Roberto Soldado’s penalty for Tottenham Hotspur today was enough to give Spurs three points to open the season away at newly promoted Crystal Palace. But the game was not as close as the scoreline would suggest. With every summer signing getting a debut, Andre Villas-Boas gave an indication of how Spurs are going to play this season. It seems Villas-Boas is perhaps preparing for Gareth Bale to leave, but the team is also ready made for him to slot right back in if he stays.

Tottenham played the same 4-2-3-1 they played last season; with Paulinho and Mousa Dembele holding, Nacer Chadli and Aaron Lennon wide, and Gylfi Sigurdsson behind Soldado. The three new signings who started the game all offer more than the players who played in their positions last year: Paulinho is more dynamic, more technical, and a smarter player than Scott Parker. Chadli is a true wide player, unlike Clint Dempsey or Sigurdsson, and Soldado scored, so that’s already an improvement on last year.

Even though the team looked confident and cohesive, especially given the number of new players, no one really thinks Villas-Boas is going to play this formation for the rest of the season. The signings that have come in seem to point to a 4-3-3, with Sandro, Dembele, and Paulinho in midfield, and any two of Sigurdsson, Chadli, and Lennon playing wide.

Chadli, in particular, is going to be an important player for Spurs this season. Tottenham have lacked balance in the side since Bale was given his free role in the middle. Although he is right-footed and normally cuts inside from the left, Chadli starts wide in order to do so. Unlike Dempsey or Sigurdsson last year, Chadli won’t drift in field to look for space; rather he’ll stay wide in order to open up the space for him to cut into. He offers a natural balance to the wide play of Lennon on the right, while also giving space for the forward-leaning Danny Rose to run in to. The team looked balanced and purposeful; two issues which were constant problems last year.

Whether or not Villas-Boas decides to primarily play a 4-3-3 this season or keep the 4-2-3-1 (it will probably be both in all honesty), the team is set up for Bale to slot right in. If it’s a 4-3-3, he could play wide left where he’s accustomed to playing, or more likely he’ll play wide right in order to cut inside on his left to shoot. This is where Bale looked the most devastating last season, scoring goals against Southampton and Sunderland cutting in from that side of a 4-3-3. He also played and scored from that position in the one preseason game he played this summer against Swindon. The 4-2-3-1 could see him play in the middle, where he played for the majority of the latter half of last season.

Villas-Boas is preparing his team intelligently for the new season, and is setting Spurs up to succeed in the event of the best- and worst-case-scenarios. Either way, early signs are positive for Spurs and their new signings.

Even though the Champion’s League dream didn’t come to fruition in the end, and despite whatever Adrian Durham says, I think most Spurs fans would agree that Andre Villas-Boas’ first season at the Lane has been a success.  Although Gareth Bale was the obvious star of the team, AVB deserves credit beyond simply getting Bale to play at an outstanding level.

Here are the five reasons why AVB has been a success at Tottenham:

1. The passing game has made Spurs a more consistently dangerous team.  Under Harry Redknapp, the side’s passing game was essentially based around one man: Luka Modric.  He’s certainly not a bad player to base a team around, but what he did so well was moving the ball quickly from flank to flank.  AVB has installed a more patient, probing passing game based more around the system, and not on a player.

One issue under Redknapp was that if Modric was out, or getting marked out of the game, or just having an off day, everything would fall apart. This season’s team has been able to rotate players without losing the threat with the ball.

AVB’s system has also allowed Spurs to have more of the ball in nearly every game. The team’s possession stats show this: At home Spurs averaged 52 percent possession, while away from home they averaged 53 percent possession.  While those certainly aren’t dominating possession stats, they do show that team has an identity in the way in it wants to play with the ball, and it doesn’t change away from home.

2. AVB has been flexible both tactically and with personnel.  Throughout the season, Spurs have played any one of a 4-3-3, 4-2-3-1, 4-4-2, 4-4-1-1, and 3-5-2.  This kind of tactical flexibility has shown AVB’s competence both on the training field and in-game.  He’s changed the way the team sets up based on the players available, the players in form, and the opposition.  An obvious example was the move of Bale to a second striker, but when Bale went out injured late in the season, AVB brought in Lewis Holtby and changed to a 4-3-3.  Or when Sandro went out injured, AVB changed the dynamic between Mousa Dembele and Scott Parker, allowing for both the break forward in support. He’s also changed midgame, as the Manchester City game proved with devastatingly good results.

Perhaps more important than his tactical flexibility, AVB has stuck with players in good form and dropped players who weren’t playing well.  The re-inclusions of Michael Dawson, Tom Huddlestone and Gylfi Sigurdsson have been a radical change from last season.

AVB has also remade players in an effort to keep form players in the team.  Bale here is the obvious example; but he also made Sigurdsson into a wide player willing to put in the defensive work, and played Holtby across a few positions in midfield.

3. He’s rotated throughout the season, allowing Spurs to fight on multiple fronts.  All season, AVB has changed his defense based on the opposition.  Against bigger, stronger teams, he would bring in Steven Caulker to play along Michael Dawson, and move Jan Vertonghen to left back.  Against quicker teams, Vertonghen would move back into the middle, and Benoit Assou-Ekotto or Kyle Naughton would come in at left back.  This kind of rotation happened throughout the team, and AVB was keen to not play too many players too much.

Smart rotation does two things: keeps players fit, and keeps players happy.  Resting players periodically throughout the year allowed Spurs to fight all season on two fronts.  And apart from a little wobble around the two Basel games (the only time the team looked genuinely tired), the team pushed until the last day of the season.

