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While Andre Villas-Boas may have not re-invented the wheel with his omission of Jan Vertonghen from the Tottenham Hotspur line up on Saturday, he certainly went a long way to reminding supporters about one of the great-lost arts of a Premier League season.

Indeed, following the announcement of the Spurs side yesterday and the rather looming hole that the big Belgian’s name left amongst it, some were initially left almost aghast. Sunderland away, big festive fixture and the manager has left his best defender on the bench? Is AVB tinkering with the backline again? AVB out?

Of course, far from dropping Vertonghen for yesterday’s trip to the Stadium of Light, the Portuguese was in fact resting the ex-Ajax man. Yet what would Spurs supporters remember about rotation?

Taking the tongue firmly out of cheek, supporters in the white half of North London are perhaps more detached than most when it comes to witnessing one of their first team players miss a game besides the medium of injury and suspension.

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While some are weary of the continued jibes still aimed at Harry Redknapp since he left the club in the summer, for all the gripes that some supporters carried towards the now QPR boss, it was his seeming reluctance to rest his most important players that many viewed as his biggest failing. And although the popular belief is that Redknapp’s flirtations with the England job preempted the side’s spectacular capitulation during the second half of last season, the abject lack of anything resembling squad rotation may have played just as big a part.

As Spurs entered the back end of the 2011-12 season, they did so with a first XI that had played an awful lot of football with not much resembling the way of rest. While the squad’s fitness over the course of 38 games saw nothing like the sort of injury problems Villas-Boas has had to deal with this term, the lack of major injuries seemed to transcend into an excuse to play the same players week in, week out.

The old adage of playing your best team when fit may fill many with nostalgia, but during a top-flight season in this day and age, that simply isn’t the case anymore. The Premier League is an unforgiving beast and while supporters are filling their boots with the unrelenting festive fixture list, somewhere along the line, it will eventually catch up with the players. And it didn’t half catch up with Spurs last term.

Kyle Walker still hasn’t got over his slump he endured towards the end of last term, but after playing all but one league game at the age of 21, is that necessarily a huge surprise? Maybe not this term, but last term it certainly wasn’t.

Even by his own high standards, Scott Parker seemed to run out of steam from February onwards, but he wasn’t given a minute’s rest since making his debut against Wolves last September. In hindsight considering his age and style of play, were his proceeding late season injury issues a coincidence, or an accident waiting to happen? Furthermore, the talismanic pairing of Gareth Bale and Luka Modric missed only four games between them last term. When Tottenham started to press the self-destruct button, the pair didn’t seem to have enough in the tank to try and change the side’s fate.

Yes, it’s all very well speculating over what might and might not have been last term and what’s done now is done – besides, Villas-Boas has only taken to resting one or two of his defenders in recent days, hardly the entire squad.

Although these are the things that can ultimately make a difference to the Lilywhites come the end of the season. Rotating his centre halves as he has done with Vertonghen, Steven Caulker, William Gallas, and Michael Dawson in recent days may seem like common sense, but it’s something we’ve rarely seen at White Hart Lane in recent days.

Villas-Boas is keeping his backline fresh, fit and ready; with a home game against Reading coming up, the Portuguese has timed it perfectly to perhaps give some of his attacking unit the opportunity for a breather, too. And as the injuries begin to clear up, finally it seems that Villas-Boas is beginning to get a bit of luck along the way, too. You couldn’t pick a better player than the returning Scott Parker to give the outstanding Sandro a breather in the centre of midfield.

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It may seem bordering on the condescending to praise a manager for doing something as basic as switching a few players round during the festive period but considering the failure of the management to do it last term, supporters shouldn’t underestimate the art of squad management.

Many football fans cringe upon hearing sporting philosophies in the mould of Team GB cycling coach Dave Brailsford and his ‘marginal gains’ shtick, but it is the little things which can make the biggest difference in any sport and football isn’t any different. If giving your central defenders one or two games out of the firing line prevents a bit of fatigue creeping in, the emergence of an injury or the regression of concentration, then that’s all that matters.

