spurs 1-0 chelsea

Last night’s defeat to spurs hurt so much, especially given the run we were on. six wins out of seven for Hiddink hitherto, and many of those wins against pretty decent opposition (Villa, Juve, Wigan). to my mind, this is what i feel was wrong:

1) Complacency: hiddink has come and instilled in the team a confident, winning mentality, and last night was one example of there being too much of that. the players thought they could simply turn up and win, as they did at Man City last week. thing is, at least 18 out of 20 teams in the league won’t roll over like Man City did last week, and last night was a rude wakeup call for the us. passion came about only in the last 20 minutes but it was too little too late against a good side who should be in the top 6 next season.

2) Our formation: snap out of it, and go back to 4-3-3. five of the league’s top six (Chelsea, Liverpool, Arsenal, Villa, Everton) play with a lone striker, with the exception of Man Utd who are (blip aside) exceptional (let's face it) anyway. shoving lampard to the left of midfield is exactly what benitez has tried with gerrard and realised the folly of, and last night he looked lost and clueless. i'm not dismissing outright Chelsea playing with a 4-4-2, and every Chelsea fan and his dog had been clamouring for Anelka and Drogba to be played as a traditional pair, but to do that we'll need to play essien & lampard centrally and have two proper wingers (malouda, belletti and kalou, i'm afraid, all don’t count).

3) Ballack: is legendary. was a great player. but no longer cuts the mustard. i can see Hiddink’s thinking in playing him in the mikel role, for his aerial ability and his famed range of passing. like Pirlo for AC Milan. sadly, these two attributes have not surfaced at all this season, he’s too slow and gets hurried into mistakes, and he surrenders the ball more than a blindfolded mouse. bring back mikel please, if we are to play 4-3-3. he has done nothing to deserve being dropped, he never loses the ball, and does what he says on the can (break up attacks, start our own) unlike bigname ballack. remains to be seen if hiddink has the balls to drop him.

4) Quaresma: brilliant, unlocks defences, can dribble and cross like a real winger should. but with the most attack-minded right back in england (bosingwa) behind him, quaresma has to learn to track back and defend or he’ll never get to play until chelsea get in trouble and desperately need inspiration.

5) Alex: in short, he is not Carvalho. a decent defender on his day but has too many off-days for the number of games he has had to play. case in point, he had two balls that bounced off the pitch and over his head last night, unforgivable for an international defender! lacks pace, and can be found wanting due to his inability to read situations (unlike JT who also isn't the fastest around).