Getting Bale'd Out: How #3 is Leading Tottenham's Charge Towards #1

There was a sliver of time in late August when a Spurs top 4 finish was almost laughable to the healthy majority of fans, pundits, and players not named Van Der Vaart. As the last week of August burned to the filter Luka Modric looked certain to end his saga with a blockbuster move to Chelsea after refusing to play in Tottenham's opener, a dreadful 3-0 trouncing to United.

Meanwhile, August 31st was just hours away and Scott Parker was in a tight race with the Chilean Miners to see who could have the worst summer ever. He may have enjoyed his summer more had he actually been stuck in a mine; instead he was forced to watch a league of idiots chase N`Gog, Thibaud Courtois, and Joey Barton, irrespective of his Player of The Year honor.

Flash forward five months and Tottenham hold a Champions League spot above 4th place Chelsea. After narrowly avoiding a catastrophic summer window the Spurs are tearing through the campaign and knocking on Manchester's door for the title. As the team gels together key performances are spilling out the sides, led by the performances of:

• Scott Parker - You don't win this many games with a leaky valve sitting just in front of your defensive 4. Parker is the gunk that drain-o can't punch through. He is the hungriest hippo. For every 100 players who stand in a wall and turn away at the last second, like sensible human beings, there is 1 Scott Parker.  (Honorable mention to John Terry for this related effort)
• Emmanuel Adebayor - Criticized for being lazy and poisonous to dressing rooms elsewhere, the gamble paid off and Manu is flying. The Togolese big man looks like the black Kuyt sometimes when he closes down hard and hustles deep into his own half to win balls. He also has 9 goals and 6 assists in 19 games, not bad for a guy forced to train with the youth team at City. 
• Jermain Defoe - I love Jermain. It's really a shame he doesn't get to play every week but there's a chance his lack of time fuels this fire he's got going right now. 7 goals from 19 shots on target in 8 starts...him and Berbatov probably drunk dial each other on game nights when they're both left out of their squads.  
• Luka Modric - After delicately removing his head from his ass the Croatian found a way to bring his game back like nothing happened. That's huge for a player who's debatably worth $40 million when he starts slinging balls to his teammates all over the pitch. 
• Van Der Vaart - Spurs possess blazing speed in almost every attacking position...except when Van Der Vaart plays. Fortunate for Spurs he's probably more accurate from 50 yards with his long ball than I am with rifle. 7 goals and 4 assists is almost surprising considering VDV has to start running 30 seconds in advance to stay up with a play when Tottenham counter. 

...and then there's Gareth Bale 

After 24 league matches played without a win between 2008-2009 Tottenham fans were begging Harry Redknapp to leave Gareth Bale out of their team. He had been dispatched as a fullback in those days and could not buy a W while on the pitch. Luckily for Spurs fans and Gareth Bale those days are over and greener pastures are surely here.

Bale has already surpassed his Premier League numbers from 2010-2011 in his first 21 games of the 11-12 season. He has scored 7 times with 7 assists to match, compared to the 7 goals and 1 assist he produced a year ago. It seems his increased production has to do with the less traditional, more free roaming role Redknapp has allowed him to take in Tottenham's attack.

Top: Passes vs Birmingham             Bottom: Passes vs Bolton (2011)                                                                                     Blue = complete pass         Red = incomplete pass.

The increased freedom of Bale's role in Tottenham's attack can be seen in the chalkboards above. The top diagram shows Bale's passed 22 times successfully and 20 times unsuccessfully against Bolton in December, 2010. The bottom diagram shows Bale a year later in December 2011 passing 37 times successfully with 10 incomplete passes. The next diagram shows a heatmap of his activity during these two games. 

Top: Bale vs Birmingham (2010)           Bottom: Bale vs Bolton (2011)

The diagrams show that a year ago Bale's activity was focused almost exclusively on the left wing. This season he has been given the green light to move through the center of the pitch and explore new ways to get at goal. Compare the square of boxes in the heatmap just above midfield. In 2010 vs Birmingham Bale operated in that central area of the pitch only %3 of the game. In 2011 vs Bolton that space accounted for %28 of his activity. For a player as fast, powerful and skilled as Bale, this is where he should be operating in order for Spurs to win games.