Aston Villa, Premier League, Tottenham
Ramos lost in translation at sinking Spurs
Jonathan O'Shea reflects on Tottenham's dreadful start the the new season, as their ambitions of challenging the top four fade away once again despite being the highest spending club in the summer.
Spurs languish sullenly at the bottom of the embryonic Premier League table following a risible performance in their 1-2 home loss to flying Aston Villa.
Even at this early stage of the campaign, Juande Ramos faces a barrage of criticism for a growing rap sheet of apparent deficiencies. Among them: questionable team selection, dubious transfer policy and a failure to learn the lingo.
The abject effort of his charges on Monday night – a mere 1-2 loss flattered Spurs’ contribution to the game – has done little to assuage the doubters.
As the Premier League’s biggest summer (gross) spenders, Tottenham – and as befits the delusions of grandeur emanating from White Hart Lane for many years now – expected to be challenging strongly for a sacred top four slot. Instead, their worst start to a top flight season for 34 years leaves them with a hell of a lot of catching up to do.
New recruits Vedran Ćorluka and ‘keeper Heurelho Gomes endured a torrid time against Villa – particularly at the hands of Ashley Young. The ever-impressive winger continually tormented Ćorluka by cutting in from his wide left station to great effect, and his speculative long-range shot eluded Gomes’ inept attempted save to earn his side a killer second goal. £14m forward Roman Pavlyuchenko looked totally off the pace on his debut, while the ineffective Luka Modrić limped off on the half-hour mark.
Naturally, it takes time for fresh signings to ‘bed-in’ to any side, but the quality of Spurs’ new boys fails to cover up the chasm left by the major departees – Keane and Berbatov. Both players were considered capable of improving established top four clubs – and Tottenham were lavishly compensated for their loss – but their current replacements: Darren Bent and Pavlyuchenko wouldn’t even improve a side such as fast-improving Wigan (where the Heskey/Zaki partnership has enjoyed an electric start to the season).
While the jury remains out on Ramos’ summer buys, he must surely accept the criticism due for his erratic team selection. Omitting key men Ledley King, Jermaine Jenas and David Bentley for what was quite clearly the toughest match of a hectic three-games-a-week schedule was a decision which bemused both pundits and fans alike.
The selection of Tom Huddlestone and Didier Zokora to co-anchor midfield spectacularly backfired, as the rampant Villa midfield quartet ran them ragged. Sponsors’ MOTM Gareth Barry was ably assisted by a rejuvenated Stillian Petrov and Nigel Reo-Coker – enjoying a new lease of life since being freed from the holding role he uncomfortably occupied for much of last season.
Villa, under Martin O’Neill, have honed their counter-attacking craft to a fine art. An impressive recent away record (the last-gasp Britannia Stadium upset aside) bears testimony to the progress the team has made in the past 12 months.
The unrelenting raw pace of Gabby Agbonlahor, added to the craft and width offered by Young, provided a frequent outlet for the confident midfield unit to exploit. A new-found defensive solidity – Curtis Davies’ tigerish display again impressed alongside rock Martin Laursen – will be vital if a young, vibrant Villa side are to muster a decent run at each of the four competitions they face this term. Mastering the Thursday/Sunday grind, which has unpicked the ambitions of so many teams before them, is a challenge to which O’Neill’s men must adapt quickly.
Only profligate finishing – Agbonlahor and Marlon Harewood the main culprits – kept the Villans from adding a more comprehensive sheen to the scoreline at White Hart Lane. As teams with similar aspirations at the season’s beginning, Spurs and Villa could not have enjoyed (or endured) more contrasting starts.
With Spurs still searching for a first win, Ramos must surely reconsider his decision not to master English – communicating solely through assistant/interpreter Gus Poyet. On the face of it, it may seem like a small detail, but a manager’s authority must surely be diminished – and his undoubted qualities diluted – by a prohibitive language barrier.
Messrs Capello and Scolari have impressed both fans and media with their commitment and willingness to adapt to their surroundings in such a way, and Señor Ramos could well do with a dose of goodwill to see him through what could be a turbulent campaign.
The consistency of their inconsistency has long characterised Tottenham Hotspur, so their stumbling start will have caused little surprise outside the confines of the Lane. However, on the basis of Monday night’s showing, Juande Ramos will need to get through a lot of work on the training ground if Spurs are to shake off their early-season slumbers.
