Home > Football > Rock bottom Spurs need a change of direction NOW
by Jordan Collins on 15 August 2007
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It hasn't been a very good four days, if you happen to be a Spurs fan. Losing at Sunderland on Saturday was a bit of a blow, but losing at home at Everton on Tuesday night highlights some obvious problems that need to be put right.
And first of all goalkeeper Paul Robinson must go! He did not move a muscle for the third goal, should have attacked the first goal, and his positioning was poor on the second. He looks a bit overweight and in my opinion it's time to drop him from the side. He showed a glimpse of his true form with a fine save at the end but has cost us so many points over the past year, which is not acceptable.
Secondly, Dimitar Berbatov does not look bothered at all. He just wandered around the pitch and contributed (apart from a good header) very little. If he does not want to play, then let him go.
Thirdly, players like Anthony Gardner and Paul Staltieri are not good enough to play for most Premier League sides. Jermaine Jenas again showed that we need to get a midfielder or actually involve Kevin Prince-Boateng since his £5m signing.
Finally, there is no width at all. A left winger, don't know if anyone has noticed it, but we need one. Steed Malbranque tries hard but is not left footed and it is hard for him to play out there. Adel Taarabt is a talented player so where is he? Not even involved.
On Tuesday night's showing, Everton looked more organised, fitter and a far better prospect than Spurs. We will NOT finish fourth and look miles off the top six at the moment. I am starting to question Martin Jol's tactical knowledge. Buy a left-footed midfielder! We have no shape without one and when we work good positions out left we cut back and play to people like Jenas who cannot keep the ball.
In my opinion this should be the starting XI for the game against Derby, assuming there are injuries to Michael Dawson and Younes Kaboul.
Cerny;Chimbonda, Rocha, Gardner, Iffil;Malbranque, Boateng, Zakora, Taarabt;Bent, Keane.
Defoe is close to starting but I feel Bent needs a decent run. Whatever happens,. Jol has a lot of work to do with this squad if he is to turn things round. And the fans will not accept another performance of this level in the coming fixtures.
These first two results have proved that spending for the sake of it does not bring results. We are looking at three points from a possible twelve if we beat Derbt (assuming that we will lose at Old Trafford). Jol will be feeling the pressure very soon.
Comments (63) by Scott on August 15, 2007 First time I've posted on here, and I think you're <nearly> spot on. I'd start with Routledge on the right, and move Malbranque into the middle. For all his running, Zakorra has little impact imo, so I'd drop him for Huddlestone. Taarabt simply has to start. I'm beginning to question Jol and Hughton's tactics. It hurts me to say it, but is time for Hughton to move on? I don't agree with booing the players off, but we pay good money and we have to let them know our feelings. by tony on August 15, 2007 Berbatov showed more desire last night than he did against Sunderland. Boateng isnt match fit because he has had no pre season. by .... on August 15, 2007 Cerny; Chimbonda, Rocha, Gardner, Iffil; Routledge,Malbranque, Huddlestone, Taarabt; Bent, Keane. by BRE on August 15, 2007 I have to say that playing Keane ahead of Routledge is very questionable. I'm not a Keane fan, he wastes too many chances for me. I'd rather see Bent and Defoe terrorizing defenders for 90 minutes. by Moonsta on August 15, 2007 I am sorry I can't agree with including Routledge, the role of a winger should be to put in good crosses, take a touch and put in a good ball, he cannot do this, too many step overs and tricks and running into traffic. My main problem at the moment apart from Half the frickin team, is that If Stalteri, Gardner, Routledge, even perhaps Jenas left Tottenham where would they end up? Gardner - the championship? Stalteri - Major Soccer League? Routledge- Pompey/Wigan/Fulham - they are NOT GOOD ENOUGH to be in a team that is supposedly pushing for a Champions league spot. Taarabat was