Spurs seem to lose when I dont watch - Dan Raywood's conundrum

In the last week I have had to ensure the once super Spurs fall from the cockerels perch to three successive defeats.

Although Spurs have not actually dropped any places in the league, what they have done is dropped points that has seen us lose ground to the chasing blues and gooners and miss out on closing the gap to second place City.

What the problem is seems to be what was blessing us a matter of weeks ago, notably TV coverage (and me watching in particular) and of course, goals.

For example, it was Mother's Day and I watched England v Ireland in the six nations rather than the defeat to my fellow blogger Matt's beloved Liverpool. I was then at a conference in Belfast while Raj and I watched the 4-1 courtesy of BBC text updates and the fotmob app. Finally Spurs' defeat to Fulham was not on TV and I am not techy enough to search for live streams, besides my full time job as an IT security journalist has scared me off the dark corners of the Internet.

So is the problem me and my not watching Spurs? Well when I did watch we won, when I didn't, we lost! Admittedly the problem is greater than me not sitting on the sofa and Sky/ESPN/ITV not showing the coverage, but there is a wierd correlation here.

Sadly if only things were so easily solved, Mr Levy would undoubtedly have offered me a free ticket to every game to ensure the results go our way. Instead the problem seems to be in front  of goal, instead of 'the one man team' we are now missing something key from both Defoe and Adebayor, who have both become goal-shy in these games.

I was one of many calling for spurs to bolster the attacking line during the transfer window and while there are memories of Gregorz Rasiak, picking up a decent striker on loan would have been the sensible option. Instead we find ourselves with Defoe, Adebayor and Dempsey missing the target or short of confidence along with a lack of penetration from either wing due to Lennon's injury, Townsend's loan to QPR and Bale's move to the middle.

Now with a two week break ahead of the next game away at Swansea, I would suggest looking at moving Bale back to the left wing, moving the emerging  Siggurdsson to the centre and if he doesn't work out, give Lewis Holtby a run out.

Spurs have a great attacking line and we can be thankful that the defence is holding up (not counting 4 goals conceded against Inter) and while I appreciate the changes and desire to play Bale in a more central role to make the maximum impact, sometimes you have to stick with what is comfortable and familiar as that is what works.

After all, we were in a similar position last year and we never thought history would repeat in a positive fashion - but it has, and we cannot let Champions League football slip from between our fingers.

Another one bites the dust - McDermott sacked

Brian McDermott bites the dust at Reading as the board takes action in regards to the struggle at the bottom end of the table. The total of five wins from 28 games was never going to be enough, but was it really the right time to sack the manager? Whilst they languish second from bottom, their last eight games saw them take ten points which is just three less than Arsenal. Not quite something to complain about. The issue notably their away form. Whilst they had a home record of W4 D6 L5 F23 A 29, their travels away were much to be desired only one win and a record that was W1 D2 L11 F12 A 27. Notably they have notched up more goals at home in the league than high flying Tottenham. Away from home they have struggled to score but another interesting note is that Reading away from home in Premier League had only conceded 27 goals away from home which is 5 more than Tottenham. Amazing that such such small margins could make such a difference. McDermott's Premier League record was as follows. 

 P   W   D    L    F    A    PTS

66  15    14  38  76 122 59

Scandalously though the players were informed via text message. Whilst many shouldn't be surprised in this day and age by the method it is not professional for players to be informed by that manner. It will be interesting to see how they cope with whoever takes over. It is not going to be easy for whoever takes over. The next two games are Arsenal and Man Utd. Would another manager turn the club around in such a short space of time and with 9 games left.

Interestingly whilst McDermott gets the sack, Roberto Martinez manages to survive on the Premier League journey.  How does this work out? surely his time must be running out. Yes there is such thing as loyalty, but then there is what is best for the club.  Im quite relieved that he was never appointed as Liverpool manager, he was never someone who was good enough to take the reigns at Anfield.

Two wins in a week for the one man team?

In my last blog I dared to suggest that Spurs were not a one man team. This was a point stressed by the Spurs Show podcast who highlighted the importance and good form of goalkeeper Hugo Lloris, Aaron Lennon and the returning Benoit Assou-Ekotto. I didn't expect my blog to be embraced by the unconverted, but it does seem that while there is some Bale love, my views were not agreed with.

On Facebook, it was suggested that Spurs were a one man team but it was ‘better to be a one man team than a no man team’, while on Twitter I received acclaim from Spurs fans and criticism from others, with one accusing my two cents of being ‘one cent’ and another saying that ‘without those other players around him, Bale would not be able to do what he does’.

Everyone is entitled to an opinion of course and the whole point of blogging is to stress an opinion and allow others to respond and if you actually responded at all, I thank you for making the effort.

