Rafa Van Der Vaart reveals Redknapp's tactics/training secrets

[RT--]

From an interview with Rafael Van Der Vaart:

The former Real Madrid star claims life at the Bernabeu under Mourinho was 'boring'. But he says Redknapp's laid-back approach at White Hart Lane makes his new boss very special.

Van der Vaart, 27, insists he has rediscovered not just his form at Tottenham but also his love for the game.

The Dutch playmaker said: "Harry is a very special man, that's why I already feel at home at Spurs. It feels like I'm back on the street.

"There are no long and boring speeches about tactics, like I was used to at Real Madrid. There is a clipboard in our dressing room but Harry doesn't write anything on it! It's very relaxed. The gaffer gives us the line-up 20 minutes before we go out to do our warm-up."

"And the only words he speaks to me are 'You play left or right, work hard, have fun and show the fans your best. Then the defenders get an instruction about who to mark at corners and free-kicks - and that's it."

The Dutch Master, who has hit seven goals already this season, says training at Tottenham is equally low-key.

He added: "It's not that we do nothing - but it's close to that. For instance, last weekend Gareth Bale scored a header against Blackburn from my corner. But we didn't train one minute on it, it was pure luck. Good kicking, good heading, nothing more. And our win at home over Champions League winners Inter Milan was a clear example of playing on intuition. You can't train the goal I scored in that game.

"Of course the players need to have the qualities to end in the good position and the gaffer has to select the best squad. But in the end, it's all about feeling and that's what I have right now at Spurs. I try to give the best assist possible and guys like Bale try to score a goal out of it. That's our tactic!"

[kkev]

which is why they generally struggle against big teams - especially away from home

[marconegri]

Wonder how long Harry's will last in the England job when he gets it? Best thing to take spurs to the next level Harry for England & David Moyes as new manager.

[Barkermush]

Looking at Harry's face during the Bolton game at 2-0 and 3-0 he didn't look laid back.. he looked flipping fuming!

[crouchaldinho]

So no tactics and no training.

This is why Harry Redknapp must get nowhere near our national team!

[RT--]

As someone else pointed out, kids always love the teacher who doesn't give them any homework. Doesn't mean they're a good teacher, though

[Asim]

as a spurs fan this has been obvious since before he arrived at the lane.

im not his biggest fan but appreciate what he has done...and thats all he probably does do - motivate, lift people and get along with people.

but that doesnt win you anything.

Mourinho is a tactician, but you can also see how every single one of his players gives 110% on the pitch for him.

and he wins everything!

edit:

despite that...i do think the england national team does need him.

the players looked scared at the moment when ever they go out and play.

these are supposed to be the very best players from our country and they get picked because they already know how to play football.

the england manager has to be able to make them gel in a short space of time that they have together and click on the pitch.

these players need to believe in themselves and stop looking like school kids being told what to do my head teacher cappello

[Fearthainn]

In FM terms this simply means Redknapp has chosen the "more roaming" option for his Spurs tactic, as well as "no pressure"/"wish luck" for pre-match team talks. Nothing to see here.

[Marsupian]

It's also a different approach to the game. Do you tell every player exactly how he should play possibly restricting him in his choices and making him one dimensional on the field or do you give players the freedom to do what they think is best in the hopes of getting the best out of them. The trick is finding the balance between rigid instructions and freedom which differs from team to team and player to player (for Van der Vaart freedom was obviously a good approach).

[HHUK]

He's a motivator and always has been, it's obvious he'll take certain players and give them a few tips. No player can really develop as a player without the managers opinion on their good points and bad points. Players like Modric and Van Der Vaart should always be allowed to live on a long leash so to speak, they're intelligent players that need the freedom to attempt something special.

[Asim]

he cant seem to work his magic with aaron lennon.

last season he was flying, now hes gone back to how he was before. low on confidence, doesnt take anyone on and just seems to mark him self out of the game by standing in front of the opposition left back.

i really hope he gets back to his best soon...spurs with lennon, bale and vdv in top form would be a formidable force!

