Gareth Bale

[Rossi22]

Re: Gareth Bale

Bale needs to play left, at least when Azza's missing anyway. I hope his ego isn't getting in the way of what's best for the team.

 

[Pandy]

Re: Gareth Bale

Bale needs to play left, at least when Azza's missing anyway. I hope his ego isn't getting in the way of what's best for the team.

Spot on. This was blatantly clear today.

I think AVB's selection of Assou at LM had two motivations - to counter the threat of Riether from right-back, but to also provide some natural width to allow Bale to remain central.

Assou was terrible at LM, having no idea where to go and often dropping in to LB leaving Vertonghen as our winger. In the second half, I think AVB assumed that, having played on the left of midfield before, Dempsey would be a more natural option and this would allow Bale to possibly grab a goal from the centre as he has done so frequently of late.

However, Dempsey drifted inside way too much and so did Sig, leaving Bale with no space. I think AVBs hesistance to move him to the left demonstrates his faith in Bale to provide a bit of genius to change the game, which is more likely in the centre.

He was totally stifled though, and hopefully AVB will just sacrifice Bale's potential in the centre for the good of the team while Lennon is out, because we quite obviously have no other natural wide men, as exhibited clearly by BAE, Sig and Dempsey today.

 

[thfcsteff]

Re: Gareth Bale

Am I the only person who thinks Bale played virtually the entire second-half at 70%? I think the knock he took in the first-half never left him...he seemed at far less than 100% and, indeed, spent much of the second-half in a wider position?

 

[Mulletperm]

Re: Gareth Bale

Am I the only person who thinks Bale played virtually the entire second-half at 70%? I think the knock he took in the first-half never left him...he seemed at far less than 100% and, indeed, spent much of the second-half in a wider position?

Agreed Steff, unfortunately that wide position was on the right where he tried to get a cross in with the outside of his left on several occasions.

 

[thfcsteff]

Re: Gareth Bale

Agreed Steff, unfortunately that wide position was on the right where he tried to get a cross in with the outside of his left on several occasions.

I genuinely, genuinely thought it was about trying to keep him on the pitch with minimal risk? Who knows? One thing's for sure, I think AVB got away with one there because frankly, any distress should've seen him subbed at HT...

 

[awesome dawson]

Re: Gareth Bale

Bale was limping for long periods of the game, nowhere near 100% fit.

 

[skyfarer]

Re: Gareth Bale

I hope he doesn't play in internationals. Wales are so dependent on him though....

 

[rxl]

Re: Gareth Bale

Anyone think a front four of

New Striker

Townsend Bale Lennon


would be quite potent? (obv next season)

Only thing is for injuries you would have to change the style because the subs haven't got the pace of these 3 (thinking siggy/holtby)

Whilst I'm at it, I would be for trying Holtby in the 2 behind the 3 - he started out as DM and obviously can pick a pass and has a pair of lungs on him. Might add a bit of mobility to this area.

 

[BrainOfLevy]

Re: Gareth Bale

Am I the only person who thinks Bale played virtually the entire second-half at 70%? I think the knock he took in the first-half never left him...he seemed at far less than 100% and, indeed, spent much of the second-half in a wider position?

Yup, it was like he couldn't accelerate, couldn't beat a man, couldn't do anything we know he can do. I'm surprised he is still apparently going for the internationals this week.

But that's also what gives me heart yesterday. I think key players were carrying knocks. It was an unfortunate set of circumstances but I don't think it was 'our level'.

 

[ricky2tricky4city]

Re: Gareth Bale

Am I the only person who thinks Bale played virtually the entire second-half at 70%? I think the knock he took in the first-half never left him...he seemed at far less than 100% and, indeed, spent much of the second-half in a wider position?

Firstly i must say, i feel privileged to watch Bale, live in a Spurs shirt. Its why you pay to watch football.

However, when you are actually at the game you see a lot more than you do on the tv. You can watch a player a hell of a lot more when he hasn't got the ball for example.
Without doubt Bale is flakey and a bit of a pansy, i thought he had improved this from the days of fiddling with his hair and suffering 3 supposed broken legs per game.
Yesterday he went down just before half-time after a trick that went wrong, (it wasn't a foul), he did the limping pony bit and sometimes the 'stop and give it a feel routine'.
Second-half it looks like he was getting some pain from his achilles tendon, hobbling a bit after runs or chases (that were unsuccessful) had ended and basically showing concern about his body was breaking down.

