A good manager shows his strength when times are tough, not when they're good, which is why I discounted his achievements at Porto, despite how exceptional they were. Looking at his time at Chelsea, it is far that he did not get to have a fair go at changing Chelsea's system; I think he had a longer term vision that RA was not willing to entertain, and player power at the club is far too significant.
As for this season, it is true that expectations were low after Redknapp's sacking, and while he does show his capability to be malleable and willing to compromise to circumstances, I feel that his decision making under pressure is not quite under scratch. Tonight for example, after the red card, tactically Spurs were poor (although that partly lies with Adebayor also), and simply let Basel lay siege on their goal.
After the red card tonight they did sit back thats true, but then they're missing their best counter attacking outlets in Bale and Lennon. They stayed compact, their defence kept a good line - there was one or two instances of Walker making a tackle and then getting straight back into positions - , they had Huddlestone as a makeshift CB, and he's one who you'd expect to want to get on the ball just behind the halfway line and start attacks. I don't think what happened after the red card was necessarily of their own making; like you say Ade was a fucking mug, should have spotted Gylfi out wide when they did make the break. It's a small intense stadium with a home team growing in confidence, showing they can stretch the Spurs defence over two games if there's any space behind them whatsoever, and dropping deep to prevent that was a tactical decision that paid off for AVB and Spurs.