Blinded by his own stubbornness at Tottenham?
Such is the nature of modern football fans and the tendency for “knee-jerk” reactions that any form of criticism can be misinterpreted as full-blown hostility.
Every club wants to move towards young, progressive managers, ignoring those who have been around for well over a decade. But couldn’t you argue that there’s a reason the veteran managers have been around for so long? Yes, they’re good, but they’re that good because they’re able to learn from their mistakes and prolong their stay at the top of the game.
Is the same true for Andre Villas-Boas?
He’s tactically intelligent and has an idea for taking Tottenham forward. I stopped short of saying a clear idea because there is little clarity in what he’s currently doing. It’s ironic that his rival counterpart at the Emirates is often accused of stubbornness, but there is something quite clearly stubborn about the way in which Villas-Boas sets up his team.
The loss against Newcastle on the weekend could have been completely different on another occasion. Spurs peppered the Newcastle goal with shots but were unable to beat Tim Krul. The loss aside, that was one of the only times this season where Spurs looked like they could score more than once. The fact that they didn’t only compounds the problem of Villas-Boas’ rigid management.
There shouldn’t really be a worry as to whether he’s good enough or not – I believe most are of the opinion that Villas-Boas has the managerial skill set to eventually be considered one of the leading coaches in Europe. But flexibility becomes part of that. Where flexibility can justifiably become a secondary issue is if the manager is getting it right off the bat, where his clear go-to tactical set up is working and bringing results. That isn’t the case at present for Villas-Boas.
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The Portuguese’s stubbornness isn’t really a newly-discovered aspect of his managerial style. At Chelsea he insisted on doing it his way, which is fair considering the goal is what the owner apparently wanted. But it resulted in his firing midway through the season. At Spurs last season, he was accused of seeing things that clearly weren’t there after losses.
But he has done a lot for Tottenham, arguably warranting the patience of fans. The question is how long will his belief that he is right with the current team last? They’re not scoring and therefore not producing what is expected of them following the activity of this past summer. He alone is accountable, and for all his insistence that this is the right tactical approach, we haven’t really seen much in the way of an improvement.
Villas-Boas is dealing with a large number of players who are new to this league and this country – bedding in is natural, so is allowing time for each player to familiarise themselves with one another. But the manager is neither doing himself nor his players any favours. Defensively they look good; there’s a unity and an understanding about the back line. The attack is greatly contrasting. You could argue that players aren’t working for one another and you could also question whether there is a clear brief as to what they ought to be doing on the pitch. This isn’t a needless attack, because so many good players can’t be so ineffective for so long.
Villas-Boas was brought up working with Jose Mourinho and Bobby Robson. It wouldn’t be amiss to say he’s developed some of their characteristics for doing things their way. But those managers earned that right. Mourinho may be a controversial figure, but he’s a winner. He’s been a success wherever he’s been and even if he moves on from Chelsea, he’ll immediately have a host of top clubs offering him one of the best-paid jobs in Europe.
The Tottenham manager still has some way to go before he reaches that plateau. It is very much about learning on job. Last season following a sluggish start, Tottenham put together a good set of results and found themselves in a battle for fourth place in the Premier League on the last day of the season. This time, they don’t have Gareth Bale to help them up the league table. Villas-Boas will need to learn to use what he currently has to compensate for that loss.
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