Liverpool FC Forum

john craig wrote:As I sat and watched the Spurs-Reading game on Sky today I got thinking about Spurs' situation this season and Martin Jol.

I look at their team and on paper they have a really strong spine to the team.

Robinson is the English national keeper (and although he's been under par this season is usually solid enough), they have 2 young centre halfs who have been in England squads within the last year (Dawson and King), Zakora is a quality midfielder, Jenas is an England international (don't rate him that highly but he's a solid enough premiership player), they have Lennon (who any of the top 4 would gladly take off their hands I reckon) and they have a trio of strikers in Berbatov, Keane and Defoe that should be able to get a hell of a lot of goals if used properly.  On top of that they have a few other useful players like Chimbonda and Malbranque who can certainly hold their own in the premiership.  So why are they struggling to beat teams like Reading and scrapping it out with the likes of Everton and Bolton to try and scrape into the UEFA cup next season?

I think Jol has underachieved considering the players he has there.  They were unlucky to be pipped at the post by Arsenal for 4th spot last year, but they've gone backwards since then.  They lost Carrick but Jol has spent the 18 million redeveloping the squad with Berbatov, Malbranque etc.

Not that I want to see anyone lose their jobs, but there never, ever seems to be any talk in the tabloids or from Spurs fans I know about Jol being under pressure, and the chairman keeps throwing money at him to buy players.  Maybe it's a good thing that they're giving him time, but personally I don't trust Jol and I predict they'll never qualify for the CL or win any trophies under him.  I think in recent times managers have done better jobs than Martin Jol and still lost their jobs - Alan Pardew for one.  Rant over.

Jol is a decent manager.

Dawson is decent and only decent. Certainly not top class. King is always injured and is overated anyway. How the you rate Zakora and not Jenas is beyond me. Jenas isn't that good, but that Zakora's a joke. Absoloutely awful player.

Lennon is also stupidly overated and his final ball, movement, vision and game intelligence leave alot to be desired.

Chimbonda is overated again and a very average player. Berbatov is good no more. Keane is quality, as is Defoe but they can't perform together.

Huddlestone is also overated and to be quite honest I find it incredible someone rates them.

The spine of their team is ok, Malbranque is a good player also. For me on par with Bolton and Everton and a full strength Newcastle for the 5-9 best teams in the country, pretty much as there position shows.