da gbg bet： Despite eventually cruising to a 2-0 victory over Aston Villa yesterday, it took Tottenham Hotspur a good chunk of 45 minutes before they really found the desired flow and rhythm to their game. Andre Villas-Boas’ side are continuing to grow as a unit, but there were more than one or two within White Hart Lane whom suggested that Thursday’s European exploits, might have proved more hindrance than help.
da apostaganha： Yet for anyone that endured all 90 minutes of Spurs’ little midweek soiree against Panathinaikos, you can debunk that myth right away.
Because although the amount of physical output within the Europa League will inevitably increase and potentially take its toll, the efforts of Villas-Boas’ starting XI in Athens, suggested that no one can realistically hide behind the stigma of burn-out. How can you, if you quite evidently don’t give a flying fig about the competition whatsoever?
Of course, it is very easy to read too much into the efforts of one, off-key and in some elements, bizarre, game of football. Very rarely will Spurs come up against a side with such a disparagingly poor attacking outlet as what Panathinaikos offered last Thursday. But that’s what makes the result all the more difficult to accept.
Playing in sweltering heat against a side who were so seemingly impotent it was rubbing off onto their opponents, must have offered more than a slight motivational issue. When it took such little effort to dominate proceedings, naturally, taking things up to the next level can’t be easy.
But there was something very macabre in watching the likes of Aaron Lennon, Tom Huddlestone et al dwindle about the pitch with such an alarming lack of urgency in the last 20 minutes. A period that not only saw Spurs throw away what seemed like a guaranteed three points in the group, but nearly loose the game altogether. This is hardly meant in the way of the alarmist propaganda we’ve seen aimed at AVB of late, but you couldn’t help but feel that the team’s effort on Thursday completely undermined the vision of the Portuguese.
This is a competition that the manager has gone out on record in public, as one that he has every intention of winning. His victory in the competition with Porto in 2010 represents perhaps his finest managerial achievement in the game and hence, there is a school of though that it is within his best interests to talk up the Europa League’s prospects. But more importantly, it’s within the club’s, too.
Villas-Boas has been on the charm offensive to disarm the proportion of volatile Europa League based opinions in White Hart Lane, and generally speaking, he’s catalyzed a groundswell of optimism for a shot at winning it. The heroes of the 1984 Uefa Cup win are still spoke about today in North London and although the competition now has a very different outlook, the prospect of lifting some genuine European silverware has captured the imaginations of fans.
Yet consequently, Villas-Boas knows he is taking an educated risk by backing the competition to such a hilt. As he did in the home tie against Lazio, the Portuguese fielded a very strong team indeed and one that evidently had more than enough to beat Panathinaikos. So when the players turn up and churn out a performance like that, they’re leaving Villas-Boas in the lurch. Had Spurs been unable to make a breakthrough against Villa yesterday, how many people would have turned to Thursday’s game as a scapegoat?
Considering how pedestrian several of the side were strutting about in Athens, it wouldn’t have half been some excuse. Of course, the likes of Michael Dawson and in particular Tom Huddlestone, have come in for pelters given their performances. The skipper might have chipped in with a goal but he looked generally uncomfortable and for a player that already has a fight to get back into the team, Huddlestone’s attitude was laughably half-hearted.
But let’s not shirk responsibility from others, here – Clint Dempsey hardly churned out much better and the fact that Jan Vertonghen has looked near on faultless in the two adjacent fixtures to the Panathinaikos game, tells a story in itself. Every player has bad days, but there were far too many last Thursday for it to be passed off as coincidence.
Furthermore, the aforementioned performances of say, Jan Vertonghen, against Aston Villa, suggest that at this stage of the season anyway, Spurs’ European travels can’t be used as stick of which to hit Villas-Boas with. As the season progresses, particularly over the next four weeks, Villas-Boas must be mindful of the rigors the congested fixture list will take upon his team.
But Andre Villas-Boas’ and Tottenham Hotspur’s European vision is nothing more than a pipedream, if the players seem unable to buy into it. Maybe the prospect of a trip to play an Atletico Madrid or a departed Champions League team in the next round will be more appealing, but they won’t get that opportunity if they turf out more of what we saw against Panathinaikos in the group stage. It simply wasn’t good enough.
There is a growing culture of optimism around White Hart Lane and the three points gained against Paul Lambert’s men, served almost to erase the Europa League woes from memory. But if Villas-Boas plumps with a similar starting XI for the tie against Maribor in Slovenia later on this month, he will surely expect to see a massive improvement on the performance he was dished up in Greece. There’s no point in the players turning up in body for this competition, if they’ve left their spirit at home.
Am I reading too much into this or were you similarly disillusioned with Spurs’ Europa League efforts last week? Let me know what side of the fence you fall on, on Twitter: follow @samuel_antrobus and talk Tottenham.