Tottenham Hotspur That Was The Season That Was – The Players

/ Alan / 13 Comments

The second in a series this week – the Players

Rubbishing Crouch and Jenas, demanding a wholesale clear-out, insisting on bids for every striker in La Liga. If only it were that straightforward.

It’s not just about the individuals, it’s where they will fit into the shape of the team as defined by our tactics and how they combine with each other in crucial areas of the field such as up front and in central defence. It’s also going to be a busy old season, with two European games before the end of August let alone the league and two cups.

The absurd demands of the Europa League mean that we have to have a squad capable of playing consistently well over a long period of time. Old heads to steady the ship alongside youngsters who should relish the chance not only of first team experience but also of reminding the manager that they deserve a step up into contention for a league start. We have much to learn in this respect – last season we could not rotate the squad to any extent without significantly reducing our chances of winning.

Redknapp has some big decisions to make regarding our approach next season. In the previous piece I advocated a more cautious approach – reality dictates that our open formation neglectful of our defensive responsibilities will not bring sustained success.That doesn’t mean we have to be dull and boring – that’s not what I want from my Spurs and that too does not win trophies. It’s asking a lot but we have the nucleus of a team who are able to deliver, better perhaps than for twenty or thirty years. Top class players who could be the heart and soul of a consistently successful team for years to come.

Some of those partnerships are well defined. Our strikers have looked lost and lonely for much of the season, an estranged couple waiting for the divorce papers to come through. At the back Dawson’s game has improved but he’s mightier still alongside Ledley’s pace and anticipation. Other combinations are no less important, however. If our wide midfielders are going to attack, perhaps they are better off having a defensive minded full-back behind them, who prefers to stay back. Alternatively, a flank combination of full-back and attacking midfielder is potent going forward, then an extra defensive midfielder to slide across can protect us at the same time. It’s about equilibrium – change one part of the system and the rest has to readjust to maintain the balance.

Finally, one formation isn’t enough. We need not only to have  plan B at our disposal, we should be comfortable  and familiar with any changes necessitated by the strengths and weaknesses of our opponents or the need to change gear during a game.

The very roles themselves have been altered by the demands of success in the modern game. Flexibility has a high value, the ability to be mobile and alert physically and mentally, to play a variety of roles often within the same minute or two never mind in the same game. Midfielders have to defend whether they like it or not. A player like Defoe suffers because he’s geared to do his best work in the box but doesn’t bring other players into the game. In the crucial position of defensive midfield it is no longer sufficient to be able to run and tackle. You have to be able  to pass the ball and turn defence into attack.

Goalkeepers

Ah Gomes, you were so nearly the love of my life. Our very own cult hero, derided by many, we could see the potential. We nurtured and protected you until the world saw what we already knew – you could really do it. Until this season when you kept chucking the ball in your own net. Overall he’s not had a bad season, making many vital saves almost as a matter of course. The problem is, the high profile cock-ups have ben recent and stick in mind. Better on crosses lately, the real problem was not the soft one against Madrid or Chelsea (although of course actually that was a save because it didn’t go in) but the panic shown against Blackpool and earlier versus Inter. Mad dashes off the line are one thing but pulling down players for no real reason indicate a lack of composure essential for any reliable keeper.

Reliable, that’s all we need. Solid rather than spectacular will do, good handling, takes the crosses, cuts out the mistakes in front of a sound defence and maybe doesn’t always get into the top the corner. I’d keep Gomes unless we can buy a world-class upgrade.

Cudicini has been a capable back-up but we need more. His legs have lost their spring and anyway I’d prefer to see someone challenging Gomes for the first team place rather than just hanging around for injuries. Pietklosa came well rated but ignored, while if Alnwick cost a penny it was too much. His signing shows the dangers of buying a back-up as opposed to someone who could mount a proper challenge for the first team.

Defenders

A few weeks back i started selling the house and all my possessions, not for the Rapture but for a charitable medical foundation with the sole aim of healing Ledley knee. A true Tottenham great, I raved about him a couple of weeks ago. His magnificence radiates not just from his pace, ability to read the game and perfect timing, it’s his dedication to just playing. he’s adapted his game, using short scurrying strides when once he strode across the turf, minimising his running to save every last drop of energy for the few yards that take him into the right place at the right time. The many fans who wrote him off should be ashamed of themselves. They failed to recognise the willpower of the truly great.

