In support of Jermaine Anthony Jenas
Monday, November 15, 2010 at 8:25PM No - the blog has not been hacked.
Welcome to the JJ and Pav Appreciation Society. Membership is free.
You'll have noticed four things this past weekend. That's if you are straightforward with your honesty. I know I did, and it was echoed by others. A minority it would seem in parts - but I guess due to past crimes many of us struggle to come to terms when attempting to quantify then justify and compare one of the greatest of Spurs conundrums...and any supporting acts touring at the same time.
The rest shrugged and stated nothing has changed. And it probably hasn't. Because their perception of Jermaine Jenas has remained constant so it supports their opinion of the player, no matter what changes around him.
Now before you start accusing me of over-reacting or suddenly acquiring misty eyed delusions, I'm just pointing out that both Jermaine Jenas and Roman Pavlyuchenko (two of the most much maligned players we possess who sit on the bench of besmirch with Bentley, Keane and one or two others) played well. That's it. Not saying that for example JJ has suddenly achieved redemption and is owed respect and medals of honour or that Pav is the answer to our lack of cutting edge up front.
All this article wishes to state (in a traditional long-winded manner of therapeutic acceptance and apology) is that to balance out the Spursverse and stop the stars from falling from the skies, it's only fair we get into the habit of acknowledging those that deserve some praise, be it a gentle pat on the back or something more. The culture of knee-jerk, blame and favouritism remains and its easy to ignore anything that might contradict your opinion. We are guilty of it.
And sure, it was only Blackburn Rovers, but then it was only Sunderland, Bolton, Everton, West Ham, Wigan etc etc. We need players performing, no matter their apparent squad importance.
Both Jermaine and Roman deserve polite plaudits. I'm hoping this won't send some of you into cardiac arrest. So considering how quick we are to throw rotten fruit, it's only fair right? And equally so, my feet are firmly on the ground in terms of expectancy from both players. Because we've been here before, especially with JJ, who has flattered to deceive countless times. When he does play well its easy to confuse a standard performance for most other players with something sublime or superb thanks to it's rarity when he delivers the goods. And soon you come to the common conclusion that it's a blip, a positive spike of energy, and normality will resume. It's the ongoing soap opera we follow with Jenas, the same plot line repeated over and over again.
Not sure if its the smell of the NLD that has him looking sharp and focused, in time for a possible hopeful obligatory Tour de force cameo against the scum. Or if he has simply dug a little deeper with no spot-light on him. Arguably one of our best performers on Saturday against Rovers. What with rumours of Huddlestone crocked (now confirmed - 3 months), although both are completely different ilks of players, on form, Jenas isn't too shabby a player to have as a replacement. On form. Which is where the problem has always been. He's not always on form. Or to put a finer point on it - he's never the player we expect him to be. Which in some ways is the reason so many of us look on in despondency and always expect him to be below average. Even when he's not.
JJ is nondescript, say, in comparison to a Hudd or a Luka. You know the strengths and weakness of both of these players but with Jenas, he's just box-2-box but doesn't excel in one particular area other than his energy levels and his long-busting runs. When on form. With Hudd, it's his quarter-back stance and power-shots and vision and Luka is a crafter, a dinking magic man. JJ is always meant to be something, but we're never quite sure what that something is meant to be.
On Saturday he covered the pitch with intent and purpose, wanting it, playing balls to the flank for Bale, cross pitch marauding runs and some trademark box to boxing, driving forward (almost scored) eating up the space ahead of him. He's played decently a few times this season, but in comparison to the Bale and vdV hype, nobody tends to notice. Unless he plays sh*t, then we notice.
I know I've probably been guilty of ignoring him and grabbing the Kleenex for fast wrist action when watching Gareth destroy the left wing. Kleenex obviously required to wipe away the tears of joy from my eyes as my wrist struggles with the constant grabbing of the remote to rewind and replay.
This time though, I've found myself basking in Jenas tackling and battling on the field of play. Okay, basking is a touch too far. Pleasant. It was pleasant to see and with our injuries, it's fairly joyful to have a forgotten player reminding us that he can still offer his services to the side. Unlike Bentley who never appears likely to re-discover form he possessed prior to his move to Spurs.
