Three
defeats in four games, two of which were no-shows, the other
being quite
honourable. Three defeats, nonetheless.
Big
Marty, it's time to think about it son.
With
only three points on the board, it's time to make some
changes. Some will be
temporary, others permanent, but they need to happen and
soon.
Top
of the list of priorities must be the removal of one Edgar
Davids from the team, permanently, and fast, as he's a bad
and disruptive influence on and off the pitch. The
dressing room dust-up with Zokora is a good example of this,
not to mention last year's
training-ground fight with Robbie Keane. Crucially,
he's become the 12th man for the
opposition (assuming, of course, that they don't already
have the referee !) and is
the quintessential reason as to why we've started so poorly.
Don't get me wrong, I
realise that there are others to blame also, but none more
so than the volatile
Dutchman. We can't get shot of him 'til January, but
there's no reason why he can't
play reserve team football until then.
One
man that certainly deserves more than second-string action
is Danny Murphy, who
missed out last season through lack of fitness and
sharpness, plus the position we
were in, where we couldn't afford too many passengers.
However, the ex-Liverpool manhas worked really hard in
pre-season, but still only gets a place on the bench, if at
all and with Carrick gone, he's surely one of the better
passers left at the club.
With
Malbranque on the shelf, you'd have to stick with Tainio
wide left and Lennon
on the opposite flank. That's the easy bit sorted.
Now, who fills the massive hole
left by Carrick, who turned out for us against Man U ?
Today it appeared that
MJ tried to use two holding midfielders, in the returning
Zokora and a debuting
Hossam Ghaly, who failed dismally to assert himself, yet
somehow lasted the 90
minutes. That was a shock indeed, as I was beginning
to wonder if the Egyptian would
ever get a start at Tottenham, having been out in the cold
ever since his arrival in
January and it wasn't the easiest match to throw him into
either.
Zokora, on the other hand, played a lot better and will
surely get a run in the side
now, whereas the future isn't so rosy for Jenas, who put in
a typically invisible
performance. I just cannot see what he brings to the
side, certainly in terms of
passing, tackling, creativity and goalscoring. It's
all good when you pop up with
the occasional goal against Man U (twice last term) and
Sheffield Utd, but it's no
good if we continue to fall short of our aim. The last
time I checked we were
supposed to be a team headed for the Champions League
places, if not this term than
next and right now we look a million miles away from that
and it's because there's
not only a lack of cohesiveness but no physical presence in
midfield.
The
annoying thing is that we have the players to execute this
balance, but our head
coach is not quite on the ball yet, as far as team selection
goes. I feel it's time
to take the shackles off Huddlestone and put either he or
Zokora in the holding
role, with Murphy in the playmaker role. That move
would be very good for Lennon, as
well as the forwards, who've suffered from a lack of service
so far this season.
I
don't know if he suffered an injury playing for England, but
Lennon's absence from
the squad was a tad mysterious, for sure. Spurs
definitely missed him and I hope
that his omission was tactical.
We
also missed the aggression, tenacity and industry of Tainio,
who was rested after
midweek duty for Finland. Surely, the only reason
Ghaly debuted was because Tainio
wasn't there and I'm sure Ghaly won't get another chance
anytime soon.
After
today's spirited, but at times disjointed, performance MJ
would be advised to
drop Davids and Jenas permanently, with Murphy and
Huddlestone coming in
temporarily, to see what works and what doesn't. I'd
keep Zokora in the side as we
didn't pay £8.2m for him to just sit on the bench and, once
settled, can be a
midfield destroyer for us. All he needs is games
to build up his confidence and get
used to the rigours of the Premiership. I'd put the
Ivory Coast man on the right
side of a midfield trio, with Huddlestone taking over the
holding role, while Murphy
would be toward the left. This could see just one
striker up front, if Tainio is to
be retained on the wing, or perhaps Keane would drop deep
instead.
I
dunno, at least Jol has genuine options in attack with Mido
putting in a spirited
display, despite obviously lacking sharpness, as evident
when he missed two sitters
late in the game. Defoe was also guilty of missing a
great chance, heading upward
instead of down with the ball seemingly coming off his
shoulder, which shows he had the wrong idea in mind.
Keano
did bugger all out there today and it'll be interesting once
Berbatov comes
back from injury, as Mido hardly deserves to make way for
the Bulgarian, not with
Keano and Defoe misfiring as they've been lately.
People like to make noise about
how our strikers aren't doing the business, but they're only
as good as the service
from midfield, which is non-existent, so we end up back at
that subject.
Apart
from his howler that led to their winner, Robbo was solid
and is still the
man. The defence looked as good as they've ever done,
with the King back alongside
Dawson, Assou-Ekotto looking strong at left-back, and
Chimbonda having a fantastic
debut at right-back, looking as though he's been there
forever.
So
all it takes is for MJ to sort out that midfield, sort the
crass from the class,
the needy from the greedy and the buyers from the sellers
and we could be in
business. Spurs could've won today and there was
enough promise to give one hope for
the immediate future. However, before that happens, it's
time for a change.
SJ
WIGHTMAN |