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Shambles at Spurs as Poyet admits two main strikers can't play together
Tom Collomosse, Evening Standard29 Sep 2008
Gus Poyet fears Tottenham's two main strikers are too similar to form an effective partnership.
His remarks came as Jermaine Jenas revealed Juande Ramos was starting to feel the strain of being bottom of the League after the 2-0 defeat at Portsmouth.
Ramos was mocked by the Spurs fans when he replaced lone striker Roman Pavlyuchenko with Darren Bent, instead of putting them together for the final 17 minutes, and Poyet believes the pair are incompatible.
He said: "For the one-and-a-half games that they [Pavlyuchenko and Bent] played together, it did not work for us.
"They are the same type of player, so it is difficult for them to play together."
With only one other senior forward, on-loan Manchester United man Fraizer Campbell, on the books, it begs the question why £14million Pavlyuchenko was signed and places sporting director Damien Comolli's role in the transfer under even more scrutiny.
Ramos, who has yet to field an unchanged starting XI this season and admitted yesterday that his job is on the line, will be worried to learn that six of the club's last seven managers have been sacked between September and November.
When asked about his future, the Spaniard, who is believed to be homesick, said: "That does not depend on me. We have a chairman and a board who decide that sort of thing."
Jenas said that the pressure was starting to tell after Spurs' fourth defeat of the season.
Tottenham did not force David James into action until the 87th minute by which time the travelling fans had let Ramos know their feelings with chants of: "You don't know what you're doing."
Jenas later revealed: "The manager gets very angry at certain things, but he also has a very level head.
"The players know that we have not been up to our usual standards.
"The confidence is never going to be sky-high when you are not winning games, and one or two players are maybe lacking a bit of that confidence."
Ramos, who must now hope for a better performance against Wisla Krakow in the UEFA Cup on Thursday, added: "The chants do not hurt. What hurts is not winning games."
But Jenas warned that must play better as they take a 2-1 lead to Poland: "We need to improve a lot," the midfielder said.
Reader views (14)
Last year we needed a central defender and we got Bent. This year we needed to replace the goals of Berb, Keane and Defoe, and we got nothing. Leadership at Spurs is weak. They should have either refused to sell our top two strikers, or found replacements.
- Daniel, huntington beach CA, 30/09/2008 03:33
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Neil...to your first point...
Hopefully, YES!
- Fred Smith, West Ham, 30/09/2008 01:07
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Poyet with Wise, I would prefer Laurel and Hardy.
- Kevin Crossan, London, 29/09/2008 23:28
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I dont know why we would be surprised at the predicament we are in at Spurs, it was absolutely dire last season when we had Keane and Berbatov, granted we won the Carling cup, you know the competition where most teams dont put out there strongest side! Truth is that there are still too many players who are not good enough, how many of our current squad would ever play for the top 4 ??? I'll tell yer, none of them!
Could someone please confirm exactly what Comoli's (Director of Football) role is, does he actually select the player, or does Ramos select the player and Comoli does the negotiation???
- Paxton, N17, 29/09/2008 21:37
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Ramos is not the problem Spurs are cursed by support that deserves nothing
- Ben, London England, 29/09/2008 19:13
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Yesterday was a shambles. The players must take some of the blame but i just cannot understand the formations we are trying to play. If they dont think Pav and Bent will work why didn't we have Campbell or Dos Santos playing in the hole?? The fact that 8 players from the Carling Cup team are no longer with Spurs does say alot. Confidence is at the lowest ive seen, Thursday is a must win however if we play 4-5-1 we are out!!
- Jon,, Peterborough, 29/09/2008 17:48
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Should we be blaming Ramos for the transfer dealings when its the sporting director/director of football who is likely to be have behind it? We can only blame him for his tactics, but maybe these are a result of the squad he has at his disposal. This is the problem with the continental system, hard to know where the blame lies.
- Mike, London, UK, 29/09/2008 17:09
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Enough!
Do we have to be relegated before someone takes action?
Will someone explain to me what Ramos has achieved this term, I know we lost Keane and Berbatov, but we also gave up some quality players in exchange for what? His transfer dealings are proving to be a disaster, his game day tactics suspect and his over all performance, a failure.
We need points in the Premiership and that means winning games, at home and away. Its not going to happen under Ramos, time is up, promote Poyet and be done with it!
- Neil Blatt, L.A. California, 29/09/2008 15:23
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I don't understand how one and a half games is long enough to ascertain whether a strike partnership works or not!
But then what do I know?
- Will, London, 29/09/2008 15:10
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Amazing, we buy a striker, then find out in a matter of days that he cant play with our main striker. Little secret, Mr Ramos, they cant play on their own either, we have only scored 4 goals, the lowest in the premiership. Bye Bye or should that be adios?
- Hot Robspurs, London, 29/09/2008 14:50
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Camolli has made some bad buys, not brought in 1 quality player! How can you for a year dwindle on buying a replacement for Berbatov, big mistake.. Ramos and Camolli aren't obviously on the same wavelength as you dont have the same 2 players, but why loan Fraser who knows this will benefit his game at Man Utd.
Juande, only 1 point why use 22 players in 6 games?/
We need to go back to basics, 4-4-2 and needs to drop Jenas, Huddlestone and Modric in the centre.
All players needs to pull their socks up and battle.
- Adrian, London, 29/09/2008 14:46
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Blame the players, they are a bunch of overpaid wasters !.
- John, London, 29/09/2008 11:25
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A team cannot sell its two main strikers and a goalkeeper with whom the defence are used to playing with and play as a unit straight away. I have the greatest of respect for Ramos and am certain he will get it right
- Michael D.Thornton, ELLESMERE PORT, Merseyside, 29/09/2008 10:20
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Im amazed Ramos is still manager. If only we had kept Martin Jol who is top in Germany with Hamburg. Its time to sack Ramos & Comolli. Then appoint Poyet with Wise. They will give the team balance & spirit.
- Rob Hotspurs, South London, 29/09/2008 09:56
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