I suppose you might still not be impressed and you might cite something I've always preached about Jenas. When he plays well, as aforementioned, it's a blip. Levy's original poster-boy for 'sell-on value'. He is the perpetual prince of potential, forever we await for him to grow out of footballing puberty and then grow some much needed balls. Belief, he lacks it. And the home support equally so lack belief in him. Hence the target on his back. We all want him to be the player he's expected to be.
He was never (going to be) a blood and thunder die hard mentally strong player we could build our midfield around. Whereas perhaps now, he can simply offer us some energy and directness, not as a Plan A, but as a Plan B.
We stand by the likes of Modric etc when they under perform because we know how well they can consistently play when on form. We hate on JJ because we expected him to be Gerrardesque in terms of stamping his authority on games. Perhaps not so much these days. Once upon a time when we lacked class in our midfield, he was our only hope. Hence the misguided faith and expectancy that weighed down on his fragile ickle mind. Now the landscape is one of riches so Jenas can - when given the opportunity - get on with doing the hard graft work whilst others swagger and silk.
He has played well this season, with a couple of poor performances thrown in. Much like many of our players have too. Considering how easily we excuse some of these players and look the other way and whistle.
So what four things did I notice on Saturday? Not rocket science this.
1) JJ played well
2) Pav played well
3) JJ still gets maligned via the 'Jenas is crap' reflex
4) Pav gets support from the crowd even when he's missing 'open goals'
Now the latter is great to see. Not the missing of open goals, but the support. Roman shots wide a glorious chance, then misses a penalty, but still we cheer him on and when he scores we lap it up. He always notches up a goal does Pav, even though most of the time he lacks much of anything else. But we seem to accept him. Did play very well against Blackburn and showed the type of movement we need from a forward whilst we wait for JD's return. And he showed strength to get on with it and stick the header away.
As for JJ, when the pressure isn't on, he turns it on. And we could go on talking about how a player who needs to be handled with care is not the right type of player for the club in the direction we wish to continue going. But it wouldn't be so much of a problem if we didn't treat him like he goes around bragging he's the best midfielder in the country.
Well done Jenas, I appreciate your efforts. You're not exceptional in any great way and your abilities are less special than say the likes of Modric and Huddlestone and company that offer those dinking runs and sublime passing but on this type of form, if we just accept you for what you are and can be (a solid squad player) then hopefully we'll see more of this from you. With the odd anomoly that has you playing out of your skin. And we promise not to expect from you every week.
Consistency, it's all we want.
JJ. Not reinventing bread just lightly toasting it. The Marmite is optional.
Support your team. Support your players*.
*if you play sh*t JJ, I will ruin you mate.
As for Pav, he needs a run in the team, otherwise we'll never know if he's just the right man in the right place when coming off the bench (Darren Bent anyone?) or a forward who can work as part of a cohesive fluid Spurs side.
As for the game itself. Good to have you back Spurs. Well, at 60%, but good enough. Disappointing to concede two late on, especially in the soft manner we did, but otherwise it's important to knowingly nod at the fact we scored four goals at home comfortably with two goals from forward players in a 4-4-2 formation (bastardised a tad to account for vdV's wondering into central positions).
Back to basics Tottenham and Harry. Huddlestone injury to be discussed later. NLD previews on the way.
Onwards Spurs.
A lot. At the minute. Hoping that minute turns into hours.
Reader Comments (93)
Jenas is obviously nothing more than a squad player, but we should keep him. The best thing is that he doesn't seem to mind being one.
What kind of jobs do totteham fans have?
Jenas was MOM. No doubt. But Pav? Missed a penalty and a one on one with the keeper? In what way is that a good performance for a striker?
This bloke seems to get away with murder and it is mystifying. I can't understand why people chant his name and not, say, Crouch, who, it goes without saying, has his obvious limitations and is painful on the eyes sometimes, but come on, at least he always gives 100 per cent and he does score goals. Not that I'm a fan. Neither are good enough.
Pav? Crops up with a good goal now and then but can't hold the ball up, no pace and often very little effort. But maybe the fans just find it easy to sing the Pav song?
If he keeps playing the way he does, I'm happy. With Tommy out we need everyone doing their bit.
I have a good job Yiddd and you?
Hear hear!
