Reading between the lines and reading too much

Tom Huddlestone quotes tinged with ambiguity.

"We're probably harder to beat and maybe not as open (under Villas-Boas). He's come in and been very organised, the lads know what session we're going to do before we go out to train.
A lot of it is on rigid team shape, whereas under previous regimes the initiative has been given to the players to express themselves. Under this manager it's more his ideas and we stick to them.
There have been a couple of games recently where we've needed to create more but I think that will come in time. It is hard for the fans. They've watched some good football over the last three or four years, maybe in a gung-ho style. But they've just got to be patient."

You might immediately find yourself gravitating towards the 'expression' part of the above. Whether this is a clear indication that expressive free flowing football has been caged indefinitely or until the the team and players are robust enough to flex their muscles beyond a rigid shape - we'll have to wait and see. There's an acknowledgement that training has changed substantially and that tactically the coach is attempting to mould the team into his vision. Be it with a fair few teething problems and a sacrifice of that unquestionably easy on the eye gung-ho style.  A style that is Tottenham in a nutshell, be it a nutshell that's cracked in places.

I wrote about this a few days ago, that our traditions are important to us in how the team play their football. It's the most important part of what to expect from Spurs but the fact that in the aforementioned three/four years Tom cites, we've had tangible progression and 'success' compared to the mid-table mediocrity of the past - this means those expectations remain very high. So high in fact that there is no echo of patience.

Tom is outlining a change. Previous regimes have allowed more expression to the detriment of perhaps having a solid back bone. Are we good enough to be expressive and still challenge at the top? Possibly. With a full strength first team. We'll just have to wait.

That's if you want to.