quality pre season and at least he can go past players - Steed couldn't even get past that world class defender Hibbert last night! Bring back Tommy Hudd for the Derby game at least he can pass to a Spurs player. Rant over. by carl wilson on August 15, 2007 ... unfortunately I doubt we will see Jol drop players like Robinson or Jenas. Even when they contribute little, they still get picked ahead of others. by Carlos on August 15, 2007 Its still early, everyone knows that we are slow starters. And it is unlucky that all are left backs are injured and are 3 best center backs too. But i do agree that Jol needs to sort out are midfield. Two games and no width at all. He is trying to hard to keep all are strikers happy and it has cost us. If Berbetov can't play for the team and thinks he is bigger than the team, then im afraid he has to go. COYS!! by Joel on August 15, 2007 I am not sure I entirely agree. The reason we are so poor because we have no midfield and Stalteri playing at left-back, at position at which he is hopeless. There is absolutely no cohesion about the team, the midfield is poor because no-one knows what they are doing, especially when you put Keano in there too. The defence is fragile, without King or Dawson to command the defence we look very weak and I don't think Robbo can take the blame for that. And saying Berbatov doesn't look like he can be bothered is also a bit unfair. The quality of service to him is terrible and time after time he was just getting long balls punted up to him with nobody there to collect the knock down. Jol needs to take a few chances in some areas and sensible in others. Start Routledge, swap Jenas for put Steed back in the middle and Taarbat on the left and get rid of Jenas. And stop this crazy notion of playing Keane, Berbatov and Bent. Start with Keane and Berbatov and take it from there. Unfortunately the defence is a by Ben on August 15, 2007 To be honest I do not agree with you. I think you are simply just an impatient Spurs fan like many around me last night at the ground. You say that Berbs "didnt look bothered". I don't agree with this at all. He simply wasn't playing the same role he played last year when him and Keano were two up front. He hasn't obviously got used to Benty with RK playing the wing/attack role! Berbs had obviously been told to stay forward more than usual whereas last season he moved deeper around the pitch to get the ball which in my opinion is much more affective! This is what I dislike about the fans there... typically they are impatient and have been caught up in this "top four syndrome"! We have all of these players out injured and you want to chop the players that we have fit! Robbo has to work alot harder on comanding his box but I think once Dawson and Kaboul are back in the line up then he will have alot more confidence in his back line. That is the problem at the moment with him... he has been playing with a secon by Danny on August 15, 2007 Absolute nonesense and typical of the 30,000 muppets in the stadium last night. Take first choice left back and both Centre halfs out of any of the other top 5 sides in the country and they would struggle aswell. How on earth can you have a pop at Robbe for the 3rd goal - it was deflected - two keepers would have stopped it. We have very serious injuries and need to buckle down and grind out a few results. What disturbed me more is how virtually everyone in the stadium was negative on the players back from the 2 min onwards. We are two games in for christs sake. The abuse of Jenas is a disgrace - anything good we did cam from him. I'm a Spurs fan of over 20 years, but I can honestly say the other 30,000 in that stadium last night were a disgrace to themselves and the club. I can see why we are hated as a fanbase. We finish 5th, everyone is hailing Jol and talking us up - we get incredibly unfortunate injuries to key players, lose two games and he is clueless. by SMOOTH AND ROUND on August 15, 2007 Get that lazy c**t Jenas out of our team .30.000 odd fans can't be wrong Jol. by Adriano on August 15, 2007 Yes I agree that we lacked something last night, but lets look at things... missing our 3 1st choice centre backs (inc. Kaboul going off), this would hurt most sides. Chelsk