Another U-turn in the career of David... http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/sport/football/4105545/David-Bentley-added-to-Spurs-squad.html Smiley Poll A. B. ...vote with caution, as this would increase the chance of being sectioned. C. D. All posts should include one of the above smileys.
I might be in the minority but I would love to see Bentley return to full fitness and form and justify why we bought him - if that were to happen I would most definitely
Much as I respect much of what you say Ensil, this time I disagree. We have moved on from the type of play that suited Bentley and if he was to come into the matchday squad let alone come off the bench our style of play would suffer as a result. I would rather have Niko as back up than him.
He is a different kind of wide player. Our favoured way of play is attacking at pace, where DB is more suited when its slower and the opponents are parking the bus, where he can work half a yard to get his cross in rather attack the FB to the byline. His accuracy and delivery that we have seen in the past when on form, would be very useful in that case. In a fast open game, it tends to pass him by I think. Not great defensively, so I would worry about him paired with Walker, as covering him is not a strong point. Again you have to make special arrangements to cover this, a good DM, and we do have that now. Theirs a fair few 'ifs' here, but in the right circs, I would be intrigued to see how he does.
From what I remember one of his very few strengths is his ability with dead ball situations. Maybe we should do what they do in NFL bring on the specialist kicker and then take him off again- there sorted!
What really pisses me off about our malfunctioning Bentley is that he has talent. If he put half as much work into his game, as he seems to put into buying new clothes, or his new hairstyle, he could actually be as useful player for us. As he is, he's just a waste of space
As others have said, he doesn't suit our style. Cover if Lennon and Kranjcar are both injured, perhaps, as Walker's pace and attacking prowess would probably create space for him to work in. He'll probably go back out on loan, though.
I think in fairness PL, his crossing ability is what you associate DB with. i do know what you mean, for us he seems to be trying to hard and it goes all wrong. He has produced continous spells of good form (unlike Gio), most notably with Blackburn, so he can do it. I've seen many superb deliveries from that bloke in the past, but you have to say his all round game falls a bit short, needing tactics to accomodate him which don't suit our main style of play. If through injury/suspension the last choice was those 2, I'd go with DB, he does have slightly more ability to produce that moment of the undefendable in him. Like the car, it does break down, but thats usually the Bentley parts, at its core the Volkswagen (for those that don't know, thats what all modern Bentley's are) the basics are fine. In the player you have the basis of a good footballer, its just the Bentley bits are so typically English...unreliable!
Problem is that, for us, he's been useless with the dead ball as well - his corners, supposedly his strongpoint at Blackburn, rarely cleared the first defender. We may as well have asked the ballboys to take them.
Just like the rest of our set-piece takers then, really! Probably highlights the problem and indicates that it's down to a training issue.