However, he can’t play every game. Dawson can, or appears to want to. Undeterred by a serious injury sustained whilst playing for England. he’s come back stronger than ever. He’s learned to deal with his lack of pace and doesn’t plough in high up the field, timing his interventions with assurance. He does his best work  in the box, however, as does Gallas, so Spurs benefit from some defensive midfield protection. This was conspicuously absent in the matches where our back four were stretched. Any defender on the planet looks uncertain if left exposed and vulnerable.

Gallas and Assou Ekotto both demand special praise for outstanding seasons. Harry’s best acquisition, once fit Gallas has proved himself a fierce warrior. His performance at the Emirates was one of my highlights of the season, his goalline clearance against Milan one of the moments. No hint of the dressing room disruption that has tainted his reputation. On the contrary, everyone around him must surely learn from and respect his attitude. In two or three games he has been injured yet played on as if nothing happened. At the Lane I sit close enough to the pitch to see his pain was real, yet he simply will not bow to the pressure.

If Redknapp likes a player, he will give that man a chance. Although Benny appears not to be moved by anything much, he’s taken his chance, upped his game and become a canny consistent footballing full back, good touch, bit of pace and neat on the ground. He still makes mistakes, usually due to his welcome obsession with not conceding possession – ironically he tries so hard to hang on to it for the team rather than wang it away that he ends up being caught – but the moments where his brain checks out have virtually disappeared. He still needs to tuck in closer to his centrebacks, though.

Another player given his chance by Harry and who has taken it is Kaboul. Sometimes he still looks like an overgrown Labrador puppy but once those growing pains disappear, we have a top class centre half versatile enough to cover at full back. These things are important if we are playing over 60 games a season with squads limited to 25. Another one with a great attitude.

Woodgate’s demise seems to be premature with rumours of a pay as you play deal on the table. Only the club know his true fitness but it will have to be good to get a squad number, given that Ledley will certainly be there.

Less good news on the right flank. Corluka has been extremely disappointing this term. We’ve seen little of the positional shrewdness and strength on the ball that used to cover his chronic lack of pace, whilst his distribution has not been up to previous standards. I still see him as a centre back playing out of position. With Hutton, it’s the opposite – his pace can’t make up for his dreadful positioning. He has no future here.The speed of  Walker’s development has certainly surprised Harry but he will be first choice and vindication of our policy of armin gout young players to gain firs team experience, although from what little I’ve seen, he has work to do on his defensive play.

Bassong needed a run but never quite deserved it on the basis of his play. he had a good subs appearance marking Drogba but fatally he lets players get behind him

Danny Rose. Was he a winger or a central midfielder? No, he’s a full-back and a damn promising one at that. Remarkably good positioning and determined in the air, he’s definitely a first team squad man.

So we are in good shape at the back. Bassong will probably depart although he has the ability to stay, and we will go for another centreback, It’s up to the coaches to weld them into a unit – the raw material is there already.

Midfield

I have never made any secret of my love for Luka and I remain besotted despite his many other suitors and admirers who belatedly have succumbed to his charms. My eyes linger for a fatal fraction of a second after the ball has left his foot, just to see him run. One of my moments of the season was against Newcastle, when as the knee-high tackles flew in, three opponents descended upon him in the centre circle, scenting blood. Waiting until he could feel their breath on his collar, he dropped one shoulder, left two of them stranded, beat the third and was away in a flash, the same focussed, purposeful expression on his face, already looking to shift the ball forward in search of an opening. World-class, he makes football beautiful. One of my favourite players of the last thirty years.

Gareth Bale suffers from being too good. Fans’ expectations reached absurd heights, then he gets criticised for not doing the impossible. This is the Premier League not Melchester Rovers. He’s marked by two or three players most games so he can’t run through the lot of them any more. To me it is astonishing how often he almost does. I’ve never seen someone as big and powerful with such pace and touch. If our strikers had been half decent he would have twice as many assists. He delivers more than enough excellent crosses despite the attention he receives now, and his exploits against Inter are the stuff of legend. Long term his best position may be full-back, where his height and pace will be handy in defence and he can make runs from deep.

Sandro is the discovery of the season. His performances against Milan were those of a man who’s played 210 games, not 10. He’s everything a modern DM should be – moves well, slots into the back four and tracks the runner, yet in a trice is up the other end, and he can pass it too. Genuinely a world-class prospect, he and Modric are already a magnificent pairing and could be the cornerstone of years of success.