Give the guy (Jenas) a break; he has put in a bloody good shift and deserves the plaudits, not the bitter borderline hatred I hear down the Lane. Essou is another yet the guy has been a cracking LB for us. I hate to say it but we always have to have some fecking hate figure, someone we can jump on, someone to blame when footy/work/sex life goes wrong.
Hope he plays another blinder against le scum and scores a hat-trick; then we can build a monument to him next to the entrance of our new stadium....at Stratford ;)
Come on you Stratford Spurs!! Cough cough...
Jenas has played well this season. In the past the worst thing about him was the lost potential. He has always had good control, pace, energy, and passing ability, If he had the ability of Zokora I would never have been so annoyed and disapointed with him. To use all that ability to slow the game down and when not in possession to run around in a headless manner was criminal.
But now he seems to have finally grown up. This season he has upped his game.
Pav is frustrating, and looks so damm lazy. But he scores goals and make good runs, and sometimes he lays off good balls. What else do you want in a forward? So what if he doesn't look like he tries as hard as everyone else if he does the job. So what if he misses open goals when he scores some spectacular finishes and has a good goal to games ratio?
Two frustrating players that have so far shown glimpses of real quality and who both deserve to at least be at Spurs.
Thought Pav played very well. Worked hard, moved around and looked lively. Just has to be more composed. Should have played in Crouch and should have smacked and not placed the pen. He's a class act and needs more full 90 minutes rather than cameos.
Jenas is impressing but he wont amount to much more.
Completely agree Spooky. You hypocrite.
I know you have hinted at this, but riddle me this Spooky (and everyone else); why the unconditional love for Pav and muted support for Twiglet Legs, when Crouchie works tirelessly the whole game, front, middle and back and scores a goal that Pav would never have conjured? If he, instead of Pav, had missed an open goal and then fluffed a penalty, I think a half-time public crucifixion wouldn't have been out of the question. Yet he is the man that headed us into the misty dream that is the CL. He is someone that never gives less than 100% and doesn't need to have his tummy tickled to give a performance. There isn't even a song for him. Obviously, he isn't a world-class finisher, but by hook or by crook, the ball ends up in the net often enough. Just saying is all.
No way should you compare Jenas to our Pav, he was one of the reasons we progressed in the latter stages of the league . whether Jenas seems to play well, we still leaks goals due to the fact that he weakens our midfield and puts pressure on our defence, he is not what we need at spurs even on the bench, get rid Harry.
There are many Spurs fans who still slate Pav even though he scored vital goals for us last season and is grabbin a few this season. The same fans who slag off Crouch because he doesn't score but ignore all the knock downs and assists. Very hard to please are football fans. Eye of the beholder.
I just don't want anyone to go overboard with their lurve for JJ, just the same as I don't want the bile and bitterness.
Consistency, that's what I want also.....and a little fairness. No blinkers.
I'd echo the points of Spooky's article and throw one more in;
He's been in and (mostly) out of the team since Harry came along and he knows he's not first choice. He could be a first team regular at the majority of Prem teams (or Inter?!) and yet... we haven't heard a peep of dissent from him. Where other players might be angling for a move (Krancjar) or trying to force the manager's hand (Bendtner), Jenas says nothing other that "I want to play for Spurs".
Gotta give him some love for that.
I get where you are coming from Spooky but you do know that the fans will expect more from him and he wont deliver and the hatred will start over again. We are hard to pleased. Look at how long it took some of the faithful to accept Carrick because he wasn't all bell and whistles. We have idiots for fans. Just have to accept JJ for what he is.
Mayte,
You must walk round with your eyes shut. your public school persona is evident to see on this one.
Firstly, How can you compare pav to bent, they are completeley different strikers, bent is all about running in behind the defence and pav is all about having the ball to feet.
Pav is a world apart from crouch, If he started against Bolton he would have scored both the chances crouch missed in the 1st half. (i understand the irony with him missing the open goal this weekend, just a blip)
Secondally, the ironic "i will ruin you mate" about JJ was humerously pathettic, im sure hes quaking in his boots in his mult million dollar mansion with his model g/f, while you wank your-self silly in your windowless home.
Alex Rookledge.
How's life at the Barccodes..?
Er, Alex. First time reader?
