Genial Harry escapes media rout

At Anfield on Wednesday evening a team that cost somewhere in the region of £50 million more than their opponents looked - despite their vast richness of playing resources - very ordinary indeed.

They were beaten by a team minus what are said to be its few players of star quality. One led by a locally produced player who cost nothing and fists pumping ensured his team prevailed through little more than their spirit and no small measure of tenacity.

Their resolve mirrored the fervour of support shown outside the ground by fans greeting the team bus as it pulled towards the Shankly Gates. Then inside well before kick-off.

Tottenham have been the cause célèbre of those hoping that the Premier League's current order is broken up and despite leanings towards others such as Martin O'Neill perhaps their coverage after Wednesday evening continues to prove that. As a remaining focus remains largely on rights and wrongs of Jermain Defoe's disallowed goal.

It should without doubt have been the best chance Spurs have had to land a blow on one of the 'Big Four.'

As Redknapp himself confessed despite Steven Gerrard, Fernando Torres, Glen Johnson, Daniel Agger and Yossi Benayoun being absent from a team which has been down on its luck there was no better opportunity.

However, as they have so often - most notably at Old Trafford last term when the referee was ironically Howard Webb - Spurs failed to produce.

The charges relating to the match at Anfield are not isolated ones. This is the same manager who in the first transfer window he had available as Tottenham boss brought a clutch of players his club had previously dispensed with back then allowed a number to leave just six months later.

One of those, Robbie Keane, was re-signed despite never appearing to be a natural fit with someone already had on the books Luka Modric. Not looking to bring Keane back would have saved money which would have proved useful right now at White Hart Lane where an extra body is needed in attack.

Keane and Modric are as he is now forced to confess by omission or playing one or the other out of position far too similar in styles.

Each are probably at their best when asked to link play - in other words operating between the lines of midfield and attack. They simply cannot be accommodated in the same XI and when they are the whole balance of a side is affected.

Turfing Keane out of the central position at least one member of the Redknapp family is on record as stating he should always occupy is the type of managerial decision Rafael Benitez received criticism for during Keane's time with Liverpool.

Though little is made of the issue now.

A simple reason for brick-bats being in short supply should be simply that the Irishman is not playing well. But that mere act may not have saved a previous manager a bashing.

Defoe and Peter Crouch were not particularly effective at Anfield but as the only front pairing that have anything like an understanding were obvious forward options against the Reds who fielded a team selected and primed to contain the little and large show.

If Keane had been given a start, and indeed as happened when he was introduced as a substitute, the restrictions he places on his own side would have made the job easier. His throwing on during the second half made no difference to Spurs at all.

The pace of attack Tottenham have shown when the Defoe/Crouch partnership has been used has helped them reach the place currently occupied but as proved by the match with Liverpool it is taken away by Keane who by his very role in the side slows things down.

A touch - although usually two or more - is taken before he looks to take a defender on or use the guile he has to beat them. Despite working to great effect with Dimitar Berbatov when paired with the Bulgarian it has failed to come off for him this season.

Keane's treatment by Liverpool is immaterial so any attempt to use it in mitigation fails.

There is it appears from Harry Redknapp an inability to get tactical issues and selections right in games where his teams needs to do more than just find a way through a defence by Aaron Lennon's pace.

Spurs have gone through players with the speed a teenage boy finishes a box of Kleenex.

Rotations when made due to the sheer number of professionals in the squad means that a team playing well is often changed merely to ensure certain individuals are given starts.

For example immediately after beating a decent Everton side late last year the starting XI is tinkered with and Spurs lost to Wolves.

Huge sums of money have been spent on youngsters such as Kyle Walker and John Bostock - all with huge promise - but who have simply been swallowed by the system at White Hart Lane. Some though not all of those in a similar situation to those names are currently out on loan to weaker clubs than the ones they joined from.

That could from another manager be considered as damaging to their fledging careers. Harry escapes censure.

Aside from this players have been publicly humiliated while journalists taking down the quotes laugh along though never question the man-management involved.

Others were purchased despite patchy injury records and have struggled to make regular appearances since.

Yet none of this seems to gain a mention in the newspapers while TV and radio broadcasters fawn over the job Redknapp has done since taking charge in North London.

There is of course never a shortage of pundits keen to remind anyone that he took over a side bottom of the table to the fringes of European football within little more than half a year and that now they stand on the cusp of that much coveted top four space.

No matter how much money has been spent Spurs through poor tactics and player selection are the side most likely to drop out of the battle to go fourth. There will most likely be no Champions League football down Bill Nicholson Way - not with this squad and possibly not with Redknapp in charge.

He is a good manager - little question about that - but has enjoyed the sort of luck the papers would certainly make a point of if it was experienced by one of their whipping boys.

His good press is down to a personable character and willingness to always provide quotes which sits well with the media. He may be genial but isn’t a genius.