Reckless Abandon Ruins Spurs Chance
Stewart Dickson - University of Bristol
Tottenham’s exploits on european nights this year have been a joy to watch, and it is a pity they are almost over and unlikely to return next year. They have played with a reckless abandon at times that summarized Redknapp’s desire to play attractive attacking football, but it was exactly that spirit of recklessness that cost Spurs their change to fight it out with Madrid over two legs.
Peter Crouch has probably gone into hiding, a difficult job for a man that looks like a flamingo, because if I was his team mates I would be furious. Twice he threw himself into a diving tackle when there was absolutely no need. Lets be clear too, that these tackles would have been met with yellow cards in the EPL, and was not some soft decision by a foreign ref. The first tackle was reckless, completely unnecessary, but the second.... it was suicidal. To be a goal down within 4 minutes is hard to come back from, but to lose a man 10 minutes later was tantamount to offering Josie Mourinho a berth in the semi finals.
Madrid had started well, and were playing in a similar fashion to Barcelona, with a very high line, pressing the opposition as soon as the ball was lost. This was Mourinho at his tactical best. His side is filled with talent, but thats not how he wants them to play, he wants organisation. The inability of this Madrid side to mould comfortably to Mourinho’s tactics was evident in their 5-0 trashing in the El Classico at the hands of Barca. Josie went back and revised his tactics, and demanded his team to move forward and press up the pitch, whereas his previous sides all sat back, invited pressure, and then sprung on the counter.
This Madrid team cannot defend in the same way as Inter and Chelsea, but in a similar manner to Guardiola’s design’s at Barca, the target is not to tackle but to make the opposition panic. No defender wants to see his team playing passes deep in their own half, but thats exactly what Barca and now Madrid are doing, forcing them to play in areas where players instinctively want to clear their lines. Ray Wilkins, in a moment of rare clarity as a commentator, bemoaned Tottenham’s lack of patience, with Dawson attempting cross field passes far too often, as they continued to give Madrid the ball back.
Madrid played well, especially in the second half, after Mourinho probably demanded that they banish the complacency that was evident in their play after Crouch's dismissal. But they were not made to work for it, as the game became somewhat of an anti-climax. It was an enjoyable game to watch, but the game never seemed in doubt. This was still not a performance sprinkled with gold dust, with two goals coming from set plays, and Ronaldo’s goal being more realistically a fault of the ever bemusing Gomes, rather than any magic of Ronaldos’ making. Fortunately the third goal was thrillingly unanswerable, as Angel di María released a stunning shot from 25 yards. But last nights Madrid was about composure and patience.
Spurs were struggling before Crouch got sent off, and had even less hope once he was gone. But as we have seen time and time again from Spurs, and British sides for that matter, even when the situation looked beyond hope they kept trying. Bale had several chances, and so did Van Der Vart, between them causing enough problems to suggest that if they go down fighting at White Hart Lane, then there still may be hope for Tottenham fans: even if it is only a fools hope.
The one thing that is clear now is that they have nothing to loose from playing football with the caviler spirit that we normally enjoy from Spurs. They are out, done and dusted, so what differences does it make if Madrid get a few goals on the counter. If Spurs attack boldly from the beginning, and grab a few goals in the process, there might be enough nervousness in this Madrid side to exploit. More importantly they need to put on a show for their fans, a show that Crouch denied them at the Santiago Bernabeu.