You understand I'm grouping opinions here? Bent and Pav are not the same but both have been pinned with 'what do they do exactly' labels in terms of everything outside of the pen box - which is the same question and basis for abuse regardless of their differing styles of play. People at games (not all) don't spend time analysing other than looking out to the pitch and then stating 'he's done nothing, he's fucking shit..oh yeah, but he scores goals'. Hence the comparison.
As for the ruin you mate bit, do you think I think footballers give a shit about a fan who blogs? I think you take me more seriously than you believe me to take myself. It's a shame footballers, Jenas, doesn't give a shit less about the fans at games because he is clearly effected by them.
As for the wanking bit, I get the other half to do that for me whilst I look out of the window. Which window, it depends what part of the home I'm in.
your public school persona
Hahaha
Not quite.
Pav had a shocking miss and a muffed PK. He also scored a great header, had 2-3 shots that forced Robbo into great saves (including the shot leading to 3MP's goal), put in some passes that could have been converted, ran the channels all day, and caused Rovers no end of trouble. That, my friends, is a good day that was fraction from a great day.
Jenas had probably his best game ever. I don't remember him ever making a forward or attacking pass before BUT he is nowhere near good enough to be in the team.
What none of the media mentioned about the Blackburn match is that they could have scored MANY goals. We almost never had a midfielder on the edge of our own box, so Blacburn's midfielders were often just outside our box with nobody to stop them if the ball broke kindly.
\despite his good attacking performance, we'll be in big trouble if Jenas takes Tom's place during his injury.
WHAT ARE YOU LOT ON ? JENAS IS SHIT. AND WE WILL NEVER MAKE THE TOP 4 ON A REGULAR BASIS WITH SHIT PLAYERS LIKE HIM AT THE CLUB. FOR ME ,HE ALWAYS DUCKS OUT OF A CHALLENGE,GIVES THE BALL AWAY TO MUCH,AND HE CAN NEVER PASS TO HIS TEAM MATES .OR HIS TEAM MATE HAVE TO RUN BACK ON THEM SELVES TO GATHER UP HIS PASS.HES UP THERE WITH THE WORST PLAYERS EVER TO PLAY FOR SPURS.AND WHEN I SEE THAT HE IS IN THE TEAM,I FEEL LIKE WE ARE PLAYING WITH 10 MEN.THE SOONER HE GOES THE BETTER.THE SAME WITH KEANE,CROUCH,BENTLEY,O HARA.AND GET SOME PLAYERS IN TO PLAY LIKE VDV.2 DECENT STRIKERS.AND A DECENT DEFENDER.GALLAS IS TO SLOW FOR MY LIKING.
glad to see JJ finally gets some credit from the faithfull , i have been one of his supporters from day one but hell he made it difficult in recent seasons ...
All the article says is, credit to the lad. Nothing more.
This is not a good time to be a striker because of all the shocks the pressure to score is huge Just look at Berbatov Ferguson dragged him of when Utd where 2-0 down he missed a sitter what will that do to his confidence. This is not just Spurs strikers who are misfiring you only need to look at the scoring charts Bale his second and Pav and Crouch are in the top half. Last year Elamander could not score if the Goalkeeper fell asleep look at him know his six Goals have bean scored away from home . When goals dry up a striker needs to keep playing and help others to score while they get over there slump and this is what Crouch has done with Five assists he helped in Defence Pav finaly scored but he also made some good passes and showed he could play down the wing a few times he showed he wants to please the fans by Blessing himself and looking to the heavens . When the foundations are steady the whole teams confidence comes alive our defence is like a rope bridge the farther you go the more it wobbles sort this out and our strikers will flourish and a good place to firm our foundations is at the Arsolel thins home the emaroids
I'm pleased to see pav isn't smiling as much after missing open goal/sitters what have you.
4-4-2 does not work with vdV on the wing. He drifts too much, and teams that like to attack (i.e. those other than Blackburn) will punish us. He needs to learn to defend. He's great going back to take the ball, but not in his primary area (the wing).
Jenas was picked for our demolition of Inter by the coaching staff. I watch him every time he plays. He's precisely the kind of player that requires a deeper, professional understanding of the game to appreciate, that will never be understood by the armchair/pub/terrace 'experts'.If you think Jenas is shit, I'll put my house on the fact you don't have any FA coaching badges. If your argument is 'you don't need a coaching badge to know about football' take a second to think about it. Do you value your opinion above Redknapp's or Bobby Robson's?
