Images posted on Spurs’ official site of Jan Vertonghen back in training will have been met with excitement among Spurs fans awaiting the return of the club’s best defender. Tim Sherwood will undoubtedly also be pleased to call upon the Belgian for the first time in his tenure, even if it does cause him something of a selection headache.

With our next fixture pitting us against Man City, who possess by far the best attack in the league, it is essential that Sherwood picks the right combination of defenders. The new manager’s arrival has already done wonders for the attack, installing in them a sense of freedom that has instigated the kind of free-flowing football that Andre Villas Boas’ line-ups fell so short of.

The team’s next trip to White Hart Lane will test whether Sherwood has remedied Villas Boas’ other major early season deficiency; namely, his tendency to find his team on the wrong side of a thrashing.

Man City were, along with Liverpool and West Ham, one of the inflectors of the traumatising defeats that went someway into losing Andre Villas Boas his job. That day Sergio Aguero, Alvaro Negredo, Jesus Navas and co tormented a Spurs back four comprising of Kyle Walker, Michael Dawson, Younes Kaboul and Jan Vertonghen.

[authquoteleft text=”Strikers with pace, skill and low centres of gravity as Dawson finds impossible to contain[/linequote]

Though such a defence was far from the makeshift look of that which was obliterated in the 5-0 loss to Liverpool, it is a set-up unsuited to stifling the devastating Man City attack, and will likely struggle just as much if fielded again. For one thing, that game remains the only 90 minutes Kaboul has played in the league this season, meaning that the lack of match fitness that saw him so painfully exposed will once more be an issue.

His partner in central defence, Michael Dawson, is an excellent player against certain types of opponents, but he finds himself out of his depth when faced with an attack like Man City’s. Strikers with as much pace, skill and low centres of gravity as Aguero he finds impossible to contain, as demonstrated last November when the Argentine ran rings around him.

With Aguero fit again and likely to start, Sherwood must make the brave decision of dropping Dawson. The captain has played in every league game this year, and has generally done well, but was humbled by Aguero and Luis Suarez in the aforementioned thrashings.

Against an attack as slick as City’s, only a partnership of Vertonghen and Vlad Chiriches has any hope of resistance. Chiriches has been the club’s most successful defender in the league so far this season, conceding just eight goals in the eleven games he has completed, none of which ended in defeats.

[authquoteright text=”Chiriches has been the club’s most successful defender in the league so far this season, conceding just eight goals in the eleven games he has completed[/linequote]

The Romanian has been conspicuously missing in all of our embarrassments this season; he was drafted into the team following the West Ham defeat, dropped for the Man City game, and injured for the Liverpool contest.

It is Vertonghen’s return, however, that provides us with most hope, thanks to his combination of pace, strength, and superb tackling technique. Excitingly, he has yet to be paired with Chiriches in the centre of defence, with the Belgian forced to deputise at left back for the injured Danny Rose.

While performances like his against Everton means there is at least a case against weaker opposition for him to move back there and allow Dawson and Chiriches to resume their blossoming partnership, against City the combined talents of the two to deal with such speed and trickery make their presence in the central area essential. We should be in for some contest.

[author name=”Stephen Puddicombe” avatar=”https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/378800000474812363/492467fba7e9dd716bf0f53e5e829c00_reasonably_small.jpeg” website=”http://21stcenturyspurs.wordpress.com/” twitter=”s_puddicombe[/linequote]