As promising a player as Nabil Bentaleb may be, by elevating him to one of the first names on any team sheet, Tim Sherwood has caused a fair bit of consternation. The Bentaleb backlash started around a fortnight ago and has escalated to the extent where an article on Sky Sports’ website seemed to put the entire blame for Sunday’s defeat at his door.
That might be a little harsh but perhaps it’s best for player and club if he has a spell on the bench and that could happen soon with news that Sandro is set to return in Thursday’s tie with Dnipro.
The Brazilian has been missing since Andre Villas-Boas’ last game in charge and while we’ve had one or two false starts, it’s reported by several newspapers that Sandro is fit and ready to return.
Nabil Bentaleb may still have a promising future at Spurs but if Tim Sherwood picks the young Frenchman ahead of a fully fit Sandro, the coach’s judgement really will be called into question.
BAD decisition with bentaleb he is not so creative and defensive strong to box to box in pitch why sharewood select that player no long future for bentaoeb
I admit to being one of Bentaleb critics and not only in the last couple of weeks but since the turn of the year.
Results in the league up until Sunday have gone ok for Sherwood and really have masked what we all witnessed on Sunday. Our passage of play and organisation has not been that good and I have started to question wether any tactical training which has been stated by coaching staff is frowned upon or indeed any coaching other than five a side.
Now back to my point on Bentaleb, yes he may look composed standing in space and gives the ball quickly to the nearest player when he receives it, and after Sunday it a good thing he does. I question the effectiveness of his game and fail to understand his role within the midfield he is not a holding midfielder (nearly slipped up and said defensive then) realised it’s a dirty word. He is not an attracting midfielder as he does not drive forward, I had someone say he occupies space intelligently and breaks up play with his positioning, well over the weeks including the games we won there was not much space that the opposition struggled to move the ball through. Stats mean nothing during the game and on the scoreboard afterwards you can dress them up and talk about 90% pass completion completed all his tackles so on and so forth but watching the match you may see a few passes back and sideways none that have put opponents under pressure and at times keeps the ball in our half while we’re being pressed until Dawson comes to the resue and tries to hit three points.
I think players like Paulinio and Capoue get a hard time because of their price tags, just like Saldado yes he missed what some may sitters but his link up play and work ethic is admirable and you he is trying. Bentaleb may turn out to be a ok player the French did not try to persuade him to play for them and no one outside the club is talking him up.
I ask is he better than Carroll or Livermore since he has been at Hull Huddlestone who you could argue had a similar role at Spurs as the on occupied by Betaleb in space he is terrific with the ball. I can’t see how since he came on against Sourhampton he has warranted 90 mins every game every week and it’s frustrating because he could be a player of note but Sherwood favouritism his harmfull to the team and the player and after results like Sunday is starting to sway more fans to a negative point of view in the payers regard.
I could not imagine my reaction if Sandro or anyone else is not picked ahead of Bentaleb and if performance suffers again the boy will be harshly examined again and really harm his potential.
Spot on Tommy. I would prefer a fit Schriches or Kaboul to Dawson as well. I dont think (for the 1st time in histiory) that I can watch Spurs (on TV in SA) again if Sherwood persists with his nonsense team choices.
absolutely spot on. sideways passes over five yards (butch wilkins aka the crab anyone) and weak in the tackle make him very very limted. how holtby comes behind him, let alone capoue i do not know. he should never have been exposed to man city, it was always luikely to damage his confidence and he was positively hiding from the ball after 15 minutes (he came out of his shell at 3-0 down ion the second half with capoue next to him). dim tim is out of his depth and his stubborn sticking with this kid is damaging us and damaging the kid. if dim tim picks him ahead of sandro i will know that levy is a moron for not sp[otting just how useless dim tim is in all of his dealings with him. i guess time puckered uop, or has the negatives
Well said Tommy.We will never get a C.L spot playing both Kyle and Bentaleb in the same team.Spurs might as well take to the field with 9 players.What planet is Tim on.
Good points made on Bentelab and he may be a promising young player he is not really good enough to play every single game in our team. With Sherwood persisting to play him every week he already forced Holtby a loan move to Fulham to gain playing time , Erricson the best midfield in Europe has to sit on the bench and see this kid playing everyweek. Bentelab was bloody appalling last week in Russia and did not even make a tackle at Norwich and contributed to Norwich scoring the winning goal. He should have been subbed in the 2nd half but Tims lovechild managed to stay on the pitch the whole game. I would liken him as a player similar to Livermore ( only slightly better) with his passing side to side but nothing else. Don’t think he has scored a goal for us. Can someone honestly say that he is better than Holtby and Erricson. Reading the news that Sandro will be fit for Thursday nights game cannot come soon enough . Questions are now being asked about Sherwood as a Manager and after Sunday’s no show at Carrow road and team selection it appears he may have a touch of AVB Syndrome about him.
Sandro over Benteleb, all day every day. He was dispossessed so many times on Sunday, gave the ball away far too cheaply. As for Dawson, OMG please keep him on the bench – utterly useless and far too slow. Championship defender at best.
spot on the bloke along with rose and naughton are fucking shit even avb that cunt tried to sell him
Bentaleb way of play may sweet arsenal sell him now .
Sandro or bentaleb -s like asking the obvious porche or vw , bentaleb is good but young, and has to mature ,he will come good , sandro is tried and tested , strong and confident if we looking at a holding midfielder we not going to get better than the beast, his distrubution needs work but he is still all class , mind u lennon also came good , even though he played out of position , if we gona see the best of solando we would have to play lamela its time we see that 30 mil talk , no doubt we will come good , dawson ,ohhh no slooooowwww , but would be great coming off the bench , after chriches and kaboul with the quailty the have its to beilve that we are battling to topple pool, speaking of pool seems rogers was correct there are no short cuts to management tim needs to get his licence is he is too play a meaningful part at spurs … Coys
sundays performance was without doubt the worst of the season rose naughton and dawson just not good enough and bentalab thinks he is better than he is and how bad was paulinho I thought avb was back in charge it was that bad.
Think we should try fryers at left back and norton must be the worst full back in the league the bloke is championship at best.
What really bothers me is TS’s formation choice. Its the exact formation AVB used and got sacked. He started his reign with the old faithful 4-4-2, which in part worked. Then why switch to a 4-2-3-1? Especially after slating the term defensive midfielder! Lets get this right, surely when playing that formation one of those two in front of the defence has more defensive duties if not both of them! When TS was given the job I thought lets give the guy a chance. He’s been running the development side of things so he must have some tactical nouse. How wrong could I have been, its beginning to show just what little a clue he really has! Poor team selection and poor tactics! We need a manager with clout! One that can keep the important players we already have and entice big names. Preferably someone with some tactical savvy as well!!!!!
Tim can’t coach.