Tags: Ashley Young, Aston Villa, Gabriel Agbonlahor, Juande Ramos, Luka Modric, Martin O'Neill, Roman Pavlyuchenko, Spurs, Tottenham Hotspur
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Can only agree. His selection last night made no sense.
With all due respect, the defence that was picked had vast experience (as does the whole team), power, height so I don’t think it’s question of team choice. The article suggests panic such as Newcastle and with the record of Ramos we should be more patient. Football has a universal language, so if the players don’t understand the translator then they should understand the body and example that Ramos mucy show on the training pitch.
Tottenham gave Jol a number of matches last season, is it going to be the same this season before they look for another manager/coach?
Let’s not take anything away from Aston Villa. They played exceptionally well last night and would have beaten most Premiership sides.
The season is four games old. Every team has a barren patch. People need to stop expecting Ramos to be superman. Losing Berbatov and Keane is clearly not his fault. And after six months, is anyone questioning the players he brought in at Christmas? Clearly not.
Let’s judge Ramos at the end of the season, rather writing nonsense so early on.
Shame!!! A result is poorer than a new kid in the Premier League. A big club sitting at the bottom of the league with 1 mark and no win in 4 games. I wonder if the management and the managers are asleeping in their job. Levy, sell all your players and get the money for retirement. The club should plan for playing in the Champion League in next year.
this is how good our dof football is..he did not see any value in Ashley Young did we not need a left sided player yes but instead we got bentley who plays on the right..The sooner that plum naffs off back to france the better.Champions league more like championship.Worst spurs team for years utter bollocks over paid rubbish.shame they dont show the same passion as the fans
LETS NOT JUMP THE GUN. RAMOS BOUGHT FIVE NEW PLAYERS IN THE TEAM AND DON,T FORGET IT WAS NOT HIS INTENTION TO LOSE BERBA AND KEANE,AND THAT REALLY CHANGED HIS PLANS,SO LOSING THE BEST TWO STIKERS FROM HIS SQUAD,ITS NOT THAT EASY TO BUILD ANOTHER TEAM,SO LETS BE PATIENT WITH RAMOS,I AM SURE WITH HIS RECORD WE CAN ONLY PROGRESS.
I think Spurs are in trouble. Historically we had great strikers within an average team which could always bail us out of trouble. This season we dont have that to rely on. We also have not had midfield leader for decades. We keep buying potential and hoping they will take us into the top 4.
I will be happy with 40Pts and if we are lucky another cup.
Another frustrating and nervous year for Spurs!
i’ve been going to spurs since 1961,i ain’t going no more. last night was a disgrace,half of them looked as if they wer’nt bothered,the fans are amongst the best in the country,they deserve better,all we do is buy players to sell on,we’ve become a feeder club for the so called top four
With all due respect - I have seen Ramos speaking into the ear of English players, who I believe to be monolingual - the only raeson you have for asserting that he can’t speak any English is that he refuses, point blank, to speak English to you journos - and who can blame him? The way you lot twist and manipulate words and phrases.
It’s the media who want Ramos to reply in English to their questions, rather like the same media have disliked England national team manager Fabio Capello for his sparse comments and had him lined up for a media-hiding until the victory over Croatia shot their horse from under them. Clever old Ramos stays well clear of all that, though you can tell from his Spanish and the English translation at press conferences that he is an intelligent, articulate man. Gus Poyet fills in the rest, so the media get catered for. Of course Ramos speaks to players in the English he has learnt, as several have confirmed in recent months. I’ve heard Arsenal and now other fans going on about this, but what’s Ramos’s style got to do with any of them?
Tottenham are in bottom place after four league games of the new season yet are not sinking, as you well know. Others should enjoy this settling down period minus several former players and with so many new replacements at Tottenham, while you can. The catching up that Tottenham have to do, is likely to be assisted by the slippage experienced by others who have roared off from the start of a season that ends next May.
Roger Neville, your comment is absolutely right.
[...] The European-style coaching system, suggested by the hugely unpopular and now departed sporting director Damien Comolli, was the reason a “desperate” Daniel Levy offered Juande Ramos just about as much money as he could have dreamed of. Such a system, however, has never worked in England and although Ramos is a good coach - despite claims from El Mundo’s Antonio Felix that “Ramos isn’t a great coach” and Sevilla’s success was due to the club being “well-run… sometimes that may be even more important than the coach” - his chances of success in north London were always small. [...]