Spurs are strong favourites to win away at NEC Nijmegen on Thursday night, although their opponents are claiming that the North London club’s brand of football is very predictable. Surely they will have no problems stopping them then!
The Guardian reports that Mario Been (that’s right Mr Been), the NEC coach, reckons that Tottenham are long-ball merchants under Harry Redknapp. He has therefore been preparing his team to deal with this fictional aerial assault that he’s expecting to see from a team who are blessed with more skilful midfielders than most.
“[Tottenham] play a type of football that is predictable,” said the Dutch coach, whose side are eighth in the Eredivisie but unbeaten at home. “When we see the DVDs, what we see is that they try to play the long ball and then the game starts from the midfield. We are prepared for that.”
“I wouldn’t know what a long-ball team is,” responded Redknapp, who seemed taken aback at claims from Mario Been, the NEC Nijmegen coach, that Tottenham are “predictable”.
A win for Tottenham would pretty much guarantee them a place in the last 32 stage of the UEFA Cup, something which appeared to be a distant prospect after Spurs lost 2-0 at Udinese in the first match. Does anyone really think that they are a long ball team? They’ve have been called many derogatory things this season, but this is a first surely?
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