It’s Time For Andre Villas-Boas To Decide On His Best Tottenham Team!

Tottenham team need to come together [Photo: Jav The_DoC_66]Almost four months of the season have passed and it’s time for Andre Villas-Boas to decide on his best team to play in the Premier League.

With so many new players arriving at Tottenham during the summer it has taken time for them to settle into English football, understand their new manager’s plans and become acquainted with the rest of the team. The season has been stop-start with international breaks in September, October and November taking the majority of players away for almost a fortnight at a time. This and the constant schedule of Europa League and Cup games has given the manager almost no time to work with his squad and decide on his best starting eleven.

It’s time for AVB to decide on his best ‘eleven’ for league games and stick with it to give the players the opportunity to come together as a team. Injuries have caused the manager problems through the opening months and are still a difficulty with Danny Rose, the only recognised left back in the squad, taking an exceptionally long time to recover from his toe injury while Christian Eriksen’s recent injury is another setback.

AVB has successfully rotated his squad to give players an opportunity to gain fitness and stake a claim for a regular first team place in the mid-week matches. He has, however, never had a settled side for the Premier League frequently making three or four changes from the previous league game. He completely changed his attacking midfield trio for the game against Manchester City with Erik Lamela starting his first leauge game. They never settled into the game and looked very uncomfortable throughout.

After thirteen matches played, with a third of the season gone, Villas-Boas should decide on his best team and give them a run of games with only minor alterations to accommodate injuries or tactics for a particular match. Some players might feel put-out by not being included in the team but by constantly changing the line-up there is no opportunity for the players to become accustomed to playing together, developing partnerships and understanding how each other plays.

A Settled Team

In defence, AVB has had a reasonably settled line-up although it has had to be altered due to injury. He has persisted with Roberto Soldado as his first choice striker but the lack of consistency in midfield selection hasn’t helped the Spaniard settle into the team or find his goalscoring touch. The midfield selection against United was the most effective that has been seen in recent week showing a greater understanding throughout the team.

With three League games in seven days, including the United match, I would like to see AVB give the players who performed so much better on Sunday given an opportunity to establish themselves as the first choice eleven for league games. Some will say that it will too much for them to play three matches in such a short period of time but all players want to be playing regularly and it is only when playing together consistently will they develop the necessary understanding to demonstrate whether they can grow into a useful team.

If AVB plays the same team at Fulham and Sunderland, then the Europa League game on Thursday week and the Cup match against West Ham will provide an opportunity for the remainder of the squad to get match practice to keep them fit and ready to step in if injuries occur.

Tough decisions have to be made and that’s what the manager is paid to do. It is impossible to go right through a season with a constantly changing team and hope to have success. AVB needs to take that decision now.