Highlights.

Another poor goal to concede this weekend – we’re still stuck on one clean sheet, and this kind of defending shows why.

A ball is played down the channel which Kaboul chases. I think Assou–Ekotto is trying to shield Bassong from Kaboul so that he can get distance on his clearance. Either way, between them, they get in a real mess

Kaboul shows good desire, and gets a toe on the ball.

This has taken two defenders out of the game – pretty pathetic! The first rule of defending is “don’t talk about defending”. Or perhaps that’s only at Spurs? Of course, it should be “if in doubt, put it out”.

Kaboul sensibly passes the ball back to Finnan, who seemingly overhits his cross.

But at this point, Corluka has been forced to come across to cover Bassong, who had gone over to help Assou–Ekotto.

This leaves Boateng in plenty of space, and he has time to watch the ball on to his foot. Note Gomes‘ position at this point. He has already come across to this side of the goal, and his near post is seemingly well protected.

Also well worth noting Lennon’s position (at least I think it’s Lennon – apologies Aaron if it’s not you!). Perhaps harsh to blame a right midfielder for a goal like this, but he has not come round to cover for Corluka.

Boateng’s technique is decent enough – he strikes the ball well here but, again, worth noting Gomes‘ position. He simply shouldn’t be beaten from here.

But he lets it creep in – although he made some good saves this week, he has to take his share of the blame for this goal.

Personally I’d like to see Dawson or Woodgate back in the team next week. I think Bassong has had a promising start to his Spurs career, but he is still raw and his mistakes have already cost us goals this year.

First of all, huge congratulations to Ryan Mason, Steven Caulker, Dean Parrett and Adam Smith – all in the England U19 squad for the European U19 Championship First Qualifying Round in Slovenia between October 9-14. The games are against Finland, Slovenia and Slovakia. They won the first game against Finland 3-1 yesterday – Ryan (1st cap) and Dean (3rd cap) started, Steven (1st cap) came on as a sub, and Adam (0 caps as yet) wasn’t used. Dean captained the side, and scored the 3rd goal in the 92nd minute.

In addition, Danny Rose (currently on loan at Peterborough) played for England U21 last night, and Jon Obika has just returned from an England U20 trip. Meanwhile, Paul McBride will join up with the Republic of Ireland U18s next week.

A couple of articles from the official site:
Proud moment for Academy
Parrett on target

This week, the U18s lost 4-2 away at Leicester, with Oyenuga and M’Poku getting our goals.

Here’s how things have gone since my last update:

FA Premier Academy League
Sat 12 Sep (at Southampton) Southampton U18s 0-3 Tottenham Hotspur U18s
Scorers – M’Poku, Oyenuga, McBride

Subs:

Durojaiye (16) for Butcher, 76
Waller-Lassen (16) for Fredericks, 80.
Blackwood (18) for M’Poku, 89.

Not used:

Ranieri (17)
O’Neill (17)

Spurs Official Site report.
Confidence the key
Spurs Odyssey report.
Southampton Official Site report.

FA Premier Academy League
Sat 19 Sep (at Spurs Lodge) Tottenham Hotspur U18s vs Fulham
Scorers: Kane, Smith, Oyenuga, Fredericks, Waller-Lassen 2

Subs:

Durojaiye (16) for Butcher (18), 46.
Waller-Lassen (16) for McBride
Blackwood (18) for Francis-Angol

Not used:
Ranieri (17)
Lancaster (16)

My report.
Spurs Odyssey report.
Official Site report.
Official Site interview with Inglethorpe.

FA Premier Academy League
Sat 26 Sep (at Bristol) Bristol City U18s 1-4 Tottenham Hotspur U18s
Scorers: Oyenuga, Kane, McBride, Waller-Lassen

Waller-Lassen for Fredericks, 70
Blackwood for Durojaiye, 80
Lancaster for McBride, 80

Not used:
Ranieri (17)
O’Neill (17)

Official Site report.
Spurs Odyssey report to appear here.
Bristol City Official Site report.