If Spurs qualify for the Champions League this season, no one is going to attribute much of their success to a bit of squad rotation at the turn of the year. Yet last season serves an only too painful reminder of the taste in the mouth that comes with the over-reliance upon your first choice XI. So while it’s not likely to bag him an LMA gong anytime soon, it’s a well done to Villas-Boas for reminding supporters just how you shuffle the pack.

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It doesn’t matter at what level of football you play, being a goalkeeper can be a really unpleasant job.

Even on the school playing field, it has always been the position that nobody wants to play. You pick sides one player at a time. You slowly pick off the best players until eventually your team is left with the weakest, least competent member of the group. So what do you do with them? Well, it’s obvious. You stick them in goal in a vain attempt to keep them out of harm’s way. Then when your team wins, the focus is on the goalscorer and the goalkeeper’s efforts go unnoticed. When your team ends up losing, there is only one person to blame, isn’t there?

But in the professional game, is it any different? When people think of the greatest goals of all time, they think of Diego Maradona vs England (not the first goal, obviously!), Marco Van Basten vs USSR, Cantona vs Sunderland, Bergkamp vs Newcastle, Henry vs Manchester United, Zidane vs Bayer Leverkusen, Di Canio vs Wimbledon… the list goes on.

On the other hand, when people think of the greatest saves of all time… well, you’ve got Gordon Banks vs Brazil… and that’s about it. Take nothing away from goalkeepers such as Schmeichel, Zoff, Yashin, Khan, Van Der Sar, Buffon and Casillas. They have all produced mind-blowing saves during their careers, but it’s only ever Banks’ physics-defying save from Pele’s header that truly sticks out in the minds of the footballing public.

Sadly goalkeepers are rarely remembered for their heroics in front of goal. If anything, they are remembered for the exact opposite. If you type ‘great goalkeeping saves’ into YouTube, you will receive over 18,000 videos in response. But type ‘goalkeeping errors’, and the number of responses is almost trebled!

Yes, we all enjoy watching the old blooper every now and again (as long as it doesn’t happen to your team!), but it’s of little wonder or surprise that being a goalkeeper is one of the most stressful jobs in any sport. There is simply no margin for error. If a team has an off day and fails to score, the best they can hope for is a draw. But if the keeper has a bad day, his team could end up with nothing at all.

And the pressure just doesn’t go away. The new Premier League season is only just over a week old, and yet we have already witnessed no fewer than seven goalkeeping howlers. Even the League’s most reliable goalies, most notably, Petr Cech, David De Gea and Shay Given are amongst those to have fumbled already this season.

In the modern era, when every single match that is played is scrutinised right down to the finest details, goalkeepers always remain subject to criticism, scepticism and mockery.

The cynics amongst us might say that ‘they’re only job is to stop shots from going in to the back of the net. How hard can that possibly be?’ But being a goalkeeper is about so much more than that. It is about  being a master of your own state of mind. It is about conquering your own self-doubt. It is about not letting your mistakes affect your ability as a player.

The question is how does a goalkeeper deal with all of these issues? Well, nowadays the biggest clubs have all kinds of facilities to help players psychologically, however most players are apparently too reluctant to commit themselves to dealing with their own self-doubt, for fear of what their manager and team-mates would think of them.

One of the biggest fears for a footballer is rejection. One week, you think you are playing well, but the next week you find yourself on the bench. This can have a massive psychological effect on any player, but for this to happen to a goalkeeper, where there is only one place in the team up for grabs, the thought that your manager favours another player over yourself can be very damaging to the psyche.

Back in March, former England goalkeeper David James wrote an article in the Observer about the lack of psychological support in football:

‘There’s a misconception that all footballers are very confident, but it is the opposite for most.

