After Tottenham’s indifferent start to the season under Andres Villas Boas, chairman Daniel Levy replaced the Portuguese manager with former Spurs midfielder Tim Sherwood.
Sherwood is a man who clearly loves the club. Now that the notion that Sherwood will be replaced in summer is gathering momentum, is it really justified?
To be fair to Levy, for the past couple of years he has made his intention of getting the club into the top four clear to any manager he works with. When Gareth Bale was sold to Real Madrid in a world record breaking deal last summer, the chairman allowed Villas Boas to spend a fortune on strengthening.
He used the money to get quality players who could fit into his preferred system.
Villas Boas employed the 4-2-3-1 formation he used at Chelsea. His grand plan was to play offensive football by employing a very high defensive line, trying to push play into the opposition half.
Two summer signings were central to that: a creative Paulinho in midfield and the deadly Spanish predator Roberto Soldado. A couple of things went against that but the main problems were the low number of chances the team created, the poor form of Soldado and lack of pace from the centre-backs who were asked to play a high line.
When Sherwood got the reigns, he brought in a 4-4-2 system that he has generally used since.
His new look team shape has defenders dropping a bit deeper, which helps the likes of Michael Dawson who were previously exposed when up against quick strikers like Luis Suarez.
Sometimes the new boss plays a diamond midfield and lets Soldado and Emmanuel Adebayor alternate in providing width as twin strikers, while on other occasion he may also go with a regular four-man midfield using the natural width of the likes of Andros Townsend and Nacer Chadli.
One of the biggest achievements of Sherwood’s tenure has been a rejuvenated Adebayor. The current boss has shown so much faith in the Togo international and, in return, he has rediscovered his best form. Under Villas Boas, Adebayor seemed disinterested but is now using his athleticism to impose himself even when asked to play alone up top.
Villas Boas and Sherwood may have different philosophies on how to take Tottenham to the coveted Champions League qualification places, but they shared a similar problem. To get into the top four, Tottenham need to perform against big teams.
They usually start games brightly but when things go against them, they just unravel. They suffered a heavy defeat against Liverpool before Villas Boas left and were similarly thrashed by Manchester City and Chelsea.
The most telling thing about all these defeats has been a stark change in performance levels from the way they start games to the way they continue after going a goal down. When they played Manchester United they scored first and went on to win impressively.
There is really little to separate from the performances of the team under these two managers, especially in big games but Sherwood deserves more credit. He was not responsible for most of the expensive signings who have under-performed.
The longevity of any manager these days is generally linked to results. Maybe Levy will feel that getting close to the Champions League is not good enough, but Sherwood probably deserves to be judged at the end of next season after adding his own signings in summer and having a pre-season with his players.