[mdbussen]

I did laugh out loud when I read this article I wonder if Rafael has ever heard of the term "back-handed compliment"

That being said I love watching Spurs play. They are extremely inconsistent but every match is exciting to watch!

[wwfan]

Harry Redknapp = Very Fluid, More Roaming, No Shouts, No Opposition Instructions

Jose Mourinho = Very Rigid, Less Roaming, Lots of Shouts, Lots of Opposition Instructions

I think FM already replicates these different styles extremely well.

[urbanjunkie]

No tactics.

Spurs 2 Arsenal 1

No tactics.

Spurs 2 Chelsea 1

No tactics.

Man City 0 Spurs 1

No tactics.

=

Champions League

Keep that clipboard empty.

[crouchaldinho]

Harry Redknapp = Very Fluid, More Roaming, No Shouts, No Opposition Instructions.

I don't see Redknapp as very fluid myself. He strikes me as the sort of manager who thinks 'defenders defend & attackers attack'. So what would that be? 'Fluid' maybe?

[wwfan]

I don't see Redknapp as very fluid myself. He strikes me as the sort of manager who thinks 'defenders defend & attackers attack'. So what would that be? 'Fluid' maybe?

Pretty much. You are probably right that fluid fits him better.

[crouchaldinho]

The rest was spot on though.

[Asim]

No tactics.

Spurs 2 Arsenal 1

No tactics.

Spurs 2 Chelsea 1

No tactics.

Man City 0 Spurs 1

No tactics.

=

Champions League

Keep that clipboard empty.

no tactics =

loosing 1-0 to wigan 'at home'

3 nil down to young boys

loosing to bottom team west ham

getting battered by bolton - they deffinately deserved to win but coming into the game after beating inter, we shouldnt be loosing to bolton.

last season

loosing 1-0 to stoke, wolves at home

going to liverpool in hot form, no gerrard no torres and loosing comfortably

i think players can lift themselves for the big matches but im sure harry plays his part.

the problem comes when we drop points to teams we shouldnt be, thats when he should be drilling it into his players.

you have to work harder against smaller teams to find space and create something in the final thrid.

[Sokem]

There obviously is some tactics going on, training is probably all about keeping shape and defending, harry then picks the players he feels will influence the game the most, if he wants a left mid to come inside to exploit something in an opposition then he will play bale from left back and use modric or kranjcaer on the wing instead, things like that.

IMO it's Harry's lack of making the game difficult with massive tactical speeches that has helped Spurs do well but also why he would make a great impact for England, he wouldnt get a lot of time to work with a national team, he will pick a formation he wants to use, pick the players to play in their right position (something capello is rubbish at), do some training involving shape and defending and then allow the attacking players to attack how they want to. We still probably wouldnt win a world cup or european championship but it would be damn more exciting to watch than the rubbish we have to put up with at the moment.

[mantralux]

Also, it might just be that Redknapp isn't conveying much tactical instruction to Van der Vaart in particular, he might instruct other players lots. Redknapp might just have identified that VDV will perform better if he's free to do what he wants, so he doesn't bother him with too many instructions.

The interview is one persons view on how it works, but it's not as if they don't have any tactics. Of course there's a tactic and a gameplan, you wouldn't be able to just wing it against big teams, there's too much money and pride at stake. The whole club could fall apart financially if the team don't perform as expected, so of course there are tactics and instructions. VDV might just not be in on the loop, as the manager might not feel he has to know what all other players have been instructed to do.

[J.T]

The interview is from the sun, not exactly the most reliable source out there! lol

[jorisjoris]

Actually, the interview was a direct translation from a Dutch TV show. I know, because I saw the program last monday. It was an interview about his life, his wife, and his football. The words have been taken out of context though. The interview jokingly asked: "So there's basicly no training at all?" Then VDV jokingly answered: "That's pretty much the truth". It was obviously meant in a sarcastic way.

VDV then went on and talked about how he liked Redknapp's aproach and that he felt it was the best way to get the best out of him, as a player.