‘It is a great irony that in a game where we routinely talk of  confidence on the pitch, psychological support off it is so appallingly neglected. When I was going through a bad time at Liverpool I approached the club for some support. Back then, I was told, “Shut up and deal with it”. Sadly, I don’t think football has moved on from that position.’

Every goalkeeper suffers from self-doubt, even if they won’t admit it. Even Edwin Van Der Sar, one of the greatest keepers of all time, has admitted to being prone to this. But the best thing they can do is simply try to brush it off, learn from that mistake and try not to let it happen again. Some are able to brush off their mistakes and move on even if their reputation takes a hit as a result.

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Robert Green’s reputation has been completely tarnished by his error during England’s match vs USA at the 2010 World Cup. Massimo Taibi seemed to completely disappear off the radar following his howler for Manchester United against Southampton in 1999. Even David James has suffered a similar fate, inheriting the nickname ‘Calamity James’ during a torrid spell at Liverpool. But the truth is all of these players did not let their mistakes get to them. Despite another error recently, Robert Green is still a top flight goalkeeper at QPR, Massimo Taibi went on to have a successful career in Italy, and David James, despite not currently being attached to a club, is still playing in his 40s.

Sadly, some goalkeepers are never able to fathom the amount of responsibility that they have to deal with. The most prominent and tragic example being that of German goalkeeper Robert Enke, who committed suicide in November 2009. In Ronald Reng’s book, A Life Too Short: The Tragedy of Robert Enke, we examine the life of a man struggling to battle with his own personal demons and are given an insight into the pressures and fears of playing sport at the highest level. Enke’s story is a shining example of how it could all go wrong for today’s professional goalkeeper.

It’s easy to say that clubs could do more to support their players psychologically, and there is no doubt in my mind that they should. But players need to take it upon themselves not to let their self-doubt get the better of them. Thankfully, the example of Robert Enke is one of a kind. But all goalkeepers, regardless of how good they are, should learn from him.

Goalkeepers simply need to learn one thing: they are only human.  The chances are extremely high that a goalkeeper will make more than one mistake in his career. But this doesn’t mean that his reputation has to suffer. One mistake or one bad performance doesn’t define a goalkeeper. It’s how they bounce back from this mistake that defines them.

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Steve Harper admits he feared his career at Newcastle United was over; such was the form of the younger Tim Krul last season.

The 37-year-old’s Premier League appearance in Newcastle’s 2-2 draw with Everton on Monday was his first in over a year. Harper conceded it had been tough and that his motivation was faltering.

Speaking ahead of the Toon Army’s Thursday night Europa League clash with Maritimo, Harper said: “I didn’t think a night like this would come again. It looked a long way away.

“It was probably a little bit my fault as well. When Tim started last season, I admit I got the hump and let standards slip. That’s probably the reason I wasn’t involved.

“But the first morning of pre-season the manager came to see me. He said, ‘have you still got it?’ I said, ‘yes’. He told me if I showed him I still wanted it, there would be an opportunity, so credit to him.”

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Dutch international Krul, is currently missing with an elbow injury suffered playing for his country, giving Harper a chance to prove his worth to Alan Pardew.

Tottenham boss Andres Villas-Boas insisted that striker Emmanuel Adebayor has done a great job for the Spurs this season, according to The Sun.

Despite his lackluster performance this season, netting only two goals in Premier League matches, Adebayor’s manager has backed the striker, declaring that he’s had a great season.

“Adebayor has been helping the team a lot,” said Villas-Boas. “As a striker he wants to live off his goal scoring tag, and he has adapted to doing something different.”

The manager explained that even though Adebayor’s role at White Hart Lane has shifted away from being a pure goal scorer, the team keep their “faith and confidence in him because he is helping the team”.

“We try to get him into the goal-scoring positions more often to help him with his goal-scoring tag but we cannot be obsessed with this. He is doing a good job.”

