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Gareth Bale
- Thread starter GGyid
- Start date
Re: Gareth Bale
How brick were his freekicks yesterday? So overrated
How brick were his freekicks yesterday? So overrated
Robbo
Paul Walsh
Re: Gareth Bale
First one was actually pretty close, but the other two were pretty brick!
As long as he still secured the win, I'm happy enough for him to save the free kick wonder goals for next weekend instead!
First one was actually pretty close, but the other two were pretty brick!
As long as he still secured the win, I'm happy enough for him to save the free kick wonder goals for next weekend instead!
Re: ARTICLE: Bale, AVB, Formation... Why he should stay
Agree - great article. On the comments section there was an interesting view about the transition from the way we were playing under Harry in the Champions League run, i.e. a 442 on the counterattack with a deep defensive line, compared to the current formation and high pressing line. Bale was of course hugely effective that season in that role, where we broke so rapidly against teams that were themselves playing with a high line, like Inter in those two games. Part of that was the element of surprise. But as teams have worked out that they can negate that by handing us possession where it's far more difficult to break down opposition, the evolution under the AVB has taken time, but is now bearing fruits as this Guardian article describes. I guess the ultimate would be for the team to effectively transition between the two depending on the opposition, the situation, or even during a game, and I imagine that's what AVB is working towards...
Agree - great article. On the comments section there was an interesting view about the transition from the way we were playing under Harry in the Champions League run, i.e. a 442 on the counterattack with a deep defensive line, compared to the current formation and high pressing line. Bale was of course hugely effective that season in that role, where we broke so rapidly against teams that were themselves playing with a high line, like Inter in those two games. Part of that was the element of surprise. But as teams have worked out that they can negate that by handing us possession where it's far more difficult to break down opposition, the evolution under the AVB has taken time, but is now bearing fruits as this Guardian article describes. I guess the ultimate would be for the team to effectively transition between the two depending on the opposition, the situation, or even during a game, and I imagine that's what AVB is working towards...
THFC6061
Paul Robinson
Re: Gareth Bale
Not surprisingly, Gareth Bale makes Garth Crooks' Team of the Week (yet again).
MIDFIELD - GARETH BALE (Tottenham)
Now here is a player who is simply playing the football of his life at the moment.
He has scored 19 goals in all competitions and could have had considerably more had it not been for some outstanding goalkeeping from a number of excellent keepers this season.
And while Gareth is thrilling every Spurs fan on the planet as he almost single-handedly takes the club third in the Premier League table, the question is, what will it cost to take him away from the Lane.
The answer? About £80m I would estimate.
The likes of Barcelona and Real Madrid are capable of spending that sort of money and it wouldn't surprise me if they did.
Did you know?
Bale has scored 11 Premier League goals away from home this season, the most in the league.
Not surprisingly, Gareth Bale makes Garth Crooks' Team of the Week (yet again).
MIDFIELD - GARETH BALE (Tottenham)
Now here is a player who is simply playing the football of his life at the moment.
He has scored 19 goals in all competitions and could have had considerably more had it not been for some outstanding goalkeeping from a number of excellent keepers this season.
And while Gareth is thrilling every Spurs fan on the planet as he almost single-handedly takes the club third in the Premier League table, the question is, what will it cost to take him away from the Lane.
The answer? About £80m I would estimate.
The likes of Barcelona and Real Madrid are capable of spending that sort of money and it wouldn't surprise me if they did.
Did you know?
Bale has scored 11 Premier League goals away from home this season, the most in the league.
Wriggly
Banned
Re: Gareth Bale
It was mate, so i took it upon myself to pee in every corner of my house to break the curse. The rest is history......
It was mate, so i took it upon myself to pee in every corner of my house to break the curse. The rest is history......
Mumorn
Vic Buckingham
Re: Gareth Bale
A conversation regarding: "Between Hazard, Bale and Tello, who would one pick for their club?"
Sunderland fan: Tello
Liverpool fan: Bale or Tello. I don't know, would need to see more of Tello play to make up my mind.
