Where now for Harry's mouth?
Yet another rain-swept Monday for yet another depressing weekend of football for the Spurs faithful. Gone, it appears, is the original conception of a 4-5-1 formation, with two wide players and three central midfielders which managed to produce a decent balance of passing and grafting. Whether it’s down to the injuries Hudd and Jenas picked up which forced a change in tactics or not, it seems the current formation is nowhere near good enough to even compete with Wigan. Not that Wigan are too shabby at the minute, but still. Compete or die are the two options for survival and avoiding it.
I know it’s early in the transfer market but it seems that Harry has now taken upon himself to be critical of all things Spurs. He’s highlighted that Spurs need fighters. Proper players. Possibly Appiah is one of a few he plans to sign. But to be critical when your first signing is Defoe. Small player, no real strength and can’t hold up the ball. And with no chances created for him, he is rendered even more useless for the task in hand. But don’t fret. It seems that the likes of Bent and Pav have no definitive future at Spurs as he’s also said we need a player that can hold up the ball. Surely that is more of a priority than a poacher? But I’m being presumptuous. At the end of the window is when we can hold Harry accountable or (hopefully) applaud him for the re-building exercise he’s conducted.
Woodgate, Dawson, Zokora and O’Hara have been pin-pointed as the type of players we need in comparison to the soft gutless flair players. This is worrying in itself. Zokora? Really? Sure, he runs about a lot, but a player with no footballing brain? Dawson is all effort, little ability. Although hasn’t been prone to many errors recently, so I won’t throw rotten fruit at him just yet. Woodgate is class and O’Hara has some bite.
So, what’s the answer? Another forward to hold up the ball? Another midfielder to replace Jenas (who has apparently lose his vice-captaincy)? A left-winger (not Downing)? Another central-midfielder (King’s cameos are not enough)?
And somewhere in all that, there has to be that all important element of leadership that we lack. That real scruff of the neck, slap around the face, determination and spirit that even the ‘class’ Woodgate can’t muster up enough of.
That’s some shopping list. To sign players who can not only slot into positions that are currently ineffective in the current Spurs side, but also be able to pick up the workload to allow our flair players the freedom to express.
No idea why Harry went for such a distorted over ambitious but ultimately flawed line-up against Wigan. Maybe he was attempting to illustrate the fact that we are nothing more than a group of individuals, weak in the vital areas, with no cohesion no matter the tactics.
What happened to the basics that saw us climb off the bottom of the table? The blame game and stating the obvious sounds way too Tottenhamesque for my liking. Shrug it off. That’s you Harry and the players. Before it’s too late. You’ve got just under 20 days to complete the jigsaw. And I don’t want to be hearing anything about losing any pieces behind the sofa.
