Tottenham's Scott Parker - The New Dave Mackay!

Good old 'Arry, was it only last week that he was claiming that Ledley King was as good as the legendary Bobby Moore? Well now Parker has been elevated to the pantheon of footballing gods on the back of a performance against Premiership giants QPR and posters are rushing on here to claim I got it all wrong about Scotty. But did I?

Let's consider what I always maintained, that Parker is a good holding midfielder but a poor midfield general. So, how many games has Parker now played for Spurs? I'm not sure but I think it is eight. How many goals has he scored? That would be none wouldn't it? OK, so how many assists then? That would be one wouldn't it?

But he is a holding midfielder the Parker acolytes will scream. Exactly! That's what I kept saying, but we couldn't afford to use Parker as a holding midfielder could we? We needed creativity as well as industry. And because Parker was used as a midfield general, we were toothless going forward and, time and again, he conceded free kicks in key areas as he tried to back peddle after we lost possession.

The new Dave Mackay? Mackay scored 82 goals in 591 appearances; Parker has netted 24 times in 325 appearances - and keep in mind that Mackay played as a sweeper at the tail end of his career. So, Parker scores you approximately 3goals a season from midfield. That puts a huge pressure on the other players to compensate!

That, of course, isn't a problem at Spurs. They have Defoe, Modric, Van der Vaart and Bale. Who did we have? Cole, Noble, Boa Morte and Obinna! Were they going to get the goals to make up for Parker's inability to score? Of course not! How many assists did Parker have to his name last season? Three I think. So where were the goals ever going to come from? It doesn't matter at Spurs. Modric will create and so will Bale and Lennon and Van der Vaart.

So, Parker is the cog that Spurs required. He is doing nothing special, he is sitting, holding, sweeping in front of the back four and releasing short passes to the true footballers in the team. There's a skill in that, no question, but to accommodate Parker, you have to have creativity elsewhere in the team, and we never had it.

So was I wrong about Parker? Far from it. Was 'Arry right to prioritise the signing of Van der Vaart over Scotty? Unquestionably so. Goals win matches, players like Parker help you to avoid defeat. Finish a season with 38 points from 38 drawn games and you are in a relegation dog fight. To escape the bottom, you have to win and to win you have to score and to score you have to create.

Why are Tottenham pushing towards the top three? Because they kept Modric and Bale and because they signed Van der Vaart last season. Parker is playing a role, an important role, but a very limited role suited to his limited ability. And, just like his "great performance" against Wales, Parker has been looking good against modest opposition. Let's see how good he looks when Spurs are tested by the better teams in the division!