Battles won and lost in midfield

By statto_the_yid
March 4 2007

The modern game of football has changed quite allot from then I was growing up watching Spurs play. But one rule which has always been true is that battles are won and lost in midfield.

Something our current lot have lost sight with at various points this season, including the first half against West Ham United.

I couldn’t get to the game today so here I am totally destroyed with out first half performance this afternoon after watching the Hammers stroll through our midfield unchecked. Ever since the start of the season we have struggled to keep clean sheets, in fact 4 clean sheets in 22 matches which is poor by anyone’s standards. That’s a statistic we share with the United which are Newcastle and West Ham. But what is more interesting we have conceded a lot of goals from opposition midfield players, I’m still working on a stat for that but makes you wonder why, but without a Davids style player these away days will repeat themselves on a regular basis.

The main problem here though is Jol not knowing who to play against certain teams like the physical side or a passing side. We just don’t have the range of players in the middle of the park which have the quality or ability to create pressure and produce a killer ball into our strikers. Berbatov seams to be dropping deeper these days and providing for others which he does more when Defoe is on the pitch. Lennon has been off sorts and while I write this Defoe steps up to take a pen which Lennon won . . . and . . . .he scores !! Great stuff. Anyway back to my point, Jol really needs to work out the type of player we want and need to drive us forward, as I don’t think the current crop (maybe I can exclude Zokora as he has shown some ability of late and Lennon who has pace) can give is what we need. Jenus is the most frustrating player to watch as some times he can be magical, but more often than not he can give the ball away and hit the softest free kicks, I really think he should be moved on and replaced with someone more consistent.

Well as I close this we are 2-1 down and showing the sort of fight we should be applying for 90mins. Im just worried that we will be unable to keep players like Lennon, Berbatov and Zokora if we are unable to progress up the league as the pace we would feel happy with, ultimately without UEFA football next season we might struggle.

Tainio just scored 2-2 now