and equals a record going back many years. Will try to find it and repost.
Noticed a while ago when we were 11th every team above us and including us had a positive GD.and every team below us had a negative Gd.
Now we are ninth its still true apart from Man.City.

 

[banks18]

Its great to see the stat's backing up Ekotto's perfomences. To me, along with Lennon, he has improved the most this season. From a very average left back a few season's ago, he is now consitent and our number one left back. Long may it continue..

 

[JimmyG2]

It was on Newsnow on Sunday on a website called Sport.co.uk. first time we have achieved four consecutive clean sheets at the Lane in the premiership and before that 22 yrs ago.
Some interesting stats on the site, it looks like a regular roundup after each weekend.

 

[2bearis2do]

A jolly good read, like many I´ve been very impressed with BAE this season.

 

[nate247]

I have been telling my Dad and Cousin (both Spurs fans) that BAE has been our best player this season, even way back before our recent run.

The guy's crossing is great, he has good pace and is always able to make a second tackle even if he is beaten momentarily. Great left back and I think Redknapp sees it.

Our weakness is up front and perhaps that "all star" midfielder that all the top 4 seem to have. Apart from that, all seems well at the minute...

As some of you have said, long may it continue

 

[parj]

was not a fan of BAE when he first joined, but since coming back from his injury its like a fire has been ignited in him......... he has been fantastic. id probably say im more worried about what corluka would do wrong than BAE.

Delighted he's proven so many spurs fans wrong, including me.

 

[Jenko]

I'd Say BAE was always a fantastic left back but you have to add in the words 'for his age' to that. Younger players will always make mistakes and he has cut them out with experience. It's the price we have to pay with kids occasionally but its been a wise investment with BAE this time when we all expected it to be Bale.

 

[Jenko]

I think this article, although well written, overlooks the main reason for our better defence in recent months. The stats are very interesting and show our improvement but its lays all the credit at only 6 players. Anyone whos been studying the teams performances will see Lennon regularly chasing back like his life depended on it, Keane getting stuck in defensively, even Modric has improved. Bent runs twice as much as he used to and that is the reason he is ahead of Pav at the moment. Jenas has always done it. We defend as an 11 and its solely down to coaching, we didn't do it under Ramos.

That is where I'd disagree with this set of stats. They also suggest that Dawson is a poor player, but we've all seen two different Dawsons this season and the one under Redknapp is a defender I value highly. The change has been there for all to see.

I think recently we've seen the results of a team that has gelled and is settled and there are no more cups to distract us. I suspect that we could put Dawson, the Hudd, or Pav in there and our form would not dip. But on the other hand I would suggest that if you put midweek games back in there that it would.

 

[Chimbo!]

Anyone whos been studying the teams performances will see Lennon regularly chasing back like his life depended on it, Keane getting stuck in defensively, even Modric has improved. Bent runs twice as much as he used to and that is the reason he is ahead of Pav at the moment. Jenas has always done it. We defend as an 11 and its solely down to coaching, we didn't do it under Ramos.

That is where I'd disagree with this set of stats. They also suggest that Dawson is a poor player, but we've all seen two different Dawsons this season and the one under Redknapp is a defender I value highly. The change has been there for all to see.

I think recently we've seen the results of a team that has gelled and is settled and there are no more cups to distract us. I suspect that we could put Dawson, the Hudd, or Pav in there and our form would not dip. But on the other hand I would suggest that if you put midweek games back in there that it would.

I agree with you entirely especially considering many of our defensive players were receiving a lot of criticism under Ramos but with Redknapp in charge those same players seem to have turned it around. That would highlight Redknapp as a major factor in our record, which deserves equal mention.

But no matter how good the manager is, in the end it is the players who have to get the result and they have done when I feel previous Spurs teams would have folded through either lack of belief or determination. I think we have a good bunch of players, who deserve next season to show what they can really do.

The main point of the article I suppose from my point of view was to highlight that we simply do not need to change personnel in defence with the exception of a few squad players.

I suspect we will see a similar set of results with our current 1st choice midfield and Robbie Keane. Our back 4 though has been changing far too often and these stats if nothing else prove that stability is key.