FA Premier Academy League
Sat 03 Oct (at Spurs Lodge) Tottenham Hotspur U18s vs Watford

POSTPONED

FA Premier Academy League
Sat 10 Oct (at Leicester) Leicester City U18s 4-2 Tottenham Hotspur U18s
Scorers: Oyenuga, M’Poku

Ranieri (17) for Butler, 32
Fredericks (16) for Nicholson, 78
Lancaster (16) for McBride, 68

Not used:
Carroll
O’Neill

Foxes bite back
Leicester City U18s 4 Spurs U18s 2

The first goal.

On the surface, this situation looks relatively harmless. We have Cudicini plus eight defenders against four Bolton players in the box. It’s the two outside that we need to be worried about – we ONLY have Jenas set up to mark both of these.

As Gardner starts to make his break into the box (notice Keane pointing him out), Jenas has to make a decision – does he stay with the man nearest the edge of the box, or does he track Gardner.

Jenas makes the only decision that he can, and moves towards Gardners run. He anticipates that Bassong is going to win the header, and takes up a position to be able to clear away should it come to him.

When Bassong’s header skims off the top of his head, we now have a problem. Gardner’s still moving at pace, and nobody has gone with him. At this point, it’s appropriate to highlight Kranjcar’s position – Gardner is now his man, but he is ball-watching.

Fortunately, Gardner can only help the ball on, and Assou-Ekotto reacts to get to the flight. Kranjcar is still ball watching.

When the ball comes out to Lee, it could be argued that Assou-Ekotto doesn’t do enough to stop the shot. Also, notice Cudicini’s positioning – for me, he’s too far over to his near post. Jenas has, by this point, also come across to help out his goalkeeper. Kranjcar has totally switched off now and is in a pointless position.

When the shot comes back across goal, Cudicini has left himself with too much to do, and he ends up palming the ball out into absolutely the worst position. Important to notice Kranjcar again – dawdling as Gardner is now totally unmarked.

Kranjcar reacts too late, a simple finish.

The 2nd goal.

Defoe closes Ricketts well, but his long-ball is very precise.

It’s brought down terrifically well by Gardner, although Corluka was caught slightly upfield and as a result is not tight enough.

Great football this by Bolton. Gardner pops it inside, but we still look fairly safe – Lennon has tracked back, and Wilson Palacios is round on the cover.

Great first touch from Cohen, guided into Lee’s feet. Two good technical players here, no doubt about that. However, Huddlestone is nowhere near tight enough to Lee, and watch Palacios as Cohen passes and carries on moving – does he presume that Lennon is going to track the runner? Remember that Lennon is wrong-side, so this is an incorrect assumption from Palacios.

In fact, it’s almost Zokora-esque. He is sucked towards the ball, and totally ignores Cohen’s run.

Great stuff from Bolton, though – a cheeky back-heel from Lee, although it does put Cohen fairly wide, and Spurs have plenty back to defend the cross. At this point, notice Assou-Ekotto’s position with Davies. In the commentary, Trevor Francis says that “Assou-Ekotto doesn’t notice Davies lurking” – now, how can this be?

Cohen stands the ball up, and Cudicini is left scrambling across his line. He needs help from his defender here.

Assou-Ekotto is still well-positioned to deal with this.

But for some reason, he doesn’t anticipate the danger. I don’t personally think that he bottles it – it’s a simple header to make, and he doesn’t even need to make contact with Davies – just go and put it out for a corner. He waits for Cudicini, though, and Davies steals in.

Bolton’s first goal was a classic Bolton goal – a ball into the box, win the second balls and get it back into the danger area. Bassong’s header was poor, but Kranjcar and Cudicini are also at fault for me.
The second, though, was a really well-worked goal. But also an avoidable one – had Palacios done his job properly, and had Ass0u-Ekotto headed the ball out, it wouldn’t have been a problem.

So all in all, poor defending for both goals, and there were other moments in the game where we looked shaky too. I don’t think Huddlestone’s selection at centre back was a good one, and I thought Palacios had his fourth under-par game in a row.

