Liverpool v Spurs. Save the Planet

January 20, 2010 / Alan / 4 Comments

Exclusive TOMM offer – one for the price of two! Recycled comments from my last preview 12 days ago won’t save the planet, although they may save you the trouble of reading any further, but Liverpool remain as vulnerable as we will ever find them, and in the race for fourth we must ruthlessly exploit any weakness. Their difficulties have been compounded by the absence of Gerrard, Torres and Benayoun, but they will be pleased that they do not have to face King, Woodgate and Lennon.

After my one and only comparison of the relative merits of Jenas and Huddlestone, one of my most loyal readers was moved to cause harm at the sight of yet another piece on this well-worn topic. I can’t remember if it was to the author or to himself; perhaps I should think hard as it is a significant difference. Hud is likely to be absent tonight and JJ’s welcome energy and drive feels right for this tough away game. But this is what I always feel if he’s not been around for a while. I look forward to his contribution, this is what we need to up the tempo and cover every blade, then I start to long for Hud’s passing range and JJ doesn’t slot the final ball in or there’s space at the back…Truth is, I rate both players but they bring different strengths to the team. Neither are as consistent as they might be, although in this respect Hud is gradually learning, Saturday’s poor display notwithstanding, whereas JJ has had more time and may have reached his peak. He will be desperate to make his mark tonight in order to stake a claim for a starting spot so he may do well.

Up front Harry must start with Defoe and Crouch because of Keane’s woeful form, although the spindly one must not lose touch with his team-mates by drifting too far upfield. Modric and Krancjar will have more space than on Saturday and so must use it to keep the ball and keep it moving. There will be room, especially if we can manoeuvre past their two central defensive midfielders, and they are the key to our hopes of success. We will also find out if Bale’s defensive abilities have come on as well as his confidence and attacking prowess. He won’t have a winger up against him but will have to combat movement and interplay, probably for him a more difficult task. Stay close to Bassong, my friend, and hope that Niko drops back regularly.

Be bold without being reckless and we will do well. Six games and we haven’t conceded, that counts for something. Liverpool remain a decent team and hard to beat at home but with our good defensive record plus players who can take the game to them, we will never have a better chance. And now I am repeating myself.

Nothing hard and fast in the window. Harry is still looking at both the player and the price, and a bargain to strengthen the squad will put a gleam in his beady twitchy eye. The pursuit of a centre half is serious, with continuing medium and long-term doubts about King and Woodgate. I know nothing about Kjaer but I would rather we spent big money now if he is as good as people say he is, as opposed to buying short-term experience. However, if a CL club is in then we stand little chance. With the West Ham takeover, I can’t see Upson being available and Richards won’t leave City now, so Kaboul is the only realistic alternative. Up front, our interest in RVN is genuine, but so is our reluctance to pay his massive salary.

Spurs v Hull. Next Time, We Take Charge.

January 17, 2010January 17, 2010 / Alan / 18 Comments

Not for the first time this season, Spurs toiled against a team with less talent but exemplary organisation. Hull deserve credit for their energy and application and none whatsoever for starting their time-wasting tactics in the first quarter of the match, but in the end despite all our travails we made and missed four gilt-edged chances, and with them the opportunity to bank valuable points in pursuit of fourth place.

Hull came with a plan to restrict and stifle our flowing football, and we fell right into their clutches by allowing them to dictate the tempo in the first half. We had precisely the midfield to combat their pressing game but chose instead to waste possession and play the long ball far too often. Searching for scraps, Modric and Kranjcar came inside and were enveloped in the Hull defensive blanket. Without Lennon there was no escape in width.

The time-wasting and staying down at the slightest knock is enormously frustrating (Bolton did this a few years ago when of course Brown was their assistant manager) but we have to be big enough and strong enough to rise above it. Instead, we failed to just hold the ball and shift it around and were sucked in. By the middle of the second half, Hunt had succeeded in winding up Hud to the point where he kicked the Hull player in the back. Hunt protested but in reality he was delighted – he had Hud exactly where he wanted him.

The long pass to Keane and Defoe, who were running centrally between their central defenders, looked like team orders, but our opponents learned from the away fixture earlier this season and played deeper, therefore there was little space between back four and keeper for the ball to be played into. Their cause was greatly assisted by Huddlestone’s poor performance. Time and again he went for the long ball, ignoring simpler but more effective alternatives. Everyone has a bad one from time to time, but this was a match where as the playmaker he should have taken on the responsibility of directing operations. He did indeed set the tone for the team, but being caught in possession and over-ambitious passing ripe for interception was not what we had in mind.

As the first half wore on, and time went very slowly yesterday, we gradually dragged ourselves into the match but Keane and then Defoe missed the chances. We expected more in the second half but it was only the introduction of Jenas to up the pace and to drive on from midfield that finally kick-started our game. Crouch won everything and we looked more dangerous, but for the most part the final ball in the box eluded us or heroic blocking from the massed Hull ranks prevented better opportunities.

