So, what of our own 'young boys'?

Report on the first home game of the 2010/2011 season for Tottenham's Academy side...


Spurs U18s 2-4 West Brom U18s


Line Up/Formation (ages in brackets*)

-----------------------------------------Archer (17)---------------------------
--Stewart (16)-------Yeboah (16)-------Sheriff (16)-------Day(16)--
Waller-Lassen(17)--Tapping(17)--Hawkins (16)--Dombaxe (U16)
-----------------------------Munns (16)----Coulthirst (15)-------------------

Subs: Angol (U17), Miles (U18), McEvoy(U16), Ekong (16)

Scorers: Hawkins, Waller-Lassen

*where age is unknown, age group is given.


The Game

First home under-18 game of the FA Academy League season and Spurs put out an exceptionally youthful side featuring only three academy second years in the starting line up (the majority of the second years appeared to have spent the morning training with the Development squad ahead of their game on Monday). The team was initially set up in a 4-4-2 formation, with captain Jesse Waller-Lassen and highly rated U16 player Laste Dombaxe on either flank and Jack Munns supporting fifteen year old Shaq Coulthirst up front.

The opening period saw Spurs struggle to get a foothold against a more experienced (not to mention more physically imposing) West Brom team. With no obvious creative focal point, they were reduced to hopeful punts into the channels, whilst at the same time the back four’s lack of understanding allowed the visitors to easily open them up on several occasions.

It was no surprise to see West Brom establish a two goal lead, with giant attacking midfielder George Thorne at the heart of all their good play. What was surprising was that Spurs, against the run of play, managed to pull level before half time with an excellent, placed free kick from just outside the box by holding midfielder Ronnie Hawkins and a penalty converted by Waller-Lassen.

The unlikely comeback seemed to boost Spurs’ confidence and after the break they enjoyed their only real spell of dominance. Munns, who was forced deeper and deeper in the first half to try and get on the ball was now playing alongside Callum Tapping and Hawkins in central midfield, which went some way to counter West Brom’s physical advantage there. Waller-Lassen managed to construct several good openings on the right flank, with support from Kevin Stewart at right back, but a lack of quality in decision making and delivery at the crucial moment meant this fifteen minute period produced no goals.

Inevitably, West Brom punished Spurs’ lack of cutting edge and took the lead after a goal mouth scramble from a free kick. An injury to left back Daniel Day meant a reshuffle was required, with Tapping filling in in his place, Kenneth McEvoy coming on to play at right midfield, and Waller-Lassen switching to the left. Waller-Lassen didn’t get the same joy down the opposite flank, and essentially the chance of Spurs getting anything from the game was over. A defensive mix up between centre back James Yeboah and goalkeeper Jordan Archer allowed West Brom to seal a deserved win with their fourth goal.

Overall, not a great performance from Spurs, but for a side with so many players yet to even hit their seventeenth birthday, the game was always going to be more about players gaining experience at this level.


The Players

The start of the academy season brings a first chance to see new blood in action. Often, players that you know nothing about in advance. This year, the player I was particularly keen to see for the first time was Ronnie Hawkins. This was based entirely on an extremely brief clip of him with the ball at his feet in the Milk Cup. Sometimes, the way a player receives then carries the ball reveals a lot about the type of player they are.

Happily, Hawkins didn’t disappoint. Playing very much as a holding midfielder, he put in a very assured performance and showed signs of an understanding of the game beyond his years. Left footed, but seemingly at ease using his right as well, comfortable on the ball, he was disciplined and read the game well, particularly in terms of covering spaces left by his team mates when they moved out of position. It always impresses me when a young player plays with his head up at all times, doubly so if that applies both in defensive/off the ball and offensive/on the ball situations.

If there was an area of criticism, it would be that, for a player that shows obvious passing ability, he was at times a little too cautious in his choices – preferring to move play to the flanks rather than try a really incisive pass through the middle of West Brom’s defences. Still, a player to keep an eye on over the coming season, in my opinion.

Waller-Lassen was another that can come away generally satisfied with a good personal performance. He was the biggest attacking threat, as Dombaxe seemed to struggle playing wide on the left. Waller-Lassen has a more ‘tricky’ approach to wing play than last year’s standout wide player Ryan Fredericks, who is more about pace and direct running, and whilst this more elaborate style also has its merits, he did tend to try to take that one extra touch when approaching the penalty area that usually allowed a West Brom defender time to recover or their defence an opportunity to reorganise.

