Just read an article by Dan Fitch-below http://espnfc.com/blog/_/name/tottenham/id/1071?cc=3436 He says in his article that Spurs with all their firepower still have that annoying tendancy to not be able to defend set pieces (not to mention continually waste attacking ones). Those of you recent good memories will know what he means (Kyle Walker I'm looking at you!) we dominate games in midfield , but when a corner or free kick comes in - panic. Is he right?
Maybe! Is it more of a problem for us than anyone else? I saw Barca panic against Celtic, I saw Real panic against Man U. and I've seen Stoke turn it into an art form. The corner or free kick can suddenly level the playing field so teams who know they are up against opposition with greater skill will perhaps spend more time developing strategys to make them more effective. If you pick a particular way to deal with corners the opposition can mess this up by using novel ways to defeat you. Surely the only way is to have intelligent defenders who are aware and react very quickly and a goalkeeper who commands his area.
We may still be worse than others, I don't pay enough notice to all the others to know for sure. What I do know though is we are much better now than we used to be. There was a point where our best defender at set pieces was the frame of the goal
Fitch quotes the Wes Brown goal. Lots of factors to take into account: Friedel was the keeper- not known for commanding his area, the defence was a mishmash only Dawson was a regular and he blames Fryers for not picking up his man. Was that the first time he has played seniors for us?
Yes I thought it was a very poor example. A pre-season friendly with a scratch team on a very poor pitch. Hardley going to reinforce your argument is it!
I think our lack of attacking set pieces success has been down to two things, first, we haven't had a decent taker until Bale has finally taken the job seriously, (the times that VdV n Modric couldn't clear the first man! ) and a lack of players decent in the air. The last bit goes for in defence too, our fullbacks are ****e, midfielders are generally poor and/or too short. No, its no real surprise to me our set piece stats are bad. As Spurf points out we are better recently, whether he means because of one-man show Bale's efforts tipping recent stats I'm not sure, but I haven't seen much from anyone else.
Spurm pointed it out notso, not me, but I agree we are a bit better but then we are a more organised team under AVB anyway. It is this organisation IMO that has so far NOT benefitted Walker in particular and maybe Benny as well. The modern game requires wing backs and everyone helping out in defence and attack. We have less of the specialists that we had before in the game generally and therefore can find players like Lennon and Defoe taking defensive roles that they are ill suited too. This then throws greater responsibilty on a goalkeeper to organise his defence. Lloris is an improvement on Friedel who was an improvement on Gomes. Young Caulker looks good in the air to me as is Kaboul but it's not Verts strong point. Overall I don't think we are THAT bad and Kaboul coming back should reinforce things, plus of course the extra time that everbody has had to adapt to AVB's approach.
Agreed. and we've been poor for ages. But you've got to work with what you've got. So, if it's not in Bale's range to have a shot, we should be looking to play it short and try something different. - Perhaps utilise the space/free men available when the opposition has put 4 in a wall? Another concern for me is how clueless we've look from set pieces and had done for a long time until bale stepped up. There's no creativity of variety in our set piece play at all.
So it was! I should clarify what I meant by 'lack of players decent in the air'. Numbers, after the 2 you mention who I agree are decent, Bale is half decent...but he's taking it! other teams seem to have 4 or 5 on the pitch, that makers defenders lives more awkward, relatively its a piece of piss looking after 2 or 3. Paulinho should help though, he's looks ok so far, its only one but every little helps.
