This is not meant to be a rant against martin Jol but a point of view that was finally swayed against him on Saturday.
I think that over the last 3 years Jol has done a decent job at Spurs, not exceptional but decent. I have never been convinced by him and I have never been anti him, I have always sat somewhere in the middle and felt that he deserved a good shot at it. But saturday's performance and Arsenal's 1 st goal have finally convinced me that he is not the man to take us further forward.
Firstly Arsenals 1st goal was a disaster for us, admittedly both Daws and Steed made misjudgements and mistakes which led to the free kick. But free kicks are often conceded in these areas and you then have to defend them properly. Spurs over the last year have conceded far too many goals from set pieces so therefore you would assume that they work and work on defending them. Well saturdays set up for that free kick convinced me that either they don't work on defending them and if they do whoever is doing that coaching doesn't know what they are doing. Our starting line was actually alright, a couple of yards inside and that is where you would expect. But and I asked this question Saturday afternoon in the match thread and nobody answered it...
Why was Gareth Bale designated to mark Adebayor? Even my mate and I sat there and went why the fuck is Bale picking up Adebayor? Lets suppose we actually do work on set pieces, who stood there on the training pitch and said "right when Arsenal have set playes Gareth you pick up Adebayor"
Anybody of any sanity would have Dawson and Kaboul picking up Adebayor and Gilberto, you then have Hudd to pick up Toure if he comes up and the rest go size for size where we match up very nicely with the likes of Berba, JJ, Bale and Chimbo. But to have Bale picking up Adebayor was a massively naive tactical error. Or we just didn't prepare properly for free kicks against, simple as that. If we did and bale wasn't meant to pick up Adebayor then it just hasn't been drilled home and that is what you do when you work on set plays you work and work on it until it is drilled home. And remember that free kick was taken twice and we had ages to prepare.
I'm not blaming Bale at all because he was asked to do a job that he should never have been asked to do in the 1st place. But once we were set up all Fabregas had to do was put in a semi decent ball and we were going to be in all sorts of trouble and low and behold that is exactly what he did. If daws or Kaboul pick up Adebayor I expect 1 of 3 things to happen.
1) They pretty much block his run and he doesn't get there.
2) He does get a run but they compete and either head clear or put enough pressure on him that he has to head under real pressure.
3) He gets a run and they ease him under the flight of the ball and he gets no real if any connection.
Maybe Robbo should have come and claimed but the way we set ourselves up to defend that free kick left us and Robbo extremely vulnerable. As it happens Fabregas put in a decent ball and Adebayor unchallenged and untouched strolled in more or less dead straight and headed into an empty as Gareth Bale got himself too afr wrong side and underneath the ball primarily because he is an inexperienced fullback being asked to mark the other teams tallest and most dangerous player from set pieces.
This goal can be blamed on Robbo, Bale, daws, or Steed but the whole problem started long before that by us being incorrectly or under prepared to defend set plays. This has now convinced me that we concede so many goals from set plays because we don't do enough or the right work on them.
Next lets talk about our tactical set up for this game which imho was all wrong.
The inclusion of Keane made no sense tactically at all, we knew Gilberto was going to play and it is clear to anybody that Gilberto would want the game to be played in front of him and not be turned around to face his own goal. Gilberto who looked well out of touch had a painfully easy afternoon against the totally ineffective Keane where as Bent with his forward running would have given Gilberto a nightmare. As it was Keane done nothing other than miss the 1 on 1 which is just one of those things and I hold no blame towards him for that. But that 1 on 1 had nothing to do with good play it was actually an errant back pass which just happened to find him. This was Keane's entire contribution to the match.
Now Bent also missed a 1 on 1 and an easier one than that, but there was a huge difference and that was that Gilberto couldn't deal with Bent's run in behind him, and that was with him only on for 10 minutes.
