Tottenham wonder strikes only paper over the cracks for Andre Villas-Boas

Win lifts pressure on manager but he’s still left with a striking dilemma
5 December 2013

Two improbable strikes from outside the box confirmed both Tottenham’s admirable perseverance and the work still required to achieve greater attacking cohesion.

Andre Villas-Boas may have his doubters in the boardroom but there do not appear to be too many in the dressing room. Spurs laboured for much of this game against a Fulham side reinvigorated by new manager Rene Meulensteen but their resilience was eventually rewarded with a precious win to alleviate the pressure on their manager.

There can be no doubting the purity of Vlad Chiriches’s 30-yard equaliser that scorched the Craven Cottage turf and clipped Maarten Stekelenburg’s right-hand post on its way, nor Lewis Holtby’s fine effort from 10 yards closer that found its target with arrow-like precision.

But the fact Spurs were reliant on such long-range shooting was symptomatic of their inability to slice through Fulham often enough as they defended deep to protect a 1-0 lead given to them by Ashkan Dejagah.

They counter-attacked well enough. Paulinho fired over wastefully after one such raid midway through the first half before another saw Jermain Defoe find Erik Lamela only for the £30million man to sidefoot wide.

But when asked to force the pace with Fulham set up to contain and counter, Spurs moved the ball at a laborious pace that rarely threatened to open up the home side. Against Manchester United on Sunday, Sandro and Mousa Dembele injected real dynamism into Tottenham’s play with Paulinho playing in a more advanced role behind Roberto Soldado.

Villas-Boas was robbed of the chance to continue with that triumvirate because of Dembele’s hip injury but Paulinho was retained in the same position, with Defoe replacing Soldado at the apex of the attack.

Etienne Capoue and Sandro were unable to manoeuvre the ball with enough speed and efficiency — a flaw that Villas-Boas, to his credit, recognised and attempted to address.

Holtby came on for Capoue at half-time to play as Spurs’ No10, with Paulinho dropping deeper. Once Spurs fell behind, Nacer Chadli took over, with Holtby dropping in alongside Sandro.

“When they dropped back and gave us the ball, it was difficult to break them and it could only have come from outside the box and we got two brilliant goals from Vlad and Holtby,” said Villas-Boas (left). “We tried to look a bit more offensive every time we changed so we dropped eventually Paulinho and Holtby — the two no10s — back into midfield to try to find the passes that could put people through. Although we had some good chances through the channels, it was difficult because the box was crowded and they kept on clearing the balls. So two moments of inspiration solved the game.”

Tottenham cannot always rely on such moments, however, and so Villas-Boas must continue to make progress in this area; on this occasion he was also indebted to Hugo Lloris, who made a string of fine saves in a display far removed from the nervousness evident in the thrashing at Manchester City.

If Spurs can take more from the result than the overall performance, then the opposite is certainly true of Fulham. Meulensteen made seven changes from the team that surrendered so meekly at West Ham and his first match in charge will be remembered as one to inspire confidence Fulham can arrest a decline that has seen them lose 16 of the past 22 League matches.

“I wanted an inspired performance because that’s what the fans want to see and, yes, we lost three points but we gained a lot, on the other hand,” said Meulensteen. “I think the biggest gain was that we won the fans back.”

Whether he can win Dimitar Berbatov over is another matter. The Bulgarian’s agent, Emil Dantchev, claims Berbatov is “not happy at Fulham” and would like, if possible, to find another club in January. There was a smattering of boos as his name was read out before kick-off but he proved a constant menace to his former club.

Cynics would point out it may be impossible to tell whether Berbatov has lost interest, such is his languid style, but he was unfortunate not to be rewarded with a goal.

“He led the line fantastically and I know what Dimitar is capable of doing because I worked with him [at Manchester United] for so long,” said Meulensteen. “He is a player that really cares for this club and I thought that was evident tonight.”

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