Safe, Sleepy Spurs Could Have Used the Magic of Bale Against Espanyol

Gareth Bale may be overshadowing most things at White Hart Lane these days, and while the reportedly injured but most likely wantaway attacker did not participate in Saturday’s friendly against Espanyol, many of his current teammates played a part in Tottenham Hotspur’s 1-1 draw at home to the Barcelona side.

It was the sort of match in which Bale could have almost certainly tipped the balance in Spurs’ favour.

But with the 24-year-old out of contention due to an ankle problem (although he has mysteriously been named to the Wales squad ahead of next week’s international friendly against the Republic of Ireland) manager Andre Villas-Boas was forced to make do without the pace, power and magic the Welshman is capable of providing and that his team relied upon so often last season.

By the look of things it’s also something Spurs will have to get used to being without as the 2013-14 Premier League season approaches.

Although the intensity of the rumours linking Bale to Real Madrid has died down in recent days it still appears more than likely that a deal will go through before the end of the summer. And in the absence of his best player, Villas-Boas has proceeded to make alternate tactical plans.

Plan B, if it can be called that, is a “safety-first” approach.

Against Espanyol, Spurs lined up in what first looked to be a 4-3-3 formation, although when Nacer Chadli ventured forward and wide attackers Gylfi Sigurdsson and Aaron Lennon dropped back it sometimes morphed into more of a 4-2-3-1.

Nevertheless, with Paulinho and Mousa Dembele playing from the start the home side seemed to prefer a much more direct pattern of buildup than was typical of them last season.

Paulinho, in particular, represented a very “safe” acquisition when Spurs acquired him from Corinthians, and given Villas-Boas’ history with the 4-3-3 at Porto it would hardly be surprising to see the Brazilian, Dembele and one of Chadli, Sandro and Lewis Holtby line up across the centre of the park against Crystal Palace in eight days’ time.

Where this could be troubling is in the fact that, at least against Espanyol, the Spurs midfield had a difficult time creating meaningful scoring chances for Roberto Soldado. The only goal they got came after a penalty earned at the edge of the box by Danny Rose, and while it was Soldado who made the successful conversion he looked anything but convincing in the goalmouth.

Of course, any Bale sale would fill the Tottenham coffers to the extent they could go out and make a handful of additional signings before the closing of the transfer window three weeks from now.

And judging by their safe, sometimes sleepy showing against Espanyol, that money would be best spent on an action-man with the ingenuity required to get the best out of the pieces Villas-Boas has already assembled.