Assou-Ekotto wants to return to Spurs
The 'he was player of the season for nearly relegated Sunderland, that makes him good enough for us' brigade have had a rude awakening this season with the realisation that Danny Rose is not top four standard.
Now before I get cries of Spurs are not in the top four, we want to be and we therefore need players of that calibre to get there. His positional play is a mile away from what is required and he is usually a mile away from the centre-back.
Now I appreciate he gets little help in front of him, whether that be from Andros Townsend who has no idea about defending, Christian Eriksen, Gylfi Sigurdsson or Nacer Cadli. But there are some basics when defending and the gap between you and the centre-back is one of them.
The gaping hole left there week after week for any team to exploit has been gleefully accepted time and time again by opposing sides. It is an area they target, they pull our players around and then 'POW' to use Batman parlance, they simply play the ball into the hole or pour through it with ball at feet.
It reminds me of a castle defences that have been breached, a huge hole blown in the wall with invading forces ploughing through, It is very difficult to defend against once the outer barrier is breached.
The left side of our defence is like that. Rose has been unable to form a cohesive partnership with either Jan Vertonghen or Vlad Chiriches and his poor positioning has had a knock-on effect all the way along the back line as you would expect. It stands to reason if you know there is a problem you are always looking to cover for it which takes you out of position for your own game and makes you look worse.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Related Articles:
Kyle Walker ranked Spurs best player
The Anti-Semetic Saint was a surprise
Building work to be approved tonight
Sherwood's future assured
Naughton cements opinion, Bentaleb changes them
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
It was a foolish policy not to sign a better left-back, although I agree with not just signing anyone but only signing players who would improve the squad. As with so many players we have one who divides opinion, a left-back currently playing in the Championship for Harry Redknapp's Queens Park Rangers.
Benoit Assou-Ekotto is better than Danny Rose, no question. Benoit has helped get us into the top four and played Champions League football. He has been there, done it and got the T-shirt. He gets caught occasionally, he makes mistakes fuelling his critics, but then what player doesn't, but he doesn't get caught way upfield as much, he doesn't just trot back and let everyone else deal with it.
Quite frankly he offers better crosses too, for a former winger Danny Rose's crossing ability is woeful, he usually seems to hit the first man. BAE who has said he would like to finish his contract with Tottenham would save us having to buy in an area that needs strengthening, unless of course Louis Van Gaal can work wonders with Rose.
Assou-Ekotto was asked about his future when being interviewed about QPR's chances of gaining promotion.
"As many people know, Tottenham are a good club and if I can finish my contract there, cool. If people don't want me there, then I will have to find another club. But my first target is to stay at Tottenham."
"I prefer to play in the Premier League. The ball in the Premier League is more on the floor."
He would be a cheap solution to a problem position. He knows how to play with a centre-back, his return at left-back would strengthen the whole back line, he would allow Dawson to concentrate on his job and that in turn would enable Kyle Walker to continue what was the strongest pairing in the Premier League last season.
Every Spurs fan would like to see Kyle Walker return to the form of 2 seasons ago, Benoit Assou-Ekotto may be the key to that.
Now before I get cries of Spurs are not in the top four, we want to be and we therefore need players of that calibre to get there. His positional play is a mile away from what is required and he is usually a mile away from the centre-back.
 |
| Danny Rose Spurs first choice left-back |
Now I appreciate he gets little help in front of him, whether that be from Andros Townsend who has no idea about defending, Christian Eriksen, Gylfi Sigurdsson or Nacer Cadli. But there are some basics when defending and the gap between you and the centre-back is one of them.
The gaping hole left there week after week for any team to exploit has been gleefully accepted time and time again by opposing sides. It is an area they target, they pull our players around and then 'POW' to use Batman parlance, they simply play the ball into the hole or pour through it with ball at feet.
It reminds me of a castle defences that have been breached, a huge hole blown in the wall with invading forces ploughing through, It is very difficult to defend against once the outer barrier is breached.
The left side of our defence is like that. Rose has been unable to form a cohesive partnership with either Jan Vertonghen or Vlad Chiriches and his poor positioning has had a knock-on effect all the way along the back line as you would expect. It stands to reason if you know there is a problem you are always looking to cover for it which takes you out of position for your own game and makes you look worse.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Related Articles:
Kyle Walker ranked Spurs best player
The Anti-Semetic Saint was a surprise
Building work to be approved tonight
Sherwood's future assured
Naughton cements opinion, Bentaleb changes them
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Benoit Assou-Ekotto is better than Danny Rose, no question. Benoit has helped get us into the top four and played Champions League football. He has been there, done it and got the T-shirt. He gets caught occasionally, he makes mistakes fuelling his critics, but then what player doesn't, but he doesn't get caught way upfield as much, he doesn't just trot back and let everyone else deal with it.
Quite frankly he offers better crosses too, for a former winger Danny Rose's crossing ability is woeful, he usually seems to hit the first man. BAE who has said he would like to finish his contract with Tottenham would save us having to buy in an area that needs strengthening, unless of course Louis Van Gaal can work wonders with Rose.
 |
| Assou-Ekotto would strengthen Spurs defence |
Assou-Ekotto was asked about his future when being interviewed about QPR's chances of gaining promotion.
"As many people know, Tottenham are a good club and if I can finish my contract there, cool. If people don't want me there, then I will have to find another club. But my first target is to stay at Tottenham."
"I prefer to play in the Premier League. The ball in the Premier League is more on the floor."
He would be a cheap solution to a problem position. He knows how to play with a centre-back, his return at left-back would strengthen the whole back line, he would allow Dawson to concentrate on his job and that in turn would enable Kyle Walker to continue what was the strongest pairing in the Premier League last season.
Every Spurs fan would like to see Kyle Walker return to the form of 2 seasons ago, Benoit Assou-Ekotto may be the key to that.
Post a Comment