Badhead

There was a lot of rubbish talked before yesterday’s North London Derby, including that this was the first time going into the fixture this century that Tottenham had a better side than Arsenal, and that Tottenham were certainties to win.

On the first point, people have short memories. In 2006, with three games left of the season, Tottenham went to the last North London Derby at Highbury above Arsenal in the league, and battered them for the best part of 90 minutes. Arsenal salvaged an undeserved draw with a late equalizer, but Martin Jol’s side were clearly the better footballing team.

Secondly, there are no certainties, and anything can happen in derbies.

The Tottenham team news when it came through before the walk to the ground was a surprise. It was the same team that produced the best performance of the season against Newcastle two weeks earlier and was probably picked with the idea that two strikers, Emmanuel Adebayor and Louis Saha, would unsettle a vulnerable Arsenal defence, that has had problems throughout the season, home and away, from Blackburn to Milan.

In the home fixture earlier this season Harry Redknapp got the tactics wrong, playing Jermain Defoe up front with Adebayor, and with Rafa Van Der Vaart out on the right, leading to Spurs being outnumbered in the middle, until Sandro came on in the second half. Despite that, we won, and still had four one-on-ones in the game, created mainly through the vision and skill of Van Der Vaart.

This season, when playing a diamond in the second-half at home to Everton and in the cup at Watford, and three at the back in at Stevenage and in the second-half against Stoke Redknapp has tried formations where Spurs could play two-up-front and not get outnumbered. Both formations rely on the width coming from full-backs/wing-backs and yesterday, with Niko Kranjcar tucking inside, and Bale fluid, it looked at time this might need to be the case.

We started off well, playing a very high line, compressing the space, with Scott Parker and Luka Modric excellent in midfield, and we soon created, and scored, when Adebayor and Saha linked well after great work from Kyle Walker. Arsenal soon got to grips with the game, retaining possession well, and pushing Spurs back. It always looked though, that we would score a second goal on the break, so big were the spaces Arsenal were leaving. 

Walker twice broke before Modric put Gareth Bale in, who from a central position powered into the box and won a penalty. Adebayor, after a long wait, took a fantastic penalty, totally different from the poor kick he took at West Brom. Minutes later Bale this time had a run on the inside left, but rather than playing the ball across the face of goal, where Adebayor was in the box, chose to shoot at the near post. The right decision and a third goal then could have shattered Arsenal.

As it was, even at 2-0, Arsenal still had confidence on the ball, and the first goal in the second half was always going to be vital. Before then though, Arsenal made their spell of possession count, pulling their first goal back which got their crowd behind them for the first time after 40 minutes, and then gaining all the momentum in the game with equalizer two minutes later.

At half time Michael Dawson had an extensive warm-up, suggesting Ledley King may come off, or less likely, Redknapp would take Benoit Assou-Ekotto off (who was back from a minor operation and whose weak clearance preceded Arsenal’s equalizer), and go to a back three, allowing Van Der Vaart, who was also going through his paces, to come on for Kranjcar, and play behind the two strikers.

Dawson didn’t come on, but Van Der Vaart did, for Saha, with Sandro on for Kranjcar, so beefing up the midfield that was once again outnumbered and overrun, and reverting to the 4-3-3 that worked so well at Norwich, with a fluid front three of Bale, Adebayor and Van Der Vaart.

But the Dawson’s warm-up was the big clue. Ledley King was struggling, as he has done more this season than ever before, and all of Arsenal’s three second-half goals came in the channel between him and Ekotto.

When we were 3-2 down we look composed on the two rare occassions when we had the ball, having the confidence to pass when under pressure, and moving the ball around well. But we never created a chance and then opened up too quickly, when there was still time to get back the game. Arsenal exploited the space at the back, and unlike a few other away defeats we have suffered in North London Derbies in the last few years, they were deserved winners. They kept possession well on the day, moved well of the ball, created chances, and scored five goals. It was their Cup Final, and they were due to win a final eventually.

We have a wealth of talent, and apart from Van Persie no Arsenal player would get in the Spurs team, and few would get on the bench. The trick is getting the selection right. 

