It was 12 yards, but it might as well have been a thousand. The moment the referee signaled the end of a desperate 30 minutes of defending in extra-time, the tie was up. It’s been close to 20 years since Tottenham won a penalty shoot-out, is it a lack of belief? Technique? Or is it […]
Same Old Problems, For Same Old Spurs
It was 12 yards, but it might as well have been a thousand. The moment the referee signaled the end of a desperate 30 minutes of defending in extra-time, the tie was up. It’s been close to 20 years since Tottenham won a penalty shoot-out, is it a lack of belief? Technique? Or is it a sign that despite the hype, the new training ground and a promising young manager we are still the same frail team that I have supported all of my conscious life.
Over the course of 210+ minutes there wasn’t much to separate the Swiss Double winners and last years 4th best team in England. Both teams had their opportunities and key moments, but a 4-4 aggregate draw was a fair result. Neither team could muster that one bit of luck or skill to decide the tie so the Quarter Final went to what is supposed to be a lottery, but clearly it isn’t.
It’s a battle of technique and mental strength. Luck is something the keeper relies on, he needs to read which way the penalty taker will go and hope the shot is within his range of movement. He is not expected to save it; from 12 yards versus a professional his chance of glory is minimal, so what went wrong with Tottenham’s penalty takers?
There exists a rumour that Tom Huddlestone is a fantastic football technician. A rumour that last night was finally put to bed. The Basel players strode forward confident in their ability to handle the pressure and relying on their technique found the corners, Huddlestone found only Yann Sommer’s right hand.
Should you require any further proof that Huddlestone’s technique is a myth, look at his hair. For a great striker of the ball he hasn’t scored a goal in two years. In fairness to Hudd this drought has been exacerbated by lengthy injuries and spells out of the team, but ponder some of the teams he has failed to score against this season: Leeds, Coventry, Carlisle and Maribor, hardly giants of world football.
Should you require any further proof that Huddlestone’s technique is a myth, look at his hair. For a great striker of the ball he hasn’t scored a goal in two years.
I was a great admirer of the fresh faced Hudd that turned up at White Hart Lane in 2006; he possessed a touch a class missing from our other central midfielders at the time, that touch of class though has long gone. Last nights failure to register from the spot looks set to be his last meaningful contribution to Tottenham, a life in mid-table Premier League obscurity is calling.
It would be grossly unfair to place our failure to progress solely on Huddlestone rotund shoulders, when there were others equally at fault.
My girlfriend through time has developed a passing interest in football and Spurs. She can sing a few of the songs, recognise some of the players and as Emmanuel Adebayor stepped up to take a penalty she panicked. I on the other hand had drifted into a state of enlightenment, the outcome was already set in place, panicking would not help. I knew he would miss and for the first time in ages, he repaid my faith.
This season rather than join the criticise Adebayor bandwagon, I have put my energy in to believing that he would turn it around. After that run up, that shot and that reaction I am ready to admit defeat.
In Jonathan Wilson’s brilliant book “Inverting the Pyramid” Adebayor is described as a modern forward:“Both target man and quick man, battering ram and goal-scorer, imposing physically yet also capable of finesse,” as he skipped up to blaze his penalty into thousands of delirious Basel fans, I pictured Wilson on the phone to his editor demanding for permission to re-write that chapter.
It wasn’t so much the miss itself, it was the demeanour, the sheer lack of technique and the bizarre self-confidence that he could hit the top corner from 12 yards. At that moment the tie was officially lost, yet looking at his face you wouldn’t have guessed it.
I am not asking him to die for the shirt, but at least try for it, or at least look like you are
Players are totally removed from the fans they represent these days, but Adebayor is in a different stratosphere. I am not asking him to die for the shirt, but at least try for it, or at least look like you are.
Tottenham’s penalty loss was down to a lack of technique, moral fortitude and belief from certain individuals, but also in part down to the diminishing frame of our veteran keeper.
The best penalty stoppers in world football are big imposing figures, who through sheer presence unsettle the striker, but rather like Peter Shilton in 1990 versus Germany; Brad Fridel was a little old man dwarfed by the size of the goal he was mean to be owning.
Sommer may not be the most physically imposing keeper ever, but he filled the goal breaking Hudd and Ade before they made contact with the ball. Had Hugo Lloris been playing, perhaps Basel wouldn’t have found the corners with so much confidence.
When you have one of the top keepers in the world on your books, why not play him in a massive European game? At least two of the four goals scored by Basel, over the two legs, the Frenchman would have kept out. Andre Villas-Boas whether in this competition or the Champions League next season needs to bench his sentimentality.
Spurs must stop repeating the same mistakes, this penalty defeat needs to be a watershed moment, not simply another one of those nights. The “Same Old Spurs” quote needs to be binned, along with our lumbering centre-midfielder and head in the clouds striker.
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15 Comments
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12/04/2013 @ 11:47 am
I think the atmosphere had a role to play, it must be hard to score a penalty in front of thousands of jeering fans. If the shootout was at the lane do you think it would have been different?
