Gareth Bale... Is he really that good?

This weeks player of the week is Gareth Bale. All the big clubs are being linked with him after his second half hatrick against Inter Milan. The newspapers are also heralding his performance as bordering on miraculous, was it really that good? Or were Inter that bad in the second half? I
hope that I can answer that question for you.

On the left is the formation that Inter started off with. On Bales side of the pitch there is Douglas Maicon, Javier Zanetti and Jonathon Biabiany (starting formation on the top left). With Biabiany pinning back the distinctly average Benoit Assou-Ekotto, Maicon and Zanetti controlled their right and Tottenham's left side. Now based on this starting line up Bales performance would be a world beating one.

Bales first goal was two minutes after Dejan Stankovic taken off and the young Davide Santon was brought on. It was clear to see that the Inter players were confused as they kept looking at the bench for instructions. During this period, Coutinho ended up in holding midfield, Chivu at left wing and Santon at left back.

Now on the bottom left shows when the game really changed in Bales favor. Benitez took off the effective Biabiany and brought on the defensive Ivan Cordoba. Cordoba is a 34 year old centre back and that was shown when Bale ran at him. Cordoba was supported by the 37 year old Javier Zanetti, no matter how talented Zanetti is, he hasn't got the legs to chase the pacey Bale in the last ten minutes of a game. Without the energetic Stankovic next to him i feel that Zanetti was caught out due to his lack of pace (this can be seen in all three of Bales goals).

I don't feel that Maicon pinned back Assou-Ekotto as well as Biabiany and Cordoba didn't have the positional sense of a full back of Maicon's ability (we can see that clearly in Bales second and third goal). In view of this I feel that Inter gave the game to Bale, they were sloppy in the second half and didn't give Eto'o the support he needed to replicate his first half performance.

Following this, I think that Bale is a good player but I feel that he still has a lot of work to do before he becomes one of Europe's elite. The fact that his goals were all after Inter had "done the job" I feel devalues them and feel he still has much more to do at the highest level to convince me.