Left back Daniel Day was the other bright spot for Spurs. Not the biggest, as you’d expect for a full back at this level, but quite strong and stocky, he coped fairly well defensivey and made a few good overlapping breaks in the first half. Quite similar, in both physique and style, to one of his predecessors at left back, Nathan Byrne. Sadly, he was withdrawn early due to a knock, but what time he did have on the pitch was encouraging.

An area that I was hoping to see some new talent in was centre back - a problem position for the academy side last season. Unfortunately, the evidence from this game was that it will be an ongoing conundrum. On this occasion, James Yeboah and Ramil Sheriff were given the task, but I gather both are playing out of position there, and it showed. Of course, it will take time for an understanding to develop, but they will also need to learn that the position sometimes requires simplicity and early decisiveness, as both had a tendency to over elaborate and take touches that weren’t required.


The Ratings

Archer – 52% - Sometimes a little slow to react and handling wasn’t always the tidiest.
Stewart – 58% - Fairly secure defensively and overlapped well on a few occasions.
Yeboah – 43% - Shaky performance exemplified by mistake for fourth goal.
Sheriff – 49% - Assured on the ball but far from assured defensively.
Day - 66% - Solid in both attack and defence before his early departure.
Waller-Lassen – 72% - A threat on the right but often couldn't find the final ball.
Tapping – 63% - A few decent moments in attack and didn’t shirk defensive responsibilities
Hawkins – 76% - Controlled, disciplined and intelligent defensive performance.
Dombaxe – 56% - Looked uncomfortable on the left and struggled to get into the game.
Munns – 53% - Game passed him by for large periods and didn’t see much of the ball.
Coulthirst – 48% - Understandably, given his age, looked a little lost at this level.

The death of the sweeper

The sweeper system and three/five man defensive systems are regularly mentioned on message boards in relation to Spurs (and England). Historically, as a means of solving squad deficiencies in the left midfield position. Recently, there's even been some discussion, amongst the curious band of people that like to study formations, that it is about to rise from the dead. I've never been a fan of the tactic, and quite often get drawn into discussions on it. This was the latest, in relation to why the sweeper system eventually disappeared after becoming a fairly ubiquitous post-Italia 90...

Was it just a fad? Fad formations certainly arise, but arguably all formations are 'fads' since they are subject to various shifts in the game that tend to make them redundant or requiring some kind of evolution. The 4-4-2 used by teams now, whilst nominally the same as the ones of previous eras, are surely not employed in the same way. How often, for example, do you see a 4-4-2 with two conventional wingers compared to twenty or so years ago? It is set up a different way, with players of a different skill set than before.

As for 5-3-2/sweeper, it died not because it was a fad, as such, but because of the way the game developed in the past twenty years. The increased focus on fullbacks as an attacking weapon is mainly what did for it, since it is a formation extremely vulnerable on the flanks, with defensive depth of only one man. The popularity of formations with only one forward also mean that a 'spare man' is more efficently deployed elsewhere than sweeper.

Another factor, I'd say, is that formations which focus on one key player (such as a sweeper or devoted playmaker) have fallen out of fashion as players across a team have become closer in relative ability (for a number of reasons, not least changing finance influencing the flow of players between clubs). How often do you see a team with a player vastly superior to his team mates these days? Not as often as you used to, I'd suggest. In light of that, building a team around one key player is a high risk or unnecessary strategy. The last team I can think of set up in that way was Villareal with Riquelme, and it was a high risk strategy, as shown when he was unavailable or simply having a bad game (the CL semi-final against Arsenal springs to mind). The team and system was built entirely around him (and justifiably so, because he was far and away their best player).

I can't really see another team at that level playing that way any time soon, and its the same sort of issue with a sweeper system. It requires a special kind of player to play in that position, and for it to be truly effective, a particularly gifted one - look at the names from the past who have occupied the role at the highest levels. Any team in a position to possess a player at that level, generally has the luxury of enough talent across the board not to require a single-focus system, these days.

So basically, I don't think the 5-3-2 sweeper is coming back any time soon, if at all. The trends in the game still seem to be moving evolving systems further and further away from it, and further weakening its practicality, in my opinion. That would preclude any single manager and team's success with it sparking a revival.

