Michael Dawson and T-Rexes Are Equally Good at Defense.

Both Jonathann and I will tell you that we think dinosaurs are pretty cool. Jaws rowed with razor-like teeth, bodies studded with horns and spikes, pulsating muscles - I was going to punctuate that by typing RAWR, but that looks kind of lame. Anyway, they're pretty fierce, and T-rexes were some of the fiercest dinos out there. They're believed to be the strongest meat-eating 'saurs. But if you were a smaller, quicker dino, and you attacked a T-rex, well... it might just look silly trying to fight you off before it succumbed. I mean, what is it going to do? Swing and miss with its oversized head? Flail about with its practically vestigial arms? Certainly it couldn't run away from you. DESPITE the ending to Jurassic Park, I declare: a T-rex is no match for a couple of velociraptors.
















Jonathann and I are also united in our love for Tottenham Hotspur, one of the highest scoring and most exciting teams in the English Premier League. The problem is that their games end up being more exciting for the opposition thanks to Tottenham's poor defense. Time and time again this season, Spurs have blown leads thanks to absolutely incompetent defending. The return of the masterful Ledley King from injury has helped somewhat, but more than anything it has highlighted the failure of Spurs' other center halves to live up to a reasonable standard. Michael Dawson partnered with King two seasons ago and looked fantastic. Indeed, it looked like King and Dawson might be the partnership of the future for the English National Team. Unfortunately that idea ignored the fact that Dawson is a crap defender who is utterly useless to any team with any trophy aspirations in England.

He is constantly out of position. He misses balls in the air and on the ground and fails to recover. He's slow. He just can't stay with opponents who have any speed, and all he can do is swing his oversized mug as they fly by. Occasionally, like in last weekend's FA Cup tie against Manchester United, he'll do something incredibly stupid to try to recover, costing the team dearly. He's big and strong, and fairly useful on set pieces on offense, but defensively, Michael Dawson is basically a T-rex who is useless against any and all raptor-like opponents.






















Luckily, we Spurs fans don't have to suffer much longer. Juande Ramos has proved himself to be a master of in-game adjustments, and he now is proving to be just as adroit in the transfer market. Scoring the talented Jonathan Woodgate from Boro is a masterstroke, provided that Woodgate and King, both of whom can be called Mr. Glass, can stay healthy. Put those two together and you have a legitimate all-England centerback tandem. In addition, the signings of Alan Hutton (possibly the biggest signing ever from Scotland!!!) and Chris Gunter provided added depth on the wings. Injuries have ravaged the Spurs backline this season, forcing players to play out of position far too often. The returns of Gareth Bale (!) and Ricardo Rocha in the coming weeks will further bolster the defense. When everyone is healthy, you'll have:

fullback: Chimbonda, Bale, Hutton, Lee, Gunter
halfback: King, Woodgate, Dawson, Kaboul, Rocha

That's depth AND frontline talent. The starting backline of Chimbo, Woodgate, King, and Bale will stop the bleeding, and with Bale manning the left flank, the ball may not even ever make it back to the defense. One can only wonder what might have been had we had this defense all season long... but hopefully it can lead us to some cup glory in what remains of the season.