Villas-Boas continued that the Spurs have played a 4-4-2 line up throughout this season, with “one striker coming short off the other one,” which the 35-year-old manager said “Ade has done to a great extent this season”.

“He has probably played this role with the sacrifice of more goals. That’s the reality. Definitely I appreciate that and he knows this.”

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Recent rumours have suggested that the Spurs may be willing to part with Adebayor to fund an offer for Aston Villa striker Christian Benteke.

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Lionel Messi says he will be fit and looking for revenge when Bayern Munich come to Barcelona with a 4-0 advantage from the first leg.

The Spanish league leaders were comprehensively beaten by the German champions in the first leg of their semi-final encounter, a brace for Thomas Muller and one apiece for Mario Gomez and Ajren Robben giving the Bavarians a healthy lead.

Barca have left themselves with a massive mountain to climb in the second leg at the Nou Camp in a week’s time, with Messi likely to be key to any hopes they have of reaching the final.

The Argentina international looked short of match fitness on Tuesday after spending the last two weeks on the sidelines with a hamstring injury.

Barcelona’s all-time leading goalscorer says he will be fully fit when Bayern come to Catalonia next week and believes the team will fight until the end in the hope of making it through.

“I felt good. I was well enough to play. We have to lift ourselves for the second leg and La Liga. We will bounce back,” said Messi.

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“They were a lot stronger than us, physically superior. It is a pity what happened but we have to move on.”

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When one of the biggest teams in the world goes through a rough patch, it’s easy to turn to their best goal scorer as the issue at hand.

After their winter break, Real Madrid struggled to find their form. Losing to city rivals Atletico Madrid in the league and the Copa brought criticism from Real’s mans and Cristiano Ronaldo not scoring in three consecutive games made people question his form.

But the world’s current best put a staggering five past Granada, and scored again just three days later away to Rayo Vallecano. So, has Ronaldo got his confidence back?

Because of the type of player Ronaldo is, so much is expected of him. Three games without a goal is considered a drought, which shows his talent. He now has 300 goals to his name for Real Madrid: bear in mind he has only been there for five years. He has scored these goals in just just 288 games.

In mid January, Cristiano found the back of the net twice against Getafe, yet was uncharacteristically sent off in Real’s next game against Cordoba. Just over a month prior to that, he topped the table for most hat-tricks scored in La Liga. This record has been broken once again, but by a young fella you may have heard of – Lionel Messi.

After the sending off, Real Madrid faced Atletico Madrid but couldn’t match their rivals as Atleti ran out comfortable 4-0 winners. Real returned to winning ways against Deportivo, but it would not be until a Champions League game against Schalke for Cristiano to find the back of the net again.

Going by some of his reactions on the pitch, he does strive to be the main man at Real Madrid. His frustration at others scoring instead of himself, such as Bale’s goal against Levante from Ronaldo’s rebound, was widely criticised.

He would go on to score in his next three games, but it is the five at Granada that has people talking. This seems to be his turning point for the dying stages of this season. It has been a boost for not only the club, but for Ronaldo himself.

But let’s be honest, Cristiano’s drop in form is something most forwards could only dream of. Ronaldo defines prolific. He is breaking records left, right and centre at Real Madrid. He has the best goal ratio in La Liga, has scored on every day of the week, and scored in every minute of a game.

He may be back to his blistering best, but his worst is still better than most. There is clearly a lot of pressure on Cristiano to churn out goals consistently, and for the most part, he lives up to expectation.

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But a slight dip in form simply shows he is only human after all.

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According to reports in The Sun, Manchester United could be set to follow up a move to sign Arsenal forward Alexis Sanchez by agreeing an exciting new five-year contract worth £250,000-a-week for manager Jose Mourinho.

What’s the word, then?

Well, The Sun says that the Portuguese boss is close to extending his stay at Old Trafford with the club said to be hopeful of announcing the deal in the next 10 days.