Jol V Ramos

For me, there's not a great deal of mystery. Jol was a good manager, but not an elite coach. He did a lot of good things, he did some bad things, and more frustratingly seemed not to learn from his mistakes, or at least not be able to rectify them if he did.

Ramos' work at Sevilla suggested that he was on the cusp of moving into that elite. Was it the right decision to replace a good coach with a possibly great one? Hard to argue anything other than yes. Was it the right time to do it? No. The board should have had the balls to make the decision in the summer, giving Ramos a proper preseason to prepare the squad in line with his philosophy AND to make personnel changes where necessary.

As it stands, the failure to do that threatens to make European football for next season unlikely, bar a miraculous run/capitulation by other teams, or a cup win. As a consequence, players like Berbatov would almost certainly depart. We still won't really know the full implications until the end of the season.

There is an awful lot with Ramos that I am happy with so far, but much like players, the flaws in managers usually become apparent in the medium term, rather than the short term where their strengths tend to be revealed (Jol looked like a genius to start with, but then we all started to see where his weaknesses lay). We'll know more at the end of the season, and by the start of next, where I'd expect the squad to have been overhauled to the point where Ramos has the means to fully implement his ideas for the club.

Berbatov & Ramos - The Perfect Match?

Speculation continues that Berbatov will ditch Spurs to complete a long mooted transfer to Manchester United in January. Given the Bulgarian's body language at times this season, you'd be forgiven for thinking that such a move is inevitable, whatever he may say in public about how he loves Spurs. Personally, I'd say the best hope Spurs have for keeping Berbatov is Ramos. Not because he's a world class coach who guarantees the trophies that Berbatov may be seeking, but because their two philosophies on football clearly match.

It's been clear from one and a half years of watching him for Spurs that Berbatov expects a high pressing midfield behind him, and the whole unit to push out from deep defence and pressure the opposition at all times, yet under Jol, the defence was typically sat deeper (ridiculously so at times) and the midfield very far away from the attack, Lennon aside. Numerous times every game Berbatov would turn around, following a move breaking down in the final third, and see no one within 20-30 yards of him ready to put pressure on the ball, consequently the arms would flap and the scowl would appear.

This has clearly changed under Ramos, as you would expect from seeing the way Sevilla play, although it's not quite been perfected yet.

High pressure, high tempo game with the ball principally on the deck is going to be a much closer match to the way Berbatov would ideally like to play football than Jol's slower, possession game that squeezed space for the forwards as the ball moved back and forwards between defence and midfield. If Berbatov is enjoying the football he and the team are playing, there is obviously a far greater chance of him forgoing the opportunity to move and play at the level that, let's be honest, he should be playing at.

Priorities For January

It may sound obvious, though it seems to have escaped our board and sporting director, but we really need someone to provide balance on the left now that we have a coach like Ramos who wants width on either flank.

Riera from Espanyol has been mentioned, and I'd be happy with someone like that myself. Not spectacular, but much like Bale, is quite athletic, has a trick to go past a player and has a good left foot that can provide some decent crosses and shots coming inside. Had Assou-Ekotto not been ruled out, it may not have been necessary, since Ramos would have had the option to play him behind Bale on the left (Lee I don't think will have a future under Ramos, sadly). Since that's not going to happen until next season at the earliest, we will need to take action in January, and someone like Riera is probably the best we can hope for given the constraints of signing players mid-season.

Beyond that, obviously a specialist, experienced defensive midfielder would be nice. NOT someone like Diarra (or Veloso for that matter), we need know how, not more potential. None of our signings should be under the age of 25.

Having said all that, the priority should be a central defender, since we are massively short there given that we can't count on King or Gardner to be available any more (precisely why, in addition to his lack of talent, I've been saying for years that we should ship Gardner out and fill his squad place with someone more reliable). Again, it doesn't have to be a spectacular signing, just a steady experienced head to organise and lead the back four.

Attack isn't the key

From today's Times:

"The trick is going to be servicing the exceptional forward line."

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/football/article2204270.ece

Completely inaccurate. Any Spurs fan knows that the problem wasn't scoring goals last season, it was conceding them. Post-Carrick, and with King in and mostly out of the team through injuries, the defence is far less solid.