This was against the backdrop of a game that certainly wasn't going his way, f*cks knows what boots he had on yesterday but over hit, under hit crosses, shots nearer the top tier than the goal. The team appeared lacklustre and a bit devoid of ideas, but bale played zero minutes at the san siro, but because the team were having an off day and so was he imo he goes into this flakey routine as some kind of excuse, to why that day he isn't the superstar every man and his dog have been claiming. AND as i say, i'm watching, when nothing is much happening or there is some dirty work to do 'my bodies hurting' but what d'you know, if there is there is some glory to be sniffed ('oh look, dempsey is gonna lay me in') all of a sudden jesus has touched me and i'm good as new.

I've played with players like this and all they really need is punching, just to knock the self-interest out of them.

I'm not sure you would want him in the trenches, so lets hope we are not in a trench.

 

[Pandy]

Re: Gareth Bale

Am I the only person who thinks Bale played virtually the entire second-half at 70%? I think the knock he took in the first-half never left him...he seemed at far less than 100% and, indeed, spent much of the second-half in a wider position?

He spent much of the second half in a wider position due to a tactical change when Defoe came on. We shaped up something like this:

---------Adebayor----Defoe----------
---Dempsey-----------------Bale-----
----------Dembele----Parker----------
Assou--Vertonghen--Caulker--Naughton
---------------Lloris------------------

Dempsey and Bale were meant to provide a goalscoring threat cutting in on their stronger foot, while the wide threat was meant to primarily come from the full-backs overlapping.

However, Dempsey wandered ridiculously central in an attempt to influence the game. Assou was left isolated on the left and was easily pressured in either early, deep crosses that were generally poor, or long balls down the left flank to Adebayor, who subsequently was also isolated, unable to link effectively with Defoe or any of our midfield.

Dempsey's overly-central position also congested the centre. Clearly, with Fulham defending a lead, we were looking to get our biggest threat into the game - Bale. However, with this central congestion, Bale was often forced very deep in search of the ball and frequently picked it up around the halfway line. Even when he was found, his deliveries were consistently poor and he provided absolutely no threat in behind/ running at the defence/ on the right touchline. Naughton did not help in this regard, and seemed far too tentative in his approach. We could have done with Walker to have a proper run at the byline, there were few genuine overloads from either flank, which made it easy for Fulham to stay compact.

The full-backs again were hindered by the congestion in the centre though, our (not technically impeccable) midfielders struggled to find the time to hold the ball and allow the full-backs to advance, or the space to execute accurate forward balls. Carroll, in part down to his playing style and in part down to his lack of fatigue, changed this when he came on but did not have enough time/was not consistent enough to influence the game significantly.

If we want to play so narrow across midfield, we need technically brilliant players to do it. I would argue that of Dempsey, Parker, Dembele and Bale, only Dembele is good enough in tight spaces to perform effectively in such a situation. Perhaps Dempsey also at a push. Parker's technical deficiencies are well-known, and even in the dying stages of the match yesterday he seemed to take at least 5 touched before releasing each pass.

Bale is rated highly in this regard, however I think his close control and quick one touch passing leaves a lot to be desired in a cramped midfield, compressed by a compact opposition such as Fulham who were protecting a lead. The threat of his pace is greatly reduce unless he can be played in behind as against Arsenal, but with Fulham so deep he should have moved wider (preferably on the left, but on either wing it would have got him a bit more space) as he was not going to find space behind the defence.

Ideally, we would have used Holtby and Carroll from the bench. However, Hotlby was dreadful against Inter and although he was excellent in his earlier appearances, this indicates he may not be ready to be relied upon. Could have been worth a shot though. Carroll still looked raw, but he was the best player on the pitch when he came on, simply because he was far more suited to the set-up of our team.

Knock or no knock, Bale was terrible against Fulham. As I've outlined above, the system did not help him at all, but he was also far too eager to take potshots through a sea of players and consistently wasted the ball through poor passes and especially 4 or 5 terrible crosses from the right that went straight to the first Fulham defender.

His performance summed up the team's - bizarre in terms of tactical set-up, and poor individually.

