2 Points thrown away at the Cottage

During the last few seasons the feeling of wins turning into draws , and losses occurring in the last few minutes of matches have become an all too familiar feeling for Spurs fans. Still Saturday at Fulham seemed to hurt even more than usual.
To be blunt Fulham are an extremely average team. I will go further than that and say they are woeful. They'll probably stay up this season , but only as there are a number of even worse teams. Still enough on the faults of Fulham ,again we managed to turn 3 points into 1, and we left the game asking the question HOW?
Some of the attacking football the team played on Saturday was top notch. Keane and Berbatov were in total control against the limited Fulham defence, and Bale the young kid on the left wing looks a great buy. The chances the team created in the first half should've been enough to totally kill the game, but yet again naive defending at a set-piece just prior to half time, let them back in the game.
The first 25 minutes of the second half were a virtual replica and if we'd have been 5 up by the 70 minute mark, for once it wouldn't have flattered us. Still we manged to give away 2 poor goals in the last ten minutes , and the draw felt much more like a defeat.
On the way out a number of the fans blamed Jol for his poor substitutions. Once again the FA Cup quarter final at Chelsea last season was mentioned. There may be an element of truth in this.Bringing Dawson on for the last 10 minutes was a negative move. Changing the formation to a 5-man defence ,did entice Fulham to put us under more pressure , with their long-ball football. Still I think the problem is a more complex one, than the tactical limitations of the manager. The team lacks"winners". Call it a lack of characters, or leaders on the field, the team doesn't know how to close out a match. The team doesn't know how to win.
This has been a clear problem since Davids left the club. Yes its fair to say he came to us when his career was on the downturn, and in his second season his performances were sub-standard. Still the guy was a winner. He knew how to win football matches. This is a quality very difficult to buy in the transfer market. It encompasses leadership, and generally having the bollocks to step up and hold on to the ball when the other team are putting us under pressure. The man who will drive the team that extra 10 yards forward like Keane used to do for United. Its a presence on the pitch, that the others look too when the team is under pressure, that says "We ain't losing today." Yes players like Berbatov are winners, but are they real leaders when the going gets tough?
Until this issue is dealt with, we can forget about breaking into the top 4. The fans can blame Jol's substitutions and "tactical naivety", but until one of our big players steps up to the plate and says "WE ARE NOT LOSING THIS GAME", we will still turn 3's into 1, and 1's into 0's.