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We can only play one way (To Dare is To Do)

le_magnifique

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Nov 3, 2004
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[Despite the risk of being mde to look like a complete fool, I am posting this right before the Arsenal fixture. Please remember that if history decides to embarrass me.]

Towards the end of last season’s Premier League, Spurs played some scintillating football and secured crucial wins against Arsenal and Chelsea and then at Manchester City to secure fourth place in the league and our first foray in to the Champions’ League.

I can’t describe how good it felt just now to sit and type that sentence: I’m sure we were all justly proud of our lads for the effort they put in over the course of a long and difficult domestic season.

To win those three key games in such style, though, with such verve, ambition and spirit, on th back of a travesty of justice in an FA Cup semi-final, though, speaks volumes for the courage and mental fortitude that exists in our team: that same fighting, competitive spirit that kept us in the game whilst playing with 10 in the San Siro, of all places, against Inter Milan, and at 4-0 down. To keep the European Champions to single figures was a feat in itself, as a lot of teams would have folded there, but to rally and win the second half 0-3 almost defied belief.

For me, that was the same grit that, with a bit of a siege mentality, had already inspired the performance that pulled Woolwich to pieces in our next fixture after that semi-final. The return of Sulzeer Campbell to White Hart Lane might have helped too. But there was one crucial incident amidst all the injustice at Wembley that may have proved the spark in all of this.

We had a perfectly good goal disallowed and lost to two goals from a penalty that wasn’t a penalty and a free kick that wasn’t a free kick. That cursed Wembley pitch ended Niko Kranjcar’s season. But of all the things that stuck in my throat was the booking that earned Wilson Palacios a one match ban. Wilson had been our only available senior central midfielder for a few games, and was treading a disciplinary tightrope: we couldn’t afford to lose him to suspension with a semi-final coming up, but neither could Harry rest or substitute him, as we didn’t have anyone else.

It was that same lack of balance in his squad that had come back to haunt Harry: he’d made a lot of changes, of course, and a lot of them had worked. Wilson Palacios, though, had been key. We hadn’t had anyone to perform his role in our engine room for some time. Indeed, it was probably that that did for Martin Jol and Juande Ramos, who had cited the need for a holding midfield player. Damien Comolli might be earning the plaudits at the moment as “the man who signed Gareth Bale”, but when Jol wanted a left-winger and a holding midfielder he was given Bale (then a 17 year-old left back with “potential”), Darren Bent, Kevin-Prince Boateng and Younes Kaboul.

No wonder Harry wanted to choose his own players, that Comolli was packed off home on the Eurostar, or that Wilson quickly became a crucial signing for Spurs.

The rest, to an extent, is history, I suppose, but consider this: were it not for Palacios being harshly booked then he would almost certainly have been first on the team sheet for the visit of Arsenal in midweek. I, for one, was aghast at the thought of facing them without him.

That booking, though, could well have been the catalyst for a subtle but eventually crucial reshuffle in the side. We lined up against the goons with Benoit Assou-Ekotto at left back, Gareth Bale shunted forward to the left of midfield and Luka Modric moved inside to partner Tom Huddlestone in central midfield.

Moving Luka to the left had looked a masterstroke, but his return to the centre was equally impressive, as was Bale’s arrival on the left flank: he was a constant menace and scored the winning goals in those crucial derby wins that set us on our way. How different could it all have been had we not made those changes?

Wilson’s return from suspension and an injury to Vedran Corluka necessitated the reversal of those changes, with Benoit moving to right back for the trip to Old Trafford. We were taken to pieces, and our claim to that fourth place was in the balance once again. For once United didn’t even need the officials to bail them out.

I’m a big admirer of Palacios: he’s honest, puts in a shift and gives bite and energy to our midfield. We certainly need someone in our squad who can do his job. What I’m trying to say is that once Harry’s hand was forced and our backs were pushed against the proverbial wall, our Spurs responded in some style. And the rest is history.

Here’s hoping that today’s enforced changes have an effect just as devastating as they did the last time we took on Arsenal in the league. With the fixtures we’ve got coming up, we could really use a bit more of that magic right now, Harry.

Despite having a much more balanced squad these days, with players who can tackle and a few who can play left and stay wide, we can still, to borrow Harry’s words, “only play one way”.

Of course, we’re missing three England international centre-halves and the lynchpin of our midfield, but let’s just hope that doesn’t mean we sit behind the ball and invite our arch-enemies show off their diet Tiki-Taka.

I for one am hoping that we go there to stretch the pitch and make them do the chasing. With what we’ve got left, I think we can only play one way. To dare is to do. Come on you Spurs.
 

Geez

Badges? We don't need no stinking badges!
Admin
Oct 1, 2003
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Timing is all :twisted:

Good post :up:
 
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