Mauling in Madrid
Wednesday, April 6, 2011 at 12:19PM I woke up suddenly early this morning, around 3am. A little disoriented and for a brief few seconds no recollection of anything other than the dream I had just lost. Then it hit me like a truck running over a rabbit caught in its headlights. That other dream, my memory returning, also lost. I did reach out to see if there was a white handkerchief I could use to wave despondently across my face to wipe away a tear. Instead I went back to burying my head under the pillow and asking myself...what if what if, as I lost consciousness (always with the losing) once more and fell back into what might as well have been a nightmare.
In all the match previews for our first leg visit to the Santiago Bernabéu, including mine, very few entertained the eventuality of what was witnessed on the night.
I cited we needed to stand tall, be strong. The usual pre-match battle cry dressed up with belief and desire with a dab of focus thrown in for good measure. It was always going to be about us finding out whether we could compete against a heavy weight side managed by heavy weight tactician.
Some quotes from my match preview:
“Jose knows his side won't be able to steam-roll us like the various assortments of Spanish fodder they dismantle week in week out”
That’s exactly what they did.
“We are not expected to win. We're not expected to beat them over the two games. So the pressure is on them. Leaving us to play without fear. Because to do otherwise would be regretful”
We found ourselves on the back foot before the game even kicked off with Lennon dropping out of the starting eleven due to, I’m not sure what. Illness according to Redknapp.
“I hope our defence retain unity.
I hope Bale has 'a game'.
I hope vdV galvanises his team mates on his return to his former club.
I hope Modric dictates.
I hope our players show resounding mental strength.
I hope Harry gets one over Jose”
Deliciously ironic if you’re a Madridista. The sudden change and resulting substitution that saw Jenas enter the field of play and then stupidity and lack of composure in the opening quarter of an hour was the catalyst for a nailed on defeat.
Apart from one of the goals, the rest were poorly defended. vdV sacrificed at half-time. Modric lost thanks to the constraints of seeing Crouch red-carded. Sure, we showed mental strength. Not so much in the way we knee-jerked and allowed us to be consumed by the occasion and subsequent reshaping. But the way we held it together, especially by going in at half-time at 1-0 was encouraging damage limitation.
I’m going to avoid any deep analytical break-downs regarding individual performances (some fought, others switched off, relentless pressure too much to handle) along with Harry’s tactical changes and the Peter Crouch kung-fu episodes. And not forgetting the forgotten fundamentals when failing to defend the two headed goals.
I'm going to avoid mainly because if you take a step back and remind yourself of the opposition and their quality and then admit they hardly shifted out of second gear – you’ll be grateful it was only the four goals conceded. There was no plan b. Madrid knew they would win, and picked us off patiently with all the time in the world to do just that. All things considered (36 Madrid shots on goal?) we might have escaped with a 2-0 or 3-0 which would still have had us dreaming. What with us being that way inclined.
Alas, back to harsh reality...
Ten men up against Real Madrid, away from home, having the absolute **** pressed out of us for practically the entirety of the match. These are not excuses; it’s just statement of fact. It’s horrible I know, to admit you’re being outclassed regardless of the way we surrendered any possibility of making a fight out of it. With eleven men, we might have scored an away goal. We’d have retained shape, cohesiveness. Instead we struggled to keep the ball with not a second allowed for us to catch our breath and try to salvage offensive movement rather than chasing shadows. Probably would have retained the ball, recycled possession effectively and had pockets of Lilywhite aggression. I guess, as one or two of you have already pointed out, it’s a nice to get-out clause to have.
That’s to be able to imagine that teasing ‘what if’ rather than say losing 4-0 with no caveats in sight. We worked hard because we had no other option to defend, we made mistakes, and we were duly punished for it. It’s happened to one or two teams in the past, taken to school. Lesson learnt. Then continued their progress next time round. Have to hope we won’t need to wait too long for that next time.
Let’s also respect the other perspective, the one we tend to ignore because we're so Spurscentric. As much as we’d have wanted to prolong the adventure, the other team – they had their own agenda. Fuelled by the fact they are second best to the best team in the world and finding themselves with the opportunity of meeting them in the next round what with personal redemption for all involved at Madrid and an obsession to avoid seasoned disappointment in the Champions League. It’s not always in our hands. As much as we’d like to believe it to be. Toe to toe, eleven against eleven might have been equally as painful.
