Category Archives: Champions League

5 Conclusions from Tottenham 3-1 Manchester City

Leave a reply

1. Andre Villas-Boas knows how to adapt

If there was one particular problem that wound up Spurs fans during Harry Redknapp’s tenure in charge at White Hart Lane it was his apparent lack of a plan B. If things weren’t going his way, Redknapp’s inconsistent and uninventive substitutions often caused much grumbling amongst the Tottenham faithful. Thankfully for Spurs supporters, Andre Villas-Boas has no such problem in changing the game plan if it isn’t working, as we saw during this game. In the space of 9 minutes, off came useless space-waster Emmanuel Adebayor, hit-and-miss midfielder Gylfi Sigurdsson and tiring battler Scott Parker and in their stead appeared Jermain Defoe, Lewis Holtby and Tom Huddlestone.

Holtby offered the dynamism missing from the central midfield, Huddlestone the sumptuous passing and Defoe the deadly accuracy and will to shoot so clearly missing from Adebayor’s game. Within 4 minutes of the final of these substitutions (Defoe), Tottenham had equalised at 1-1. Seven minutes later, Spurs had struck with 2 more goals to send a dazed Manchester City to a defeat that looked so highly unlikely in the first half. Kudos, AVB.

To use a meme:

3 goals in 7 minutes

3 goals in 7 minutes

2. Roberto Mancini has an interesting approach to substitutions

Having seen his side surrender their deserved 1-0 lead, a lead they’d gained during a fairly comfortable and impressive first half performance, Roberto Mancini still had 2 substitutions available to him. The minute after Bale scored to make it 3-1, the Italian decided to replace Edin Dzeko with Scott Sinclair. That’s Scott Sinclair with 14 appearances and 0 goals for City this season; as opposed to the equally available, Sergio Aguero… 34 appearances, 15 goals.

Not only that, but in the last couple of minutes, Gael Clichy the pacy full-back came off for… lumbering centre-back, Joleon Lescott, who inexplicably was sent up front in a desperate attempt to grab a goal.

If Manchester United do win the league against Aston Villa, surely Roberto Mancini would have preferred to go out fighting than go out with self-defeating, mind-boggling, bizarre substitutions in a game they should and could have won.

3. Jermain Defoe should be Tottenham’s first-choice striker… always

Jermain Defoe may not be as consistent as the very top goalscorers in the Premier League but as finisher he is the equal of any of them. His venomous  instinctive strike past Joe Hart against Manchester City summed up exactly what has been missing from Spurs’ team. It is lucky for Tottenham that Gareth Bale has stepped into the breach and performed so excellently in 2013; with both men in the team, have Spurs now got the firepower to carry through their challenge for 4th?

4. Emmanuel Adebayor has had one of the worst seasons in the history of time

28 appearances, 6 goals in all competitions, 20 appearances, 3 goals in the Premier League. Emmanuel Adebayor’s record doesn’t do his performances justice… he’s been worse than they suggest. Tired, slow, poor reactions, bad touch, Defoe’s return surely spells the end of Adebayor’s unimpressive stint up front for Spurs.

5. The battle for 4th will go down to the wire, the ‘battle’ for 1st won’t

That’s it then. Unless something extraordinary happens, Manchester United will win the Premier League tomorrow night at home to Aston Villa. Whilst Paul Lambert’s team have finally started to show themselves to be better than 11 strangers straight out of school, it’s hard to see past a United victory. And there will end Manchester City’s title defence, as disappointingly surrendered as it was insanely won last season.

As for a place in the top 4, it is deliciously balanced following Tottenham’s impressive victory and Liverpool’s controversial late equaliser at home to Rafa’s Chelsea. The table now has Arsenal in 3rd, 63 points, 34 games played, Chelsea 4th, 62 points, 33 games played and Spurs 5th, 61 points, 33 games played.

Arsenal still have Manchester United to play, although Ferguson’s men will probably already have the title in the bag by then, so next Sunday might prove a good time (if there is such a thing) to play the reds. Spurs, meanwhile have 4 of the bottom 8 to play before the end of the season and Chelsea have still to face Manchester United and Everton. The big game, however looks likely to be the showdown at Stamford Bridge when Chelsea take on Tottenham on Wednesday the 8th of May.

Will The Levy Break?

Leave a reply
The burden of standing up to the big boys. Will the Levy break?

The burden of standing up to the big boys. Will the Levy break?