While there was a logic in playing two-up-front, in games against a team whose game is based on possession, it was dangerous to go into the game without three in the middle, and led to us being dominated. Also, a couple of key factors when trying to work out the winning formula: our team is ALWAYS improved when a fit Aaron Lennon plays, and Rafa Van Der Vaart adds something to the team no-one else at the club does, through a combination of personality, footballing intelligence and technical class. 

Which suggests that the 4-5-1 we all expected should have been the starting line-up.

If everyone is fit that will surely be the team that starts against Manchester United next Sunday, with Sandro in for the suspended Parker, and Lennon and Van Der Vaart back in the team. And maybe the one upfront could be Saha against his old club. We could do with the comeback that we showed when we lost against Portsmouth 22 months ago. It’s about time we beat United, and about time we won a six-pointer. We are more than capable of going on another good run.

MG

My e-book on Tottenham Hotspur's return to the European Cup for the first time in 49 seasons is available to buy for £4.27 (inc VAT) on Amazon and Smashwords.

 

Harry Redknapp: Spurs & England

My piece on Harry Redknapp and his options regarding the England job, and Tottenham, from earlier this week on The Substantive -  http://thesubstantive.com/2012/02/nothing-to-lose

My e-book on Tottenham Hotspur's return to the European Cup for the first time in 49 season is available to buy from Amazon and Smashwords.

Ghosts in the Eyes

For our journey to Manchester on Sunday morning I made a Bruce Springsteen compilation CD for the car that was driving us up there. The CD started with Thunder Road, a majestic song that looks ahead to reaching the Promised Land after a lifetime of past disappointments. Setting the scene for the story in the song, it contains the line “Like a vision she dances across the porch as the radio plays”. The following morning I doubt I was the only one whose first vision when they woke to their own radio alarm was a yellow ball rolling across the goal, Joe Hart stranded, and Jermain Defoe poised to come onto to it...

I have seen enough football to know that vision may stay with me for a long time.

Losing that match dramatically at the Etihad has given some air for pundits who despise Tottenham to talk about a title challenge now over and self-hating Spurs fans who want justification for their ignorant and cynical belief that a title challenge was a delusional idea. Yet stoppage time on Sunday showed the swings and roundabouts in sport, the tight margins involved, and gave a perfect example of the term ‘six-pointer’.

We went to City on the back of a disappointing result at home to Wolves, where a few individual performances dropped below the high standards set this season. It is wrong to say that title talk in the preceding days caused that slight dip; there was no problem with the mentality, though it did look a case of one too many games after a hectic period, having also played an extra game three days earlier, with the game in hand against Everton.

Both Michael Dawson and Aaron Lennon, starting their third games in a week after coming back from injury, struggled, while tiredness also seemed to effect others, including Younes Kaboul, who as with the Everton game, began shakily and with errors. The atmosphere inside the ground to begin with was good though, with the expectancy raising the volume to start with, rather then inducing nervousness, which sometimes can happen.

But there were three stoppages in the first fifteen minutes, we never really got the up-tempo start we would have liked and we soon ended up chasing the game, as Wolves suddenly had something to hold onto. Perhaps through inexperience, Kyle Walker, cheaply gave away possession via a throw-in in our own half. He seemed to recover well enough to see the ball out for a goal-kick but a bad decision by the officials led to a Wolves corner and an opening goal.

Despite a concerted effort we failed to equalize before half-time as another vital decision went against Adebayor (although the fact he is offside so many times suggests he didn’t know he was being played on when he converted the Gareth Bale shot that looked goal-ward bound). But there were still 40 mins to go when we equalized. The goal came from fantastic movement again by Rafa Van Der Vaart, taking up a position in the box before using great technique to engineer room to pass to Bale, whose who lay-off in turn set up Luka Modric, who finally hit the target with one of a number of shots from him on the day from the edge of the area. That was the time to go on and make the pressure tell.  A second goal then and Wolves would have buckled. But they saw that period out, and we dropped two points.

Teams will drop points in the second half of the season. The key is making sure that when we don’t win, we don’t let it affect us, and get straight back on another winning run. Sunday was more than just another game though.

We started off well enough at the Etihad with a five man midfield and playing a large portion of the first fifteen minutes in their half. We continued to be comfortable until half-time, with Sergio Auguero’s individual ability the only threat, and masking Man City’s general play, which was decidedly average.

