in which they lost.
Spurs’ home defeat to Fulham was limp, lifeless, lacklustre. And probably even worse – predictable.
Can the extra time against Inter Milan on Thursday be used as an excuse for this nothing display at home to Fulham? Well people are trying but Bale didn’t play midweek, had a whole week off and he was more anonymous for most of the game as anyone.
Adebayor might have been on the pitch for 120 minutes against Inter but it’s not as if he did anything then, or indeed on Sunday that could induce any sort of fatigue. Inept not tired. When the commentator stated Adebayor was on his heels
after one decent cross from the left, it could pretty much describe his whole season.
Is there a less instinctive player? He hasn’t a clue. Goals like Thursday’s are more luck than judgement.
As I Tweeted during the game…
Adebayor's first touch. Berbatov's first touch. Contrast and compare.
— Toxic Web (@Toxic_Web) March 17, 2013
…one is class the other is a waste. Instant control compared to a second touch being someone else’s problem because the first touch has bounced yards away. After a nice bit of play Adebayor’s flick into touch just summed him up. Even if he could do it he can’t be arsed doing it.
Things don’t get much better with the only other striker available. Defoe does though bring some life to proceedings though compared to Adebayor that’s not saying much a dead dog would bring more life. Yes he runs around more and gets in better places to score than Adebayor but he hits the ‘keeper with those attempts. Two good ones here and both went straight at Mark Schwarzer.
What was that about predictable?
Another piece of predictability was Scott Parker. Running around doing nothing. Then going through Ruiz leading with his arm, much in the way Gerrard went through Bale the previous week. Of course this was predictably met with nothing from his fanboys and chuckles from the media.
The middle of the park was lifeless until the arrival of Tom Carroll, late on. It was one of the few things AVB got right, after yet another odd selection of players.
At home to Fulham, notoriously bad travellers, he picks five defenders. Even with BAE positioned as a winger it seems strange. When the team was announced I wondered at a back three formation, 3-5-2 or 3-4-3, but no it was the usual 4-4-1-1 and it didn’t work. Might have worked a bit better away to Inter.
The substitution of Dawson for Dempsey at half-time didn’t make sense either at the time. Until finding Dawson was unfit I couldn’t see the point of withdrawing him. Withdrawing Parker for someone with energy, Holtby or Carroll, moving BAE to fullback and using Vertonghen as the holder looked a far better option. But then Jan had started feeling his hamstring after one surge forward early on and looked to be looking after it for much of the game after.
Other predictable moment was Berbatov scoring the winner. Predictable it came from a Spurs attack, that finally led to Schwarzer having to make his first save then coming straight down the park for Berbatov to scuff it in.
Vertonghen steps up and completely misses Dejagah, rest of the back four is all over the place and Walker’s pace is missing to maybe cover up the cracks. Just too easy.
And that’s the way it was for Fulham most of the afternoon. Too easy. They defended reasonably well but with little effort, didn’t have to do much attacking because Spurs just didn’t create enough to threaten them taking a point from a nil nil or or all three points as it turned out.
Three defeats on the bounce, luckily the international break is upon us. Couldn’t have come at a better time, couple of weeks break, players like Dawson and Lennon – who again like previous seasons is so badly missed when out – missing the international games – too much to ask for a Parker injury with England? Time for the manager to sort things out and get things back on track like he did last time three defeats came on the bounce. A run in like that would help.