[cragswfc]

Actually, the interview was a direct translation from a Dutch TV show. I know, because I saw the program last monday. It was an interview about his life, his wife, and his football. The words have been taken out of context though. The interview jokingly asked: "So there's basicly no training at all?" Then VDV jokingly answered: "That's pretty much the truth". It was obviously meant in a sarcastic way.

VDV then went on and talked about how he liked Redknapp's aproach and that he felt it was the best way to get the best out of him, as a player.

ye i saw this in a dutch news paper ant typical the sun lied again never trust the sunnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn

[RT--]

I read an interview with Assou-Ekotto last season where he said more or less the same thing as Van Der Vaart. He was praising Redknapp for not expecting him to know who the next opponent was, or anything too in-depth, just being expected to perform on match-day.

They obviously do some match preparation - Sky had some cameras at their training ground before the second Inter game and they showed them doing 'half an hour' of watching film on their opponents. It's just clearly a million miles away from what a Mourinho or Benitez would have them doing.

If you've got a team with the creative talents of Modric, Bale and VDV, there's obviously more leeway for some creative freedom, but I do suspect Redknapp's approach has its limits. There's a good reason he's not a 'work with what you've got' type of coach.

[mantralux]

It's just clearly a million miles away from what a Mourinho or Benitez would have them doing.

I highly doubt any manager gives their players massive amounts of instructions, but rather formulate an approach, tactic, formation and backup plans together with their backroom staff, and then just convey the minimum amount of information a player needs in order to perform his duties.

Most behaviours are shaped by the players style of play and personality, not detailed instructions. All the instructions and behaviours are instead taught ata very young age when football players learn what their position entails, how it works, how they should behave, etc...but when footballers reach the pro level, they don't need too many instructions in order to play well, or play so it fits the tactic - that work has been done when the manager bought or picked the player for the team.

Rarely does it happen that a player is bought and then fully moulded into the type of player the tactic needs. Instead, a player would be bought because the team/manager thinks his current style or behaviour would fit the team/tactic well, and therefor he wouldn't need too many instructions. When a player comes to a club, he is taught the philosophy and approach of the current tactic or tactics, and then receives varying levels of instructions depending on opposition. Sometimes no instructions, sometimes a few. But it's not as in FM where a manager gives the player 20+ special instructions on when to run with the ball, how to play wide, etc.

So what VDV allegedly said has some truth to it. It's not as simple as he explains it, but it's definitely not as complicated as some people think.

[Lord Rowell]

I think something is being missed here.

Harry Redknapp is the manager. The role he seems to have adopted is one of team selection, final decision on basic shape etc, motivation. Beyond that, Redknapp will delegate responsibilty for much of the technical & tactical side, as I suspect most managers do.

Spurs will have specialist coaches working behind Redknapp that will take care of most of the detailed practice of what players do on the pitch, organising training drills that get players used to playing specific roles, knowing where they should be in certain situations etc.

Whether RVDV's words are true, I'm sure there is more organisation going on behind the scenes than that interview suggests.

[anechoic]

in that case, we could too become real managers!! haha...

[Roman Chevalier]

Harry is not a work with what you've got manager? Nor is Mourinho!! He has to spend bloody millions before he's happy to work with a squad.

Harry's approach has good and bad sides to it-It means the players are not overthinking it, it means they can be sublime and beat Inter and Arsenal.

However, it is also responsible for our lack of defensive shape or positioning. We rely strictly on luck and willpower when defending. Also it is apparent that we never have a solid game plan at the start of the match. We always have to go 1 or 2 down before playing usually. Mourinho would win us the league and champions league, but we would be nowhere as exciting to watch, and players such as Bale and VdV would be neutered 'for the good of the team'. Modric would become a complete workhorse and Defoe would become a defensive winger.

To be honest Harry is never going to be a safe, tactical manager. But then again, Fergie is not a tactician either. Utd always look susceptible to teams scoring, they just have really good defenders and ALOT of determination.

[quantez3]

I dont think VDV (wie kent 'm niet) has been at Real under Mourinho

[Roman Chevalier]

He was there for some of pre season but hardly enough to get to know him. Most players love playing under Jose though, except putting a goalscorer like e'eto on the wing is bizzarre, but hey it worked

[frozenshade]

There is a nice article on http://www.zonalmarking.net/ about the game arsenal-spurs and the tactics Harry used in the second half.

