By Gary Beaumont
August 16 2003

Here is an article written prior to the season starting. It has no (direct) bearing to the Brum game but is an interesting piece that highlights some of our problems last season and perhaps beyond. An anylisis of the Brum game to follow. Written by Alex S

LANKY

Something has been nagging at me for a while and I think I have just fathomed
out what it is: Hoddle is too tall to be Spurs manager. Like dogs and their
owners, the Spurs team mirrors its Manager. Lanky.

I have advocated the purchase of two quality midfielders with pace and steel
for as long as I can remember, but careful observation of the way that the
team plays has brought me to the conclusion that it is our tactics which are
often found wanting and not just the playing staff paid to ply their trade
in the middle of the park.

When I say tactics, I don't mean formation (as in 5-3-2 or 4-4-2), but the
actual way in which we play. Over the last fifteen years or so
(coincidentally since Hoddle stopped playing), football has changed. Teams
are 'shorter' (the distance between the back line and the forwards) nowadays
and players are fitter and better trained than ever, meaning that time and
space in the middle of the park is at a premium. Whereas in the '70s and
'80s a creative midfielder could control the ball and calmly decide what to
do with it, the new millennium imposes immediate control and lightening
thought, since the opposition look to stifle any attacking manoeuvre before
it even has a chance to develop. The modern term for this would be
'pressing'.

Granted, Spurs don't have so-called midfield 'battlers', but as I said
earlier, our difficulties aren't just down to the characteristics of the
midfielders currently on our books: Spurs don't want to play the modern
game. We are perfectly capable of doing so, and anyone who witnessed our
performance at home to AFC last season can have no doubt, we just feel we
can achieve our objectives in a more gallant, 'noble' manner, by picking
teams apart thanks to our superior technique and passing ability.

The trouble is, unless all the outfield players are on top of their game and
in sync, everything breaks down and our 'barbarous' opponents push us over
like a bully does a weakling in an unsupervised playground. Another drawback
to 'pretty' football is that it becomes challenging in the extreme to do so
as soon as the state of the pitches starts to deteriorate with the onset of
Winter. In the harsher months of the year, greater results are achieved by
employing a more straightforward, fast and muscular style of play: after the
games against Newcastle last season, Bobby Robson commented that we just
couldn't handle the pace of their team and he was referring mainly to the
barcodes' midfield in the form of Dyer, Jenas and the aptly named Gary
Speed.

As the campaign wore on, it also became apparent that more and more teams
had 'sussed' our weakness and were going for our jugular as soon as our
initial attempt at playing admirable, flowing football took its first pause.
Our 'regular' engine room of Poyet, Anderton, Davies and Bunjevcevic, allied
to the type of football we were trying to play, was never going to cut it
against physically stronger and more 'direct' counterparts and we ended the
season with seven points from the last ten games. A sobering thought,
considering that we are yet to sign a single, new defensive midfielder and
the Manager (on the basis of what has been gleaned from pre-season
friendlies) is yet to modify the style of play.

On paper, Spurs have more technically gifted players than most other clubs
(I believe only five teams to be better off overall). All other things being
equal (motivation, tactics, effort), the difference between two teams, what
wins games four times out of five, is technique.

That is why performances such as those away to Southampton, West Ham,
Sunderland and even WBA (where, by some fluke, we actually claimed the three
points) are unacceptable. Not only did we not compete, but our tactics
almost ensured failure and I don't see how the Manager can expect
disappointed fans to be satisfied with him not knowing why on earth the team
performed as it did (the 'head scratching' saga).

The main reason that the team performed poorly is because the players were
too far apart. This allowed the opposition to cut through our midfield by
playing simple passes and finding acres of space before coming up against
the rear guard, which hung back and waited for the inevitable onslaught. It
also resulted in our attacks relying on a series of pinpoint passes in order
for them to have any chance of success, since we were playing against
tightly knit units and the 'length' of our team made for far fewer available
options. Fewer options also meant that the few that were available could be
more easily closed down. When top teams attack, almost the entire team moves
up as a unit and the opposition finds itself having to deal with 'waves' of
players, providing numerous options which can't all be catered for.

This is the lesson that must be learnt if we are to be successful in the
coming season and, contrary to what I'd thought up to quite recently,
'merely' signing a couple of quality, pacey and hard-tackling midfielders
won't radically alter our prospects.

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