Lloris
Naughton Kaboul Vertonghen Assou Ekotto
Parker Sandro
Lennon Dembele Bale
Adebayor
That is, in my opinion, our strongest XI. I'm sure there will be a few who would put Walker at right back, although God knows why. So Walker/Naughton at right back, the rest are pretty much nailed on.
How many times this season has Villas Boas been able to pick this team? Or even pick close to this team? Zero times? Yes, zero times. It is nearly December and not once in 19 games has AVB had the opportunity to put out his strongest side.
And, although we've lost three world class players in King, Modric and van der Vaart, we've also lost very good squad players in Corluka, Pienaar and Kranjcar. While they wouldn't have made it into most of our best XI selections, Corluka would've been a much better option at RB than Walker so far this season and Pienaar and Kranjcar, while they may not be oceans ahead of Dempsey and Sigurdsson ability-wise, were already familiar with the club, knew their team mates well and would've performed a hell of a lot better in these first few months than the two players they've been replaced with.
None of that was the manager's fault. He's also having to coach work ethic and tactics into a squad of players who spent a few years under Redknapp with a philosophy pretty much consisting of letting the players play their own way.
Give the man time, FFS. At least let him pick his strongest team a few times before you start bringing out the pitchforks.