12/04/2013 @ 12:46 pm
No different. There are certain players who have the mental strength to score in those situations, why we put two who don’t in our first three kicks is baffling.
We have a German in our team, why didn’t we use him?
12/04/2013 @ 11:49 am
I think Spurs, good as they are, lack mental strength. This is a determining factor in most of the matches they lose as they did last night. In addition, they are prone to all kinds of errors, defensive especially. Just think of the many goals they concede from corners as it happened last night.
12/04/2013 @ 12:01 pm
As gut-wrnching as it always is when we regularly do these things, I think we should be chanting the names of these guys at the next home game…..yes, including Adebayor and Hudd. Ade has worked his socks off recently. And the whole team gave it absolutely everything last night. This is a very good swiss side.
One of the reasons why the team don’t seem to be able to shake off this angst-ridden fear is because neither do the fans! Look at the first bits of your article above. You actually believed we were beaten before the penalties were taken! Well, hello, don’t you think that feeling communicates itself to the players? I’ve been there as a player and can tell you that it does. Different players down through the years but the same angst-ridden, negative, even booing-own-players vibes from the crowd. So, where’s the common denominator in all of this???
12/04/2013 @ 12:12 pm
Adebayor has only made an effort in one game this season. One game in eight months.
12/04/2013 @ 12:10 pm
The first penalty takers should have been players with character. Adebayor should never have been allowed to take a penalty. The first penalty takers should have been Holtby, Carroll, Dempsey, Sigurdsson and Dawson. Adebayor shgould have been the last on the list. I would have preferred to see Friedel step up to take the penalty.
12/04/2013 @ 12:27 pm
Bit harsh on Hudd considering the lack of games he has had. His cameo’s against Everton and Basle haven’t been bad at all, penalty miss excluded. He could never be a 1st team regular but a good bench warmer with a deft pass and no doubt cheap too. He’s exactly the type of player to come back and score a winner against us if he’s ever sold (an edge-of-the-box thunderbolt no doubt!).
12/04/2013 @ 12:53 pm
We need to move beyond good bench warmers if we are ever to sustain a challenge for a whole year. We need to have replacements who are nearly as good as our first team. Hudd has lost that spark that he had in 2009-10. Its time for him to move on.
Scoring against us? Never happen. He will end up in the Guinness Book of records for the biggest afro ever.
12/04/2013 @ 12:33 pm
After Sunday’s game against Everton I thought Adebayor might have finally turned it around….was I ever wrong!
He was back to his old lazy useless smiling self.
In a team as a whole that played poorly he was probably the worst.
Dempsey scored twice but was otherwise poor again.
Else for the other american….need I say anymore. Both goals he should have saved and was generally glued to his line most of the game.
Parker had another below average game as did Dawson.
AVB keeps going on about how we are good enough and we don’t need any additions. If he is truly saying these things. Then he is is either blind or just not the man to take us forward.
The team needs an overhaul!
If we have any ambitions of competing for the title or the Champions League, we need players of better quality.
Adebayor, Dempsey, Parker and Dawson are not good enough for the teams we are supposedly challenging for trophies, yet they start for Tottenham. WHY?
I am sick and tired of watching Tottenham capitulate every season because their squad is not good enough.
If the manager thinks this squad of players is good enough, when clearly its not. Then he needs to go also.
I am a member and a shareholder and am tired of seeing my money going towards an acceptance of mediocrity.
If Mr Andre Vilas Boas thinks this squad of players is good enough after seeing them fail week in and week out then I’m sorry to say he is not the man for the job.
I have been one of his biggest supporters but am now starting to doubt my faith in him. Some of his decisions in team selection and substitutions here lately have been highly questionable.
I don’t know what it is. I don’t know if he is thinking too much or trying too hard to prove himself. Whatever it is. He needs to stop! Stop with the tinkering.
If a player is is consistently poor eee in and week out
12/04/2013 @ 1:29 pm
Sorry!
I wasn’t finished. Like I was saying.
If a player is consistently poor week in and week out he should not be rewarded with a starting berth.
Adebayor has been very poor all season. Yet he starts every game.
Parker has been atrocious since his return. Yet he is guaranteed a starting berth.
Dawson came back in, looked shaky then settled down. Now in the last few games he is back to his bumbling ways. Diving in all the time, humping it upfield etc.
Dempsey is a waste of space entirely.
Not even worth talking about.
YES! AVB WE DO NEED ADDITIONS!
THE SQUAD IS NOT GOOD ENOUGH!
12/04/2013 @ 4:23 pm
Pablodan,
Agree with almost all you said apart from I would be inclined to give Dawson a little more leeway. Admittedly, not the quickest and he does have a tendency to jump in rashly at times but he also makes ( and made last night ) a lot of crucial interventions. I think he was the best available for last night and compared to Gallas he is virtually Alan Hansen and Ledley King rolled into one ! Shame about Parker – last season he was great but maybe that was his swan song. Adebayor and Dempsey …? Well, Dempsey is lucky that Adebayor is so bad that makes him look halfway decent some of the time.
