Tottenham's missing man.

Not my Article but an interesting observation. Certainly the last Paragraph is one that some on here will sympathize with..




Tottenham really are an odd side, aren't they?
Once again on Sunday, Tottenham dominated a game against less
(in theory) able opponents, but failed to take the victory their
superiority deserved.
It's a problem that has troubled Spurs at various points throughout this season, but is becoming a more serious worry now.
Spurs have won three of their last ten games, but one of those
was against a League One side that they required a replay to get past,
and another was over Peterborough, stone bottom of the Championship. Of
the other seven games, they've failed to score in four of them.
Choosing the last ten games to analyse isn't an arbitrary
figure, nor just because it's a nice round number, but because Aaron
Lennon has been missing from the Tottenham line-up.
While they have also been frustrated when Lennon is available to
them (notably at home to Wolves and Stoke), his absence over the past
month or so has marked him, rather than Jermain Defoe, as Tottenham's
most important player. It's strange that Spurs seem to have such a problem breaking
down sides without Lennon in their ranks, because it's not as if they
are lacking in creative types elsewhere. They have Luka Modric, and a
spare Modric in Niko Krancjar, while David Bentley has been better than
even he probably expected since returning. Even Gareth Bale provides a
decent threat from left-back, as he showed in setting up Tottenham's
goal at Bolton.
The lack of Lennon's pace is a problem, negating much of their
threat on the counter-attack. Modric and Bentley are nippy enough, but
will never cause the pant-spoilingly rapid threat that Lennon does. Few
others do of course, but Spurs could do with an alternative for the
occasions when Lennon is unavailable.
Without Lennon, their main game plan seems to be to give the
ball to Defoe, who will belt it as hard as he can towards the goal.
It's a decent theory, given that the wee man has 24 goals already this
season, but it's a little worrying that a team with top four ambitions
has so few ideas when Plan A is unavailable.
The accusation that Spurs are a long-ball team is misguided,
because any team that has Peter Crouch and doesn't aim the odd ball at
his head needs a stern talking to, but he needs the right service to be
truly effective. The difference between Bentley and Lennon's right-wing
play is that the former tends to cross from deep, the latter from the
byline, and Lennon's style is better suited to both forwards.
Part of Tottenham's problem is that they don't have much threat
coming from the centre of midfield. Wilson Palacios does his job well
and gets forward every now and then, while Tom Huddlestone will never
make Lampardian runs from deep and Jermaine Jenas is
just...well...there.
Unlike their immediate rivals, they have nobody like Tim Cahill,
or James Milner, or even Stephen Ireland, who will attack through the
middle and provide another forward option. Eidur Gudjohnsen could in
theory do this, but we're not yet entirely sure whether he's the same
player who excelled for Chelsea and sporadically for Barcelona. In any
case, his trade is subtle flicks and careful passes, not lung-ripping,
plough-everything-in-his-path runs.
To suggest any Premier League team - in particular one as
relatively successful as Spurs - is totally reliant on one player is
lazy and inaccurate, but the Tottenham without Lennon looks a far less
threatening proposition than with him.
It's often been said that Harry Redknapp, fire-fighter and decent manager though he
is, is not and never will be the man to take anyone to the Champions
League. The absence of any discernable Plan B certainly adds weight to
that argument.
Nick Miller

Your Comments



treeman


"Certainly
Lennon is our only truly world-class player. I think there's a chance
Modric could be if he imposes himself a little bit more. But yeah
you're right, we've needed someone to play alongside Palacios for far
too long now. It would be good if Modric could be effective in the
middle, but, as good as he is, he's a bit lightweight for the centre. "

Drunkenmaster


"You
know whats really boring, people who constantly pick a single missing
player and decide had they played side X would certainly have won,
without question.
Champs league final, Fletcher is soooo good at what he does,
they might have won, he might have made a HUGE difference. My ass, he's
played in all(or almost all) Utd's defeats this year, he's not very
talented and mostly just fouls. Likewise Hargreaves was pretty poor at
Utd in central mid, was starting to show some ok attacking football on
the wing before injury, has realistically barely played for Utd, but
everyones wrongly "remembering" he's a world class defensive
midfielder, which he isn't.
Lennon, so fantastic that against a completley unfit Sylvinho,
who let him in behind without any effort, failed to provide more than
one dangerous ball in a couple dozen attempts. Any player who gets on
the ball a lot will look impressive, his final ball always has and
always will suck, as will his decision making, a brief run of a few
goals in a year where EVERYONE is scoring WAY higher than ever before,
indicates one thing, the leagues defence is worse, not every single
last player in the league suddenly got better this year. Remember when
Lennon was fit but Spurs went through their last spell, it was Modric
who was the key man who they couldn't win without. He's back, Lennon's
out, now its Lennon thats the reason they couldn't win. Last season
while Lennon played and spurs couldnt' win(infact, make that the last 4
years) they'd mention King as the reason(who played as they were
soundly spanked by Arsenal this year when he put in one of the worst
defensive performances in the league this year) for not being able to
win.
Its an excuse, and its inaccurate, distance makes the heart grow
fonder, but it doesn't really mean that players any better than he is.
Lennon is balls, and Bolton were great today."

good post baz. i wish hudd would get in the box more. and i go love wp runs. hes guna score soon

any team would be weakend with the loss of lennon, imo bentley has really stepped up since hes come back in though.but imagine playing well only knowing as soon as lennons fit your back on a*se warming duty on the bench, cant be good eh .

Makes me die seeing these articles by every halfwit with a keyboard and a yearning to be heard.

I'd take these halfwits seriously if I could ever believe that they'd watched a game.
He claims that we have dominated these games and yet, shortly after, questions our ability to break teams down.
This is the point where I stop taking anything the clown says seriously. We have no problems breaking teams down. We break down teams better than almost anyone in the Premiership.

Our problem is that, currently, we couldn't hit a Cows a*se with a Banjo!

Fix the front line we find the solution and we'd whip anyone, and I mean ANYONE.

It would be nice to actually read an article from someone who actually watches the games rather than trying to sound like he knows what he's talking about.