Thread: Bentley bentley bentley...

Originally Posted by basskadet

After this thread I specifically got out the Olympiacos game from the other night & watched it over & ffs some people are harsh on Bentley!!


I made a point of watching nobody else but him & he was very good, even in the 1st half. In the first 10 min he landed the ball bang on Crouch's head perfectly & Crouch should've scored. He did it gain minutes later from a corner, bang onto Crouch's head. The 1st Crouch headed well over & the second he headed into the ground. Considering he had only played 60min of pre-season football, against Exeter, he was alive, delivered some really dangerous balls into the box & nearly got onto a couple himself. He was first to the ball often when challenging (except on 41min when he tried to challenge for a bouncing ball but fell over just outside our box as Olympiacos attacked, but at least he was tracking back at all) & was first to pick up any loose balls in midfield & barely gave the ball away once. There were a couple occasions when he was tackled or his pass was blocked but it was only in completely safe situations & each time the ball went out of play & back into Spurs possession. I only counted 3 occasions where he made crosses he could really be criticised for. The 1st was around 8min in when he tried to cross from too deep & it was blocked by the 1st man. However, the ball went out for a corner which Bentley took & he put it right on Crouchy's head (the 2nd Crouch chance that I mentioned above) & the other time was just after 13min when he again crossed from too deep & stuck it in row 'Z' behind the goal. However, even criticising him for the latter is harsh as he had just pegged it across the pitch so that he could be the first to pick up on a loose ball whilst we were on the attack & was just trying to deliver it quickly into the box. The 3rd was a free kick on about 38min that was about 40yds out on the touchline & it was hit high & deep by Bentley & the goalkeeper took it well. It was actually good goalkeeping rather than something you can have a go at Bentley for because if you watch the flight of the ball, it was headed once again right for Crouch who was lurking just behind the keeper, who had come quite far out of his goal to claim it. Just after 52min he tries a 50 yd pass that is about 4ft short & is easily picked up by the defender. Again, if you were being harsh, you could criticise him for it but you can see what he was trying & had it been just a few feet over then we would have been able to break very quickly.

In the first half everything really good came down the right. There were plenty of players who overhit way more passes than Bentley & , like I say, I only spotted those few occasions in the whole 70min he played & he was fairly heavily involved. I would even say that he was, along with O'Hara, head & shoulders our best attacking player in the 1st half (which isn't saying much, lol)

Its funny, we & the commentators all thought he played better in the 2nd half but he actually played just as well for the whole game, its just the other players around him were playing better. So, when in the 1st half Bentley on around 30min would come more centrally & do a nice, 1st time, back heeled flick thru to Keano, which should've put Keano thru on goal but instead he completely wastes it, nobody remembers or even really notices at all. He does the same in the 2nd half but because he links up with Pav & Lennon who were both playing well, it was more memorable . The main difference was he had 2 shots in the 2nd half, one not so good the other OK but off target. You can't have a go at him for taking either on tho, they were both there to be hit & if he was a little bit sharper he would've struck them much better.

On about 56min he delivers a deep corner that Bassong won & then just a couple minutes later, after some quick thinking by Bentley, he delivers a cracking little cross into Defoe which, altho just offside, could easily have been 1 nil. He put another decent deep cross in a couple minutes after that also had the goalkeeper scrabbling for it but there was no Spurs player challenging for some reason. Hardly Bentley's fault tho.

If he plays like that every time he plays for us things will start to go his way again & people will start to realise that, actually, he is giving the ball away & overhitting crosses far less than we are criticising him for. If he continues to play like that & we carry on getting on his case then there is nothing the lad can do except turn into Maradona.

Seriously, anyone who recorded the Olympiacos game, please, please watch it over & just watch No.5, David Bentley, & then try & tell me he is useless & every cross goes out of play. I'm sure you will agree with everything I've said. I'm not saying he played a blinder at all but he was absolutely not worthy of some of the ridiculous criticism in this thread.

Just to say finally, when he was subbed he even glances at Harry & gives a little nod before going down the tunnel & his 'body language' is hardly negative as he hi-5's everyone down the tunnel

(Incidentally, after Bentley went off I made a point of focussing on Boateng & he looked a completely different player than he has before. Much more mature & he did not put a foot wrong.)

Well put post this...agreed with most of it..