Mido winner as Spurs crash in opener

By: Gary | August 17th, 2008

Boro 2-1 Spurs

Spurs were a leaderless wreck on this opening day of the Premiership season at the Riverside.

A lack of poise, drive and rallying skipper saw Tottenham’s start of season hopes scaled down to size by an effieciently executed Middlesbrough home performance.

And the irony saw the Spurs old boy Mido grab the games winner from the bench after David Wheater had put the hosts ahead.

Juande Ramos’ men were caught cold and left in the blocks as they began their race to bridge the gap between the top four and the rest. Already we trail by three points.

In a match which cried out an air of ‘Same Old Tottenham’, the north Londoners simply froze on the big stage of a new season just as they had 12 months ago at the Stadium of Light.

In fact this game was almost a carbon copy of last year’s disappointment against the Black Cats. What it lacked in drama from the absence of Michael Chopra’s 90th minute winner it made up for in a convincing display by the home side.

While Boro boasted a spring in their step, Spurs were caught with a severe lack of both creation and imagination and only inadvertently found the net when Robert Huth turned into his own goal into stoppage time.

But by then the damage was already done with Stewart Downing, Tuncay, Gary O’Neill and Afonso Alves bossing proceedings against a still frail looking Spurs defence.

In fact if Alves had bothered to put his shooting boots on in the morning, Gareth Southgate’s men could well have been out of sight by the break. But despite this, one up they should have been as Wheather lawfully headed in just shy of half-time. The referee came to Tottenham’s rescue ruling the goal out when in fact it was Michael Dawson who tugged a bit too much of the Boro man’s shirt.

Most teams would have acted on the wake-up call - Spurs stayed in first gear.

While Boro went looking for the lead, opportunities for Spurs on the other hand were few and far between. I cannot even remember a half chance falling the way our front man Darren Bent.

Our pre-season predator was already an isolated lone striker with Manchester United-bound Dimitar Berbatov demoted to the bench following last week’s 5-0 win over AS Roma.

The loss of Robbie Keane was perhaps the most alarming sign of the afternoon though.

Even with the midfield attacking powers of Luka Modric, Giovani Dos Santos, David Bentley, Aaron Lennon and captain Jenas on show - the lack of Keane dropping in deep and linking middle to attack was clearly problematic.

A key component was missing both in attacking quality and an influential skipper on the park. And that man was preparing for his Liverpool debut at Sunderland.

The introduction of Berbatov sprinkled some magic into an otherwise toothless performance. It took the Bulgarian just two minutes to lay on the games best chance for Jenas who could only fire the ball straight at Boro keeper Brad Jones.

But with Berba expected to move to Old Trafford before the close of the transfer window at the end of the month, Ramos surely knows he must now bring in two top class strikers. A daunting task in just over two weeks.

Otherwise, for all our potential creative midfielders, we just simply will not score anywhere near the amount of goals this season we need to compete.

The fact of the matter is, we finished in the bottom half of the Premier League last season and have effectively sold 50 goals in Keane and Berbatov, replacing this with midfielders that leave us cluttered and without balance.

And the defence is still Tottenham as we know it. Frail and clumsy.

This opening day display could not have been anymore alarming than it proved. We are only 90 minutes into the season and already optimism has been wiped with the reality of a depleted summer.

Top four? We’re having a laugh!

Star Man

There are very few candidates in the running this week but an impressive debut from Croatia schemer Luka Modric wins it for me. He was excellent in possession, rarely losing the ball and proved critics wrong who feared he would not be physical enough to cope in the Premier League by his exceptional reading of the game from start to finish. His short but effective passing should have allowed Tottenham’s more expansive midfield players a license to create and in future games hopefully it will.

Must do better

Benoit Assou-Ekotto would be the obvious choice but after a terrible defensive display by the Frenchman, but I am guessing he will not have too many more chances this season to put it right. Once Gareth Bale returns to full fitness his first team outings should be limited. So, it is David Bentley who needs to do better to live up to his hefty £15 million tag. The former Blackburn man did have a chance in either half and in fairness never went missing from this game but his corner kicks did not create half enough problems for Boro. He lacked creative spark and was eventually booked in a disappointing debut.