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It’s just 9 Premier League games into Andre Villas-Boas’ reign at Tottenham and despite a shaky start, he seems to have restored faith with the Tottenham fans after 5 wins in 6 Premier League games, the most high profile being a 3-2 win at Old Trafford. But is the playing philosophy and team ethos AVB is imposing on his team the Tottenham way?
Tottenham may have been on 4 match winning streak that was understandably ended by an in-form and attacking minded Chelsea, but there have been many unconvincing performances by AVB’s men, which could be a cause for concern. Take for instance William Gallas’ woeful performance against Chelsea. He was responsible for 3 of Chelsea’s goals as a result of unawareness, lack of instinct and just general defensive errors.
To make matters worse for Gallas, he almost missed an open goal when he scored just after the halfway mark. Vertonghen played the ball across the face of the goal leaving Gallas to merely head the ball into an empty goal, which he did, but only just as it skimmed across his head and luckily found the inside side netting of the goal.
Frankly, William Gallas has played like a headless chicken all season and it is bizarre that AVB still prefers Gallas as Steven Caulker’s centre half partner over Michael Dawson, a Tottenham icon and the team captain.
Some of AVB’s tactics are also quite puzzling. One of the main factors in his appointment as Spurs manager during the summer was his preferred style of attacking-minded football and although most of the time he sticks by this philosophy, he does show glimmers of negativity which doesn’t and never has bode well with Spurs.
For example, Villas-Boas has a tendency to sit back and contain once Spurs have the ascendancy in the second half by going a goal or two up. His methods include taking off a playmaker for a defensive midfielder or taking off the sole centre forward for a withdrawn striker but never has he taken a midfielder or striker off in order to have an extra centre back, which is the usual substitution made when a team wants to sit back and look after their lead.
The logic in this tactic cannot be seen as surely making these sorts of substitution weakens the attack more than it strengthens the defence, so all in all, what’s the point of making these substitutions? If he’s going to go defensive, he should bring on another centre back.
He shouldn’t be making substitutions such as Sigurdsson on for Defoe (as used against Southampton on Sunday)when it doesn’t strengthen the defence at all and instead, it weakens the attack by having no true centre forward. Tottenham are not the Spanish national team, they need a centre forward if they are going to make anything of their attacks.
Another problem for Spurs is the lack of cover for the deep lying playmaker and wing roles. It was largely evident in the absence of Gareth Bale and Moussa Dembele during Tottenham’s encounter against Chelsea that this is an issue that needs to be addressed to.
Although AVB did try to solve this issue via the failed signings of Joao Moutinho and Willian, (which would’ve provided cover for these roles) he could get around this problem by having a variety of different formations at his disposals that would help counter balance any flaws in the side should injuries become a problem.
AVB’s only formation we have seen his Tottenham sides play in as of yet is the 4-2-3-1 system, which as discovered in the Chelsea match, doesn’t bode well with Spurs in the absence of Dembele and Bale. We saw an withdrawn striker by nature in Clint Dempsey playing on the left wing and a sub-standard Tom Huddlestone playing in Dembele’s deep lying playmaker role. Tottenham became too dependent on players such as Sigurdsson to pull the strings in the midfield which isn’t suited to Sigurdsson’s withdrawn striker playing style.
All in all, the 4-2-3-1 system doesn’t work without Bale and Dembele in particular. AVB needs to find a new system that does as too many teams like Chelsea will take advantage of Spurs’ unusual attacking inability in this given situation.
So after reading this, you have probably come to the conclusion that I’m not a fan of AVB, nothing could be further from the truth. When I heard AVB’s name in speculation regarding the Spurs job after Redknapp was sacked, I was hoping for Daniel Levy (the Tottenham chairman) to appoint him.
Why? Because this man has bags of potential, much like Rooney while he was at Everton. Yeah he isn’t quite the end product, but Spurs would be stupid to let him slip under their fingers as in years to come, he could become one of the best managers in the world.
AVB has clearly learned a lot from his torrid spell at Chelsea, let’s hope he can keep learning as quick as that for his Spurs’ and his own sake.
Written by Greg Rosenvinge
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STILL THINK YOUR A REDCRAPP FAN!!!
you have given all the weaknesses but no solutions or help
this season, no adybayor always injured???? or that not bothered will collect his money any way !
Defoe was woeful yesterday and we had no replacement repeat NO replacement ,AVB is playing with wat he has been given ,doubt whether he would have picked Dempsey to buy ?
Danial saw a cheap replacement and selling VDV FOR A PROFIT wrong Dan
But what has happened is while Redcrapp was in charge,and
was on his last legs he sold Pav,Kranks,DosSantos,Corluka,Bassong plus in the end Modders and VDV which weakened us badly in quality and in depth
I doubt if AVB would have come in sooner they all would of been sold ,and he is only the COACH!!!
