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Andre Villas-Boas - Head Coach
- Thread starter Bale
- Start date
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepag...27/Andre-Villas-Boas-will-Bale-out-Spurs.html
He is very articulate and knows exactly what he wants from us, we might have found a diamond here, cheers Chavski.
He is very articulate and knows exactly what he wants from us, we might have found a diamond here, cheers Chavski.
Fhtagn
Radek Cerny
As much as I agree with that, over the course of a season, quality is still the sine qua non. But by quality I don't just mean the goodness of each of the parts, but also having the right parts at hand - ie. the right balance. For example, Saudi Sportswashing Machine did great last season with a poor man's Modric in Cabaye (still a fantastic player mind, just not Modric).
I think every team needs a passing type, a tempo setter, someone who always wants to keep possession and is constantly moving to make themselves available for the pass - even if they're not that amazing at this role, a la Joe Allen. But just having this type matters. The problem comes when every midfielder is more of a mover, someone who might touch the ball 19 times per game since they're more interested in taking up the right positions in anticipation of being released, or sweeping up rebounds/scuffed balls. Bale, Lennon, Dempsey, and Sig are of this type. Sandro prefers to win and then give the ball to his partner quickly. Dembele is a hard-worker with the mind of a "mover" - he'll tackle and win a lot of balls, but his instinct is to dribble and hang onto it to go forward like an AM, rather than set a metronymic passing tempo both vertically and laterally.
We are gravely lacking in passers in general, not just creative passers. Both Modric and VdV (and indeed Parker, despite his lower creativity) routinely had 70+ passes per game last season - helped, no doubt, by an in-form Ade's presence, but they are also natural passers who like to knit together play. Without them we are panicking in possession. Without them we don't have the ability even to hold on to the ball for most of a game under pressure. Yes, it is possible that lots of coaching on team movement will make up for this issue of technique and natural inclination, but that is going to take a long, LONG time.
Over the course of a season, I think that no amount of coaching will solve our deficit in terms of key qualities that we are missing - not overall quality, but the key type of player. It will paper over the cracks, but over the longer term, there is very little the manager can do when our rivals can buy all of Oscar, Hazard, Mata etc while we have to make do with Sig. This is what's happening to Arsenal, despite having a brilliant coach (note I said coach, not tactician) who has been there for years and years to establish his style. You don't always get what you pay for, but with the market evolving the way it is, it's getting harder and harder to convince someone who's even remotely talented to join us rather than get paid more to sit on a guaranteed CL team's bench. So the only real long term solution is smart investment - we can't just coach ourselves out of a billion-dollar gap when money (and the accompanying success) is all that matters to almost all players, and we can't just spend like crazy either. I don't know where we'll magically come up with the money, but, hey - we have plenty of deadwood, and just buying one player the manager genuinely wants like Moutinho would be a great start
Good post. I do wonder if he is going to try a 4-3-3 at a point or another, I feel Sig would do a better job there alongside Sandro and Hudd, rather than playing Dempsey up top with JD or Ade, Bale and Lennon. When Dembele is fit he could rotate Hudd and Sig, and if Moutinho comes in we would be very solid in midfield.
parklane1
Tony Galvin
Very much this, we are getting results without really playing at our best. You know what that means? it is something the likes of Utd and Chelski have done for years.
I'm going to disagree. When the likes of Utd and Chelski do not play "well", what they usually mean is that they are toothless - that they dominate midfield and have 500+ passes, but create few good chances because the stubborn opposition teams park the bus (and concede a few great chances because they're pressed so high up), and it is difficult even for good teams to break those down (the cure-all is typically "good movement", but in some cases you'd also need a moment of brilliance, but those aren't reliable).
Very, very rarely do you ever see Utd and Chelski concede midfield and get torn apart for an entire half by a relegation-battling team. That's what keeps happening to us - a fragility in midfield, an inability to keep the ball under pressure. I think at least part of this is technical ability - we don't seem to one-touch zip the ball around as quickly and comfortably as they do, and a greater part of it is workrate and know-how (and maybe fitness) when it comes to team pressing. It's a miracle we've done as well as we have, results-wise, and at least part of it is having some superb tacklers in this team, but it's still really last-ditch defending and difficult to watch. It's not "playing poorly and getting results", it's "papering over the cracks that will hurt us if we don't solve them in the long term".