Myhill had a fine match. My usual Saturday night routine is to look forward to MOTD and then fall fast asleep after the second match, so although I missed our highlights I’m assuming that Lineker’s trail of the ‘best goalkeeping performance for years’ referred to him. I feel duty bound to point out, however, that we placed the ball close to him on several occasions when we should have done much better. Keane was fatally hesitant when those rebounds fell to him, one in each half. For the first, Myhill did superbly to get up and back into position, his best save, but Keane had a lot of the goal to aim at, as did Crouch for his late header.

Keane’s form is highly concerning. Once again he was ineffective and approached his chances in the manner of a man who knows he is way out of sorts. At the moment we cannot rely on him in any way.

Bale was our best player. He showed total application, understood what he was supposed to do and defended well enough, although he was not seriously tested. Still, he will benefit from games like this. Modric and Kranjcar, two of my favourite players, disappointed, being absent for long periods. In the second half they and we fell into the trap of pushing ten or fifteen yards too far forward. Playing against teams with a blanket defence, one or two forwards have to drop back to start each move, to begin the pass and movement style, and they are experienced enough to know this, rather than hang around up front waiting for the ball in areas where defenders can more easily handle them. Dropping back also tempts their marker to follow them, thereby creating a fraction of space. I would have brought on Rose for Hud, with Modric in the middle, to give us the option of width and pace plus more craft in the centre.

Daws made a couple of fine tackles towards the end, one of which I would hail as magnificent if it weren’t for the fact that it was necessitated by defensive hesitation.

The question hanging over the Lane at full-time was, ‘why can’t we beat the teams at the bottom?’. The reason is that Wolves, Stoke and now Hull come with limited horizons. I don’t blame them: it’s just a fact. They can get ten or eleven behind the ball because winning is not the primary aim. Teams with greater ambitions will have a more open style because they will be attacking for at least some periods of the match.

To be a top team, we have to dictate to them, not the other way around. It’s not easy playing through and around defensive teams but we have to find a way. This was out biggest failing against Hull. Two points lost.

Let’s Hurry Up and Play Them….

January 14, 2010 / Alan / 9 Comments

So it would have been a good time to play them after all….. The Liverpool game has been rearranged for next Wednesday, where with injuries they might still be forced to turn out at less than full strength. Playing sooner rather than later will help us maintain our momentum and also enable us to not fall adrift in the race for the CL places just because we are without a fixture. The biggest boost of all will be victory against Hull on Saturday, so one game at a time.

There’s a bit of real activity in the window too, rather than the equivalent of one of Harry’s twitches. The forthcoming purchase of Sandro is no real surprise as it has been heavily touted for some time, the deal allegedly having been done a few months ago.

I can safely say, without fear of contradiction, that I know next to nothing about him. I’ve not seen him play so I’m not going to comment. One cap for Brazil at 20 years of age indicates that he has something going for him, although let’s not read too much into that because they play a large number of internationals in the course of an average season, many of them friendlies and where they might be short of some of their Europe-based players.

I don’t expect him to be an automatic starter when he arrives, or make that if he arrives as the work permit has still to be granted. He’s touted as a hard working central midfielder but even so it will take time for the young man to adjust to the English game. I look forward to seeing him play but we should not ask too much too soon.

Harry’s interesting comments this week about needing four central midfielders provide an insight into his plans for the squad. It is the absolutely crucial position in Premier League football, and men who can run, pass, tackle, attack and defend are precious commodities. Such a portfolio of qualities looks absurdly unattainable but that’s what we not only expect but also what we see in other successful teams. No other position requires so many varied attributes.

Discounting the rubbish from websites writing splash sensationalist headlines to improve their traffic and the ego-manic attention-seeking so-called ITKs, our interest in Scott Parker appears genuine, which makes five central mids. A fine player, he will organise well, cover and enable us to build from the back, but he’s not going to cover every blade of grass and he’s suffering from injuries. He may come if the price is right – a few million and a reasonable salary will not necessarily make a huge dent in our resources. The salary could be a problem as West Ham agreed silly money to a few players signed under their last regime in order to get them to sign. Desperate is the word, and now how they are suffering…

The same might be said for Matthew Upson’s value to the squad. Another decent player, experience is invaluable but I would prefer someone quicker to play alongside Dawson, and certainly not to replace him. And only Harry knows how bad Woody and Led are, so if a quality centre half is available at the right price, then H will be in there like a Jack Russell after a rabbit.

And so to the dearly, nearly departed. Hutton, Bentley and Pavlyuchenko will generate some funds but in the case of the latter pair will represent a financial loss. More about them if and when they go, but in terms of the squad it is very dangerous to weaken it in any way as the fight for the fourth CL place develops. Bentley is superfluous because Luka and Niko can play wide ride right, a different wide right but highly effective nonetheless. If we need four central midfielders, then surely we need four quality strikers too. The suggested £10m from Zenit is as good as we will get (he should not be sold to an English team) but it would be foolish to sell Pav without a replacement.