Not like Redcrapp why oh why did you trust him so much Danial in various things
I actually prefer AVB to Redknapp, these are just things I feel he needs to iron out. Granted yes we have a lot of injuries but we still have a very capable squad if AVB gets his tactics right. As I said in the conclusion, I believe he could become one of the best managers in the world but just like a teenage talent, he’s young and still has a fair amount to learn.
People can say what they like but Boas is not for me. To play Defoe up front on his own at home is a scandal. He cannot hold the ball up and bring other players in to play. As for Dempsey he gives you depression just to look at him, he must be the most miserable looking footballer ever. 4 4 2 is the way and let’s start to entertain. AVB never – another Levy mistake.
I think that AVB’s tactics are way too defensive, do not suit the players we have and we should stick to 4-4-2 until he either buys in players that match his formation or until the current players get used to it in training. I also think that Defoe is more of a hindrance I love Defoe and he is running his heart out but as a lone striker, he does not bring others into play which makes us one dimensional pace on the wings and not a lot else, when teams sit back we struggle. Most of the games we have won we could easily have lost and have only dominated for a VERY SMALL part of the games.
What a pointless article. I almost bought into some of your opinions but when you didn’t even mention Adebeyor I lost all respect for whatever opinion you were trying to convey.
We are beating bad teams just. We are capable of beating the best teams just but only when AVB realizes that Defoe is not the man to lead our line.
How is defoe not meant to lead our line? Granted that adebayors style is more suited but defoe has been great for us this season so we can’t drop him after a great start apart from the southampton game…
yes it is
Changing an attacking midfielder for a defensive midfielder is clearly a defensive substitution. Tactics don’t have to be so direct… Siggy has also played a lot of his career as a striker. Dempsey is rubbish. Not sure on AVB but as mentioned above, he’s doing ok with what he’s got. Our team is getting a bit 90′s… Dempsey, Livermore, Kane, if needed… We can’t seriously compete against the top clubs with this line-up. You fail to mention Parker been out all season. We’ve been ripped once v Chelsea despite no Kaboul, BAE, King. Why’s Ade always injured mid-week? AVB seems stubborn. Whether that’s good or bad is still in the balance. But you can’t really argue that with the players we’ve lost and the line-up we have, 4th is very good.
I just dont believe we should go defensive once we have a lead in the second half, its not the tottenham way
Also if you look at the second paragraph it explicitly says how although we have been winning games, there have been unconvincing performances such as the QPR, Southampton and even the Man Utd game cos our second half performance was shocking. We cant carry on going defensive in the second half as the West Brom, Norwich and almost the Man Utd matches showed.
ok greg ,we cant carry on going defensive ,what do u suggest ?? lets see there is ady,he is injured !!,then their is ady oh he is injured!!who else ? so there is Defoe, who tell us something new ,he cant hold the ball ,surprise surprise there fore we are on the defensive again ,also some of them players out there are not good enough VB cannot do everything for these players ,he knows they are not good enough ,but what can he do get jimmy Greaves in, bring back Modders,Rafa u lot are unreal
Not the tottenham way i have watched spurs teams with T NEIL in charge and man in a rain coat with that arse Sugar
So lennie what do u suggest bring back Redcrapp ,if u have any idea ,he didnt give a damn about SPURS
How many times do we go through this ,he hasnt got Modders,VDV anymore the rest are injured or making out they are injured
Most of the games we could of lost??? we didnt ,last season at VILLA we could have gone for 3 points he bottled it big time brought Parker on and ended up with 5 at the back with ! player to mark dont remember you lot criticising him then,under REDCRAPP after Christmas we won 3 out 15 last season and 4 out 17 season before
IF you cant get off his back go down the road to the empty crates!!!
Defoe is MILES better than adebayor. Yes adebayor is better at holding up the ball but despite your claims that defoe can’t, he has got much better at it as he’s clearly improved his strength if you watch the games. Granted adebayor is still better but not by much and his sub-standard finishing is no match for Defoe. Adebayor’s stats may look good with 18 league goals last season but the amount of easy chances he squandered last season, it should’ve been much more. All in all, Defoe is a much better option than Adebayor and Defoe doesn’t need to be taken off if Adebayor isn’t available, a fairly tired Defoe but one that can still do his job is better than bringing a fresh but not-a-real-striker-esque Sigurdsson. However regarding Redknapp, I couldn’t agree with you more, once England came knocking, he put his foot off the gas and squandered a 10-point lead on Arsenal and ultimately did the supposedly impossible and lost our CL place. And then when England turned him down, he expected us to forgive him with open arms. Good riddance.