Scared to look at the papers today? You bet! And with good reason. Peter Crouch will wish he had pulled an Aaron Lennon and chickened out before kick-off because the cut-throat wordsmiths all have their pen-knives out and the logically challenged striker gets a deserved verbal kicking.
I don't blame Crouch exclusively for what happened last night. In fact, his sending off forced us to play with the ball on the ground and build from the back, rather than just lumping the ball forward. The way we dealt with the remainder of the first half was admirable but with only 10 men, fatigue was bound to set in and, for that, Crouch has to shoulder some responsibility.
The morning after the night before, and our recent results can no longer be twisted into having one eye on a glory, glory night; now they just look like a bad run. Sky Sports continues to play that advert for the road to the Champions League Final at Wembley but suddenly the feeling of involvement has all but evaporated. The season goes on regardless, and we need an almighty dusting down session before the Stoke game at the Lane on Saturday.
Games thick and fast, that's what suits Spurs best, right? Ten-day breaks between games certainly haven't seemed to work. We do relish our chances as the underdogs, however, and after this rotten run of results we are certainly underdogs to get back into the Top 4.
The European adventure has felt all along like we were flying by the seat of our pants; prevailing despite injuries and unfamiliar gameplans and still proving our worth on countless occasions. When you live on the edge, sometimes you fall off with a bump.
The rest of the season is now going to be about character; what's done is done and it is up to those who have played badly or made mistakes to dig in and find that something extra. I wouldn't say that the Champions League is a total lost cause - if any Spurs team can overturn this sort of deficit, it's this one - but it's unlikely. Very unlikely.
For now, we're going to have to put up with the sneers and the jibes. Men versus boys, finally found out, simply not good enough; you know, that sort of thing. The best tonic is a good performance and more importantly now a good result.
But there is another cure for the Bernabeu Blues:
On opening a Christmas card from my girlfriend, what should fall out but a copy of Spurs v Inter Milan. Immediately I stuck in it the DVD player and rewatched the game in its entirety. I then watched the highlights and then homed in on what I've come to call Bale's goal, watching it over and over. I watched it again last night.
Of course, we all know it wasn't Bale who applied the finishing touch but that third goal against the Champions League holders is as much the Welshman's as anyone else's.
From Younes Kaboul's interception, the touch to Bale, the quick thinking as he knocks the ball past Maicon and the audible gasp of crowd anticipation as he gives chase, the perfect ball across the box, again the crowd volume soars as 35,000 realise we're actually going to beat Inter Milan, Oh When The Spurs Go Marching In and Andy Gray stating "I have never, ever, seen a player do what he does." The whole thing constitutes a wonderful moment that sums up our season in Europe.
Nobody realistically expected us to win at the Bernabeu, yet everybody knew we might just get hammered. Next time you see an advert for the Wembley final, or a negative newspaper column, don't look back to last night, because it's not the sum total of what we've achieved along the way.
True glory may be out of our reach for the time being but being a football fan is as much about glorious moments as glory itself, so before you turn your attentions to Stoke and our end of season run-in, take some time to reflect on what we've done along the way. You won't be disappointed.
Showing posts with label uphill. Show all posts
Showing posts with label uphill. Show all posts
Wednesday, 6 April 2011
Tuesday, 8 March 2011
Some sort of perspective
I've had to wait a day before writing about the Wolves game. If I hadn't, you'd probably just be reading a four-letter diatribe of 'Why?' this and 'Why?' that.
Now that the nerves have settled and my blood has stopped boiling, I can take a proper look at the situation - how Harry Redknapp manages to immediately compose himself and do a post-match interview is beyond me.
The man's got nerves of steel, and he has an uncanny ability to put the whole thing in some sort of perspective. We're all sat there, head in hands, concerned that our wonderful journey is at an end, and 'Arry comes out and says "That's football", then points out that Wolves have beaten Man United, Chelsea and Man City at Molineux and suddenly we all feel that little bit better about things.
