Tottenham V Wigan - A tale of two Tottenham's

It was always going to be difficult to match the atmosphere and euphoria of Wednesday night. But Wigan had just been defated by a total of ten goals in two games. I am always trepadatious when facing a team that has just been heavily defeated, particularly where their last visit to White Hart Lane resulted in a thumping. So I was naturally catious and in fact I would have been hapy to win 1-0.

My apprehensions were much the same as a large proportion of the crowd. That obvioulsy had filtered to the players. I must say it was the quietest I had heard a Tottenham crowd. No doubt the experience of Stoke and Wolves from last year was playing on everyone's minds.

There is always two Tottenhams. The one that plays with energy and vigour and great creativity and a Tottenham that goes through the motions and is starved of any idea how to make a break through. Unfortunatly against Wigan it was the latter.

The match started out in a lethargic fashion for Tottenham, failing to control the match. Wigan crowded Tottenham out for long periods of the game. But it was some very sloppy passing by Palacios and Huddlestone that gave Wigan their opportunites. I felt our tactics were again wrong in this game. We desperately need someone to play in the hole behind the front two. When Crouch is playing, the ball keeps getting pumped up to him. The point is we more often than not lose the ball because the rebound goes into the area between the midfield and our forwards. If we played another player in that position it means we can at least compete for the ball, and will also help support an attack.

Another point is I don't see the point in playing both Huddlestone and Palacios against a team like Wigan. I find Huddlestone to be quite frustrating. Huddlestone had opportunites to get forward in the build up play but didn't. He had a chance of a one-two with Lennon but stayed back. I hope this isn't an instruction as we lack goals from midfield.

I may be wrong, but most teams either play 4-5-1 or 4-3-3, but we still play 4-4-2, or more to the point 4-2-2-2. There must be a reason why we strugglw to break down teams that set out to defend. If Tottenham are going to continue with 4-4-2 I would suggest we play at a far higher temp  than we did against. The performance was simply not good enough for our aspirations.