It is unfortunate that many so called pundits feel the need to criticise rather than look for good. Jenas is a real victim of this. On Saturday he was excellent and has an atribute that is scarce. He can run at the defense with the ball. He has pace ---not the Bale kind, but pace-- and stamina. Spurs woulkd be stupid to sell him.
mkyid calm down,take a deep breath re-read the article and make a coherent comment. btw top blog spooky
mkyid calm down,take a deep breath re-read the article and make a coherent comment. btw top blog spooky
JJ is best as an attacking midfielder. His energy is put to best use in and around the opponents penalty area. He's even been known to score a goal.
Pav is a very clever player. Not for him the hustle and bustle of fighting central defenders in the penalty box. He hangs around outside and looks for and plays in space.He is a very technically accomplished player and even when he is having a bad game, open goals and penalties missed, he doesn't hide but scores an excellent goal by coming in to the space that the defence has left and that Gareth Bale has seen that he can exploit. We need these players.
Jenas has had 2 or 3 decent performances this season, but you have to laugh at the Jenas 'lovers' and their crazy wishful thinking.
What do they say about insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.
He's a very average player that plays well from time to time who doesn't score many and lacks presence defensively.
Never were so many keystrokes wasted by so many on such an average player.
Pav is a traditional spurs player all the talent but not as effective as someone with less flair would be. you could look to Darren Bents score total and Pav's and see an obvious difference.
Jenas is like Bent. functional but lacking flair. he doesnt do one thing incredibly well but what he does do he does with little fuss.
so when he doesnt perform it drives us nuts. his whole game is built on effort so why does he have these spells of being completely useless?
he doesnt make sense to me.
'He's precisely the kind of player that requires a deeper, professional understanding of the game to appreciate, that will never be understood by the armchair/pub/terrace 'experts'.'
:-)
Hmm, this is clearly a difficult one, Jenas is not the best player in the world. But to say he's the worst?? I remember Dozzell, Samways, Acimovic, Toda, oh there are more too! He's a squad player and we have a wealth of talent in the squad, unlike other seasons we have VdV, Modric, there's real guile there and Jenas is simply not a player that grabs the attention or can be put in that class.
I think there are moments where you have to give credit though, when he came on 2nd half against Inter I thought he put in a decent shift, he could not just turn up and do what VdV did but he let no one down.
I also think there's an honesty about him, he does not seem to get in trouble with bad press like Bentley and even our beloved Ledders. While I'm no great JJ fan and would not pick him first XI, he's still a useful squad player and with Hudd out for 3 months he's got another shot at making a case, none of us are going to complain if he does.
He's precisely the kind of player that requires a deeper, professional understanding of the game to appreciate, that will never be understood by the armchair/pub/terrace 'experts
Cannot agree with the above in the slightest.
TMWNN - equally so the anti-Jenas brigade who cant stop telling people how bad he is.
bloody hell some people must have not watched the game because apart from those misses pav was very good;
some good touches, ran the channels, created a couple oopportunties out of nothing. anyone see his quality take which allowed crouch to shoot from the edge of the box?
all top players miss sitters now and then; the difference is that they can get other opportunities to make amends during the rest of the game. he got a goal and we scored 4. if he was gonna fuck it up a bit glad it was last saturday and not next.
crouch fans please shut up; this idea he works tirelessly is bullshit. he tries to win the ball when it is played up to him and that is it; he seems incapable of running. when unlike pav do you ever see him run the channels or receive the ball from deep and TURN!; he cant and he never will. he is not a goal threat nevermind a goal scorer.
crouch doesnt have a song or is not a fans favourite because he is not that good. pav always seems to make something happen. this lack of pace bollocks people are talking abt has to stop as well because while he is not a speed merchant he is always up with play and is capable of turning quickly past defenders.
we could do with someone better; for christ sake it is insulting to think that crouch is the better of the two
dN3 is this not the problem? Pav played well I think that too but others don't. The same with Jenas where you will get fans who never have time for him dismiss his performance because he's failed to perform in the past. I like Crouch. And he does offer us something worth having but would like Pav in the side as first choice until Defoe is back. Doubt Harry will play JD and Pav.
