Gareth Bale’s pace key to Tottenham victory
The key feature of Tottenham’s 3-1 win over Blackburn today was the number of times they looked to quickly switch the ball to Gareth Bale, who had the beating of Michael Salgado every time he got the ball. Bale claimed an assist, should have had two penalties, and was Spurs’ main attacking outlet throughout the game.
This Chalkboard shows how often Bale, playing on the left wing, managed to get around 15 crosses into the box, compared to Niko Kranjcar, playing on the right wing, who achieved this just three times in open play:
And Bale’s natural defensive ability means he’s able to get stuck in and win balls high up the pitch. He was involved in fourteen tackles, winning half of them. Again, for purposes of comparison, he’s placed side-by-side with Krancjar:
Bale fully deserved his man-of-the-match award, and provided the pace, width and crossing threat that Spurs fans miss on the other side with Aaron Lennon injured.
Gareth Bale’s pace key to Tottenham victory
Bale is a tremendous player, and a real athlete. I’ve blogged in the past about how he should be granted a Maicon-style role in the Wales team, patrolling the left flank on his own from left-back: http://tomwfootball.wordpress.com/2010/02/10/tactics-bale-ramsey-central-to-waless-bright-future/
In any case, it looks like his best chance of holding down a first-team place at Spurs will be at left-back, given the number of attacking players they already have in midfield. Was impressed to see Harry Redknapp play Bale, Kranjcar and Modric in midfield with Pavlyuchenko and Defoe up front. Seemed that Modric played a lot deeper than usual, with Kranjcar given licence to roam infield from the right. Will be interesting to see what the average position data looks like.
I am amazed that Blackburn didn’t make any adjustments to help out Salgado. He was getting roasted!!
Emerton should have played deeper to help out.
Bale seems to be playing the Lennon role,only on the left instead of the right, with Kranjcar cutting in as usual on the other side. In this asymmetric 442 the wingers have different roles and the stats show this. It looks like Redknap has found a solution to their over-dependence on Aaron Lennon for width and pace. We shall see.
Bale’s decision making in the final third is still somewhat inconsistent – certainly his cross for Pavlyuchenko’s second was absolutely gorgeous, but he had plenty of crosses before then that innocuously floated their way to the keeper’s arms when there were teammates in good positions. However he’s still young and inexperienced and his delivery should improve in time.
It’ll be interesting to see him against a top-class LB instead of a 36-year-old; Redknapp’s argument for preferring him at LB rather than LW is that he isn’t as “tricky” as, say, Lennon and isn’t as good at receiving the ball from a standing position or with his back to goal as he is running from deep on the overlap. I am tempted to agree that his best position is as attacking fullback; Bale’s sheer stamina and top speed (as opposed to acceleration like Lennon’s) are some of his most effective attributes. Spurs’ defensive record this year with Bale at LB suggest that he is also doing fine defensively, barring his mistake at Goodison.
It’s clear that Kranjcar suffers a bit from playing on the right; he’s stated a strong preference for cutting in from the left side in a previous interview. If Spurs hadn’t loaned out Hutton, he probably would have been a better choice to play behind Kranjcar than the slower Corluka – perhaps Walker should be given a go. Given Spurs’ injuries however, it’s hard to see who else besides Kranjcar can play right midfield at the moment, and Modric has more experience playing centrally (his normal position for Croatia). I’m very interested in seeing how Luka will do there – Redknapp has shunned this option before but injuries have basically forced his hand. Spurs have some very tough games in April so we’ll see how the new formations hold up against the top sides.
The bale thing is interesting because with Lennon in the side, Modric played left mid and was very effective in pulling in to the middle, drawing the left back/left mid with him and opening space for the left back (at that time, Assou Ekotto). This will prob be what happens when Lennon returns, but will be much more effective with Bale at left back because he likes to get to the by-line and has the pace and skills to do that. I don’t think there are many right backs in the PL who can handle Bale running at them from deep.
First of all, excuse for my english, which is not very good. I write from Spain, and I think both Gareth Bale and Canella (from Sporting Gijon) will be the two best left-backs in the next 5-6 years. Currently I think that Ashley Cole, Evra and Abidal are the most prominent in Europe, perhaps because they play in strong teams who defend well and attack better. For that reason has more value playing on teams are not the best.
I agree, along with Vargas of Fiorentina if he is played as a left-back.
Your English is perfect!
I wouldn’t write off Kieran Gibbs. Had he not got injured I suspect he’d have replaced Clichy in the Arsenal first team already. And he might’ve been going to the World Cup too, especially with Cole’s injury.