Bad break for Tottenham is just one part of the problem

 
11 November 2013

For the third time this season, Andre Villas-Boas has started the international break with the sound of boos from the Tottenham fans still ringing in his ears.

With the majority of his players jetting around the globe for various internationals, Villas-Boas now has a lot of time to dwell on his team’s shortcomings without the ability to do much about it — hardly ideal when a trip to Manchester City lies in wait on the League’s resumption.

A worrying pattern has emerged this term, with defeats to Arsenal, West Ham and now Newcastle all preceding friendlies or World Cup qualifiers.

“The only positive thing is that whenever we’ve come back from an international break, we’ve managed to win,” he said. “But we have gone away every time this year with a defeat.

“Last season was a bit different. Most of the breaks we went away with a win before but now it’s a bit different, which is disappointing.”

Although Spurs did bounce back after defeats to Arsenal and West Ham, those matches were against Norwich (home) and Aston Villa (away) but their next match on November 24 is at a ground where City have 100 per cent League record this term.

It’s true that all the leading teams are proving fallible this term — a couple of hours after this loss, City were beaten 1-0 at Sunderland. However, the spotlight is starting to turn on Villas-Boas, with supporters increasingly questioning the team’s style of play and whether he has a plan B to solve their goal-scoring problem, which now reads just nine League goals in 11 matches.

That statistic would concern any manager but particularly one who knows his standing in the game depends greatly on getting his club into the Champions League come May.

While this is only Villas-Boas’s second attempt of making the step into the elite at Spurs, it’s his third overall having fallen short during his first job in English football at Chelsea.

He will point to some mitigating circumstances as to why things did not go to plan before.

For example, at Chelsea he will argue there was a lack of support from some key players and the board.

At the time of his dismissal in March 2012, Chelsea were fifth and just three points off a Champions League spot and Villas-Boas remains convinced that he would have bridged the gap.

There was another hard luck story last term, when despite finishing with a club record 72 Premier League points, Spurs lost out on fourth to rivals Arsenal by a point.

Even this campaign provides some convincing evidence for the defence. His best player, Gareth Bale, is now at Real Madrid and patience is still required over the seven summer acquisitions that cost in excess of £100million.

If Villas-Boas wants everyone to respect him as a master tactician, he cannot really afford to make it a hat-trick of failure.

Chairman Daniel Levy, who was caught on camera during the defeat to Newcastle yesterday looking distinctly unimpressed, will not be too sympathetic either. He has backed Villas-Boas in the transfer market like no other Tottenham manager in terms of money spent, although all the signings were paid for by outgoings, including Bale, Steven Caulker and Tom Huddlestone.

Expectations were raised significantly and, so far, Spurs have not met them as the murmurs of discontent at the final whistle testified.

Once again, Villas-Boas could point to something not going his way. Newcastle goalkeeper Tim Krul made 14 saves, a Premier League record since Opta started conducting statistical analysis in 2006.

The nature of Newcastle’s goal was not something he would feel responsible for either. Paulinho was robbed of possession smartly by Yoan Gouffran and Loic Remy ran clear on to the subsequent through ball to glide past and beat Brad Friedel, who was only playing because Hugo Lloris had not been deemed ready to start by the medical department after he was concussed against Everton last week.

Yet, overall there is a lack of conviction, speed and creativity about Tottenham’s play at the moment and it is something Villas-Boas must think of ways to put it right over the next few days.

“We’ve scored 29 goals [it’s actually 32] this season, the second-highest tally for the amount of games played,” he added defiantly.

Most of those, however, were against lesser opposition in lesser competitions. If Villas-Boas wants to be matched up against the best of the best on the continent with Spurs next year, the goal drought has to end where it counts.

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