Andre Villas-Boas - Head Coach

[Raziel]

This is one of the threads that has me shaking my head at Spurs fans. People are to quick to judge based on a single game. And getting into if AVB is amongst our best managers (or not) not even half a season in? (not even going there), however I'm going to tinkle some people off, no matter what anyone says/thinks, at this point AVB has been a success.

If you had asked any rational fan, (or my bet, Levy himself), on the day Chea$ki won the CL about the following scenario

- Spurs will fire Harry, lose Ledley, VDV, Modric, hire an unproven manager in England, have to settle in Lloris, Jan, Dembele, Siggy, Dempsey (two of who have ever played in England), have very limited appearances by Kaboul, Benny and Parker due to injuries and have JD lead the line as a single striker for the majority of the games.
- based on that scenario above, 17 games into the PL season, would you take 4th (having beaten Manure at OT) and being in the knockout stages of the Europa cup?

Everyone would/should bite your arm off at the offer.

AVB is still short two players imo, we are light a creative midfielder and a striker, hopefully we will see some movement for those players in January. Kaboul, Dawson, Parker, Benny if they can come back by February will be a good boost to the side. AVB is obviously a "system" type manager, we have been asking for that for years, it takes time to achieve, imo any result like 4th/Cup win this season would be a massive bonus. This season for me is about producing a fair/decent return with next season being the season you judge on (similar to our first seasons with Harry/Jol).

 

[metalgear]

Am I the only one who thought we didnt play well?

Our attacking play is still a bit ropey well fairly ropey. Our defending today was very good and pressing was excellent - although the last couple of minutes Lloris contributed massively.

It is our attacking play that still concerns me particularly at home. Devoid of creativity. You can say yeah but Bale isnt fit - well even when he was fit we werent creative enough.

me!

its defoe who is both a blessing and a curse that we need to deal with.

he had 2 or 3 clear chances and had to at least put one of them in.

 

[metalgear]

This is one of the threads that has me shaking my head at Spurs fans. People are to quick to judge based on a single game. And getting into if AVB is amongst our best managers (or not) not even half a season in? (not even going there), however I'm going to tinkle some people off, no matter what anyone says/thinks, at this point AVB has been a success.

If you had asked any rational fan, (or my bet, Levy himself), on the day Chea$ki won the CL about the following scenario

- Spurs will fire Harry, lose Ledley, VDV, Modric, hire an unproven manager in England, have to settle in Lloris, Jan, Dembele, Siggy, Dempsey (two of who have ever played in England), have very limited appearances by Kaboul, Benny and Parker due to injuries and have JD lead the line as a single striker for the majority of the games.
- based on that scenario above, 17 games into the PL season, would you take 4th (having beaten Manure at OT) and being in the knockout stages of the Europa cup?

Everyone would/should bite your arm off at the offer.

AVB is still short two players imo, we are light a creative midfielder and a striker, hopefully we will see some movement for those players in January. Kaboul, Dawson, Parker, Benny if they can come back by February will be a good boost to the side. AVB is obviously a "system" type manager, we have been asking for that for years, it takes time to achieve, imo any result like 4th/Cup win this season would be a massive bonus. This season for me is about producing a fair/decent return with next season being the season you judge on (similar to our first seasons with Harry/Jol).

totally agree except that I see AVB and the team as a Work in Progress, so won't say that he is a success yet, but his method is sound and I anticipate big things for him and us if we can keep it together for more than a few years. There will be ups and downs for fans, management, players etc... and the odd disruptive transfer speculation/deal that will always threaten to undermine our progress and set us back... here's where Levy and Co comes in ... the sooner we can get that stadium up for improved cash flows, the better a squad we can assemble in quantity and quality, and the better we can fend off offers for our best players.

on the pitch - given the resources - AVB is doing a mighty fine job, he is the type of manager I'm willing to stick my neck out for.

 

[thfcsteff]

Sorry Steff. Cant agree with you that today and last week were the same kind of performance.

I thought we were poor at Everton and never controlled the midfield, whereas today we were in control of the midfield virtually all game. We created diddly squat at Everton. We flukily took the lead by a deflection and really only had one other shot of note all game (Sigs that hit the bar). Everton created loads and it was always a question of when and not if we were going to let in a goal. Today, I thought we looked comfortable, created a brickload of chances, got in behind the defence many times (williams was brilliant at blocking) and looked comfortable for the win.

Two completely different levels of performance imo.

I probably haven't defined myself well enough. I am referring to the focus and attention to plan for each game.

I actually thought we did very well at Everton, gradually exerting more and more influence on the game, not a classic 'attacking' performance, but grinding Everton down whilst maintaining possession. We will not go into every game gangbusting. I thought we had passed the moments in the game where it felt Everton would score, and in fact, I felt very comfortable at that moment in time. Had Lloris got his word across, we'd have been enjoying a well-engineered win.