Pienaar will fit in well next season: his movement and passing can keep attacks going. I’m less enamoured of Kranjcar, Jenas and Palacios. The former may be able to hammer the ball in from distance but he’s overweight and does not work hard enough. If a theme of this year has been the way several team-mates have made the most of their opportunities, he seems intent on wasting his considerable talents, although to be honest he’s had little chance to shine of late. I always liked JJ although he’s so frustrating. he seems to have the ability to do anything and everything, effortlessly, yet he’s never consistent. His arrival as sub has injected drive in the second half when we have been flagging but he’s now in Sandro’s shadow. Palacios is more of an old-fashioned midfield ball winner and does not either pass the ball well enough or tuck himself into the back four when required. We may have outgrown them all.

Lennon’s game is still developing and he’s come on again this time but his final ball, although much improved, needs further polishing. He’s a fine sight whizzing down the wing: his future to me is more about the shape of the team and whether we can afford to have so many attack-minded players in the team at once. Believe me, I hate to say this, but he and Bale have to work back more than they do.

Hud did well before his injury. We seemed most comfortable when he slotted in in front of the defence and we don’t make the best use of his passing range. For someone who once played centre half, he has little awareness of his defensive responsibilities: it’s partly his stature but mainly he does not have that sense of anticipation. A fine player, if he had that first yard in the head he’d be a world-beater.

Van der Vaart was a steal at £8m. We’ve learned enough to know that he must play in that free role between the midfield and the striker. More about this in my final segment of this series, about the future, but suffice to say I would gear the team to play to this strength, perhaps sacrificing a winger and definitely finding a striker who can genuinely play up front on his own. Rafa can play off and around him with the midfield piling through to help out.

Once again we have riches almost beyond my dreams. Another wide man with different skills to those of Lennon to prevent Luka being moved wide is on the cards and perhaps some experience for the long haul ahead. Again the coaches have to the get the formation right. If Hud could lose 7 pounds, who knows?

Strikers

This is the shortest section but has been the biggest problem all season. Shortest because I’ve been banging on about the same things all season, most recently in the previous blog post.

Crouch is immobile, his touch is dreadful and his accuracy from the balls he wins in the air is poor. We’ll always get something but I want more than a percentage game. Moreover, his mere presence encourages the high ball, thus negating the advantages presented to us by the skilful players in the rest of the team. If he hammered in towards the goal with headers, touches and deflections, that would be fine, but he doesn’t know where the goal is half the time and a nudge in the back takes him out of the equation.

Pav is great if he has the time. Many of his goals are scored when he can push the ball a metre or so ahead of him and move onto it. Sunday was the prime example. The reality is, this seldom happens in the Prem and his touch lets him down more often than not.

Also technically poor is Defoe. Erratic ball control, inadequate positioning and a reluctance to get in where it hurts in the box have led to a poor season punctuated with a few great goals, again when he has the space to move onto it. He’s worked harder than ever (not on Sunday) and his link up play is better but that does not mean it’s up to scratch. Hugely disappointing.

In this department, major surgery is required.

The rest

Some players have not been around for a while and we’re never going to see them in a Spurs shirt again. Keane has been an example to every professional footballer that the grass is not always greener. Stick to what you know, where you feel comfortable, and it will bring out the best in you. I’m sure he’ll find another club that he supported as a boy.

I was all for the signing of David Bentley – he worked hard and his crossing would be just what we need, so I take no pleasure in identifying why it’s not worked out. The signs were there early on. Suddenly he began to appear in the media, opinion pieces and interviews. His agent was shaping him to be the star he was in his own head but he failed to realise you have to work at it. He didn’t have the nouse to realise that alongside Modric and others, he could cover up his inability to beat players and his lack of pace. A real shame.

Dos Santos never showed any consistent talent. To be fair to him, he was always stuck on the wing (small and skilful, see) whereas for Mexico he has a freer role across the pitch. Levy will have to take the hit on all three.

Next – the manager

Tottenham Hotspur’s Season – Success or Failure?

/ Alan / 30 Comments

The first in a series of pieces covering the 2010-11 season. To follow – the players, the manager, the future.

