This could be a controversial one especially as everything Rafael van der Vaart touches turns to gold. Within 10 weeks of signing for us he’s become a cult hero. In fact cult is probably not strong enough, he’s simply a hero in N17.
His vision, movement, finishing, passing, creativity and pure unadulterated will to win has seen him score 7 goals in just 11 games. Not bad, especially in a team that’s struggling to score goals. He’s transformed the team from one with potential to make it into the Champions League into one that some people believe should be right up there in the mix for the title.
He’s typical Tottenham. He’s got tekkers as the youngsters say today. He’s the type of player that makes you feel less annoyed with parting your hard earned to watch an overpriced game of football. He gets you on the edge of your seat as you expect something to happen when he has the ball. Simply put he IS entertainment. I have massive man love for him.
However, while he’s brilliant is it actually him that’s causing us to look blunt up top? Until his arrival we’d played our traditional 4-4-2 formation, with the only exception being Stoke away, although that was more down to only having Crouch fit to play than any tactical masterplan. That formation was a tried and tested one, one which all the players felt comfortable in and one that produced our best league season in over 20 years.
There had been a lot of speculation whether Redknapp would continue with 4-4-2 this season, especially in European competition but he did exactly that in our first game against Young Boys. As no doubt you’ll remember that experiment didn’t go quite to plan but we managed to rescue a 3-2 defeat and then hammer them 4-0 in the return leg, but again in a traditional 4-4-2 formation.
So it wasn’t until van der Vaart signed that we started playing the 4-4-1-1 we’ve been employing to mixed effect. It seems to work in the Champions League and gauging by how easily Young Boys tore us a new one in the first tie it’s better than 4-4-2, although looking back at the first half against Inter in the San Siro, 4-4-1-1 doesn’t mean we’re not leaky at the back.
The problem occurs when we get into league football. By playing only 1 up front you’re immediately relying on midfielders to support and get in the box to score goals. Unfortunately we don’t have that type of midfielder. It’s worked in Europe because the likes of Bale are afforded more room to play their game, whereas in the premier league he’s not, so when the ball does eventually get into the box we’re left with Crouch and van der Vaart alone against 4-5 defenders. They’ll score goals between them (well vdV will) but it won’t be enough. We don’t have players like Lampard, Malouda, Fabregas, Nasri, Nani etc who’s natural game is to support the front line whenever possible. Modric and Huddlestone’s natural game is to sit a little deeper, both preferring to be just outside the area, spraying balls to the wings. They’ll get goals too of course because of the way we play but not enough to supplement the missing one’s from only playing one up front.
Then there’s the lone striker. A lot has been said about Crouch’s lack of goals and rightly so. No league goals just isn’t good enough but how many goals do lone strikers score? Chelsea play with 2 strikers or a variant of 1 striker and 2 advanced inside forwards. United play with 2 up top. There are two other teams that I would say play in a similar way to us and that’s Arsenal and Man City. Chamakh has scored 6 goals and made 3 assists in total compared to Crouch’s 5 goals and 7 assists. There’s one freak that plays as a proper lone striker and that’s Carlos Tevez who’s managed 9 goals and 3 assists in his 16 games. My point is though that lone strikers tend not to score bags of goals, except the few brilliant one’s who we didn’t sign in the summer.
So not only are we sacrificing a striker but we’re making the other one, whoever that may be, less likely to score goals. All because we want vdV in the team and we want him to play just behind the striker.
Of all our midfield players he’s the one who loves to get into the box, loves to create something and score goals. That’s his game. He’s not there to track back and defend, although he does. If we want to get back on track this season and start entertaining in the league we need to find a way to accommodate the Dutchman and not by restricting other areas of our game.
No one player is bigger than the team or club. We’ve heard that many times before and this is no different. Footballing history is packed full of excellent players that weren’t played enough because they wouldn’t fit into the team, Glenn Hoddle with England is a good Spurs related example. Rafa can play in a number of positions; as he is now, on the right of midfield or centrally. With one of those positions we’re losing out on potential goals, but in the other two he’d have to play in a position he’d prefer not to. How about centrally but just behind two strikers? Would that be too attacking?
Whatever needs to happen, needs to happen soon and unfortunately someone will have to sit out. It’s impossible to get 2 strikers as well as Bale, Modric, THud, Lennon and vdV in the same team unless we go to a 3-5-2 formation with Bale and Lennon as the full backs. One might work but Lennon definitely wouldn’t.
When Redknapp got the call from Levy to ask if he wanted Rafa he must’ve been over the moon. Only now is he realising that while he’s a brilliant player who we have to get into the team somehow, playing him isn’t as easy as he and Spurs fans first thought. We have an England situation at White Hart Lane. For years managers have tried to get Lampard and Gerrard into the same team because they’re both fine players but it just doesn’t work. None have been able to drop either of them and the performance of the team has suffered as a consequence. The same can be said with us at the moment.
This is where the manager earns his money and if he can find a solution he could very well pave the way for Spurs to be successful in every competition they enter. We either need to find a new position for vdV or start pushing midfielders into the box who aren’t comfortable there. If we do neither and just hope things will turn around we’ll be left with a talented team on paper who can’t perform on the pitch.
Edit: Judging by some of the comments that this post has received on message boards and twitter I should point out that at no point do I believe vdV should be dropped or that he is personally responsible for our lack of goals. Maybe the title is a little confusing or I didn’t explain myself properly. vdV should be in every team when he’s fit, as I said in the opening paragraphs, he’s immense, but the formation we’re currently playing with him in the side isn’t effective with our team of players in the league. That’s not his fault, that’s the coaching and it may become apparent to have vdV performing at his best as well as the rest of the team and 2 strikers that one of Bale, Modric, THud or Lennon might have to sit on the bench. Of course it’s all conjecture, discussion and debate which is what football is all about. If we win 5-0 on Saturday this will be null and void. 
COYS
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