City started the second half off the better though before we countered four times, Van Der Vaart and Bale both looking to get in advanced positions without creating a clear-cut chance: Bale slipping the one time he could have had a strike on goal. Within two minutes City took the lead, Nasri’s movement and clinical finish doing justice to Silva’s killer ball. From nowhere, it was 2-0, Lescott given a free run to bundle home from a corner, the second soft goal we have conceded from a corner in two games.

Fortunately we were back in the game straight away. Jermain Defoe expertly capitalised on Savic’s error, finishing coolly and naturally, giving us a springboard for a comeback.  Lennon stretched City on the left after combining with Bale and Van Der Vaart before coming inside and, as so many times for us, providing a vital assist, this time to Bale, who proved how dangerous he is from the centre with a wonderful first time shot.

Whatever followed later, seeing the ball hit the back of the net, and the ensuring celebrations that had me hugging all and sundry and took me out dancing onto the concourse behind me, produced a few endorphins. And reports of an unusually animated and excited press box at the Emirates as Bale scored, was another example of the potential significance of the goal. As League games go, this was the biggest since our visit to City in May 2010, and while a positive result could only be judged in hindsight, that equalizer meant everything was possible.

We tightened up in midfield with Livermore on for Van Der Vaart, shortly after City brought on Balotelli for Dzeko. Lennon swapped again, Ekotto providing the width on the left, with Bale again dangerous with his movement from the centre.

City were there for the taking. On the back of two home defeats in cup competitions, without Yaya Toure and Vincent Kompany, and now under pressure against a better team. We pressed them high up the pitch looking to score the next goal. There is no doubting the resilient qualities of this Tottenham team, with second-half fight backs away at Inter and Arsenal last season, and a winning mentality that has been evident for three seasons now.

We had half chances, but no clear cut opportunity until the first minute of stoppage time and the aforementioned chance for Defoe. Livermore put Bale in, and his run and ball were perfect, taking all the defenders and Hart out of the equation. Defoe held his run so not to get offside but just failed to make sufficient contact.

Fine margins that could leave ghosts in our eyes.

Pienaar was close to putting Defoe in again before City then had a spell with the ball, while their fans were leaving in droves. All our men were behind the ball, and we eventually won the ball back, but a long ball from Ekotto gave it straight back. They then hit a long ball of their own and got behind us.

The one player in the world you would want defending in that situation is Ledley King. I have been lucky enough to see Baresi, Blanc, Hierro and Maldini play in the flesh, and Ledley is as good as any of them. It was a cruel way to end his personal record of 11 wins in a row and such a rare occurrence that he has mistimed a tackle his foul will be as memorable for that fact, let alone the significance and timing of the occasion.

But having seen all but one of the competitive games Ledley has played at White Hart Lane in his career, plus a fair few away and on international duty, he has noticeably found it harder this season. It is evident in the physical pain he clearly has when he is on the pitch and inevitable with his injuries. He would still be in my team every time if fit to play, but those days will sadly be rarer.

Television pictures later showed that Balotelli, who won the penalty and then scored it in stoppage time caused by prolonged treatment to Scott Parker, whom he petulantly but dangerously attempted to stamp, shouldn’t have been on the pitch. And neither should have Lescott, who was shown to have forearm smashed Kaboul.

Howard Webb, who has given us so many atrocious decisions in the past but appeared to have an okay game, apparently ignored Balotelli’s stamp, claiming he didn’t see it, which looks implausible from the pictures. It’s more credible he missed Lescott’s foul, but beyond belief that he has said yesterday Lescott would have only received a booking, meaning that City are fortunate in the extreme that Savic is not their only available natural centre back for their next league game.

And we shouldn’t lose sight of City yet. Technically we are now bang in the middle of a top five – five points ahead of fourth place Chelsea, five points behind second place United; eight points of the top and nine points above fifth place Arsenal.  But we still need to keep on City’s tail.

On paper they have a winnable run of games coming up and importantly the momentum is now with them. But history suggests points will be dropped. Conversely, considering the top three placings, the Man United win later that on Sunday afternoon may benefit Tottenham, as it keeps pressure on City, and everything suggests it will be pressure, if anything, that means City don’t go on and win the League this season.

