The Engineer dismantles Spurs grand project

The word crisis can often be overused in a football context and no one would deny that life occasionally throws up a proper crisis to put football in particular and sport in general in its proper perspective. However, for Spurs fans everywhere, it would be pretty hard to escape the feeling of a crisis developing at Tottenham in the aftermath an absolutely wretched afternoon at Eastlands.

The last time Spurs suffered such a heavy defeat, John Major was still British Prime Minister, a French professor was in charge of Arsenal, a German driver was dominating Formula 1 and the German football team were beating us at Wembley. Clearly some things haven’t changed. So humiliating was this defeat that by the end of this miserable afternoon, even City fans, perhaps out of sympathy couldn’t bothered to do their now familiar Poznan celebration anymore and were reduced to clapping saves and tackles by the Spurs players.

It’s bad enough that we went into the game as one of the lowest scorers in the premiership, (albeit with the most amount of shots at goal, which in itself does not reflect particularly well on our strikers’ shooting accuracy) at least we could take pride in having the second best defensive record in the premiership. We’ve mastered the art of defending, counter attacking, our away record has been outstanding and Spurs fans were quite happy to sing, ‘one – nil to the Tottenham’ (admittedly through gritted teeth), all the way to the Champions league. Except, someone forgot to tell Pellegrini and his City slickers.

City coach, Manuel Pellegrini was affectionately nicknamed, ‘The Engineer’ during his time in Spanish football because of his studious approach to the game and the methodical way his teams are set up to play football. His team are the highest scorers at home in the premiership by a country mile and in Sergio Aguero and Alvaro Negredo (more on him later), they had one of the form strike partnerships in the country, maybe even in Europe. The Engineer certainly dismantled a Spurs team that has not functioned particularly well in recent weeks.

The rot set in for Spurs as soon as the match kicked off. Hugo LLoris, kicked lazily to a city player and his initial save, although decent was not decisive enough to clear the danger. To give him his due, city winger Jesus Navas still had a lot to do but improvised brilliantly to chip Lloris from a tight angle. Spurs wingers, Aaron Lennon and Andros Townsend could do worse than watch clips of how a speedy winger can bring variation to an attack. Spurs recovered but never really looked threatening despite dominating possession yet again. City’s attack, with their tails up were all over Spurs from then on and by the time Sandro was pictured being sick on the pitch, most Spurs fans probably felt the same way.  

Speaking of City’s attack, Aguero’s class was already well known to premiership watchers. I was more intrigued by the shoot out between the two Spanish strikers, Negredo and Soldado. But for Messi and Ronaldo, these two have would be the biggest noises in La Liga as they have been the top scoring Spanish players for the last two seasons. Both were sold to English clubs last summer, Soldado for £26 million and Negredo for £23 million.  On the evidence of what we have seen so far this season and especially yesterday, it is fair to say that City have got far better value from Negredo than Spurs have had from Soldado.

Soldado scored almost 60 goals in two seasons with Valencia, a pretty impressive tally. However, careful analysis of his record shows that almost all his goals have come from inside the six yard box. He has not looked mobile and able to create chances for himself. Negredo on the other hand has looked very mobile, agile and able to get involved in the build up play. In addition, he is good in the air and able to create chances for himself. Admittedly, it helps if you have the class of Aguero, Jesus Navas, an inspired Samir Nasri and a buccaneering Yaya Toure rather than an ordinary looking Lewis Holtby, an underwhelming Lennon, a strangely subdued Paulinho and a player in Erik Lamela who talented he might be is still adjusting to life in the premier league.

Another issue arising from this and recent performances is the lack of creativity in this side. Tottenham have dominated possession in every match they have played this season. That takes some doing in the frenetic world of premiership football and should be respected. However, almost every game has exposed an alarming inability to manoeuvre the ball creatively into dangerous goal scoring positions. By not scoring goals, the defence is under increased pressure not to concede. When goals are conceded, everyone is under increased pressure to score which then exposes the defence even more and the vicious cycle is continued from match to match as pressure builds. The irony is if Spurs could just fix this and score more goals, they appear defensively sound enough despite yesterday’s aberration to defend leads and pick teams off on the counter attack. This is the conundrum that Spurs Manager Andre Villas Boas has to fix pretty quickly as the pressure intensifies.

