Spurs v Bolton. Our Saviour Cometh

/ Alan / 5 Comments

Couldn’t  get on WordPress this morning, so here is the delayed report. Just so you know, I got up early for this….

Thanks to everyone who popped down to Pav’s Cafe in Westgate yesterday in response to my match preview. I wasn’t able to make it myself, work commitments, you know how these things go. If I could, I would have, but the prayers of the pilgrims did not go unheeded. Our Saviour returned to the Lane and all is well in this troubled land. If a few loaves and fishes should be on hand on Sunday….Mind you, knowing Spurs, I’m certain they would charge £6 per loaf.

Pavlyuchenko’s first goal settled any lingering nerves after a sedate opening in which Bolton had a surprising amount of space in front of our box. From the very beginning, Ricketts anxiously followed Modric’s every move. Clearly Coyle identified him as our danger man. Luka came in search of the ball as his colleagues had until then largely left him peace. He moved forward with purpose and delivered a penetrative pass to Pav, who turned and slotted the ball home, his natural finisher’s instincts flooding back as the shot nestled into the corner. Right behind the line, it was one of those that you knew was in as soon as it left his foot, the perfect judgement of a class player.

Afterwards Ricketts remonstrated with the referee and with some justification – we won possession only after Luka had blocked him off the ball but the indiscretion went unnoticed. This ref was odd – he didn’t want to blow his whistle. Only 8 free kicks in the entire match, refreshing in many ways, not least because the result depended on open play rather than rehearsed training ground moves, I suspect Ricketts was not congratulating him on his generosity.

This showed also the character of the game, pleasant and enjoyable (for Spurs fans) without the bite and bile of a cup tie. Bolton moved the ball well but ineffectually. Coyle’s coaching abilities are evident in the ease with which he has transformed his team’s style but with nothing much up front their good work was wasted. Bassong hindered their casue with an excellent first half display to mark their pivot Klasnic out of the game. We know about Bassong’s pace on recovery but here he steadfastly refused to allow his opponent to turn or to have a clean touch.

After Pav’s opener the result was never in doubt. Another fine ball from Modric gave a Defoe a good chance but more goals were certain. Bale revelled in the space and evaded the attentions of the two defenders ahead of him with his darting, incisive strikes and excellent early crossing. Not all worked but as a sign of his ever-growing maturity he varied the final ball, at times picking out a man rather than going for the far post ball. However, the second came from the opposite flank. Hud shaped to shoot but preferred to precisely lay the ball to Palacios. He in turn used the time at his disposal to deliver a great near post ball. I credited Defoe with a fine finish but in fact in the tangle of legs Jaaskelainen did the job for us.

Bale was not to be out-done and his low near post cross was turned in by O’Brien. Although both could have been avoided, we are pressuring defences with hard, accurate balls delivered into the danger areas from on or near the byline. Without Crouch, the long balls have suddenly disappeared, unless you count the succession of excellent passes over distance from Huddlestone. This is Pav’s real contribution. His movement encourages others to play and to keep passing. In order to make this work, we must of necessity retain possession and be more creative. Wigan and Bolton put us under little pressure, so Everton on Sunday will be a truer test of the new style but the players seem more comfortable with this shape and the pieces are fitting into place.

After this the game petered out. Bolton looked more dangerous with more attackers but they were three down by then and on the few occasions when they broke through, Gomes was in good form, as is the norm these days. He’s done so well for us over the last three months.

Although Palacios did not have an especially good match, his value was evident as soon as he was substituted. His absence left gaps in front of our defence but as I say, Bolton could not take advantage. Bassong did not duplicate his first half form – this was because he was moved around more by the strikers and so here is a vulnerability in his game, his positioning. Dawson compensated and dominated the box, still moaning at the ref and fully motivated deep into injury time when we were four up.

The fourth goal was again well-worked and Pav took full advantage of the space in the box at his disposal. This was an odd goal for me. For what seems like the first time in forty years, I missed the moment that he struck the ball because the bloke in front of me stood up and blocked my view. He had no need to – he had a totally unobstructed view of the pitch – but standing is not the sort of thing that bothers me. I picked up his movement early, born of my vast experience as I now enter the veteran stage but suddenly he became so wide, I couldn’t see round him. I blame myself – are my reactions finally becoming so dulled? This is a worrying development.

Of those I haven’t yet mentioned, Eidur’s interaction with his team-mates was good but the passing became all a bit flicky. BAE looked so calm, as usual, and first match back, late on he recovered after Elmander stampeded through and sweetly removed the ball from his toe. Bentley did little.

In the quarter finals, the field is not as strong as in previous years and suddenly there’s real excitement in the Cup.

