However the subject of this post does take place at Old Trafford but the subject isn't Sir Alex, Wayne Rooney or the rest of the team, but rather André Villas Boas (or AVB for short) the coach of Tottenham, who played United this weekend.
AVB responded to the pressure that has always seemed to mount upon him ever since he arrived in EPL last year, when he became the coach of Chelsea FC, after his extremely successful stint with FC Porto in Portugal. Two days ago he ended Tottenham's 23 year win-less streak against United with a 3-2 victory over the red devils.
The young Portuguese manager seems to have had pressure placed on him from the moment he arrived in England. Some of which was understandably placed on him, because of his age and the size of the club he was taking the reins of, but there is a substantial amount of pressure place on him through the media that is clearly placed on him to stir up controversy, and it clearly ruffled his feathers last year and led to his eventual sacking by Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich.
When he replaced Harry Redknapp as the Tottenham manager this summer many opinions we thrown around as to whether he was the right man to lead this club to the success it seems have been on the verge of achieving for quite some time now.
A slow start to the season, especially some last minute defensive lapses, had only added to his ever growing pressure. In addition, during the transfer deadline, Tottenham purchased a world class goal keeper and France National team captain Hugo Lloris. This created a bit of a goalie controversy when AVB announced that 41 year old American Brad Friedel would remain the team's starting goal keeper.
Many 'reports' were published about Lloris' displeasure with not being the number one goalie and even former French goal keeper to criticize Tottenham's decision to keep Friedel as their starting goal keeper.
However it seems that this time around AVB is more comfortable in dealing with the pressure thrown his way by the British media, most recently on the Lloris topic heading into his teams big game against United.
His ability to lead his team and come out with an attacking approach against Manchester United, at Old Trafford none the less, was amazing. Bringing the left back (Vertonghen) up into the attack with the ever-dangerous Gareth Bale worked wonders right off the bat with an eight minute goal for Vertonghen. United were looked shocked and slow to react to such an aggressive early approach, and Tottenham scored another before halftime, this time by way of Gareth Bale.
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| AVB responds to the pressure |
Though United responded in the second half, with both teams producing and exciting opening 15 minutes, with three goals scored in that span (2 by united, 1 by Tottenham). Tottenham hung on to win, despite being absolutely pinned in there own half for the final 25 minutes.
The team was clearly working as a unit, and though United did hit the post twice, Tottenham stood strong and their coach made the right adjustments to the team to give them the belief that they could pull off that victory. You could see how much it meant to AVB to be able to finally respond to the pressure place on him with a huge victory.
As stated in previous posts in this blog it is my dream/mission to become an elite professional coach in this sport, and examples of young managers, like AVB, rising above the pressure placed on them is not only a pleasure to see but also a learning experience for me that I hope to emulate, even if the lesson I learn comes against my club.
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