During this long run of North London derbies without a Spurs win there have been games that we deserved to win and were robbed; there have been games where we were well worth a draw, and were robbed; and there have been games where Spurs fell way below what was required and consequently were stuffed.
This match falls squarely into that final category. If Spurs have conceded a worse goal in 125+ years than the one we laid on a plate for Fabregas….well, I don’t want to see the footage.
Every Spurs supporter I’ve spoken to is unhappy about the way we went about this game. Harry can bemoan how we “committed suicideâ€, and we certainly did that (we seemed bent on it even before the Woolwich scored, such was Huddlestone’s carelessness), but after saying “we can only play one wayâ€, he set the team up with Crouch alone up front and Keane wide left, and hoped that runners from midfield could pick up the knock downs. It goes without saying that no Tottenham supporter wants to see the team play that way, and once we were behind we quickly found that we had little ammunition with which to respond.
Of course we missed Modric, Defoe and Lennon badly. We had no guile and even more importantly we had no pace without them. You can’t just surrender the initiative without having a threat at the other end to keep the other team on their toes. Well, you can, but not if you want to win the game. We put ourselves in a totally one-dimensional situation, and suddenly, from 43 minutes onwards, it was too late.
Even then, 2-0 down at half time, we had a chance to change it and didn’t. Why wasn’t Kranjcar introduced? Eventually it was Gareth Bale, an attacking full back, who came on to pick up the left midfield role. It took us an hour to have a shot on target. Not good enough Spurs.
I’ve had enough of reading people like Robbie Keane spouting crap about how we’ve caught up with the Woolwich. We haven’t. There’s a long way to go. Things like that just make me (unforgiveably!) end up agreeing with Wenger. Can we just shut up and try and play some football? Please?
Star man: Jermaine Jenas – provided some rare dynamism
Worst perfomer: Tom Huddlestone – wretched display. Slow of mind and movement, predictable passing. A big step backwards for the big man.
Best moment: For the second week on the trot I’m struggling….
Tactics: Caution. Crouch the focal point for high balls, Keane pulled wide left. We had few options with which to change the game – not entirely Harry’s fault, but good players (O’Hara, Taarabt…) are out on loan.
Oppositions fans: Same as usual – wrong side of the river.
By Andy Knaggs
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