In truth I think we do need new faces in this starting XI to really address this problem - not necessarily a whole boatload of new signings, but just having Benny and Ade in there and in form would help me a lot. Familiarity with each other and upping the workrate + coaching will help, but in the end I think we need some fudging calm passers in there. I have a huge amount of sympathy for AVB in this regard (having an unbalanced team stripped of its creativity and vision), though I've also been unhappy with a few of his selection choices (Livermore???? Friedal again?). So I'm not really going to judge us until next season, when hopefully we'll make more of "his" signings and we can see what he can do with the proper tools.
milo
Jack L. Jones
I think that the reason for their continuous top four finishes is the quality of their best players and in particular Van Persie. I do not think that Wenger is particularly tactically adept and he has failed to address his teams weaknesses for a fair while.
parklane1
Tony Galvin
You can disagree as much as you want, but it does not take away the fact that we are 4th in the table. We have been without Kaboul and Parker all season, we have also lost the likes of Ekotto, Naughton and Dembele for several games, Ade has problems with fitness. We have a new manager with a new system of playing and it will take time to establish that system, to much has been expected of AVB and although we have not been consistent we have got good results.
If I was YOU I would definitely end it!
Don't take what I say so seriously or literally.
I'm not disagreeing that our current position is very good, especially in the circumstances. Where I disagree is in the meaning of those results, which affects where I believe we're headed in the future given the performances we've seen so far, against opposition that are mainly in the bottom five. I don't think we're a great team that's going through a rough patch but will get better once we click; I think we're an unbalanced team with fundamental issues that need addressing through transfers as much as anything else. I would happily take worse results right now if the performances were promising and it was just a matter of talented players trying to settle in and adapt to new ideas, because I think that bodes well for the future. As it is now, I think we're going to struggle once we come up against tougher teams and if we don't move in the January window.
Yes it is pleasing to see us win games without playing well, but you want that to be the exception rather than the rule. Given the teams we have played against, you'd expect good performances and wins in most cases, and they have been teams where you can win if you are poor as the opponents arent much better.
I dont think too much is expected of AVB, we have a great squad and dont want to waste a season. We need to hit the ground running a bit more than Liverpool are expected to as we have a much better group of players and the system isn't too different to last season. But we are doing ok at the moment, we are about right in the league table and every game we win without playing well, AVB is guaranteed to be around longer to try and get the good performance.
However the only problem is, teams that often play poorly and win will eventually get found out and results dry up. We were 4th under Santini after 8 games, some dreadful performances and then suddenly 3 losses in a row to poor teams and no one was surprised. I'm not expecting that to happen under AVB, but if it does the warning signs are there..
Leeds Spur
Banned
If I was YOU I would definitely end it!
Don't take what I say so seriously or literally.
Good to hear! I worry about my fellow yids!
punk_is_back`
Ilie Dumitrescu
Here, here. Exactly this. A lot of fans I speak to have an irrational hatred of him apparently because he failed at Chelsea he would be brick. But he had won the quadruple which is an amazing feat in itself.
Rorschach
Sonny Walters
I agree that this change is somewhat forced upon him, but for me this sub is tantamount to conceding the midfield and engaging in a rearguard action. I have all the time in the world in for Livermore but he is an understudy to Sandro in my mind, and when both are on the pitch it severely limits our attacking and possession game. It hasn't helped that Jake has played badly when he has been introduced, but leaving that aside the Hudd/Livermore substitution has not been successful in my opinion. It shows our lack of creative cover in the centre of the park really with Dembele out.
In saying all that, I am more than happy with AVB so far and can see that the best is to come.
parklane1
Tony Galvin
i understand that point, however i have seen enough this season to believe that this team will get better and improve as it goes along rather then fall away.
Steed Train
Clive Wilson
I agree, its not like we've been terrible for 90 minutes either. We have shown we obviously are capable of playing well, its just something needs to be sorted for the second half.
