He plays with confidence but his mistake cost us dearly at the end of the Besiktas game. Liam Keyes ponders what we can do with Vlad Chiriches.
How do you solve a problem like Chiriches?
Having plied his trade in Romania, Vlad Chiriches was largely an unknown quantity when he joined Tottenham, but the young defender soon established himself as an exciting prospect. Yes, he made the occasional mistake but his self-assurance, crunching tackles and comfort in possession made him an attracting option at centre back.
However a year later, and without the excuse of it being his debut season, he still seems determined to play the game at his own relaxing-training-session tempo, even as the last defender. When it comes off it looks spectacular, but the trouble is that he takes audacious risks which the manager would even moan at his strikers for. Ball-playing defenders may be in vogue but his self-made errors often bring an unwanted precariousness to a backline already more than capable of messing things up.
In recent years, there’ve been many Tottenham players (usually full backs for some reason) who seem to have a mistake in them, but none are as palpitation-inducing at Chiriches. He may seem to play with an absolute self-belief in his own ability, but his style of play doesn’t instil confidence, it does the opposite: for fans and team-mates alike.
[linequote]In recent years, there’ve been many Tottenham players who seem to have a mistake in them, but none are as palpitation-inducing at Chiriches.[/linequote]
Even more so than Szczesny at Arsenal, it’s as though he gets bored easily, leading to wanton risk taking at the expense of keeping things simple and you can normally tell around the five minute mark whether Chiriches is going to have one of those games or not. Not letting mistakes shake your confidence is a good trait to possess, but not if it means that you feel the need to always over-elaborate in an effort to make amends. His thought process often seems to go something like: “I only just managed to play out from the back against the striker, so I’ll prove myself by playing out after a corner with six opposing players in my box: that’ll show them”.
For every goal threat prevented through a piece of individual skill, there’s a last-ditch recovering tackle, an intervention from a team mate or a scrappily-hoofed volley out of play after five seconds of dilly-dallying. A messily-restored equilibrium cannot negate the fact that the same result could have been achieved with a time-saving pass in the first place.
Even when the extravagant is pulled off, it’s not enough to make fans necessarily coo in admiration. They may be impressed, but if the potential danger was self-made and just as likely to go wrong next time then the initial oh-god-what’s-he-doing-now anxiety is what will be remembered. This is perhaps why Chiriches’ reputation for taking game-changing risks has been cemented despite the fact that until his handball against Besiktas, relatively few of his mistakes had lead directly to goals.
Once your reputation as a potential liability is forged, you’re at the mercy of commentators and fans, with every mistake highlighted and every piece of quality defending overlooked. His vital interception moments before his handball will be forgotten because defenders only have to screw up once for it to be immortalised on MOTD and there’s nothing easier to scapegoat than a careless defender, especially one who tends to make three or four mistakes a game.
David Luiz can certainly attest to that and Chiriches could also benefit from being moved into midfield in order to curtail his penalty box bravado. And yet the logic that midfield is better for mistake-addled defenders because they can do less damage is a foolish one; Tottenham have enough quality in midfield that they don’t have to shoe-horn unreliable players into the starting XI.
Unfortunately for Chiriches, central defence is also a well-stocked position. It would be disappointing for him to depart (as it seemed he would last summer) because he does have massive potential as he showed against Manchester United last season but each poor game is pushing him further towards the door.
[linequote]Each poor game is pushing him further towards the door[/linequote]
He suffers from a “necessary experience” causal-chain paradox whereby he needs (more) time to adapt to the Premier League but (i) he might be fifth choice centre back and so unlikely to get a prolonged run out and (ii) his low place in the pecking order is often validated even when he does get a chance. You’d have to assume that his performances against WBA and Besiktas in consecutive games would probably have burned themselves onto Pochettino’s retinas.
Being consistently average is hardly something to aspire to, and it’s unlikely to make you break into the first team at the expense of one of Vertonghen, Fazio, Kaboul or Dier but for Chiriches it would be a move in the right direction. He doesn’t need to completely iron out his risk-taking because it sets him apart from others and we’ve moved on from defenders only being expected to make sixty-yard “passes”.
But at the moment, his tendency to play as though he’s a PE teacher taking on primary school children isn’t doing him any favours. If he can add some composure to his game and not Chiriches-type composure but actual composure, then he can still make it in the Premier League or alternatively Tottenham can sell him to PSG for £50 million.
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17 Comments
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06/10/2014 @ 5:57 pm
Good write up.
I agree that while decent on the ball, he is too accident prone, and with such fine margins when it comes to competing at our sort of level, we can’t afford to allow him to cost us 5, 10, 15 points a season.