Man Utd fan: Tello has only started 5 games in the league all season, it is ridiculous to compare him with Bale
Barcelona fan: Not denying how good Bale has been this season but if he goes to madrid like he's been rumored to i can see him pulling a Modric or Sahin. Tello should be in the Barca starting XI because he has been really good this season from what little we've seen from him.
Arsenal fan: Tello is 2 years younger and has been great at the 2nd best team in the world in the short time he's played, I dunno who I'd pick personally but it isn't exactly a ridiculous comparison.
Do these people watch football!?
A conversation regarding: "Between Hazard, Bale and Tello, who would one pick for their club?"
Sunderland fan: Tello
Liverpool fan: Bale or Tello. I don't know, would need to see more of Tello play to make up my mind.
Man Utd fan: Tello has only started 5 games in the league all season, it is ridiculous to compare him with Bale
Barcelona fan: Not denying how good Bale has been this season but if he goes to madrid like he's been rumored to i can see him pulling a Modric or Sahin. Tello should be in the Barca starting XI because he has been really good this season from what little we've seen from him.
Arsenal fan: Tello is 2 years younger and has been great at the 2nd best team in the world in the short time he's played, I dunno who I'd pick personally but it isn't exactly a ridiculous comparison.
Do these people watch football!?
Yid (Israel)
Carlo Cudicini
Re: Gareth Bale
Admittedly I don't watch Barca in the league, just their odd CL game and I don't think I've even heard of him?
Who the fudge is Tello?
Admittedly I don't watch Barca in the league, just their odd CL game and I don't think I've even heard of him?
spurspinter1
Steve Carr
Re: Gareth Bale
I've seen Tello play a bit, and granted he is young and there must be massive pressure playing for Barca, and I think I haven't seen him on his best games but I'm not convinced as of yet. Actually now I think about it I've seen him play with my own eyes as he came on for Spain against Morocco in the Olympics. Very very fast and has about two tricks, they work sometimes, they don't others. Think Townsend would be able to do the same amount of damage in the Barca XI, and would also have as much negative affect on their gameplan as Tello seems to
I've seen Tello play a bit, and granted he is young and there must be massive pressure playing for Barca, and I think I haven't seen him on his best games but I'm not convinced as of yet. Actually now I think about it I've seen him play with my own eyes as he came on for Spain against Morocco in the Olympics. Very very fast and has about two tricks, they work sometimes, they don't others. Think Townsend would be able to do the same amount of damage in the Barca XI, and would also have as much negative affect on their gameplan as Tello seems to
Mumorn
Vic Buckingham
Re: Gareth Bale
Some are now coming out and saying they have no doubt Bale is better but they'd rather have TELLO in there team right now than Bale. It's still laughable, you'd surely want the best players in your team. It's quite funny really. Potentially, Tello could quite easily turn out better than Bale but right now, I can't beleive it's even a debate.
when Bale was the same age as Tello he was scoring a hattrick against Inter Milan, and winning the PFA Player of the Year,
Some are now coming out and saying they have no doubt Bale is better but they'd rather have TELLO in there team right now than Bale. It's still laughable, you'd surely want the best players in your team. It's quite funny really. Potentially, Tello could quite easily turn out better than Bale but right now, I can't beleive it's even a debate.
when Bale was the same age as Tello he was scoring a hattrick against Inter Milan, and winning the PFA Player of the Year,
Superhudd
Simon Davies
Re: Gareth Bale
He did the same against WBA, got fouled, moaned at the ref but got straight back up, then received the ball, played it to the right, which drew the marker away, instantly received the ball back. Moved the ball to his left foot, took a touch... BOOM the rest is history. Tottenham win 1-0
He did the same against WBA, got fouled, moaned at the ref but got straight back up, then received the ball, played it to the right, which drew the marker away, instantly received the ball back. Moved the ball to his left foot, took a touch... BOOM the rest is history. Tottenham win 1-0
Modric THFC
Jimmy McCormick
Re: Gareth Bale
Quality article referencing AVBs role.
