‘Premier League Unsung Heroes’ Spurs’ Vedran Corluka
Nobody would deny that Tottenham Hotspur have had a blistering start to the Premiership this season and their current position up in third place is well deserved given how well the club are performing. A lot of players are shining for Spurs at the moment and the media are quick to praise the most in-form of players – just a few days ago I wrote about how impressive Spurs left back Benoit Assou-Ekoto has been performing whilst the likes of Aaron Lennon and Jermain Defoe, the players whose contributions make the most obvious difference to the club, have consistently been praised throughout England. Now allow me to bring your attentions to one of the unsung heroes of the club: right back Vedran Corluka.
Spurs have conceded 19 goals in 14 league games so far. It’s not that impressive a defensive record and there are eight other clubs who’ve conceded less so far this season. Yet Spurs continue to do well and that’s for a simple reason: they’re outscoring most opponents. Playing attacking football is always praised and if a team’s capable of doing it then why not produce such entertainment? Spurs may have conceded more than 1 a goal but they’re still winning, keeping out a lot of other chances made against them and have already played all of the Big Four and Aston Villa meaning that a significant number of the toughest games for the club are out of the way.
This defence hasn’t had anywhere near as much praise as Tottenham’s free-firing attack is getting with the exception of Assou-Ekotto who is being praised for his turnaround. Praise for defenders is always harder to come by though and it doesn’t mean they’re any worse than the forward players who are constantly getting praise. Corluka is a player who deserves more notice than he gets – big and strong yet great on the ball with the ability to play anywhere across the back or even as a defensive midfielder, Corluka offers Tottenham a lot. He’s unafraid to push forward and support attacks and he’s regularly getting in front of opposition wingers to block their crosses. Corluka’s a no-nonsense kind of player who strikers hate to play against. Not much of a goalscorer but he’s a defender so that’s not a problem for manager Harry Redknapp and his side.
With defenders an easy way to tell how well they are performing is by how frequently their manager plays them as an off-form defender will usually be dropped pretty quickly. Unless his name’s Rio Ferdinand. Much like Assou-Ekotto has prevented Gareth Bale from getting much playing time at left back, Corluka has kept Scottish international Alan Hutton away from the right back position – making the £9 million shelled out on Hutton look even stupider than it did at the time. Corluka has been a regular at the club since his arrival at the beginning of September 2008 and hardly ever misses a game – something that has remained with him throughout his club career and shown how highly all his employers have valued him.
There has never been much of a trade for Croatian players moving directly from Croatia to an English side but Dinamo had a squad a few years back that contained three extremely good Croatians who did make the move to the Premiership, who are they? Corluka, Luka Modric and Eduardo (ok so he’s Brazilian), all of whom have been successful in the league so far and have showed that signing cheaper players from the smaller leagues is a much better option than splashing out on a temperamental English player who’ll probably just take his big wages and give one good performance every now again in contrast to Charlie’s (To all you non-Spurs fans, that’s Corluka) consistently good performances.
Spurs are never going to be renowned for their defending but then let’s face it – they’re not a club who focus on defending and their strength seems to be in outperforming opposition. Defenders always need to be alert though as opponents can always make chances from nothing and Corluka has been part of a hard-working, efficient defence. He and Assou-Ekotto stand out even more so than the Tottenham centre backs due to their getting forward and joining attacks too. Full backs cover a hell of a lot of ground and have to have endless energy. Corluka has that, and consistency that’s to be admired. If Spurs keep up their good form then obviously their impressive attacking set-up is behind it, but there’s no need to overlook the defenders who have the difficult job of dealing with all sorts of strikers. Corluka makes it look easy though; he’s not necessarily loved by the media but Charlie is loved by the fans – and who better to judge the club’s players than the fans?
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What Corluka gives Spurs is his versatility. He can play all across the back four. Something that Redknapp needs when most of his centre halves are injured!
That’s definitely true David, players with versatility are always extremely useful to have and explain why players like John O’Shea and Belletti have succeeded at big teams despite being limited players
tbh, I don’t think Charlie has been at his best recently but even when he isn’t playing well he manages to be reasonably solid. you talk about his versatility but I really don’t like him at CB – his best position is easily at RB & we are quite vulnerable when he plays in central defence. My biggest issue with Charlie is his total lack of pace.However, it is testament to his skills as both a defender & an attacking wide player that he still manages to nulify the threat of even some of the quickest wingers in the League & manages to get forward regularly to support Lennon without leaving us open to counter-attack