Nothing to be ashamed of Spurs. But equally 'okay' for all of us to be disappointed as the return fixture is practically redundant what with the immediate (it’s been there all season tbh) urgency to reclaim a top four place with a handful of games left. Massive task for manager and players to react positively and not let the season fade away.
For the return game, do we rest our players or do we live for the moment once more? Home territory with the noise of the Lane in the stands, accompanied by a swan song of swagger out on the pitch? It would be rude not to oblige.
It’s been a majestic campaign in the only way we know how to journey through one. Ups, downs and shrugs. We were not meant to finish top of our group or knock out AC Milan. We did. And along the way created some cracking memories. There's room for one more, even if it's only a footnote.
COYS.
Reader Comments (74)
This was the game that told us where we're at. We are all disappointed. The players will be disappointed and the Manager will be disappointed. Only 3 things to do now: Concentrate on getting 4th spot, forget about the return leg and over summer get some class in striking department and get a quality defender to help Gallas and Dawson.
That's if we are serious about going forward.
Jose has only lost one game in his managerial life by 5 goals and that was this season against Barca
Its aint gonna happen again.
vdV was Levy's purchase and Harry has to fit him in somewhere it seems.
I love vdV and think he has been good for us but I am of the opinion that he is detrimental to our style of play. We are only playing this 4-4-1-1 bollocks because if him.
If we didnt have him we'd be playing a more devastating brand of football with a traditional 4-4-2 with 2 quick wingers and 2 strikers. If we paired defoe and pav all season long things would be a lot different now.
Many have said that Defoe's game has improved all round this season and it probably has (apart from offside) but he has had to do that because if vdV and the limited chances he's gonna get in the team.
Defoe should have been left to do what he does best...remember Hull away and Wigan at home last season as 2 examples. Just let him do what he does. Dont make him have to think. He always played on instinct and removing this or making him think twice has damn near finished him and killed his confidence.
This is Harry's fault as much as Levy's because all Harry had to do last summer was say.."Oi Danny I dont need a bloody midfielder I need a fucking striker"
But he couldnt because there was no hope of getting a decent striker on deadline day.
They panicked. A striker should have been identified early preseason. If we apparently had 40m to spend in Jan could we not have done our homework last summer and bought Dzeko? or someone for less than that.
Hate to be harry bashing because of the 2 from 8 thing etc but enough is enough. Play your best team available and play to their strengths.
Crouch got lucky with a few assists to vdV...if you look at a few of them they were definately not attempted knock downs.
All this bollocks about "coruch got us to the champs league" bollocks
That game at shitteh was a nailed on win...it was destiny ... if he wasnt there someone else would have scored
or if we didnt have him we would have had someone else and that game would have been rendered null and void long before that.
And for fuck sakes...recall whoever you can from loan. If for example Bentley was on the bench instead of JJ we would have had a natural replacement for Lennon and wouldn't have ruined the shape of the team before kickoff with bale at rw and luka lw.
Harry probably thought he was pulling a masterstroke on Jose by putting bale at rw.!
Harry for England Jose for Spurs
#rantover
typo's above aplenty I know
Excellent post, spooky. You bring more balance to the subject than I can, yet.
Spurssince1980, you saved me a ton of typing.
I'm really surprised there hasn't been more comment on the Lennon reply/tweets. Harry tells us it was absolute last minute big surprise illness and it turns out Lennon's been on antibiotics since Sunday and poorly all day Tuesday. And when Lennon goes public with it, Harry's immediate reaction is to go on Talksport and blame the team doctor rather than oh, I don't know, ring up on of his key players who is obviously rather upset. More superb man management, I guess.
On top of basically calling Bale a liar two weeks ago, when Bale said his hamstring problem came from playing for Spurs at the weekend and Harry's all over the press saying no he didn't. Nice.
And if Krancjar and Huddlestone weren't fit enough to be used as subs, why were they on the bench?
It just floors me that anyone can still believe this man is putting the interests of Tottenham, the club and the squad, first or even second.
It's all a bit untidy. Harry feels the need to talk all the time to all his mates in the press. He's starting to trip over his tongue.
FROM THE TELEGRAPH
I couldn’t resist commenting on this (despite my better judgement).
1. Redknapp has been excellent for us. I think most will agree that when he took over Spurs we were in a false position. However, he took full advantage while Man City were getting their act together to take us to fourth last season, and has done a good job this season in showing our class in the Champions League. (So I’m not one of the folks he suggests that needs their head examined, I fully recognise the enormous positives he’s brought to the club.)
2. The tax matter has overshadowed his entire time here. It might not be football related but the allegation is serious, and when you consider what has happened to Portsmouth since – the board is fully justified in keeping its distance.
3. His transfer activity has come back to haunt him at Spurs. How many of his signings have been an unqualified success this year? Crouch? Palacios? Defoe? Krancjar? Kaboul? Cudicini? Keane? Sandro? Gallas? Pienaar? I say this meaning absolutely no disrespect to any of those players but the Board can see £x millions of money spent in transfer fees and wages with not one success. The core first team is still that which he inherited.
4. Point 3 above talks about entrants but what of exits. Name one spurs player that has exited and has not increased their value: Bent? Taarabt? Being the two most high profile (and in positions where we have been short this year).
5. Lastly, the most discussed fact – namely his inevitable exit to team England (if he survives the tax case). What club wants to provide a coach with a victory lap (or season)? What if Mour is available this summer? Or Ancellotti? Or Mancini? Or Deschamps? Should Spurs wait until its convenient for Harry to depart or act now? How do you let a manager that is openly leaving spend another £30 or 50m? How do you plan for the long term? The tensions between Harry and the Board is inevitable.
I was gutted, totally and utterly- I could not believe what I was seeing- firstly having missed the team sheets, I find Jenas lurking on the steps in the tunnel...WTF!
Then Crouch... once I saw the lunge, I knew he was off...
Anyway- no point in crying over spilt milk- the damage has been done, we had our chance, and whatever/ whomever you think is/was responsible, it cannot be changed...
BUT...
If we come out with the right attitude (Despite VDV's assertion that "We have no chance" on Irish TV) and play to our undoubted ability, WE HAVE A CHANCE, at least, to beat Real in the final leg. Believe....
Harry's comments:
"Crouchy made a mistake and no one could feel more sorry than he does, He's been great for me over the years. He's made a mistake. These things can happen."
The problem has always been Harry's great mates: he is not bloody ruthless enough. Same with Defoe and the same with VDV. Tarabat was a pain in the neck but we should have stuck with him and the same with Di Santos. They have big potential but we cant see it!!
Harry screwed up big time on the big stage. You know - big men for big games and the rest!! He failed all round. Lennon, defensive set up, midfield set up, attack, substitutions, tactics, you name it he screwed it!!! A big 0/10
.and i cant understand why the players are still talking about the return leg.cant anybody understand, even now, so late in the game thats its now all about STOKE on saturday, FFS, we cant even get our PRIORITIES right at this stage!!
It's true we don't know what goes on behind the scenes at a club, but we can infer (sometimes rightly, sometimes wrongly) from what we see and hear. If we see someone carrying an umbrella we can suppose he expects rain. Likewise, with Lennon's tweets - something's clearly gone wrong with Harry's management of the situation.
It's concerning that, should we finish outside the top 4, Harry (with his long-term interest being England boss) might easily be indifferent to our next season - excepting, of course, his interest in the welfare of Crouch and Defoe, whom he'd no doubt deploy for the national side, despite their ineffectiveness (and both of whom I hope to see the back of in the summer).
I'm realistic about getting beaten by Real. We were pitted against a better team and a superior tactician. But it's a great shame we couldn't play not just with the preferred eleven, but with eleven at all! Now in the aftermath, if we prefer not to hurl blame, let's at least do ourselves of justice of looking at the causes of our disappointment. So, when Harry says of Crouch "He's been great for me over the years. He's made a mistake. These things can happen." he doesn't inspire confidence that such ineptitude will be guarded against in future. It's all a bit too chummy for me - while not chummy for others.
Did everyone react like this last year round about this time when we looked 'out of the race'? Some of you are pathetic.
@howard the yid
While we are all yids and have an opinion and dont always agree, one thing is for certain, we missed a massive opportunity to finish higher than 4th in the league this year.
A manager needs 2/3 gameplans...his preferred one and a backup or 2...Harry dont seem to have a backup plan at the moment and that, for a manager of a club wanting to establish themselves in the top 4 and compete in the CL, is criminal.
Some of that imo is due to, vdV, and his inability to be strong enough to say to Levy I need a striker I dont need vdV.
When you know you need to buy a striker ....you bloody well go out and buy a striker.
Whats his coaches/scouting team doing.
When is the last time we posed a threat from a set-piece or a corner?
When is the last time we were comfortable defending a set-piece or a corner?
Whats up with the potential beef between him and Lennon.
Why marginalise Pav?
Why come out and slag off your own striker when he misses an easy chance (bent) it happens to every striker. Apparently Torres is the best striker on earth. He's going through a very bad patch but you didnt hear Hodgson or Ancelotti slagging him off in public.
Why continue to dump on Kranckjar? He gets two opportunities and makes the most of them and gets us an extra 4 points and what happens? (Harry spent most of last season praising him)...Pienaar comes back in. This destroys momentum and causes disharmony to fester amongst the squad.
Danny Rose.....one of the greatest goals ever scored at the Lane and a very solid performance...hardly a look-in since.
Andros Townsend...magnificant performance in the Cup against, admittedly, Charlton.....dispatched out on loan.
Big noise about Khumalo from harry...out on loan...not even the decency to give him a chance against Charlton..
Want me to get started on the Right Back issue? Poor planning/management....lets let one of our best young players go out on loan to a mid-table premiership club....a club that had they a better start to the season could be in with a chance now to knock you out of a european place.
A lot of these issues were around long before Tuesday night
So if you want to call me and others pathetic because you dont agree/accept what we say because you may be blind to it then thats fine.
We are all yids after all.
But try and debunk any of the above.
Cheers
Can empathise with all the depression swilling around, can even understand all the calls for lynching etc., but just can't agree with any of it. Last year before the Man City game a "friend" who labours with the disability of being a Chelsea supporter gave me a tee-shirt. On said tee shirt was a picture of Harry as Del Boy and the slogan: "This time next year we'll be Champions League". "Only Fools and Tottenham".....What we need now, I would suggest, is a game at WHL that will allow us to leave the competition heads held high. Top 8 in Europe, record goal tallies and the destruction of Milan and Inter, the fight back from Young Boys, the journey, the ecstacy, we have had it all this season BUT we all knew or expected that it would come to an end at some point and Madrid was that point. As learning curves go we really couldn't have had anything much steeper than a debut season finishing the the quarter finals, and, if as I believe, God is a yid, then anything can still happen.
@jack
All that is true re the champions league and I agree wholeheartedly with you.
The other issues highlighted in the last couple of days do need addressing though.
Anyway onwards we march.
bah redknapp got found out tacticly by mourinho..sandro n palacios in front of the back four....modric on the right n bale left...vdv in front n defore or pav upfront.....after the players performance against inter n ac i know just how good the players are..magnificent.... know i know just how good redknapp is..not good enough....
Dear Mr Levy, Please stop with this nonsense about squad trimming. Why are you leveraging your own club like this ? This is supposed to be a long term project. You think our position is stronger by making statements that we need to sell ? I thought you knew your stuff. You are not going to get 80m for Bale if we are not in the CL next season. You wouldnt get 50m for Modric if we are not in the CL next season. If you think you are incentivising the players by telling them they are going to get sold then think again. All it means is that is they get moved on for less and maybe gives them less bargaining power when they sort out contracts at a new club. We all know what the club really needs and that is to keep the squad together and find the right player to bring in.
The stakes have just gotten higher.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2011/apr/08/tottenham-gareth-bale-departure
Levy, out!
Strathaven and Desktop raise a good point. Assuming Harry doesn't get convicted (and given the number of appeals for dismissal that have been rejected, there has to be a fairly strong case) what do we do about next year? Regardless of where we finish this year, do we hang on to a manager who is planning to leave within a year?
My (oft stated, I know) opinion is that, mentally, he's already gone. As Strathaven asks, "Should Spurs wait until its convenient for Harry to depart? " Schalke didn't; Felix Magath was planning to stay on till the end of the season before moving on to Wolfsburg but the club sacked him. A week later, underperforming in the league all year Schalke are tonking Milan 5-2 and usurping us as the darlings of Europe.
