Gomes drops Redknapp back in deep end

"When things are not going well, people always look for a scapegoat. I think that is what happened with the goalkeeper."

So said Tottenham captain Ledley King after Spurs' first defeat under Harry Redknapp, at Craven Cottage. King was actually talking about fans and the media, but he could have meant the manager, because Redknapp's verdict on Heurelho Gomes was damning.

Redknapp did not say exactly what he thought of Gomes after his latest error, which handed Fulham their opening goal, but by saying he would save it for when he spoke to his wife on Saturday night he made clear it would not be sympathetic.

In public he could have said, "He's a great 'keeper who's having a tricky spell, but we win and lose as a team. He kept us in the game before and after a goal which the outfielders should have stopped long before the cross even came in. I've complete faith in him."

Managers say this sort of thing all the time, whether they believe it or not. What Redknapp actually said was: "We had just started to get into the game when we gifted them a goal like that," making it clear where he thought responsibility for this defeat lay. He added: "We've got to keep believing in him because he's the goalkeeper. It's no good me caning him because I've got nothing else."

The fact that Spurs' attack was blunt until it was too late, the five-man midfield was outmanned by Fulham's quartet, and the defence never got to grips with Bobby Zamora and Andrew Johnson seemed irrelevant, it was all Gomes's fault. To an extent it was. For all the changes in the way football is played in the English top flight, since the influx of foreign players some fundamentals still apply. Clubs still need a goalkeeper who can take crosses, or a dominant centre-half, preferably both.

Roy Hodgson, despite all his years overseas, knew what was required when he came to Fulham last season. He immediately signed a giant centre-half, Brede Hangeland, who has barely lost a header all season, and in the summer recruited Mark Schwarzer.

"He's fantastic," said Hodgson. "He's strong, reliable and he's very, very good on crosses." That, said left-back Paul Konchesky, "gives you great confidence as a back player when you've got a goalkeeper shouting, coming off his line and claiming balls. That's what you need."

That is the problem with the travails of Gomes who built a fine reputation with PSV but has never previously been exposed to the sheer weight of crosses and physical buffeting which is the lot of goalkeepers in England.

His crisis of confidence has spread throughout the back four. Jonathan Woodgate's lack of trust in his 'keeper was a factor in the both goals, the first going in after Gomes failed to gather the defender's misjudged attempt to clear Davies's shot, the second after Woodgate's clearance fell to Johnson.

It also encourages opponents. "We put a lot of people closer to goal on corners," said Hodgson. "We realised that's not his real strength, he's more of a shot-stopper." The transfer window opens in 44 days; until then things are not going get any easier, for Gomes or Redknapp.

Goals: Davies (31) 1-0; Johnson (69) 2-0; Campbell (80) 2-1.

Fulham (4-4-2): Schwarzer; Pantsil, Hughes, Hangeland, Konchesky; Dempsey (Gera, 87), Murphy, Bullard (Andreasen, 90), Davies; Zamora, Johnson. Substitutes not used: Zuberbuhler (gk), Nevland, Gray, Kallio, Baird.

Tottenham (4-5-1): Gomes; Corluka, King, Woodgate, Bale; Bentley, Zokora, Huddlestone (Lennon, h-t), Jenas, Modric (Pavlyuchenko, h-t); Bent (Campbell, 70). Substitutes not used: Cesar (gk), Hutton, Dawson, Assou-Ekotto.

Referee: A Wiley (Staffordshire).

Booked: Fulham Zamora.

Man of the match: Davies.

Attendance: 25,139.