EDIT: To me, this is how we seemed to be playing for a lot of the second half:

-Adebayor------------Defoe-----------
-----------Dempsey-------------------
----------Dembele-Parker--Bale--------
Assou--Vertonghen--Caulker--Naughton
---------------Lloris------------------

 

[thfcsteff]

Re: Gareth Bale

He spent much of the second half in a wider position due to a tactical change when Defoe came on. We shaped up something like this:

---------Adebayor----Defoe----------
---Dempsey-----------------Bale-----
----------Dembele----Parker----------
Assou--Vertonghen--Caulker--Naughton
---------------Lloris------------------

Dempsey and Bale were meant to provide a goalscoring threat cutting in on their stronger foot, while the wide threat was meant to primarily come from the full-backs overlapping.

However, Dempsey wandered ridiculously central in an attempt to influence the game. Assou was left isolated on the left and was easily pressured in either early, deep crosses that were generally poor, or long balls down the left flank to Adebayor, who subsequently was also isolated, unable to link effectively with Defoe or any of our midfield.

Dempsey's overly-central position also congested the centre. Clearly, with Fulham defending a lead, we were looking to get our biggest threat into the game - Bale. However, with this central congestion, Bale was often forced very deep in search of the ball and frequently picked it up around the halfway line. Even when he was found, his deliveries were consistently poor and he provided absolutely no threat in behind/ running at the defence/ on the right touchline. Naughton did not help in this regard, and seemed far too tentative in his approach. We could have done with Walker to have a proper run at the byline, there were few genuine overloads from either flank, which made it easy for Fulham to stay compact.

The full-backs again were hindered by the congestion in the centre though, our (not technically impeccable) midfielders struggled to find the time to hold the ball and allow the full-backs to advance, or the space to execute accurate forward balls. Carroll, in part down to his playing style and in part down to his lack of fatigue, changed this when he came on but did not have enough time/was not consistent enough to influence the game significantly.

If we want to play so narrow across midfield, we need technically brilliant players to do it. I would argue that of Dempsey, Parker, Dembele and Bale, only Dembele is good enough in tight spaces to perform effectively in such a situation. Perhaps Dempsey also at a push. Parker's technical deficiencies are well-known, and even in the dying stages of the match yesterday he seemed to take at least 5 touched before releasing each pass.

Bale is rated highly in this regard, however I think his close control and quick one touch passing leaves a lot to be desired in a cramped midfield, compressed by a compact opposition such as Fulham who were protecting a lead. The threat of his pace is greatly reduce unless he can be played in behind as against Arsenal, but with Fulham so deep he should have moved wider (preferably on the left, but on either wing it would have got him a bit more space) as he was not going to find space behind the defence.

Ideally, we would have used Holtby and Carroll from the bench. However, Hotlby was dreadful against Inter and although he was excellent in his earlier appearances, this indicates he may not be ready to be relied upon. Could have been worth a shot though. Carroll still looked raw, but he was the best player on the pitch when he came on, simply because he was far more suited to the set-up of our team.

Knock or no knock, Bale was terrible against Fulham. As I've outlined above, the system did not help him at all, but he was also far too eager to take potshots through a sea of players and consistently wasted the ball through poor passes and especially 4 or 5 terrible crosses from the right that went straight to the first Fulham defender.

His performance summed up the team's - bizarre in terms of tactical set-up, and poor individually.

EDIT: To me, this is how we seemed to be playing for a lot of the second half:

-Adebayor------------Defoe-----------
-----------Dempsey-------------------
----------Dembele-Parker--Bale--------
Assou--Vertonghen--Caulker--Naughton
---------------Lloris------------------

Great post.

I think it was AVB's worst team selection of the season by far, with several major mistakes, the biggest of which was trying to manufacture width with players out of position. RE: Holtby, something must be going on IMO because he certainly isn't the same player. Again I wonder how much of this is to do with not having quick enough movement around him recently. I think Carroll iss an absolute must right now, simply because he can pass quickly and is very very mobile. The game was riddled with tactical errors and players not up to it for once. Fulham took full advantage. We played into the middle and thus their hands.

 

[thfcsteff]

Re: Gareth Bale

Firstly i must say, i feel privileged to watch Bale, live in a Spurs shirt. Its why you pay to watch football.

However, when you are actually at the game you see a lot more than you do on the tv. You can watch a player a hell of a lot more when he hasn't got the ball for example.
Without doubt Bale is flakey and a bit of a pansy, i thought he had improved this from the days of fiddling with his hair and suffering 3 supposed broken legs per game.
Yesterday he went down just before half-time after a trick that went wrong, (it wasn't a foul), he did the limping pony bit and sometimes the 'stop and give it a feel routine'.
Second-half it looks like he was getting some pain from his achilles tendon, hobbling a bit after runs or chases (that were unsuccessful) had ended and basically showing concern about his body was breaking down.

