Villas Boas strikes a balance

Article by @ginolasleftfoot

As Tottenham’s stuttering campaign marches albeit with the conviction of a drunken fat bloke trying to navigate a steep hill, it appears to be high noon for finger pointing time.

The weight of Tottenham’s summer purchases are now bearing the shoots of pessimism as players adjust to the holistic demands of moving clubs. Languages must be learnt, mannerisms, daily habits, food (think about the food), team mates, your place of work. All new, and the expectation to assimilate immediately to this new environment is quite frankly ludicrous when applied to any other field of work.

Much has been made of the £100 million investment in the Spurs squad over the summer months, with the focus being on the poor return on goals scored in the league so far. Nine and counting. A solid defensive unit has been forged by Villas Boas that will stand Tottenham in good form for the long-term. As defensive roles are primarily reactive they appear to respond quicker to tactical and strategic change. Attacking roles however are based around proactive actions. Collective creativity is achieved when a group become familiar with one another actions, this can only develop over a sustained period of time.

Arsenal have been developing this intuitive style of play over several years and have a core of players groomed to this concept, which allowed a player of Mesut Ozil’s calibre to be absorbed into the squad without a negative effect on the team’s overall performance.

Tottenham are still mapping out their long-term blueprints and as we adapt to Villas Boas’ new approach, there are clear signs on the pitch that the squad are evidently, having to do the same.

The sheer volume of players demand for a long period of experimentation in order for the Spurs coach to fully assess the partnerships and link up play that provide the foundation of a club’s attacking ability. Villas Boas has shown this over the last month as he broke up the Soldado/Eriksen link to bring Holtby in for the Dane. Similarly Defoe, who seemed to develop well with Holtby over the previous few Europa League fixtures, has now seen Eriksen become the creative No 10 behind him.

Lamela is yet to start a league fixture, with his most impressive performance coming last night against FC Sheriff. He has openly talked about the pressures that the language barrier is creating and the challenges he has faced since moving to England. The personal development he has had to undergo has had to take precedence over a starting role in the team and last night was the first opportunity for Lamela to be wholly involved.

In keeping seven clean sheets over the course of the season the defensive unit previously mentioned has gifted Villas Boas the time to allow his attacking unit to slowly develop, Only Vladimir Chirches has been added to a group who have already had a season working together and show through their performances that they understand each other’s movement and responsibilities.

Villas Boas must strike a balance in ensuring his team keep pace with the current pack leading the league, whilst also allowing the attacking group to grow in confidence and gain the necessary competitive game time to test themselves.

If link up play is based around communication and the pre-empting of another’s movement, then until the Spurs players reach this level, it is understandable that the players may struggle when creating chances in the final third. This has been Tottenham’s Achilles heel so far, but there has been a shift in the midfield personnel that may have slowed the attacking intent.

Sandro has been played alongside Paulinho in the last 3 league matches, which has coincided with a drop in Tottenham’s chances created. Previously Dembele was being partnered with the Brazilian and it is the Belgian’s running from deep; looking to the spread the play that provided a greater platform for Spurs to create goal scoring opportunities.

The defensive qualities of Sandro provide an almost impenetrable blanket for those behind him and the Spurs coach must know the chances of conceding drop dramatically with him in place. Whether his partnership with Paulinho deprives Tottenham of midfield creator is something that has come to light over the last few matches against Everton, Hull and Aston Villa.

Sandro does not contribute to the team’s attacking options and therefore places a greater burden of the forward unit to create chances with one player less, as the Brazilian rarely ventures over the half way line. An interesting option to be considered would be to pair Dembele with his natural flair and ball carrying abilities with Sandro’s defensive skills. This would come at the expense of Paulino unless AVB decides to experiment with his formation as well. A 4-3-3 approach would combine Paulino, Dembele and Sandro but then creates all sorts of headaches for the front three spots.

As long as we continue to win, our style will gradually build towards a cohesive attacking performance. The concern must surely be how the team react if they go behind first, as the game plan then becomes to win as opposed to not concede.

Over and out.

@ginolasleftfoot.

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