I’m not a person that likes to make excuses, but I did feel that there was some genuine injustice in the game yesterday, hence my post earlier this morning.

It wasn’t a good performance from Spurs – we seemed to play within ourselves, perhaps trying to conserve energy for the tough run of games coming up. Three of our key players – Modric, Defoe and Dawson – were all well under-par, although in the case of Dawson and Defoe, it could be argued that they were half-fit. Huddlestone also looked far from 100%.

All this said, we still managed 35 shots on goal, and dominated possession – it could have been so different, but for the Wembley pitch, and an inept performance from Alan Wiley. A frustrating game to say the least.

Piquionne’s goal.

Portsmouth are awarded a questionable free-kick some distance out, which is floated in.

Kevin Prince Boateng beats Bassong in the air all too easily – he out-muscles him.

Then the vital moment. Michael Dawson loses his footing on the (now infamous) Wembley turf.

This leaves Piquionne with the simple task of beating Gomes, who is admittedly in no man’s land.

Boateng’s goal.

Dindane leads a counter, as Spurs are pressing for an equaliser. Palacios admirably tracks him and, despite not looking like making up the ground, he gets side on, and makes a challenge. I must admit, from my angle up the other end of the pitch, it looked like a nailed-on pen.

But Palacios clearly takes a healthy chunk of the ball.

You could argue that he goes through the player first, but I think this picture illustrates nicely that he doesn’t – he stretches a leg in to take the ball. Referees often rely on the direction the ball travels in these situations but, unfortunately for us, it gets caught in Dindane’s feet, and doesn’t move the way that you would expect it to.

And this, the moment that we’d been hoping to avoid for 9 matches – he was even rested for 2 of them! His 10th yellow of the season, which means that he misses the Arsenal and Chelsea games. A nightmare at the best of times, but with Huddlestone half-fit, and Jenas not having played since the 10th Feb, it will leave us desperately short in the centre of midfield (again).

A well placed penalty from the entirely dislikable Boateng. Why did it have to be him?

With the positive news that Michael Dawson, Tom Huddlestone, Vedran Corluka, Ledley King and Jermaine Jenas could all be fit for selection, Harry Redknapp has some big decisions to make ahead of the FA Cup semi-final with Portsmouth tomorrow.

Should he keep Wednesday’s game in mind? For me, he needs to pick his best side, rather than preempt who may or may not be fit for Wednesday.

Defence

We know that Woodgate is injured, and that Kaboul and Walker are ineligible. Potentially, though, we could be able to choose what is, in my opinion, our best back four:

We badly missed Michael Dawson at Sunderland last week, and it would be great to see him back, be it alongside King or Bassong. Corluka is also absolutely vital, particularly as the only eligible right-back currently at the club.

Midfield

I would be very disappointed to see Modric playing centrally again, for two reasons:

1. He is not good enough defensively.
2. He is restricted offensively.

We know that Modric likes to wander and, in Palacios, we have a player that covers ground all over the pitch, rather than holding in his position. Were we to have a Carrick type player, I think Modric could possibly do a job in the centre, but we don’t, and I don’t want to see our central midfield overrun like it has been at times over recent weeks.

In his free-role from the left, Modric is able to largely forget his defensive responsibilities and instead focus on wandering into those pockets of space that he loves to find. He is much more of a threat when he can do this, and has certainly shown his best Spurs form when doing so. The prospect of Modric tucking in whilst Bale overlaps is mouth-watering.

If it means that Luka is in his wide left role, I’d even rather see Jake Livermore get his first start, but hopefully Huddlestone and/or Jenas will be fit enough to partner Palacios. However, with Palacios still walking the suspension tightrope, I do have a bad feeling that Redknapp will start with Huddlestone and Modric in the centre.

It looks as though it’s a straight choice between Kranjcar and Bentley for the right-midfield role, as Lennon’s not quite ready. Both have good and bad elements to their game, but I feel that Bentley gives us better natural width, so he would be my pick.

Forwards

With Defoe back after injury, and Crouch having scored in his last two appearances, I’d fully expect them to start up front together. Pavlyuchenko’s display at Sunderland was pretty appalling, with his first touch consistently letting him down; I do wonder whether he offers enough in general play. That said, he is clearly a natural goalscorer – you can’t have too many of those, and he has 8 goals in 9 appearances, which is impressive form.

Pavlyuchenko and Defoe are very similar players, so I think Redknapp will go with one or the other. Gudjohnsen could be useful from the bench, but I wouldn’t start him.