Also strangely, a good parallel for Tottenham at this stage is Arsenal, who won the title in 1998 from being 9 points behind United as late as March. It was their first title for seven years and they were outsiders for most of the season, but were the form team, and won the double at a canter in the end, with a comparatively small squad. They had games in hand, and importantly won their six-pointer away, which we didn’t do on Sunday, but United then had pedigree City don’t have.

City could yet buckle, but all Tottenham can do now is get on another good run. As Springsteen also wrote in Thunder Road “You can hide ‘neath your covers and study your pain”, but feeling sorry for yourself is not an option.

We are as good as any team in the League, we need to pull out of Manchester and start winning again, forget the disappointment of Sunday, and blind out the distractions from Southwark Crown Court. It is a strong group of players and if they play to potential there is an outside chance Defoe’s miss will not be the definitive moment of our league season.

MG

My e-book on Tottenham Hotspur's return to the European Cup after an absence of 49 seasons is now available to buy on Amazon and Smashwords.

Nite Moves

In the pub after the cup win against Cheltenham, conversation turned to football superstition. As someone who justifies arguments with logic, reason, science and facts, there was a bit of surprise with the news that I have made an effort to drink out of my Spurs mug on matchdays since we have embarked on our fabulous run since winning at Wolves in September. I like to do my bit.

I do recognise fortune. The fortune of being born in the First World and the greatest City in the World; the fortune of good health; and the fortune of seeing a Spurs team in the eighties that played magnificent football. I was also fortunate that my first game was up in the Paxton Upper Tier, where as well as a good atmosphere (the banging of the wooden seats is still unforgettable now), it was also a great view of a great team, both then and now.

And last night, once again from the Paxton, I had a wonderful view of the artist Rafa Van Der Vaart.

I like art generally, having been to Picasso museums in Malaga and Barcelona, Van Gogh and Rijksmuseums in Amsterdam, as well as countless other exhibitions in places including Budapest, Dublin, Stockholm, Manchester and Madrid amongst others, often while my primary reason for travelling there in the first place was for football. Yet just as easy on the eye and stimulating to the mind is watching Van Der Vaart play.

In the second-half last night, as in the second-half against West Brom the previous week, his movement from a starting position in the centre of the pitch was wonderful. As was his touch, technique, intelligence and vision.  

Spurs started the second-half with a 4-3-3, used so effectively at Norwich in particular, recently. This time though Van Der Vaart was part of the three man midfield, alongside Jake Livermore and Luka Modric, rather than in the front three, where instead Aaron Lennon and Gareth Bale were fluid alongside Emmanuel Adebayor, at times Lennon hugging the touchline to stretch the width of the pitch while sometimes moving inside and letting the full-back overlap. A week earlier Van Der Vaart was playing behind a front two of Adebayor and Jermain Defoe in a diamond in the second half, and as like last night he ran the half.

His movement was similar to how Jari Litmanen used to play at Ajax in the mid-nineties in a shape which Terry Venables successfully adopted for England in Euro’96, with Teddy Sheringham at times picking up the ball alongside the centre back, while moments later in the same move being the furthest man forward in the opposition six-yard box. Van Der Vaart’s intelligence and personality, which I have written about before, makes him the perfect exponent of this.

He always plays the right ball, and had Xavi or Paul Scholes played as well as Van Der Vaart has in midfield in the second-half of Tottenham’s last two league games, it is likely his performances would have received more coverage. And as has been shown at times when playing from deep, most notably with two left-foot passes, one on the half-volley, out to Beniot Assou-Ekotto against Sunderland (when he also played in a diamond in the second half), he has the technique to execute difficult skills while spreading the play. I previously compared that half-volley to Hoddle, and with every game he plays he plays, Van Der Vaart looks to be the best player we have had since then.

His love of Tottenham is clear, as is the respect he has to all his previous clubs and their fans. And in style as well as attitude, he is what I would call, having grown up with the wonderful teams of the eighties, a typical Tottenham player.

He was central to the winner in the tight game against West Brom with his movement, a game when his great reading of the game was also vital when he was when he was defending 12 yards from his own by-line when we were momentarily down to nine men because of head injuries. And his attitude is key to our success.