All Spurs fans are united in the pursuit of success but scratch the surface and the definitions of what that actually means are less certain. It used to be easy – you won something bright and shiny. Failing that, make do with a higher league position than the previous year. That’s all been distorted by the inexorable grip of the Premier League and the Champions League. The prizes still glitter but it’s the income and untold riches of these competitions that put the sparkle into the eyes of chairmen across Europe. In this hall of mirrors, finishing fourth, out of the medals and forgotten in any other sporting competition, becomes the Holy Grail and for many supporters coming 6th or 7th is better than 5th because the goal is to not qualify for a major European tournament.

Definitions may be poles apart but they have in common the same fault – a narrow short-term perspective. Football reflects society: we think it doesn’t because we treasure our own environment of morals and behaviour, fashion and rules but we can’t escape the world in which we live. It’s all about the here and now. We lose sight of our history and how we got here, we just do. Politicians sacrifice the future in pursuit of votes. Why save up when you can use your credit-card? It’s all about instant gratification: we want it all and we want it now. If ever the Premier League needs a tagline, that’s it right there.

Football has become the epitome of short-termism.  Managers come and go at the slightest whiff of trouble, despite the evidence to the contrary that two of the most successful teams in the last ten years have kept the same manager for well over a decade. Phone-ins are deluged with fans ready to write off the team after a few poor results. As I write, Chelsea sack a manager whose double last season means nothing because they have only come second in one of the most competitive leagues in the world.

To find out where Spurs stand, I’d rather take the long view. I have mixed views about this season. The highs of 5th place, some scintillating football played by world-class players and a run in the Champions League that produced one of the performances of a generation and memories to last a lifetime have been laced with periods of profound frustration. We’ve thrown away winning positions and lost games and points to teams we should have beaten. Given that we have won nothing, the benchmark for this season is the longer-term process of building a team capable of consistently challenging for  the league and winning trophies, year after year. Before I’m accused of opting out of the disappointments of finishing 5th or 6th or sinking without a trace in the domestic cups, it’s the establishment and maintenance of a dynasty that I’m after. Nothing much there, then.

Taking this as the mark of progress, the source of the frustration becomes clear. We’ve had a decent season but have failed to make substantial progress. Last season gave us a platform upon which to build and the ecstatic pressures of the Champions League gave us new experiences to take us onwards and upwards. yet that growth has not materialised into consistently better results.

The season has collapsed since we were badly beaten by Real Madrid, despite the reviving victory at Anfield last weekend. On the surface there’s been little discernible difference – we’ve played some cracking football as we have throughout, players like Modric, Gallas, Dawson and especially Sandro have grown in stature. Arguably Spurs overachieved massively by reaching the quarter finals. Dig deeper and that comprehensive defeat was a body blow that left us still standing but dizzy during a mandatory count to 8. Worse, it exposed problems that have been there for the whole season but which that same heady intoxicating run in the Champions League had partially obscured, an inability to score enough goals to kill off inferior opponents.

Compared with last year we are close but not close enough. One places lower in the league, some breathtakingly exciting matches that will live long in the memory and some captivatingly beautiful football. In Modric and Bale we have two footballers to match, Bale still best seen as a work in progress and as such possibly the best prospect in the country but Modric is coming to his peak as a genuinely great playmaker. We’ve also seen one of the great Spurs performances of modern times. away to Milan closely followed by the routing of the European champions. But the table doesn’t lie. Fewer points, fewer goals, too many draws means a failure to mount a serious challenge for any trophies.

Redknapp and his legion of coaches have enabled individuals to develop but have failed to extract the maximum potential from the team. Bale, Sandro, Dawson, Assou-Ekotto, Huddlestone before he was injured, have all prospered under HR’s fatherly eye and Gallas has been a revelation in terms of his ability and motivation. However, this improvement has not always been matched by the team. Harry will have a column all to himself later in the week. For now, here’s where the team has not moved forward.

We hold possession much better now, especially when Modric is allowed to play in the middle and run the show. However, a high proportion of goals conceded have stemmed from us giving the ball away under no serious pressure. This should come from experience yet at times we seem as naive in this respect as we were when Ramos was in charge.

Also, we have conceded far too goals by being way over-stretched at the back. Wolves and and Blackpool come to mind. Both were in the bottom three when we played them, both dismantled our defence on a regular basis. The fact is, however unpalatable it may be to Redknapp or me as a fan who glories in attacking football, we are too open too often because of the way we play. The basic tactical set up of two wingers and only one holding midfielder leaves us vulnerable. No one enthuses more about seeing Bale and Lennon in full flight. The brutal truth behind  league success is that they have to not just work back every time the opposition have the ball but to be in position between their opposite number and goal. Our centre midfield have to dominate the area in front of our back four.  Every time. That requires a fluidity and positional nouse that we did not display on a consistent basis.