TMWNN and the machine - do I win my coaching badge bet or have you done your time at Lilleshall? I have by the way...
If you kind find one qualified football professional who thinks JJ is shit, I'll give you my house.
Some of the stick that has been given out to Jenas has been nothing short of attrocious!!! So called Spurs fans have written off numerous other Spurs players before( roughly all the current first team bar VdV & Modric at different times ).Jenas was out with a hernia for most of last season but that didn't appear on the radar of a good few...Ditto Pav ...ok he could be far more consistent - BUT perhaps he need more playing tIme?
Anyway, with Thudd out for 3 months we need to hope that our other central midfielders perform. We can't bring in any ne new until January so how about backing the players we have?? COYS!!!
Nothing changes with Jenas he has a couple of decent games and supporters begin to think he is better than he actualy is. I have got a bad feeling he will go missing on saturday like he normaly does when we play big games away from home.
"SAME WITH KEANE,CROUCH,BENTLEY,O HARA.AND GET SOME PLAYERS IN TO PLAY LIKE VDV. 2 DECENT STRIKERS.AND A DECENT DEFENDER.GALLAS IS TO SLOW FOR MY LIKING." -MKYID
Yeah, because world class gems at 8 million pounds are just all over the place. I mean the market is literally flooded with blue steel strikers at bargain prices along with balls heavy supreme center backs who will choke hold any oncoming attack with relentless fury.
Using caps lock does not improve a completely shit argument. It's still shit, just in CAPS.
Jenas is doing fine. Bentley can probably go. Crouch must stay and so should Pav.
Are you guys serious?! Jenas was at fault for one of there goals, he still gave the ball away, still passed sidewards, probably didn't have one shot on target nor did he protect the back 4. Same old Jenas if you ask me. Watch the match back, your see! As for pav..no pace, slow at reading the game, needs to stay in the box more often because he can finish but sometimes tries the harder thing rather than the simple finish. All in all he is average at best.
When's O'Hara available again ?
Loving all the electricity and tension.
I cringe when Jenas plays. My problem with him is he:-
a) has no end product - really, look at the number of times he shows out his plams indicating to one and all he does not know what to do with the ball;
b) passes wrongly - how many times has a promising play broken down because of his misplaced passes;
c) has no strength - how many times has he been robbed whilst in possession.
He had one of his few good games. And then? Sorry to sound mean but isnt that what he is supposed to do on a regular basis? The lack of ambition of the opposition also helped. I daresay if all others played like Blackburn then he would look good every week.
This is the same concern I had after we beat Inter. We got lucky (and Bale looked good) because the opposition were worse than us. Benitez was arrogant and didnt learn from two weeks earlier. You only need to look at the games with Bolton (A), Everton(H), Wigan (H) this season to know that once teams suss out and nullify our strengths, we are doomed.
I like Pav. He is unpredictable. We need that.
For the NLD - first do not concede. We do not need a cavalier approach. We need to go into game-destroying mode. Break-up play and destroy their souls. Not poncy way like Everton's, but a la the Decepticon mode. Show no mercy. Cleanly, of course. Cant be breaking any more legs of Arsenal players, can we? I strongly believe in Karma and what goes around comes around.
Jenas : on grass he is first class. Definately include him to be one of the best athletes at WHL. I've always had confidence in him & am waiting for him to still rise to the occasion & surprise a lot of fans.A true patriot of Spurs. I have the same amount of apathy for Keane but I guess he needs more time on the pitch to make a comeback with an impact. Pav for me a no go - reason being that he shows blatant inconsistancy.
My issue with Pav is that after, how long is it now? he still hasn't even a basic grasp of the English language... All tis 'football is a global language' is shite, it only applies if you are blessed with talen a la Messi, not some pasty Russki from the steppes ( I always thought they were tough from that neck of the woods? He's over 6ft tall and such a pussy,,,, we would have to have the lifespan of Methuselah to have achance of seeing him physically impose himself on the opposition defenders. Finally, is it his lack of English that sees him always attempt a shot at goal, ora more basic flaw. Whilst admirable in that he is always up to have a shot, often an appreciation of your teammates availability is the better option.
Learn English or piss off back to Russia Pav, you may be a decent player but when are we going to see the evidence?