His experience and leadership on the pitch last season contributed to a winning mentality that triumphed in the San Siro, got long overdue wins at the Emirates and Anfield, put Inter to the sword at White Hart Lane, and on four occasions won games in which we had missed penalty kicks. And as I wrote in a football column about the two Manchester clubs this week, mentality, pressure and confidence will be crucial in the title race.

It is no secret to anyone I have spoken to since the first week of October, or to anyone who has read things I have written about Spurs this season, that I think we can win the League. I have always thought the players and the manager have believed that as well. Other people seem to be coming round to the idea now as well. And as the manager inferred last night, we are beautiful to watch in the process.

MG

My e-book on Tottenham Hotspur's return to the European Cup for the first time in 49 seasons is available to buy from Amazon and Smashwords.

 

Ridicule is nothing to be scared off

After we lost at Stoke I was asked to give my opinions about Spurs to a fans website, Vital Sunderland, ahead of their club’s visit to White Hart Lane a few days later. I said, as can be read here, that I fully expected Spurs to compete for a top three finish before the season started, and that, and more, was also well within our grasp midway through the last two seasons, although we didn’t capitalise on our opportunity.

Harry Redknapp was ridiculed in some quarters when he said we could win the League last January, but he was right. The League was there for the taking, and Sir Alex Ferguson knew that Spurs were a threat when he came to White Hart Lane happy to get away with a 0-0, as they hung on to their lead at the top of the league, while we ended the game with two wingers, two central strikers and Modric and Van Der Vaart in central midfield.

The top of the league is much more competitive this year, mainly due to the way Manchester City have undergone a transformation in the summer, suddenly playing an expansive and attacking game, lifted not just by the signing of Sergio Augero, but primarily by winning their first major trophy for 25 years.

It is worth remembering that until the Carling Cup the season before last under Mark Hughes, City hadn’t reached a major cup semi-final since we beat them at Wembley in 1981. In that same period since the ’81 Cup Final, we have seriously challenged for the title (most notably in 1982 and 1985), reached a further 17 semi-finals, playing in nine more cup finals and winning another five trophies.

We are much more used to success, although you wouldn’t think it judging by the sniggers (until very recently at least) by TV presenters, journalists and pundits whenever the topic of Spurs as title contenders has been forced upon them due to our form and position in the table. Sadly the same is true for some Spurs fans, including those who trolled my answers to the Sunderland site, who suggested we would be “lucky” to finish in the top four.

Of course, it is not the history of the last thirty years that is going to be the most significant factor (although confidence, pressure and mentality are factors, and which I will come onto later), but performances and results. Anyone who thinks we are lucky to be in the top four, clearly either hasn’t watched much football in the last twelve months (by either ourselves, Chelsea or Liverpool), unless they have a very different interpretation of the game to me.

Chelsea started last season off phenomenally, but soon got in a rut, and for over 12 months now have failed to look convincing to the extent that they struggle to break teams down at home in the League, and are can be put under the cosh for periods, both home and away.

Liverpool put a few teams away in the second half of last season, but were found out when they played us at Anfield in May. We outclassed them, dominating the midfield (just as we had at Chelsea a few weeks earlier), and beat them comfortably. They strengthened the squad in the summer, but in truth only Jose Enriquie could challenge for a place in our best XI; when not suspended, Luis Suarez’s goalscoring record is poor in comparison to the sometimes wasteful Adebayor, which puts their star player’s worth into perspective against our much better team.

I said many weeks ago I thought we had the best XI in the league. City though, have the best squad. They also have the points on the board, a far superior goal difference, and have won their two six-pointers away at White Hart Lane and Old Trafford.

So, the League at the top is much more competitive than it has been for the last two seasons at the turn of the year. However, as is surely evident to all, we have also now also improved. We added a real quality player in Rafa Van Der Vaart last August, and since then have at times blown good teams away, as best exemplified by our great European experience last season. This term, we finally got Scott Parker, the leader in midfielder we needed, as well as in Adebayor, the presence we lacked right up top in the last campaign.

I wrote last May that we had shown a winning mentality last season, on four occasions winning a game after we had missed a penalty, and transparent in comments from the players and the manager. Only at the end of last season, after our slump in form and when Redknapp seemed to find his v-neck jumper, duffle coat and previously thick skin was failing him, did he show any signs of doubt, with his silly “this is as good as it gets” comments.

