http://www.theguardian.com/football...ham-hotspur-tim-sherwood-west-ham-villas-boas
Tottenham Hotspur mixed up as Tim Sherwood puts it in the mixer
Spurs' approach against West Ham was unashamedly British and the polar opposite of André Villas-Boas's, but wholesale overhauls are hard enough in pre-season, never mind December
by David Hytner
For the first 10 minutes at White Hart Lane on Wednesday night, it was tempting to think that the home crowd had not had it so good in ages.
Knee-jerk nonsense, of course, but tempting. Against West Ham United in the Capital One Cup quarter-final, Tottenham Hotspur flew out of the blocks, they created chances and the stadium crackled with excitement. It was like old times.
This is Tottenham, though, and the rough inevitably comes with the smooth. Into the last 20 minutes and leading through Emmanuel Adebayor's redemption shot, they ran out of gas. They made errors on the ball and were suddenly vulnerable. West Ham punished them.
Tottenham still created three excellent opportunities but they could not take them and, for the second time this season, we were treated to the sight of Big Sam Allardyce smiling that big smile and revelling in a big West Ham win at the home of their hated rivals.
Allardyce could add Tim Sherwood, the Tottenham caretaker, to André Villas-Boas, who was sacked on Monday, on the list of those he has outmanoeuvred. "I thought they might have sat back and protected that [the 1-0] but they didn't," Allardyce said, almost shaking his head at Sherwood's folly. "They went for the second and we started exploiting the spaces that were left."
Sherwood is caught betwixt and between, and so are Tottenham. He had worked with the squad for all of one day but the team he sent out was startlingly different to that of Villas-Boas. This was revolution in 24 hours. There was an old-school 4-4-2, the kitchen sink at the outset and balls into the mixer from wide areas. Sherwood called it "a complete change of mind set". He said he had asked them "to go a bit more gung-ho, and up-and‑at‑them".
It was unashamedly British, the polar opposite of Villas-Boas's continental muck, with all of that patience probing and growing into games in a tactical sense. It was actually quite enjoyable, especially at the very start, and the players felt that the crowd responded. It was not better or worse, just different, although the result was not different and there were, of course, boos upon the full-time whistle.
Sherwood's problem is that wholesale overhauls are difficult enough in pre-season. In December, it is asking an awful lot, particularly from a 44-year-old who has never previously managed in the professional game.
Take the fitness issue, which Sherwood himself brought up. Villas-Boas planned every training session from the start of pre-season with scientific precision. From one to the next, they were designed to build up his squad and enable them to sustain football at his tempo over the season. Villas-Boas was confident that the work put in would bear fruit in the decisive months towards the end.
Sherwood wants different levels but how can he change things now, as the games come every three or four days and the training sessions are geared more to recovery and team shape?
Sherwood gave the clear impression after West Ham that he was operating on a day-to-day basis; that if the call from the chairman, Daniel Levy, on Monday morning to step up from the post of youth technical coordinator had been out of the blue, then a similar tap to step back down could come at any moment. It is impossible to paint this as the ideal backdrop to the era that Sherwood hopes to sculpt.
Tottenham want a big-name permanent appointment and they began to take soundings after the 6-0 defeat at Emirates Marketing Project on 24 November, when their faith in Villas-Boas had effectively died. But there is a difference between who they might want and who would be prepared to come in mid-season.
Guus Hiddink has said no and Frank de Boer, Ajax's brilliant coach, is focused on the pursuit of a fourth consecutive Eredivisie title. Guido Albers, De Boer's agent, said: "Through various channels, it has become clear to me that Spurs are interested. But the club has not approached Ajax so for us, there is not much to say about it. Frank focuses entirely on Ajax."
Mauricio Pochettino has his admirers in the Tottenham boardroom but he is immersed in his job at Southampton, from his exciting first-team to the academy sides that he watches regularly. His chairman, Nicola Cortese, has supported him in the transfer market and Pochettino has even been allowed to propagate the myth that he does not speak English to maintain a distance with the media.
Tottenham may be better off waiting until the summer but they do not want to. Nor will they consider this to be a season of transition. The target remains Champions League qualification. If they missed out and were still to need a manager, they would be less attractive to the elite.
Betwixt and between. Tottenham have a headache.
