The curious case of AVB
3 months into the Premier League campaign and the Spurs’ faithful are finding it hard to work out their new leader.
A disappointing start was followed by a 4 match winning streak – which included a historic victory over a very strong Manchester United team at Old Trafford. Form then dropped again and disappointing performances against Norwich, Wigan and Man City have left many a Spurs fan scratching their head in puzzlement.
Swings and roundabouts perhaps best describes AVB’s start at White Hart Lane. While there’s been promising moments to clutch onto, broadly speaking, performances have been riddled with inconsistency, exposing a worrying lack of depth to Spurs.
The slow start can easily be attributed to the new style AVB introduced to a team which, not only possessed several new faces, were unfamiliar to a more sophisticated tactical approach. Harry Redknapp very much advocated the more old school approach of “just go out there and play” and an adaption period was always going to be necessary.
As the tactics started to come to fruition for Spurs, it revealed a focus on Moassa Dembele as a key figure along with a fast-paced counter attacking strategy. This certainly suits a side which boasts a number of high energy players, such as Dembele himself, Bale, Lennon, Defoe and Dempsey.
The pace and energy was a focal point of the 4 match winning streak. When executed properly, it can create a devastating effect and this was seen, none more so than, in the 3-2 victory at Old Trafford.
The lack of depth was exposed for the first time in the 4-2 defeat to Chelsea at White Hart Lane. Demeble’s injury together with Bale’s late omission meant AVB had to replace his two most dangerous players with low energy players – namely Tom Huddlestone and later in the game Jake Livermore.
Thus started a theme in subsequent matches against Southampton, Norwich and Wigan – all of which the Belgian international was absent. Disappointingly, a usually dynamic AVB has been slow to bring in a plan B and the result has been several uncharacteristically insipid performances from Tottenham.
The change came against Arsenal in the form of an Adebayor-Defoe forward partnership. Unfortunately, though a bright start was had, the Adebayor sending off prevented anything of value to be taken from the new line-up.
Nevertheless, Tottenham’s inconsistency so far this season suggests AVB is still yet to achieve a solid grasp of the English game.
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