Currently we have the following players out on loan:

Sam Cox – Cheltenham Town (until 1st October 2009)
Lee Butcher – Grays Athletic (until 1st October 2009)
Oscar Jansson – Exeter City (until 1st October 2009)
Dean Parrett – Aldershot Town (until 17th October 2009)
Jon Obika – Yeovil Town (until 11th November 2009)
Ryan Mason – Yeovil Town (until 14th November 2009)
Steven Caulker – Yeovil Town (until 14th August 2009)
Troy Archibald-Henville – Exeter City (until December 2009)
Andros Townsend – Leyton Orient (until 31st December 2009)
David Button – Crewe Alexandra (until January 2010)
Jake Livermore – Derby County (until January 2010)
Jamie O’Hara – Portsmouth (until January 2010)
Tomas Pekhart – Slavia Prague (until 2nd Feb 2010)
Adel Taarabt – QPR (until May 2010)
Kyle Walker – Sheffield United (until May 2010)

Now returned from loan:
Adam Smith – Wycombe Wanderers
Ben Alnwick – Norwich City

Plenty of our players got some game time this weekend. It’s worth starting with Dean Parrett, who took the Man of the Match award for Aldershot Town yesterday, playing 80 minutes on his home debut for The Shots. Fantastic achievement for Dean, who doesn’t turn 18 until mid-November. Sam Cox was again an unused sub for Cheltenham Town in the same match and, with his loan expiring next week, I imagine he’ll be back with us soon. Perhaps he’ll need to go a division lower to get some valuable league experience.

Some comments on Dean’s performance from the Aldershot Town match report:

Lee Butcher conceded two for Grays Athletic, and has now started four games there – playing in the same eleven as ex-Spur Jamie Slabber.

Oscar Jansson conceded two for Exeter City and Troy Archibald-Henville also played the full 90, picking up a yellow card. A few comments on our lads from the Exeter City Official Site report – looks as though Jansson made quite a bad error for the goal.

Stewart fouled Youga and from a couple of yards out of the area to the right of the goal Shevley sent a stinging free kick into Jansson’s arms.

The second half started with the same team, but Archibald-Henville was moved into midfield with Edwards moving back.

Troy was magnificent in the second half, he was winning loads of ball in midfield and showed a pleasing level of distribution. He rose highest at a corner early after the restart and his header went over the bar when you would have backed him to score.

A soft cross came in from the right and Jansson spilled the ball to McLeod who had an easy task to poke the ball home.

Matt Taylor was excellent at the heart of the defence, Archibald-Henville was magnificent in midfield.

I never had Troy down as a central midfielder!

Yeovil Town finally got a win, with Ryan Mason and Steven Caulker both playing 90 minutes. Jon Obika was absent, playing for England U20. Yeovil Town Official Site report:

And some great comments from a Yeovil Town forum on Mason/Caulker.

“Amazing for a 17 year old,like many it will all depend how he progresses and doesn’t fall away to the lower leagues.

It will come as no surprise to anyone who has seen Ryan Mason play for our U18s that he had arguably his best game in a Yeovil shirt so far in his favourite role, just off the forward. Let’s hope he stays there!

Andros Townsend came on in the 56th minute for Leyton Orient…and scored in the 57th!! His match-winning goal will hopefully mean he gets his place back in their side – he had previously lost it with a couple of poor games in a row. Plenty of positives from the Leyton Orient Official Site report:

The goal should be up on the BBC web-site within the next day or two.

Jake Livermore played another 78 minutes for Derby County, deputising for first choice midfielder Paul Green, who is currently out injured.

Jamie O’Hara played 90 minutes for Portsmouth as they lost 0-1 to Everton. Great for Jamie to be getting some 90 minute stints under his belt. Reading the Portsmouth forums, the fans seem relatively happy with his performance, and he whipped in some dangerous set pieces (as seen on Match of the Day).

Adel Taarabt was a 69th minute substitute for QPR, as they beat Barnsley 5-2 – he also made a cameo against Chelsea in the cup. Well worth a watch if you’ve not yet seen it – he actually passed the ball a couple of times. Taarabt’s cameo vs Chelsea.

Kyle Walker played 90 minutes for Sheffield United in a 2-1 defeat away at Swansea. He’s been a regular for them so far at full-back and has been generally solid without really shining. Important to remember at this stage that he is the same age as Danny Rose/Jon Obika.

David Button thankfully missed out for Crewe through injury – they conceded 5 on Friday night!

Tomas Pekhart was absent again for Slavia Prague last night – he must be injured as they only named 6 subs again.

To see a round up of appearances so far, click on the pitcture below: