Ben Triana examines the sport of the Seattle Sounders’ new man, arguing that he by no means actually slot in with Tottenham. Regardless of Dempsey’s spectacular talent stage, he wants the proper scenario to thrive.
BY
Ben Triana
Posted
August 15, 2013
1:57 PM
SHARE THIS STORY
CLINT DEMPSEY is a participant who has confirmed his worth at a excessive stage. He has proven he can rating persistently, is comfy on the ball in tight areas and underneath stress, and might play various positions. The 23 targets scored in his final season with English Premier League aspect Fulham demonstrated his skill, and rightfully earned him consideration from golf equipment with continental aspirations.
However what Tottenham followers got here to study, and what U.S. followers have acknowledged for a very long time, is that Dempsey can disappear for lengthy stretches of video games if the type of play isn’t suited to his strengths. That reality explains why he’s taking part in with the Seattle Sounders and never within the Champions League.
Dempsey doesn’t carry out as properly when having to hold the possession and passing workload for the staff, particularly when he should drop deep to select up the ball. He’s finest off-the-ball. He has an uncanny skill to seek out house in and across the field, shedding defenders, and selecting up trash in and across the purpose. Dempsey can’t do that if he’s an integral piece of the build-up of play. He wants others to maneuver the ball, maintain possession, and provides him time to get into place.
This was not the case at Tottenham, particularly in the direction of the tip of final season. This was partly to do with the Spurs’ personnel and with the popular type of the Spurs’ supervisor, Andre Villas-Boas.
Tottenham got here out in lots of video games trying to play by way of the center. Gareth Bale can be inspired to play centrally barely in entrance and barely wider than the central midfielders which normally consisted of Scott Parker together with some mixture of Sandro, Mousa Dembélé, Gylfi Sigurðsson, Lewis Holtby, and Clint Dempsey, relying on participant choice. Additionally, Emmanuel Adebayor tended to stay to the center, hoping to manage possession by dropping deep and laying the ball off to surging midfielders. Throughout such play, the middle of the sphere may get crowded rapidly.
This was clearly Villas-Boas’ plan. Retain possession, maintain the ball on the bottom, and build-up the assault, arguably a extra Spanish type. The one downside was that this quick-passing-in-crowded-space type didn’t permit Dempsey time without work the ball or the house to slide behind the protection, and for Tottenham, the technique didn’t appear to generate the targets wanted to place decrease groups away and sustain with the 4 groups that completed above them.
Of their final two months of play, which featured seven video games together with fixtures in opposition to Wigan, Southampton, Stoke, and Sunderland, Tottenham scored greater than two targets solely as soon as, and it wasn’t in opposition to any of these groups. (It was in opposition to Manchester Metropolis. The ultimate rating was 3-1 for these preserving observe.) After January of final yr, Tottenham by no means scored greater than three targets in any sport, in any competitors.
Due to these struggles, particularly late within the season, Villas-Boas would change techniques, pushing Bale large—hoping he may lower inside on his left foot and hit a laser, which he typically did, and utilizing Aaron Lennon on the alternative flank. Whereas various folks declare it is a 4-3-3, it’s extra a deal with wider play with the skin midfield pushed up slightly than a change in formation. With Benoît Assou-Ekotto and Kyle Walker as fullback assist, the change appeared to work, and that is in all probability going to be the default strategy for the upcoming season. Final season, this technique labored particularly properly when Jermaine Defoe would exchange Adebayor, which allowed Tottenham to stretch defenses, and as soon as Tom Huddlestone entered the sport, together with his skill to drop forty-yard bombs on a large participant’s foot, Tottenham’s assault actually opened up. (Huddlestone was so efficient at this he earned a beginning position by the tip of the season.)
Sadly, these adjustments didn’t profit Dempsey.
