Bale needs more than top four from Spurs.

You can say that again!

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The JimmyG2 Column

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 I'm not sure what the appropriate football phrase is for our defeat on Sunday. Clearly we would have won had the opposition not scored more goals than we did but that's not a problem peculiar to Spurs. 

A 'catalogue of errors' sounds more like a series of mistakes in the dispatch department at Argos. 'A Comedy of Errors' may raise belly laughs on Merseyside but at White Hart Lane Spurs fans will be forgiven for taking a deep breath, shuddering and experiencing that 'Oh no not again' feeling.

We went 1-0 down early on to a slick goal by Suarez, a slippery character, both morally and physically. We fought back to 2-1 courtesy of two Bale assisted Vertonghen goals and from there we should have won it.

Everything was under control and the cabin crew were preparing the aircraft for landing when a double dip disaster struck. Both full backs had starring roles in this but plenty of others had walk on parts. 

First Kyle Walker tried an ambitious,ill advised, unnecessary and ill executed back pass. What on earth was he thinking? The truth is that he wasn't. Lloris came out to confront Downing and only succeeded in getting an assist and Vertonghen who had adjusted his feet nicely for his second goal totally failed to do so for his attempted clearance.

Shades of my Granny taking up Irish dancing. The pity was that Walker had been playing well and improving lately. But clearly a tendency to stray off message is deep within his DNA. He's young and might well improve but in the meantime he's a regular in the team and needs to concentrate..

 Ekotto is a wag off the pitch and an accident waiting to happen on it. He probably sees his failure to join in the pre-match huddle as a sign of his individuality or a personal protest about something or other but to me it's a show of disrespect.

 Defoe who had done nothing all game decided to help out defensively. His attempted clearance set up Suarez and Benny relishing the opportunity to demonstrate his hard man tendencies, and not for the first  time, bundled him over and this time didn't get away with it. Gerrard scored from the resulting penalty. 3-2 Liverpool.

Not that Gerrard should have even been on the pitch at that stage. The referee had twice been distracted by off the ball incidents and forgotten to book him. I've seen players get a straight red for his assault on Bale just before half time.

To lose one goal to to a moment of madness may be regarded as misfortune: to lose two might be thought of as carelessness, as a Mr. O.Wilde a one time season ticket holder in Reading might have said.

However apart from about thirty seconds of insanity we played well once again. The last time we threw a game away at Everton in early December we went on our best unbeaten run for twenty five years. It might well happen again. 

Old football and hockey injuries prevent knee jerk reactions at The Musings these days but these are not new problems. AVB who thinks deeply about stuff, especially football stuff, will have been contemplating these weaknesses for some time. Would benching the three main culprits be 'knee jerk'? Or give them time to reflect?

With Kane at Leicester on loan, Obika at Charlton similarly, and Adebayor injured, options up front are worryingly anorexic. Except that Coulthirst was on the bench for some reason on Sunday and could see some pitch time on Thursday. The usual full back improvisations could also apply.

Or we could whistle a happy tune and pretend that everything is fine. Just a blip, bad day at the office and so on. After all we have been playing with ten men most of the season when you look at the recent strike rate of our front men. 2 goals between them in 26 appearances. In fact if Defoe hadn't been playing yesterday it would have been a draw.

It's a Bale shaped miracle that we are third. We should have won it at a canter. Bale set up four good chances two of which Jan the Man accepted; one which Siggy should have buried and another that he might have squared to Defoe for him to miss. Siggy took it on himself after a vintage lung buster by Gareth trailing most of the Liverpool team in his wake.

He was unfortunate to hit Johnson and the ball spun onto the post. Improved performances from the Icelander but dodgy decision making. He passes when he should shoot and shoots when he should pass despite the confidence boost of two goals recently.

If we are to keep Bale for next season we need to do more than finish in the top four. We need to sign a couple of players that are proof of our intent. A striker or two would suffice  to convert the chances he makes. He can't do it all on his own. Although I admit all  teams in history have been two players short of a world domination, except Barcelona of course.

 But despite our current good form we are not yet in a position to challenge for top honours.

'If it ain't broke don't fix it' I hear you cry. But I say 'If it's not running smoothly then fine tune it'.

A good performance spoiled only by the fact that we lost the game. Says it all really.

Jimmy's Video Spot:
To be fair to the boy here is a compilation showing him at his best. But you can't dine out on the Arsenal winner for ever Kyle. You are only as good as your last few games. It's the eyes that worry me.