I would say maybe not a genius but he it worked nicely.

[pele10]

its all about the players

[pedrojfr]

i'm sorry, but... This interview is a joke right?

As a spurs fan i think that with another manager... i could make history...

People were talking about Mourinho... He wins everything, thats a fact!

But, there is a new mourinho! his name is Andre Villas Boas! he is the FC Porto manager. worked as mourinho scout and now, at the age of 33, he is already the best manager working in Portugal!

Spurs should get him first!

Come on you spurs!

[pele10]

i'm sorry, but... This interview is a joke right?

As a spurs fan i think that with another manager... i could make history...

People were talking about Mourinho... He wins everything, thats a fact!

But, there is a new mourinho! his name is Andre Villas Boas! he is the FC Porto manager. worked as mourinho scout and now, at the age of 33, he is already the best manager working in Portugal!

Spurs should get him first!

Come on you spurs!

well as a spurs fan you made history today

and Mourinho doesn't win everything

[Roman Chevalier]

and Mourinho doesn't win everything

Titles in Portugal, England, Italy, and most likely Spain. Champions league with Porto/inter, and uefa cup wit Porto. He has pretty much done it all and he's not even 50. I think the FA cup is the missing trophy in his cabinet

[Woodmansee]

Mourinho is a great manager, but he has been at great clubs for the most part. Harry for England!

[mantralux]

Mourinho is a great manager, but he has been at great clubs for the most part.

Well no, he made them great. Winning the UEFA Cup and then the Champions League the next year with Porto (as well as every other possible trophy) is not a result of being at a great club. Winning the Premier League two years in a row is not the result of being at a great club - before he arrived the club hadn't been in the top two for 50 years. Winning the Champions League with Inter is not the result of being at a great club, before he arrived Inter hadn't been a threat in Europe since the mid-60's.

Mourinho is easily the best manager alive. Tactical genius, excellent motivator, contemporary approach to the game....and that's coming form an Arsenal supporter. A very biased one at that.

[mantralux]

Oh just another note on my Mourinho lovefest, a statistic that is just mind-blowing:

"As of 20 November 2010, Mourinho is on a run of 142 home league matches unbeaten: 38 (W36–D2) with Porto, 60 (W46–D14) with Chelsea, 38 (W29–D9) with Internazionale and 6 (W6-D0) with Real Madrid.

His last and only home league defeat came when Porto were defeated 3–2 by Beira-Mar on 23 February 2002."

He has lost one home game in his career, and that was 8 years ago.

[Johnny Ace]

"There are no long and boring speeches about tactics, like I was used to at Real Madrid. There is a clipboard in our dressing room but Harry doesn't write anything on it! It's very relaxed. The gaffer gives us the line-up 20 minutes before we go out to do our warm-up."

"And the only words he speaks to me are 'You play left or right, work hard, have fun and show the fans your best. Then the defenders get an instruction about who to mark at corners and free-kicks - and that's it."

Harry's obviously a big fan of the creative freedom slider ;D

[Woodmansee]

Yes he is a great manager, but if you don't think Chelsea, Inter, and now Real was/are great clubs when he took over, you must be mad.

[mantralux]

Yes he is a great manager, but if you don't think Chelsea, Inter, and now Real was/are great clubs when he took over, you must be mad.

Chelsea and Inter were good clubs. But Mourinho turned them into great clubs, at least for the time he was there.

Real Madrid is the first great club he has taken over, but we don't really know yet what his impact will be. Logically, if he can (temporarily) turn Porto, Chelsea and Inter into great clubs, the question is what will happen at Real Madrid. I'm guessing 2-3 years of absolute dominance in all competitions, and then get sacked for some weird reason.

[Woodmansee]

As for Chelsea they was one of the top three clubs, and with their spending power was prob first or second favorite to win the prem. What he did at Chelsea was expected of him.