No doubt he has got his ambition back in order this time round, after the signings of Parker and Adebayor at least  - if we finish two points behind City he may regret his white-flag selection of Kranjcar in the middle of a 4-4-2 at home to City for years to come; but his end-of-season wobble can now be seen as an aberration, and almost forgivable.

And even though we were heavily beaten by City in the end, we were on top to start with and created chances. Had we got the first goal City may have struggled to get back in the game (even with our emptied midfield), as they did when they went behind in Europe. It looked until recently only European teams had sussed out how to play City, but Roy Hodgsen frustrated them and troubled them in equal measure on Boxing Day, and as even Chelsea showed against them, any team can let in two goals in a short space of time when put under a spell of pressure.

And the key to catching City could be pressure. Just a few weeks ago they were openly talking about winning the Champions League. The ten day spell in January when they play two legs of a semi-final against a desperate Liverpool, and the 3^rd Round of the FA Cup against a motivated Manchester United, could be crucial. If they go out of those competitions, suddenly they only have an awkward distraction of the Europa League, with all their eggs firmly in the basket of a Championship race they are expected to win.

Which is why, from Tottenham’s perspective, it is not a bad thing Man Utd have stayed close to them in the League. United have accumulated much more points than their form has suggested, and many more points than at this stage of the season the last two times they one their title. They have also shown in their last two games, how to cash-in against teams they are dominating, which may be crucial if the League is decided on goal difference. But their defeats by Basel, Crystal Palace and City, show they are far from an all concurring team.

Spurs look as good as any side in the League, and have done for a while now. As well as playing excellent passing and moving football, we also have a cutting edge to win matches, and can play in different formations. In the pub after the Chelsea last week, where we played 4-3-3 to great effect in the first half, I said I thought Bale was good enough to play up-front if needed, so good was his current form, coupled with his all round attributes, summarized well by Redknapp, post-Norwich, and surely obvious to all.

Against Norwich, we employed 4-3-3 again, with all of the front three fluid in their movement, both full-backs pushed up, and a central midfield three that dominated the game. Against Villa, Liverpool and QPR, some of our football was stunning at times. Bale also moved inside well in that second half against QPR, with Lennon adding width on the left, and Walker on the right. We played three at the back with wing backs in a good second half against Stoke, and in the second half against Sunderland, effectively played a diamond, with Van Der Vaart in the hole behind two strikers, and both full-backs high up the pitch again. (That shape allowed Van Der Vaart to play two stunning balls out to the pushed on Ekotto, the second on the half-volley, which Glenn Hoddle would have been proud of. No higher praise in my book).

And as well as playing excellent football, and changing our shape at will, we are making a habit of winning games.

We could do with strengthening the squad in January though, regardless of what the club say publicly – a top quality signing could well take us to another level, but just as important is having two sets of eleven players who can comfortably play in the biggest games of the season, as City have. We have a strong squad, but there are a couple of positions that look vulnerable if we are hit by injury or suspension.

But being a few points of the pace is not a bad place to be, with the burden of expectation on City. Anything can happen, and we may drop some points in a busy January, where all games continue to be winnable, including the six-pointer at City where, last season apart, we have an excellent record. The hardest test may come if we were to go top before February is out. But the aim has got to be to win each game. And have the resilience to bounce back when we don’t.

The Spurs fans who trolled the piece I wrote for Vital Sunderland were most scathing in the response to my hope that we would finish 1^st this season. But being lucky enough to be a kid in the eighties, I didn’t just have the benefit of seeing the best years of Grange Hill, and hearing Adam Ant, I also saw a Spurs team that played brilliant football, winning trophies and challenging for the title. This Spurs side looks as good, it just needs to win things to fulfill its potential.

MG

My e-book on Tottenham Hotspur's return to the European Cup for the first time in 49 seasons in now available to buy on Amazon and Smashwords.

 

The Ghost of White Hart Lane

In June 2011 I met Julie Welch ('Those Glory, Glory Days') and Rob White (son of Spurs Double winner and multiple cup-winner John White). In a discussion hosted by broadcaster and Spurs fan Danny Kelly, they spoke about their book, 'The Ghost of White Hart Lane', and that great Spurs team of the early sixties.

