AVB under pressure to double up
WHILE 35,000 fans were fuming at Andre Villas-Boas for his negative tactics against Wigan, he was fuming at Jermain Defoe.
The England forward stormed down the tunnel after being substituted for Emmanuel Adebayor in the 57th minute on Saturday.
Tottenham had just gone 1-0 down against Wigan and Villas-Boas persisted with just one striker on the pitch despite playing in front of a packed White Hart Lane crowd — who booed the decision not to play two strikers.
And Villas-Boas said: ‘The most important thing for the players to realise is that we do things for the benefit of the team.
‘ We understand individual frustrations but we, as a team, are more important. The game wasn’t going well for Defoe. We took him off to improve the team.’
The Portuguese left £5million summer signing Adebayor, returning to the squad after missing the past three games with illness and a back injury, on the bench.
The Togolese striker has only played five times this season and is yet to start a match, with Villas- Boas preferring to play Defoe up front alone with three attacking midfielders behind him.
But the match finished 1-0 as Spurs failed to score at White Hart Lane for the first time in 29 matches, a run stretching back to March 2011. They also suffered their first back- to- back home defeats since September 2008.
Later, Villas-Boas would not rule out playing Defoe and Adebayor up top together in future. The 35-year-old added: ‘It’s not impossible we will play with two strikers. We’ve seen that it can work.
‘In the games when Adebayor was available he showed the quality striker that he is. We have him fit now and hopefully ready for the upcoming games.’
The pair worked together to devastating effect at times last season. Defoe scored once and Adebayor grabbed two in the 4-0 demolition of Liverpool in September 2011, they were up front in the club’s 2-1 win against Arsenal and scored another three goals between them in a win at West Bromwich.
Villas-Boas is yet to start with two up front in Tottenham’s 15 games this season and this was the first time one of his sides had failed to score at home in a Premier League match — in 13 games at Chelsea and six at Spurs.
But with two important matches in the fight for a top-four finish — away to Manchester City and Arsenal — in their next two league matches and only one win in their last five matches, now could be the time to change.
Although he was missing Mousa Dembele, who faces up to six weeks out with a hip injury, the tactics were ineffective against Wigan.
Brad Friedel pulled off superb saves from Arouna Kone and Shaun Maloney in the first half but made a mess of a corner, palming the ball straight to Ben Watson, who finished from six yards in the 56th minute.
At the final whistle, Spurs fans voiced their dissatisfaction. One yelled: ‘Rubbish, bring back Harry, Levy!’ On this showing, he may have a point.