ENGLISH PREMIER LEAGUE: Tottenham 1 Newcastle Utd 0TOO LITTLE too late from Newcastle was the story of this match and it risks becoming the epithet of their season. With trips to Liverpool and Aston Villa looming, their manager, Alan Shearer, believes the club's only hope of surviving relegation is to win all three of their remaining home matches. "I still believe we can get out of trouble," said Shearer, "but it is imperative we win all those home games."
That means triumphing in clashes with Portsmouth and Fulham and in a potentially cataclysmic north-east derby against Middlesbrough. And that, in turn, means mustering more gumption and guile than they showed at White Hart Lane, where Darren Bent’s 25th-minute goal was enough to leave Shearer with a solitary point three matches into his improbable rescue operation.
Newcastle’s owner, Mike Ashley, famously tried to entice Harry Redknapp to St James’ Park and he perhaps wondered what might have been as a spirited and slick Tottenham lorded it over the uncertain visitors for most of this match.
Redknapp, of course, took over Tottenham back in October and he has had time and money to help usher his team through their teething problems. Shearer has no such luxury and must fast-track everything. Here he acted with an alacrity many of his players would do well to replicate, constantly switching formation until, either by design or desperation, he hit upon one that perturbed the home side.
The introduction of Obafemi Martins and Mark Viduka in the 60th minute prompted a shift from 4-4-2 to 4-3-3 and the new directness to Newcastle’s play wrought, three minutes from time, a chance from which Martins should have equalised. But the Nigerian, after ghosting between Tottenham’s centre-backs to connect with a shrewd pass by Ryan Taylor, produced a frightful finish.
“Fitness-wise it was very difficult to start with Martins and Viduka but I thought that, when we changed things to bring them on, they certainly gave us a threat going forward which we didn’t really have in the first half.”
Given the stakes for Newcastle, their inability to summon that threat in the first half was alarming. Shearer attributed it to “a lack of urgency” but declined to identify the source. He was not so reticent with his players. “I said to them after the game that I was very pleased with the second half but ‘give me an explanation as to why you didn’t show urgency like that from minute one’,” said Shearer.
Tactical confusion seemed a contributory factor yesterday. Damien Duff, in the absence of the injured Jose Enrique, has been cast in the unfamiliar role of left wing-back. In fairness he successfully subdued Aaron Lennon early on here but even that positive was nullified in the 25th minute when the Irishman went forward, for the first time in the game, to take a corner and Tottenham scored on the counter-attack.
Luka Modric sought to slip a ball behind the defence to the unguarded Lennon and Sebastien Bassong, straining to intercept, skewed the ball into the path of Bent, who scored from a rebound after Steve Harper had blocked his initial effort.
With Modric, Keane and Lennon all flitting hither and thither, Tottenham’s movement confounded their opponents. Newcastle confused themselves. For players lacking the confidence and cohesion to pass and move, a direct 4-3-3 featuring Viduka, Owen and Martins seems best suited.
That trio once thrived under Kevin Keegan. “We’re certainly a bigger threat with those on the pitch than without them,” said Shearer before hinting at the precariousness of their, and therefore Newcastle’s, presence.
“If we can keep them fit and get a good week’s training, then we will be in good shape for the game against Portsmouth.”
GuardianService
