Wigan 1 – Spurs 0: What the hell was that…

By: Drew | January 11th, 2009

So that’s what 15 million pounds, and the strangest formation Harry has ever laid on us gets you. A last minute goal to drop us into the relegation zone… Sweet…

For those of you who didn’t see it, our game at the JJB today was quite the fiasco. For most Tottenham fans it was a pivotal game considering not only were points an absolute must, but it marked the return of Jermain Defoe (apparently… I didn’t see much of him).

When I first saw the line up something just didn’t sit right with me, I found myself saying “…are we trying to get a draw?”. Mr. Redknapp set it up in a 3-3-2-2 like this…
Gomes
Corluka, Woodgate, Dawson
Zokora, King, Bale
Modric, O’Hara
Pavlyuchenko, Defoe

I know right? 6 defenders, 2 mids, 2 strikers, seems like not a lot of forward motion. And it would seem Harry realized this a bit too late, by bringing in Lennon, Bent, and Jenas to take it back to a 4-4-2. Maybe the “all defender” line up would have kept the goal out, but i don’t blame our Gaffer for trying to get a win. I just blame him for trying to fix something that wasn’t broken.

Wigan’s Maynor Figueroa was the culprit, Scoring in the 91st minute. Memories of the late winner from Damien Duff against Newcastle last month were running through my head as I watched our side go from safety in 16th place, to 18th and only 2 points from the bottom.

Everyone couldn’t have looked more frustrated during the game today as Aaron Lennon even seemed to be screaming at his own team for not pressuring enough. Gomes seemed to have a pretty serious injury but was forced to push on as all three of our subs were used on the field. Roman Pavlyuchenko did not seem to be a happy camper after being subbed out for Darren Bent, who in my mind didn’t do any better than the Russian international. Shots during the broadcast of the Spurs bench were also pretty telling of the vibe from team today, With Gio Dos Santos looking upset that he didn’t make the sub list, and Cesar Sanchez left wondering why he didn’t get the nod.

No one is more frustrated right now than Harry Redknapp as he has publicly stated here, here, and here. Personally I think today’s loss should be blamed on the players and Harry. What the hell was up with our formation? we’ve never set up like that before, and we choose to experiment when we need points for safety? our normal set up was enough to beat Wigan the first time, why mess with that?

As we wave bye-bye to the 1(should’ve been 3) point(s), let us also bid farewell to Kevin Prince-Boateng as he has recently secured a loan move to Borussia Dortmund. The German side currently sit in 6th place in the Bundesliga(…must be nice) and will have the option of keeping The attacking midfielder on a permanent basis if they like what they see. Hopefully he has a lot of success in his future, I wish him well.

So where do we go from here? I really don’t have any idea, do any of you? I’d really love to hear any ideas, The only thing I think I want to see is Appiah in a Spurs jersey. Other than that I don’t know what we can do…

We play Pompey next weekend so expect a lot of vengeance from Tony Adams’ side, the only upside is it’s at The Lane.