The troubles of Spurs?

As Tottenham went through the motions at Goodison on Sunday, you felt that this game meant more than just a decent point for two teams who were having poor matches. No, this was Spurs in microcosm this season.

Despite the huge investment in the summer, Andre Villas-Boas's side have been thoroughly unwatchable this campaign. Although defensively solid, -with Hugo Lloris and Jan Vertonghen in particular proving to be arguably the best in the league in their roles - there has been no inspirational attacking moves, no ripping apart of teams, no glut of goals from new purchases. The game at Everton was obviously going to be a tough test for AVB's players and a draw is not to be sniffed at considering Spurs lost in the corresponding fixture last year. But it was the way that the away team played that was so disappointing, and the continuing failure of Spurs to utilise the range of talent at their disposal is embarrassing people like myself who predicted a new look, slick, and dynamic team to rip through teams this season.

But what's this? This apparently dull and boring team is sitting comfortably in fourth in the league, only five points behind Arsenal, and level on points with Chelsea, not to mention looking down on the two Manchester clubs. This must be a weird phenomenon for the White Hart Lane faithful- despite turning in performances like they did against Hull in the league, er, Hull in the cup, and many more they keep winning. They have a great chance of a trophy in the Capital One Cup. So what exactly is wrong with a Tottenham team doing so well and grinding out victories, especially when surely their new signings are yet to fully acclimatise to English football?

It seems there is still a few things wrong with Spurs.

1) AVB's terrible media skills.

Unlike his predecessor 'Arry, Villas-Boas is not a favourite of the press pack for a few different reasons. Firstly, he replaced the nation's messiah, the people's prince Redknapp, itself a sin in the xenophobic eyes of some journalists given the amount of sound bites and car window related transfer stories he gave them every week. This hasn't been helped by his perceived 'failure' at Chelsea, in which the rumours are he was effectively sacked on the senior players say so. This has led to the press jumping on every tiny mistake the Portuguese coach makes in an effort to turn the Spurs fans against him- eg. the non story over whether Lloris or Friedel would be in goal last year. His recent criticism of the fans was not needed but was hardly as insulting as the papers made out. A top coach, the guy would do well to improve his relationship with Fleet Street.

2) Roberto Soldado seldom scoring.

For £26 million, you need more than accuracy from the penalty spot.

3) Replacing Gareth Bale is no picnic.
A rather obvious, but important point. Spurs knew there was no chance they could replace the world class Welsh winger with a player of similar quality, so spread out his record transfer fee on purchases all over the side. This was logical, but has left the side a little short on match-winning quality. So often last year Bale would change a game with an outstanding piece of skill, a dribble past two defenders, or best of all, a stunning goal. Erik Lamela the £30m buy from Roma, who plays a similar position in a different way, has been injured which is unfortunate. He's fast, elegant and also adept at cutting in from the right, scoring 15 Serie A goals last season. Spurs perhaps need to have more attacking players on the field in a more offensive style to compensate for the loss of the Real Madrid galactico (See point 5).

4) Eriksen needs time.

The closest player in terms of pure talent (if not style of play) to Bale is the exciting young Danish schemer Christian Eriksen, who has for a while been one of my favourite up and coming players. I have no doubt he'll be a success in England, but he has taken time to settle in after his move from Ajax and the more gentle domestic competition there. It is important he adapts sharpish to the Premier League though for Spurs to fulfil their potential under AVB. If he does, I'm sure Soldado will get more chances to showcase his clinical finishing as well.


5) Their 3 best midfielders can't really play together.

Paulinho is a Brazilian first teamer and has made a good start to his Spurs career. Sandro is one of the best defensive midfielders in the league. Moussa Dembele oozes class and composure on the ball. There is an argument that they are all too good to be left out, which AVB has generally agreed with and I said myself at the start of the season. But what has become clear is that when all 3 are there, that often leaves only 3 attackers to actually, y'know, score goals. Yes, Sandro may unleash the odd thunderbastard, and Paulinho's clever late runs can grab the odd goal but they are midfielders who generally don't get many goals or assists. Unless Spurs are against one of the bigger teams, one of them should probably be on the bench for a more progressive player to ease the scoring pressure on Soldado. In Europe, it will be intriguing to see if they could play well together in the slightly slower environment, and I think they could - but in the Premier League, it's too cautious a set up for a top team for most games.

6) Andros Townsend is believing his hype a little.

How wonderful was the right winger's England debut against Montenegro, an adventurous display capped off by a stunning goal from outside the box. A few days later, he turned in another encouraging performance in the crucial qualifier vs Poland, and overnight he became a lot more famous. As is tradition, he was straight away involved in an England 'scandal' when Roy Hodgson was alleged to have been racially insensitive to him when telling the team to 'feed the monkey' referring to an old NASA joke which obviously flew over the head of the dumb red top hacks in this country. Of course, Townsend wasn't offended in the slightest. But that hasn't been his problem, its more that since then he's tried to shoot from 30 yards at least 5 times in every game, perhaps wanting another incredible moment for the highlight reel. Is he now treating himself like a star? The kid should be told that he still is a relative novice at Spurs and should concentrate on feeding Soldado rather than taking it upon himself to act like Bale-lite just because of two brilliant England games.


7) They need a left-back.
Danny Rose isn't ready to be a starter for a team chasing top 4, and Vertonghen is wasted away from his favoured centre-back position. Perhaps they don't need so many midfielders (are Lewis Holtby and Capoue really the required level?) and could sell one in January to sign a quality young number 3. The 22-year-old Porto flier Alex Sandro is very highly rated by the nerds* who have enough free time to watch the Portuguese League and would probably be available for a decent price, with AVB possibly being able to use his links with his former club to make a move to Spurs seem more attractive to the young Brazilian.

*I am one of those nerds.

So there are plenty of issues that have to resolved, but it's still a good time for Spurs fans, in my opinion. I'm not one myself but I can see the progress there from Redknapp's time, and on the quiet they have built a very decent squad, fighting with clubs way above their financial station. It's important the board don't overreact to some of the criticisms and retain faith in the overall plan. The medium term future looks rosy, as long as Spurs keep hold of their best players and their talented young manager.