In recent weeks I have watched Spurs win twice against West Ham and Arsenal and in both games, Bale has proved to be a key part of the side. But a one man team? I don't think so.

I was in San Francisco for a work conference the previous week, meaning that I watched the West Ham game in a sports bar accompanied by buffalo chicken tenders and Lagunitas Dogtown ale. I was only able to see the second half but by all accounts, this was the half to see, as I saw excellent finishes by Sigurdsson and Bale, yes him again. There were some definite defensive errors and Joe Cole's goal was a pure example of that, but even though it was 2-2 with seconds to go, I knew it wasn't over yet.

I had the pleasure to attend the last game, the north London derby, and I don't think Bale ran the game at all. What we did do was show how we could play as a unit, especially when Defoe came on for Adebayor, with a solid defence and midfield combining attack and defence.

So I am aware that Bale has scored in both of these games and this does taint my defence somewhat, but I still stand by my word that we could operate without Gareth Bale.

Evidence may come in this week's Europa league game against Inter Milan. There were calls on this week's Spurs Show for Bale to be rested ahead of this weekend's away match at Liverpool, and while he does remain our main attacking threat, I would be in favour of this.

Burning players out is the biggest danger with a talent such as this - Arsenal saw this 10 years ago with Thierry Henry and signed Silvain Wiltord as a back-up. Sadly the most natural back-up for Bale, Andros Townsend, is currently on loan at QPR, so we don't have a like-for-like replacement, but in his current form, would Andros get many games anyway? 

Hopefully this Thursday will see an opportunity for Lewis Holtby, Tom Carroll, Jake Livermore and a returning Clint Dempsey (or a combination of them) to start and give the magical Bale and Lennon a break. I also wonder if with a more attacking midfield pairing of Carroll and Holtby might give some service to Adebayor, unleashing the Togolese giant to increase on his four goals this season?

Aside from that, I hope the 11 starting and 25 man team of Spurs can maintain this form, as with Champions League football beckoning next season, to see this team against Europe's finest would be a delight.

It's not all bad...honestly

Some folk may think Ive gone bonkers but as a Liverpool supporter, there are some things to take comfort from. Whilst we may have conceded more than necessary, it is something to enjoy when we have the second highest number of clean sheets in the Premier League. Only Manchester City Some people may think so what, well clean sheets are always good and to have notched up 10 clean sheets in this seasons Premier League is no doubt a welcome sight to any Liverpool fan.

Home form is picking up once more. Whilst our overall record is W7 D3 L4 F27 A 12, our last 5 games at Anfield have seen a pleasing W5 D0 L1 F17 A2. Whilst it would be preferred to have a big fat 0 in that Losses section, our home form is second only to Man United and considering our total home Premier League record for last season was W6 D9 L 4 F24 A 16. 

Scoring was a problem for Liverpool last season and the club only managed to score 47 goals in the Premier League in 38 games. In the 2012-13 season Liverpool have already notched up 49. Whilst Brendan Rodgers has had his critics, he has certainly got his players scoring. If we could convert more of our chances we could be much higher than we are. People talk about how Liverpool are a mid table team. It is quite cheap and easy to make light of the situation.

Despite the fact that the club have been 'struggling' it would seem that unlike another team from North London who have had some trophy barren years (more than Liverpool) we not seen players desperate to leave. In fact even in the deep dark days of Hicks and Gillett, players were still committed to playing for the club and one of those players was Pepe Reina. This was at a time when the club was being ripped apart by two owners who barely spoke to each other. The only player to leave was Fernando Torres and it didn't do him much good. Rodgers £12 million gamble on Daniel Sturridge seems to be paying off so far with 4 goals in 5 Premier League games. 

I believe that the rest of the season will look promising as Liverpool put some results together. Whether they make the top 4 is another matter,but progress is promising. We can look forward to a summer with players making a departure and new players coming in. A tightening of defence and a creative midfielder and another striker and things could look promising for the following season. 

 

More than a one man team

In Spurs' last two games against Newcastle and Lyon, Spurs were noted by goals by constant man of the moment.
 
After years of watching Henry, Ronaldo and Gerrard be the centre of attention, it is nice to see a Spurs player be given such attention and likely be coveted by so many other clubs.
 
Not since Sol Campbell has a spurs player been so admired by others and be so highly rated. However the talk has mainly been of whom Bale will be playing for in the future, or even next season.
 
Obviously I would be disappointed to see Gareth play for another side, and after seeing Hoddle, Sheringham and Carrick (among not too many others) join bigger sides to win greater honours after great service to Spurs, I doubt Bale would face a poor response. Well, unless he travelled down the Seven Sisters road to Islington!
 