And now the good news. Whisper it, but nothing around about clubs sniffing round our stars. Shhhhh……

A Weekend Off and Postponements of Yore

January 11, 2010January 11, 2010 / Alan / 5 Comments

We looked good on Sunday, in my imagination at least. It felt like a good time to play them. Liverpool are formidable opponents but we have the talent to take them on plus invaluable momentum, whereas they are stuttering and uncertain. With the rearranged date likely to be at the end of March/early April, they may be mired in a Europa cup campaign but this is less about their problems and much more about the positives of our good form. I was burning to see how we faced up to the test of chasing a top place, away at Anfield.

Despite our preoccupation with the weather, trust the Brits to get the forecast wrong. The news was full of dire warnings about travel but ironically Sunday’s weather was better than expected. I spent the day whizzing around roads in the south-east that my radio was telling me were virtually impassable but it’s better that the match is postponed on the basis of the balance of probabilities than have those late postponements when loyal fans travel hundreds of miles only to find at 2.59pm on a Saturday that the game’s off.

On Saturday 5Live interviewed a senior partner from a large law firm (a proper one, not http://www.chasingambulances.com or ‘Whayhey You’re Hurt! PLC’) about personal safety and the liability issue. He said that basically it is indeed up to the individual whether or not they choose to attend a football match (or go shopping), that it is the individual’s responsibility to stay safe and that a club would not be liable if someone fell over outside the ground. Inside the ground, the club would be covered too, provided that they had stuck to the safety rules, but this was not an issue yesterday as the stadium was OK.

So this is about a police decision on crowd and public safety. They have to consider the worst scenario, e.g. someone in the crowd falls, others slip around them, pressure from people behind who don’t realise there is a problem….

There’s also the traffic issue – many of the problems on the roads in this cold spell have been caused by accidents that block the road. One of those on a busy route and thousands are stacked up behind.

In the end, this is little to do with a so-called PC approach to personal safety and everything to do with our total unpreparedness for bad weather. It’s also a function of our lousy transport system, where normal roads and public transport have to cope every two weeks or so with massive crowds.

In years gone by, postponements were a more common feature of watching Spurs not because of the travel arrangements but because of the state of our pitch, which for a few years was a notorious quagmire, cutting up in wet weather like a country field after the village ploughing competition. This is the real reason why the Perrymans and Pratts of the midfield had to roll up their sleeves and run forever, just to stay above the surface.

Walking down a wet High Road for a match in the seventies, which I’m sure was in fact against Liverpool, I reached the old Whitbread brewery before a few stragglers coming in the opposite direction suggested the match was off. But I had to press on and find out for myself, just to check. It was about 1.30pm, so not many there but still there was no official sign. Eventually enough people seemed to have the same message but I circled the entire ground in an adolescent fug of paranoia. The thought of leaving the ground and then reaching Ealing Broadway only to hear the half-tine score required detailed personal investigation in order to rule out this frankly far-fetched possibility.

Also around that time, although I confess that far back is a bit of a blur sometimes, a home fixture against Sheffield Wednesday at a fog-bound Lane was saved by issuing pass-out vouchers at the turnstile. The gates stayed shut until quite close to kick-off, then as we went through the vouchers entitled us to re-admission for the rearranged game, should today be called off if visibility worsened. I read afterwards that this saved the mach, which was completed, because otherwise the referee would have erred on the side of caution and called it off.

The only other time that I actually set off for a game that was then postponed was at the beginning of 1988-9, when the opening fixture against Coventry was called off at about 1pm because building work in the East Stand had not been completed in time for a safety certificate to be issued. This was a major cock-up and highly embarrassing: a top division team not having a safety certificate when it had all summer to finish the building. In the event we were fined three points, if memory serves, and although they were eventually reinstated, Venables’ team got off to a poor start and we were down the bottom in October, only to gradually pull round.

Finally, one game that did take place in the snow was in February 1969 versus Leeds. My mother had promised to take me but we had to wait until almost 1pm before the club confirmed it was on. No media information assault in those days. We kept ringing (turning the dial on the old phones, that’s why it’s called a dialling tone, kids) until the voice dispensed with all pleasantaries, said the magic words, “It’s on” and off we went on the 207.

The pitch was covered in snow, with the lines brushed clear, and the pitch was rock hard. Over forty thousand saw a 1-1 draw, the crowd swollen by neutrals attracted to the only top division match on in London that afternoon. It’s small details like that which highlight how much the nature of football has changed. It’s inconceivable in these tribal days where ludicrously expensive seats have to be booked months in advance that large numbers of fans would make the effort to watch another team play, just for the pleasure of seeing a game.