Make no mistake, our last two results have made a Top 4 finish an uphill struggle, but Spurs have never made things easy for themselves and, the result aside, there were a lot of encouraging signs to come from yesterday.
Obviously, the sight of Gareth Bale careering down the flank is a timely boost as we look towards another difficult run-in. And, never mind Kolo Toure, I want some of whatever Jermain Defoe's been having, as both those goals were not only out of the top drawer, but completely out of nothing - and that surprise element is something we've been badly missing.
Defoe is famed for slamming the ball home from 18 yards with no regard for the keeper's positioning, but both strikes yesterday were placed carefully out of Wayne Hennessey's reach. Now, if he can just learn to take it round the keeper in a one-on-one situation… one step at a time.
It was nice to see Roman Pavlyuchenko on the scoresheet, you have to go back to November for the last time two of our strikers scored in the same game. But for me, he puts very little into his off-the-ball game. Countless times yesterday he gave up the moment he was dispossessed, in stark contrast, Jermain Defoe harried and chased down every ball, highlighting the lack of effort from the man alongside him, and maybe that's the reason Redknapp is hesitant to give Pav a run in the side.
Sandro had a much better game on Sunday and is starting to look like he's getting to grips with the Premier League. He's got a good awareness, he seems to know when to get stuck in or pile forward and when to hold off, protect the space behind. Even if his development isn't as meteroic as Bale's last season, in future seasons he could prove to be the solid general midfielder we've been craving for so long.
Chelsea may have beaten Blackpool last night but then their following Premier League game is against Man City, so someone is guaranteed to drop points. Our next three games are West Ham, Wigan and Stoke so finger crossed we can make up some ground.
If all that's not enough, then we still have to play both Chelsea and Man City so, whilst recent results have not been what we'd hoped for, the situation is still very much in our hands.
Now that the nerves have settled and my blood has stopped boiling, I can take a proper look at the situation - how Harry Redknapp manages to immediately compose himself and do a post-match interview is beyond me.
The man's got nerves of steel, and he has an uncanny ability to put the whole thing in some sort of perspective. We're all sat there, head in hands, concerned that our wonderful journey is at an end, and 'Arry comes out and says "That's football", then points out that Wolves have beaten Man United, Chelsea and Man City at Molineux and suddenly we all feel that little bit better about things.
Make no mistake, our last two results have made a Top 4 finish an uphill struggle, but Spurs have never made things easy for themselves and, the result aside, there were a lot of encouraging signs to come from yesterday.
Obviously, the sight of Gareth Bale careering down the flank is a timely boost as we look towards another difficult run-in. And, never mind Kolo Toure, I want some of whatever Jermain Defoe's been having, as both those goals were not only out of the top drawer, but completely out of nothing - and that surprise element is something we've been badly missing.
Defoe is famed for slamming the ball home from 18 yards with no regard for the keeper's positioning, but both strikes yesterday were placed carefully out of Wayne Hennessey's reach. Now, if he can just learn to take it round the keeper in a one-on-one situation… one step at a time.
It was nice to see Roman Pavlyuchenko on the scoresheet, you have to go back to November for the last time two of our strikers scored in the same game. But for me, he puts very little into his off-the-ball game. Countless times yesterday he gave up the moment he was dispossessed, in stark contrast, Jermain Defoe harried and chased down every ball, highlighting the lack of effort from the man alongside him, and maybe that's the reason Redknapp is hesitant to give Pav a run in the side.
Sandro had a much better game on Sunday and is starting to look like he's getting to grips with the Premier League. He's got a good awareness, he seems to know when to get stuck in or pile forward and when to hold off, protect the space behind. Even if his development isn't as meteroic as Bale's last season, in future seasons he could prove to be the solid general midfielder we've been craving for so long.
Chelsea may have beaten Blackpool last night but then their following Premier League game is against Man City, so someone is guaranteed to drop points. Our next three games are West Ham, Wigan and Stoke so finger crossed we can make up some ground.
If all that's not enough, then we still have to play both Chelsea and Man City so, whilst recent results have not been what we'd hoped for, the situation is still very much in our hands.
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