Mourinho initially only signed a three-year contract when he replaced Louis van Gaal in 2016 and has never managed longer than that period at any of his previous clubs, but he could be set to achieve a first with the Red Devils.

The Sun says that both parties are happy with each other and the progress that they are making, with the former Chelsea chief determined to win the Premier League title and the hierarchy pleased that he has got the spirit back that had been lost under Van Gaal previously.

How has Mourinho done this season?

Having finished in sixth position in the Premier League last term the Red Devils are much improved this time around, and had it not been for Manchester City’s outstanding campaign they would be right in contention to win the title.

As things stand they are 12 points behind their arch-rivals and while Mourinho won’t have given up hope just yet, it would take a major slip from City to allow their local neighbours to snatch the trophy.

United have also qualified for the knockout stages of the Champions League and progressed into the fourth round of the FA Cup, and the Old Trafford hierarchy will hope for at least one trophy by the end of the season after the Portuguese boss delivered two last term.

Will he stay for many years to come?

As we mentioned previously, Mourinho has never lasted more than three seasons at any club and much could depend on their success next term as to whether he will stay for the long-term.

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However, the fact that he is happy with United and the fact that he already seems to have the fans on his side is certainly a good sign, and bodes well for an exciting future.

Swansea defender Neil Taylor believes that next term will be the biggest test of his Swansea career as they prepare for Europe.

Michael Laudrup’s side have become one of the more attractive sides in British football, showing that dominance in the Capital One Cup final when they dispatched giant-killers Bradford 5-0.

The Welsh club will now prepare for a gruelling season ahead as they look to put up a fight both in the Premier League and the Europa League, but the former Wrexham trainee believes that the squad can handle it.

The 24-year-old has spent the majority of the campaign on the sidelines after sustaining a horrendous ankle injury, but he could be in line to return against Chelsea this weekend.

Taylor said: “The demands it’s going to put on the team, whatever squad we have next season, everybody’s going to play a part.

“It’s going to be a really long season. I think we’re going to have a heavy pre-season because we have to get ready for Europe which comes early.”

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Newcastle manager Alan Pardew has confirmed that Fabricio Coloccini will stay with the club until at least the end of the season.

The 31-year-old has been heavily linked with a return to Argentina after requesting to leave the Premier League club for personal reasons.

Speculation that he may be allowed to move on has increased lately, with centre-back Mapou Yanga-Mbiwa arriving from Montpellier.

But, Pardew has confirmed that Coloccini will be staying, and will keep his role as club captain.

“Coloccini is going to stay with us and will remain as captain, which is fantastic news for us,” he told The Guardian.

“We have managed to persuade him that, as much as his family, we need him.

“He has shown fantastic loyalty to come and play and see us through to the summer at the very least.”

This news comes as a real boost for the Magpies, who are looking to move clear of the relegation zone after an underwhelming start to the season.

Newcastle have been very busy in the transfer market of late, with Yanga-Mbiwa’s arrival just one of a handful of additions made by Pardew.

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Mathieu Debuchy, Yoan Gouffran and Massadio Haidara have all arrived at St James’ Park and it is believed that Moussa Sissoko is close to sealing a move to the club from Toulouse.

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As reported by The Scottish Sun, on loan Rangers midfielder Andy Halliday is expected to return to the Light Blues’ squad this week ahead of their winter training camp excursion to Florida.

Halliday has spent the first half of the season on loan at Azerbaijan club Gabala after former manager Pedro Caixinha deemed him surplus to requirements, but it appears Graeme Murty is looking to include him going forward.

The midfielder didn’t have the best of 2016/17 seasons and was criticised for his performances under both Mark Warburton and latterly Caixinha.

Supporters don’t seem particularly enthused by his return with some feeling it’s a step backwards, that he won’t improve on who is already at the club and that they need better if they’re to compete with reigning champions Celtic.

Can the boyhood Rangers fan prove people wrong, or will he continue to struggle to improve the Ibrox side’s midfield fortunes?

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