Andre Villas-Boas had been waiting for this moment. In the wake of Emmanuel Adebayor’s idiotic red card against Arsenal last month, the Tottenham manager suggested a 4-4-2 system incorporating his two principal strikers was the preferred plan upon his return.
After an encouraging warm-up in Thursday’s Europa League win over Panathinaikos, Adebayor and Jermain Defoe were paired together in a Premier League game for the first time since that match at Emirates Stadium which Spurs began so brightly before being reduced to 10 men.
If the move was designed to push the visitors onto the front foot and take the game to Everton, it simply did not work. Defoe and Adebayor struggled to make any significant impact whatsoever, starved for service by a typically dogged Everton side that impressively continue to resemble much more than the sum of their parts.
Any side would miss the drive and skill of Gareth Bale but Spurs’ midfield looks alarmingly pedestrian without him. Aaron Lennon, Mousa Dembele, Sandro and Clint Dempsey worked hard to maintain the team’s shape but there was little invention. Dempsey’s goal after 76 minutes came out of nothing and despite the late arrival of Everton’s two goals, it would have been undeserved had Spurs emerged with a victory.
Villas-Boas’s tactics were not the sole cause — there was clearly a Europa League hangover as Spurs, Liverpool and Newcastle have all encountered this season — but there is a debate to be had as to whether a 4-4-2 is the best system for his side.
Harry Redknapp spent the latter part of his tenure as manager increasingly moving away from a 4-4-2, believing it to be “too open” in big matches and preferring the added stability of a 4-4-1-1, with Rafael van der Vaart linking the play, or a 4-2-3-1, with Bale playing in a more central role.
Bale is hopeful of recovering from a hamstring injury to play against Swansea next Sunday and his return to the left flank immediately gives a 4-4-2 system much more balance, with Lennon his partner in crime on the opposite flank.
But neither Defoe nor Adebayor are naturally suited to dropping deep to help bolster numbers in midfield — an issue that enhanced Everton’s control of proceedings yesterday as they scored twice in the space of 88 seconds deep in injury time.
Villas-Boas’s 4-4-2 can be a success but for now, it’s a work in progress.