This was against the backdrop of a game that certainly wasn't going his way, f*cks knows what boots he had on yesterday but over hit, under hit crosses, shots nearer the top tier than the goal. The team appeared lacklustre and a bit devoid of ideas, but bale played zero minutes at the san siro, but because the team were having an off day and so was he imo he goes into this flakey routine as some kind of excuse, to why that day he isn't the superstar every man and his dog have been claiming. AND as i say, i'm watching, when nothing is much happening or there is some dirty work to do 'my bodies hurting' but what d'you know, if there is there is some glory to be sniffed ('oh look, dempsey is gonna lay me in') all of a sudden jesus has touched me and i'm good as new.

I've played with players like this and all they really need is punching, just to knock the self-interest out of them.

I'm not sure you would want him in the trenches, so lets hope we are not in a trench.

A very interesting take.
Good reading that, thanks mate.

 

[Mulletperm]

Re: Gareth Bale

Firstly i must say, i feel privileged to watch Bale, live in a Spurs shirt. Its why you pay to watch football.

However, when you are actually at the game you see a lot more than you do on the tv. You can watch a player a hell of a lot more when he hasn't got the ball for example.
Without doubt Bale is flakey and a bit of a pansy, i thought he had improved this from the days of fiddling with his hair and suffering 3 supposed broken legs per game.
Yesterday he went down just before half-time after a trick that went wrong, (it wasn't a foul), he did the limping pony bit and sometimes the 'stop and give it a feel routine'.
Second-half it looks like he was getting some pain from his achilles tendon, hobbling a bit after runs or chases (that were unsuccessful) had ended and basically showing concern about his body was breaking down.

This was against the backdrop of a game that certainly wasn't going his way, f*cks knows what boots he had on yesterday but over hit, under hit crosses, shots nearer the top tier than the goal. The team appeared lacklustre and a bit devoid of ideas, but bale played zero minutes at the san siro, but because the team were having an off day and so was he imo he goes into this flakey routine as some kind of excuse, to why that day he isn't the superstar every man and his dog have been claiming. AND as i say, i'm watching, when nothing is much happening or there is some dirty work to do 'my bodies hurting' but what d'you know, if there is there is some glory to be sniffed ('oh look, dempsey is gonna lay me in') all of a sudden jesus has touched me and i'm good as new.

I've played with players like this and all they really need is punching, just to knock the self-interest out of them.

I'm not sure you would want him in the trenches, so lets hope we are not in a trench.

I'll be honest and say that this was my first impression as well. He's done it before when trying a trick and failing, then blaming an injury. I've also seen players do it when I'm playing and it's pretty obvious to see.

I think (and hope) that there wasn't really an injury and he was covering up his pride a bit.

Fingers crossed!

 

[Spurs7891]

Re: Gareth Bale

I'll be honest and say that this was my first impression as well. He's done it before when trying a trick and failing, then blaming an injury. I've also seen players do it when I'm playing and it's pretty obvious to see.

I think (and hope) that there wasn't really an injury and he was covering up his pride a bit.

Fingers crossed!

I have also seen Bale do this a few times and found it funny rather than annoying. He would take time to get up whenever he gets tackled or loses the ball. When there was a banana thrown at him against Arsenal, he pretended as if he was checking his boot which was very funny. I think he still needs to improve his mental strength in situations like these. Our coaching staff needs to help him on this matter.

I still wonder what happened to Bale against Fulham. He was not his usual self. There were too many overhit passes from him. Even his shot lacked the usual accuracy or power.

 

[Spurs7891]

Re: Gareth Bale

Bale needs to play left, at least when Azza's missing anyway. I hope his ego isn't getting in the way of what's best for the team.

Maybe you are right. This an interesting article from another Spurs forum :

---------------------------------

Gareth Bale's role in the team is actively hurting Tottenham Hotspur

Gareth Bale is not a #10.

And continuing to play him there is hurting our team.

"But he's played so well there," I hear you crying out. But has he?