Last but certainly not least, our strikers have misfired all season. Crouch, Pav and Defoe are three men whose differing individual styles could on paper have been the perfect blend, a combination for any occasion. In fact, what they had in common was an inability to take the chances that came their way, to master the basic skill of ball-control and to form any sort of meaningful partnership. Every striker goes through a bad goalscoring run but their failure  and apparent stubborn refusal to perform the fundamental aspects of a striker’s role has been shocking. At times when two of them have been on the field together, one has seemingly disregarded the existence of the other. No interplay. No one anywhere near Crouch for the knock down. Defoe and Pav watching from the edge of the box as cross after cross whizzes across the 6 yard box. Defoe’s dereliction of duty has been the most consistent element of his season. The marksman in the box prefers to loiter and wait for the ball to come to him.

Three styles but none that suits the rest of the team. Modric and Van der Vaart are world class and put the fear of the Rapture into the hearts and minds of defenders. yet repeatedly  they look up and find nothing going on in front of them. No runs to slid the ball into channels, no one bombing in on crosses. It’s not just the fault of the strikers: seldom did our midfielders consistently get past the strikers and run on into the box. Crouch’s mere presence encourages the long far post cross. It’s not a question of what he does with it, although I’d say I’ve never seen someone so tall who has such problems heading the ball except for the existence of Anthony Gardner: it doesn’t make the best of what we’ve got.

We needed a man with the right game to play up front, mobile, good movement and aware with a good touch who could score a few goals, not necessarily masses but enough, and bring other players into the game. The failure was not in January when Levy suddenly put up huge wads of euros in a belated, desperate and ill-fated attempt to sign any La Liga striker but back in the summer, when more players are available. No one wants to part with their resources in January. Redknapp was blind to the self-imposed restrictions of his strikeforce. Although I reckon he’s been disappointed with the form of JD and Crouch, his favourites ( he’s never liked Pav), he severely underestimated their ability to score consistently at the highest level. I suspect also that his scouting network is not as well developed for top class players as it was when Comolli was here.

The factors holding us back are not all of our own making. Although Liverpool have declined, Manchester City were always favourite for 4th once they moulded their highly paid and under-motivated squad into anything like a team. We can’t compete with their resources and the players it brings.The fact that a lack of cutting edge in the recent away game prevented us from defeating them shows how well we can play, despite their advantages.

Also, other teams now have a better idea of how to play against us. I don’t set much store by Redknapp’s public spouting but I was hurt on Bale’s behalf by his manager’s recent offhand dismissal, saying that one of the reasons why we didn’t not do so well in second half of the season was that he was not at his best, neglecting the fact that he has two or three men on him every time he gets the ball. Inter showed what happened if you left him alone, Europe didn’t make the same mistake again. Under the circumstances he did remarkably well. Teams exploited the weakness I’ve mentioned above, crowding us out and pressing high up the field so we couldn’t play out of defence.

One final area for development is squad rotation. We need to learn how to handle the modern imperative of players coming in and out of the team without a noticeable reduction in performance quality. This is vital if we are to have a tilt at all the competitions next season, especially the Europa league where muddling through the group without knackering the best players by December is an art-form.. At Fulham in the Cup the changes were disastrous.

Despite these issues, I refuse to be bogged down in negativity. I’ve enjoyed this season. The focus on the frustration comes from a recognition of what we are and what we could be. That sublime football allied to a committed team loyal to the club (few men can be accused of a lack of effort this year) and a sound team spirit has produced a good final league position and lasting memories. We beat Inter and Milan, beat Arsenal, the pulsating home derby . An ‘I was there’ moment is surely the ultimate accolade and there were many this season. I will forever remember Bale and Modric in their pomp, or Sandro when he was just a fledging prospect as opposed to to  world-class centre midfielder that he will surely become.

Yet it is precisely the fact that this squad is the best of the last twenty or thirty years that highlights the limitations in our progress, because what could have been and could still be, is frightening. Redknapp needs more time to build on what we have. The addition of one or two players could take us higher, three or four and it’s almost too much to bear. We have an understanding of the resilience and mental application that is required to be a success at this level and it would be criminal to waste that insight next season. Build on what we have. Consistency and evolution are the key, not wholesale changes and certainly not at the top.

