Why Spurs Lost Against Manchester United

Okay after seeing Tottenham's performance against Manchester United I felt that Harry Redknapp was shown up as a poor tactician for the umpteenth time. The are three big games in which he was shown up, against Werder Bremen, Inter Milan and yesterday against Manchester United. I'll be concentrating the the game again Sir Alex Ferguson's team.

Cudicini, Bassong, Palacios (Jenas 66), Kranjcar, Cordeiro Sandro, Pavlyuchenko (Keane 63),  

Crouch (Van Der Vaart 77)

The first thing I noticed was that Redknapp decided to start without a recognised holding midfield. He did this in the past against Werder and Inter and paid for it, this time it was at Old Trafford against United. Jermaine Jenas is an energetic box to box midfielder not a holding midfielder with both Sandro and Palacios sitting on the bench I feel this was tactical error by the Spurs manager.

Another issue I saw in the Spurs midfield was the presence of Lennon, Modric and Van Der Vaart. Three midfielders who aren't known for their defensive capabilities. Add Bale in who is now an attacking winger, there is very little protection for the back four in game where most teams would expect long periods of pressure.

With Chelsea and Arsenal who all play with one up front have holding midfielder which stops them from being over-run in midfield. All the teams who've taken points from United started with combative ball winning midfielders Fulham (Etuhu), Everton (Fellaini), Sunderland (Cattermole) and West Brom (Mulumbu). With no holding midfielder tracking him Nani had one of his more positive games for United as he exploited the spaces between the Spurs lines. 

The decision to play Robbie Keane also baffled me. Just like during his short unsuccessful spell at Liverpool he was asked to play up front on his own. Keane is a good forward but he doesn't have pace, aerial ability or physical presence, therefore Vidic and Ferdinand had an easy afternoon. Both Lennon and Bale failed to provide him any support during the game and were fairly anonymous.

Kuszczak, Brown (Rafael Da Silva 64), Smalling, O'Shea, Scholes (Berbatov 64), Obertan (Hernandez 87), Tiago Bebe

If you look at Manchester United's midfield Carrick sat deep spreading possession to different areas of the pitch with Nani switching flanks trying to stretch play. In the middle Fletcher and Park (tucking in from the right) are more energetic and mobile defensively than Van Der Vaart and Modric and they can get forward maybe not as well as the Spurs pair but I feel their role was to negate them. I feel that this was were the game was lost for Spurs.

Redknapps substitutions showed that he was trying to rectify the errors made with the starting line up, he brought on Palacios for Jenas but was unfortunate enough to have Van Der Vaart injured and had to bring on Crouch emptying midfield further, especially as United had brought on Scholes for Berbatov 10 minutes earlier.

All in all i feel that Redknapp was on the back foot from the start due to his selection of no holding midfielder and Robbie Keane as the sole striker. I can see that Redknapp is starting to veer away from the 4-4-2 he was so used to but the striker he has dropped is for an attacking midfielder rather than a holding one.  

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.

Champions League halfway point of the group stages

So here we are at the halfway point of the the sometimes controversial and irritating group stage of the Champions League. I can see where the critics are coming from the stage is drawn in way which favors the big boys, I personally think its quite interesting seeing teams who in the old fashioned knock out cups would've got knocked out early play a few times.

Uefa Champions League : Group A Table

		P	W	D	L	F	A	GD	PTS
1	Inter Milan	3	2	1	0	10	5	5	7
2	Tottenham	3	1	1	1	9	7	2	4
3	FC Twente	3	0	2	1	4	7	-3	2
4	Werder Bremen	3	0	2	1	3	7	-4	2

Group A not looking too bad for spurs, although in the game against Inter they were outclassed they still have been gathering points against the weaker teams. I think Spurs and Inter should go through in the order they sit in now. Interesting fact of this group is the Werder Bremen's Austrian forward Marko Arnautovic has played for two of the other teams in this group in Serie A for Inter and in the Dutch First Division for Twente. Who knows maybe North London is his next port of call?

Uefa Champions League : Group B Table

		P	W	D	L	F	A	GD	PTS
1	Lyon	3	3	0	0	6	1	5	9
2	Schalke 04	3	2	0	1	5	2	3	6
3	Benfica	3	1	0	2	2	4	-2	3
4	Hapoel Tel-Aviv	3	0	0	3	2	8	-6	0

Lyon are looking very good in Group B. I expected better from Benfica one of the more attacking teams in the tournament, but Schalke and Lyon looking favorites to go through although I wouldn't rule out Benfica with an attack made up of Pablo Aimar, Javier Saviola and Oscar Cardozo they're always a threat. Hapoel Tel-Aviv definitely the worst side in the tournament this year Israel football is starting to become Europe's whipping boy.

