Spurs' New Defence - Can They Propel Tottenham Into The Top Half?

Tottenham's defence committed 3 errors on Sunday to gift Man Utd a 3-1 victory; it's seemingly become the norm these days for Spurs fans to watch in agony as Dawson fluffs yet another header, or as Lee Young-Pyo gets turned inside out once more by a winger.

Their back line has been guilty of some incredible faux-pas's this season, one of the main reasons Martin Jol lost his job. There's no point in having Keane, Berbatov and Lennon up front if Sir-Flap-A-Lot is between the sticks.

Juande Ramos has clearly seen the need to improve the rear of his lopsided team, and has set about beefing it up with introducing a new 'keeper, an attacking full-back, and a no-nonsene defender with plenty of experience.

Couple this with the return of Ledley King and the soon to be fit Bale, Tottenham may just have one of the best defences in the Premiership. Or will they? Let's take a closer look:

Strengths

Assuming that Hutton will sign, the back 4 will have a lot to offer up front, never mind guarding the goal. Bale and Hutton are both excellent at bombing forward on the flanks, often passing their midfield partners to create chances for the strikers.

Hutton has strength, pace and at times brilliant dribling skills, while Bale has the speed and dead-ball expertise to trouble any goalkeeper in the world. Not to mention the fact that Ledley King isn't afraid of scoring from set plays either.

Defensively, King and Woodgate are solid, doing the basic things right with hardly any silly slip-ups. You don't get signed by Real Madrid if you can't play (...well, unless your name's Thomas Gravesen). Alan Hutton has also proved he's no pushover at the back, and will run all day to help out both his fellow defenders and attackers.

Radek Cerny is a good shot-stopper (like Robinson) and seems to have an air of confidence about him which reassures the players in front of him (unlike Robinson).

Weaknesses

The big bleedin' obvious one here is can they all play a few games in a row without crocking themselves in some way? King and Woodgate are both the personification of injury-prone, while young Gareth Bale is currently nursing a broken bone. If they can't all keep fit, that means one of their other 'defenders' will have to come in, which I'm sure will be music to the ears of strikers across the EPL.

Also, have any of them played with each other yet? Not really no. Woodgate and Hutton are brand new, Bale won't have had a decent run with King or Cerny yet, and even those 2 have just started together. Defences need time to gel, to form an understanding, and throwing some decent players together could have the opposite effect intended.

Plus, Cerny's a bit crap really isn't he?

Overall

If they can keep themselves fit enough to gel together and create some synergy, they'll have one of the best defences in the Premier League. Will they stop enough goals however to close the 10 point gap between them and 10th-placed Pompey? Feel free to leave your comments below.

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Aaron Lennon - Goal of the Weekend

Never mind Tim Cahill's point blank yet thunderous overhead kick, this sweet volley from Lennon after some neat control from Berbatov (check out the Ronaldinho 'not-looking' pass) is our pick of the weekend's goals. Goal at 0:24.

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Juande'll Fix It!

A 2-1 loss at home. Not the best way to impress your boss-to-be, and it gives Juande Ramos a glimpse of the huge task that faces him if he wishes get Spurs into the top half of the table at least.

There will be a few things that Juande must deal with, getting the defence tighter, removing some of the excess up front (ie Defoe), and improving the overall morale of the players and supporters. But there's one difficulty that stands out above the rest.

Paul Robinson.

The biggest problem of them all. A talented 'keeper who has the confidence of Jaap Stam in a penalty shoot-out. Many pundits praised Martin Jol for sticking with Robinson during troubled times, citing that it would improve his confidence if he knew he had the manager's backing.

This, psychologically, should work, but still the mistakes kept coming, the shots kept being palmed to strikers, and the crosses were still being dealt with nervously. Ever since that fateful night in Croatia, England's No.1 has never looked the same player. If keeping him in doesn't work, leaving him out might do the trick.

Ramos should care more about having a good goalkeeper more than whether or not Robinson will recover from his current turgid form. The Spaniard's responsibility is not to Robinson or England, but to Spurs, and if that means signing a new 'keeper then so be it.

There are numerous goalies out there that would do well for Spurs, and without causing too much speculation, Ramos may dip his hand into the Levy's piggy bank and go scouting around his former club Sevilla. If Spurs have Champions League aspirations, there is one thing they need before that: a solid man between the sticks.

