Tottenham Hotspur manager Andre Villas-Boas has taken positives out of the 2-1 defeat against Manchester City this past weekend, and insists that his team can hold their heads high.
The manager feels that his players have proved their competitiveness in the defeat at the Etihad Stadium, and took the game to the reigning English champions.
Tottenham had opened the scoring in the first half through Steven Caulker, who headed the ball past http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Joe-Hart-c18699 and gave his side a well-deserved lead. The visitors looked the better side for most of the game, and caused City a lot of problems at the back and
with their pace.
Tactically, http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Mancini-c23323 had a lot to do as Spurs kept asking the questions, and City failed to reply. The Italian manager had opted for a 3-5-2 formation, where he put out four full-backs on the pitch in order to dominate and pack the midfield area.
The formation had taken it’s time to work out, but eventually, City took the lead through a http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Sergio-c33030 Aguero goal. The game was now either side’s to win, but it was the champions who had the last laugh.
Edin Dzeko came on as a late substitute and scored a stunning volley, which gave the hosts the lead, and ultimately the win. Villas-Boas was disappointed at the loss, but insisted that his team only lost out due to individual brilliance. The Portuguese manager
said:
“It means we can compete with them but, like I said against http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Chelsea-c38786, it’s individual brilliance which makes the difference. To have a player like Dzeko, to come on when his team needs him deserves great credit and surprises me.”
“It was like that against Chelsea, Mata and http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Oscar-c28720 were extremely good.”
The manager also defended his decision to start http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Jermain-Defoe-c18359. The latter had recently scored a hat-trick in the midweek Europa League fixture before the trip to Manchester, but was surprisingly excluded from the starting
11. Villas-Boas added:
“It was very difficult to leave Jermain out. It was part of the strategy we had for the game. Individually Adebayor had a good performance. I think Jermain understood it was for the best of the team.”
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