Atouba - Why?

The first really bad performance from a Jol team came on Sunday against Nottingham Forest. We never really got going, scored a lucky goal and then screwed up big time for their equalisier. To be honest we are lucky to have a replay after some of the performances by some of the Spurs players.

We started slowly and got slower. Why Atouba continues to play at left back is beyond me. While some of his defending is ok most of his overall game is a let down. His crossing was generally rubbish with most of his balls being crossed from about the half way line and dropping to Forest defenders, nowhere near any of the Spurs forward players. His inability to clear the ball almost led to a late Forest winner and he was then roundly booed by the Paxton and East Stands. Booing is wrong but Atouba needs to drastically up his game. Someone please tell me why the Swedish defender of the year is being kept out of the team by a clown.

Other players were not much better. Carrick never imposed himself on a Championship team which is something he needs to do if he is going to break the England squad. Kanoute was off the pace and Defoe wasn't much better. Jol did a very od thing as well. When Mido and Keane came on I was convinced that he was replacing the front two. However Ziegler went off and we switched to a 4-3-3, the same 4-3-3 which worked so badly against Portsmouth. We lost all our shape and exposed the woefully bad Atouba even more. We also lacked any width and Keane went up front and Davies slotted into the middle three with Brown and Carrick.

Jol, however, was refeshingly honest and said what was wrong. He didn't hide away and his honesty is one of the reasons why I really like the guy. We are still making amazing progress from where we were in May last year.

I hope this is a temporary blip but with Chelsea now out our chance of appaearing in a final this year is rapidly improving. Newcastle away will not be an easy game but we won't have the chance of playing them if we don't up our game asap.