André Villas-Boas likely to encounter familiar problems at Tottenham

Sharethematch.com takes a look at why Tottenham's imminent appointment of André Villas-Boas could end in failure

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By Share The Match Tuesday 3 July 2012, 11:51 UK

André Villas-Boas was sacked as Chelsea manager in MarchPhoto: The Sport Review

andre villas-boas

Villas-Boas set to encounter similar problems at Spurs

André Villas-Boas is set to be unveiled as Tottenham manager this week and there are two simple reasons why he did not succeed at Chelsea.

He was not given enough time and the players refused to listen to him while he was trying to revolutionise the club.

At Tottenham he will do the same – try to imprint his philosophy and tactics on a side that has some excellent players but numerous deficiencies as well, namely a dearth of centre-halves, centre-forwards and a playmaker should Luka Modrić leave.

Under Harry Redknapp, tactics were kept simple. Rafael van der Vaart has previously spoken of how he enjoyed training so much because it was largely just five-a-sides, while he also made a good point – if you have an excellent technical player like him with the ball and an athlete like Gareth Bale making the run, it doesn’t really matter how much you time you spend on tactical intricacies – it is still going to be very hard to stop.

But Villas-Boas will again attempt a top-to-bottom revolution of the club and Levy has suggested that is what he wants. It will come at a price however, and that will be that it takes a while to implement, leaving the Portuguese coach in a similar position to last season.

He will be trying to build for a long-term future while at the same time struggling to get the Spurs into the Champions League.

The master of time is playing the waiting game

We all remember Manchester United’s signing of Dimitar Berbatov on deadline day 2008, and four years before that, there was the late signing of Wayne Rooney – a transfer which is working out at just over £4m per season.

Sir Alex Ferguson has yet to play his hand in this summer transfer window, opting not to purchase before Euro 2012 – unlike his signing of Javier Hernández on the eve of the 2010 World Cup before his stock considerably rose.

But do United require bolstering? Major surgery is certainly not needed, but minor operations across the entire team would prevent some of the hospital football witnessed last season.

The return of Nemanja Vidić means the exit of Rio Ferdinand. Jonny Evans will be rewarded with a starting berth for United’s new campaign after easily his most impressive season to date.

Leighton Baines is a touted replacement for Patrice Evra at left-back, after a dismal Euro 2012 exacerbated the ignominy of a torrid 2010 World Cup. He has been back-pedalling for a number of years and the introduction of Baines would see Evra drop to the bench.

United need more pace and fire in the middle of the pitch. This is where they lost the title last year. Anderson has not fulfilled his early promise and should go, while the return of Tom Cleverley and hopefully Darren Fletcher will be a boost.

But Ferguson needs more than that and surely he is aware of this palpable dearth of talent in midfield. We are a long way off Fergie Time yet, but when the time is right, the old master of time will strike once more.