Article by Armaan VaradarajClich here to follow e-Spurs on Twitter!
Rewind to the 2011/12 Premier league season: Kaboul has the season of his life. That summer, we sign Jan Vertonghen. By all accounts, our central defensive partnership has been locked down for a few seasons at least.
But as anyone who has watched Spurs in the last two seasons will know that is far from the case. A recurring knee injury kept Kaboul out for the whole of the 12/13 season and the first half of last season.
The returning Kaboul has been a shadow of his former self. Although he still possesses the hulking physique and presence on the pitch that made him such an asset just a few years ago, he has lost a yard or two of pace. This is a frequent problem that aging defender have faced and overcome. The likes of Rio Ferdinand, John Terry and William Gallas had to adapt to their changing bodies to stay competitive in the Premier League. All too often last season, we saw Kaboul be the brash and overly adventurous centre back even when partnered by the likes of Zeki Fryers.
We saw that again against West Ham when Kaboul rushed out to stop Carlton Cole, who got the better of him much too easily, leaving the young debutant Eric Dier the responsibility of sweeping up behind him. Kaboul needs to understand, especially now that he is club Captain in all but name, that he is going to have to be the senior player no matter who he partners. He no longer has the pace to recover from an overzealous lunging tackle upfield.
More worryingly, he showed a tendency, last season, to lunge in on players who have outpaced him or outmuscled him in the penalty box leading to two red cards and many more penalties. No matter what Pochettino’s style demands, Kaboul should know his own physical limitations.
With Mateo Mussachio’s move to Tottenham looking more and more unlikely by the day, the onus is on Kaboul to take charge and lead by example.
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I am actually very concerned about lack of personalities in our defence. Solid or even Reliable defences have characters and strong personalities with presence. Since the loss of King from our playing staff we couldn't find another strong character, personality. Almost everyone of the names you mentioned above have that aura about them. We have Dawson as a leader who excelled alongside King but since Kings retirement he is not Dawson of old.Kaboul, Chiriches or even Vertonghen lack that image.
ReplyDeleteKing wasn't a 'character' - great player when fit, but no leader on or off the pitch. King's ability combined with Dawson's heart in a single body would certainly have been quite something - John Terry, maybe?
ReplyDelete