The best teams can hold it together without playing at their peak. Preparation and training are all fine and good but are wasted words: the only way to learn how to withstand the pressure of winning every week at the top of the league and in Europe is to be there.

Yesterday Harry told told us this was as good as it gets. Well actually old son, actually no. When I applauded the team on their lap of honour yesterday, I meant it. They’ve done us proud and I’ll be forever grateful. Equally, i know it  can get a whole lot better.

Ledley’s Knee Beats Liverpool

/ Alan / 20 Comments

What the new ground needs, wherever we may end up, is a statue. It’s the thing these days, dignifying our improvised chaotic representation of beauty with the use of an art-form that stretches back beyond antiquity. Wolves and Wembley have had one for a while but there’s been a spate in the last few years. Bremner outside Elland Road, grinning wildly whereas to make it lifelike he should be scowling into the eyes of opponents spreading fear and loathing.  Jimmy Armfield stands outside Blackpool’s ground, all fitting tributes to true club greats and then at Fulham there’s Michael Jackson.

Outside the New Lane fans will gather pre-match to worship. Children will clamber over the plinth and pose for photos. Their parents’ stories of past glory days and the legend behind the bronze will pass down the love of the club through the generations as the kids rush off to the club shop. Only one symbol from the modern era can truly represent Tottenham Hotspur’s heart and soul: Ledley King’s knee. Shiny metal, each ligament, bone and cartilage in detailed relief, sadly more solid in perpetuity than in life. If only.

Written off by many, although not by this blog, even I had almost given up hope that we would ever see him play again. Dignity in retirement seemed the future

Ledleys Knee. An Artists Impression

rather than a series of limping comebacks. Barely a flicker’s difference in the expression as he trudges off but the slumped shoulders betray the agony of failure that for this dedicated Spur outweighs the pain in his leg. Yesterday he’s back as if he had never been gone, like he’s had a couple of weeks break in the sun. The familiar scuttling run, feet low to the ground to save precious energy and minimise impact. Running on empty, he conserves what’s left for short bursts over 5 and 10 yards, that’s all you need in the box. Above all, the mind is keen and alert, match sharp like he’s played every game he’s missed in his head. Perfect positioning, a refusal to be shifted out of place by dummy runs, uncanny anticipation born of years of experience.

A quiet man on the field, he has no need for conspicuous fist-pumping or bellowed vocal encouragement. True leaders inspire by other means. He lifted Dawson in particular, the two of them a solid central barrier to an attack fast becoming one of the most feared in the league. Danny Rose once again slotted into an unfamiliar role with aplomb and he and Kaboul stayed tighter in defence, close to the regal reassurance of their leader and master. Sandro patrolled in front of them, diligent and tough.

A couple of Spurs sites are doing their ‘Best Ever’ polls at the moment. Too young to see Norman at his mightiest, I was brought up on England, a giant in the middle with Beal sweeping up around him. Mabbutt and Gough, the latter teasing us with what have been if he stayed for longer. A few votes for Miller, but not mine. Since 67 I’ve seen them all and Ledley King is the first name that goes down. His injury has cruelly robbed us of the finest centre half in the last 40 years, so let us relish what we have.

I’ve been critical of some of Redknapp’s recent tactical decisions and player choices but full credit for what was a brave option, plunging King back into action in the game that could save our season sliding into oblivion. Also, Rose at full-back is a fine piece of player potential judgement. Yesterday the team was balanced throughout. Sandro and Modric once more showed that they are a formidable combination in centre midfield. Sandro’s progress is astonishing, as is Luka’s consistency. Everything flowed through and around him: selfless work, the touches, he holds it when it needs to be held and gives it when it needs to go. He does penalties too, apparently.

Unfortunately my opportunities for more detailed comments, and indeed for my enjoyment of the bloody game, were severely hampered by a stream so dodgy I may as well have drawn stickmen on the corners of a notebook’s pages and flicked through them. Try it – it’s like having Peter Crouch right there in your living room. Liverpool may have had some dangerous moments but my screen was frozen in anticipation for so long, I wondered if I had stumbled on a photo site by mistake. ‘This has been withdrawn through possible copyright violation’ – well, copyright violation is the whole point, isn’t it?

