Kandy Kaned, Glovers and Stevie G.

Ed is still in the holiday mood:

Spurs are usually a team on decline in the festive season.  Too many games for too thin a squad.  But not this year.  After a scoreless draw against Manchester United (we’ll take it against that payroll), Harry Kane went big and busted up Chelsea for Spurs best win in the BPL perhaps . . . ever?

The emergence of Kane has dramatically changed Spurs.  With 17 goals in about as many games in all competitions, Spurs seem finally to have found their striker.  His emergence from the Spurs own academy makes it even sweeter.  One might be tempted to say that the team is finally catching on to Mauricio Pochettino’s direction — and I’d say there is something to that — but correlation is not equal to causation and it still remains difficult to tell.  Recall that the same was said of Brendan Rodgers brilliance when he had Suarez and Sturridge, but now that they’re gone the press would say he can’t get anything right.

Kane is not merely scoring, but he’s playing the target man especially welll, and he’s also taking the space aggressively with the dribble like few strikers I’ve seen in the league.  Kane isn’t that fast, but he’s fast enough and clever enough to use leverage and positioning to keep him in front of defenders.  He’s a pleasure to watch operate and will most certainly be called up for England in the future.

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I should note my sorrow at the loss of the Yeovil Town Glovers at the hands of a somewhat fortunate Manchester United.  The Glovers gave 110%, and for most if not all of the match made me wonder why players like Rooney and Falcao were paid so much more than some of the players on the mid-third division team.

The FA Cup is a great competition, but at no time is it greater than the third round when premier league clubs have to play at tiny grounds throughout the country.  It’s simply a pleasure to see top tier players go against what appear to be true club teams on un-pampered (and sometimes awful) grounds.  There’s simply nothing more fun than watching Eden Hazard kick a ball into a tree behind the goal, or Steven Gerrard put one into a busy road next to the pitch.

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Wait, did I mention Stevie G?  His departure from Liverpool will, I suspect, mark the

Softies: Ed on Spurs

The title says it all:

Spurs lived up to their reputation of being soft Wednesday against a Chelsea side that completely overmatched them.  But fortunately there was more to it than that.

First, Aaron Lennon was rewarded with a starting spot for a good performance DEFENSIVELY against Everton, and started the game with a terrific move and cross to wonder boy Harry Kane, but then screwed up the easiest rule of defense --  “Stay with the runner!” – and was responsible for the first goal by Eden Hazard on a simple wall pass.  

Let me just be clear about the stay with the runner rule: there are few wall passes around people in the BPL – maybe two or three a game – because players are trained to do that.  But let’s be more clear:  I trained my U9 team to do that and would have pulled a U9 player that messed that up.  It’s brain farts like this that keep Lennon from being the consistent impact player he should be, and that keep him largely an off the bench player.  He was eventually pulled by the coach, and I expect to see him on the bench again in the weeks to come, subbing in only when Spurs are desperate for an offensive spark or a fast player that can play the counter.

Second, Vladimir Chiriches is awful, at best a second division player.  Danny Rose, Kyle Walker, even Kyle Naughton, when are you coming back?  Chiriches isn’t merely a poor center back – his natural position – but an even worse right back.  It’s not just his defense that is poor; he also gives up the ball in possession regularly.  The matchup against Eden Hazard must have been hysterical to the Special One, especially when he saw that Aaron Lennon is the midfielder above him.  It’s possible to criticize Pochettino for this – Chadli should have started the game both for his brawn and defensive abilities.  Not to mention he does happen to be a top scorer for Spurs right now.  But again, the lack of defensive personnel due to injury and players he did not bring in is the biggest problem Spurs have right now, and not something the manager can be properly blamed for.

What's it All About, Gylfi?!

Two days in a row; what's going on here?  Correspondent Ed is what's going on:

Spurs looked horrific this Sunday against Stoke, but sadly they are playing pretty much as I would expect them to play.  In short, the line up is pretty poor.  Uncle Harry had Kaboul playing pretty well at Spurs, but that was a long time and a long injury ago.  Vertonghen also seems to play as if he cares little.  At left back, Danny Rose has proven fast, quick, and otherwise mediocre, and the same can be said of the right back position.  Walker may have been reckless but he could also provide a lot of pressure from that side.  At midfield, Capoue is just about a step down from Huddlestone, and Mason is a poor man's Tom Cleverly (I know, that's too mean).  Townsend is a super fast one move pony, and on the other side is Nacer Chadli (great name!), whose proven to be pretty good, but not that good.  Finally at striker we have "I'm not in a contract year" Adebayor, the $28MM bust from La Liga named Soldado, and of course, the home town boy who is these days the best of the three, Harry Kane (plus he plays goalie).

Here's a ray of sunshine though:  Kane, Rose, Mason, and Townsend all came through the academy and all started against Stoke.  I get it and I like it, but right now they're not enough and the rest of the team is even less of enough.