Good morning.
Watching Gareth Bale yesterday reminded of me of a stage that small children get as the begin to try and take control of their world. A sense of ownership and determination can be fascinating to watch as they emerge from being completely dependent and defiantly utter the words, ‘I can do it myself!’.
What usually ensues in such instances is something like the removal of a vest not by pulling it off over the head, but climbing out of it as if it were a dress. An ambitious routine that might take – minus a shoulder dislocation, falling into a TV set or home aquarium – up to ten minutes to execute a simple 10 second task.
You can’t complain of course. Everyone wants their kids to think, challenge, try things for themselves, learn and in an ideal world dress themselves sooner rather than later.
Bale was in the Telegraph on Saturday. Yesterday I called the piece ‘terrifying’. Here are some particularly chilling quotes.
“I need to improve myself as a player and I spoke to the coaches at Tottenham about it,” he says. “Being stuck outside is not good all the time. You need to mix your game up and give the opposition things to think about. It’s one of those things I wanted to do and I’m starting to do it.”
“It got to the stage last year when I was standing out on the wing, playing well, with a lot of freedom, hurting teams and being targeted by defences. So it was a case of some teams putting two players on me, staying really tight and trying to mark me out of the game, which is quite easy to do when you’re stood right out there with not much room.
“So I’ve had to adapt my game. The full-back can’t follow you inside and strikers occupy the centre-backs, so it gives you that bit of space. It’s not easy. It’s a lot tighter in the middle but if you get into lots of pockets and you’re able to turn and run at defenders it’s just as good as being out on the wing”
What we got of course was effectively an unmitigated car crash. Bale goes inside. In his head, I am convinced he’s intent upon focusing his blistering pace down the middle. In his head he’s already shaken off those nasty defenders that want to double up on him out on the wing.
In reality, outside of his head he found himself in an area congested by not only his own team mates, but their opposition counterparts who either took the ball off him with no more than the poke of a toe or he is forced into a short, largely redundant pass.
Does anyone remember Darren Anderton also wanting to revolutionise football at White Hart Lane by playing out of position?
The knock on effect of Bale being in the middle was equally surreal.
With arguably one of the best players in the country safely out of position we are then treated to BAE morphing into A&E with some of the worst crossing since The Cassandra Crossing. The knives were out for Benny. I lost count of the substandard scuffs he under hit into Man City shins.
How many balls crossed in by Bale himself would have resulted in threats on goal? My rough estimate would have to be, ‘lots’.
Is this playing to our strengths? Is this arrogance? Is Arry so wrapped up in his court case that he’s given up managing his players and letting them dictate how we play?
And my fear is that the goal – in Gareth’s head – justified the means. The ‘look at me, look at me, Christ is risen.’ style celebration left me feeling a little uncomfortable. He didn’t lift up his shirt to reveal a vest baring the words, ‘I can do it myself!.’ but I’m sure I heard him thinking it.
Only at Spurs can we finally have a player that every club on the planet would love to have and we can still try and shoot him down. Crazy.
Oh god, how I agree with this comment!!!!
“It’s Harry’s fault, it’s Defoe’s fault, it’s Bale’s fault” (what?, for being too egotistical???!!!….isn’t that what we have missed in our players for so many years?)…..Why can it not just be said that, yes, we were gutted, absolutely gutted, to lose that match but our players played with energy, passion, spirit, really genuine class, character and determination to get something out of the game….and they so nearly did before a cruel twist of fate struck the one man we would not have wished it on.
Be positive….see this team for what it is, one of the best to appear at WHL in fifty years….enjoy it….if we all get behind them, instead of looking for negatives, they can do even better. If we supported the team with as much energy and character as the players themselves showed yesterday it would be worth at least a couple of extra goals during the rest of the season.
Believe me mate, Our lad’s were well supported and their efforts appreciated yesterday, I’m glad I can write, because I sure as hell can’t speak right now. We took them on, in their own back yard, and they were crapping themselves big time stylie. it was strange to go through a complete gambit of emotions in the space of a minute, Eurphoric-back to earth-and then plummeting down to hell, with an awfully long, cold and wet Manchester and their gutless fans smiling and mocking our misery, yeah it’s a pisser, but there’s Friday to look forward to isn’t there?
Yes people. It’s time to put the “Blame” word away. Isn’t it a word that children use?
I agree we must get beind the team and give them the massive support they deserve. Its not over til the fat lady sings. COYS
leave Bale alone, it was Defoe miss that was crucial and i make that about five this season where Bale crosses for defoe to stretch and miss. it might be sharpness but that lack of a yard is from awareness that all EPL strikers should have
As I said above
The ball was too far ahead of him at full stretch. He was just up from cramping. Bale took waaayy too long to release that pass, instead of going outside the CB he should have passed it inside much earlier.
@Ian
“…where Bale crosses for defoe to stretch and miss”
Goals like that are missed in virtually every game. You make it sound so easy, but once a player is stretching, he is not fully balanced. If the ball had been three inches closer, he would have got it. I am more concerned about the misses he makes when he is not stretching.
should have dived and headed it in-i would of
Couple of times, IMO, he tried too much but good to see he has the confidence to do it. Think he just needs to know when and where to be more effective.
@ Really, think you’re being harsh on, as you choose to call him “aaron fucking useless cut back and can’t fucking cross lennon” or just Arron Lennon to most.
We didn’t exactly have a lot of height on the pitch to cross to yesterday and how many times have you seen the cutback played perfectly to Defoe for him to smash the back of the net? Not his best game but seen him have worse
didn’t necessarily mean yesterday – meant his game in general. our very own theo walcott
Moronic is the only way to describe this post. We have a player who just made it into the UEFA team of the year who puts in class performances every week and scores one of our goals of the season away at the league leaders, and you claim he is self-obsessed and narcisstic purely because he wants to better himself as a player.
Well Sir, I think you may be guilty of a little self-projection.
Did he make it into the UEFA team of the year playing in the free role as described by him in the Telegraph and witnessed by everyone yesterday?
Correct Harry. He didn’t.
We’ve waited for a player of Bale’s quality for a generation. A generation. For the first time in my adult life (I’m nearly 40), we were yesterday the width of a striker’s lace from becoming probable favourites for the league title. The cross came from Bale, the equaliser came from Bale. He’s already scored 7 this season and he has, with a handful of others, given us the greatest two or three years anyone may age can recall.
He’s only 22 and learning all the time – from his successes and his mistakes. The very worst thing we can do is underestimate him.
I’m not throwing the baby out with the bathwater, rather looking at what the player himself is experimenting with.
I’d like a return to the player you and one or two others are describing.
Only saw bits of him yesterday.
I agree with that (only seeing glimpses yesterday) and the games when he drifts inside, successful or not, seem to take VdV out of the game to some degree. But that’s Harry’s problem, not Bale’s.
I can also recall a great number of games last season when he was isolated on the wing. Games where he made zero impression as the premier league was cute to his threat. I’d rather this problem than that one. I’m pretty sure we’re doing OK this term.
I think that you’ve hit the target with this comment H. Bale is a bright young guy who’s experimenting with ways to overcome the opposition’s methods of neutralising him by putting 2 players on him. At the moment he hasn’t got the balance right, and as you’ve pointed out is coming inside and swapping with Lennon too often. We shouldn’t criticise too much for his efforts, as he’s sure to get the balance sorted and will be a better player for it.
Agree with that, no harm in experimenting and just needs to get the balance right. This roaming lark will work well against some teams ( Norwich for example last month) but not against others and he/ the management need to work it out as the game goes on and react accordingly.
I wish he’d experiment against bloody Cheltenham and Watford!