We have more reliable options at CB – a trait which I’d want in whoever played that position, so I think his time at the club may be limited.
I’m sure he’ll go somewhere else and prove us all wrong.
This was great too btw – “his tendency to play as though he’s a PE teacher taking on primary school children” – and had me in stitches.
07/10/2014 @ 5:58 pm
Haha thanks glad to hear it.
I want to like him but after the fortnight or so that he’s had, he’s probably played himself out of contention for good and rightly so. If it was just one misplaced pass a game then fair enough, but it seems to be about three and then the same again in dodgy attempts at defending.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen a player like him.
06/10/2014 @ 6:17 pm
sell him! or give him away!!
06/10/2014 @ 6:32 pm
Murder isnt legal so and he’s in the EU so can stay in the country. Maybe a small push down the ecalators on the underground. He is the worst CB to wear a Spurs shirt and I cant think of many worse in The Prem…..Ever! People say he makes last ditch saving tackles at times. These are ALWAYS to cover him giving the ball away or missing a ball.
06/10/2014 @ 7:09 pm
He’s made a couple of mistakes and you want to push him down the escalators and you talk about Murder. Jesus mate, I think you need to get back on the tablets.
‘Murder isnt legal so and he’s in the EU so can stay in the country’ ????????????????
06/10/2014 @ 7:19 pm
It’a a joke FatherJack. Loosen up a little. Jesus
06/10/2014 @ 6:52 pm
Answer is simple – move him to right back, we seem to be churning through those at the moment. He’d probably be quite good…
06/10/2014 @ 7:09 pm
Or maybe get hit by the RB curse and do us a favour haha(Only messing people .I never wish injury)
06/10/2014 @ 7:29 pm
Sure, “Morgan”. Sure you don’t.
06/10/2014 @ 7:39 pm
No I dont. Really. People need to lighten up a little. These kind of pages uses to be a laugh. You used to be able to make comments and have a dig or a laugh and people didnt get all touchy and take it all so serious. I tell you what. Why dont we have a list of posts that Billy and FatherJack like and we can pick from them when posting. I re state(the bit you moaning girls missed out on) .The guy is the worse CB we have ever had at the club.
07/10/2014 @ 12:10 pm
Relax man. Relax. Plus you’ve misunderstood me terribly.
Morgan as in Morgan Sneiderlin joke. He’s bitter cos he didn’t get his move to Spurs.
Seems like you’re the moaning girl.
07/10/2014 @ 12:18 am
The folks at Steau Bucharest pulled a fast one on Baldini and Levy. They were like kids in a candy store, they couldn’t wait to spend the money off selling Bale. To think we sold Dawson to keep this broken wind-up toy soldier. What was Poch thinking after the West Brom debacle? Sherwood was right to freeze Chiriçhes out of the lineup because he was piss poor at defending and too unnecessary risks that caused others to clean up his mess. On top of that the bloke is captain of the Romanian National Team…what a time we live in!
07/10/2014 @ 2:19 am
Steau would have been laughing all the way to the bank when we payed 8million quid for this donkey. Biggest waste of money ever. Sooner we send him back to Romanian 3rd division the better
07/10/2014 @ 12:19 am
*took
07/10/2014 @ 2:49 am
Given Naughton looks like he will be out for 3 months and we cannot recall Fredericks or Yedlin before January window, let Dier play RB in the PL games and Chiriches RB in the cup games. Perhaps a run of play can help him get his head back together and furthermore, it may allow us to sell him in January if he sees some consistent play time.
07/10/2014 @ 9:53 am
Still trying to work out him playing against WBA with Vertongen on bench. Potch needs to replay that match over and over again. What a mistake, never suffered so much as a result of the complete lack of awareness or desire from Chiriches. It was not simply relaxed attitude but rank bad defending from a poor centre back that would struggle for a place in most prem teams. Continually out of position, continually wrong side, tried stuff with weaker foot when didn’t need to. Terrible move him on. I sat there listening to the boos four games in. He has to be sold in January.
08/10/2014 @ 11:14 am
Great article Liam.
I actually don’t see that much confidence in him though. Any defender who constantly makes last ditch efforts against his opponent by tugging at his shirt (which he has been very lucky to get away with since the start of last season) once he’s realised he has no other way of beating his man betrays a lack of confidence in his ability, to my mind. I think your assumption is right in that it always seems like he’s trying to compensate for his mistakes by attempting something better next time, in the hope that the fans will get off his back. But often this results in just compounding his errors.