Adebayor's departure is perfect, however Sandro's is not

Emmanuel Adebayor's departure to the Africa Cup of Nations is just in time for Manchester United's visit to White Hart Lane, with the Premier League pace setters set to take on Tottenham Hotspur in the 4pm kick off on Sunday.

If only the temperamental front-man hadn't been sent off in the North London Derby in November, a beautiful partnership could have blossomed between the Togo international and Jermain Defoe.

But his ability to play the occasion and not the game put our position in jeopardy against Arsenal, and Andre Villas-Boas' decision to reinstate him in the starting line up hasn't exactly produced great performances from Spurs' Number 10.

Adebayor is nowhere near the player he was last season, maybe due to his permanent contract? His lack of summer training preparation? His injuries? Maybe it's because he would play better with a real playmaker playing just behind him, but with Defoe in prolific form so far in the Premiership, it's hard for Villas-Boas to justify dropping the England international.

In my humble opinion, the 4-4-2 hasn't worked. Yes, it has brought us results, who can complain about that? But the performances have been very average, maybe apart from the Aston Villa win, and we all the probems they are going through at the moment.

The game at Loftus Road showed that we were too predictable playing in the formation, QPR dropped deep, and we couldn't play through them.

Cast your minds back to October when we visited Old Trafford, when Andre Villas-Boas's formation was primarily a 4-2-3-1, when we overpowered Manchester United for 45 minutes and recorded our first win at Old Trafford since 1989.

Let's not worry about the second half; we all know as fans, Spurs like to do it the hard way.

Lining up in a 4-2-3-1 against Manchester United this weekend is our best chance of beating Sir Alex Ferguson's side.

Bringing Clint Dempsey back in for Adebayor's absence is what Andre Villas-Boas may have in the pipeline. The American has produced more consistent performances of late, after having a difficult start to life at N17, but since the West Ham game he has came back into the form he showed at Fulham.

One player who Manchester United will be pleased not to see on the starting line up for Spurs is the beast, Sandro.

News was released via Tottenham Hotspur's Facebook and Twitter accounts on Wednesday that Sandro had knee surgery after the QPR game last weekend, not great for Spurs' most consistent performer this season, among the likes of Jan Vertonghen and Aaron Lennon.

The leg-covering cast on his leg doesn't bode well for our Brazilian beast, with reports that he could be out for the rest of the season.

And with only Scott Parker as our best defensive midfielder as cover, it seems he will start alongside Mousa Dembele against Manchester United on Super Sunday.

Parker had an impressive game against QPR on Saturday, but an injury to him would leave us right in the s**t.

Let's hope Adebayor can rediscover some form at the Africa Cup of Nations for his beloved Togo, while wishing and praying that Sandro has a speedy recovery.

Possible Spurs XI: Lloris, Naughton, Caulker, Vertonghen, Walker; Parker, Dembele; Bale, Dempsey, Lennon; Defoe.  

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Comments

[ped]

i think the result this weekend has a bearing on transfer dealings eg. if we produce another dismal display like we did last week we'd get a hiding from united & it would maybe spur levy into transfer action.
we're really lacking a creative MF & decent striker at the moment although i think bembele's a good signing i'm not sure that dempsey is the prolific goal scorer we need, trouble is after all said & done with the paper talk, no one seems available in january..
holtby looks good but again not sure he's that creative type or strong enough for the prem... yet, however if it's true that sneijder is available for around 8 mil surely it's worth a punt on the dutchman.
i can see us just falling short of a top 4 finish especially if reports about sandro are true... and that can be partly blamed on last summer's failure in the transfer market to secure players we need.

[TonyRich]

I felt that the 4-4-2 has brought us BETTER performances. The Reading, Sunderland (especially), Villa and Stoke games were good performances - despite failing to score vs Stoke. The Man U game was NOT a good performance. Man U were non-existent in the 1st half, and they destroyed us in the second. It was embarrassing to see us being unable to make one pass in the second half. We won, but not good enough. Our recent improved performances were not neccessarily due to Ade, but with him we have a bit more to aim for up front - a bit more for the opposition to think about. I don't even think that 4-4-2 is ideal either. We just need to play in a way that gets performances and results.

[Lennie]

Not a bad article until I noticed Caulker in your possible starting eleven. Can somebody please explain why he is even considered as at best he is only the equal of Dawson. You constantly hear managers only bringing players into the squad if they are better than they already have - Caulker is not better - to my mind is cumbersome.

[chap]

Our problem without ade is holding the ball up? However, without him should ensure that we must play through the team with plenty of width. Parker is a worthy substitute for sandro but I am concerned with naught on at LB and would possibly move vert back there and caulker in middle with Dawson.

Our main problem will be to neutralise Rvp

Coys