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No Midfield

Article Submitted by Sam Johnstone

For those that watched the game against Sunderland over the weekend, I feel that it is glaringly obvious what it is we lack.

The formation of 4-2-3-1 will not work with current players we have in the squad. Why? For that formation to work, you need to have two central ball-winning midfielders, guarding the back four. We don't have these types of players at the club.

I can see what Ramos is trying to do, and let me get this straight from the offset, I am totally against anyone saying that we should sack a manager like Ramos. Juande is trying to implement the formation he used at Sevilla, where he had Seydou Keita and Christian Poulsen protecting the back four and freeing up the attacking midfielders who's job it was to support the lone target man.

The problem we have is that the 4-2-3-1 formation cannot be used to effect when Jermaine Jenas and Luka Modric are the deployed as the ball-winning midfielders.

As Woodgate stated on Saturday, "Chelsea will wipe the floor with us if we play like we did against Sunderland". I beg to differ slightly though Jonathan. Even if we play to our strengths, Jenas & Modric will be found wanting.

All any team needs to do is depend on a long-ball counter-attacking system. When our midfield fails in an attack, the opposing defence simply pings the ball into the midfield area and have a free run at our defence. That's exactly what happened with Sunderland's second goal.

It is my belief that we need to forget about signing strikers at the moment. Let's get rid of Berbatov and use the funds to purchase two ball-winning midfielders.

If we can get it right in the middle of the park, we may have a chance of progressing this season.

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17 comments

  1. What was alarming for me was that even though the midfield passing was good the running off the ball was terrible. The attacking midfield players were supposed to support Bent and none did. Only when we made the substitutions did we look a different team.

    Jenas then looked a good player when asked to attack. When asked to hold I struggled to remember that he was on the pitch. Huddlestone and Zokora are our holding midfielders currently and neither were playing the position at the start of the match. Either play huddlestone in the position or play Zokora there and let Gunter play right back. Ramos will get it right, it may just take a little longer than we thought. Bentley and Woodgate looked class throughout a poor spurs performance.
  2. I personally think that Huddlestone and Zokora are not good enough to play as ball-winning midfielders.

    They are of course, holding midfielders and unfortunately, just won't do. I do feel that a player in the mould of Veloso or even Gareth Barry would do well playing with Huddlestone just in front of the back four.

    We need a ball-winner. Huntelaar would also come in handy, but the midfield needs to be addressed first.

    Regards

    PoshSpur
  3. You basically took the words right out of my mouth (or out of my typing hands ;-))

    Barry is definitely the answer, although, why would he swap Villa for Spurs?

    Berbatov just basically needs to get lost! Let's use the cash and buy at least 3 players, a centre-back, defensive midfielder and a striker.

    COYS
  4. Forget about signing strikers for now? So what would we do if darren bent was to pick up an injury?!
    I agree with what you said but we really do need 1 more striker if the sulky Bulgarian is leaving for man u.
    I just hope it isn't heskey!!
  5. Can I ask why everyone is so against Emile Heskey?
  6. how can we go from having one of the best strike forces in the EPL with berb&keane to bent&heskey?
    Surley that's a step backwards? We would be a laughing stock!!!
    I like bent & heskey is ok but they're not world class are they??
  7. PoshSpur, I think the answer to your question is because he is rubbish.
  8. With the current formation this is how our midfield should look:

    ------Huddlestone--Zokora--------
    --------(O'Hara?)----------------
    Bentley--------------------Giovani
    (Lennon)-------Modric-------(Bale)
    ------------(Giovani,Jenas)-------

    4-4-2 would be better, esp. if we had a real DM. But: We're not getting Diarra or Barry, De La Red opted for a bigger club, Albelda appears to have committed to Valencia, and no way will Levy splash a crazy 18m plus on the massively overrated (unless you go by youtube or football manager) Veloso. It's doubtful tha we'll see a DM at lane, in the 1st half of this season. I hope I'm wrong.
  9. I totally agree that Heskey isn't a goal scorer. What he is though, is a target man that is excellent at holding up the ball and bringing others into play. In fact, I think he's the best target man in the Premier League.

    If Ramos is to proceed with the 4-2-3-1 formation, then signing Heskey would be a complete waste of time and money.

    Falcao on the other hand, is more like Arshavin or Rooney. He play's just off the striker, which would suit the 4-2-3-1 formation brilliantly.

    Who know's what's going on at the Lane??

    Let's just rid ourselves of the disruptive influences and get on with the season.
  10. Anyone that thinks, we should sign deffensive midfielders before strikers is crazy.
    Zakora and Huddlestone will do a job there, forget spending £23m on Veloso, we finished 11th last season, forget the fucking champions league, we gotta stay in premier league and for that we need 2 more STRIKERS.
    I know Ramos is trying to play with 2 holding midfielders, covering the fullbacks who bomb forward, but jj isn't any good at holding, he eithers runs forward or back, he cannot hold and pass and cover.
    Ramos has to make the choice of either Lenon or Bently on the right of 3 attacking midielders,jenas in the middle, and luka or Dos santos left of midfield, that would work, obviosly Bale at lb, and Gunter at rb.

    If that system fails us, we need strikers to change back to 442, without Goals your done for in this league, the simple fact is we signed Luka(great player btw) when we should have signed a deffensive midfielder and sold hudds or zakora.
  11. I can see what you're saying, but even with the best strikers in the world at the club, we may concede more than we score.

    I agree with Sam's article completely. I wasn't at the game (Chris was reporting on it at the time) but I did watch it. Any team that counter-attacks against us has a large chance of scoring.

    Our midfield needs to be dealt with pronto.
  12. Falcao is good, just don't expect a new Santa Cruz or anything. That Moreno kid was more of the type of player we needed up front. It's difficult to find Latin American's over 6'.
  13. "Anyone that thinks, we should sign deffensive midfielders before strikers is crazy.
    Zakora and Huddlestone will do a job there"
    In theory, you would be right, but they have failed to do a job for us as defensive midfielders for the past two seasons, what makes you think they'd step up to the plate now? In fairness to Hudd he has the tools to step up and I wouldn't write him off yet (I just wouldn't pin any hopes of him solving our DM woes just yet on him), Zoks I'm not so sure about.
  14. I watched with anticipation and at half time against Sunderland was apalled at what I had witnessed!

    Why not play O'Hara and Huddlestone as our two holding midfielders!!! O'Hara is a great up and coming fully committed Spurs youngster who also can pass the football (unlike that mug Zakora).

    Do away with Zakora and Jenas!! play Gunter RB and Bale LB!! Get Bentley out wide right, Modric in front of the Hud and O'Hara and play Dos Santos wide left!!
  15. Was at the game on Saturday and i sit at the front not far from the spurs bench. Overhead a conversation before the game from a senior Spurs official, apparently the reason why Berbatov wasnt playing was he walked out of training Friday morning. Since then Ramos has been saying he wasnt picked as his head wasnt right.
  16. Laugh if you want to, but what we can do well is pass the ball therefore play backs as bale/gunter(hutton).Holding as Hudd/o'Hara. Flexible Bentley/Modric/Dos Santos/Jenas.
    The more astute of you will notice no Bent, he is being bypassed anyway, there is no point throwing up a long ball, the art is to hold the ball and maneuver position. Then you'll see the best of modric,dos & bentley
  17. rubbish hircut I agree. neither hudd of Zakora are both just a little too fluffy for that role. We need someone to do the ugly stuff - bustling people off the ball and acting as a wall in front of the back four. We have so many attacking midfield options now. Surely JR's priority shoudl be:

    Striker no1
    DM
    CB
    Stiker No2