[PeeKay]

It seem like 'Arry is a bit relaxed with the Tactical training. That leads me to think how would Redknapp setup up his training in FM11. Would he even employ a Tactics coach?

I just read mantralux thread, FM2011 Training Masterclass (http://community.sigames.com/showthread.php/240386-FM2011-Training-Masterclass). No tactics training would result in degraded stats in "Anticipation, Decisions, Positioning, Off The Ball, Teamwork, Command of Area (GK), Communication (GK) and Rushing Out (GK) ". Which makes me think that VDV might be telling the truth as Gomes problems in Milan (Decisions and Rushing Out (GK)), general dodgy defense (Anticipation, Decisions and Positioning) and no prolific strikers (Anticipation, Decisions and Off The Ball).

I am being a little general but it makes you think that if Spurs did a bit more tactical training and they could more consistent

[RT--]

Jonathan Wilson in the Guardian asks 'Is Harry Redknapp winging it tactically?'

Mention Harry Redknapp and tactics in the same breath and the general reaction tends to be a snigger. Either that or those who refuse to believe football is a game that should ever be given more than cursory thought get all excited and claim that Redknapp's successes prove that talk of tactics is all nonsense and that you should just pick your best 11 players and tell them to get on with it.

Neither response makes much sense. Tactics, for something so often written off as boring and nerdish, seem to provoke an oddly emotive response, as any glance through the comments under previous Question pieces will show. Talking about them, apparently, is taking the fun out of the game, over-intellectualising it, robbing it of its soul, football's equivalent of somebody stopping the tape near the end of Casablanca or Cinema Paradiso and explaining that it's all just pheromones, actually.

Presumably nobody, though, actually thinks a team of 10 centre-forwards and a goalkeeper would win a game; once you've accepted there is a need to balance defence and attack, a tactical element has been introduced. Equally, it would be absurd to claim tactics are the only thing that matter, but they provide the basic structure of each game and, alongside ability, motivation, fitness (physical and mental) and luck, are among the key components that determine the result of a game. If Redknapp really is a tactical klutz, he must have had an awful lot of luck.

He is not one of the game's theoreticians, that's true. He is not a Viktor Maslov, a Rinus Michels or an Arrigo Sacchi – but so what? He does what he does. He is probably a better motivator than he is a tactician, just as Rafael Benítez is a better tactician than he is a motivator. But that doesn't mean Redknapp is clueless, even if it at times it suits him to set himself up as the bluff English alternative to all the sophisticated foreign mumbo jumbo, a line that always plays well with the media he courts so superbly.

That is not to suggest, though, that Redknapp is secretly issuing minutely detailed tactical instructions behind the scenes. "There are no long and boring speeches about tactics, like I was used to at Real Madrid," Rafael van der Vaart said in a recent interview. "There is a clipboard in our dressing room, but Harry doesn't write anything on it. It's not that we do nothing – but it's close to that."

In his suspicion of theory, Redknapp comes from a long English tradition that extends far beyond football. "Our habits or the nature of our temperament do not in the least draw us towards general ideas," as John Stuart Mill put it. In football, the greatest manager in that strand of English anti-intellectualism was Brian Clough.

The Clough paradigm

Clough was always scathing of those guilty of what he saw as "over-complicating" the game, and regularly used the term "tactics" dismissively, but with him it seems to have had specifically negative connotations; to have referred to stopping the opposition rather than how his own side played. "Tactics," he insisted in Walking on Water, "played very little part in my method of management. I concentrated 90% on how my team played, in preference to wondering about how the opposition would set out their stall."

He may have thought tactics was a dirty word, something fit for only Italians or Don Revie, but the idea he just sent 11 players out on the field and hoped for the best is nonsensical. Although he usually affected indifference to the opposition, there were times when he took specific action to counter them. Alan Durban, for instance, was once given specific instructions to cut out the supply from Mike Bailey to the left-winger David Wagstaffe in a match between Derby and Wolves. In Nottingham Forest's 1980 European Cup final against Hamburg, meanwhile, with Trevor Francis injured, Clough opted to deploy Lee Mills as a fifth midfielder, helping to stifle Kevin Keegan.

