Marseille manager Andre Villas-Boas is currently struggling with a depleted squad. Injuries have hit the French club already this season, with star man Florian Thauvin out, and the club have had to draft in youngsters for the match against Dijon this week.
Villas Boas has particular problems in central defence, where only Duje Caleta-Car is considered to not have any fitness doubts. Questioned about being so short on options, the manager referred to his time as Chelsea, and especially Tottenham, to explain he doesn’t want a squad bloated with players who aren’t going to get opportunities.
L’Equipe quote the Portuguese coach as saying: “At Chelsea, I had four central defenders, the fourth never played. In Tottenham, I had five and two never played. It gave me a few complications.”
Whilst at Tottenham, Villas Boas had to deal with sniping coming from all directions. The media were on his back from day one, and it’s not too hard to believe there were 
disgruntled words coming from the Spurs dressing room which helped the constant flow of negative reports.
The situation at Tottenham appears to have taught him a lesson, that it’s not worth having players who simply aren’t going to get a game.
That may be an issue for him right now, but it seems to be a risk he was willing to take.