Defoe needs to be more clinical aswell, if we had got the three goals in the first half it would have put the game to bed
Gutter Boy
Tim Sherwood
http://www.goal.com/en-gb/news/2896...problems-and-no-moutinho-leave-avbs-tottenham
Injury problems and no Moutinho leave Villas-Boas' Tottenham midfield rudderless
With injuries piling up, Spurs' 1-0 loss against the Latics has highlighted the midfield deficiencies in the Portuguese manager's squad and the need for January reinforcements
COMMENT
By Ewan Roberts at White Hart Lane
Bile rained down on Andre Villas-Boas as he oversaw a second successive home defeat, this time against lowly Wigan rather than the reigning European champions, which compounded a miserable week for Tottenham.
Knocked out of the Capital One Cup in mid-week, winless in Europe and home form verging on diabolical, fears abound in the terraces that this is the “real” AVB, and he’s Actually Very Bad.
Yet Spurs sit in fifth spot in the league table, level on points with Everton, and remain very much in contention for that much-desired Champions League berth despite being gripped by an injury crisis almost unparalleled in the division.
The home side faced the Latics without Benoit Assou-Ekotto, Younes Kaboul, Mousa Dembele or Scott Parker, while Sandro was forced off the field after 20 minutes. Additionally, Spurs are also still adapting to life without two world-class talents: Luka Modric and Rafael van der Vaart.
And yet the home crowd, wrapped up in notions of “the Tottenham way”, were anything but sympathetic. Boos rang around a stadium that had been deafeningly quiet, save for a few groans, in the 90 minutes that preceded the full-time whistle.
There is a ludicrous notion that Villas-Boas has deliberately opposed Spurs’ lofty allusions (or should that be delusions?), that he’s chosen for his side to play turgid, impotent football. That’s simply not the case.
Spurs have a chronic lack of options up front and in midfield, and against Wigan they were forced to field Tom Huddlestone (who was on his way out of the club until he failed a medical at Stoke) and Gylfi Sigurdsson in midfield.
Two slow, immobile players incapable of pressing aggressively in the manner that Sandro and Dembele have done so successfully, and that was becoming Spurs’ calling card under Villas-Boas.
Huddlestone especially is a player that needs to be carried, protected and compensated for. In his stand-out season of 2009-10, when Spurs qualified for the Champions League, he had the tough-tackling, unflinching Wilson Palacios enforcing on his behalf. Against Wigan he had Sigurdsson.
Sigurdsson and Huddlestone sat back, allowed James McCarthy and Ben Watson to weave between them, and were defined by a timidity that simply does not exist when Sandro is patrolling the middle third.
Unable to bully opposition midfielders like the Brazilian-Belgian duo, Spurs’ Icelandic-English combination also offered little offensively, rarely feeding the wide-men and allowing Spurs frontman – whether Emmanuel Adebayor or Jermain Defoe – to become isolated, cut off from service.
Some fans called for 4-4-2, and were riled by the manager’s decision to retain just one striker when chasing the game; notions erupted that the anoraked coach, a one-man think tank preoccupied by a penchant for 70-page dossiers, thought himself above such an “old school” formation.
Villas-Boas was, rather, unwilling to further sacrifice a pedestrian midfield that was being overrun and outmanoeuvred. Reverting to 4-4-2 (and, it’s worth noting, Dempsey played as a more auxiliary number nine anyway) would have handed further initiative to the Latics.
Other fans, however, looked up to the director’s box, at chairman Daniel Levy, and bellowed insults in his direction. One yelled, “At least your bank balance looks nice!” Some, then, see a different root cause of Tottenham’s problems, and it lies away from the manicured blades of grass at White Hart Lane.
Levy is a conscientious, responsible chairman, but that’s quickly forgotten with the acidity of defeat still gnawing at the insides and especially when that frugalness has come at the expense of squad depth and appropriate player recruitment.
Villas-Boas’ problem is one of personnel, not philosophy. His preferred style of play is totally akin to what Tottenham fans want and expect, “the Tottenham way” is as much a part of his DNA as it is the Tottenham faithful’s.