Daniel Levy has proven himself to be a shrewd and often ruthless operator during his 10 years in charge of Tottenham Hotspur. The bespectacled Cambridge graduate has overseen Spurs’ development from perennial mid-table under achievers to contenders for the Champions League places and conquerors of Milan and Inter.

Levy expressed on Saturday in entirely equivocal terms, Tottenham’s apparently immovable stance on the sale of Luka Modric. Following the Croatian’s statement outlining his desire to move to Chelsea, many thought it a foregone conclusion that the midfield maestro would depart White Hart Lane in the very near future; the pre-eminent dominance of player power to win through yet again no doubt.

It was in this context that Levy released his categorical statement on the future of Modric in particular and Spurs’ best players in general; the statement is reproduced below.

“I wish to make it absolutely clear, as I have said previously, that none of our key players will be sold this summer. We are building a team for the future to consistently play at the highest level and retaining quality players is crucial to that.

“In respect of Luka Modric, we are not prepared to sell, at any price, to Chelsea Football Club or any other club.

“We made our stance on this issue abundantly clear in writing to Chelsea. They chose to ignore it and then subsequently made the offer public.

“For the avoidance of any doubt, let me reiterate that we shall not enter into any negotiations whatsoever, with any Club, regarding Luka.

“We now consider this matter closed.”

This short statement has put Levy in a potentially difficult position. He now cannot sell Modric without arousing legitimate outrage amongst the Tottenham support and without irrevocably damaging his and the club’s reputation. The sale of the central midfielder would also effectively end Tottenham’s pretensions of establishing themselves as genuine title contenders.

Many fans respect the ‘no dice’ attitude of Daniel Levy. He has taken a stand against the prevailing practice of players moving clubs when they want, on their terms. Levy has taken the view that Spurs must retain the services of their best players to have any hope of challenging at the top of the table and thanks to his prudence in tying Modric and Bale to long-term contracts, he is in a position to say, ‘we will not sell’ to the Premier League’s big boys.

Chelsea, for their part, were cute in their approach to a potential transfer – the risible offer of £22m (just £6m more than Spurs paid Dinamo Zagreb for the Croatian in 2008) was clearly not a serious transfer offer. Rather, its aim, which was successfully met, was to unsettle the Coratian and to plant in his mind the seed of possibility – ‘we want you, look what you could be winning’. Cue player requesting a move to Stamford Bridge. The Blues presumably expected Levy then to crumble and accept an improved bid, probably in the region of £30m-35m; indeed, Chelsea were probably as surprised as most at the unambiguous nature of the statement released by Daniel Levy on Saturday.

Assuming that Levy sticks to his guns over the sale of Modric, he will be left with a tricky situation. When a player says, in no uncertain terms, that he wants to move on, his wish, in modern football, is normally granted. Clubs tend to take the view that they should not force a player to remain as he would lose motivation and negatively affect team morale, and the club itself would lose out on a transfer fee.

Levy has effectively told Modric he will definitely be staying at White Hart Lane for the foreseeable future; how then will the mild-mannered, apparently genial midfielder react? It is hard to imagine a repeat of the sulking and skulking that characterised Dimitar Berbatov’s acrimonious departure reoccurring with Modric, who by all accounts has an excellent relationship with Harry Redknapp, his manager.

The best way to assuage Modric’s concerns over Spurs lack of title-winning credentials would be for Levy to demonstrate that he is willing to match the club’s lofty ambitions with an aggressive transfer policy. The chairman’s belligerence in retaining Modric needs to be equally expressed in the clubs acquisitions this transfer window. Harry Redknapp never tires of suggesting that Tottenham are two or three “top, top” players away from creating a credible team ready to contend for the title; after insisting on the retention of Modric, Levy must now put his money were his mouth is.

The summer is still young and this is but one of the many sagas that will reach conclusion before the transfer window shuts in August. However, this particular story is more engaging than most as the futures of not just Luka Modric, but Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, hinge on what happens in the next two months.

The Vital 2 Players Spurs Must Sign

Leave a reply

Tottenham, as ‘Appy ‘Arry Redknapp hasn’t been shy of telling us over the course of this term, have been competitive at the right end of the Premier League table this season. However, despite the impressive run to the Champions League quarter-finals and the ongoing battle for 4th place in the Premier League, you can’t help but feel that Spurs are just one or two players away from actually putting up a genuine fight for the league title.