As the away side last week we needed to do what we did.
As the home side this week we needed to do what we did.

Two very different approaches to the games, but the application and aptitude displayed in each was, I believe, really good mate.

 

[thfcsteff]

This is one of the threads that has me shaking my head at Spurs fans. People are to quick to judge based on a single game. And getting into if AVB is amongst our best managers (or not) not even half a season in? (not even going there), however I'm going to tinkle some people off, no matter what anyone says/thinks, at this point AVB has been a success.

If you had asked any rational fan, (or my bet, Levy himself), on the day Chea$ki won the CL about the following scenario

- Spurs will fire Harry, lose Ledley, VDV, Modric, hire an unproven manager in England, have to settle in Lloris, Jan, Dembele, Siggy, Dempsey (two of who have ever played in England), have very limited appearances by Kaboul, Benny and Parker due to injuries and have JD lead the line as a single striker for the majority of the games.
- based on that scenario above, 17 games into the PL season, would you take 4th (having beaten Manure at OT) and being in the knockout stages of the Europa cup?

Everyone would/should bite your arm off at the offer.

AVB is still short two players imo, we are light a creative midfielder and a striker, hopefully we will see some movement for those players in January. Kaboul, Dawson, Parker, Benny if they can come back by February will be a good boost to the side. AVB is obviously a "system" type manager, we have been asking for that for years, it takes time to achieve, imo any result like 4th/Cup win this season would be a massive bonus. This season for me is about producing a fair/decent return with next season being the season you judge on (similar to our first seasons with Harry/Jol).

=D>
Great post IMHO.

 

[JerusalemMan]

Am I the only one who thought we didnt play well?

Our attacking play is still a bit ropey well fairly ropey. Our defending today was very good and pressing was excellent - although the last couple of minutes Lloris contributed massively.

It is our attacking play that still concerns me particularly at home. Devoid of creativity. You can say yeah but Bale isnt fit - well even when he was fit we werent creative enough.

Wow.
That's a head-shaker of a post.
And sadly I imagine that you won't be the only one to think we 'did not play well'.

 

[Raziel]

totally agree except that I see AVB and the team as a Work in Progress, so won't say that he is a success yet, but his method is sound and I anticipate big things for him and us if we can keep it together for more than a few years. There will be ups and downs for fans, management, players etc... and the odd disruptive transfer speculation/deal that will always threaten to undermine our progress and set us back... here's where Levy and Co comes in ... the sooner we can get that stadium up for improved cash flows, the better a squad we can assemble in quantity and quality, and the better we can fend off offers for our best players.

on the pitch - given the resources - AVB is doing a mighty fine job, he is the type of manager I'm willing to stick my neck out for.

Just to clarify, at this point he is a success, so completely agree with you.

Long term, none of us know, but your points about ups and downs are totally valid, and hopefully we can be smart enough to ride those out and back the team

 

[DubaiSpur]

This is one of the threads that has me shaking my head at Spurs fans. People are to quick to judge based on a single game. And getting into if AVB is amongst our best managers (or not) not even half a season in? (not even going there), however I'm going to tinkle some people off, no matter what anyone says/thinks, at this point AVB has been a success.

If you had asked any rational fan, (or my bet, Levy himself), on the day Chea$ki won the CL about the following scenario

- Spurs will fire Harry, lose Ledley, VDV, Modric, hire an unproven manager in England, have to settle in Lloris, Jan, Dembele, Siggy, Dempsey (two of who have ever played in England), have very limited appearances by Kaboul, Benny and Parker due to injuries and have JD lead the line as a single striker for the majority of the games.
- based on that scenario above, 17 games into the PL season, would you take 4th (having beaten Manure at OT) and being in the knockout stages of the Europa cup?

Everyone would/should bite your arm off at the offer.

AVB is still short two players imo, we are light a creative midfielder and a striker, hopefully we will see some movement for those players in January. Kaboul, Dawson, Parker, Benny if they can come back by February will be a good boost to the side. AVB is obviously a "system" type manager, we have been asking for that for years, it takes time to achieve, imo any result like 4th/Cup win this season would be a massive bonus. This season for me is about producing a fair/decent return with next season being the season you judge on (similar to our first seasons with Harry/Jol).

Fantastic post. =D>

 

[Cotswold]

I was a real AVB doubter, and although he still does a few things which i find worrying (the timing of the Parker substation yesterday was a bit reckless - as in when we were facing a last minute free-kick into the box having lost a game in the last minute the week before) but all-in-all I am coming round to thinking he's pretty good.

If you are comparing him to Redknapp it is important to factor in that Redknapp had Modric and VdV and I for one don't think either was adequately replaced last summer.
If we'd just held on against Everton (which we should have) we'd be third going into a pretty favourable Xmas run of games and looking v good for a third place finish.

