After going a goal behind against Chelsea last Saturday, Tottenham Hotspur managed to drag themselves back into the game, only to be ultimately undone by a succession of awful defensive mistakes. Ex-Arsenal star William Gallas was the chief defensive culprit, and Liverpool legend Steve Nicol believes that Adre Villas Boas must yank the Frenchman out of the team and replace him in the centre with Jan Vertonghen.
Analysing Spurs' 4-2 defeat to Chelsea, Nicol - who admitted he was 'dumbfounded' over Gareth Bale's decision to sit out the game - delivered the following withering verdict on Gallas:
"William Gallas is a real problem at Spurs.
"When you get older and you lose your legs, you have to compensate, and he’s not doing that.
"He’s lost his balance, he’s lost his strength, and he was responsible for three of Chelsea goals".
Nicol is being charitable here; having watched the game, I would argue that Gallas's defensive mistakes played a part in al four of Chelsea's goals, and his indecision and poor play began to unsettle the resto of the Spurs defence.
Nicol also criticised AVB's decision to play Vertonghen - a central defender for Ajax - on the left, and called for the Belgian to be restored to his rightful position in the centre of defence.
That seems to make sense. What is the point of buying Vertonghen to then play him out of position? Liverpool fans would be in an uproar if Daniel Agger or Martin Skrtel were forced to play as full-backs every week, and as we saw with Skrtel - ironically against Spurs last season - playing a central defender at right/left back is an accident waiting to happen.
Is Nicol right though; is Gallas a 'real problem' for Spurs?
* With Gallas in the team, Spurs have conceded 12 goals in 8 Premier League games.
* This is the same as Liverpool, but more than Man City (9); Chelsea (6); Man United (11); and Everton (9)
* Prior to the Chelsea game, Spurs' had conceded only 8 goals in 7 league games, one of the best records in the league.
This ultimately suggests that the Chelsea game was the exception, rather than the rule, and that Gallas may have just had a bad day at the office.
Jaimie Kanwar
Analysing Spurs' 4-2 defeat to Chelsea, Nicol - who admitted he was 'dumbfounded' over Gareth Bale's decision to sit out the game - delivered the following withering verdict on Gallas:
"William Gallas is a real problem at Spurs.
"When you get older and you lose your legs, you have to compensate, and he’s not doing that.
"He’s lost his balance, he’s lost his strength, and he was responsible for three of Chelsea goals".
Nicol is being charitable here; having watched the game, I would argue that Gallas's defensive mistakes played a part in al four of Chelsea's goals, and his indecision and poor play began to unsettle the resto of the Spurs defence.
Nicol also criticised AVB's decision to play Vertonghen - a central defender for Ajax - on the left, and called for the Belgian to be restored to his rightful position in the centre of defence.
That seems to make sense. What is the point of buying Vertonghen to then play him out of position? Liverpool fans would be in an uproar if Daniel Agger or Martin Skrtel were forced to play as full-backs every week, and as we saw with Skrtel - ironically against Spurs last season - playing a central defender at right/left back is an accident waiting to happen.
Is Nicol right though; is Gallas a 'real problem' for Spurs?
* With Gallas in the team, Spurs have conceded 12 goals in 8 Premier League games.
* This is the same as Liverpool, but more than Man City (9); Chelsea (6); Man United (11); and Everton (9)
* Prior to the Chelsea game, Spurs' had conceded only 8 goals in 7 league games, one of the best records in the league.
This ultimately suggests that the Chelsea game was the exception, rather than the rule, and that Gallas may have just had a bad day at the office.
Jaimie Kanwar
wondering what this post has to do with Liverpool
ReplyDeleteWhy exactly do you discuss Tottenham players on this website?! :)
ReplyDeleteHe playing LB because ekotta is injured that's why they played him their. They tried to play bale their but that made their team weaker in attack. But when kaboul comes back and ekotta they be fine.
ReplyDeleteOh, I'm sorry. I completely forgot about the law that states fans can only ever discuss their own teams. My bad.
ReplyDeleteWell, I was browsing newsnow.co.uk and found "'He's a real problem!' - Steve Nicol urges boss to dump error-prone star. Harsh...? " as a headline.
ReplyDeleteI usually click on your news items because I really favour your opinion on LFC related matter, but in this case I was kind of tricked into reading about some player, who is Tottenham's problem ;)
I am sure you pick headlines very carefully and in this case I surely wasn't the only one expecting to read something about Reina or Skrtel when I clicked on that link ...
Because they need a good team to talk about ;)
ReplyDelete"Don't let any of the current Liverpool team play for you for the rest of the season", said former Spurs ace Tommy Harmer. "They cannot cross or score and when they do get in the box they dive or slam the ball ten feet over the bar. But the best way for you to deal with this problem is to just get any old hack out of retirement, get him to call himself a legend, choose another club that's doing better than Liverpool, and slag them off instead".
ReplyDeleteVertonghen is Belgium's LB so can comfortably play there, although he is better at CB. We had Ekotto and Naughton (who looked quite impressive there) injured so had little choice. We tried Bale and that failed miserably.
ReplyDeletePersonally I would start the game against Southampton with Walker, Caulker, Vertonghen, Naughton.
Once Ekotto and Kaboul come back from injuries, they won't have to play Gallas. He hasn't done too bad but clearly as not as good he was.
ReplyDeleteThis Nicol boy seems to b an expert on everything. He seems to know good players everywhere, where ever they play. Just why o why he's not managing somewhere. As intelligent he seems to b he would win EPL and CHL every year. Don't give a shit about Spurs by the way.
ReplyDeleteWell, the reason is......heck. I don't care.
ReplyDeletebecause Steve Nicol Spoke about it! Obviously!
ReplyDeleteavb a clueless muppit, end of. gallas bought by harry for short term fix, and that vertonghen is wasted at the spuds. if spurs had a decent back four they may of won the league a few years ago, but always been there prob
ReplyDeleteman this site is shit. jamie your a wanker.
ReplyDeleteits liverpool kop. and your talking about spurs. hahahaha fuck the site is ugly as fuck. who designed it?
We arent talking about Chelsea(GOOD TEAM) we are talking about the team that lost 4-2 to Chelsea. HA hA hA
ReplyDeleteWell actually, up until recently, he was managing in the MLS and won multiple manager of the year awards while in charge of New York Red Bulls and is widely considered the most successful manager in MLS history
ReplyDeleteDoes Steve Nicol do anything other than moan these days?
ReplyDeleteIs this matter the problem of LFC
ReplyDeletewhenever i decide enough is enough with this tedious website and it's misleading headlines, i still get sucked in. i cant believe i'm reading about Spurs because a former player mentioned them, how low will this site go to gain advertising hits. goodbye....you won't be missed.
ReplyDelete