Gareth Bale the sensation who owes it all to Tottenham's compact style
Gareth Bale is playing brilliantly. He is quick and powerful, technically gifted and can strike the ball ferociously with his left foot. He self-consciously models himself on Cristiano Ronaldo and in terms of his drive for self-improvement and even his style of play, cutting in from the left flank, there is validity to comparisons between them.
He is in a rare seam of form. It is entirely possible he may never play as well as this again. Jermain Defoe is injured, Emmanuel Adebayor was away at the Africa Cup of Nations and has struggled since his return and Tottenham Hotspur have no other strikers, and yet it has not mattered because of Bale's excellence.
Predictably, that has led to claims that Tottenham are a one-man team, as though his brilliance was inevitable and not linked to those around him. There seems to be a belief that individual brilliance undermines the whole notion of a systemic approach to football.
It is possible that one superb player playing superbly can outweigh shambolic organisation. But far more likely, and far more common, is that individual and system work together, that the system provides the environment in which an individual can thrive and the individual, in doing so, elevates the whole.
André Villas-Boas is clearly grateful to Bale but the way Bale charged to celebrate with Villas-Boas after scoring the winner in the 3-2 victory at West Ham on Monday suggests he is aware how much he owes to his manager.
Think back to the first three games of Tottenham's season, when they lost at Saudi Sportswashing Machine and drew against West Bromwich Albion and Norwich City. Bale played in all three games and, while no worse than anyone else, was ineffective. When he got the ball, he tended to be too deep or isolated, easy to crowd out because there was no option for a pass. Perhaps if you took the Bale of now and transplanted him to that side, he could still conjure a goal from nowhere, but form tends not to work like that; his purple patch is the result of accumulating confidence that stems from and enhances an efficient system.
It has taken time – these things do – but Tottenham's shape has changed. Although Villas-Boas had a brief dabble with 4-4-2, the formation remains 4-2-3-1, but Spurs are far more compact now than they were. The defence plays higher, which means the midfield lines can shuffle up and that means the spaces between players diminish. Bale is closer to his forward, closer to the attacking central midfielder, closer to the left-sided holder and closer to the full-back; there are passing options which, even if not used, at least exercise defenders.
Take the last-minute winner against West Ham. Bale began a charge and was bundled off the ball as he laid it outside to Gylfi Sigurdsson who had moved left as Bale surged through the centre. Sigurdsson knocked a pass inside to Tom Carroll by which time Bale had got back to his feet and Sigurdsson had made a run that created a fraction of space. It took an extraordinary strike to score but the key thing was that Bale had two players within 10-15 yards of him, as well as Adebayor pulling away to the right. You do not have to share the late Valeriy Lobanovskyi's conviction that the coalitions between players are more important than the players themselves to appreciate that others contributed before the majestic execution.
So why are Tottenham more compact than they were five months ago? Why does the defence feel able to push higher? In part that is down to confidence and to Villas-Boas's training. But it is also down to the change of goalkeeper. Brad Friedel remains a very fine keeper but he is part of the reactive school of US keeping that tends to stay deep. There is nothing wrong with that – it is a perfectly legitimate way to play – but it does have ramifications elsewhere on the pitch.
If a team want to play with a high line they need a keeper who is comfortable coming off his line, sweeping up behind the defence, making sure the space behind an advanced back four is not a yawning void into which opponents can play through balls. Hugo Lloris is much more adept than Friedel at that and, since he has become the regular No1, Spurs have played much higher and been much more compact. That has got the best out of Bale. (It has also worked defensively; no team in the Premier League concede as few shots on goal as Tottenham.)
There has been much debate as to whether Bale is better continuing as a winger or moving inside. It may be that he does end up as a central player, whether as an attacking midfielder or a false 9, but there is no reason at the moment why he should not carry on what he is doing, drifting in from the left into goalscoring positions.