 

[parklane1]

This is one of the threads that has me shaking my head at Spurs fans. People are to quick to judge based on a single game. And getting into if AVB is amongst our best managers (or not) not even half a season in? (not even going there), however I'm going to tinkle some people off, no matter what anyone says/thinks, at this point AVB has been a success.

If you had asked any rational fan, (or my bet, Levy himself), on the day Chea$ki won the CL about the following scenario

- Spurs will fire Harry, lose Ledley, VDV, Modric, hire an unproven manager in England, have to settle in Lloris, Jan, Dembele, Siggy, Dempsey (two of who have ever played in England), have very limited appearances by Kaboul, Benny and Parker due to injuries and have JD lead the line as a single striker for the majority of the games.
- based on that scenario above, 17 games into the PL season, would you take 4th (having beaten Manure at OT) and being in the knockout stages of the Europa cup?

Everyone would/should bite your arm off at the offer.

AVB is still short two players imo, we are light a creative midfielder and a striker, hopefully we will see some movement for those players in January. Kaboul, Dawson, Parker, Benny if they can come back by February will be a good boost to the side. AVB is obviously a "system" type manager, we have been asking for that for years, it takes time to achieve, imo any result like 4th/Cup win this season would be a massive bonus. This season for me is about producing a fair/decent return with next season being the season you judge on (similar to our first seasons with Harry/Jol).

Amen brother =D>

 

[Pirate55]

This is one of the threads that has me shaking my head at Spurs fans. People are to quick to judge based on a single game. And getting into if AVB is amongst our best managers (or not) not even half a season in? (not even going there), however I'm going to tinkle some people off, no matter what anyone says/thinks, at this point AVB has been a success.

If you had asked any rational fan, (or my bet, Levy himself), on the day Chea$ki won the CL about the following scenario

- Spurs will fire Harry, lose Ledley, VDV, Modric, hire an unproven manager in England, have to settle in Lloris, Jan, Dembele, Siggy, Dempsey (two of who have ever played in England), have very limited appearances by Kaboul, Benny and Parker due to injuries and have JD lead the line as a single striker for the majority of the games.
- based on that scenario above, 17 games into the PL season, would you take 4th (having beaten Manure at OT) and being in the knockout stages of the Europa cup?

Everyone would/should bite your arm off at the offer.

AVB is still short two players imo, we are light a creative midfielder and a striker, hopefully we will see some movement for those players in January. Kaboul, Dawson, Parker, Benny if they can come back by February will be a good boost to the side. AVB is obviously a "system" type manager, we have been asking for that for years, it takes time to achieve, imo any result like 4th/Cup win this season would be a massive bonus. This season for me is about producing a fair/decent return with next season being the season you judge on (similar to our first seasons with Harry/Jol).

Post of the year. Puts things into perspective. Well done=D>

 

[Roy1983]

What were the results of the poll? I thought majority on here expected 4th?

 

[stinkfoot]

What pleases me is that we are definitely over the period of uncertainty that was cast early on over his man mgt skills and whether the team would be behind him (remember the scaremongering by the press that all their Chelsea 'mates' would be on the phone to our players?).

There is no doubt imo that he's got the group feeling good and wanting to play for him, wanting to succeed together (going from player interviews/tweets).

Now they trust him he can really get them settled in the way he wants them to play so fingers crossed, it stands to reason we are only going to get better.

COYS.

COYAVB.

 

[onlyme]

Stoke is the test. All the passing teams struggle against them. For sure that cyclist helped but they killed our dream last term.

 

[Jordinho]

Stoke is the test. All the passing teams struggle against them. For sure that cyclist helped but they killed our dream last term.

We got Lee Mason this time.

 

[onlyme]

DP

 

[onlyme]

This is one of the threads that has me shaking my head at Spurs fans. People are to quick to judge based on a single game. And getting into if AVB is amongst our best managers (or not) not even half a season in? (not even going there), however I'm going to tinkle some people off, no matter what anyone says/thinks, at this point AVB has been a success.

If you had asked any rational fan, (or my bet, Levy himself), on the day Chea$ki won the CL about the following scenario

- Spurs will fire Harry, lose Ledley, VDV, Modric, hire an unproven manager in England, have to settle in Lloris, Jan, Dembele, Siggy, Dempsey (two of who have ever played in England), have very limited appearances by Kaboul, Benny and Parker due to injuries and have JD lead the line as a single striker for the majority of the games.
- based on that scenario above, 17 games into the PL season, would you take 4th (having beaten Manure at OT) and being in the knockout stages of the Europa cup?

Everyone would/should bite your arm off at the offer.

