Analysis of the goal conceded against West Brom (26/11)

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Youssuf Mulumbu’s goalA long ball down-field is held up by Long – we seem to have cleared the danger but Brunt finds Gera, who holds off Assou-Ekotto, and waits for support from Reid, who crosses for Mulumbu to score with a header across Friedel.

A long ball is played forward and Younes Kaboul, who has been a man-mountain in the air this season, looks set to clear away.

Long, however, is deceptively strong, and manages to not only hold Kaboul off, but chest it down and bring a team-mate into play. Personally I think Kaboul should do more to stop this happening.

West Brom now have useful possession in our defensive third. Note Mulumbu making the break forward from his defensive starting position, un-tracked by either of our strikers, who should be picking him up (when playing 4-4-2 against 4-2-3-1, one of the strikers has to take responsibility for the deepest lying player).

Gera tries to thread a reverse pass through for Mulumbu, but King blocks, and Sandro clears…

…but with Defoe and Adebayor not picking up Brunt, either, he has the opportunity to play a first-time pass to Gera, who has made an intelligent run into the left-back area. Also worth noting that West Brom actually have four other options, all unmarked, with too many of our players ahead of theirs – especially considering that we’re the away side!

Gera beats Assou-Ekotto to the ball easily…

…but as he slides in to control it, Assou-Ekotto has an opportunity to get tight and make a challenge.

He doesn’t, though, and Gera has the time to hold the ball up, and wait for support from Reid, who has not been tracked by Bale, who has other concerns.

Due to the nature of the two formations, Spurs are a man light in midfield – in this image, I have circled the midfield players (although Mulumbu is in the box, and Long has pulled wide to their left, you can still see the nature of the problem). Due to Defoe’s position centrally (not near a West Brom player), Bale is left with two players to keep an eye on, plus Reid, who is out of shot.

Reid, in space, whips in a superb first time cross…

…and Mulumbu heads expertly across Friedel and into the far corner, but is afforded the space to do so by King and Kaboul.

In the first half there were numerous examples of West Brom using the extra man in midfield to their advantage, with Mulumbu causing havoc with some of his movement and his high-energy pressing. He was winning the ball back frequently, and then making bursts forward, with our players unsure of who should pick him up. Many of us were calling for a change to a 4-3-3 at half-time but, credit to Redknapp, he stuck with his side and played to our strengths.

In the second half, Defoe worked harder to stick with Mulumbu and we worked harder to get the ball forward quickly into the wide areas, where Bale and especially Lennon were finding space and using the ball brilliantly. Both created numerous chances and, on another day, Adebayor may have scored four.

The game was a little too open for my liking and, despite our dominance of possession and chances, it could have easily gone either way, but Redknapp’s positivity was there for all to see, and for that he should be applauded.

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  1. Liked on my FB page. I often give you a shout on my video podcasts. This is why
  2. Even in the second half when we held the ball better and passed more accurately we afforded them a couple of similar chances.
    Amazing how Kaboul can go from an absolute beast one week to a pussycat the next.
    Not quite the real deal yet.
    I would guess that it is very rare for Adebayor to score from outside the box as he tends to sidefoot the ball rather than strike it.
    Very good performance by him though.
  3. you can analyse til your blue in the face on this one. parker running towards the ball away from from reid into an area covered by 3 spurs players, bae not making a challenge,defoe or ade not tracking back,bale turning his back on the cross. end of the day it was a quality first time cross that caught our defenders out and would catch most other teams out aswell.
  4. Shuban - that's really good of you, thank you. What's the podcast called?

    Jimmy - yeah, totally agreed - Kaboul nowhere near his best yesterday. Adebayor was absolutely outstanding aside from his finishing which was... off? Or is that standard?

    n17yido - top delivery, wasn't it?
  5. As the commentator rightly said..no one could have complained if West brom had of won.
    Well done Spurs ..but as a West brom fan i am more than delighted with the team we have, considering the lack of huge cash injections we dont get because we dont live in London.
    By the way..Mulumbu's goal was class so dont tear yourselves up over it.
  6. I've just checked out the goal from the Sky coverage, and I don't think BAE should catch much blame for this goal. He doesn't go in and make a challenge, but he does get close (coming from having tucked in to cover the run behind King) and makes Gera turn from goal.

    Now, you could say he should put a foot in or make a challenge, but if you look he's basically the only player over there. If Gera gets past him, he's in on goal. If he makes a bad challenge, that's a great position for a free kick. Playing the percentages, staying goal side, making sure he can't be passed, and turning Gera away from goal... I think he's done the right thing.

    Agree that Bale has to cover more than one player, but he should have tracked that supporting run, IMO. I think in an interview BAE made a comment about everyone loving Bale's forward runs and how he should get some credit for the extra defensive work he has to put in. This is probably the sort of thing he's talking about.

    I am a BAE fanboy, though.

    Basically Kaboul should have closer to at least challenge for that cross - but as has been commented, it's a great cross and a great header.
  7. Kaboul could have made more of a challenge, in fact i think he was left a little flat footed and should have at least been closer. However he has improved so much in the last two years and this is just one (ultimately inconsiquential) goal.

    Show me a man who has never made a mistake and I'll show you some one who has learnt nothing, and similar sentiments.

    Overall that goal could easily have been the winner, Sandro/Parker combo looks good but needs to be used selectively. Against the AC Milan's and Man Utd's (thinking of style rather than quality) absolutely, against the WBA's and such we need to take the game and play it on the edge of their box. Looking at him Sandro will be able to do this in an Anderson/Ince kind of way, but needs time to develop

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