A Squad Game or Harry's Favourites?

While the mid-week Champions League endeavours are being depicted as somewhat of a flop in comparison to those of our neighbours (a pub team with their three best players injured and a one-armed goalkeeper would give both Braga and Zilina a game is a fact that appears is being overlooked), in reality, it was a great result but hopefully one that Harry has learned several lessons from.

Over the last number of weeks Redknapp has been hailed as the potential saviour of the flagging England team even though the great criticism of the national team is that for years it has been picked on reputation and not form, a trait we see from Harry almost every week. Although we are still a long-way short of a 'Free Sebastien' campaign, sightings of our Cameroonian centre-back have been oddly rare this season.

With Corluka giving performances eerily reminiscent of Dean Austin, not only on Tuesday but for the entire season and Younes Kaboul's unexpected 'Cafu-esque' (an overreaction perhaps, but who saw that one coming?) displays from right back in the concluding matches of last year it's odd that we haven't seen Bassong in the middle, Younes on the right and Charlie as far from the team as humanly possible.

Despite Robbie Keane's contribution since returning from his Anfield sojourn being as meaningful as a wedding ring on a Chelsea player, he still is awarded valuable minutes on the pitch. With our exceptional first half performance on Tuesday largely due to the space afforded to Van der Vaart, why was Robbie called upon when bringing on the unutilised Niko Kranjcar wouldn't have necessitated a change in system while also sparing every supporter the time they wasted deciding just which of their aging relatives would have been able to pick out Gareth Bale on that wasted three on two counter attack when Robbie inexplicably managed to have his pass intercepted.

Carlo Cudicini even at 37 years old remains an adequate shot stopper; however, in his advancing age he seems to have all the physical presence of a particularly frightened kitten. While his saves in the latter stages against West Brom were duly lauded in securing a point, he was out muscled in the build up to their untidy equaliser and despite Assou-Ekotto taking the majority of the blame for the first goal conceded in Bremen, there are unconfirmed reports that in the time Carlo had to come for the left-wing cross, Wayne Rooney was able to embroil himself in 73 different sex-scandals. If new-signing Stipe Pletikosa isn't an improvement then why was he signed in the first place?

Far from being as concerned about the developments this season as most, Spurs are not performing anywhere close to as badly as the media and some supporters would have you believe. The daily articles surrounding what exactly is wrong with Lennon or Palacios or Pavlyuchenko or the kit man would wrongly indicate some sort of crisis. After battering Man City like a piece of Glaswegian confectionary in the opener but only coming away with a point, a hard-fought and battling away win at Stoke, an aberration against Wigan and an uninspired but hardly valueless draw against West Brom, the return is far from worrying but you can't help but wonder if points are being dropped by using more established players rather than those that offer the greater chance of success.

Written by JDB

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