What a load of THFC

Article by John Ward

Well who saw that coming? Sure a few of us may have felt that Manchester City would have edged the game and get a result especially at their home ground, and maybe some of us were already expecting to have the same post-match conversations about the lack of attacking threat we carry as team but, did anyone expect and think that we would have to witness that!

As a lifelong Tottenham fan, I have that all too familiar feeling of here we go again, throughout the years Tottenham have managed to do this to me time and time again. Every time you believe the team has turned a corner or taken that step up, a ‘Manchester City performance’ comes along.

Let’s remember that whilst under the stewardship of Martin Jol Spurs took that first step up with THFC and narrowly missed out on Champions League qualification due to a certain Italian dish conspiracy. The board then took it upon themselves to look for a new Master tactician who would be able to take us to that next level. Who did we appoint? Ramos!

Fast forward to present and I feel we have gone full circle. In Harry Redknapp we had a great Man Manager who gave the players confidence and freedom to perform week in week out as a team, and who under his Management did take that step up by managing to get into the Champions League (what a year that was). Unfortunately we followed this great achievement with a number of near misses and shear bad luck (Chelsea winning the champions league and speculation of Redknapp becoming the England manager) which prevented Spurs returning to the ‘Holy Grail’ of Footballs elite European competition. The Board then believed we had reached that time again when we needed a manager with more – they then made the decision to go with AVB.

Please let me say at this point, that I also was in favour of change in management at this stage. Redknapp was a superb manager but he was also infuriating when it came to using the squad and he was tactically inferior to many of our top 4 challengers, infact there was a time when you genuinely believed Redknapp had gone to Old Trafford just to have a glass of Red with Mr Ferguson, such was the inept performances of numerous Spurs teams over the seasons. AVB though I have to admit was a shock; I didn’t expect him to be considered for the Managers role at Tottenham.

The reason for my shock at this appointment wasn’t just that he had been sacked by Chelsea a few months earlier, or the fact that he had supposedly lost the dressing room but simply because I didn’t think he was better than what we had, had previously in Redknapp.
Going back to when Martin Jol was sacked midway through a European game, when we brought in Ramos you could at least understand the thinking, Ramos had just spent the past 2 years being very successful in a very tactically demanding Spanish league with his team performing well in League and European Cup competitions. AVB’s credentials for getting the job, well he had done well for Porto. Big deal.


On Sunday, at Manchester City - there was no sign of a Master Tactician or his influence at work, and in all honesty There is a gentlemen called Paul Phasey from PSV Shades in Hertfordshire (My Sunday Pub Team Manager) who would have set the team up with more tactical awareness than what AVB put out. Before you think I am suggesting my Sunday league manager is more tactically astute than the Manager of Tottenham is, and that I am saying this purely for laughs, you’re wrong! I am deadly serious.

Please read, ‘Paul Phasey’ as basically any Spurs fan who has watched a number of games this season. The reason why Paul Phasey would have set the team up better than AVB did, is because firstly he would have played players…are you ready for this?...In their correct position. The next reason is, that he would have played players …guess?...who were in form, how did for example Andros Townsend not play and a player like Lamela who is shy on confidence and could of started any number of recent home games, manage to get in the starting eleven at Manchester City?

Paulinho – needs to be dropped! He didn’t offer box to box running, he didn’t offer flare, power and worst of all didn’t do the basics.

Up next then, Manchester United. For me there needs to be an overhaul on formation, tactics and personnel. I would start by going for a 4-4-2 diamond formation with the following personnel:

Walker, Kaboul, Vertonghen, Chiriches

 

Sandro

 

Sigurdsson Townsend

 

Dembele

 

Adebayor Soldado

AVB for me is managing Spurs, like an amateur artist who is trying to produce something by painting by numbers. It appears he would prefer to follow this safety first and tedious route, rather than trust himself to take a brush to the blank canvass that he has in his possession and create something potentially beautiful by expressing himself and trusting his own ideas.
Who knows it may yet transpire that AVB may still turn this current dodgy ‘Sketch’ into a masterpiece Unfortunately, I don’t think he will, not until he starts to take risks himself, and to do that AVB has to trust his players and start to give the players the freedom to perform and attack.

I do really hope this is not another THFC cycle, but having been backed by the board and after spending a 100 million this summer on the team, AVB should be in no doubt that, there will have to be a vast and sustained improvement to ensure it is not.

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