Next playing Bent would have meant that we could have played longer and turned Arsenal around which we desperately needed to do. By not doing so Arsenal were able to squeeze right up and compress the play into our half, as a result we played horrendously deep and left our midfield players with far too much distance to cover between our back line and helping our forwards, they did it for a while but eventually that becomes too much and they can cover the ground no more. Eventually our strikers become detached as the midfielders can't get there no more and this happened and when they do get there they can't get back and this happened on Arsenals second goal, quite simply Hudd and Steed didn't have it in them to cover the ground backwards as they were gone. Only JJ could do it and that is because JJ is a natural athlete.
Having seen the game develop in this manner and remember Bales free kick in the 1st half was actually our only shot of the half as Arsenal totally dominated Jol should have pulled Keane off put on Bent ordered us to play longer cutting out their midfield and told Daws and Kaboul to squeeze the game right upto the half way line so that our midfield boys had less ground to cover. But he didn't instead we just dropped deeper and deeper and eventually made it impossible for our midfield players.
Next point the substitution of Bale was imho a tactical mistake, bale was injured and had to come off which is fair enough. Bringing Lennon on gave Jol the chance to put him on the right and bring Steed over to the left. Jol surely had to do this as Clichey's runs were giving us all sorts of trouble down our right hand side. Just putting Lennon there regardless of what he does would have halted Clichey's runs as he knows if we break on them the other way as quick as he is he ain't catching Lennon. Instead we put him on the right against sagna who is arguably the better defender of the 2 full backs and had only ventured forward once all afternoon, Lennon on the left made no sense at all.
As has already been mentioned there is also the fitness levels but there is no point talking about them again.
For me Arsenal dominated this game and the reason was they were much better prepared and drilled for set pieces than us and their set up was correct for the game and ours was all wrong.
Arsenal played well saturday but boy did we help them and for me Wenger slaughtered Jol and finally convinced me that Jol can take us no further.
These were my observations, some of you may agree and probably most of you think I'm an idiot or worse but I just wanted to clarify why I am now in the Jol can take us no further camp.
I think that over the last 3 years Jol has done a decent job at Spurs, not exceptional but decent. I have never been convinced by him and I have never been anti him, I have always sat somewhere in the middle and felt that he deserved a good shot at it. But saturday's performance and Arsenal's 1 st goal have finally convinced me that he is not the man to take us further forward.
Firstly Arsenals 1st goal was a disaster for us, admittedly both Daws and Steed made misjudgements and mistakes which led to the free kick. But free kicks are often conceded in these areas and you then have to defend them properly. Spurs over the last year have conceded far too many goals from set pieces so therefore you would assume that they work and work on defending them. Well saturdays set up for that free kick convinced me that either they don't work on defending them and if they do whoever is doing that coaching doesn't know what they are doing. Our starting line was actually alright, a couple of yards inside and that is where you would expect. But and I asked this question Saturday afternoon in the match thread and nobody answered it...
Why was Gareth Bale designated to mark Adebayor? Even my mate and I sat there and went why the fuck is Bale picking up Adebayor? Lets suppose we actually do work on set pieces, who stood there on the training pitch and said "right when Arsenal have set playes Gareth you pick up Adebayor"
Anybody of any sanity would have Dawson and Kaboul picking up Adebayor and Gilberto, you then have Hudd to pick up Toure if he comes up and the rest go size for size where we match up very nicely with the likes of Berba, JJ, Bale and Chimbo. But to have Bale picking up Adebayor was a massively naive tactical error. Or we just didn't prepare properly for free kicks against, simple as that. If we did and bale wasn't meant to pick up Adebayor then it just hasn't been drilled home and that is what you do when you work on set plays you work and work on it until it is drilled home. And remember that free kick was taken twice and we had ages to prepare.
I'm not blaming Bale at all because he was asked to do a job that he should never have been asked to do in the 1st place. But once we were set up all Fabregas had to do was put in a semi decent ball and we were going to be in all sorts of trouble and low and behold that is exactly what he did. If daws or Kaboul pick up Adebayor I expect 1 of 3 things to happen.
