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Boring, boring Tottenham.

There you go – someone needed to say it, so it might as well be me.

If Andre Villas-Boas wants to know why his job suddenly came under such heavy scrutiny this week, it wasn’t just about the six-goal hammering Spurs took at Manchester City.

It’s because Tottenham have gone from English football’s great entertainers under Harry Redknapp to being plain dull to watch.

Only Crystal Palace and Sunderland - aka, the bottom two clubs - have scored fewer Premier League goals than the nine in 12 games Spurs have managed so far this season. And three of those nine were dodgy penalties.

I’m not interested in their Europa League win over Tromso. I don’t care if they saw the Northern Lights or if they managed to build any snowmen in the Arctic Circle.

Ultimately, Villas-Boas will be judged on whether the White Hart Lane club qualify for the Champions League come May. And based on what I’ve seen so far this campaign, they have no chance.

It is never a good thing for any side to lose their best player, as Tottenham did when selling Gareth Bale to Real Madrid.

AVB spent £110million on a major overhaul of his squad, and it was always going to take time for seven new signings to bed in at White Hart Lane.

But I don’t think he is getting the best out of them.

The players he brought in during the last transfer window do have real quality – nobody is going to tell me that Paulinho, Roberto Soldado, Etienne Capoue, Vlad Chiriches, Erik Lamela, Nacer Chadli and Christian Eriksen can’t play.

Which means they are not being deployed in the right permutations, or the right formations, to realise their potential – and that’s down to the manager.

On Match of the Day 2 last weekend, after their 6-0 loss to Manchester City, Alan Shearer and I highlighted how little Soldado has been getting into the box - the place where the best centre-forwards ply their trade.

And we highlighted how wingers Lamela and Aaron Lennon are being forced to cut inside - instead of taking on their full-backs and getting round the back of defences - because there are not enough Spurs players in the penalty area to get on the end of their crosses.

At times you could have thrown a blanket over their four most advanced players.

I can’t remember the last time I found Tottenham so humdrum to watch.

It’s certainly a far cry from the flair and fantasy of Bale, Luka Modric and Rafael van der Vaart in Redknapp’s side.

(Image: Action Images)

Tottenham supporters don’t expect to win the title. But they have been brought up on the traditions of Bill Nicholson, the skills of Glenn Hoddle and Paul Gascoigne, the goals of Jimmy Greaves, Clive Allen and Gary Lineker, and they must be wondering how you can spend £110m for so little entertainment.

AVB seems welded to his preferred 4-2-3-1 formation, but it is not opening teams up.

Tottenham’s build-up is too slow, too pedantic and, yes, boring.

When you are at home to the likes of Hull, why play two holding midfielders in front of the back four? What are you holding? Why does the back four need extra protection against a lone striker?

Now Villas-Boas has a huge game against Manchester United on Sunday, and he knows the pressure will increase if Tottenham do not perform with more urgency.

Nine goals in 12 games tells its own story.

Spurs have been boring to watch lately, and that lies at the root of their manager’s problems.

Click here for Robbie on Wes Brown's red, Shinji Kagawa and more - plus his predictions for this weekend's matches.