Harry tries to fit his jewel into a diamond

HARRY REDKNAPP has always liked to play down the role of the manager, frequently insisting that it is the quality of the players, not tactics or formations, that holds the key to success.

In Rafael van der Vaart, Redknapp has undoubtedly unearthed a quality player and at a price that prompts a double take given the hyper-inflation that dominates some sectors of the transfer market. At £8 million (€9.1m) from Real Madrid, the Dutchman always looked cheap and following his start at White Hart Lane, it now looks to be a steal.

Now, though, the manager concedes it will be up to himself to fashion a side that makes the most of van der Vaart’s attributes.

The Dutch international’s goals ensured a hard fought victory over a deserving Aston Villa side, following on from his midweek effort in the Champions League meeting with FC Twente, a game in which he also missed a penalty.

As Redknapp admitted afterwards, van der Vaart has a scorer’s eye for goal but, more than that, he also offers his side an option that was lacking in his side’s play last season when his existing roster of strikers meant that a 4-4-2 formation often imposed itself on the team.

Now in Europe, Spurs need flexibility, precisely the kind of things offered by van der Vaart who is happiest when sat in behind the main striker. Against Villa, it was Redknapp’s half time decision to bring the Dutchman in from the right and position him behind Peter Crouch that led to a much improved display and ultimately the win.

“He’s good for us, but it makes balancing the team difficult, I can’t lie,” said the manager, generating approximately zero sympathy from his rival managers. “Villa played one up and one behind with Ashley Young in the hole. I thought we looked better when we went that way second half.

“Rafa likes that position better, he likes to play behind one striker or behind two. But it causes problems because if you play two up and him behind, what do you do with (Gareth) Bale? (Benoit Assou) Ekotto has been fantastic at left back, he’s in great form, so where would you put Bale?

“If Bale plays wide left and you’ve got two up front and one behind, you’ll have two midfield players and no one on the right hand side of the pitch. That is your problem.”

The responsibility to find a solution is, as far as Redknapp is concerned, is the manager’s and the manager’s alone and he will draw on his experiences at West Ham to resolve the issue.

“He won’t change,” Redknapp added. “Sometimes you have to change your system. I did it at West Ham when I had Eyal Berkovic. I used to play with three centre halves and play him behind the front two. It worked fine.

“When you have a special player you have to work at finding a way of getting the best out of him.”

And he added: “I wouldn’t change him (van der Vaart). He is what he is – a fantastic footballer who loves to be where the ball is.”

Prior to the half time switch, Villa looked capable of recording a third successive win under Gerard Houllier after Marc Albrighton had given them a 16th minute lead and the manager was disappointed with the outcome, believing his side deserved more.

“I like their attitude because they were not happy with the result,” said the Frenchman. “They were grumbling about themselves and that they could have done better. You learn about your players in defeat. The level of what we want to achieve is better. I told them: repeat that sort of game and you win more than you lose.”

And midfielder Stylian Petrov believes the performance showed the club is moving in the right direction under Houllier. “It’s good,” the midfielder said. “It is very positive, he was after the game. We always go for a win, we are more aggressive, we are playing better and we are creating chances. He is going to get his ideas across of we are going to start playing even better.

“What we have shown is that we are capable of winning games. I hope we will be in the mix again and we will keep on pushing until then.”