1) They pretty much block his run and he doesn't get there.
2) He does get a run but they compete and either head clear or put enough pressure on him that he has to head under real pressure.
3) He gets a run and they ease him under the flight of the ball and he gets no real if any connection.
Maybe Robbo should have come and claimed but the way we set ourselves up to defend that free kick left us and Robbo extremely vulnerable. As it happens Fabregas put in a decent ball and Adebayor unchallenged and untouched strolled in more or less dead straight and headed into an empty as Gareth Bale got himself too afr wrong side and underneath the ball primarily because he is an inexperienced fullback being asked to mark the other teams tallest and most dangerous player from set pieces.
This goal can be blamed on Robbo, Bale, daws, or Steed but the whole problem started long before that by us being incorrectly or under prepared to defend set plays. This has now convinced me that we concede so many goals from set plays because we don't do enough or the right work on them.
Next lets talk about our tactical set up for this game which imho was all wrong.
The inclusion of Keane made no sense tactically at all, we knew Gilberto was going to play and it is clear to anybody that Gilberto would want the game to be played in front of him and not be turned around to face his own goal. Gilberto who looked well out of touch had a painfully easy afternoon against the totally ineffective Keane where as Bent with his forward running would have given Gilberto a nightmare. As it was Keane done nothing other than miss the 1 on 1 which is just one of those things and I hold no blame towards him for that. But that 1 on 1 had nothing to do with good play it was actually an errant back pass which just happened to find him. This was Keane's entire contribution to the match.
Now Bent also missed a 1 on 1 and an easier one than that, but there was a huge difference and that was that Gilberto couldn't deal with Bent's run in behind him, and that was with him only on for 10 minutes.
Next playing Bent would have meant that we could have played longer and turned Arsenal around which we desperately needed to do. By not doing so Arsenal were able to squeeze right up and compress the play into our half, as a result we played horrendously deep and left our midfield players with far too much distance to cover between our back line and helping our forwards, they did it for a while but eventually that becomes too much and they can cover the ground no more. Eventually our strikers become detached as the midfielders can't get there no more and this happened and when they do get there they can't get back and this happened on Arsenals second goal, quite simply Hudd and Steed didn't have it in them to cover the ground backwards as they were gone. Only JJ could do it and that is because JJ is a natural athlete.
Having seen the game develop in this manner and remember Bales free kick in the 1st half was actually our only shot of the half as Arsenal totally dominated Jol should have pulled Keane off put on Bent ordered us to play longer cutting out their midfield and told Daws and Kaboul to squeeze the game right upto the half way line so that our midfield boys had less ground to cover. But he didn't instead we just dropped deeper and deeper and eventually made it impossible for our midfield players.
Next point the substitution of Bale was imho a tactical mistake, bale was injured and had to come off which is fair enough. Bringing Lennon on gave Jol the chance to put him on the right and bring Steed over to the left. Jol surely had to do this as Clichey's runs were giving us all sorts of trouble down our right hand side. Just putting Lennon there regardless of what he does would have halted Clichey's runs as he knows if we break on them the other way as quick as he is he ain't catching Lennon. Instead we put him on the right against sagna who is arguably the better defender of the 2 full backs and had only ventured forward once all afternoon, Lennon on the left made no sense at all.
As has already been mentioned there is also the fitness levels but there is no point talking about them again.
For me Arsenal dominated this game and the reason was they were much better prepared and drilled for set pieces than us and their set up was correct for the game and ours was all wrong.
Arsenal played well saturday but boy did we help them and for me Wenger slaughtered Jol and finally convinced me that Jol can take us no further.
These were my observations, some of you may agree and probably most of you think I'm an idiot or worse but I just wanted to clarify why I am now in the Jol can take us no further camp.