By no means identified for his velocity and having to hold extra midfield duties as Bale and Defoe can be pushed up the sphere, the faster-paced techniques and elevated short-ball, dropping deep, possession and assist associated, midfield duties typically left Dempsey out of place throughout counter-attack runs, and Bale would at all times be the primary choice move within the closing third anyway.
Based mostly on the success of those techniques, the acquisition of Paulinho (a box-to-box midfielder with extra possession, passing and defensive upside than Dempsey) makes excellent sense. Dempsey wasn’t going to be of a lot assist on this 4-5-1/4-3-3 Gareth Bale-focused hybrid, and with the signing of Roberto Soldado, Dempsey was unlikely to see a lot of the sphere alongside the ahead line. The Spurs and Villas-Boas can’t be faulted for this. The very best chance for Tottenham’s futures lies in a system that received’t go well with Dempsey. It was finest for all concerned to half methods.
It’s not that tough to see that Dempsey was going to be a troublesome match for the primary staff. Together with Dempsey, in the course of the summer season, the Spurs bought the aforementioned Adebayor, Sigurðsson, Dembélé, and have been positively anticipating Defoe, Parker, Sandro, Lennon, and Bale to proceed to be first staff gamers.
That is the place personnel dictates play, and Dempsey simply wasn’t going to slot in any formation. If some number of Dembélé, Parker, Adebayor play within the center and Dempsey is compelled to play large, due to his penchant for reducing inside, he wasn’t going to offer the staff the width it wanted. (Early on, this in all probability wasn’t a serious concern contemplating Walker and Assou-Ekotto’s offensive talents.) However extra importantly, this led to a method of play that crowded the center of the sphere.
As an alternative, if the staff opted for Bale and Lennon out large and Dempsey within the center, Dempsey was once more going to be much less efficient as he can be required to contribute to the midfield passing and possession play, and he wouldn’t be the go-to choice within the closing third. Even earlier than the staff took the sphere, Tottenham regarded like a clumsy match for the American, and that is precisely how the scenario performed out.
However Dempsey and Tottenham didn’t need to make this error. All one had to take a look at was Fulham, their personnel and magnificence of play, and one may have requested if Dempsey was a superb match.
At Fulham, Dempsey benefitted from a Danny Murphy/Mousa Dembélé pairing. Each gamers may maintain the ball and distribute, and Damien Duff and Bryan Ruiz had the talent and imaginative and prescient to carry and move as properly. Duff stayed large and Ruiz may lower inside in assist whereas Johan Riise surged ahead from his fullback place. Since Murphy stayed deep, there was extra room for Dempsey to maneuver within the midfield. On the ahead place, since Andrew Johnson was a runner, he may power defenses to remain trustworthy and never stress the dribblers.
In most conditions, Fulham wasn’t prone to push the tempo. In the event that they did, Dempsey may keep larger up the sphere as midfield duties have been left to Murphy, Dembélé, Diaz, and Duff. With the possession, playmaking, and width duties falling to different gamers, and with house within the attacking midfield/withdrawn ahead space, Dempsey thrived. It is a important cause as to why he scored 23 targets.
On the highest stage, Dempsey thrives underneath such particular circumstances associated to formation, type of play, and personnel. He’s a system participant, albeit an exceptionally expert one. Outdoors of that system, his influence is proscribed.
For this reason Dempsey tends to wrestle for the nationwide staff when he has to tackle the vast majority of possession and passing duties, and this is the reason he didn’t produce on the identical stage for Tottenham in 2012-13 as he did for Fulham in 2011-12. And this is the reason Dempsey just isn’t taking part in for a Champions League staff that wants a withdrawn attacker that may slip into the areas opened up by his teammates. For this reason Dempsey is taking part in for Seattle.
Will Dempsey produce at Seattle? In all probability. However when he appears for that European staff when he’s able to exit on mortgage, and for future American gamers, it wouldn’t damage extra folks to ask, “Will this player thrive in this system?”
Ben Triana is a graduate scholar on the College of Kentucky. You’ll be able to attain him right here.