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Spurs v Bolton Preview – Pav Serves It Up On A Plate

/ Alan / 8 Comments

Pav’s Cafe has been a fixture on the seafront at Westgate since I was a teenager. Three generations of the family have been lured by the smell of burnt onions wafting across the sands and sat at the cracked, polished formica tables. Floors sticky with layers of prized ice cream cones dropped by anxious toddlers, we queued to be served with the utter indifference so common of British shops of my youth.

Pav's Ancestors. All Hail.

I declare this to be our place of pilgrimage to honour Our Saviour. Personally I don’t fancy schlepping over to Russia, although the ultra-orthodox amongst you, well, feel free, and these days you can get the new fast train from St Pancras to Margate. I recommend the journey anyway if only to prove that in England you can actually get somewhere quickly on public transport. Whether you wish to go there is irrelevant. Then it’s a short pleasant stroll along the prom. Some of you may cherish the spot at the DW stadium where after heading straight at the keeper he bundled in the rebound but I need a place with a bit of history.

Roman Pavlyuchenko is back and already is in danger of falling victim to the curse of raised expectations.  I was delighted both with his goals and the warmth with which his team-mates toasted his success at the final whistle. The question this evening is not if he plays but with whom. Freed from the responsibilities of being a target man, he revelled in his role playing off Crouch. Coming from slightly deeper and facing the goal is his style. What impressed me most on Sunday was his movement. Immediately and instinctively he moved across the back four and then into channels, where Modric was on the look out for a little something to slot through to him.

We were all anticipating that he was the replacement for a toiling Crouch. Their playing together was either a tactical masterstroke on Harry’s part or a happy accident created by JD’s determination to be sent off for no discernible reason. Something tells me that it was the latter but probably that’s just me. Defoe must partner him tonight but his orders must remain unchanged: don’t drift 5 yards too far up the field, be patient even if it takes time for us to break down the Bolton defence and look for Luka or Nico (Modric must play after Sunday) as he comes inside. I identified the biggest problem with this a couple of weeks ago. It’s not so much the fact that Pav and Defoe might get in each other’s way, it’s the lack of familiarity with the system caused by relying so heavily on Crouch, the big man up front and the long ball. Harry should have at least tried a plan B long ago but Pav has rotted on the bench. The players must adjust quickly and have not been supported by the coaching staff in this but their passing game will suit the personnel that I hope to see as the whistle blows. And the fans can help by seeing this as a promising boost for our form rather than the second coming.

In those days, takeaway food to enjoy was a novelty

We start strong favourites and the Cup is a realistic target this season. We are a home game against a team that cannot score away, never mind win, from a quarter final versus opponents who we should respect but not fear. Complacency is a real danger and we must be alert at the back if Kevin Davies plays. King knows him well but the less experienced Dawson and Bassong or Kaboul will be bullied if they are not careful. If he can’t take a chance, Davies will set one up, and if he can’t set one up he’ll get the centre backs to concede fouls outside or in the box in their desperation to get between him with his back to our goal and the ball as it is played up to him. He can also move wide, thus taking his marker with him, but this is less of a danger with two 6 foot full backs. Daws should take him and this could be the biggest test yet of his maturity. He must not panic or be forced into rash challenges. Sometimes defenders must accept that you just can’t win the ball every time. His colleagues must be alert to the second ball and WP and Hud must get in front  and around him to deal with the threat.

Finally, the news that Lennon will be out for longer that first thought is a real blow. Not only have we struggled at times without him, his return to the team would have been a real shot in the arm as we reach the climax of the season. It would have invigorated and inspired everyone. There’s still time.

Wigan v Spurs. Modric and Pav Rise Above the Morass

/ Alan / 7 Comments

I thought better of writing a preview for the Wigan match. There was nothing new to be said – keep it on the floor, don’t whack it up to Crouch, in fact just keep it. I trust you did not feel let down, dear reader, but you’ve heard it all before. In fact, I did you a favour and let you have more time in bed on a Sunday morning.

Meanwhile, I knocked out something on the problems facing young players at the club, which has done the rounds of the messageboards, interesting feedback, thank you all.

But my non-preview didn’t take account of the infamous Wigan pitch. The long ball would have been a more valid tactic yesterday. Pass and move is all very well when neither is easy in the peat bog of a midfield. Think of it more as a history lesson. Hey kids!!! That’s what the Lane was like in the good old days! I narrowed my eyes and could almost see Steve Perryman and John Pratt ploughing through the mud, sleeves rolled up, shoulders hunched not so much to protect the ball but more to summon up the strength to run another few yards. It looked so odd. Watching the game with a couple of teenagers, it struck me that they had never seen a Premier League match in conditions that were commonplace 15 years ago.