Gareth Bale first decided he was a central player in the last thirty minutes against West Ham. While the Hammers were bunkered in their 18 yard box, Sigurdsson came on, Bale moved inside, and he scored a wonderful match-winner. Since then he's started four matches behind the striker: Home to Arsenal, Home to Inter, Away to Liverpool, and Home to Fulham.
In precisely zero of those matches did he succeed playing as a #10 in the crowded central areas of the pitch. I can see the surprise in your eyes, so let me remind you.

In the four matches before his move to the middle, he managed six goals. But since then? Against West Ham, his goal came from the middle, but only because West Ham dropped so deep behind the ball. He didn't have to deal with the crowded middle of the pitch, because by this point in the match, it didn't exist. His goal against Arsenal was brilliant, but he had little impact on the rest of the game. And arguably his position on the goal was more akin to that of a striker than a #10--hanging off the shoulder of the defense. Against Inter there was again no crowded central areas of the pitch because they sat incredibly deep and applied no pressure in midfield areas. He had a lovely assist against Liverpool, but it came from a free kick out wide. And he did little else of note. Yesterday against Fulham he created our best chance--but it came from wide on the right.

What are Gareth Bale's greatest strengths as a player? Phenomenal pace and athleticism, the ability to beat a man, fantastic crossing, and a beautiful shot. Do any of those sound like the skillsets for a #10? When you think of a number ten, you want a guy who can score, sure, but more importantly, you want a guy who can float between the lines, hold the ball in tight spaces, and play creative passes to bring other guys into play.

Gareth Bale has a pass completion rate across the season of 77%, which is not good at all. Not all of that is his fault, since he often plays brilliant crosses that none of our mediocre strikers can get on the end of. But since the West Ham match and his redeployment in the middle, his average has dropped to a mere 70%. Some of that is down to the players in front of him, but Cazorla and Oscar manage well better than 80% passing a match, and their strikers aren't any better than Adebayor.

What the statistics reveal, and what your eyes should tell you, is that he's not a #10, and the type of movement and passing required from that position does not have anything to do with the things Gareth Bale is good at on a football pitch.
Since his deployment behind the striker, he's been markedly worse than he was as a wide player cutting inside.
Bale spending some game time in behind the striker is in itself no problem. In fact, for many months, pulling in from the left flank and operating from a central position looked to be the ideal way of preventing him from being easily double-marked out of the game while simultaneously drawing out his eye for a goal in better scoring positions. Bale's success in this respect was the evolution of his game that many of us had been waiting years for. Yet these dalliances through the middle prior to his full positional switch only brought so much providence for Bale because they represented an expansion on the way he already played.

In starting on the left and then occasionally surfacing down the middle, Bale looked a far more complete attacking player than he had before and has since--someone who could bombard defenses from the flank initially, but build from this role to devastating effect by appearing behind the striker when the right moments emerged. This is why discovering Gylfi could play out wide was such an awesome development--not because it meant we had a Bale replacement on the wing, but because we had an actual #10 who could fluidly interchange with Bale, allowing him to start in his best position but liberating him to fulfill multiple roles in a single game as situations demanded.

By contrast, playing Bale as an outright center forward behind the striker has now stripped back those hard-earned layers of complexity from his game. Having just escaped from the straightjacket effect of the orthodox winger tag to become an unstoppable, unpredictable force of nature that nominally starts wide but confounds defenders by sporadically, yet effectively, mixing it up, he's now found himself in a new pigeonhole as a center forward--a role which as previously explored doesn't suit his talents and doesn't help the team at all. It is only by taking Bale back to the fundamentals of his game and limiting him to timely and contextually-dictated forays into the center that we can liberate his talents again without wasting the incredibly vital #10 spot on the side.

Not only is Gareth Bale ill-suited to the role, but he throws our whole team out of whack--especially while Lennon sits on the injury table.

We desperately lacked width in the past few matches and AVB has tried everything to fix it--Dembele wide, Benny wide, Siggy wide--but he has yet to try the thing that makes the most sense. Gareth Bale, he plays on the left.

This team's entire offense has been structured around the direct wide play of our two speedy wingers. And in the past few matches, we haven't had any on the pitch. Naturally, this has caused quite a few problems. First and most obvious, it's forced us to play very narrowly. All of a sudden a team that is used to almost exclusively attacking quickly down the wings now 30 games into the season has to adjust to a new style of play. That would be difficult to manage even if we had the personnel to adequately play that way. We don't. What's more, by playing so narrowly, the space around Bale in the middle is even more congested than it would be with wide players supporting him. As a result, he becomes even less suited to playing the position than he already is.