The Europa League has been key in keeping important players happy.  It offered players like Brad Friedel and William Gallas the chance to remain part of the team, while also giving younger players like Kyle Naughton, Steven Caulker, and Tom Carroll the chance to play more.

4. AVB has instilled a determination in the team.  How many important late goals have Spurs seen this year?  There have been late winners or levelers against United at home, Everton at home, Southampton at home, West Ham away, Chelsea away, Wigan away, Stoke away, and on the last day at home to Sunderland.  All of these games were in the second half of the season.  Just as some teams were beginning to fade late in the year, Spurs were fighting until the last moment of every game.

It’s not just about scoring goals though.  Since the Everton game in December, when Spurs conceded twice after the 90th minute to lose, Spurs have only conceded once past 80 minutes, and it was an avoidable penalty against Liverpool.  This was down to AVB’s coaching, as he changed training techniques to maintain concentration levels as fitness decreased.  But it’s also a result of his mentality; there is steeliness about AVB, and his team has taken on this image.

5. He won back favor from the English media.  When he was appointed last summer, I could remember the first press reactions to AVB were stories like “Spurs Players in Dressing Room Revolt.”  Needless to say, after his days at Chelsea, he wasn’t the most popular man with the English media.  But since he began at Spurs, AVB has shown a humility which has won them back.  He changed the way he interacted with the media, which was an admission of past mistakes in this arena.

It was always going to be difficult to follow the popular, ever quotable Redknapp.  But AVB has won back respect by not being Redknapp.  He’s always supported his players, never said anything questionable, and has generally been respectful to those in the media.

In turn the media recognized that he was a good coach; his focus on the Europa League and the aforementioned change in training following the Everton game receiving particular praise.  He has done exactly what was needed following his tumultuous time at Chelsea.

With NBC Sports Network announcing their Premier League coverage plans for next season, the end is near for FOX Soccer.

Next season will see the UEFA Champions League, Europa League, CONCACAF Champion’s League and the 2018 and 2022 FIFA World Cup tournaments shown on the new FOX Sports 1.  FOX Soccer will become FXX, a sister channel to FX.

These remaining weeks in the European season will see the end of FOX Soccer in its current form. And I couldn’t be happier about it.

The channel’s coverage and programming has gone slowly downhill the last few years, just when one would have expected the channel to push on as the sport grew in popularity. Instead, a number of mistakes mean the channel is being outperformed in terms of the quality of coverage by nearly every other soccer channel on the market.

Let’s give credit where it’s due though. FOX Soccer has done a lot to further the popularity of the game in this country. It’s because of FOX Soccer that I am a fan today, and that I have been able to further my education every single weekend.

The channel obviously reached a point not long ago where they felt they needed to enhance their own coverage, and that’s where the mistakes were made. The first mistake was Rob Stone.  The channel brought him over from ESPN to lead their live studio coverage of high profile games. Rob Stone is a good general presenter; he hardly ever fumbles, is never lost on what to say, he always fills the time he needs to. But Rob Stone is not a good soccer presenter. He doesn’t have a good enough tactical understanding of the game to ask the analysts interesting questions. He asks the obvious questions about the simplest parts of the game. His simplicity hinders a lot of what is said in studio. He also doesn’t use the right language and invents his own terminology to tell people about the “second half kick” or other silly terms he coins himself. Each sport has its own lingo, and if the people presenting the game don’t use that lingo, they lose credibility.

This is just part of the general overall problem at FOX Soccer. It’s this idea that the sport needs to be shown and presented through an American perspective for people to understand it. It doesn’t. The game has attracted enough of a niche audience that we don’t need to be talked down to. FOX Soccer has risked alienating the majority of its fans by trying to attract new ones.

It’s not as if the channel doesn’t have smart and unique pundits. Bobby McMahon, who was the staple of the old Fox Soccer Report, was the man the channel should have built their coverage around.  He has an insight unmatched by anyone working at the network, and yet has been relegated to minor appearances on the new FOX Soccer News program.

Also, Brian McBride is growing in confidence and is starting to get more comfortable in getting his analysis across.  The few times he speaks during the studio coverage, his observations are generally well thought out and offer unique analyses on what we’ve just seen.  It’s a shame that he’s been overshadowed by Warren Barton and Eric Wynalda, neither of whom offer anything more than joking with Rob Stone.

Personnel mistakes aside, FOX Soccer has also made mistakes in acquiring rights recently.  The channel has been forced out of existence because they put all their money into getting the rights to the Premier League, Champions League, and World Cup 2018. They were never going to be able to have both the Premier League and the UEFA Champions League for long; and lo and behold, they are outbid at the very next bidding cycle.  And now that other networks have come along (primarily beIN Sport) and scooped up most of the other European rights, FOX Soccer can’t remain a network only showing Champions League games midweek and a World Cup in five years.

The final nail in the coffin was the joke that FOX Soccer has become due to the amateurish soccer commentating by Gus Johnson. FOX Soccer established themselves over 16 years of hard work only for them to ruin their legacy by elevating a joke of an announcer into the most high-profile soccer games of the 2012-13 season. Everything that they had been built has been ruined by one cataclysmic decision.

If the network had tried to stay more continental by buying out GolTV’s contract with the Bundesliga or sub-licensing Bundesliga games, or tried to beat out beIN SPORT for the nPower Championship or tried harder to build a better product when they had MLS games, maybe they would still be around next season. Instead, soccer fans across the country will lose a huge part of why they’ve become fans.  It’s a shame in many ways; but given the downward trajectory the network has taken recently, it’s not entirely unwanted either.