Problem was, neither had most of our players. It takes long enough for instructions to flow from Big Tom’s brain to his feet under normal circumstances but when the feet aren’t moving it adds a whole other dimension. ‘A bit late’ sums up his afternoon and that of a few others. The verdant pastures of the wings, green, firm and welcoming, were there to be used but Bentley and Corluka seemed more stuck than most, Kranjcar had a quiet afternoon and he drifts in anyway, so it was left once more to Gareth Bale to seize the opportunity to inject much needed pace into our attacks. His was the decisive intervention of the first half, cutting in to provide Defoe with a well-taken touch for our first.

He was way offside and knew it, his guilty glance at the linesman before beginning a muted celebration betraying this poor decision. Goals are always important but this came at a crucial juncture as the match was settling down without either side achieving dominance. After this Wigan were always chasing the game and their weaknesses were cruelly exposed. In seeking to stifle us in midfield with a five and two men wide, they blunted their own already limited attacking options. Later, they pushed two and three forward but left themselves open at the back.

As usual we responded by giving away the ball and a series of unnecessary fouls. It was a day for firm passing to feet or maybe ahead of the forwards – Wigan left space for us to do so, unlike recent opponents – but in the first half we were able to do neither. Crocuh could not make it stick, again he really could have done more to hold the ball up but equally we could have maintained a presence closer to him rather than leave him on his own.

Referee Wiley had as much trouble coming to terms with the conditions as many of players. Having missed Defoe’s early foul, he booked Bentley for an innocuous challenge well inside the Wigan half. Consistency is the key for refereeing but this set an unfortunately low benchmark as players slipped and stumbled. A foul is a foul whatever the conditions but he booked players too early, and then pulled back from the consequences, of sending players off for two relatively minor offences. Hud could easily have gone before the end.

The second half began in similarly stuttering fashion, then gradually we got on top and remained there until the end. Wigan seldom threatened but we pressured ourselves with those early and wasteful bookings for Bentley, Defoe and Dawson creating an unnecessary edge. I held my breath as they pondered challenges    and worried when King was replaced by Bassong. He’s looked out of sorts lately – his expression recalls Darren Bent’s taut drawn face – and he and Gomes almost conspired to cock up a long ball. Then it clicked, and for the rest of the match he hoofed the ball forward, high, off, up with a glorious absence of dexterity that was absolutely right for the conditions.

Harry has been roundly criticised of late, although not here, for his conservative policy on the use of substitutes. Yesterday he secured the game by bringing on Modric relatively early. In difficult conditions, Modric proved that class will always tell. Where lesser players toiled, he skipped over the surface, passing with firm certainty and running steadily into the heart of the Wigan defence. He was our best performer, a wonderful cameo and he was unlucky not to score with a first time touch that struck the post and rebounded in to the arms of a grateful keeper, rooted to the spot by the speed of the strike rather than the cloying mud.

And so to Pavlychencko. TOMM has never cast him as Our Saviour but has wanted him to play because his talents will suit our style, and so it was. Defoe may have been the choice to come off not because of Harry’s tactical genius but because of the striker’s stupidity – the next foul or whinge and he could have been off- but it proved a masterstroke. Freed from the responsibility of being the striker furthest forward, Pav could move onto the ball rather than have his back to the opponent’s goal half the time. His movement was instinctive and natural – this is what he is used to, this is his game, and how he revelled in his freedom. Brilliantly done and he will play a vital part in our run in.

Not before time…Harry’s face was a picture. He looked so miserable…but to be fair, he always looks like that. More to the point, Pav’s fellow players appeared genuinely delighted for him at the end, Defoe making a beeline for him at the whistle and others joining in the celebrations. He’s part of the team whatever Harry thinks.

Wigan on this performance are as poor a side as I have seen this season but all our players were pleased on emerging from this hard slog with the points, and so they should be.

Spurs Youngsters in England Squad – Next Stop League 2?

/ Alan / 11 Comments

Away from the travails of the first team, some good news this week. Spurs have four players in the England under 19 squad, John Bostock, Steven Caulker, Ryan Mason and Dean Parret. Congratulations to them all, and for many of us this may be as close as we ever come to seeing them.

Spurs have a poor record in bringing young players through into the first team. There’s the mighty Ledley of course, probably worth the total cost of the Spurs youth set up over the last 15 years just by himself, and Jamie O’Hara finally became a member of the first team squad before his successful loan at Portsmouth. Otherwise, if your son was talented, even as a Spurs fan, would you recommend that he came to our club? They bubble to the surface in a froth of expectation, maybe flatter at a few pre-season friendlies then sink through the divisions, although often they end up doing a decent job lower down the leagues.

