Guarded Optimism

Having only seen the first half of the Hull game in which we were poor, putting in a performance that was very reminiscent of the most disappointing league display so far under Sherwood; the 1-1 draw at home to West Brom. And then only seeing highlights of the Everton game, in which it appeared we were fortunate to win the game, I was looking forward to watching the Newcastle game. I was very pleased with what I saw. At last we started a game well, getting on top and creating chances in the early stages, though we were still grateful to Hugo Lloris for making an important save from Cisse's point blank range effort. But we looked the better side and deserved our early goal (for us this season, the 19th minute is very early) through Adebayor, who continues to make AVB's decision to freeze him out of the first team picture look preposterous. At half time the only disappointment was that we were only 1 goal ahead. This was rectified early in the second half when a slick move involving Paulinho and Adebayor ended with Krul palming the ball straight to Paulinho six yards out, allowing him a simple finish for 2-0. Having got the two goal cushion, the Spurs players then appeared to switch off, allowing Newcastle to enjoy their best spell of the match, forcing Lloris into a string of saves, including an excellent reaction tip over the bar from a Mathieu Debuchy header. Momentum was regained late on and the result was put beyond doubt when a swift break away led to Andros Townsend seeing his shot pushed back out by Krul straight to Adebayor, who directed a volley into the ground and perhaps a touch fortuitously the ball bounced over Krul and into the far corner. Nacer Chadli added a bit of gloss to the scoreline with a glorious 4th goal, struck from just outside the left corner of the box into the far corner of the goal, in what was without doubt his best contribution since his £7m summer arrival.

There was plenty of good news for Spurs in addition to the result. Younes Kaboul returned to the starting line up and completed the 90 minutes, despite an injury scare mid way through the second half. Andros Townsend came off the bench again, as he continues his return from injury, he looked a bit rusty, which is probably understandable following a fairly lengthy absence from the team. Possibly the most pleasing thing of all was that Sherwood made changes once again to the starting eleven, changes which worked well. He is starting to show flexibility, having initially looked like he was a stubborn 4-4-2 man, he has recently played an extra midfielder in certain games, and against Newcastle he brought Etienne Capoue back into the team to provide some steel and solidity alongside the craft of Bentaleb, and the energy of Paulinho. So with those three in the middle, he moved Dembele out to the right, in what looked like another shrewd move. Moussa Dembele is a bit of a conundrum, I think if you asked 100 Spurs fans their opinion of him, 90% would say they like him, but find him frustrating. He seems to have almost every attribute you could want for a midfielder, he's big, strong, can win the ball, and can use it well too. He has excellent technique, can beat players, and has shown in rare glimpses an ability to create and score goals - he just hasn't done this enough. So you could say consistency is his weakness, and if that is the case then it makes sense to use him out wide, where perhaps he can drift in and out of games, making telling contributions going forward, whilst not causing as many problems for us defensively when he does go missing. Although they are very different players, his predicament reminds me a little to that of Luka Modric when we first signed him. On arrival he struggled massively to settle in the Premier League, it was clear he had talent but there were question marks over his ability to adapt to the pace and physicality of the league. Juande Ramos had attempted to integrate him straight into central midfield in a 4-4-2, a pivotal position, and an unforgiving area of the team for someone struggling to adapt to a new league to play in. When Redknapp arrived he initially played Modric in a less responsible role behind the striker which immediately saw improvements from him, before switching him to the left wing, again a position where he could use his natural talent for creation, without having the same level of defensive responsibility. As we all know he eventually progressed into one of the leagues best central midfielders and is now establishing himself as one of the finest in Spain following a slow start to his time at Real Madrid. It will be interesting to see whether Sherwood can make similar progress with Dembele using the same methods that Redknapp did with Modric.