But the biggest problem is that not only are we playing a formation we're not equipped to play with players who aren't equipped to play there, in order to force the team into this shape, we're taking players out of positions they're actually very good at. Our best central midfielder and our best fullback have both been shunted wildly out of their comfort zone, all to accommodate Gareth Bale in a position he's not really suited for. Even Gylfi Sigurdsson, who has finally begun looking comfortable occupying Bale's role coming inside from the left, today found himself shoved on the right. The knock-on effect of losing the width we so desperately require has been to fall apart in other areas where we should be perfectly fine. Meanwhile, we have a world class winger on the pitch who could solve all of these problems just by playing the position he's best at.

So to summarize: we have a world class player who, instead of playing the position where he's world class, is playing in a position he's not especially well-suited and in order to accommodate him there we've forced several other players into positions they're not especially well-suited, and meanwhile the only way we can accommodate him actively makes him less suited to the position, all while weakening the side in other places. Nothing about that sentence makes any sense.
Given that the effect Bale has had playing centrally has been minimal, and the cost to both Bale and our team playing without any width has been arguably significant, it's a no-brainer where Bale should be lining up. He wants to be Cristiano Ronaldo? Awesome. Cristiano Ronaldo plays from the left. He cuts inside and scores goals. That's where Gareth Bale should be.

http://www.cartilagefreecaptain.com/2013/3/18/4115934/gareth-bale-tottenham-hotspur-fulham

----------------------------------

The problem is we don't have many clinical goal scorers who can make use of the chances that Bale creates. A good example is Defoe shooting straight at the goalie against Fulham after a great run and pass from Bale. This is why we had to rely on Bale to score himself.

 

[Rorschach]

Re: Gareth Bale

Maybe you are right. This an interesting article from another Spurs forum :

---------------------------------

Gareth Bale's role in the team is actively hurting Tottenham Hotspur

Gareth Bale is not a #10.

And continuing to play him there is hurting our team.

"But he's played so well there," I hear you crying out. But has he?

Gareth Bale first decided he was a central player in the last thirty minutes against West Ham. While the Hammers were bunkered in their 18 yard box, Sigurdsson came on, Bale moved inside, and he scored a wonderful match-winner. Since then he's started four matches behind the striker: Home to Arsenal, Home to Inter, Away to Liverpool, and Home to Fulham.
In precisely zero of those matches did he succeed playing as a #10 in the crowded central areas of the pitch. I can see the surprise in your eyes, so let me remind you.

In the four matches before his move to the middle, he managed six goals. But since then? Against West Ham, his goal came from the middle, but only because West Ham dropped so deep behind the ball. He didn't have to deal with the crowded middle of the pitch, because by this point in the match, it didn't exist. His goal against Arsenal was brilliant, but he had little impact on the rest of the game. And arguably his position on the goal was more akin to that of a striker than a #10--hanging off the shoulder of the defense. Against Inter there was again no crowded central areas of the pitch because they sat incredibly deep and applied no pressure in midfield areas. He had a lovely assist against Liverpool, but it came from a free kick out wide. And he did little else of note. Yesterday against Fulham he created our best chance--but it came from wide on the right.

What are Gareth Bale's greatest strengths as a player? Phenomenal pace and athleticism, the ability to beat a man, fantastic crossing, and a beautiful shot. Do any of those sound like the skillsets for a #10? When you think of a number ten, you want a guy who can score, sure, but more importantly, you want a guy who can float between the lines, hold the ball in tight spaces, and play creative passes to bring other guys into play.

Gareth Bale has a pass completion rate across the season of 77%, which is not good at all. Not all of that is his fault, since he often plays brilliant crosses that none of our mediocre strikers can get on the end of. But since the West Ham match and his redeployment in the middle, his average has dropped to a mere 70%. Some of that is down to the players in front of him, but Cazorla and Oscar manage well better than 80% passing a match, and their strikers aren't any better than Adebayor.

What the statistics reveal, and what your eyes should tell you, is that he's not a #10, and the type of movement and passing required from that position does not have anything to do with the things Gareth Bale is good at on a football pitch.
Since his deployment behind the striker, he's been markedly worse than he was as a wide player cutting inside.
Bale spending some game time in behind the striker is in itself no problem. In fact, for many months, pulling in from the left flank and operating from a central position looked to be the ideal way of preventing him from being easily double-marked out of the game while simultaneously drawing out his eye for a goal in better scoring positions. Bale's success in this respect was the evolution of his game that many of us had been waiting years for. Yet these dalliances through the middle prior to his full positional switch only brought so much providence for Bale because they represented an expansion on the way he already played.