The new training centre in Enfield could assist development but given that we are able to attract presumably some of the most skilful youngsters, we’ve done badly, or to put it another way have screwed up many promising careers. I seldom get to see the young players these days, but if you’re interested there are weekly reports on youth team matches here: http://www.spursodyssey.com. Of the above, Bostock came on as sub in a European game I think amid a buzz of expectation. Standing tall, he showed the poise and demeanour of quality and was apparently uncowed by his surroundings. At 15 he was coveted by all and sundry – there’s a Telegraph article from 2007 entitled ‘Meet John Bostock, aged 15 the Boy Barcelona Can’t Buy’. Now, he can’t get into the Brentford team and has returned from his loan spell amidst recriminations and a little spat between Redknapp and his dad. Word is that John was never quite as good as Palace made out and that he was pushed into their first team ahead of schedule in order to swell his value. Whatever, he’s not making progress with us.

Unfortunately, this is a familiar picture at Spurs, with fans bemoaning our inability to bring young players through. A quick glance at the team sheets of the mid 90s throws up the names of several young hopefuls, all of whom had a chance or two, admittedly during one of our many ‘transtional phases’ (allright, crap phases) but never made it. Caskey, Houghton, Mc Mahon, Turner, Butters,  Hill, Allen – they all looked good for their 15 minutes of fame (yes, even Butters) but are now curiosities in the ‘where are they now?’ file. There was a time where the guy at the front of the Paxton was so certain of his ability to pick a future star that he invested in a Spurs shirt with the name of John Piercy on his back.

It’s hard to know if there is a problem at Spurs. Although it is tempting to point the finger at the youth set-up, the reality is that the main problem lies outside the training ground. The demands of the Premier League for instant success are such that it is much more difficult than ever before for young players at any club to break into the first team. There is so little time for boys to grow into men by making mistakes and learning as they go. I’ve written before about the time it has taken for players with experience at previous clubs, like  BAE and Huddlestone, to develop into fully fledged first teamers, let alone the young men graduating from the youth team.

This is not unique to Spurs. Few other teams in the Premier League have a large proportion of home grown players in their first team. ‘Home grown’ – what a lovely phrase, redolent of stern bustling landladies with hearts of gold keeping an eye on their boys when they return from training. They feed them up, polish their shoes and are a shoulder to cry on for young men far from home and missing their mothers. These days, the term is meaningless. Spurs and other teams buy youngsters at 16 (Parrett joined us in this way from QPR Bostock from Palace)  and we purchase the best of the rest from Europe and beyond, Blondel and Jonsson coming to mind. Why should Spurs invest that much in a youth set up when we can let others do the work, or of course lose our best prospects to the bigger predators.

I have a soft spot for a ‘mum and dad’ story in football. There was a piece in the Guardian recently where Tom Huddlestone, this giant of a man, paid tribute to his mother who had dedicated her life to her then teenage son and his football. The highlight of the otherwise frankly lacklustre White Lane Tour for me (‘and here’s the stall where the boxholders can exclusively place a bet…’) was knowing that Jermaine Defoe bought his mum a West Stand box and she watches every game. Quite why this touches me so I’m not sure. JD is brash and cocksure but I have a vision of his mum grabbing him after the game and telling him not to whine so much and while she was about it, use a tissue to blow his nose instead of, well, the behaviour of street ruffians.

Bostock’s dad stepped in to defend his boy when times were hard for him. John is probably not used to setbacks in his football career so far, so I’m pleased dad was on hand. It’s a reminder that these boys are just that, kids. We demand that they cope with pressure whilst still in their teens that the rest of us could not possibly dream of. When I was 18, I was mootching about worried about greasy hair and acne, girls, exam results and girls, and all I had to deal with was being in the protected micro-society that was university in the seventies. To get where we are, we made endless mistakes and expected a little latitude while we sorted out our emotional growing pains, whereas as fans we impose a totally different, perhaps unrealistically high, set of expectations.

Let’s nurture our young talent. Push them to achieve their potential but remember that some also thrive with a protective arm round their shoulder. As fans we have to be patient and tone down our aspirations. We’re too quick to write them off. The idea of players out on loan, learning their trade in the lower leagues makes a lot of sense. But also let then know that the club is watching them and looking after them from afar. I wish them all good luck. I hear Ryan Mason is highly rated, and if anyone is going to Charlton today, let us know how he and the other loanees do, and try not to compare him with Johnny Jackson, a new arrival at the Addicks, with such a sweet left foot and a career at Colchester and Notts County….I’m sorry I can’t come and see you play more often- maybe we’ll meet at the Lane some day.