I said that we would miss the pace of Bellamy and Wright-Phillips, and I was right. Our midfield was as one paced as McManaman Reyna Bosvet and Sibierski. But this is more than a question of mere velocity. Shorn of our wingers we lacked fight, dynamism, the ability to make things happen or to worry Spurs at all. Even more striking was that we missed Bellamy's leadership. There was no one to take the fight to Spurs, to drive on our midfield or to fire us up. I don't know whether it reflects well on Hughes or not that Bellamy is our indispensable talisman, but it's a demonstrable fact. Kolo Toure and Gareth Barry may be good players but they're not leaders. Not like Bellamy.
And I really don't think we should be using injuries and suspensions as excuses. I firmly believe that we have, in terms of depth and quality, the best squad in the league. Look at our bench. Tonight we had Benjani on the bench but it's the first time in months we've had someone of his quality in the 18. When players like Vincent Kompany, Robinho, Martin Petrov and Roque Santa Cruz don't make the team you can't complain too much with one or two absences.
There is still no settled role for Stephen Ireland in the side. He spent the first hour wide on the right, drifting inside but failing to influence the game as much as he might like. He impressed, though, when moved into the hole of a 4-3-3 as we chased the game. But we knew that that was his best position from 2008/09. The fact is that Hughes has to choose between 4-4-2 - which gets the best of Tevez - and 4-3-3 - which gets the best of Ireland.
So now we know that Shay Given's save was no Mark Robins moment. Beating Chelsea has been followed by a draw and a loss, and it's going to be a real battle for sixth.
4 comments:
I can't believe I am about to say this, but we could use a couple of strikers in January... Ade is completely disinterested, RSC is still not up to speed, and Tevez, for all of his qualities, is not a target man and needs a donkey to put in the work. Also, not sure Sylvinho's 35 year old legs are up to chasing twenty-somethings until Bridge is back. All I want for Christmas is Taiwo, Hamsik and a striker or two please.
sorry guys, you can play one paced football, if someone stands in the box and you aim the ball at him. tonight, despite the change in personnel, we pursued the same gameplan whereby the strikers are out wide like the wingers and the wingers are wingers who like to shoot but never cross. and who would they be crossing to, anyway?
the real battle was to contain lennon, or stop the service to him. how can you do this when you are playing an extremely high line to contain crouch, and the left sided midfielder is miles up the pitch? as soon as syvlinho was beaten once, the game was up, tottenham didn't have to change a single thing to keep exploiting this for the rest of the game.
I'm sorry, but Hughes got this badly wrong. Ireland or Barry could have covered Sylvinho, but it looked like Hughes couldn't care less. If he had something else in mind, you have to ask why it went so badly wrong. They are his players, his signings. If, as he alluded too, Robinho was at fault, why not just haul him off at half time, along with Adebayor? In fact, why start someone you don't trust? It all smacks of someone passing the buck.
The news this morning that Lescott will be out for two months now leaves us short in the defensive department. With Toure and Adebayor absent for much of January (when we play the semi-final of the League Cup) the squad is starting to look thin indeed. Kompany could deputise in the centre and Barry at left back - we are already leaking goals like a sieve at the moment so I expect a couple of makeshift signings or loan deals come January.
As for last night's result, the last time we won a WHL keegan was in charge and Barton got sent off at half time. We rarely get a result down there and I wasn't expecting one last night. The scoreline might well be the kick up the arse the team needs.
With SWP injured and Bellamy suspended, our pace out wide was sorely lacking, and I won't be sorry to see the back of Robinho when the transfer window opens. Players having a bad game I can tolerate but players who can't be arsed can just f... off.
sounds like a lot of credit should go to spurs (uurgh - hate saying that!) for pushing the game and playing with tempo. we continue to have selection problems that belie the supposed strength of our squad. teams are put together in hope rather than tactical nous (actually with the injuries we're looking a bit weak, can we have another £200m?). beforehand, the blog talk was of matching the spurs line-up with an attacking one of our own, but it was their home game. we should finally desist with the illusion that robinho can play on the left just because he says so (only in the brazil side), it ruins the shape and here it didn't help sylvinho; ditto ireland on the right. he is not a wingman. players should be selected on the basis of tactics. i would have had barry on the left, de jong and ireland in the middle and weiss on the right. kompany might be better than nedum at the moment while onouha is out, but both will be needed in January. robinho should now be back-up for tevez, or consider dropping adebayor and playing robinho with carlito. people will say then you lose your targetman but ade hates playing that role anyway. sadly i think all we'll get when ade is at the African Cup is five weeks of santa cruz not being up to the job. it is as other teams' fans told us in that we have a dilemma of what to do with the egos and big names in terms of getting them to fight for the cause; hughes has to work that out quickly; it's not good enough just to turn up against chelsea or united. my feeling is if we get past united (and boro in fa cup) he'll get the rest of the season but it will be hard for him if we fall at these hurdles.
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