One man that has come in for intense criticism is Dean Richards, the former Southampton defender signed by Glenn Hoddle for £8m in September 2001. Richards has played all 360 minutes of the last four manic Spurs games, and was heavily jeered during the 4-3 win of Portsmouth. It may well be harsh to single out one man for criticism but rumours that Richards rarely trains due to a recurring knee injury and his ability to make it look as if he is running through glue with doc martens on has added fuel to his doubters fire. When he arrived at White Hart Lane, none could have denied that the one-time Wolverhamtpon Wanderers defender was a possible future England defender. He was soild, quick and seemed to be a leader. Now, he is a nervous defender that lacks pace and crucially it seems, the leadership skills. When Gary Doherty and Anthony Gardner play alongside each other there seems to be an understanding and assertiveness that allows the rest of the team to play with a greater deal of confidence, but for some reason, when one of the aforementioned pair is put in with Richards, all hell breaks loose and the defence looks nervous and full of holes.
There seems to be only one answer to the current defensive crisis that is occuring, and that is the return of Ledley King into the back line. King, who excelled, and scored, in England's one-all draw against Portugal last week, has been playing out of position in a central midfield role that he has admitted to disliking. King does not have the attributes to be a holding midfielder, while his strengths as a centre-half are almost as good as any in the division. The Keane's and Vieira's have pace, power and drive in their locker, something that King lacks. David Pleat needs to recognise this and stop believing that King is the man to fill the void in front of the defence. New signing Michael Brown has shown that he has more than enough ability to play in that role, something that Pleat should also take time to think about. He has 15 days until the next fixture, that is 15 days of thinking time. It should not take that long to work things out.