with no Terry and Carvaliho, Utd with no Vidic and Ferdinand and Liverpool with no Carragher and Agger! Robinson nver at fault for the 1st, defence should have smashed it away with the head and as for the third, hardly any keeps can save a shot that deflects in the opposite direction that they move in, you simply can not shift your weight that quickly (que the "too much wieght for Robbo to shift" jibes). I agree with getting Taarabt in, but as for Routledge... The guy couldn't even get in the Fulham and Pompy sides, so if you're complaining about lacking the talent please don't think he would be the answer. I understand the frustrations as I have them myself but comments like "Jol will be feeling the pressure very soon" and RE berbatov "If he does not want to play, then let him go" just make this sound like an unthought through by grant on August 15, 2007 although a lot of fans maybe happy with 2 top 6 finishes with the money spent why doesnt martin jol show some back bone and give youth a run out. All he goes on about is development get taarbat in their if jenas doesnt like being dropped then show him the door, at the moment jol is letting the players decide have courage jol drop them starting with the no 1 jersey robinson has no bottle or command for high ball. by NICK THE YID on August 15, 2007 i was at the game, lets get to the point, stalteri was giving stupid free kicks all day long and that includes the first one which they scored from, secondly gardner was asleep for the first goal, thirdly jenas has to be dropped as he cannot hold onto the ball and had no ideas, to be honest we had a lot of possesion and when we got to 1-1 i realy thought we were gonna win it as we looked more in control in the middle of the first half but the goals we gave away were all silly mistakes and in some sense were unfortunate, what realy let us down was the defence they were all over the place infact we had our weakest possible defece available having said that BMJ needs to use boateng for jenas and tarrabt must be used, we need width, berbatov is in dreamland at the moment but i can see BMJ tried a positive aproach which left the game pretty open but with a better defence and certain individuals being more up for the job then we would have been ok by Tommy Spur on August 15, 2007 Robinson should be dropped immediately, that was shocking last night. JJ is useless and should not be played, he is not up to it in my opinion. by Dave on August 15, 2007 When we signed Bent in the summer I envisaged the glory days of Man U in the late eighties who won everything with 4 quality strikers. Unfortunately they also had a quality settled midfield which we do not. Jol is a fantastic manager and will get it right but he needs to stop trying to keep all the strikers happy. All 4 have now played in both games. No wonder there is no cohesion up front. Robbie Keane starting on left wing? He needs to be ruthless with the strikers and ruthless with Jenas. 2 main factors won Everton the game last night - Mikel Arteta absolutely ran the show in midfield, we have no-one who could come close to his quality of dictating a game. Secondly, they made one substitution with 10 mins to go. Moyes knows his best players, formation and sticks to it. Simple. by Essexian76 (not the gay one) on August 15, 2007 Theres no way any fault can be aimed at Robinson, Jenas and Keane are the two main problems, one (Jenas) is a liability, gets caught too often in possession, cannot tackle or pass, so why is he in the team?. Keane's neither a forward or mid-fielder and the team need round pegs for round holes. As for blaming Salteri playing badly when he obviously uses his leftleg for standing only, is harsh,at best he's a reserve right back. Chimbonda and Berbatov's body language wasnt good was it though?, theres obviously something amiss..perhaps they realize that Hughton isnt a coach? by big stu on August 15, 2007 I said this a couple of days ago and i will say it again ZAKORA AND JANUS IN MIDFIELD does not work, will someone tell him, in any business if you are trading badly you make changes---this is no different---PLEASE CHANGE IT!!! by Yids on August 15, 2007 How can you suggest dropping Robinson?! No way would he have got that