Analysis of the goal conceded vs Stoke
Oh dear. When are we going to learn? More defensive mistakes, another goal conceded. We were very unlucky not to get at least a point from this game but, as the cliche goes, if you make mistakes like this at the top level, you are going to get punished.
Again, it starts from a fairly innocuous situation. With Lennon off the field, we are a little short, but when Fuller receives the ball, he is only just over the halfway line.
Palacios makes up ground absolutely superbly to get back and help Assou–Ekotto. Notice the eventual scorer, Glen Whelan at this point, to the top right of the shot.
Palacios works hard to help Assou–Ekotto out, and it still seems like the situation is under control. Whelan has begun his run off Fuller here, hoping that he can work some space for a pass.
A couple of weeks ago, after the Bolton game, I accused Palacios of Zokora–esque defending – he seemingly hasn’t learnt his lesson. Having tracked back over half of the length of the pitch, and being so close to seeing this situation out, he has two options:
1. Keep shadowing Fuller with Assou–Ekotto, and make sure that we clear the ball.
2. Track the run of Glen Whelan and ensure that if Fuller makes a yard, he has limited options.
He chooses option 3 – stand still, do nothing, let the play unfold.
Assou–Ekotto is beaten for strength, and it is undoubtedly poor one-on-one defending from him – a shame because he otherwise had a decent game.
But if you look at this shot from the other angle, Assou–Ekotto forces Fuller to over play, and if Palacios HAD continued his tracking, he could have cleared the ball at this point.
Alternatively, he could have followed Whelan, who now has so much time and space when Fuller picks him out. Bassong is caught in two minds – in fairness, once Benoit is beaten, he has to come across to ensure that Fuller doesn’t have a free run at goal.
Dawson throws himself at Whelan, who probably should be helping the ball on to Tuncay, now unmarked. Instead, he launches an unstoppable drive.
I have to take some responsibility for this goal – as Whelan was coming on, I said “I’ve never rated Whelan“. So for that, I apologise!
Palacios has to take much of the blame for this, though. Yes, Assou–Ekotto is beaten one-on-one, but Fuller is a lot bigger and stronger than him and let’s not forget that he already had his work cut out once Lennon (who had switched to the left) had to go off. He needed help from Wilson, and he didn’t get it.
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However the real reason we lost is that Rednapp keeps playing that useless twat Keane. Four goals against the mighty Burnley and thats it. Only contribution other than that was to wear the grass out. Not a clue how to play with another striker, done absolutely nothing since his return from Liverpool. If the truth be known wasn't much good before that either. He had a good 12 months alongside Berbatov, I bet that was difficult. I reckon I could have got 20 goals playing alongside him. Other than that a useless brainless Pikey. Picking him is as good as starting with 10 men. Why oh why can Rednapp not see that his best starting pair is Defoe and Crouch? I guess the Pikey has something in his contract that says he has to play. Rednapp is not that stupid. Therefore the Pikey has to go
3rd comment - remember, this is one of our own we're talking about. Had you considered why Defoe wasn't playing this week?
He'd done the hard bit - he was back in position, and just needed to make a decisive decision. The fact is that he didn't - he stood still and watched the move unfold.
By the way, I wondered how long it would take for someone to come on here blaming Jenas. After all, as far as some so called Spurs supporters are concerned, he is responsible for everything that goes wrong for Spurs. In my view, if Jenas had been playing from the off yesterday, we would probably have won. We were just too ponderous and, Lennon apart, didn't have anyone who could pull the Stoke defence around with pace, until Jenas came on.