da imperador bet： It’s not quite the Summer of ’69 that Bryan Adams once painfully harped on about, but Tottenham Hotspur’s Summer of 2012 is probably making some a little bleary eyed for nostalgia.
da apostaganha： A lot has changed at White Hart Lane over the last few months and as the league campaign looks to break into October, supporters are in acceptance that the Andre Villas-Boas led reconfiguration is going to need continued patience. But you wonder if Gareth Bale looks back now, he’ll feel as if this summer in particular, seems to have lasted forever.
Excusing the inexcusable Summer of ’69 line there, there is a certain element of it that might currently resonate with Spurs’ flying Welsh winger. The start to the season has been difficult for all in a Lilywhites shirt, but with the departure of Luka Modric, Bale is now seen as something of a figurehead in this Tottenham team – even more so than he was already. To many, he is the side’s best player and consequently, his below-par start to the term has been magnified to a far greater extent than that of his peers.
Because Bale’s performances in a Spurs shirt in recent years have been more of a constant as opposed to a variable. Despite a period of tinkering last season, Harry Redknapp’s basic philosophy to getting the best out of him was an absolute banker of a formula. Keep him wide on the left, ensure he’s playing nice and direct and that his speedometer is consistently reading 100mph.
It has been this wonderful simplicity that has seen him take such plaudits in recent times, including the PFA Players’ Player of the year award in 2010/11. Harry Redknapp had his and continues to have his critics, during his time as Tottenham Hotspur manager. Indeed, it has even been said that at one point during the 2008-09 Premier League term, Redknapp was even prepared to let Bale leave the club. But for the vast majority of his time at the club, wittingly or not, he set the team up to play to his wingers’ strengths.
But it was the aforementioned tinkering to Bale’s position in this last season’s Spurs team, which seemed to produce a whole array of questions and issues for manager and supporters alike. As Bale seemingly grew in both ability and prominence, Redknapp seemed happy to sanction a slightly freer role in the side, floating in more centrally and even occasionally to the right hand side.
The zenith of this experimentation came during the 2-0 win away to Norwich at Carrow Road last December, in which Bale seemed to put in a relatively convincing Cristiano Ronaldo impression, scoring a brace and inflicting untold damage upon the Canaries. The rest of the season seemed to suggest that this impression was exactly that though; an act of mimicry, as opposed to one of substance.
Bale’s talents as a footballer mean that at some point, he is always going to be likely to produce some form of positive act for his team wherever he’s played. And at 23, he may still one day be able to develop into a more central role. But despite his apparent eagerness and enthusiasm to play there, he was unable to harness any form of consistent impact when floating in to the middle. The team became congested centrally, supporters became frustrated and Spurs struggled to regain their early season form.
But after the events of the summer, it appeared that Bale’s Hollywood dreams were far from over just yet. Along came Andre Villas-Boas; designer mac in tow, alongside a more complex, more tactically flexible way of playing football. Everyone had seen how his attacking unit had plied their trade at Porto and Bale was thought to get the shot at emulating the likes of Hulk et al.
The results so far however, have been a mixed pallet, to say the least. The entire team have had a certain degree of difficulty in adapting to the wholesale changes that are being undertaken at Tottenham and that’s understandable. Nothing happens overnight and the influx of new personnel in addition to a new way of playing will take time to perfect. But Bale’s off colour start to the new season seems to have been the most frustrating of the bunch.
Put simply, this is because he doesn’t seem to be harnessing any niggling injury, fitness issue or even a lack of form, since the new term began in earnest last month. Bale has shown in flashes the talent he possesses and intermittently against Newcastle, West Brom as well as yesterday against QPR, he’s rampaged down the left flank and delivered some trademark crosses.
And it was his second half performance against Mark Hughes’ side yesterday in particular, that raised some difficult questions indeed for Andre Villas-Boas. His deployment of Bale at left-back was noble in principal, but flawed in reality and after sensibly deciding to switch Jan Vertonghen to left-back and Bale to left-wing, Spurs’ fortunes changed. But it seemed poignant that perhaps Bale’s best period of play of the season, came in a traditional 4-4-2 set-up – a doff of the hat, albeit a slightly refined one, to the Redknapp set-up of yesteryear.
The dilemma in principal is that Bale hasn’t seemed able to exert any sustained influence in either the 4-2-3-1 set-up that Villas-Boas has adopted so far this term or the slightly altered 4-3-3 that we saw away to Reading at the Madjeski. For Villas-Boas, he simply has to find a way to maximise the impact of his most gifted attacking outlet. But from what we’ve seen so far, his base philosophies seem to conflict with Bale’s natural game. The challenge is finding a compromise that suits both player and team.
There remains a school of thought that the imminent return of Emmanuel Adebayor is the missing piece of the jigsaw at White Hart Lane and that the Togolese’s presence is one that can catalyse AVB’s new set-up. Defoe deserves his run in the team and cannot/should not be dropped as a result. But without a striker that can retain the ball better and divulge more in link-up play, the likes of Bale will always struggle in this formation. Adebayor has the skillset to help Bale shine in a fluid attacking three playing behind him.
But time is the only value bar patience supporters can give to Bale’s evolving role in this team. As we’ve seen yesterday, Spurs remain a work in progress and there will always be an element of trial and error before more changes are made. Villas-Boas will find a way to get the Welshman firing in this team – the issue is how long that process may take.
How would you get the best out of Bale at White Hart Lane? Follow me on Twitter @samuel_antrobus and let me know how you’d get the Welshman firing on all cylinders once more.