AVB is still short two players imo, we are light a creative midfielder and a striker, hopefully we will see some movement for those players in January. Kaboul, Dawson, Parker, Benny if they can come back by February will be a good boost to the side. AVB is obviously a "system" type manager, we have been asking for that for years, it takes time to achieve, imo any result like 4th/Cup win this season would be a massive bonus. This season for me is about producing a fair/decent return with next season being the season you judge on (similar to our first seasons with Harry/Jol).

You had me all the way to the last line. I expect something this season.

We have had 2 winners as managers under Levy and (no surprise) we won something under both.

 

[Jurgen the German]

This is one of the threads that has me shaking my head at Spurs fans. People are to quick to judge based on a single game. And getting into if AVB is amongst our best managers (or not) not even half a season in? (not even going there), however I'm going to tinkle some people off, no matter what anyone says/thinks, at this point AVB has been a success.

If you had asked any rational fan, (or my bet, Levy himself), on the day Chea$ki won the CL about the following scenario

- Spurs will fire Harry, lose Ledley, VDV, Modric, hire an unproven manager in England, have to settle in Lloris, Jan, Dembele, Siggy, Dempsey (two of who have ever played in England), have very limited appearances by Kaboul, Benny and Parker due to injuries and have JD lead the line as a single striker for the majority of the games.
- based on that scenario above, 17 games into the PL season, would you take 4th (having beaten Manure at OT) and being in the knockout stages of the Europa cup?

Everyone would/should bite your arm off at the offer.

AVB is still short two players imo, we are light a creative midfielder and a striker, hopefully we will see some movement for those players in January. Kaboul, Dawson, Parker, Benny if they can come back by February will be a good boost to the side. AVB is obviously a "system" type manager, we have been asking for that for years, it takes time to achieve, imo any result like 4th/Cup win this season would be a massive bonus. This season for me is about producing a fair/decent return with next season being the season you judge on (similar to our first seasons with Harry/Jol).

Good post!

I agree we are still lacking creativity, even with Bale in the side. That's not AVB's fault. We are crying out for a player like Moutinho. I really hope we get him, but I fear we've missed the boat now.

The only thing I would like to see is AVB resting players more in the second half of the season, it's one of the things Redknapp got wrong last season.

Goes without saying we need to cut out the late goals too.

 

[Park Lane James]

This is one of the threads that has me shaking my head at Spurs fans. People are to quick to judge based on a single game. And getting into if AVB is amongst our best managers (or not) not even half a season in? (not even going there), however I'm going to tinkle some people off, no matter what anyone says/thinks, at this point AVB has been a success.

If you had asked any rational fan, (or my bet, Levy himself), on the day Chea$ki won the CL about the following scenario

- Spurs will fire Harry, lose Ledley, VDV, Modric, hire an unproven manager in England, have to settle in Lloris, Jan, Dembele, Siggy, Dempsey (two of who have ever played in England), have very limited appearances by Kaboul, Benny and Parker due to injuries and have JD lead the line as a single striker for the majority of the games.
- based on that scenario above, 17 games into the PL season, would you take 4th (having beaten Manure at OT) and being in the knockout stages of the Europa cup?

Everyone would/should bite your arm off at the offer.

AVB is still short two players imo, we are light a creative midfielder and a striker, hopefully we will see some movement for those players in January. Kaboul, Dawson, Parker, Benny if they can come back by February will be a good boost to the side. AVB is obviously a "system" type manager, we have been asking for that for years, it takes time to achieve, imo any result like 4th/Cup win this season would be a massive bonus. This season for me is about producing a fair/decent return with next season being the season you judge on (similar to our first seasons with Harry/Jol).

Great post.

Many Spurs fans are just mirroring what other modern football fans are like - impatient arseholes. It's because of the money that's involved in the game that has created this image of instant success which isn't possible (even Chelsea and City took their time to win anything). The media were crying for AVB's head a few months ago but now all of a sudden they're praising him to pushing through a bad patch and trusting his players? Winds me up.

 

[Park Lane James]

Am I the only one who thought we didnt play well?

Our attacking play is still a bit ropey well fairly ropey. Our defending today was very good and pressing was excellent - although the last couple of minutes Lloris contributed massively.

It is our attacking play that still concerns me particularly at home. Devoid of creativity. You can say yeah but Bale isnt fit - well even when he was fit we werent creative enough.

I thought we did play well yesterday, we managed to remain patient in the face of a resolute Swansea side (who basically parked the bus) - and managed to change a bit of our attacking style in the second half to try and get a goal. I agree with you about the creativity, though, but that is because we don't have the personnel to be magically creative in the midfield. We've lost Modric and VdV and replaced them with a dribbler in Dembele. That is more Levy's fault for not bringing someone in when the need was there. We were after Moutinho and didn't get him, fair enough, but we were obviously one player short of a proper transfer window and didn't go after a plan B.

But anyway, we've done well so far. Hopefully in january we can bring someone in, but I don't think it will happen.