Those are micro examples, but Forest's basic style after winning promotion in 1977 was decided during a pre-season friendly against Shepshed Charterhouse, in which Martin O'Neill's performance in a tucked-in position on the right, with John Robertson wide on the left, persuaded Clough that a lop-sided hybrid of 4-3-3 and 4-4-2 was the future. Terry Curran, a right-winger who had been a regular until injury in the promotion season, never played another game for the club. What was that decision rooted in, if not the tactical realisation that fielding two out-and-out wide men was unworkable in the First Division and that, in O'Neill, Forest had a player who could offer balance?

Peter Taylor always insisted that he and Clough discussed tactics regularly, and had done since their days as players together at Middlesbrough. One of their great gifts was their ability to boil that down into simple instructions. They didn't believe in drawing diagrams on blackboards, and they certainly didn't, as Revie did, hand out dossiers on the opposition. "Telling them how to play took no time," Taylor said in his autobiography.

He explained what those instructions would be at Derby. "To [John] O'Hare it was: 'Hold the ball no matter how hard they whack you.' To [Kevin] Hector: 'Watch O'Hare. You've got to be ready when he slips that ball to you.' And to [Alan] Hinton we didn't say any more than: 'Stay wide.'" It sounds simple, and each individual component was, but multiply those components together and the total was devastatingly effective.

During games, it was simply a question of reinforcing those messages. "I'd shout reminders," Clough said, "adjustments when they occasionally got themselves out of position, which is easy to do in the heat of the moment. I'd emphasise the need to keep the ball and pass it forward whenever possible." It sounds simple – it was simple – but it was also a clear tactical manifesto.

Taylor's conception of the game, he explained in an interview in this newspaper in 1972, was – like so many of his generation – inspired by Hungary's 6-3 win over England at Wembley in 1953. Seeing the Brazilian side Santos play a friendly against Sheffield Wednesday in 1962 convinced him of the importance of attacking full-backs, and led Derby 10 years later to break the British transfer record to sign the Leicester City full-back David Nish because he was comfortable advancing with the ball. Viv Anderson continued the theme at Forest.

"The ability to command space is vital in a good defensive system," he said. "By that I mean that a player who is on his own when the opposition has the ball must be poised and capable of assessing whether he should commit himself or funnel back. [igor] Netto of Russia was the first player I noticed with this. Dave Mackay has it, so have Bobby Moore and Terry Hennessey ... Then there is the ability to play the ball accurately. At Derby everybody has it. It is essential because the game has got to flow. We believe in playing football right from the back. We do not want our forwards to have a service of high and hard balls out of defence which are impossible to control."

None of that requires complex diagrams or lengthy explanations to players, but it is tactics nonetheless. Teddy Sheringham tells of how he was dropped by Clough at Forest and watched the next match with him from the bench. Listening to Clough during the game, he said, he realised the importance of a centre-forward holding the ball up to relieve the pressure on his defence, rather than attempting flicks that might break through the opposition, but might equally surrender possession. Again, just because Clough wasn't scribbling away on a whiteboard doesn't mean he wasn't imparting tactical instructions.

Redknapp in practice

Redknapp is so much of the lineage of Clough that he even deploys the same percentages. "You can argue about formations, tactics and systems forever, but to me football is fundamentally about the players," he began a column in the Sun. "Whether it is 4-4-2, 4-2-3-1, 4-3-3, the numbers game is not the beautiful game in my opinion. It's 10% about the formation and 90% about the players. If you have the best ones and they do their jobs, then they can pretty much play any way you want them to."

Which, leaving aside the question of how, when things are so interconnected, you can separate them to make up such a statistic – or even the irony of using a number to denounce the use of numbers – is fair enough. Of course the best players usually win. Besides, the formation is only part of a team's tactical set-up, something Redknapp acknowledges by adding the caveat "if they do their jobs". Those jobs, whether it is acknowledged or not, are tactically determined. Even his famed instruction to Roman Pavlyuchenko to "****ing run about a bit" let the striker know he wanted him to play as a mobile front man, looking to drag defenders out of position, and wasn't particularly different in essence to the instructions Clough and Taylor handed out at Derby.

