The Prince is back. Cameo performance in the 1-0 Everton defeat is possibly worthy of a DVD (I’m waiting for confirmation from the Spurs Shop). These highlights are positively electrifying (thanks to McBoggers and co over at GG.net):
- Getting into a bit of an argy-bargy with Fellaini within 15 seconds of coming on
- Showing off his new neck tattoo for the first time in the League this season
- Holding the ball up against 2/3 Everton players and then executing a dragback-spin away from them and into space
- Giant leap to flick the ball onto Lennon which lead to Campbell’s chance at the end
- General display of composure and strength at a time when everyone else was hoofing the ball 900 yards even though Everton’s centre-backs spent the entire game dominating the air
- Trying to remove Tim Howard’s chest from the rest of his body
The kid has bite and enthusiasm. More importantly, its arguable that this almost forgotten reserve/fringe player has shown us in a brief appearance that he has more footballing intelligence (minus the thug element) than some of our supposed international class first-teamers, some of which have set the club back £15M or so.
I’m going to quote DanishWhite (again from GG):
What on earth are we thinking spending 17m on players who are inferior in almost just about every single department to fringe players already in the squad ? Surely, something is all wrong when this almost un-integrational problem-child who is unfit and (allegedly) overpriced, overpaid and overrated can come onto the field for a short cameo in a game all but lost and instantly display a higher skill level, more hunger for the game and significantly more clue about how to play the game on the deck than quite a few than our regulars.
Nail on head.
Deemed not that good by previous management, yet had more presence than most on Sunday. Yes, sure, it was one of those days where selection wise we got out-lucked a little by Everton, who came, scored a fluke goal, then sat back and defended. Great tactics, frustrating for us, but not them. Much like our 1-0 steal from a few seasons ago up at Goodison.
The Prince has more composure on the ball than Zokora, gets more involved than Jenas and has an eye for a decent pass. Redknapp has obviously seen something in this lad so we might be yet surprised with more cameos and possibly even a start against Watford.
Bit of competition from an upstart might get some of our 'certainties' playing with zest.
Posts
1 comment:
Over-priced I'd agree with but Comolli did have a habit of buying players that were not fit for the first team but had first team price tags.
Hot-headed and maybe composed on the ball but otherwise he's a mentalist. I wonder whether Spurs will ever get right the mentality issues that plague the development of some of our players.
He's been out of the first eleven for how long now? And yet he nearly stamps Howard into the middle of next week.
Post a Comment