#AVBout? Why Spurs Blogger Feels It Might Be Time Villas-Boas To Go

In the wake of Tottenham’s 6-0 humbling by Manchester City, ‘Spurs Blogger‘ gives us his thoughts on why it might be time to consider Andre Villas-Boas’ future at the club.

Just a quick note, this post isn’t going to be directly about the embarrassing 6-0 drubbing by Manchester City, as I have been unable to watch the whole match yet, that report will come tomorrow. What I am however going to talk about is the concept of possibly replacing Andre Villas Boas.

Many fans have claimed that calls for his sacking are premature and ‘childish’, but looking back, all the way to last season, the signs were always there that the AVB plan was destined for failure.

AVB was infamously sacked by Chelsea for being incapable for controlling the big egos at the club. Tottenham, meanwhile, had also sacked a big character, in Harry Redknapp, and was in the process of losing it’s best player at the club, Luka Modric, whilst home-grown fans-favourite captain, Ledley King was retiring.

We showed ambition, despite a lack of funds and stadium size, we finished that season above the likes of Chelsea, to clinch 4^th, only for a silly rule to stop us from entering the Champions league. Now, Tottenham’s ambition, lack of big characters, and AVB’s search to prove himself to the English media, arguably seemed like a match made in Heaven. But he didn’t anticipate a certain, Daniel Levy, to be quite as influential as he’d expect. Prime example? The Hugo Lloris situation.

Hugo Lloris was brought into the club with a big reputation, as captain of France, with a £10million price tag wavering over his head. But, for the majority of the first half of that season, Andre refused to play him, instead playing 41 year old, Brad Friedel. Why was this? Stories began to surface; Daniel Levy didn’t consult with the manager over the signing of Lloris. How many of the other signings were similar? Does Clint Dempsey really seem like Andres kind of player? Does Gylfi Sigurdsson fit into AVB’s favourable 4-3-3 formation? No. How many of the summer signings were AVB’s or did Franco Baldini call the shots?

Now, I’m not blaming Daniel Levy for AVB’s failings, but merely suggesting how powerless Andre seems, when met with a powerful character.

This season, we’ve seriously struggled in front of goal, but whose fault is that? To Andre, when we beat Hull 1-0, after a lucky penalty call, it was the fans fault, claiming that they need to support the team if they’re struggling. Just a point there, give the fans some incentive. Whilst after Sunday’s 6-0 demolition, AVB placed the blame solely on the players. Demoralising comments, just a week before a crucial match at White Hart Lane against Manchester United. Whose fault will it be when we lose that match? The linesman? The kit man?

Even last season, on countless occasions, off the top of my head I can think of 1-0 away at Southampton and 1-0 at home to Sunderland, we played in the exact formation as this season, creating little to no chances, dominating possession, being hit on the break, but there was one difference. AVB had a certain Welshman to dig us out, now he’s gone.

AVB needs to realise that the players still at the club have to work together to fill that void left by Bale. The 4-2-3-1 formation didn’t work for us last season, it hasn’t so far this season. Yes, it may if we give it time, but we don’t have time. At this rate, I’ll be surprised if we get better than 5^th. Even the games we’ve won this year haven’t been impressive, I rarely think we look like a team who can score more than one goal, if that.

After the 1-0 loss at home to Newcastle I was very hopeful that Andre would look at the performance and realise the errors. From playing two inverted wingers, causing congestion in the midfield, #10 has to drop back to play, therefore creating little chances, and opposition full backs drift inwards for extra cover as we didn’t exploit the space out wide after the wingers cut in.

He had two weeks, when we didn’t have that many players leave for international duty, its all well and good saying that he ‘tried 442 in a practice match’ and yes; its good getting Adebayor back involved. So then Andre, why did you start right footed Aaron Lennon on the left, with the left footed Erik Lamela on the right? Obviously they’re going to drift in. The lack of tactical change doomed us to fail against City and in such an important game, this is unacceptable.

I’m not one to call for a manager’s head after one bad result, but this is after a season and a half of terrible performances and lucky 1-0 wins occasionally. I’m currently feeling quite demotivated and demoralised. If we don’t get the three points next week against Manchester United, well the hashtag writes itself. To dare is to do.

COYS!

Thanks to Spurs Blogger for posting this article – follow them on Twitter here