The top 4 clubs in the EPL are the top 4 not only because they have solid defenders, midfield maestros or prolific strikers, but also due to a top class goalkeeper. Lehmann, Reina, Cech and Van Der Sar would easily make it into a list of the top 10 'keepers in the world. Would Robinson on present form? I'll let you decide on that one.

If Robinson recovers, then that's good news both for him and Juande. If not, don't expect the new boss to be sitting idle come the January transfer window.

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Martin Jol Sacked

After being removed from the Spurs monopoly board, Big Martin has finally met his maker following their 2-1 defeat at home to Getafe.

With Spurs lying 18th in the table after a string of poor results, it was only a matter of time before the Tottenham board gave Tony Soprano his marching orders.

Spurs have only recorded one win in their last 10 games in the premier league... at home to bottom club Derby.

The main reasons for Spurs downfall has been a weak defence, something that Jol chose not to spend much of his £40 million budget on pre-season.

Juande Ramos is set to fill the departing Dutchman's shoes at the end of the season, with talks of Gus Poyet becoming his assistant.

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Spurs Board: Jol Has No Place

On the Tottenham monopoly board! Manager Jol does not feature on the special edition game, in which names and places were submitted ages ago.

What's more hilarious is that Paul Robinson has been valued very accurately, £60 to be precise. As if he didn't need another blow to confidence. Well done Spurs Monopoly board!

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£4 million to quietly sink into the night? I'd take it.

And so would Martin Jol if various tabloid newspapers are to go by. The big Dutchman has apparently agreed a severance package with Spurs, who will get rid of him once they find somebody new to take over.

Seems a very odd deal. We all know Tony Soprano has been a dead man walking for some time, but this almost literally makes him a dead man walking. Can you imagine that?

"Results aren't good enough. You're fired. But... we haven't quite found anyone good enough to replace you. Fancy staying on?"

Most folk would reply with a big V before storming out the boardroom. But it appears that Jol is prepared to put his club before pride by staying on.

Is it any good that he's staying on for Spurs? All the energy will have been sapped out of the man, and that will surely transcend onto his players. It's not a stab in the back for Martin, but it will still hurt as much as a stab in the front.

It's saddenning to see 2 high quality Premiership managers let go due to ridiculously unrealistic boardroom expectations. And we thought we had someone new capable of filling the shoes of Jose's Quotes.

So who's going to take over? My money's still on Juande Ramos, but will his eye be wandering following Chelsea's poor start under Avram Grant? We shall see. Who would you like (or not like) to see fill the Spurs hot seat?

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Mourinho's quotes are gone... enter Martin Jol!

Martin Cornelius Jol (yes that is his middle name) has stepped up to the plate as Soundbite Man of the Premier League following his 2 hilarious analogies at the weekend:

"I'm not Michael Jackson. I'm not a lover, I'm a fighter."
I'm sorry Tony Soprano, but it doesn't take a genius to figure out that, with your heavy frame, you can neither dance nor make love well, but would probably make mince-meat out of the next football manager.

"When things are going well, you are in the bath, and it is warm. However, I'm out the bath now and it's cold out of the bath."
I think a cold shower is what you need.

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Macauley Chrisantus reads Liquid Football

Taking our excellent advice from yesterday, with regards to choosing a London club nearer the top of the table, 17-year-old Nigerian starlet Macauley Chrisantus is set to snub Spurs in favour of rivals Arsenal.

The Sun reports that Arsenal have yet to make a bid, but the Eaglet's agent remarked 'he has the passion for Arsenal'.

Although Barca could ruin the party for either club, as they yesterday outbid Tottenham with a £2 million offer. Watch this space.

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Who Are Ya? Macauley Chrisantus

The Sun reported this morning that Spurs have bid £1.5m for Nigerian wonderkid Macauley Chrisantus.

The 17-year-old currently plays his football for Abuja FC of Nigeria, but is more noted for his recent performances in the U-17 World Cup in Seoul, Korea.

He received the Golden Boot after scoring 7 times in 7 matches, gained the Silver Ball for being the 2nd best player of the tournament, and actually won the world cup for the 'Eaglets' thanks to a penalty shoot-out win over Spain.

Controversially, it had been previously reported that he wanted to sign for arch-rivals Arsenal, before making a U-turn and wanting to focus on improving his own game. I'd have a closer look at the table Macauley before choosing your club.

Now I know that £1.5 million isn't a lot of money in football these days, but shouldn't Big Martin Jol be focussing on shoring up his defence, rather than gambling on potentially good strikers? Or is it a sound investment for a player that could be worth 10 times that amount in the future?

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