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Leeds 1-3 Spurs: The Reason For David Bentley’s Resurgence?

In between various planes and trains back from Morocco I managed to catch yesterday’s goings-on at Elland Road, and jolly heartening they were too. One of my brothers, for whom the rigours of parenthood mean that Spurs-watching is less frequently indulged in these days, texted afterwards to note that, as the first full Spurs game he has seen in around a year, he was pleasantly surprised by our performance. He has a point, for it was an all-round performance of the sort to which we have grown accustomed in recent months – general neatness in possession, while creating a healthy number of chances. It is perhaps easy to lose sight of this amidst the frustrations of umpteen missed chances and haemorrhaged Premiership points, but on the whole these days we play an extremely attractive brand of football, and progress over the last 12 months has been exceptional.Interesting to reflect on how the team has evolved even within the space of half a season, partly through accident and partly through design. Having shot out of the traps back in August with Modric, Keane, Lennon and BAE in the ranks, last night we eased through with Kranjcar, Bale and Bentley each looking impressive. Whisper it, but recent weeks have shown that there really is a degree of squad-depth there, albeit still with a few bad apples in the White Hart Lane barrel.

This article, forwarded to me today by a particularly highly-regarded Spurs-supporting chum, makes the point that much of our progress has been due simply to the improvement of quality, on a player-for-player basis, over the last year or two. To borrow from the article:

Jermain Defoe is a better version of Darren Bent, Wilson Palacios is a better version of Didier Zokora, and the Spurs boss feels that Gudjohnsen is a better version of Keane. 

Bentley’s attitude in recent weeks has been admirable. Cynics may suggest that his motivation is personal rather than team-oriented, and personally I reckon his lip has been quivering with rage ever since Kranjcar arrived to steal his crown as Team Pretty-Boy, but whatever the reason I hugely approve of his approach. He has put his head down, slapped on even larger amounts of hair-gel and worked hard, producing decent quality both when delivering crosses and when cutting infield. He is by no means the finished article, and the smart-money remains on him heading elsewhere in the summer, but it is good to see him rising to the challenge.

Defoe 

Statistics could probably be reeled out to counter the “flat-track bully” claim (and from memory I can pick his goal against Man Utd earlier this season and a harshly-disallowed goal at Anfield, as well as a blinding strike against l’Arse a few years ago as examples of strikes against the top-four) but the little drum I’ll bang here is that even if he is deemed no more than a tormentor of English football’s less-refined urchins this is nevertheless a mighty handy quality to have at a club with Top-Four and trophy aims. Long may it continue. Given our struggles this season against those sides we ought to be demolishing, the occasional Defoe hat-trick against a weak defence is quite welcome, and if the moniker best describing him is that of “flat-track bully” that elicits little more than a shrug.

Honourable Mentions 

 

Some of the others however, still appear stuck permanently within cruise control. He probably can’t help it, but by smiling and sticking out his tongue each time he misses a chance Crouch gives the impression that settling for second-best is not a problem. Tottenham players should be cursing, swearing and ready to kill with their bare hands when they miss chances or concede goals, and by golly they should be busting a gut to make sure it does not happen again. In short, we need to see them reacting on the pitch with the same passion we show in the stands.

Jenas

Really, what’s the point?

Spurs Are On Their Way To Wembley

It was only Leeds, but it might have been a lot worse. Many Spurs teams of yore would have started timidly yesterday, given the venue and the weather, but to their credit our lot played well for all but the ten minutes or so prior to half-time. Removing foot from throttle after taking the lead does not rank too highly on the list of The World’s Greatest Sporting Ideas, but that aside it was a pretty professional performance. A nod of approval too for the none-too-subtle attitude towards closing out the game in the final minutes, all and sundry displaying a quite stoic determination to head for the corners and run the clock down. Bolton away is tricky but winnable – a description one might pin to the tournament as a whole.

 

AANP’s first book, Spurs’ Cult Heroes, comes out on 16 Feb and is now available to pre-order from WHSmith,Amazon , TescoWaterstones and Play 

And as ever, all are most welcome to leave memories – and browse those of others – regarding some of the players to be featured in Spurs’ Cult Heroes: Danny Blanchflower here, Dave Mackay here, Cliff Jones here, Martin Chivers here, Alan Gilzean here, Pat Jennings here, Cyril Knowles here, Steve Perryman here, Glenn Hoddle here, Chris Waddle here, Ossie and Ricky here, Gary Mabbutt here, Graham Roberts here, Jimmy Greaves here, Clive Allen here, Jürgen Klinsmann here, David Ginola here, Paul Gascoigne here

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10 replies on “Leeds 1-3 Spurs: The Reason For David Bentley’s Resurgence?”

“The Reason Behind Bentley’s Resurgence?”

Regular game time. Arry would be surprised to find out what that can do for a player’s fitness and confidence!

Bentley is putting himself about ……….. which is about time!! It looks as if hes fighting for his place for once !!! Good lad keep it up David.

The Bentley question should also reflect on the fact that Lennons forced absence the temporary departure of Hutton and Naughton means the only competition for the left mid field berth is Jenas. Coupled with the fact that this once highly regarded prodigy has hit rock bottom in confidence having joined the mighty Spurs the only way is up and for the first time as a Lillywhite he has the opportunity to express himself properly. It is also worth noting that in the last 5 games his discipline has been exemplary in remaining wide and resisting the temptation of coming inside and self gratification.

On the matter of the game, I am not as gushing as the author about our performance. Firstly, it did not appear as though there were two divisions separating the teams and Tottenham’s passing, as usual, was at times over complicated, over weighted and wasteful. On the other hand Leeds passing game was fast, clean and accurate fast.

We may be holding onto 4th place at the moment but if we want to finish there or higher we have to improve upon our ability to keep the ball especially in the last 10 minutes of each half.

in the Leeds game Bentley was playing against a 1st Divi right sided mid-field player standing in at left back. Better to judge him after a game against somebody like Evra.

It was a good performance but lets not get too excited. The left side for me was very concerning. Bale is great going forward but still has some issues defending. Of bigger concern was Kranjaer who regularly moved infield, and left the left flank very exposed. Premiership teams will take full advantage. We have improved as you said Defoe better than Bent, Palacios better than Zokora, Gomes better than Robinson. We need to continue with this. We need someone better than Jenas – and even though Huddlestone is doing ok, he needs to do better.

Jenas played well against Leeds and deserve more analysis than a crowd pleasing aside.
He tracks back, supports the attack, wants the ball, finds space,retains possession, invites other players to make runs and set up the second goal by his turn in midfield to make space for the pass to Bentley.
By common if grudging consent by fair minded fans he has not played too badly when coming on, without moaning and complaining, as a squad player this season.
Is he Gerrard ? No.
Is he good enough to be a squad player as we push for 4th? Certainly.
Can we upgrade him when we make Champions League? Probably.

name Says:
February 4th, 2010 at 9:39 pm
“The Reason Behind Bentley’s Resurgence?”
Regular game time. Arry would be surprised to find out what that can do for a player’s fitness and confidence!
————
How could Harry be expected to drop Lennon ?
Harry has to pick the best available team and Lennon has been the best right winger in the premiership so he has to start.
Glad Bentley has started to make the most of his chances but I am sure even he would concede that he is still behind Lennon in the pecking order at Spurs and England too.

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