Andre Villas-Boas has revealed that Tottenham have been practising in a 4-4-2 formation during the international break – and that Emmanuel Adebayor has a chance of starting against Emirates Marketing Project on Sunday.
Spurs have been playing in a 4-2-3-1 system since the start of the season but have scored just nine goals in their 11 Premier League games thus far.
That has prompted some calls for Villas-Boas to be more ambitious and to play with two strikers – and he admits that is a possibility.
“We’ve trained with 4-4-2 during this international break,” he said. “We played a game against a local team over here last Friday playing 4-4-2.
“We can probably move to it in future, although I’m unsure if this is the right time, bearing in mind the fixtures that we have coming up against Emirates Marketing Project and Manchester United.
“We have been very consistent defensively and offensively in the 4-2-3-1 system – not in terms of goals but in terms of chances created. That’s probably our way through.
“What did we work on in the friendly? Just the change of system basically. We tried a little bit with Soldado and Adebayor up front in a 4-4-2 shape.
“We did it all of last season so it’s not something that we need to lose lots of time with. It comes naturally, the players know it, it’s also part of this country’s culture and I think when I would want to revert to that system I will.”
Adebayor is yet to play a single minute for Spurs this season, and has only been on the bench on one occasion – away at FC Sheriff in the Europa League.
However, Villas-Boas says the Togo international has an outside chance of being in the starting XI against his former club Emirates Marketing Project at the Etihad on Sunday.
“Alone or with another striker , Ade is a great player, so you don’t have to teach him a lot to behave in different systems,” said the head coach.
“We have two performing strikers at the moment in Soldado and Defoe. Obviously Ade hasn’t had the chance to get back into the team yet, but I’m sure that whenever that happens he will perform as well as the other ones The three of them are competing extremely well in training.
“Our likely approach is to go with one up front [at Emirates Marketing Project]. It’s a decision that I have to take, which one I will choose. They are very near each other at the moment and it could be a possibility that even Ade could play that game. These are all decisions that we have to take.
“We don’t have enough reasons at the moment not to trust Soldado and Defoe because they’ve been excellent, with great performances, goals and great goal tallies, so hopefully it’s a decision that’s best for the team and best for the strategy.”