Nobody could deny that Tottenham have acquitted themselves admirably in the Champions League, in the club’s first foray into Europe’s premier club competition since 1961/2, they have surprised everyone by not only topping a group that included reigning European champions, Inter, but by then knocking out current leaders of Serie A, AC Milan in the second round. The problem for Spurs has been maintaining momentum in the Premier League.

Redknapp’s men are currently in 5th place, just 4 points behind Manchester City, with a game in hand, and it seems the battle for 4th between the Londoners and the Mancunians will go to the wire as it did last season. But Tottenham could, and perhaps should at this stage, have been comfortably in the Champions League places and looking ahead to the battle for 1st, if they had earned better results in recent games against Wolves (Draw), Blackpool (Loss) and West Ham (Draw).

Another 4th placed finish will be great for Spurs, especially considering money-bags Man City’s superior resources, but to make that next step to becoming title contenders, Spurs need to tweak their squad slightly, with a couple of choice additions. It’s well established that Spurs’ strikers have, in the Premier League, under-performed this season, with just 11 goals between them and while the signing of creative maestro Rafael Van der Vaart has, in its own way, perhaps made things more difficult for the strikers, with Redknapp adopting a 4-5-1 system earlier in the season, this is no real excuse for the forwards’ profligacy.

Equally, there have been overt problems at centre-back for Tottenham this season. Spurs have, for large parts of this season, seen an inconsistent selection in the centre-half pairing. On paper, Spurs have great options in central defense, with Ledley King, Jonathan Woodgate, William Gallas, Michael Dawson, Sebastien Bassong and Younes Kaboul to call on; but in practice, injuries to Woodgate, King, Kaboul and Dawson, and Redknapp’s lack of confidence in Bassong have made centre-back something of a problem position for Tottenham. As Spurs cannot rely on the fitness of a large proportion of their central defenders, it must be a priority to bring in a top quality centre-back to try and add reliability and consistency to the back line.

So, here they are, the two players I think could give Tottenham that extra edge and push Spurs towards a genuine attack on the Premier League title in 2011/12.

Edinson Cavani – Striker – Palermo (on loan at Napoli) – 24 years of age – 23 caps for Uruguay

Cavani is a Uruguayan goal-scoring machine who has notched 22 goals in 30 Serie A appearances this season. Blessed with shooting ability in both feet and a keen eye for goal, Cavani is also a mobile striker whose positional sense would fit perfectly with the flowing, precise football that Tottenham play (when Crouch isn’t in the team).

At 24, Cavani has the right blend of youth and experience and the thought of a natural goal-scorer like him playing off passes from Tottenham’s creative and attacking midfield is one that most Spurs fans would relish. Tottenham have already made clear that for the right striker, they are willing to pay big money (the bid for Rossi in January was for over £20m), so the high fee, expected to be around £20million, should not be a stumbling block.

Per Mertesacker – Centre-Back – Werder Bremen – 26 years of age – 73 caps for Germany

Mertesacker’s contract with Bremen is up in 2012, so the German outfit are looking to cash in on the giant centre-back this summer while they can still command a decent transfer fee. Spurs would have to pay around £8.5million, but this would certainly not be a problem for ‘Dynamite’ Daniel Levy.

The commanding centre-back, who at just 26 has already won 73 caps for Germany since making his debut in 2004, has been with Bremen for 5 years. He is a solid, dependable and assured centre-half, with an excellent goal-scoring record for a defender (around 1 goal every 10/11 games) and a great deal of experience on the highest stage (he has played in the Champions League, as well as World Cups 2006 and 2010 and the 2008 European Championships).

I appreciate that some people will be suspect of the fact that neither of these players has played in England before, and this is a valid concern, such signings always carry that element of risk, but to me, the quality and experience of these players suggests, at the very least, that will not be over-awed by the Premier League or its fast and physical style. Equally, Cavani does not have Champions League experience, but his performances (49 goals in 99 games in the last 3 seasons) in one of the best leagues in the world against teams considered to be experts in defensive play are surely proof enough of his quality.

Other options are, of course, available from England and abroad and it may well turn out that Harry Redknapp doesn’t consider either of these players as suitable recruits for Spurs, but in my opinion the addition of these two internationals to Tottenham’s starting line-up would provide them with an added guile and all-round quality in the shape of Cavani and an assured, reliable and experienced defender in Mertesacker, who together could help the club move forward in 2012.