3. Tactical Flexibility
Critics of Sherwood quickly jumped on the switch back to the 4-4-2 formation that prevailed under Harry Redknapp. Despite an utterly limited sample size, and ignoring Sherwood's preferences when in charge of the development team, people used the formation as an indication that Sherwood was stuck in the dark ages, tactically. Defeat at Arsenal while playing the aforementioned setup was yet more ammunition to the argument that the new manager was tactically naïve, ignoring the fact that Andre Villas-Boas had become completely wedded to the 4-2-3-1 formation that played a large part in him losing his job. In the 3-1 win at Swansea, and the defeat against Manchester City last week Sherwood played the 4-2-3-1 that his predecessor preferred. However, Sherwood would claim too much is made of formations: "A lot is made of systems - 4-4-2, 4-3-3 or whatever you want to call it... It's about passing the ball to your own team and keeping hold of it because when you lose the ball you are always going to be out of shape - otherwise you are going to be a rigid, boring team. "It's about funnelling back in, shuffling across. I don't think we were overrun in the middle of the park. I think they did all right." He said after the defeat at the Emirates. Given the disarray Spurs found themselves as they were outplayed by Manchester City in the 5-1 defeat recently there is obviously work still to be done but Sherwood is no one trick pony.