I came into watching English league football knowing that there were teams you don't mess with. Theses were teams with a winning mentality. Whichever team you supported, when it came down to playing any of those teams, no matter your level of confidence, it shook you a little. Amongst these teams was Tottenham Hotspur. This used to be a very compact team with an ability to outrun you both in the middle and on the flanks. This was the tradition Gareth Bale grew with and that is why today, he stands as the most expensive footballer in the world. Tottenham players will overturn a game by outrunning you. It was a compact team with speed at their feet. The tradition of football at Tottenham was beyond skill, they had speed. With the ball, they were like hungry dogs. Their defense was compact enough to play like players on drugs. You had to fear each time you played them. These players included amongst others Kyle walker, younes Kaboul, Michael Dawson. Aaron Lennon, Mousa Dembele, sandro, Emmanuel Adebayor, jermain Defoe, Benoit Assou-Ekotto. Even Modric and Bale left from this squad. Teams feared them because they had a tradition.
Today, the same team look so ordinary without those key players. Andre Villas-Boas made it clear that he dint want some players. He had always being like that. He did it in Chelsea and they did not have the patience but threw him out and his then assistant went on to win the Champions league for Chelsea fc. He did well last season coming fourth because he maintained most of those players. This, season, he decided to do away with his experienced players to sign new players. I bet In His mind, he will say, give me time to grow them, if he wants to grow professionals or give them time to grow, he should go to the clubs academy. No one in the Epl has the time to grow players who ordinarily should be professionals. If you are not performing after spending over a hundred million pounds, expecially when the club owners are contantly losing both in the league and betting, you are naturally shown the way out. Tactically the, Club is no where. In the show of skill, one on one with players of the opposite side, they have looked too ordinary. That was why Man city taught them football lesson by beating them 6-0 now Liverpool made it 5-0 all in one season, how much humiliation can you wait for before you save your ass?
Andre Villas-Boas may be a good coach, but he made great errors by playing down key players. He himself killed the moral of his players. I will not call players name here. Players have it in them, they will say to themselves, if he did it to him, he can do it to me. Players that you don't rate well or you play down, you bring them on the pitch to perform miracles for you...how? I think AVB has the potential to be great, but no matter now much of the potential he may have, if decision making let you down, your potential is useless. Every club play differently, while you have your style of Play, a good coach much be able to play a style that can beat his opponent. AVB needs to change everything about himself if he wants to make it in England. If not, he may be asked to go back to Portugal where he is better.
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