I’m hoping that we are able to select the following, which is arguably one player (Lennon) off being our best side:

Subs:
Pavlyuchenko
Gudjohnsen
Kranjcar
Bassong
Assou–Ekotto
Livermore
Rose/Lennon?

I will be watching from block 140 tomorrow – COME ON YOU SPURS!

Was it just one of those days? I can’t help but feel that we were off to a bad start before we even got on to the pitch. Our injury list is pretty horrific, but we have to play our best players in their best positions, and in my opinion that means Bale at left-back, and Modric in the free role from the left. He is proving time and again that he is not a central midfielder (at least not in a traditional 4-4-2) in the Premier League, but that’s another blog post.

I’m not looking forward to this…

1st goal.

The first goal is a total shambles. Sunderland get off to a flying start, and force a very early corner. Firstly, we’ve become seriously reliant on Crouch when defending corners. He is a brilliant near-post screen and, generally, we have become far better at defending them thanks to his presence. Obviously he didn’t start the game, and we were also without Dawson, who has been another rock in these situations.

Kyle Walker is beaten far too easily by a bit of movement from Fraizer Campbell – a straight run towards the near post.

Campbell stoops to head but fortunately for us his header is pretty much straight at Gomes.

Gomes couldn’t have parried the ball into a worse spot if he’d tried. Worryingly, this was one of many in the match that he palmed straight back into the danger area. Notice Bassong, totally caught on his heels, though, and Bent showing a killer instinct.

By the time Bassong reacts, the ball is in the net.

2nd goal.

And then things go from bad to worse.

Malbranque makes a yard of space far too easily (a bit slack from Kaboul).

His shot is not particularly powerful, and Gomes gets to it comfortably. However, surely he should be tipping this around the post? Instead, he parries it out.

Walker’s arm is undoubtedly raised, and the ball undoubtedly hits it. However, from that range, I do think it’s a harsh decision. I can certainly see why the referee gave it, but I have seen them not given many times.

It’s not the cleanest strike ever from Bent, but it’s far enough in the corner to get past Gomes‘ dive (this time!).

3rd goal.

The only one of the three where you can sit back and admire the quality. I don’t want to be too harsh, as we are chasing the game at this stage, but the goal sums up our central midfield throughout the 90.

Jordan Henderson who, incidentally, had a really decent game, carries the ball a long way, totally unchallenged. Real lack of defensive discipline in the middle of our midfield.

He heads over to their right, and works a two against one with Campbell. Bale has very little chance of being able to defend this on his own and, for me, Bassong doesn’t do anywhere near enough to support him.

Bassong’s positioning here, for me, is concerning. What is he trying to achieve? He hasn’t made up enough ground on the player to be able to stop the cross coming in, and he’s left us very short in the middle. Henderson hits the line and, to his credit, picks out an excellent cross. As a result of Bassong’s “decision” (in inverted commas because that’s the issue – he’s caught in two minds), Walker’s been left with two men to cover.

Zenden has plenty to do, but shows unbelievable technique, and catches it perfectly.

No chance Gomes – a wonderful strike.

Our defensive play throughout the game was appalling. The goals were the tip of the iceberg – the other two penalties were embarrassingly conceded, Assou–Ekotto was beaten far too often by Henderson in the first half, the centre backs failed to dominate from set pieces. Credit to Gomes for saving two penalties (the second was a particularly good save), but he also parried four or five shots straight out into the 6-yard box, and also got away with a bad error on the wrongly disallowed Ferdinand goal.

Our centre backs were very much under-par, but the lack of protection from central midfield was what concerned me the most. I’ve commented many times that I don’t think Modric does anywhere near enough defensively to play in a 4-4-2, but I think Palacios‘ style makes this an even bigger issue. If Modric played with a dedicated holder, his wandering wouldn’t be a problem, but Palacios charges here, there and everywhere, and you can’t just empty the midfield out like we have tended to do.

It would have been far from ideal to hand Livermore a debut in this game, but at least it would have allowed us to play two of our best players (Bale and Modric) in, in my opinion, their best positions. Hopefully this will be the last we see of Modric in CM.

One last comment – how much did we miss Michael Dawson? He has been a real unsung hero for us this year, consistently “being there” when we’ve needed him. Bassong has mainly been OK (and only OK) but isn’t what I would call a natural defender. Without Daws, Bassong looked a shadow of the player he had been previously. Hurry back, Michael (and Tom!).