free kick! He's not mystic meg and able to tell that Zokora was gonna stick his boot out! Come on! Jenas MUST be dropped, Gardner is not good enough and why are we not playing Taarabt?!? Its a bad start but its only 2 games in and we have injuries to key players... by Tom on August 15, 2007 He has never been any good for us, even at right back! What is he doing in the team! Cerny has always done a good job for us - put him in for fuck sake! Jol needs to take a risk and put the youngens in! Before its way to late! by White Knight on August 15, 2007 We need a midfielder all right - a defensive one to cover the horrendous defense we've lumbered ourselves with. I'd happily keep zakora and jenas in a diamond with Taarabt in the hole. Then pick two strikers and stick with em. Malbranque was absent in the 2nd half and needs to be dropped. We should look at Sissoko from Liverpool or Diarra from Chelski as defensive midfielder by Danny on August 15, 2007 muppets, muppets, muppets. Lets drop Jenas and anyone else whos trys to inventive and play an unproven French boy and an unfit kid from Germany - Genius. Were you sitting the North Stand by anychance - WE ARE PLYING WITH ONE FIRST CHOICE DEFENDER FOR CHRISTS SAKE!!!!! HENCE TO CONCEDING OF GOALS!!!!! GARNDER, STALTERI AND ROCHA ARE BACK UP PLAYERS HOW GOOD DO YOU EXPECT THEM TO BE!!!!! IDIOTS. by mattyboy on August 15, 2007 GK Cerny DR Chimbonda DC Rocha DC Kahboul DL Ifil MR Jenas MC Huddelstone MC Zokora ML Taraabt FC Berbatov FC Keane by Ben on August 15, 2007 Some of you lads need to get a grip! Its the SECOND GAME! We did this start last season too... This is typical of the average Spurs fan... you want too much too quickly... BE PATIENT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Comments (63)
by Scott on August 15, 2007
First time I've posted on here, and I think you're <nearly> spot on. I'd start with Routledge on the right, and move Malbranque into the middle. For all his running, Zakorra has little impact imo, so I'd drop him for Huddlestone. Taarabt simply has to start. I'm beginning to question Jol and Hughton's tactics. It hurts me to say it, but is time for Hughton to move on? I don't agree with booing the players off, but we pay good money and we have to let them know our feelings.
by tony on August 15, 2007
Berbatov showed more desire last night than he did against Sunderland. Boateng isnt match fit because he has had no pre season.
by .... on August 15, 2007
Cerny; Chimbonda, Rocha, Gardner, Iffil; Routledge,Malbranque, Huddlestone, Taarabt; Bent, Keane.
by BRE on August 15, 2007
I have to say that playing Keane ahead of Routledge is very questionable. I'm not a Keane fan, he wastes too many chances for me. I'd rather see Bent and Defoe terrorizing defenders for 90 minutes.
by Moonsta on August 15, 2007
I am sorry I can't agree with including Routledge, the role of a winger should be to put in good crosses, take a touch and put in a good ball, he cannot do this, too many step overs and tricks and running into traffic. My main problem at the moment apart from Half the frickin team, is that If Stalteri, Gardner, Routledge, even perhaps Jenas left Tottenham where would they end up? Gardner - the championship? Stalteri - Major Soccer League? Routledge- Pompey/Wigan/Fulham - they are NOT GOOD ENOUGH to be in a team that is supposedly pushing for a Champions league spot. Taarabat was quality pre season and at least he can go past players - Steed couldn't even get past that world class defender Hibbert last night! Bring back Tommy Hudd for the Derby game at least he can pass to a Spurs player. Rant over.
by carl wilson on August 15, 2007
... unfortunately I doubt we will see Jol drop players like Robinson or Jenas. Even when they contribute little, they still get picked ahead of others.
by Carlos on August 15, 2007
Its still early, everyone knows that we are slow starters. And it is unlucky that all are left backs are injured and are 3 best center backs too. But i do agree that Jol needs to sort out are midfield. Two games and no width at all. He is trying to hard to keep all are strikers happy and it has cost us. If Berbetov can't play for the team and thinks he is bigger than the team, then im afraid he has to go. COYS!!
by Joel on August 15, 2007
I am not sure I entirely agree. The reason we are so poor because we have no midfield and Stalteri playing at left-back, at position at which he is hopeless. There is absolutely no cohesion about the team, the midfield is poor because no-one knows what they are doing, especially when you put Keano in there too. The defence is fragile, without King or Dawson to command the defence we look very weak and I don't think Robbo can take the blame for that. And saying Berbatov doesn't look like he can be bothered is also a bit unfair. The quality of service to him is terrible and time after time he was just getting long balls punted up to him with nobody there to collect the knock down. Jol needs to take a few chances in some areas and sensible in others. Start Routledge, swap Jenas for put Steed back in the middle and Taarbat on the left and get rid of Jenas. And stop this crazy notion of playing Keane, Berbatov and Bent. Start with Keane and Berbatov and take it from there. Unfortunately the defence is a
by Ben on August 15, 2007
To be honest I do not agree with you. I think you are simply just an impatient Spurs fan like many around me last night at the ground. You say that Berbs "didnt look bothered". I don't agree with this at all. He simply wasn't playing the same role he played last year when him and Keano were two up front. He hasn't obviously got used to Benty with RK playing the wing/attack role! Berbs had obviously been told to stay forward more than usual whereas last season he moved deeper around the pitch to get the ball which in my opinion is much more affective! This is what I dislike about the fans there... typically they are impatient and have been caught up in this "top four syndrome"! We have all of these players out injured and you want to chop the players that we have fit! Robbo has to work alot harder on comanding his box but I think once Dawson and Kaboul are back in the line up then he will have alot more confidence in his back line. That is the problem at the moment with him... he has been playing with a secon
by Danny on August 15, 2007
Absolute nonesense and typical of the 30,000 muppets in the stadium last night. Take first choice left back and both Centre halfs out of any of the other top 5 sides in the country and they would struggle aswell. How on earth can you have a pop at Robbe for the 3rd goal - it was deflected - two keepers would have stopped it. We have very serious injuries and need to buckle down and grind out a few results. What disturbed me more is how virtually everyone in the stadium was negative on the players back from the 2 min onwards. We are two games in for christs sake. The abuse of Jenas is a disgrace - anything good we did cam from him. I'm a Spurs fan of over 20 years, but I can honestly say the other 30,000 in that stadium last night were a disgrace to themselves and the club. I can see why we are hated as a fanbase. We finish 5th, everyone is hailing Jol and talking us up - we get incredibly unfortunate injuries to key players, lose two games and he is clueless.
by SMOOTH AND ROUND on August 15, 2007
Get that lazy c**t Jenas out of our team .30.000 odd fans can't be wrong Jol.
by Adriano on August 15, 2007
Yes I agree that we lacked something last night, but lets look at things... missing our 3 1st choice centre backs (inc. Kaboul going off), this would hurt most sides. Chelsk with no Terry and Carvaliho, Utd with no Vidic and Ferdinand and Liverpool with no Carragher and Agger! Robinson nver at fault for the 1st, defence should have smashed it away with the head and as for the third, hardly any keeps can save a shot that deflects in the opposite direction that they move in, you simply can not shift your weight that quickly (que the "too much wieght for Robbo to shift" jibes). I agree with getting Taarabt in, but as for Routledge... The guy couldn't even get in the Fulham and Pompy sides, so if you're complaining about lacking the talent please don't think he would be the answer. I understand the frustrations as I have them myself but comments like "Jol will be feeling the pressure very soon" and RE berbatov "If he does not want to play, then let him go" just make this sound like an unthought through
by grant on August 15, 2007
although a lot of fans maybe happy with 2 top 6 finishes with the money spent why doesnt martin jol show some back bone and give youth a run out. All he goes on about is development get taarbat in their if jenas doesnt like being dropped then show him the door, at the moment jol is letting the players decide have courage jol drop them starting with the no 1 jersey robinson has no bottle or command for high ball.
by NICK THE YID on August 15, 2007
i was at the game, lets get to the point, stalteri was giving stupid free kicks all day long and that includes the first one which they scored from, secondly gardner was asleep for the first goal, thirdly jenas has to be dropped as he cannot hold onto the ball and had no ideas, to be honest we had a lot of possesion and when we got to 1-1 i realy thought we were gonna win it as we looked more in control in the middle of the first half but the goals we gave away were all silly mistakes and in some sense were unfortunate, what realy let us down was the defence they were all over the place infact we had our weakest possible defece available having said that BMJ needs to use boateng for jenas and tarrabt must be used, we need width, berbatov is in dreamland at the moment but i can see BMJ tried a positive aproach which left the game pretty open but with a better defence and certain individuals being more up for the job then we would have been ok
by Tommy Spur on August 15, 2007
Robinson should be dropped immediately, that was shocking last night. JJ is useless and should not be played, he is not up to it in my opinion.
by Dave on August 15, 2007
When we signed Bent in the summer I envisaged the glory days of Man U in the late eighties who won everything with 4 quality strikers. Unfortunately they also had a quality settled midfield which we do not. Jol is a fantastic manager and will get it right but he needs to stop trying to keep all the strikers happy. All 4 have now played in both games. No wonder there is no cohesion up front. Robbie Keane starting on left wing? He needs to be ruthless with the strikers and ruthless with Jenas. 2 main factors won Everton the game last night - Mikel Arteta absolutely ran the show in midfield, we have no-one who could come close to his quality of dictating a game. Secondly, they made one substitution with 10 mins to go. Moyes knows his best players, formation and sticks to it. Simple.
by Essexian76 (not the gay one) on August 15, 2007
Theres no way any fault can be aimed at Robinson, Jenas and Keane are the two main problems, one (Jenas) is a liability, gets caught too often in possession, cannot tackle or pass, so why is he in the team?. Keane's neither a forward or mid-fielder and the team need round pegs for round holes. As for blaming Salteri playing badly when he obviously uses his leftleg for standing only, is harsh,at best he's a reserve right back. Chimbonda and Berbatov's body language wasnt good was it though?, theres obviously something amiss..perhaps they realize that Hughton isnt a coach?
by big stu on August 15, 2007
I said this a couple of days ago and i will say it again ZAKORA AND JANUS IN MIDFIELD does not work, will someone tell him, in any business if you are trading badly you make changes---this is no different---PLEASE CHANGE IT!!!
by Yids on August 15, 2007
How can you suggest dropping Robinson?! No way would he have got that free kick! He's not mystic meg and able to tell that Zokora was gonna stick his boot out! Come on! Jenas MUST be dropped, Gardner is not good enough and why are we not playing Taarabt?!? Its a bad start but its only 2 games in and we have injuries to key players...
by Tom on August 15, 2007
He has never been any good for us, even at right back! What is he doing in the team! Cerny has always done a good job for us - put him in for fuck sake! Jol needs to take a risk and put the youngens in! Before its way to late!
by White Knight on August 15, 2007
We need a midfielder all right - a defensive one to cover the horrendous defense we've lumbered ourselves with. I'd happily keep zakora and jenas in a diamond with Taarabt in the hole. Then pick two strikers and stick with em. Malbranque was absent in the 2nd half and needs to be dropped. We should look at Sissoko from Liverpool or Diarra from Chelski as defensive midfielder
muppets, muppets, muppets. Lets drop Jenas and anyone else whos trys to inventive and play an unproven French boy and an unfit kid from Germany - Genius. Were you sitting the North Stand by anychance - WE ARE PLYING WITH ONE FIRST CHOICE DEFENDER FOR CHRISTS SAKE!!!!! HENCE TO CONCEDING OF GOALS!!!!! GARNDER, STALTERI AND ROCHA ARE BACK UP PLAYERS HOW GOOD DO YOU EXPECT THEM TO BE!!!!! IDIOTS.
by mattyboy on August 15, 2007
GK Cerny DR Chimbonda DC Rocha DC Kahboul DL Ifil MR Jenas MC Huddelstone MC Zokora ML Taraabt FC Berbatov FC Keane
Some of you lads need to get a grip! Its the SECOND GAME! We did this start last season too... This is typical of the average Spurs fan... you want too much too quickly... BE PATIENT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!