Spooky mentioned weeks ago that success in Europe was papering over a number of cracks. Well, the paper's peeling off now. Hopefully Levy will give over licking his wounds from Stratford and turn his attention to some strategic planning for the future of the club.
Before everyone panics about that guardian piece, those financials and levy's comments were out weeks, if not a month, ago, They're on the club website. That's some seriously shoddy journalism by the guardian, making it seem like he said that in response to the madrid loss. I'm off to write an angry letter.
Ziege's right. What's more likely is Levy is talking about the likes of Dos Santos, Bentley, O'Hara .etc.
There's little doubt that the squad needs trimming, and I think it's safe to say that the players currently out on loan will be the main ones who are sold.
However, I do wonder if this summer will see us witness a major overhaul of managerial and playing staff, should be fail to finish in the top 4.
I said it on Wednesday, and I'll say it again now - what price Harry leaving on Thursday morning if we don't beat Stoke at the weekend? Give him a last hurrah with the 2nd leg against Real and then out the door he goes?
We've seen Levy do it before in the middle of a game (Jol) so nothing should come as a surprise to us.
Van Der Vaart's substitution behaviour (always off down the tunnel sulking) and Lennon's recent tweets leads me to believe that Harry's rapidly losing the dressing room. Once that happens there's no other choice. We see players moved on when they are disruptive, so what's not to say the same won't happen with the manager?!?
If he's starting to upset the better players in the squad only two things can happen - sales or sackings!
In my opinion, if we fail to get CL again this season then it's gone for good.
Once City are in there they become almost impossible to eliminate. They're already spending mega-millions on big names, but from the summer it will be even bigger names that join them.
Likewise, we've already seen Abramovich bring out the cheque book to try and boost their position. What will he do with it in the summer?
Arsenal don't need to spend as somehow they always manage to get a team performance out of what they have.
Fair points Ziegemonster at 555, When it comes to trimming the squad probably every yid would agree that there are bunch of expensive/useless players many of us be happy to see the back of.
Oh, and the guys maths (I can hardly call it financial analysis) are rubbish. We'll be massively quids in this summer since our op profit was up almost 4x for first half and for the last two years the second half of the year has been substantially more profitable.
A loss for 2012? Only if, as this guy did, you take out all CL revenues and leave in all the related CL expenses. Basically assuming that we incurred all the costs of playing, traveling to or hosting the 8 extra CL matches played in the first half of the season, but got no revenue from tickets, tv, etc. Incredibly stupid or deliberately misleading. I'm leaning towards the latter.
lennon twittering that harry was talking rubbish - that's got dressing room unrest written all over it, no? i think harry has got an unbelievably big gob but he's also taken us further than anyone since terry venables and im very grateful to him for that. we've only got another year max with him before that england job comes calling so let's just hope Levy get's the right man (or woman, karen brady might be reading) and i'm sure he will. encouraging also to read about Boris taking the stadium thing a bit more seriously, about time too. those strategic board room appiontments by levy should bear fruit on that score.
anyway it was quality in madrid to see all those Spurs fans of a certain age reliving their youth, it did show that the bunch who were going in (and before) the late 70's/early 80's are as hard core as a club could get, good old ossie, Ricky, Glenn and co. 30 years on it would be nice for a new generation to experience a similar bit of glory as well. Dont be too downhearted, plenty to look forward to if we get a good replcaement for harry and the stadium thing gets sorted.
oh and that madrid player celebrating when crouch got sent off, what a c___ and an embarressment to the greatest club in the world (one has to say).
Just reread all these posts:
I think I can summarise the views like this:
The team is crap.
The Manager is crap:
The Board are crap.
The Ground is crap.
I have a suspicion that if we somehow get 4th place again, and reach next years qf's, I will be reading the same comments.
Personally I am inclined to agree with Jack. Things could have been better, but it has been a great season compared to what we have been used to.
As for the suggestion that we could have solved our striker by buying Dzeko, any player that signs for Manchequbook City is only interested in the money, so even if we were prepared to cough up £40 mill, would we then be prepared to break the wage structure?