In starting on the left and then occasionally surfacing down the middle, Bale looked a far more complete attacking player than he had before and has since--someone who could bombard defenses from the flank initially, but build from this role to devastating effect by appearing behind the striker when the right moments emerged. This is why discovering Gylfi could play out wide was such an awesome development--not because it meant we had a Bale replacement on the wing, but because we had an actual #10 who could fluidly interchange with Bale, allowing him to start in his best position but liberating him to fulfill multiple roles in a single game as situations demanded.

By contrast, playing Bale as an outright center forward behind the striker has now stripped back those hard-earned layers of complexity from his game. Having just escaped from the straightjacket effect of the orthodox winger tag to become an unstoppable, unpredictable force of nature that nominally starts wide but confounds defenders by sporadically, yet effectively, mixing it up, he's now found himself in a new pigeonhole as a center forward--a role which as previously explored doesn't suit his talents and doesn't help the team at all. It is only by taking Bale back to the fundamentals of his game and limiting him to timely and contextually-dictated forays into the center that we can liberate his talents again without wasting the incredibly vital #10 spot on the side.

Not only is Gareth Bale ill-suited to the role, but he throws our whole team out of whack--especially while Lennon sits on the injury table.

We desperately lacked width in the past few matches and AVB has tried everything to fix it--Dembele wide, Benny wide, Siggy wide--but he has yet to try the thing that makes the most sense. Gareth Bale, he plays on the left.

This team's entire offense has been structured around the direct wide play of our two speedy wingers. And in the past few matches, we haven't had any on the pitch. Naturally, this has caused quite a few problems. First and most obvious, it's forced us to play very narrowly. All of a sudden a team that is used to almost exclusively attacking quickly down the wings now 30 games into the season has to adjust to a new style of play. That would be difficult to manage even if we had the personnel to adequately play that way. We don't. What's more, by playing so narrowly, the space around Bale in the middle is even more congested than it would be with wide players supporting him. As a result, he becomes even less suited to playing the position than he already is.

But the biggest problem is that not only are we playing a formation we're not equipped to play with players who aren't equipped to play there, in order to force the team into this shape, we're taking players out of positions they're actually very good at. Our best central midfielder and our best fullback have both been shunted wildly out of their comfort zone, all to accommodate Gareth Bale in a position he's not really suited for. Even Gylfi Sigurdsson, who has finally begun looking comfortable occupying Bale's role coming inside from the left, today found himself shoved on the right. The knock-on effect of losing the width we so desperately require has been to fall apart in other areas where we should be perfectly fine. Meanwhile, we have a world class winger on the pitch who could solve all of these problems just by playing the position he's best at.

So to summarize: we have a world class player who, instead of playing the position where he's world class, is playing in a position he's not especially well-suited and in order to accommodate him there we've forced several other players into positions they're not especially well-suited, and meanwhile the only way we can accommodate him actively makes him less suited to the position, all while weakening the side in other places. Nothing about that sentence makes any sense.
Given that the effect Bale has had playing centrally has been minimal, and the cost to both Bale and our team playing without any width has been arguably significant, it's a no-brainer where Bale should be lining up. He wants to be Cristiano Ronaldo? Awesome. Cristiano Ronaldo plays from the left. He cuts inside and scores goals. That's where Gareth Bale should be.

http://www.cartilagefreecaptain.com/2013/3/18/4115934/gareth-bale-tottenham-hotspur-fulham

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The problem is we don't have many clinical goal scorers who can make use of the chances that Bale creates. A good example is Defoe shooting straight at the goalie against Fulham after a great run and pass from Bale. This is why we had to rely on Bale to score himself.

A bit long winded but I agree with the gist of it. Bale predominately left but occasionally through the center or the right wing. It would force Ade into the box more if Bale stayed left too I would think.

 

[indianspur]

Re: Gareth Bale

seems Gareth Bale plays where HE wants

 

[ricky2tricky4city]

Re: Gareth Bale

What the cartilage free captain says makes a lot of sense. It's not really over analytical or complex so i hope the people that matter are re-thinking things along the same lines.

 

[Rossi22]

Re: Gareth Bale

Bale still created our best chance on Sunday.