At first there was Carrick, then there was Modric, now there is Nabil Bentaleb!
Alright, that's perhaps just a tad premature. He looks a great talent though! And at barely 19 he looks very comfortable playing in the Premier League, under pressure, in a central, deep midfield role. That's rare! I cannot wait to see more of this kid, so far it's been a delight to watch him play football.
Eriksen on Bentaleb after the match:
"When I first came I heard some of the stories of the youth players and it was always him that got mentioned so I knew he was a big talent, and now he shows how good he is and I enjoy playing with him."
http://www1.skysports.com/football/live/match/287495/video
If that really was as obvious as that wouldn't it be pretty clear that Bentaleb wouldn't have started games ahead of Capoue?
He doesn't deserve to get dropped, but way beyond what he deserves or doesn't (the important thing is the team, not what a player deserves) he gives us something the other central options don't. He gives us passing tempo, he moves the ball with purpose, one and two touch passes that actually make sense. He does this way better than Sandro, Dembele, Paulinho and Capoue. By offering something different to them at a high level in his passing, and that is something Sherwood has explicitly and repeatedly stated that is a priority, he puts himself in contention for sure.
He crossed the 100 attempted passes mark today, I would be surprised if anyone can name a player doing that for us in a league game since Modric left. That in itself isn't a big whoop, anyone can make useless backwards passes if given the ball. But Bentaleb did so with some purpose and intelligence, what's more he got the ball by moving into space and wanting the ball much more than any other of our 4 "big" central midfield players have this season.
http://epl.squawka.com/tottenham-ho...-2014/english-barclays-premier-league/matches
In the first half of football where we were outclassed Bentaleb completed 48 out of 52 attempted passes. We might have been dominated as a team, but we weren't dominated because of Bentaleb we were dominated despite Bentaleb. If the rest of the players had shown his willingness to move into space and make passes we would have done a hell of a lot better.
Palace were good and played some good football, but it's not like they walked through our central midfield. Most of their chances came by direct balls up to their strikers that our centre backs failed to deal with or from play on the flanks. No doubt young Bentaleb wasn't as good defensively as Sandro, most likely he never will be, but that's not his game. His game is the Spurs game, he's at his best when we have possession and he makes us a better team when in possession.
He was not outclassed today, in the first half he was the only positive (apart from us somehow not conceding). He wasn't even outclassed against Arsenal, outnumbered - yes, but not outclassed.
Edit: Just to add, on the point of completing 48 out of 52 passes in that first half. We've seen matches this season (and previous) where none of our (sometimes 3) central midfielders have managed that in entire games. Bentaleb did that in 45 minutes, in a game where we were outplayed. Now, passes completed isn't the end all be all of stats, it's just one piece of information. But it certainly says something about willingness to get involved and movement. Both things we've lacked throughout this season I think.
But I'm sticking to it!