From the outside, I can see how Bale is seen as the stand-out player and how Spurs are too reliant on him, but I don't think he is. Yes he has the most talent, ability and longest run of form in the current squad, but I would argue that there is half a dozen with his level of ability currently playing for Spurs. They will remain nameless in order to let fellow readers determine who they are.
 
To see Gareth Bale's influence, compare him to Hoddle, Gascoigne,  Ginola or Modric, and the club thought they were among the finest we had seen and the club survived all their departures.

You'll never stand alone

Rather than watch Spurs on TV (again) last weekend, I opted to spend the weekend with my wife and a few friends in the north German city of Hamburg.

Rather than regal you with stories of our weekend break and photos of the rather splendid Rathaus, I figure that by visiting this site you'd be more interested in our footballing exploits. While some of the group managed to get in several sporting fixtures, I attended two major football matches at the city's league teams Hamburg SV and Sankt (or St) Pauli.

The first was among 52,000+ at the Imtech arena, formerly the AOL Arena, built at the turn of the century for HSV. The game we saw from the nosebleeds was a 2-0 win for visitors Eintracht Frankfurt, whose noisy fans we were sitting above.

The second was a 0-0 between St Pauli and Energie Cottbus in a crowd of 26,000+ at the newly opened stand at the Millerntor stadium. According to one of our group (the Germany-based Sean), this was the first game at the newly opened stand now containing the dugouts.

So that's the basics, on to the details! What stuck me about the HSV game was the integration of fans in the neutral zones. A particularly bouncy Eintracht fan was in the row before us and there was no trouble at all. Now consider if a Spurs fan were so vocal in the West Brom stand at the weekend.

The other Taylor report-breaking (if we were in England) abilities are the standing sections for home and away fans at HSV, the ability to drink alcohol and smoke cigarettes (other things were being smoked, but they remain illegal), something well known for UK-based fans. This demonstrated the ability of fans to behave themselves while standing and drinking at both games without any noticeable problems. There was also the waving of giant flags and banners among other intimidation techniques, but as a neutral fan, this was not threatening.

Well I say neutral, my heart was with before and after with St Pauli. There is nothing wrong with HSV really, and their fans on the whole were welcoming and loud. They even got a cheer from me for containing former Spurs man Rafael Van Der Vaart in their starting 11. Although VDV has now been caught up in a domestic dispute that is doing his reputation in the media no good.

Overall I don't think there is anything wrong with HSV, but as my friend Andy has literally just pointed out to me, the reason they are not liked is because they share a city rivalry with St Pauli.

The visit to the St Pauli ground has been a long time coming for me and our group, with its anti-fascist, liberal and all round anti-establishment well known.

The ground was not as lavish at HSV's, but with 3/4 of it standing, an almost constant stream of home-made ticker tape and walkout to AC/DC's Hell's Bells, everything falls into place for the left-facing football fan. Be it the Che Guevera flags, fan songs to the tunes of 'Karma Chameleon' and 'Too good to be true', or even a pre-match sing-a-long to 'You'll never walk alone' (something this Spurs fan doesn't get the pleasure of at home), there is a real appeal to watching St Pauli. It is just a shame that the game was a 0-0, but at this club the passion, spectacle and noise of the supporters is what you come for - rather than the 'boys in brown and white'.

To conclude this blog with no narrative, I recommend you read up on St Pauli's ethos and visit the city to attend a game whether it is for the standing and drinking experience on the terrace, to see a city divided between two teams or to embrace the romance of St Pauli. Also don't forget the currywurst, it's a particular delicacy in this part of the world.

Germans embracing a classic 

Coutinho - Could this go all Comolli

There is much talk of the Liverpool bound Philippe Coutinho being a gamble of a signing. There are some questioning the fact that Inter are allowing an upcoming player to leave for £8.5 million. It didnt help when he suffered an injury late last year therefore losing his place. Whilst he didnt quite make it in the Italian league, he found himself doing some worthwhile in Spain. It was at Espanyol that he bagged 5 goals in 16 games.

Some people though may point to the fact that this is one failed Brazilian, South American players who struggle in Italy can't do well elsewhere. Well some maybe right and some maybe wrong. There of course Brazilians who have lit the Premier League such as Juninho in the cold and bleak northwest. It seems that when a manager takes a gamble, it is always a big risk, critics and football fans often too quick to make a judgement before the player has pulled on a shirt or graced the field. 

Of course there are two names that bring dread to transfers for Liverpool fans. Apart from a few signings, Rafa Benitez and Damien Commolli bring some fear to Liverpool fans especially when Rafa recommends a player. One thing though is that if you dont shoot you dont score. Im willing to give the player a chance as I do with all players...actually Paul Konchesky is exempt from that list. That is one player who doesnt get my support. Why dammit why. Im just glad that he was moved on quite soon