Curiously the management at the club seem to have disregarded this and focussed their spending on offensive renforcements. What was really needed was either a central holding player with a better reading of the game than Jenas and Zokora OR a combative midfielder to play from the left but drift in to help those two avoid being overrun centrally. Tainio can do this, as he did to great effect in our decent run in last season, and Davids performed the role the season before. With Tainio seemingly capable of 20 games per season at best, a player of similar ilk to provide those qualities from the left should have been a priority. Of those players who have arrived, only Kevin Prince Boateng appears to have anything like the right profile, and it seems his qualities lie more in his offensive game.

How well Jol manages to adapt his midfield to provide better protection to the defence will, ultimately, determine whether 4th place is achievable this season, not how he man manages, or creates a supply line for, the strikers.

Younes Kaboul - what Spurs are getting

Right then, since there appears to be a bit of a dearth of info on Kaboul I thought I'd do a bit of research. I managed to track down a copy of the Toulouse v Auxerre Ligue 1 game from April. Bear in in mind, of course, that these are observations based on one game.......

First thing to say is, those who have suggested that perhaps Kaboul is going to break the Dawson/King partnership can forget it. I seem to recall a few suggestions that perhaps he may edge out Dawson, but he's nowhere near that level (unless he has made monumental progress over the past month). So we're looking at £8million for a first reserve centreback at best, in the short term at least.

In terms of the type of player he appears to be, those Rio Ferdinand comparisons certainly have a degree of substance. He moves in a very similar way to Ferdinand, has pretty good technique and looks comfortable with the ball like Ferdinand aswell. He probably doesn't have Ferdinand's pace, but the good news is that he's not the slow, cumbersome giant that has been suggested by some. He's pretty quick for a player of his size, maybe lacking a bit of acceleration over the first yard, but his bigger stride probably compensates. Sadly, like Ferdinand, his relaxed attitude looks like it may get him into a few scrapes, particularly in possession where it's pretty clear that he views himself as a ball playing centre back. Those who get frustrated with Dawson's eagerness to play the ball long from the back are in for a treat, since Kaboul looked for a long, highly ambitious pass to the flanks or forwards virtually every time he had the ball, and with little evidence that he was actually capable of executing them - I don't think he managed to complete a single one over the whole game.

Other general observations were that his positioning is not great, which is maybe to be expected from a young player, and it has to be said the rest of the Auxerre defence weren't exactly helping him in this respect by being generally disorganised. On a more positive note, he has a decent shot on him - he cracked a few free kicks in from forty yards, though the only effect was to nearly decapitate the players in the Toulouse wall, and sent one just wide in open play. Shooting ability in a central defender is obviously just a bonus though really, not cause for great celebration.

The biggest positive I'd say is that he's clearly not going to be out of his depth physically in the Premiership. As I said, his pace is OK, and he's strong enough to handle the physicality of the English game. I'd have no worries about him in that respect, and I wouldn't expect him to need any time to adapt to that part of Premiership life. The increased pace of decision making and decreased chance of escaping unpunished from mistakes would be a bigger worry.

Onto the game itself, and Kaboul's performance, and it's pretty bad news, I'm afraid. The first Toulouse goal was entirely his fault. As last man he tried to clear a high through ball with his right foot, but misjudge the height and flight of the ball and hit it straight into the path of Emana, who went on and finished past the keeper. No other to describe it other than a total cock up on Kaboul's part.

A few minutes later in the first half, Kaboul lost his man, Elmander, on the far post on a free kick, allowing Elmander to finish. Fortunately for him, Elmander was marginally offside, and the goal was ruled out.

The second Toulouse goal came from a barnstorming solo run from Elmander. He went past Kaboul, along with several other Auxerre defenders, rather easily, but in fairness to Kaboul, had he gone in with more conviction he would have been liable to give away a penalty.

Overall then, I'm not entirely convinced that Kaboul is an £8million defender. I think we're very much paying for the potential and the reputation, rather than the guy's present ability. There's certainly no chance of him displacing our first choice defenders at his and their current level, and I'm not entirely sure that he would walk past Rocha and Gardner at the moment either (well, OK maybe Gardner is stretching it). He clearly has some potential, and as I said, I don't think the physical aspect of the Premiership will be a problem for him, but it looks to me like he's going to require some serious work and improvement on the training pitch before he's ready to be thrown at the deep end.