da heads bet： At the turn of the year, Tottenham were being discussed as genuine title contenders. Now, only a month on, the club have a long way to go to achieve Champions League football next season. Any title challenge would appear to have evaporated.
da betobet： But what are the reasons for this sudden change? The 4-0 humbling at Craven Cottage in the 4th round of the FA Cup continued a worrying goal drought and was the sort of team performance not seen since Juande Ramos was in charge at White Hart Lane.
Have Spurs’ high-flying players begun to listen to the plaudits directed at them in the press? It seems many of the key protagonists over the last few weeks have really struggled to maintain the standards they set themselves during the autumn.
It is a sad reality of the British media, but the acclaim directed at players such as Gareth Bale, Rafael van der Vaart and Luka Modric has been a little far fetched. Bale in particular has seen his stock rise from an unpredictable left-back, a statistical anomaly on the fringes of the Tottenham squad, to a player rated as one of the best in Europe, almost exclusively because he can run fast.
His hat trick against Inter Milan and performance in the return fixture looks likely to win him a nomination for the PFA player of the year award, even though European exploits shouldn’t strictly be included in consideration for the accolade.
As Bale steamed past the Inter right back, Maicon, that night in the San Siro, pundits were quick to pronounce the Tottenham star as having the beating of “the best right back in the world.” Really? The Brazilian looked that night to possess all the pace and desire of a curry filled Kevin Pressman without hamstrings.
This is of course not Bale’s fault, and he has shown enough growth and promise to suggest he can be something very special, but praise of the nature he has received would affect even the most level-headed of players.
Many of Tottenham’s players have failed to quite deliver in the league games that have mattered most. The come-from-behind win at the Emirates was brilliant, but Spurs should have put a shaky Chelsea side away at White Hart Lane before Christmas and have undone much of their early season work by dropping points at St James’ Park and losing away at Everton.
The biggest disappointment was the negative performance against Manchester United, when the league leaders came to town in January. One Peter Crouch effort aside, Spurs looked listless going forward and in the biggest test of the club’s attacking flair, only Luka Modric’s endeavour and industry came out of the fixture with much credit.
The exultant praise is, however, not limited to the players. Harry Redknapp already appears a nailed on certainty to be Fabio Capello’s successor as England manager, the former concerns about the Spurs boss forgotten in a wave of sycophantic euphoria. Many plaudits have also forgotten the quite incredible amount of money Redknapp has been credited with which to build his squad. Imagine if David Moyes, for example, was allowed half those funds to spend at Goodison Park.
Fans of the club will point to the lack of goals coming from the team’s front men. Each of Jermain Defoe, Peter Crouch and Roman Pavlyuchenko have failed to match the endeavours of the creative players around them and would suggest it is this rather than the squad’s leading lights resting on their laurels that has cost Spurs over the last few weeks.
Whatever the reason for Tottenham’s recent dip in performance, there remains a massive amount for followers of the North London club to be optimistic about. Whilst the January transfer window may have promised much but delivered little, Spurs have a very fine squad with which to tackle the key fixtures at home and abroad during the remainder of the campaign. This is a group of players capable of significant European glory. Harry Redknapp may do well, however, to stop his players reading the papers over the next few weeks in an effort to keep their feet on the ground, at least for now.
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