In AVB’s defence, although this was his 50^th match in charge of Tottenham (some celebration!), it was effectively only his 12^th match in charge of His own team in only his second full season in charge. Last season, he took Harry’s team, minus star midfielder Luka Modric and took them to within a point of the promised land of the Champions league with a record points tally. He is now constructing a brand new team and as yet, no one has risen up to take the over mantle of match winner or game changer from Gareth Bale. However, as AVB will know too well, a manager is only as good as his last good season. The premiership is an unforgiving coliseum. More successful managers than AVB such as Carlo Ancelloti, Roberto Mancini and even Harry Redknapp have bitten the dust and AVB still has a lot to prove as manager after his miserable spell as Chelsea boss.

With Arsenal, Chelsea and both Manchester clubs in the mix, Liverpool stirring again and even Southampton punching above their weight, qualification for the Champions league while building a new team and establishing a new playing identity was always going to be a challenging task. The sick feeling felt by Spurs fans come from expectations being unrealistically high in a way that England footballers approaching a tournament know only too well. This was as a result of over £100 million being spent in the summer transfer window.

In spite of this poor run, AVB deserves time, even if the mad scramble for Champions league places can sometimes skew the judgement of chairmen and fans that ought to know better. The history of the premier league shows that stable long term management will give better returns in the long run. The open nature of this season means that a few results could put us back in the title race. Then again, we may not even make the Europa league unless we win a trophy. Either way, let AVB, the man with the project plan, lick his wounds and get on with it. That’s out best hope.   

So its Manchester United next. I’m off to the betting shop to place a bet on Spurs losing Six – Nil. If they do, I will win big, if they don’t, it will be an improvement. Either way, I will feel a lot better than I do today. The tribulations of being a Spurs fan.

AVB needs more goals to keep Spurs juggernaut flying

This match, more or less typified Tottenham’s season so far.  Spurs fans don’t know whether to laugh or cry right now. It depends on if you are a glass half full or half empty person. A point at Everton is more than Jose Mourinho’s Chelsea managed and not many teams will have fruitful trips to Goodison park. The bottom line is Spurs are firmly in the mix for a top four finish. Even though Spurs have not scored enough goals, I don’t think that AVB is setting up spurs to be defensive, nor is their play actually defensive as they consistently dominate possession.

Watching the match unfold, a familiar pattern has now emerged to spurs play. An increasingly impressive back four, with Sandro providing an impressive shield in front of them as they pressed high up into the opposition’s half. In midfield, Dembele, Holtby, Eriksson, Lennon, Townsend and Lamela, offer AVB enough forward players to attack opponents through the middle and also in the wide areas.  Paulinho, for my money the most consistent of the summer arrivals so far also offers a goal threat and gets himself into some promising positions. However, the forward players have just not quite gelled yet.  The fact that Lamela has openly admitted to struggling so far and Eriksson has also been inconsistent show that the attacking part of the equation is still a work in progress. That there is much scope for improvement in spurs’ forward play should offer a lot of encouragement for spurs season.

In the circumstances, AVB is quite right to focus on results. Spurs have a tradition for playing swashbuckling football and fans demand that as a mere minimum, however they no longer have a monopoly on style, even in north London. Tottenham fans however have a new reality. Champions League football is the new sexy football.  The late goals conceded last season ultimately cost a Champions league place and Andre Villas Boas will argue that if he gets Tottenham to the Champions league, his approach would be completely vindicated.  

Lone striker, Roberto Soldado has had a mixed start to his first season in English football. He sure knows how to take a penalty and his record in Valencia suggests he is suited to playing as a lone striker. However, he does not strike me as someone that likes being involved in the build-up play. He is a striker whose first or second touch tends to be a shot towards goal.  Jermain Defoe is more mobile, dynamic and has evolved his game to be more involved in the build-up play. There will always be an understandable clamour for Defoe whenever spurs are struggling to score goals because of his record. However Soldado is better suited to the 4-2-3-1 formation that AVB favours and so should be allowed to develop his game by playing regularly.  Defoe still has plenty to offer spurs and in a season where there are hopefully many games to play, Defoe will get his fair share of games.

Hugo Lloris should have been substituted after his collision with Romelu Lukaku.  I trust that AVB would never put results before a player’s welfare. I also trust the judgement of the Tottenham team doctor, Dr Shabaaz Mughal, who was among the heroes that saved the life of Bolton midfielder Fabrice Muamba when his heart stopped beating during an FA Cup match at White hart lane in March 2012. Many may applaud Lloris’s bravery after being concussed. However, three things swing the argument for me; Lukaku, who is a big, strong guy, himself had to go off, his knee strapped and packed with ice shortly after the clash. Secondly, a second incident could have aggravated the situation. Finally, with ten minutes to go, we had a decent back up in Brad Friedel. All things considered. It was undoubtedly risky, it was the least pragmatic option and it was unnecessary. A decision that that puts a player’s welfare first should not be any of these things.