Uefa Champions League : Group C Table

		P	W	D	L	F	A	GD	PTS
1	Man Utd	3	2	1	0	2	0	2	7
2	Rangers	3	1	2	0	2	1	1	5
3	Valencia	3	1	1	1	5	2	3	4
4	Bursaspor	3	0	0	3	0	6	-6	0

Well Manchester United are practically through but its looking interesting in the fight for second place between Rangers and Valencia. I think if Rangers finished their chances against Valencia at Ibrox they would've been favorites. But at the moment I think Valencia will do it by beating Rangers at the Mestalla.

Uefa Champions League : Group D Table

		P	W	D	L	F	A	GD	PTS
1	Barcelona	3	2	1	0	8	2	6	7
2	FC Copenhagen	3	2	0	1	3	2	1	6
3	Rubin Kazan	3	0	2	1	1	2	-1	2
4	Panathinaikos	3	0	1	2	1	7	-6	1

Barcelona the former champions given an easier group this year than last year look like they will qualify. Rubin Kazan are a team that interest me they met Barcelona on three occasions and haven't lost once, but still haven't been through to the knock out stages. I'm hoping they make it through this year but I think Copenhagen's good start will be hard to overturn. Panathinaikos have been very disappointing considering the amount of money in Greek football I would expect them and rivals Olympiakos to fare better in Europe.

Uefa Champions League : Group E Table

		P	W	D	L	F	A	GD	PTS
1	Bayern Munich	3	3	0	0	7	3	4	9
2	Basle	3	1	0	2	5	5	0	3
3	CFR 1907 Cluj-Napoca	3	1	0	2	5	6	-1	3
4	Roma	3	1	0	2	3	6	-3	3

This looks like last years Bayern have already gone through bar a collapse of epic proportions. The other three are looking unpredictable, on paper you would think that Roma should qualify but looking at Roma's history in Europe I wouldn't put your house on it. I think Cluj might do it after their fighting performance again Bayern.

Uefa Champions League : Group F Table

		P	W	D	L	F	A	GD	PTS
1	Chelsea	3	3	0	0	8	1	7	9
2	Spartak Moscow	3	2	0	1	4	2	2	6
3	Marseille	3	1	0	2	1	3	-2	3
4	MSK Zilina	3	0	0	3	1	8	-7	0

Chelsea are looking formidable at the moment winning all three of their games without even breaking a sweat. Spartak and Marseille aren't the best sides in the competition but I wouldn't class them in any way an easy task. I was hoping Zilina would do better after knocking our Sparta Prague and Celtic in the qualifiers. I'm hoping Spartak go through, I think Russian football has had a raw deal due to the different calenders their domestic league and the rest of Europe follow and it would be nice to see them do well.

Uefa Champions League : Group G Table

		P	W	D	L	F	A	GD	PTS
1	Real Madrid	3	3	0	0	5	0	5	9
2	AC Milan	3	1	1	1	3	3	0	4
3	Ajax	3	1	1	1	3	4	-1	4
4	Auxerre	3	0	0	3	1	5	-4	0

Well this group to me looked the most interesting just because of names involved. Real Madrid, AC Milan and Ajax, three of Europe's historical heavyweights. Ajax aren't in that league anymore but haven't disgraced themselves at all and are still in with a good shot of qualifying to the knock-outs. Mourinho's Madrid I think are looking like they will win the competition. His teams always have the habit of peaking at the right time whilst Milan are looking like they're on their way to joining Ajax in the history books.

Uefa Champions League : Group H Table

		P	W	D	L	F	A	GD	PTS
1	Arsenal	3	3	0	0	14	2	12	9
2	Shakhtar Donetsk	3	2	0	1	5	5	0	6
3	Braga	3	1	0	2	2	9	-7	3
4	Partizan Belgrade	3	0	0	3	1	6	-5	0

Our final group look like they've got an east v west battle going on. Arsenal should qualify after scoring 12 goals in 3 games that a ridiculous 4 per game. Shakhtar are looking like they'll go through but I would rule out Braga who knocked out Seville in the qualifying stages, they really do have a penchant for the spectacular, I'd call them a Youtube team, take a look at the goal against Celtic.