Week 5 - A Spurs Persective

By Deep Blue
September 15 2005

Week 5 beginning with what is best described as a debacle against Northern Ireland and ending with a frustrating game against Liverpool,

with two disallowed goals and the woodwork struck twice (one considerably harder than the other). Ill take the point and as always the positives from that encounter.

Hmm, the England game, as predicted as soon as Owen’s suspension was over he was back in the squad, further demonstrating that Defoe is not held in the same esteem as the boy wonder (tbh rightly so). However the woeful 451 remained, a tactic hard to stomach when used by lesser sides, but painful when a team of such talented individuals use such a tactic. To top it off they were clearly not drilled well enough in this formation and didn’t know what to do, cue random runs over the pitch and players looking lost.

Sven tries to simplify his formation: “Put this in the opposition’s goal…”

The odd substitutions and Rooney’s frustrations in the game exasperated the problems and the team descended into chaos, resulting in a score that will never be forgotten and rightly so by the N.Irish. Defoe and Robinson both featured but probably want to banish the experience from there memories, the rifled shot past Robo was not his fault and he had no right to save it, but it will haunt him nonetheless.

Both Reid and Keane featured against the French and the result went the same way as our other Spurs lads albeit with a much more impressive performance. Rasiak again featured greatly in Polands victory over Wales and Tiano bossed the Finnish midfield once again. A productive midweek of internationals, but one that would lead to fatigue for the weekends fixture against Liverpool (although every club is in the same boat here).

And so to the Liverpool game, these articles are not match reports, but more assessing the impact of the games as the weeks progress on Spurs season and this game, more than most, was a barometer to our progression. Leaving the ground I was disappointed at the draw, I felt we controlled the midfield and Liverpool only came into it as the game went on. On reflection I should be delighted with the draw; we controlled the midfield and Liverpool only came into it as the game went on! That’s right our midfield including a debut of Jenas played together in a new formation developed to accommodate Davids, Carrick and the new boy and it was at least the match for Liverpool’s, containing Gerrard and Hamman, no mean feet to keep them as quiet as our boys did.

This is a game in which two other players made a debut, Lee and Raziak, against a far more settled Pool side (albeit away from home) and we matched them pound for pound and it was hard to spot the better side between the two. Lee on his debut impressed, clearly given licence to get forward, he did so with glee and with tricks and verve straight out of the “Tottenham way” manual. For a debut it was immense and looks to be a regular crowd pleaser, but unlike Atouba he is defensively solid and tenacious. In saving his tricks for the oppositions half, he showed maturity that Atouba lacked in his short stay, Lee’s ability and experience are already showing through. Rasiak had a hard debut, with a looped header hitting the bar and a disallowed goal he came close twice to being a hero. If he had scored, it may have hid flaws in his game.

“the goal posts dedicated it's two world class saves to it's fiancé..”

Obviously he lacks pace but he makes up for it with good positional sense (unlike his partner Defoe), it’s always a good sign when a player is aware of where he lacks and makes efforts to account for it. He has been bought in to be a target man and in that role he did well, flicking it on and linking play up early on. He didn’t however hold the ball up well (in the way we miss in the absence of Kanoute) and he didn’t win one header when he went up against Hyypia, to fairly judge if both these flaws are evident against less competent opposition remains to be seen, but it does raise question marks on his ability in the premiership. Taking into account it was his first game, after busy internationals and little or no chance to train with his team mates it was a more than an adequate performance.

Despite the draw the team will take great confidence from this performance and as the new players settle in we will see further improvement in our already consistently strong home games, that however was never a major flaw before, it was our away games that lost us the vital points last year and our next fixture away at Villa could be telling.

Looking at our rivals, Charlton won again and again Bent proved a major factor, with Murphy and Smertin working so well in the middle of the park they could continue to do well, but they will begin to start dropping points and with that their early season confidence. Talking of which Evertons must be running low, losing to Portsmouth at home, the Toffees self belief is actually a weakness however and they play far better when they believe they are the underdogs, I expect them to start grinding out points again soon.

City continue their good run with a fine draw away at Man USA. Under Pearce, city for me, represent the largest threat to Europe for us as they continue to look strong early on. Boro’ inconstancies where on show again, after a fine and heart warming defeat of the Woolwich. They will always be a team there or there about us so every 3 points they gain is always a worry, but on this occasion ill let them off. Bolton drew with Blackburn in a predictably dull game, both teams will feel 1 point is better than none and in the long season ahead they are both right.

“Don’t expect Owen to do this anytime soon..”

Owens anticlimactic debut showed that you can have one of the best strikers in the world but if you can’t give him a decent pass he won’t score regularly for you. Shearer mentioned the frustration from this, Owen wont, but he may think that and that will effect his game and for our sake we can only hope this leads to a poor season for him, with 2 points from 15 it is already a poor start to the season for the Toon, long may it continue.

European games ahead this week and although they don’t involve us the impact on performance after such midweek games is an area in which we should hope to capitalise this season, unlike us many teams such as Everton and Bolton don’t have the squad depth to stop a drop in form due to fatigue after such games. We will have to worry (hopefully) about such things next season but until then sit back and enjoy a break from Prem football for something more exotic.