Rafa Van Der Vaart and Spurs
Later today, as every
other day in an international week, Sky Sports News will cover live press
conferences of England players, who will rarely deliver anything more than platitudes
and clichés. Press journalists will also be given time with players, and in
some of the broadsheets, from some of the better journalists, there may be more
insightful interviews to come in the week.
According to The
Guardian’s ‘Secret Footballer’, footballers in general are more intelligent
than they are given credit for. This is sometimes hard to believe when they
constantly talk about practical jokes which regularly involving “cutting-up”
each others clothes, but in their defence, when they are interviewed straight
after a game on television, or at a press conference, they are usually
spoon-fed words, so they can state the obvious.
With Dutch players,
things are different. Anyone who has taken only a passing interest in Dutch
football knows that their players have a reputation for being bright,
articulate and often constructively critical. Their willingness to be analytical
about football is particularly refreshing when the game in England is still
covered so complacently in so many formats. We are as likely to have as much time
on clips of someone falling down to comedy music on Match of the Day 2, as we
are to actually looking at formations, and even Sky’s Super Sunday would still
rather shift its agenda to talk about so-called controversial incidents at the
drop of a hat on a live-game than talk about tactics.
This dumbing-down in
football coverage is in sharp contrast to Sky Sports excellent coverage of cricket,
hearing John McEnroe cover tennis on the BBC or listening to Michael Johnson
talk about Athletics. Instead, in football, on Sunday night we had the bizarre situation
of Dion Dublin trying to question Rafa Van Der Vaart’s great close control, on
the back of a contrived moment of controversy.
Football on TV is
still too much like a News Bulletin that gives over half it’s coverage to ‘And
Finally...’ stories; even worse, its coverage in the tabloid press is like a
sensationalised version of the 60 second news bulletin, where the presenter has
to spell the headline out, and talk really slowly, assuming the viewer is
really stupid, without ever covering any detail. (Yeah, that one).
Perhaps it is because
of this shit that we are regularly served up that when an intelligent player
states the bleeding obvious, as Rafa Van Der Vaart has done, it is taken out of
all context.
I was very confident
ahead of the North London on Sunday. I believed Spurs should have finished
ahead of Arsenal in the League last season, and was confident even after our
poor start to the season that we should be challenging for a top three finish this time around.
Adding Scott Parker and Emannual Adebayor in the transfer window and the return
of Ledley King now make us a very, very strong team. If King and Parker play
the majority of games this season, we will be very hard to beat. And with
Adebayor, we now look like we have a cutting edge to add to match-winners at
our disposal who include Van Der Vaart, Garteh Bale and Aaron Lennon. Sandro
and Modric aren’t bad either.
However, drinking in
the sun in the pub garden in N17 before the match, I was disappointed when the
team came through on Twitter. I would have played Rafa Van Der Vaart, no
question, but I would played him in the hole behind Adebayor, certainly not on
the right of a 4-4-2. If we had played a 4-2-3-1, Van Der Vaart could play
anywhere in the three, although he is clearly our best player in an advanced
central midfield position, as his goals, assists and ability to constantly threaten
(such as at Milan away) have proved.
Van Der Vaart is the
player who when he arrived took Spurs to another level last season. He has a
genuine winning mentality, world class technical ability, and most importantly
is the player who can win matches from the crucial position between the lines. A
great signing by Daniel Levy.
At away games at
Stamford Bridge and Anfield last season he linked up in a central triangle with
Sandro and Modric, which allowed us to dictate games, so it is not surprising
when he says, as he was quoted today, that central midfield is his best
position.
The idea of a best XI
is a bit of a red herring; fitness, form, tactics and opposition are all
factors before picking a side. For now though, prior to the transfer window, it
would be hard to imagine a big game, when the squad is not being rotated, where
King and Parker would not be the first two names on the Spurs team sheet when
available; Van Der Vaart should then surely be next, crucial in the central
role behind the main striker in either a 4-4-1-1 or a 4-2-3-1.
Modric has been most
effective from deep centrally, dictating the pace from the back as much as any
player has since the departure of Michael Carrick. But it will be hard to
displace Sandro from there now, particularly with two away league games next.
Things may be different in home games when teams come and defend, and two
wingers are required from the start, and Modric will be more valuable as a
creative force from a deeper lying central position than Sandro. But barring
any injuries in the next two weeks, Modric is likely to start from the right
against Newcastle.
Van Der Vaart made it
clear he would play anywhere for Spurs in the interview that he was quoted from
today. But that doesn’t mean he should play in a position which takes away his
best qualities, which are so valuable to the team. For him to say that publicly
is not some act of mutiny; it is just an intelligent bloke articulating what I,
and many others, have long thought.
When asked about his
injury, he said, not unreasonably, it may have been better if Harry Redknapp
hadn’t fed the press a line about him wanting to come off previously because of
hamstring injuries. And that line naturally led to Van Der Vaart now being
asked to questions about his substitution on Sunday. Having already scored four
goals in less than three full North Derbies, and already having played three
killer balls that afternoon when he roamed inside, it was not surprising he
didn’t want to come off with the game in the balance.
Of course most of us
would have made a change, as we were getting outnumbered in the middle of the
park, and the introduction of Sandro paid off. But Van Der Vaart is entitled to
feel disappointed it was him that was withdrawn, when he could have gone in the
middle behind one of the strikers.
It wasn’t long a go
Redknapp was belittling Van Der Vaart on Sky Sports News because of an overblown
press reaction to his surprise, while he was away, that he was left out of the
Europa League Squad without being told. Unlike Redknapp’s comments, Van Der
Vaart didn’t seek to score points or appear to be clever at anyone’s expense in
these latest quotes, he just gave an honest and reasonable assessment of
something most of us already knew.
When I first went to the
Amsterdam Arena to see Ajax play in a league game nearly ten years ago, kids
who could have been no more than six years old came on at half-time and showed
fantastic skill, technique and intelligence in a fluid, passing game of
five-a-side. It is no wonder the Dutch players have intelligence both on and
off the pitch.
We should embrace
that at Tottenham, a club where Danny Blanchflower and Ossie Ardiles, two of
many articulate Greats, had their best days. As Johan Cruyff once said, “Football
is a game you play with your brain”.
MG
MG
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