I wrote about the book, in light of that event (where I also met Double winner Peter Baker), while also noting the parallels with the developing current side, here.

My e-book on Tottenham Hotspur's return to the European Cup for the first time in 49 seasons is available to download on Amazon and Smashwords.

There Goes The Fear

Reputations sometimes grow about players...they don’t track back/they never give the ball away/they go down easily/they are a brilliant every game and usually Man-of-the Match. (For the last one I refer you to either Bryan Robson or Steven Gerrard as viewed by a string of co-commentators). Sometimes the reputations are positive, sometimes negative. And in most cases they are usually exaggerations, or simply myths.

Gerrard and Robson have had quiet games. Paul Scholes did occasionally misplace a pass. Re-watch the 1981 Cup Final Replay and see how much hard toil Glenn Hoddle did actually put in, largely ignored by his critics. And there was even apparently a game during his spell in Holland when Luis Suarez did not roll-over six times when there was a passing breeze, although admittedly that rumour is unsubstantiated.

The same is true of Managers. Anyone who has played close attention to his time at Spurs knows that the Harry Redknapp is not the perfect man-manager casual readers of the back pages might believe. However, on the flip side of that, he is also is more open minded to tactical changes than the picture his harshest critics paint.

At Portsmouth he went with his gut instinct, and against some of his more cautious players’ wishes, to change to a system he felt was more suitable to the players he had. From the outside, he looked right. He had three centre-backs reasonably comfortable on the ball, wide players who may be more effective in advanced position than at full-back, and a player who could do with a bit of freedom of the middle of the park (Niko Kranjcar, incidentally). So, he changed the system to 3-4-1-2, against popular convention, and after a week practising it in training.

He has been more reluctant to change systems at Tottenham, but he has occasionally done so. Towards the end of his first season, in similar circumstances to Portsmouth, he played three centre-backs away at Everton; he utilised two attacking full-backs (Alan Hutton and Gareth Bale) as wing backs, with three centre-backs comfortable on the ball (Corluka, King and Woodgate), a central midfield three which gave more license for the talented Modric to roam (alongside Jenas and Huddlestone), behind a front two (Keane and Defoe).

The three in central midfield is key, because it is very unusual for any side of the highest calibre to play without three in the middle now, either through a player being able to play between the lines by dropping off from the hole in a 4-4-1-1, or by playing a 4-2-3-1. 

Rarer is the 4-3-3, but seemingly forgotten by most, Redknapp used this positively, and promisingly, with Spurs a couple of times last season.

In the second league game of last season we had an excellent win at Stoke with Lennon and Bale playing either side of Crouch in front of a midfield three of Palacios, Huddlestone and Jenas. Also away, in the second half of the league game at Wolves, Lennon and Bale came on, this time to play in a front three with Defoe in the middle, and looked like creating a goal-scoring opportunity every time they got the ball. Lennon played on the left, and Bale on the right, and while they hugged the touchline when they received the ball, the three midfielders allowed them to be more advanced and yet still have space to run onto, inside, on their favoured foot.

This is exactly how Angel Di Maria and Cristiano Ronaldo play at Real Madrid, how Messi and Ronaldinhio both started at Barcelona, and how great wide players from Chris Waddle to Johan Cryuff have prospered. Football at the highest level is all about Movement.

Great forward players also need to be able to rotate within those forward positions. At International Level for Wales Bale has no problem playing on the right because he has three central midfielders behind him, and plenty of space to come infield. And as early as 2006, Martin Jol wrote in The Times during the World Cup to say that Aaron Lennon could play in the hole, and he thought he could do that for England. He rarely played Lennon in the hole himself, with Robbie Keane and Dimitar Berbatov at his disposal the following season, but when he did (at the front of a diamond in the 3-3 draw at Stamford Bridge in the FA Cup), he was fantastic.

As well as Bale and Lennon, Spurs have Rafa Van Der Vaart; so three match-winners who can play between the lines and win games. Not all are going to be fit or on form all the time, so the challenge is to use them, and the rest of the squad, to the greatest effect.

