The Soccer Blog: San Heroes Or San Zeroes?

Monday, 14 February 2011

San Heroes Or San Zeroes?

By: Robert Reed | February 14th, 2011
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CL_crop_340x234 Tottenham’s long awaited visit to the San Siro to take on AC Milan is finally upon us, and couldn’t come at a worse time. Peter Crouch, who has been impressive in the competition so far, is just returning from injury. Jermain Defoe is in a shocking run of form and Roman Pavlyuchenko put in a very unimpressive turn against Sunderland for someone claiming he should be getting a regular start in the team. The main concern however will be the condition of Spurs holy trinity of Luka Modric, Rafael van der Vaart and Gareth Bale.

Van der Vaart should start, but is himself just returning from injury and has been in questionable form of late. Luka Modric will probably be missing; the Milan game has possibly come too soon for the influential play-maker and he will be a big loss if he doesn’t play. He is convalescing after having his appendix removed. Personally I think he should have delayed the operation until after this game, after all if he scored the winning goal before his appendix burst he’d be a Spurs hero forever. We’d build a statue in his memory at our new ground (wherever that may be) and probably name a stand after him, but unfortunately he has put his own life ahead of helping get us into the next round and he will just have to live with that decision. I hope it haunts him if we go out.

The huge loss of course will be that scourge of Italian defences, Gareth Bale. Much has been made of Bale’s modest nature, simple pleasures and down to earth manner. He did however succumb to the professional footballer’s cliché of going out and buying a sports car to replace the 4×4 he has always driven and the car’s low, laid back seating has been attributed to his recent back problems. That will teach you Gareth, I hope your mum gave you a clip ’round the ear. He could play, Harry has been very vocal about how he will not and as we all know what Harry says should be taken with a shovel full of salt. The fact is though, if Bale does play we could well be subjected to the sight of him walking off holding his back after ten minutes. Either way he won’t be firing on all cylinders and I think it would be wise not to rush him back but to save him for our vital Premiership games; a top four finish this season is the all important thing after all. Niko Kranjcar has proved a match winner for Spurs in the last couple of games and has earned a start in Milan, I think.

SpursCLRobertReed AC Milan are flying at the moment. After two draws they won 4-0 at the weekend, top the Serie A table and are full of beans. Confidence is high, and they do not fear Tottenham (although how much of that is due to the reports of Bale’s injury is not known). Robinho is in good form having scored two goals against Parma, and Nesta has recovered from the injury which threatened to keep him out of the tie. Thankfully Cassano, who has been very influential for them lately, is cup tied and Pato is tipped to take his place alongside Ibrahimovic. Pato is a good player, but it could have been worse. Injuries and Van Bommel being cup tied have also made it likely that they will be fielding a makeshift defencive midfielder, but that’s a questionable advantage as we do that every game.

It’s not all doom and gloom though. We have won our last three games since the disappointment of the transfer window, our defence is looking vastly improved since the return of Michael Dawson from injury (where might we be in the league if we’d had him fit all season?) and Milan have yet to come to the cauldron of White Hart Lane, which they will not be looking forward to. If we score then statistically things are looking good, as 75% of teams who have scored in away games in the Champions League have gone on to win over the two legs. Score a goal, keep their score down and let’s turn them over at The Lane. Sounds too simple? Well, as Harry likes to say, ‘Football is a simple game, some people just try and make it complicated.’

COYS!

You can follow me on Twitter @ RobertReedUK

Some Related Spurs Posts:Super Spurs Beat Werder Bremen, And Make It Look Easy! (Includes Highlights)Ossie – Spurs Should Fear Nobody (Except Barcelona)Will ‘Last Minute Levy’ Have Another Ace Up His Sleeve?AC Milan? Spurs Always Do Things The Hard WayDefoe Back In November. Nurofen For Mr Redknapp!

Category: Blogroll, Champions League, Harry Redknapp, Players, Team News

Tags: AC Milan, Blogroll, Champions League, Game Preview, Gareth Bale, Harry Redknapp, Jermain Defoe, Luka Modric, Michael Dawson, Players, Roman Pavlyuchenko, Spurs, Team News, Tottenham Hotspur
Tweet « Crouch nets winner for plucky Spurs | Home | Comments | Add your comment davspurs | February 14th, 2011 at 3:29 am

This must be the worse season for injury’s in our history and also the shock aspect of the injury’s the first you no about it is when sky announce players are out for months Huddlestone Lennon Kaboul Woodgate Bale have all bean a big shock and with Huddlestone Ankle Lennon Groin Bale Back Hary said they where carrying there injury’s for weeks and having injections. Well I can tell you injections don’t work they make injury wors this is why Huddlstone is out for so long. One injury that is mystifying me is Bales Back what has happened to it the specialist said there is nothing much there and he should be fit. Harry said Crouchs back is worse on the scan and he has travelled with the Squad both players have had epidural and 21 year old Bale said it hurt when the medical staff made him run . I don’t believe this for one minute women have Babys on this drug a seventy year old man had a new hip with the same drug and Bale feels a twinge if this is true then Bale must have a serious injury and the specialist and Harry have got it wrong. If he is more serious then Ferguson should keep is forty Million and buy someone else unless he noes about Bales back and a few more games if we lose them and get out of the fourth spot race he will come back or by the summer he will be back to Superman. This is all down to Utd and a Berbatov season and joining in is Van der Vaart because we never bought Van Bommel and any top players the only problem is we are defying all the injury’s and winning master Ferguson and Bale. Coys

Elmesy | February 14th, 2011 at 5:24 am

If we lose by one goal we have a chance, yet we dont keep clean sheets very often and their forwards are among the best in the world. Its 4-5-1 all day for me, do an Inter on them…defend for your lives lads !!!. I have a feeling a repeat of the last visit to the san siro is on the cards, just without the second half. Any team would struggle without the players we are missing….get your shooting boots on Niko…you are going to need them !

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