Fulham's efforts were rewarded with three precious, crucial and hard-earned points against their London rivals at the White Hart Lane. All eyes were on Gareth Bale but against not such a great opposition he failed to produce. Now, did he fail to produce or did Martin Jol set up a strategy to negate his effect? Analysis Time everyone!
SPURS STRATEGY
As predicted, Tottenham's attacking impetus were down the flank where Gareth Bale operates. With a bulk of movement made from the right side. To counter that, Fulham did not attack from their left side at all, always preferring to use Reither instead of Riise for the overlapping runs or to play the ball out. Thus, Riise never went forward and Bale never got space in behind. Whoscored.com displays that stat very well as over 50% of Fulham's attack were concentrated down the right side. The mid-field was very compact leaving no space for Bale to cut-inside, and thus no dribble completed and major shots taken from out side the box thus not troubling Schwarzer that much.
Also the partnership of Gylfi Sigurddson and Bale did not look good, as Gylfi was not having a decent game at all, and both were looking off-page. Futher more, Benoit Assou-Ekotto did not provide any materialistic hope down the other end for bale to drift over to that side. All in all, Bale was left to do a bit too much on his own but failed to do so. He did manage to get a goal line clearance very early on in the game but it was nothing too complicated for Reither to do. After that he got a knock,may be that took something out of his game, but overall it was just ineffective. A lack of thrust and cohesion proved to be a major factor in spurs not fashioning any thing solid against not that great a fulham side. It did improve massively once young Carroll started to get on the ball more, and Jermain Defoe came on for a subdued Gylfi Sigurdsson. The only time Bale got a shot away was here:
 |
| Closing him up |
Now, instead of going with the pass and run from Sigurdsson, look how attention sticks to Bale, Duff and Sidwell close-up till Bale gets that tame effort away. Having your screen of midfield back to help out the defenders takes the pressure off Riise, Hangeland and Co. and gives more headache for Bale to conjure up space and do something magical. Man-marking Bale was definitely the idea but here is how Spurs changed it, by getting two strikers up the field, Bale was positioned at the flank for most of the time, and the moment Riise gets sucked towards the ball, Bale was going to get the space he desired for the entire game. This is when the ball magnetized Riise towards her and Bale was on his way.
 |
| Shoud i go ahead or move back? Errr..... |
Bale went on his way to feed Defoe but Schwarzer was up for it and denied the striker outstandingly for the second time that night. It was'nt going to be Spurs night after all!
FULHAM STRATEGY
Ofcourse, Fulham had to look at counter-attacks and with two defenders playing on one side, it seemed like that would be the least productive area for Fulham. But it was the opposite, as the right-side for Fulham provided a lot of attacking thrust and produced the goal as well. We will take a look at the goal, here is the vast majority of space you would find behind the spurs back-line;the high-line, the reason of the epic fall for Andre Villas Boas at Chelsea.
 |
| SPACE O SPACE! |
We know what happens next, Reither is already infront of his man, and he catches up to the ball, Berbatov is off-side here, but by the time Reither comes near the box, Berbatov is in position to tuck it home. Even after that, there was plenty of space for Fulham to maneuver behind Spurs, Here is AVB at it again!
 |
| you can run behind us! easy! |
He can go for this high-line when the team is fresh, and the first XI is on the pitch, with players who are tired, this is not how you go. Jol acknowledged that fact and was always looking to get on the sides of the spurs defense, and nearly got another one. For Martin Jol and Fulham this is their biggest result of the season, an away win to a ground they havent won at for nine years, a third away success, safety is all but guaranteed as the cottagers march on for another season. Well done Martin Jol, Well done Dimitar "Beast" Berbatov!
Comments