i am officially concerned by juande ramos

so that's now two in a row for spurs.

two losses and two poor performances.

ramos was quick to blame berbatov for the rather depressing defeat to a team who will finish mid-table at best this season, but i think jonathan woodgate may have been a bit more accurate with his appraisal of the situation:

"It's got nothing to do with him if we lost two games... we've lost two games because we haven't played well."

and he's right, because spurs have been listless, shapeless and frankly hopeless.

nor is it good enough to simply blame the influx of new players into the starting line-up - whilst you can see how the changes could negatively impact the attacking play and passing football ramos wants, spurs have also been awful at the back, with a defensive four we could have fielded last season. the real problem is that we have twice now seen a tottenham side with the wrong personnel on the field.

benoit assou-ekotto continues to be the same waste of space he has always been since joining from lens; didier zokora is a makeshift full-back playing ahead of an actual right back (chris gunter) signed in january; neither jermaine jenas or luka modric has any defensive presence; david bentley has excelled on the wing during the past two seasons yet was shifted inside to make way for a player who has got consistently worse during the same period (aaron lennon) and another who we signed as a left-back (gareth bale).

predictably, i don't understand what is going on. most of the above doesn't require anything too complicated - bale needs to move to left-back, bentley needs to move to the wing, zokora probably needs to move to the bench. but most crucially its clear that, currently, modric cannot be relied upon to play so deep in the premier league - essentially he needs more space and less work, at least until he properly acclimatises. that means playing him further forward. in his stead, spurs need a midfielder with real presence to anchor the team. ramos seems to currently disagree, but i'm not sure how much longer this can go on for.

obviously four things MUST now happen at white hart lane before the transfer window shuts:

- berbatov must be sold. it is time.
- a defensive midfielder must be bought. how depressing it was to watch city's £6m signing, vincent kompany, excel yesterday in that exact position.
- a centre-back must be acquired. particularly disappointing on saturday was how ledley king failed to get a head on the cross that allowed djibril cisse to score the winner.
- another striker must come in. i like darren bent, but i don't think having one striker in your squad is particularly sustainable.