Yesterday at Newcastle, Spurs started well for the first quarter of an hour but started getting sloppy in possession and the game got scrappy. Newcastle never really threatened, but Spurs failed to capitalise on being, on paper anyway, the superior team player-for-player.

To begin with, Modric tucked into midfield from the left, Bale was advanced on the right, Van Der Vaart was playing behind Adebayor, with Ekotto effectively starting as a wing-back, clearly under tactical instruction. The shape looked promising. The movement in the final third created an early opportunity for Van Der Vaart after a lovely dummy by Adebayor, and twice nearly created further chances, with final flicks just failing to put Van Der Vaart in.

But, Spurs still lacked a cutting-edge. Bale looked ineffective from the right, but was even less effective when he moved to the left midway through the first-half. There is a reluctance from many fans for Bale to play on the right, perhaps naturally, because when you look back at many of his great moments they have been on the left. Both his outstanding performances against Inter were on the left, as was his wonderful performance at home against Chelsea in April 2010, and countless other games. But in many of those games, including the three I mentioned, he was running from deep and running into space, against teams who were pushing up on the attack.

He gets less space to do the most damage when pushed high-up up on the left of a 4-4-2 against a team that is defending deep and in numbers, which is why Redknapp has often said he could be most dangerous at a left back, where he first showed how good he was when Redknapp finally gave him a run. His left-foot and technical ability is so good however, he is still the best option on the left of a 4-4-2 not just at the club, but arguably in the world. But, then, who plays 4-4-2 now?

Bale has also excelled when given more freedom, such as away at Arsenal last season, at home against the same opposition in April 2010, as well as his successes playing on the right already mentioned. His poor performance yesterday, which including giving the ball away cheaply when doing pieces of skill he usually nails against the best opposition in the world, was due to form rather more than positioning.

With over half-an-hour remaining and the score at 1-1 the introduction of Jermain Defoe, who was fresh from two weeks without a game, looked to be what was needed. And indeed, Defoe came on and made a difference, scoring the second goal and twice being in positions that could have won Tottenham the match (the first time he didn’t receive the ball from Adebayor, and the second time he failed to square the ball to Jake Livermore who had an empty net).

However, Redknapp could have been braver with his substitution. He could have brought Defoe on, but rather than taking off Van Der Vaart, he could have brought off Bale, and played either a diamond, a 4-3-1-2 with Van Der Vaart in a free role behind the strikers or even the Christmas Tree. 

Redknapp said he took Van Der Vaart off because he had played two International games; that’s true, but so had Bale, and Van Der Vaart utilises his energy in dangerous positions (as Joe Cole noted at the weekend conserving energy is favoured more outside the Premier League), as opposed to the all action Bale, who clearly looked tired.

There are times when there are more reasons for Van Der Vaart to come off, such as when he is on a booking, but having spoken to the press about a historic hamstring injury in the week (leading to speculative team news Van Der Vaart was doubtful, when he wasn't), it seemed Redknapp was expediently jumping into the bed he had already made. Did Van Der Vaart really look “leggy”? Or more tired than Bale? Or was it a kop out to not change the shape?

A Christmas Tree, a 4-3-2-1 with Van Der Vaart and Defoe advanced of a three-man midfield, could have been the best system with the players, had Redknapp been brave enough to take Bale off. It would have allowed Modric to have freedom in the middle, the attacking full-backs space to push into on both sides with Livermore and Parker protecting the centre-backs, while also giving Van Der Vaart more license to roam as well.

Instead, Bale struggled on the left, and we were without our most regular match-winner for the final third of the game. There are times when it is ideal two have two recognised strikers on the pitch, but it would be foolish to think that 4-4-2 is the only way to do that, particularly with the players we have got.

Just a look at the current league table is a reminder that when Man City or Man Utd play two strikers, one of them drops in the hole, or when they play with a front three, two of them come in from advanced positions out-wide. Just as Chelsea also do, with three central midfielders behind them. Just as Barcelona do. And Real Madrid. And on the International stage Spain, Holland and Germany.  

At the highest level shape and movement are key. Redknapp knows that, and he knows he has the players. He just needs to be brave enough to put that into practice. To Dare is to Do.

MG

My e-book on Tottenham Hotspur's return to the European Cup for the first time in 49 seasons is now available to download on Amazon and Smashwords.