As the teams played the best game of statues ever (I’m not inviting you lot to my kids party at Christmas), attention wanders to the message stream in the sidebar. Correspondents named ‘lovespurskillgooners’, ‘parklane007’ and ‘spursbigboy’ readily share their views not just on the game but on life itself with ‘redtildead’ and ‘nukemancs100’. Presumably the number is to helpfully distinguish him from the 99 other ‘nukemancs’ out there.

I’m up for a bit of football banter as much as the next fan but these boards expose the reality that ‘fan banter’ is in fact rank abuse. ‘Scousers rule’ Spurs provokes the witty rejoinder, ‘no they don’t, Spurs rule scum.’ Terrace wit, this is what the younger generation will never know. U f off, no u f off out of it. And so it goes. It’s the process behind it that gets me. It’s Sunday, there’s football on, I know what I’ll do. I’ll go online and abuse other fans in textspeak. Out of the blue, another voice appears. ‘Grimsby are going nowhere!’ It came from the heart.

The ether cleared suddenly to reveal the penalty in stunning clarity. I say penalty but we all know it wasn’t. If anything Pienaar took the Liverpool’s player’s ground. It sealed the win and from then on we played well but it must have been a difficult moment for all the Spurs Howard Webb conspiracy theorists out there.

Adopting a less gung ho madcap attacking approach, we looked more comfortable and composed, more of a unit. It’s got to be the way to go. Praise for the attitude of the manager and the players. Redknapp has been talking down our prospects, to the point where we might have gone on holiday with two games left. Maybe that’s the way he likes it, comfortable with the underdog role, which in itself does not bode well for a top team but we’ll let that aside go for now. The players lifted themselves, showing determination to finish on a high.

The same attitude next Sunday will see us in Europe, and I’m all in favour of that. I understand but don’t accept the anti-Europa Cup arguments. The tournament itself has been ruined by UEFA’s insistence on the group stages, although to be accurate, it’s the clubs who make up UEFA and want the guaranteed cash that demand it. To be a top club, you fight on all fronts. You can’t turn a proper winning mentality on and off when you feel like it. It’s precisely the art of scraping through games, winning those we have drawn or lost this season when we should have done better, to handle squad rotation without falling apart, that we need to learn. Concentrating on the league isn’t a viable option, it’s a cop out, with no guarantee of any success. It limits us severely in the transfer market, and being out of the CL will be bad enough in that respect anyway.

Above all, I’m old fashioned enough to still believe that winning something is better than coming 4th and having a decent bank balance. Play a weakened team, get through the group and then go for it. Imagine bouncing your grandchildren on your knee. They look up at you with adoring big eyes, moist with emotion. ‘Tell us about the good old days, granddad’.

‘Well kids, I remember the time when our income stream exceeded salaries and other outgoings by 10 or 20%.’

‘20% granddad. Wow, things were so different in the old days…’

With winning comes the memories, and memories last. I know which I would rather have.

Slip Sliding Away

/ Alan / 13 Comments

At the risk of letting light in upon magic, I sometimes prepare a few things to say before the game starts. Bit of background, some context maybe, the key themes to put the match into the context of what’s gone on before. For this one, as recently as last week I resolved to stand back from the clamour about this being the 4th place decider. Whatever the result, Liverpool away was the real deal because I had long since given up on the Champions League, even if others hadn’t. The Europa League was the only prize at stake, and given the anti-climatic season’s end, I would have been satisfied.

That innocuous introduction seems absurdly  presumptuous now, just a few days on. Through no shortage of effort or application, we struggled to break down the resolute defences of first Blackpool then Manchester City, dominating both games in terms of possession and territory but with only a single goal and point to show for it, and that a long range effort. Make that one win in 13, and as if things couldn’t possibly be worse, Liverpool score 5 Fulham with a star performance from a striker we were seriously after.

Defeat is one thing but life, rub it in our faces, why don’t you. Last year’s hero turns villain with an undignified own goal for an undeserved winner. At the end, caution and negativity triumphs over the cavalier devil-may-care attacking darlings of the neutral who wants exciting, open football.

We the fans watch and feel the process, the ups and downs of our fortunes, but there’s always one moment when the true impact hits, whether that be pain or joy. That instant is different for each of us: mine was 5 minutes before the final whistle last night. I knew the wheels had come off, we all did, disappointment but I never had outrageous expectations so that had cushioned the blow. Until then. For in the eyes of the City fans, desperate and twitching for the end yet simultaneously giddy with the ecstasy of what is to come, I saw me, 12 months ago almost to the day. Defeat was not so much disappointment, it’s deprivation.

