Compromise the key for AVB and Tottenham Hotspur
It’s often said that one of they factors to making any relationship work, is the ability for both parties to adhere to compromise. And perhaps to some extent, the relationship with Andre Villas-Boas and Tottenham Hotspur, could well be defined by how the Portuguese finds tactical common ground with his new football club.
Because although Villas-Boas is quite rightly looking to define his teams’ future by instilling his own ideologies and way of playing, you ultimately cannot erase the past. Not overnight, anyway.
As Spurs came out for the second half against Queens Park Ranger last Sunday a team transformed, you would have thought that come the end of the match, Villas-Boas would be jumping for joy at proceedings. You could perhaps argue that he was left scratching his head with more questions than answers, as Tottenham prospered under a traditional 4-4-2 set-up – quite some distance away from the tactical set-ups favoured by the ex-Porto man in his outings so far as Spurs boss.
Of course, there have been extenuating circumstances for Spurs so far this season. It’s been noted many times in these articles, but it’s an important observation that the 3-1 win away at Reading represented the first fixture in which Villas-Boas had the full set of players needed to make either a 4-3-3 or a 4-2-3-1 adequately work.
The Queens Park Rangers game did of course represent only Spurs fifth league game this season. Some could argue to the contrary, but considering the transfer market fuelled travails that the side faced during their first three fixtures, sitting one point behind Manchester City in the Premier League with eight in total, isn’t quite so bad after all.
Although despite the performance against Reading at the Madjeski and to a slightly lesser extent, the draw with Lazio in the Europa League, it feels difficult to shake an underlying feeling of disjointedness within this current starting XI. Where as some aspects, such as the deep midfield pairing of Moussa Dembele and Sandro have looked promising in the new look AVB set-up, more concerningly, the attacking unit of Spurs team hasn’t looked wholly comfortable.
The biggest worry so far, is perhaps undeniably Gareth Bale’s level of performance in a Spurs shirt. When switched to a traditional wide-left role against QPR on Sunday, the Welshman looked right back at home, delivering direct bursts of speed and trademark delivery in his usual deadly fashion. Villas-Boas’ deployment of Bale at left-back was of course a poor decision- he is too much of a potent asset going forward and judging by the way he played in the first-half, his heart didn’t seem to be in it anymore, either.
But it hasn’t just been Gareth Bale who’s looked off colour, either. Gylfi Sigurdsson, bar his part in Jermain Defoe’s first goal at the Madjeski, has struggled to make any form of impact as White Hart Lane as of yet. Aaron Lennon has foraged and harried well, but hasn’t sustained much of a continuous impact. It seems remarkable that a striker such as Defoe, can score four league goals in five games and still face questions, but his overall contribution as a lone frontman continues to be examined. On paper, Villas-Boas has the players to make a 4-2-3-1 or to the like, stick. Putting that into practice hasn’t quite been so easy.
The crux is ultimately, that Villas-Boas and the Spurs team must still be given serious time to adapt to change. It’s a phrase that be beginning to ring hollow in the ears of some, but making wholesale tactical and personnel changes such as what Tottenham Hotspur have undertaken, is a long journey indeed. But sooner or later, a tipping point will be reached. Quite when that tipping point will be reached, is a lot harder to say.
But if Villas-Boas can’t get his attacking unit to play, there’s absolutely no harm in finding a short-term compromise, at least till the January transfer window anyway. A second swoop for one Joao Moutinho certainly shouldn’t be ruled out, but although he was the most integral target to AVB’s plans that the club failed to attain, you can now understand why there was also such a concerted effort to bring Shakhtar Donetsk forward Willian to N17.
The team feels as if they need a forward thinking player with a little bit more tactical nous. Willian has the core technical skills and close control that Villas-Boas will crave, but perhaps more importantly, the tactical understanding to fit into his blueprint aswell. At times, Spurs’ forward unit has looked unsure of their responsibilities and roles within this team. The point remains that a large proportion of this team have yet to taste much past 4-4-2 or 4-4-1-1. Learning a new of playing will take time and while most will adapt, not all will perhaps prove as effective in a new style.
There is a feeling that the imminent return of Emmanuel Adebayor can breathe life and direction into this Spurs team. Some may find it absurd that Defoe, after his goalscoring run, could possibly be dropped. But the fortunes of the lone frontman are closely linked to that of the attacking three behind. It’s a sensitive subject at Spurs, but the team needs the whole side to profit and not just Defoe himself. The big Togolese can bring the best out of Sigurdsson, Bale, Lennon et al and he could catalyze the attacking side of AVB’s plans into life.
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But if Adebayor continues to struggle with fitness and Tottenham’s wingers keep misfiring, there’s no shame in finding an alternative way of playing. If 4-4-2 works a treat at home, why not deploy it from time to time? The chance to develop the long term tactical vision won’t disappear if he decides to revert back to a more traditional set-up every now and then. If the boss feels that he still doesn’t have the whole set of players to get the best out of his preferred set-up, then he can’t remain too stubborn in the face of adversity.
To quote Robert Burns, the best laid plans of mice and men often go astray. Villas-Boas can’t have foreseen how every player will perform in a new set-up. By all means give them time, but if he has to find an alternative until an opportunity comes to change it, then so be it.
Do you think compromise is key for Andre Villas-Boas and Tottenham Hotspur? Let me know how you view the current Spurs set-up and how you’d line the side up for the United game on Twitter: follow @samuel_antrobus and talk all things Tottenham.