How did Siggy and Dempsey get among so many goals last season I will never know – no pace , poor first touch and terrible shooting skills. I was frustrated with Adebayor staying on the wing all night but after the debacle of a penalty attempt wish he had stayed there. Have to agree with all of previous remarks about Friedel – he is just too static these days and doesnt inspire confidence.
12/04/2013 @ 10:15 pm
i dont agree with what you say about avb. i think he has been brilliant this season and it will take a bit of time for everything to fall into place. he can only work with what he has got and unfortunately we have a few who are just not good enough at the moment. our best eleven is a match for anyone apart from a striker! but underneath that eleven we are lacking. but your right, we do need to start learning from our mistakes. these sort of things seem to happen too often. last season’s collapse and look whats happening now. why? avb has had no backing from the board, how can thousands of us know that we need a striker and then we get nothing! we all know we need a creative midfielder we get nothing!! how can this happen? it just seems to be needless penny pinching, which is ridiculous when you consider the financial rewards of champions league football.
i have been a fan and going to the lane since 1982 i have seen some pretty dire teams and football, especially in the 90’s, i for one am enjoying these heady times, and i dont want to go back to the gary doherty days. we all support spurs through it all and we all want us to be the best! so we all just want whats best for the team. i am really worried what another season out of the champions league could do to us. the reality of modern football is that champions league football is really that important for a club that wants success whether we like it or not. we would be in danger of losing our best players and not being able to attract the best players. all because we have failed to strengthen our squad now. so its not the manager i have a problem with.
now, i really hope we can get through this sticky patch and get this top 4 finish and then we will see the ambition of the board, but we all know through our years of being spurs how easily it could go the other way.
13/04/2013 @ 5:06 pm
“AVB brilliant”. You have to be having a laugh. Do you actually go? Apart from pulling up his socks during the game, looking nervous all the time and taking far to long to make substitutions (which are always like-for-like) what does he actually do? Is it really that hard to name the likes of Bale and Lennon etc in the starting X1, no it isn’t, the team picks itself so his main job is how we approach the game which he almost always gets wrong, substitutions which he almost always gets wrong and having an ability to change tactics mid-game, should the need arise, which he is totally incapable of. If AVB is brilliant, then I’m Pep Guardiola!
15/04/2013 @ 4:53 pm
I think AVB is middle of the road right now, at best. I think time will tell for him and you can’t say weather or not he is a top quality manager. I think he wants to play a certain way and he doesn’t have the players to do it. A top quality manager adapts to the players and the style they are best at. (I’m not sure he has done that very well and we are winning despite some of his decisions.) Then over time brings in the type of player he wants to fit the style of play he wants to play. He also has not played to the strengths of the team. We are best when we attack and push forward and even watching from my living room I can see us pull up and play backwards when there is space to go forward and attack. I think he has us playing too passive.
I think Ade has the worst touch of anyone on the team. He costs us more oppertunities than he creates, and being offside because he is too lazy to get back quick enough is rediculous. I understand mistiming a run but being lazy and walking back is inexcusable for as often as he does it. Also if he is not mentally tough enough to handle some criticism and the pressure of the shootout then why is he on the field.
I thougt mental toughness and being able to handle when the crowd gets on you is part of being a professional. I see posts about how we shouldn’t criticise players and its hard to play when you think the fans feel you will fail. Um hello you are the professional footballer here. Do you think the greats gave a crap about what the fans thought. Heck I would bet they were so concentrated on the task at hand they didn’t even notice. If Spurs are loosing because a percentage of fans are giving them grief then we deffinately have the wrong type of players at Tottenham to be a consistant top four finishing team. I know we are supporters and need to support the team possitively. But there are times, and there are players who at times, not only deserve to be criticised but need to be criticised. Thats what lets a team know its supporters care and want the best for the team they support.
Quick question. If AVB is never going to start Loris in that Europa game the other night. Would you rather have Friedel, Gomes or Cudicini in the net for the shootout? Did we keep the right Keeper looking back? I like Friedel, but…… Did we? Also If we kept one of the the others does AVB strat Loris? maybe a dumb question but one I’ve pondered since Friedel lost his starting job. I think his time on the bench has cost him. I think if we knew he wasn’t going to keep the starting job we may have been better served to keep one of the other Keepers we had. He is starting to show his age.
15/04/2013 @ 5:37 pm
Agree with you MJW other than AVB being middle of the road “right now”. The point is he will always be middle of the road, he simple lacks the class required to manage at this level. He says he is serious about winning the Europa League and therefore risks the likes of Bale and Lennon but pairs them with Fridel and Gallas who are not good enough. He doesn’t get enough out of Dembele as he allows him to play far too deep. He makes mundane substitutions which have no chance of changing the outcome of games. When we score he waives us backwards. The truth is Bale has dug him out of so many holes he started to believe he had cracked it. I’m sure he’s a nice bloke but we need more than that, give the opposition something to think about, take a full back off to give ourselves one over in midfield, play Dempsey (if he has to play him) in their box (where he got all his goals, picking up the pieces, for Fulham), play Carroll from the start for once etc etc etc. I’m bored with AVB, just bored.