da bwin：
da marjack bet： The recent signing of Pienaar has raised many talking points concerning Spurs. Pienaar is not going to win them the league, but he is decent enough and was cheap so it is good business. Furthermore, he will offer some depth. But his introduction means that he, Modric and Lennon are all in the same squad. Although all are effective, they are small men and not very strong either. My conclusion is that the midfield is going to be too light.
For the last six years either Man United or Chelsea have won the league, and while this has been in part down to the likes of Drogba, Ronaldo, Rooney and Lampard’s goals, it is also because of their midfield. Let me pick out the key players for these two teams over the last 6 years.
Carrick 6’1”, Fletcher 6’1”, Scholes 5’6”, Giggs 5’11”, Anderson 5’ 9”, Hargreaves 5’ 11”, O’Shea 6’ 3”,
Lampard 6’, Makelele 5’ 7”, Jarosik 6’ 4”, Essien 5’ 11”, Ballack 6’ 2 ½”, Mikel 6’ 2”.
The only player smaller than Makelele in this list is Paul Scholes. It is not true of either that they are light weight. Scholes might be poor defensively but he more than makes up for it and Ferguson has more often than not, combined him with a hard-hitting player in the middle like Roy Keane, he has even turned to O’Shea at times for an extra physical edge. The same can be said of Chelsea who have big, strong players like Ballack, Mikel and Lampard. Essien may not be over 6’ but he is a tremendous physical specimen.
Gilberto Silva 6’ 1”, Vieira 6’ 3 ½” and Edu 6’ 2 ½” made up the Invincible side in 2003-04 and all were big, strong players. Even Chelsea, such a dominant force, have looked exposed this year without Lampard and Essien who have been injured and Ballack transferred away. So while the game may be won up front, the battle takes place in midfield. In a league such as the premiership, big midfielders are vital.
Looking across the Spurs midfield (Lennon 5’ 5”, Modric 5’ 8”, Pienaar 5’ 7”, Palacios 5’ 10”, Huddlestone 6’ 3”, Krancjar 6’ 1”, Bale 6’ 0”) there is hardly a strong player amongst them. While a few are over 6’ the only two physically strong players are Huddlestone and Palacios. Huddlestone has been criticized in the past for his lack of dynamism and aggression so does not really put his size to best use, and Palacios, although an effective player does not retain possession well.
I am not saying that the Spurs midfield does not have class. I would say that Modric’s first touch and vision are as good as any, and it is probably the quickest midfield in the league, but these quick players like Bale and Lennon often leave the middle exposed and Spurs are not always big enough to cope.
The only side that can get away with it are Barcelona who have arguably the best two midfielders in the world and are certainly two of the most technique gifted. But even Iniesta and Xavi (both 5’ 7”) still had some cover in Sergio Busquets (6’2 ½”) as they play a 4-3-3, not the 4-4-2 (which becomes 4-2-4 in attack) of Tottenham.
Sadly for Spurs, if they are going to play with these two wide men, I feel they need extra cover in midfield like Barcelona do. This however, would cause two major problems for them. Firstly, they do not have a striker capable of fulfilling the role of a lone forward. Secondly, this would leave Van Der Vaart redundant and he is probably their best player. Van Der Vaart struggled at Madrid because they could not fit him into their formation, and sadly Tottenham may have to change theirs to accommodate him.
The answer seems to be thus; either buy one striker, or buy more well-rounded midfielders than people like Lennon. I feel Bale fulfil that role and the stamina, plus he will get stronger as he grows, but Lennon is very one-dimensional. Modric and Pienaar hardly offer a beefed up option in midfield.
The signing of Pienaar seems to signal the answer to neither of these problems. It saddens me to say it of such an attacking and entertaining side like Spurs but I think they will come unstuck as the season progresses, especially against the bigger sides . Teams in Europe will know what to expect now and Spurs will no longer to be able to catch sides out with such attacking football. Closer to home it seems they might already be doing so.