Suitably crushed, in the spirit of comradeship I wanted to tell them what all Spurs fans knew – we were never going to score. On twitter, most seemed to have turned over to watch the Apprentice. Ironic then that the programme’s lead character Alan Sugar took us to midtable mediocrity whilst trousering tens of millions in personal profit.

In many ways this match was our season in microcosm. After a few early scares, we gradually asserted ourselves through some fine possession football. City had done their homework and tried to exploit our season-long weakness of keeping too large a gap between the centre halves and the back four. The difference when we attacked was marked, with their fullbacks tucking right in. Rose made one or two positional errors to start with, but he’s quick and a quick learner. Get the positioning correct and with that pace he’s looking a genuine prospect at full-back – he had a fine game.

We were under real pressure but to the players’ credit we seldom played as if this were the case . Then we threw it all away. Crouch’s’ lackadaisical effort to clear that ball, off-balance as the messages from brain to foot took even longer than usual to pass along the nervous system, was poor but the real problem was the dozy marking that enabled Milner to put the ball across from close range. It’s a short corner with no one there. Kids stuff. We’ve been there before, so often.

Spells at the end of the first half and the beginning of the second were as good as any we’ve seen this season. Flowing, composed possession football with Modric the heart and soul, Sandro driving on in the middle and Lennon as a bright as a button on the right. After a dreadful start, Pienaar picked up the pace and made his contribution. Van der Vaart worked hard across the box.

All to no avail. Few chances and sadly the two gems, Modric in the first half (I was certain that was in!!) and Pienaar in the second, were missed. Nothing much going on once we get to the edge of the area. Too often we made good passes wide to left or right to produce good crosses but after a while you realised that in fact this was the soft option. City were far happier heading these away, as were Blackpool on Saturday, than if we had burst for the heart of their defence. Crouch was awful, City defenders ravenously gobbling up the supply of weedy predictable  knockdowns with Peter the Grate oblivious to the presence of the goal itself a mere 12 yards distant.

A few comparisons with our usurpers makes for sobering reading. Up front, at first sight there’s not a lot of material to work on, seeing as we penned them back for the majority of the game, yet what they did offer was noticeably more incisive than the majority of our work. At the start of the second half we broke down the right and lennon crossed. In teh middle we had four or five players busitng a gut to get into the box. One of them, Pienaar, forced a brilliant save from Hart. The real reason why we don’t score more is that we did not do that again. Goals can come from the midfield as well as the strikers but not if we sit back in the comfort zone at the edge of the area. Late on, it was Corluka and Lennon who reached the byline. Good crosses, both watched by three or four players who should have been bombing into the 6 yard box, looking for a touch or nudge, anything. An own goal, even….

City do not get numbers forward but those that do come late into the box. Silva is especially good at this, Tevez when he plays, Toure latterly. They come onto the ball, often simple short stabbed passes into the gaps between defenders. We on the other hand are static and stationary, ahead of the ball and waiting for it. Problem is, so are  their defenders.

Secondly, when they were on top early on City’s front three closed us down high up the pitch, stifling our development of the passing movements we love. We don’t do that, and we easily could.

Thirdly, and most crucially for our season, City did not concede and held onto a lead. They cut out mistakes at the back and didn’t give us any room. We played so well to keep the ball despite their efforts – sure City are defensive  but we pushed them back for extended periods so they didn’t have that much of a choice. We are able to play like this – Milan home and away anyone – but we don’t do so often enough.

This blog tries its best to avoid cliches but unashamedly adopts Danny Blanchflower’s famous quote: “the game is about glory, doing things in style.” I keep returning to this because it sums up what I believe about football and what I want from my beloved Spurs. There’s no way I wish to play like City, but the sobering thought that lingers this morning is: they are 4th, we aren’t. As the quote continues, the game really is about going out and beating the other lot, not waiting for them to die of boredom as City did last night. It’s just that sometimes, there is a balance where caution and graft takes its place alongside the beautiful attacking football. The lesson to take from this match and from this season is that we haven’t got the balance quite right yet. Like an F1 car running low on fuel, on the screen in isolation everything looks the same, bright, shiny and streamlined. Pull away and in wide angle, compared with the rest of the pack, it’s going backwards. The nearer the destination, the more you’re slip sliding away.