The same applies to the comment John Giles makes in The Football Man that was helpfully quoted in the comments section last week. "The fact remains that the ball is the most important thing on the pitch," he said, "that good players will take up correct positions in relation to it, while bad players will continue to take up poor positions, regardless of tactics or formations." But to determine whether a position is good or bad itself requires tactical understanding.

And whatever Redknapp says, he has proved himself tactically astute at times this season. In the away leg of the Champions League play-off, Spurs were unsettled by Young Boys' high pressing, and could have been annihilated before half-time. Redknapp withdrew Benoît Assou-Ekotto to add an extra holding midfielder in Tom Huddlestone, dropping Gareth Bale back to left-back, which steadied the ship, then brought on Niko Kranjcar for Modric, giving Spurs a player who naturally cuts in from the left, adding midfield solidity and creating a pathway for Bale's surges. 3-0 was transformed into 3-2, a deficit Spurs rapidly wiped out in the second leg.

Against Aston Villa, Spurs, having begun with a 4-4-2 with Van der Vaart on the right and Peter Crouch and Pavlyuchenko as twin strikers, trailed 1-0 at half-time. Off came the Russian, on went Aaron Lennon, while Van der Vaart, who had been drifting infield anyway, took up a central role just behind Crouch. With a direct opponent, Stephen Warnock was pinned back, and Villa lost much of their thrust down the left. Van der Vaart, involved in more dangerous areas and revelling in playing off Crouch, scored twice.

Then at Arsenal a week ago last Saturday, Redknapp made the opposite change, bringing on Jermain Defoe for Lennon and pushing Van der Vaart out to the right from a central role. This time, of course, Redknapp was happy to talk tactics. "I changed it at half-time, opened it up even more really – stuck Rafa out on the right, and brought Jermain on to give us two targets upfront," he said. "In the first half I played with two wingers, and we were stretched … I've got a front man up there, with Rafa in behind, when we lost possession they outnumbered us in midfield and played through us and played around us, and we had to narrow it up in the second half."

The ability to turn games round has been a feature of Tottenham's season. That speaks volumes for their self-belief and powers of resilience, but Redknapp must also take credit for his tactical changes. Of course the corollary to that is to ask why they so often fall behind; and perhaps it's that Redknapp is better at intuitively understanding a game and feeling what needs changing than he is at envisioning a match beforehand.

How far the open, attacking approach can carry Spurs in Europe remains to be seen; Manchester United were once similarly expressive, even won a treble by being so, before one too many goals conceded against the run of play finally convinced Sir Alex Ferguson into caution. But whatever happens to Spurs in the Champions League the idea that Redknapp exists in a world remote from tactics is just wrong

[lam]

I think something is being missed here.

Harry Redknapp is the manager. The role he seems to have adopted is one of team selection, final decision on basic shape etc, motivation. Beyond that, Redknapp will delegate responsibilty for much of the technical & tactical side, as I suspect most managers do.

Spurs will have specialist coaches working behind Redknapp that will take care of most of the detailed practice of what players do on the pitch, organising training drills that get players used to playing specific roles, knowing where they should be in certain situations etc.

Whether RVDV's words are true, I'm sure there is more organisation going on behind the scenes than that interview suggests.

Interesting point here!

All good managers should be good managers.............

It's not about knowing it all, it's about building a team that know it all AND motivating them and improving them. THIS is a classic case of Mr Redknapp at Spurs.

For those that doubt the power of that, look at what he acheived last year, 'almost' by simply bring back the quality players that previous managers couldn't get to perform and had sold.

[RT--]

Well hang on, Spurs' net transfer spend over the last 5 years is more than Man United, Liverpool, Chelsea and Arsenal's put together. I'm not knocking their 4th place finish last year, but it's not like he's working with a squad of castoffs

Anyway, I mostly put that article up to give wwfan, Millie and the TC gang a smile with the quotes about Brian Clough's touchline shouts.