But he does not have the players capable of playing that brand of football. Without a deeper playmaker, of the Joao Moutinho mould for example, Spurs are rudderless, an orchestra without a composer, incapable of sustained, penetrative final third possession.
And without another of Villas-Boas’ primary targets, Shakhtar Donetsk’s Brazilian attacker Willian, they have no one who flourishes between the lines, no one capable of unlocking defences or linking play in tight space. Instead the ex-Porto boss must rely on last-minute panic-buy Dempsey.
Even Dembele, so impressive at Tottenham (who have won just once without him, and have a 100% win record with him), does not fit the blueprint of player that Spurs so desperately require - namely a brave, progressive passer and midfield metronome.
Regardless of his assertions to the contrary, Villas-Boas needs January fast. His season of transition has begun without the players necessary to realise his vision while his overseer has so far denied him the requisite tools to mobilise his revolution.
Villas-Boas is not completely blameless for Spurs selection problems though, and has created a few of his own; the continued rejection of Hugo Lloris essentially cost Spurs a goal, while Adebayor represents a more rounded, complete threat than Defoe in a lone role.
But losing at home to Wigan - just as Spurs had done two years ago under Harry Redknapp, who’d later describe the season as Spurs’ best ever – does not mean Villas-Boas is floundering, and he should be judged only once his chairman has backed him in the transfer market.
Injury problems and no Moutinho leave Villas-Boas' Tottenham midfield rudderless
With injuries piling up, Spurs' 1-0 loss against the Latics has highlighted the midfield deficiencies in the Portuguese manager's squad and the need for January reinforcements
COMMENT
By Ewan Roberts at White Hart Lane
Bile rained down on Andre Villas-Boas as he oversaw a second successive home defeat, this time against lowly Wigan rather than the reigning European champions, which compounded a miserable week for Tottenham.
Knocked out of the Capital One Cup in mid-week, winless in Europe and home form verging on diabolical, fears abound in the terraces that this is the “real” AVB, and he’s Actually Very Bad.
Yet Spurs sit in fifth spot in the league table, level on points with Everton, and remain very much in contention for that much-desired Champions League berth despite being gripped by an injury crisis almost unparalleled in the division.
The home side faced the Latics without Benoit Assou-Ekotto, Younes Kaboul, Mousa Dembele or Scott Parker, while Sandro was forced off the field after 20 minutes. Additionally, Spurs are also still adapting to life without two world-class talents: Luka Modric and Rafael van der Vaart.
And yet the home crowd, wrapped up in notions of “the Tottenham way”, were anything but sympathetic. Boos rang around a stadium that had been deafeningly quiet, save for a few groans, in the 90 minutes that preceded the full-time whistle.
There is a ludicrous notion that Villas-Boas has deliberately opposed Spurs’ lofty allusions (or should that be delusions?), that he’s chosen for his side to play turgid, impotent football. That’s simply not the case.
Spurs have a chronic lack of options up front and in midfield, and against Wigan they were forced to field Tom Huddlestone (who was on his way out of the club until he failed a medical at Stoke) and Gylfi Sigurdsson in midfield.
Two slow, immobile players incapable of pressing aggressively in the manner that Sandro and Dembele have done so successfully, and that was becoming Spurs’ calling card under Villas-Boas.
Huddlestone especially is a player that needs to be carried, protected and compensated for. In his stand-out season of 2009-10, when Spurs qualified for the Champions League, he had the tough-tackling, unflinching Wilson Palacios enforcing on his behalf. Against Wigan he had Sigurdsson.
Sigurdsson and Huddlestone sat back, allowed James McCarthy and Ben Watson to weave between them, and were defined by a timidity that simply does not exist when Sandro is patrolling the middle third.
Unable to bully opposition midfielders like the Brazilian-Belgian duo, Spurs’ Icelandic-English combination also offered little offensively, rarely feeding the wide-men and allowing Spurs frontman – whether Emmanuel Adebayor or Jermain Defoe – to become isolated, cut off from service.
Some fans called for 4-4-2, and were riled by the manager’s decision to retain just one striker when chasing the game; notions erupted that the anoraked coach, a one-man think tank preoccupied by a penchant for 70-page dossiers, thought himself above such an “old school” formation.