There seems to be an idea that wingers are somehow peripheral both literally and in terms of their influence over a game, and perhaps that was once true. Even in the late 70s, though, John Robertson was able to run games from a position on the left and Ronaldo shows how that can work in the modern game. As Sir Alex Ferguson has noted, there is often more space to be found attacking from wide on a diagonal than starting through the middle.
Barcelona and Real Madrid are reported to be interested in Bale and if Ronaldo were to leave it is easy to see why Real would regard him as being as close to a like-for-like replacement as possible. Then again, it may be that the muscularity of his style would add something missing from the mix at Barcelona.
But for now, Bale has found a club playing in a way that gets the best out of him, and the value of that should not be underestimated.
Quality article referencing AVBs role.
Gareth Bale the sensation who owes it all to Tottenham's compact style
Gareth Bale is playing brilliantly. He is quick and powerful, technically gifted and can strike the ball ferociously with his left foot. He self-consciously models himself on Cristiano Ronaldo and in terms of his drive for self-improvement and even his style of play, cutting in from the left flank, there is validity to comparisons between them.
He is in a rare seam of form. It is entirely possible he may never play as well as this again. Jermain Defoe is injured, Emmanuel Adebayor was away at the Africa Cup of Nations and has struggled since his return and Tottenham Hotspur have no other strikers, and yet it has not mattered because of Bale's excellence.
Predictably, that has led to claims that Tottenham are a one-man team, as though his brilliance was inevitable and not linked to those around him. There seems to be a belief that individual brilliance undermines the whole notion of a systemic approach to football.
It is possible that one superb player playing superbly can outweigh shambolic organisation. But far more likely, and far more common, is that individual and system work together, that the system provides the environment in which an individual can thrive and the individual, in doing so, elevates the whole.
André Villas-Boas is clearly grateful to Bale but the way Bale charged to celebrate with Villas-Boas after scoring the winner in the 3-2 victory at West Ham on Monday suggests he is aware how much he owes to his manager.
Think back to the first three games of Tottenham's season, when they lost at Saudi Sportswashing Machine and drew against West Bromwich Albion and Norwich City. Bale played in all three games and, while no worse than anyone else, was ineffective. When he got the ball, he tended to be too deep or isolated, easy to crowd out because there was no option for a pass. Perhaps if you took the Bale of now and transplanted him to that side, he could still conjure a goal from nowhere, but form tends not to work like that; his purple patch is the result of accumulating confidence that stems from and enhances an efficient system.
It has taken time – these things do – but Tottenham's shape has changed. Although Villas-Boas had a brief dabble with 4-4-2, the formation remains 4-2-3-1, but Spurs are far more compact now than they were. The defence plays higher, which means the midfield lines can shuffle up and that means the spaces between players diminish. Bale is closer to his forward, closer to the attacking central midfielder, closer to the left-sided holder and closer to the full-back; there are passing options which, even if not used, at least exercise defenders.
Take the last-minute winner against West Ham. Bale began a charge and was bundled off the ball as he laid it outside to Gylfi Sigurdsson who had moved left as Bale surged through the centre. Sigurdsson knocked a pass inside to Tom Carroll by which time Bale had got back to his feet and Sigurdsson had made a run that created a fraction of space. It took an extraordinary strike to score but the key thing was that Bale had two players within 10-15 yards of him, as well as Adebayor pulling away to the right. You do not have to share the late Valeriy Lobanovskyi's conviction that the coalitions between players are more important than the players themselves to appreciate that others contributed before the majestic execution.
So why are Tottenham more compact than they were five months ago? Why does the defence feel able to push higher? In part that is down to confidence and to Villas-Boas's training. But it is also down to the change of goalkeeper. Brad Friedel remains a very fine keeper but he is part of the reactive school of US keeping that tends to stay deep. There is nothing wrong with that – it is a perfectly legitimate way to play – but it does have ramifications elsewhere on the pitch.
