Let Villas-Boas earn his Spurs

But it's something worth remembering these days as the Portuguese former wunderkind gets hung, drawn and quartered in the media. Former pros - and that eminent football sage Lord Sugar - go on television describing him as some kind of tactical dunce, displaying "heat maps" of Roberto Soldado's movement and dissecting Tottenham's defensive set-up by drawing little lines connecting players.

Meanwhile the papers report stories of disturbances within Spurs: the players are unhappy that he said he was "ashamed" of their performance while the medical staff are angry over the Hugo Lloris affair.

And he makes his own contribution to the King Lear image by having a Tromso fan removed for daring to chant "sacked in the morning" at him during a Europa League tie.

The most apt analogy here is that of the child prodigy long and talent but short on experience. The 12-year-old who knows advanced calculus but has no clue how to talk to a girl. Or stand up to a bully. That sort of stuff comes from experience.

And, right now, the impression emanating from those in and around White Hart Lane is that Villas-Boas is displaying classic paranoid symptoms. Yes, the media are after him - how could it not be so after the Gareth Bale- fuelled spending spree and after the 6-0 drubbing at the hands of Manchester City last week? - but in those situations you expect your manager to have the courage of his convictions.

Instead, according to some, Villas-Boas fears a re-run of Chelsea, where tensions between him and certain veterans in the squad combined with a trigger-happy owner to send him on his way.

Well, Daniel Levy isn't Roman Abramovich. And Tottenham don't have a Didier Drogba, a John Terry or a Frank Lampard in their ranks. (In fact, they could probably use a bit more veteran leadership.) The truth is that this is nothing like the situation he found himself in at Stamford Bridge, yet he's handling it in a similar manner.

For a start, Tottenham may be ninth in the table, but, going into the weekend, they were also three points off fourth place. And it's not as if Villas-Boas has no pedigree at the club. Last season's points total was Spurs' highest since 1985.

What's more - City shocker apart - they generally haven't played badly. Statistics may only tell part of the story, but the fact is that going into the weekend, Spurs topped the league in terms of shots on goal and were second in shots on target, while enjoying the third highest possession percentage.

Critics will point to their meagre goal total - and, yes, their finishing hasn't been good - but most analytical types will tell you that you worry more about a failure to create chances than a failure to convert them.

All of which rather makes you wonder about the criticism Villas-Boas has received. The back four are poor and the "high line" is crazy and yet they don't concede much. There's no creativity and yet they create almost as many chances as anyone. Huh? Or how about the bile directed at his new signings? That £100 million figure that gets thrown around all the time? Nearly two-thirds of the amount was spent on Erik Lamela, Vlad Chiriches, Etienne Capoue and Nacer Chadli, four guys who - between them - have started 11 league games all season.

The point is that Spurs have actually been pretty good this season.

And, certainly, the club's higher-ups feel that way. It's ironic that what could undo them is a meltdown by a manager who seemingly doesn't understand that not only is he doing a decent job, but his bosses feel he's done a decent job as well.

Tottenham's opponents today, Manchester United, have also come in for some criticism. And while the recent run of results - six wins and two draws in their last eight outings - suggests some regaining of form, the fact is for most of that run they haven't played well.

The good news for David Moyes is that their last performance - the 5-0 away win at Bayer Leverkusen, second in the Bundesliga at the time - was also their finest for some time. The not-so-good news is that Leverkusen's style played right into their hands. And, especially, it was a rather un-Moyes like formation and approach.

With Robin Van Persie sidelined, Wayne Rooney ran rampant up front. The midfield featured three legitimate creative forces - Nani (his first start in a month), Shinji Kagawa and Ryan Giggs - and Sami Hyypia's direct approach played right into their hands, opening up acres of space whenever United regained possession.

Obviously Giggs is not someone you can rely on regularly. But Moyes might be well-served to re-evaluate his use of Kagawa and Nani because if he reverts to the stodgy approach he's used for much of the season, then the 5-0 at the BayArena might as well not have happened.

Admittedly, it's somewhat puerile to continually throw Romelu Lukaku's numbers back in Jose Mourinho's face. It's true, the Belgian's eight league goals this season are more than double the total amassed by Samuel Eto'o, Fernando Torres and Demba Ba. And it's equally true that he has scored more league goals since going on loan at the start of last season than the other three have scored since joining Chelsea (and that was nearly four years ago in Torres' case).

But football isn't as simple as slotting a guy into a system. Lukaku wanted (and needed) playing time, nobody would take Torres' wages and Mourinho wanted to bring in Eto'o, a guy he knew and trusted. So Lukaku went on loan. And in the long run it will be to Chelsea's benefit.

All that said, Mourinho's barb last week - "Lukaku likes to talk, but he won't say why he's at Everton and not Chelsea" - was silly.

First and foremost, because Lukaku may well be back one day. Secondly, because if there's a sinister reason - something other than Mourinho simply choosing to put his faith in other people - hinting at it without revealing it is rather cheap.