themanwhofellasleep
z-list internet celebrity
- Dec 14, 2006
- 690
- 0
When Juande Ramos first arrived at the club, a lot of people said that we would have to wait a while before we saw him stamp his style of football on the team. And I think that is true. I also think we'll have to wait until next season and the transfer window before we really see how he wants Spurs to play, so anything I say is tempered by the fact that he's still constrained by mostly using players from the Jol era.
The good news is that he has tightened us up defensively. He did this by buying some decent new players (Hutton/Woodgate), sorting out the goalkeeping situation by dropping Robbo and making sure he wasn't back in the team until his confidence was restored, and by implementing a zonal defence that has largely stopped us conceding soft goals from set-pieces.
We're also playing far more on the counter-attack than under Martin Jol. In many ways this makes sense, as we now have the defenders to actually defend a lead. The 5-1 Arsenal win was a good example of us playing well on the counter attack. In many ways that was a freak result but it shows that when the players are up for it, we can pick teams off on the break. Jol got a lot of stick for negative tactics, but Ramos is often just as happy for us to take off attackers when we're in the lead. The difference is that Ramos seems to better understand how to play on the break, meaning that we can defend a lead but still score, rather than just shoving players behind the ball and dropping deeper and deeper. Nevertheless, I think that everyone raves about how Ramos "plays attacking football" and loves "Spurs-type football" whereas actually he looks a little more conservative on the attacking front than BMJ. I think games like the 6-4 win over Reading were something of an abberation and much more like a Jol performance than a Ramos one. I can't see many more results like that one. At the moment there's not much fluidity or rhythm in our play - whether that's from a lack of confidence in players or the constant rejigging of the midfield, I can't say.
At the moment, the problem facing Ramos is knowing where the goals are going to come from. Both Keane and Berbatov have been struggling for goals in the last month, Bent isn't at the races, and Jenas is now out injured. Lennon doesn't look like he's playing well and Zokora never scores. Malbranque gets a few goals, but I think that Ramos wants him out wide rather than drifting into the box. Our lack of a creative midfielder is painful to see. Our best goalscoring defender is Kaboul, who is way down the pecking order in terms of actual defending.
Obviously, part of the problem that Ramos faces is that the club has sold Defoe. Now, he had his fans and his detractors, but Defoe scored a lot of important goals for the club, in particular coming on for Robbie Keane. I don't blame Ramos for selling Defoe - I think it's better to get good money for him than have him warming the bench. The current state of affairs is that we're not conceding too many goals but we're having to rely on scrappy goals or defensive mistakes to actually score. Irrespective of whether or not Berbatov stays in the summer, I think we'll see Ramos go for another striker.
Like I said, I acknowledge that at the moment Ramos is still mostly using Jol-era players. I have faith that come the transfer window he and Comolli will identify players and we can improve on our league position next season.
The good news is that he has tightened us up defensively. He did this by buying some decent new players (Hutton/Woodgate), sorting out the goalkeeping situation by dropping Robbo and making sure he wasn't back in the team until his confidence was restored, and by implementing a zonal defence that has largely stopped us conceding soft goals from set-pieces.
We're also playing far more on the counter-attack than under Martin Jol. In many ways this makes sense, as we now have the defenders to actually defend a lead. The 5-1 Arsenal win was a good example of us playing well on the counter attack. In many ways that was a freak result but it shows that when the players are up for it, we can pick teams off on the break. Jol got a lot of stick for negative tactics, but Ramos is often just as happy for us to take off attackers when we're in the lead. The difference is that Ramos seems to better understand how to play on the break, meaning that we can defend a lead but still score, rather than just shoving players behind the ball and dropping deeper and deeper. Nevertheless, I think that everyone raves about how Ramos "plays attacking football" and loves "Spurs-type football" whereas actually he looks a little more conservative on the attacking front than BMJ. I think games like the 6-4 win over Reading were something of an abberation and much more like a Jol performance than a Ramos one. I can't see many more results like that one. At the moment there's not much fluidity or rhythm in our play - whether that's from a lack of confidence in players or the constant rejigging of the midfield, I can't say.
At the moment, the problem facing Ramos is knowing where the goals are going to come from. Both Keane and Berbatov have been struggling for goals in the last month, Bent isn't at the races, and Jenas is now out injured. Lennon doesn't look like he's playing well and Zokora never scores. Malbranque gets a few goals, but I think that Ramos wants him out wide rather than drifting into the box. Our lack of a creative midfielder is painful to see. Our best goalscoring defender is Kaboul, who is way down the pecking order in terms of actual defending.
Obviously, part of the problem that Ramos faces is that the club has sold Defoe. Now, he had his fans and his detractors, but Defoe scored a lot of important goals for the club, in particular coming on for Robbie Keane. I don't blame Ramos for selling Defoe - I think it's better to get good money for him than have him warming the bench. The current state of affairs is that we're not conceding too many goals but we're having to rely on scrappy goals or defensive mistakes to actually score. Irrespective of whether or not Berbatov stays in the summer, I think we'll see Ramos go for another striker.
Like I said, I acknowledge that at the moment Ramos is still mostly using Jol-era players. I have faith that come the transfer window he and Comolli will identify players and we can improve on our league position next season.