If a team want to play with a high line they need a keeper who is comfortable coming off his line, sweeping up behind the defence, making sure the space behind an advanced back four is not a yawning void into which opponents can play through balls. Hugo Lloris is much more adept than Friedel at that and, since he has become the regular No1, Spurs have played much higher and been much more compact. That has got the best out of Bale. (It has also worked defensively; no team in the Premier League concede as few shots on goal as Tottenham.)
There has been much debate as to whether Bale is better continuing as a winger or moving inside. It may be that he does end up as a central player, whether as an attacking midfielder or a false 9, but there is no reason at the moment why he should not carry on what he is doing, drifting in from the left into goalscoring positions.
There seems to be an idea that wingers are somehow peripheral both literally and in terms of their influence over a game, and perhaps that was once true. Even in the late 70s, though, John Robertson was able to run games from a position on the left and Ronaldo shows how that can work in the modern game. As Sir Alex Ferguson has noted, there is often more space to be found attacking from wide on a diagonal than starting through the middle.
Barcelona and Real Madrid are reported to be interested in Bale and if Ronaldo were to leave it is easy to see why Real would regard him as being as close to a like-for-like replacement as possible. Then again, it may be that the muscularity of his style would add something missing from the mix at Barcelona.
But for now, Bale has found a club playing in a way that gets the best out of him, and the value of that should not be underestimated.
Yid (Israel)
Carlo Cudicini
Re: Gareth Bale
I wonder will be the defensive consequences of not playing a proper left winger/midfielder in the future. I think it worked mainly because it was Vertonghen at left back, but still you'd have to say it would be pretty dangerous to play like that against Arsenal.
Played slightly further forwards then Ade.
I wonder will be the defensive consequences of not playing a proper left winger/midfielder in the future. I think it worked mainly because it was Vertonghen at left back, but still you'd have to say it would be pretty dangerous to play like that against Arsenal.
Re: Gareth Bale
Holtby was far too in field here which is why Sig got so much more joy when he came on and was generally more leftish.
Look at Caulker's position! Super compact midfield area there.
Played slightly further forwards then Ade.
Holtby was far too in field here which is why Sig got so much more joy when he came on and was generally more leftish.
Look at Caulker's position! Super compact midfield area there.
Re: Gareth Bale
I don't think that point is totally valid.
Firstly, we had the lion's share of possession, so those positions are going to be biased towards our positions with the ball and West Ham's positions without it, and obviously when in possession there needs to be less defensive covering.
Secondly, it doesn't account for player rotation. Bale at the moment is playing more of a free role, and as a result, other players will fill in the positions he vacates and vice versa. This means that naturally all of our midfielders' average positions will be drawn closer to each other, but Lennon is less suited to playing centrally, so Holtby will tend to rotate inside more than him.
Finally, if you look at West Ham's graphic, they were generally leaving a pocket of space in the exact spot that Holtby's average position was in. Holtby was trying to do this, his job wasn't to sit on the touchline and stretch the play, that is more the role of the full-backs and Lennon.
Admittedly I am just playing devil's advocate and I think Sig is more suited to the wide-left role, with Holtby being deployed on the right if we had to use him away from the centre, but there are always many invisible limitations to what seem like objective statistics/graphics.
I don't think that point is totally valid.
Firstly, we had the lion's share of possession, so those positions are going to be biased towards our positions with the ball and West Ham's positions without it, and obviously when in possession there needs to be less defensive covering.
Secondly, it doesn't account for player rotation. Bale at the moment is playing more of a free role, and as a result, other players will fill in the positions he vacates and vice versa. This means that naturally all of our midfielders' average positions will be drawn closer to each other, but Lennon is less suited to playing centrally, so Holtby will tend to rotate inside more than him.
Finally, if you look at West Ham's graphic, they were generally leaving a pocket of space in the exact spot that Holtby's average position was in. Holtby was trying to do this, his job wasn't to sit on the touchline and stretch the play, that is more the role of the full-backs and Lennon.
Admittedly I am just playing devil's advocate and I think Sig is more suited to the wide-left role, with Holtby being deployed on the right if we had to use him away from the centre, but there are always many invisible limitations to what seem like objective statistics/graphics.