[phnompenhandy]

all this discussion is showing precisely why Redknapp must NOT manage England! He's the master wheeler-dealer, bringing in the right players, with the mentality that he wants - the spirit of creative freedom, so that he can tell them to go out and express themselves and get results.

That's exactly what England don''t have. As England manager he can't bring in players with great technical and tactical instincts; he'd have second-rate players who's instincts is to hoof the ball upfield and surrender possession. He's English alright, but he can't work with a squad of English players.

[E.Gray]

Jesus, some of you are unbelievable, it obvious that this sort of method can work and does work best in the English game, anyone remeber a manager called Clough ? He is considered "The best Manager England never had" this is what he said about tactics : "Players lose you games, not tactics. There's so much crap talked about tactics by people who barely know how to win at dominoes" there so many quotes that i could post about ex-players saying tactics just numbed the brain. You have poof that European style tactics never and will never work with well with the English game in general, as our last 2 Serious England Managers are considered to be "tactical genius" yet what did you see from Capello team this summer ??? Nothing they looked bored out of there minds, most likely the fact that they had been told to play some Italian crap that none of them can understand, because they never grew up playing that way. The sooner we go back to playing a English game the better, and if it means we have to have candleface in to achieve that, so be it.

[Man Ray]

Rafael and Harry are right, full stop.

Few points:

1. Players are what they are, at least short term. As a real life example, think of any player you can, and he is essentially the same from match to match. Yes, you can train them for different positions, different roles and you can teach new things (PPM's in the game). But no, he (whoever you're thinking of) won't be essentially different if he's playing on the wing today and upfront the next week. His strengths, weaknesses and preferred moves stay the same.

2. Training can of course change the player. Especially when he's young (or even better, when he's a kid). But that takes time. And there are limits. Visit your nearest park and watch the kids for half an hour. You don't need an Uefa-license to make judgements like "he'd be a good central defender, or he has the eye and skills to be a playmaker". And there's no chance you could make that playmaker a CB, no matter how hard you tried.

3. How much advice a player can take? Not much. I'd say one advice and set-piece instructions (and you'll make mistakes if they change every week). Think of yourself as a player. Pre-match you might think (or your coach will tell you) something like "today I'm going to concentrate on running enough even when I'm tired" and will do it succesfully. But there's no chance you'll be able to follow 10 instructions that differ from your natural way to play (say a difference between "wing-back/attack" and "full-back/defend", that's just impossible.).

Therefore:

1. Tactics is essentially choosing the right roles for your players (or choosing the right players for your roles, if you're in a position to have a choice).

2. Once you've chosen the players, the manager's job is to make sure the players understand what they're told, and that they're motivated.

3. Training is a) in short-term, keeping everyone match-fit and and focused on their role next week, and b) in long term, developing the ability and natural play of players.

That is all:)

[niton]

Tottenham are reminiscent of the 1999 Man Utd team who weren't the most focused on tactics, albeit a lot less talented and not as successful, the point being that when Real Madrid played that Man Utd in the Campions League and Man Utd lost to a tactically-driven Madrid, Ferguson realised he needed to change his team and the general philosophy on how Man Utd were playing.

Redknapp doesn't have the tactical knowledge to do that however, neither does he have the age to change, which Ferguson did.

A manager is so much more than just man-management and telling the players to do this and that, a successful manager at the highest level understands that in modern football - tactics do not mean choosing the right role for your players - because in modern football, in an attacking formation, attacking players are becoming more hybrid and there is no right role for one game - it is often we see Messi as a false nine in one game, then as a right-winger in another. Being a manager of an attacking team like Tottenham, at one point, will require a lot more knowledge about tactics than what we see on the pitch now.

It is when a team can deal with Bale's direct dribbling style, Huddlestone's calm movement, good passing, but slow pace and Lennon's pace and can negate the 2 strikers by using a defensive midfielder, it is in that situation, that Tottenham are crushed - Man Utd and Arsenal have been doing this to them numerous times over the years. The 4-1 victory in the League Cup this year was purely tactical, by Arsenal, over Tottenham - it is the players who receive the criticism, but we must recognize the manager's philosophy and the shortcomings of it.