Routledge

[PoshSpur]

If any of you watched the Pompy game on Saturday, then you all would have been truly happy with the away win, the first of 2005.

Because of this delight, you may have missed the fact that our new right winger Wayne Routledge played the invisible man after 7 minutes.

He had one shot on goal, which was very well saved. But after that, he disappeared.

I did state in previous posts that Routledge is a very inconsistant player, only to be told otherwise by Stu (nothing new there then).

We can expect this to happen a lot (as well as Stu disagreeing with me). Routledge will play some games and absolutely terrorize the defence of the side we are up against, but in others, you will be asking if we really do have 11 men out on the field.

Does anyone agree that Routledge may be a tad too inconsistant?

[sendorange]

He was being very carefully marked by Portsmouth, the team should have done a better job of exploiting that by taking advantage of the added space.

However it is true that he will be inconsistent, that's the way it is with most young players, especially attacking ones. Consistency will come with experience and the more games he plays.

[Danners9]

He's still young, it was his first game and he was used to playing in a lower class (even though they beat us) team to ours where there was a lot more pressure not to make mistakes.

With us there will be that pressure but also more players around capable of covering, he will get freedom and will probably LOVE home games when the crowd get right behind him.

With wingers inconsistency does seem to be the common factor, Beckham and Giggs at Man U are very much exceptions but it's a lot of hit and miss. I think Routledge will be more hit than miss in the coming months though.

[Lillywhite]

It might be an idea to stick Tainio on the right for away games or use the gorgeous 4-3-3 formation with keane and defoe either side of Mido. :D hehe. Routledge needs time yet. He hasn't played at this level very long and is young. He'll come good over time.

[metropolis2k]

Sendorange has it right. He was extremely tightly marked. They obviously saw him as the main danger and had at least 2 men on him the whole time. You could see Tainio and Reid had a lot more freedom because of that and we may them pay that way. Reid had space to put a lot of balls in the box and Tainio just had space to run into (like what happened with the goal).

I think Routledge is a great player and can only get better this season.

[cdmphy]

He's more consistent than your spelling. Sorry, I had to :P

[THFC1]

He'll be alright, at last we have a proper tricky winger now. This is only his 2nd Premiership season, he is still learning the game.

[Rmort99]

He'll perform better in home games. With the crowd urging him to take on his full-back and Carrick more eager to pick him him out i'm sure we'll see a significant improvement. He won't be asked to defend quite as much and we'll use his pace to stretch teams. He's young and will get better.

Perhaps a little inconsitant so far but we've only played one game. He was pretty consitant for Palace

[jumhed]

Yes he is....I mean no, he isn't! I don't know, I'm so confused.

No I'm not!

[PoshSpur]

I hope Spurs fans don't get on his back.

[THFC1]

I hope not or they will have me to answer to :p

[DigitalTron]

I'm not his biggest fan, and yes I do agree that he's inconsistent, but being that it was the first game of the season, he's settling with a new team and gameplan, playing away from home, and still getting used to his new situation, I am not surprised that he did poorly. Heck, I doubt he slept the night before.

As with all young players they get better by playing. So since we've invested in Wayne, I say we need to invest more playing time, because without that, we've wasted our investment. He certainly possesses the skills to excel in the Premiership, and last season he did quite well. I do not predict a sophmore slump, but I do think he'll grow into his role with Spurs.

-Digital

[CelticOnFire]

Dont know. He seems to be a tricky winger though. He will cause a lot of problems on the wing.

[PoshSpur]

He will, but I hope he does it more often than not.

[OrlandoSPUR]

I hope not or they will have me to answer to :p

..well you will be in the Park Lane on Saturday, so if the boo boys start on him, Stu you know what to do.

This was my fear about Routledge befoe he signed, but he's still a kid, and is about 4 years from his prime. As long he puts in an effort each time he puts on a Tottenham shirt thats what matters to me, he needs to learn to do the simple things, it's plain to see that he has talent, Christiano Ronaldo and Joe Cole have sub par performances and then other times they look like world beaters, so why not our diminutive winger? Come on, it was his first meaningful game for Spurs, get off his back. We as fans as always are too expectant. I reckon he and Lennon are what we need on the right, they have what we've been have crying out for PACE.

However, I agree that when we're away Teemu would be a more solid answer.
I expect Routledge to be a different proposition at the Lane.

[PoshSpur]

Someone earlier said that we should use Tainio in away games. I totally agree with that comment. Just until Wayne has the experience.

It's not like he shouldn't play at all in away games. I would bring him on to sit in the hole behind the strikers if we needed to attack, or as a striker himself.

He has pace, and pace in football is the ultimate advantage.

[Rmort99]

With someone like Routledge, the team needs to understand when he's gonna be making runs behind the full back and he needs to understand when that ball's gonna be played in behind for him. As with last year the team needs to gel a bit but i reckon Routledge is gonna be pushing SWP for a seat on the plane to germany come the summer. The guy's got talent and i'll be very surprised if anyone boos the lad this year. Shame on them if they do as they clearly don't understand the game

[DigitalTron]

Christiano Ronaldo and Joe Cole have sub par performances and then other times they look like world beaters, so why not our diminutive winger?

You know, now that you mention it we really are building a squad where almost every player has either good size, good speed, or both. Sure, they come with the requisite skill, but physically we're beginning to match up with the more difficult squads in the Premiership. Gone are the lumbering behemoths and tricky but small and slow creators. This physical makeup should allow us to hang in games even when we're off form. :)

-Digital

[THFC1]

..well you will be in the Park Lane on Saturday, so if the boo boys start on him, Stu you know what to do.


Yeah im in the Park Lane but the people in their are nutters so i think i will leave them alone :p

[OrlandoSPUR]

Yeah im in the Park Lane but the people in their are nutters so i think i will leave them alone :p

...that's the best place you can be. I remember sitting/standing in the Park lane Lower near the drummer in the shelf for a couple of North London derby's. When Graham was still the scum manager, and everyone was holding 10 pound notes, singing Graham likes a bung, and Merson down the line. ahhh the memories.