Team Focus: Transitioning Tottenham Need a Change from Tim
Tottenham Hotspur remain a club stuck in transition. After Sunday's derby defeat to Arsenal, any hopes of a top 4 finish are now gone, and with the team also on the verge of a Europa League exit to Benfica, the period between now and May represents nothing more than a wait for the off season, and with it a chance to regroup, and more importantly, rethink strategies.
Daniel Levy has flitted unconvincingly in recent years between European models of management with a focus on building for the future and English managers who, it is hoped, may be a refreshing change that brings immediate impact. With no obvious commitment to a philosophy or even train of thought regarding the direction in which the club is going, the club have accordingly struggled for the consistency on the pitch needed to become a real force.
Harry Redknapp brought the greatest period of stability to Tottenham during Levy's reign and with it came the greatest success. André Villas-Boas' stint as boss was disrupted by Gareth Bale's departure, but rather than show him patience to build something for the future, he was sacked without any replacement lined up. Current manager Tim Sherwood brought a brief honeymoon period to the club, but that is over and there is now a resounding feeling of pessimism around White Hart Lane.
Regularly changing manager isn't in itself a bad idea. Arsenal and Manchester United's continued backing of Arsène Wenger and Sir Alex Ferguson is idolised somewhat, but Roman Abramovich's willingness to sack Chelsea managers at the first sign of failure has brought an incredible stream of trophies. This ruthlessness is something that Levy could feasibly have taken inspiration from, but without the resources or a realistic lure of trophy chances to convince big names to come in mid-season, Spurs cannot follow suit.
Sherwood gained experience as a manager taking charge of Tottenham's development squad, who he took to within 1 win of triumphing in the Under-21 Premier League. With that, and a youthful Tottenham senior squad, he seemed he could be the man to take the club forwards. However, having had no input in Spurs' transfer activity nor any experience of integrating new signings into a squad, the only thing weighing in his favour was that his approach came in stark contrast to Villas-Boas'. The Portuguese had failed, so a return to the simplistic ways of Redknapp appealed to Levy. Other than a brief bright spell, though, Sherwood has brought little success to White Hart Lane.
He has been praised for bringing Emmanuel Adebayor back into the fold when really, not doing his utmost to overcome their differences and continuing to leave him out was just a grave failure on Villas-Boas' part. Nabil Bentaleb has become a symbol of Sherwood's time at the helm, with the youngster being given his debut and becoming a fixture in the first team since Sherwood took charge. For club the size of theirs, Tottenham bring far too few players through the ranks and he has been refreshing as a result, but quite what he brings to the team still remains unclear.
His average rating of 6.75 ranks him 14th in Tottenham's squad; he wins the ball frequently, making 2.6 tackles and 2.2 interceptions per game, and moves the ball quickly, averaging 49 passes per game, but at such a young age still isn't disciplined enough to sit in front of the back four. Many of his greatest advocates would say he is not best suited to that position, but further up the pitch he offers extremely little, with no goals from his 12 shots and 1 assist from 0.6 key passes per game, that coming from little creative nous, when he laid the ball off to Nacer Chadli to net from 25 yards in the 4-0 win at Newcastle.
That goal - from a substitute - also represents another inadequacy on Sherwood's part; having an impact on games with the use of the players on his bench. That Chadli goal was one of only 3 that substitutes have scored in the Premier League during Sherwood's time in charge, with the others coming from Etienne Capoue in the 5-1 loss to Manchester City and Jermain Defoe in the 2-0 win over Crystal Palace. Capoue's goal was a scrappy one from a corner - after his introduction was enforced by an injury to Mousa Dembélé - while Defoe's was a typical strike with the game already tipping in Spurs' favour. That is, none of those goals changed the path of the game, and none had their root in Sherwood's tactical know-how as he looked to adapt the way his side have been playing to alter the game. Since he became permanent manager, he has taken charge of 13 games. Spurs have gained just 1 point from a losing position in those matches - in a 1-1 draw at Hull that they would have certainly expected to win.
Much has been made of the Tottenham manager's naivety when it comes to tactics, with it oft assumed that he merely wants a group of adept footballers to go out and play with a freedom that they did not have under Villas-Boas. While he had been able to motivate his players sufficiently to make progress in his opening games as manager, the lack of direction he has given his team has meant that they have been found out of late.
With little plan, Spurs have been playing more long balls recently. The 4-0 loss to Chelsea saw the highest proportion of their passes played long this season (16.5%), but that is understandable given that they were down to 10 men. At home to Benfica, though, when they needed to take control of the tie with the home advantage, they played 15.2% of their passes long and looked at their most toothless in attack. Sherwood's decision to play Harry Kane in the number 10 role took Spurs back to looking like the team who yearned for creative input last season, just without Gareth Bale. With Christian Eriksen, the most creative player in their squad, playing on the left, Sherwood looked more clueless than ever.
With Tottenham now 7 points off the fourth spot they so crave, they are worse off than they were, in that regard, when AVB was removed (when they were 5 points off 4th). Plenty has improved - they have only 1 point less than they did at the same stage last season despite this supposedly being a failure of a campaign - but things have not improved sufficiently for Sherwood to have a realistic hope of remaining manager beyond this season. The season may be as good as over for Spurs and fans and players alike will have to accept that this was a season in which lessons have been learned, but they cannot afford any more transitional campaigns beyond this one.
Do you think things have improved at Tottenham under Tim Sherwood? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below