Villas-Boas was, rather, unwilling to further sacrifice a pedestrian midfield that was being overrun and outmanoeuvred. Reverting to 4-4-2 (and, it’s worth noting, Dempsey played as a more auxiliary number nine anyway) would have handed further initiative to the Latics.
Other fans, however, looked up to the director’s box, at chairman Daniel Levy, and bellowed insults in his direction. One yelled, “At least your bank balance looks nice!” Some, then, see a different root cause of Tottenham’s problems, and it lies away from the manicured blades of grass at White Hart Lane.
Levy is a conscientious, responsible chairman, but that’s quickly forgotten with the acidity of defeat still gnawing at the insides and especially when that frugalness has come at the expense of squad depth and appropriate player recruitment.
Villas-Boas’ problem is one of personnel, not philosophy. His preferred style of play is totally akin to what Tottenham fans want and expect, “the Tottenham way” is as much a part of his DNA as it is the Tottenham faithful’s.
But he does not have the players capable of playing that brand of football. Without a deeper playmaker, of the Joao Moutinho mould for example, Spurs are rudderless, an orchestra without a composer, incapable of sustained, penetrative final third possession.
And without another of Villas-Boas’ primary targets, Shakhtar Donetsk’s Brazilian attacker Willian, they have no one who flourishes between the lines, no one capable of unlocking defences or linking play in tight space. Instead the ex-Porto boss must rely on last-minute panic-buy Dempsey.
Even Dembele, so impressive at Tottenham (who have won just once without him, and have a 100% win record with him), does not fit the blueprint of player that Spurs so desperately require - namely a brave, progressive passer and midfield metronome.
Regardless of his assertions to the contrary, Villas-Boas needs January fast. His season of transition has begun without the players necessary to realise his vision while his overseer has so far denied him the requisite tools to mobilise his revolution.
Villas-Boas is not completely blameless for Spurs selection problems though, and has created a few of his own; the continued rejection of Hugo Lloris essentially cost Spurs a goal, while Adebayor represents a more rounded, complete threat than Defoe in a lone role.
But losing at home to Wigan - just as Spurs had done two years ago under Harry Redknapp, who’d later describe the season as Spurs’ best ever – does not mean Villas-Boas is floundering, and he should be judged only once his chairman has backed him in the transfer market.
DHSF
Les Ferdinand
if AVB doesnt have the players then its Levys fault for not bringing in the players AVB wanted.
If AVB wanted the players that Levy brought in then no cause for complaint.
We do have a fair few injuries but if Sig and Dempsey etc are not good enough to replace those injuries then its someone fault for not bringing in players WHO ARE good enough for our squad. That article talks about Levy backing him - well why didnt he in the summer.
We are constantly going round in circles because of contradictory arguments. Those same people who argue that AVB doesnt have the players are also saying Levy is superb etc but essentially he didnt really fully back him if he went in and brought two or three players that AVB didnt really want. I think i could safely say that because lets be honest those same players are either not featuring or just do not fit the system.
If AVB wanted the players that Levy brought in then no cause for complaint.
We do have a fair few injuries but if Sig and Dempsey etc are not good enough to replace those injuries then its someone fault for not bringing in players WHO ARE good enough for our squad. That article talks about Levy backing him - well why didnt he in the summer.
We are constantly going round in circles because of contradictory arguments. Those same people who argue that AVB doesnt have the players are also saying Levy is superb etc but essentially he didnt really fully back him if he went in and brought two or three players that AVB didnt really want. I think i could safely say that because lets be honest those same players are either not featuring or just do not fit the system.
Gutter Boy
Tim Sherwood
After the enormous fudge up of last spring, summer was always going to be about damage limitation.
I actually think we did a decent enough job starting over again (clearing the deadwood and getting in 6 of the 8 players we needed).
It's early days (Andre's stamp wont really be on the team until after next summer's window), and there's a lot of work to do. But losing Modric, Rafa and King was an incredibly low starting point to begin building from.
Levy backed Redknapp with £45m in his first window. Andre is £20m in credit at the moment.