Andre Villas-Boas - Head Coach

[Mumorn]

Re: ***The Official AVB Discussion Thread***

I'm going to be totally honest....beside Norwich (home) i genuinely can't remember a game where we played brilliantly? and i'm talking about since AVB arrived and not just this season.

Arsenal 2-1 at home, thought we were brilliant defensively as well as pretty damn good offensively.
Saudi Sportswashing Machine 2-1 at home, thought once again we were good, should have been more than 2.
Man Utd 1-1 at home, thought we absolutely bossed it without Sandro, really should have won.
Aston Villa 0-4 away, complete.
West Ham 3-1 home, never looked out of the game.
Villa 2-0 home, once again, never looked out of the game, bossed it.
Reading 3-1 away, I remember this as the game Dembele ARRIVED, first start, dominated.

They were from last year. I would list games where we bossed a half but thats not full game really, Man Utd OT an honourable mention there. Maybe brilliantly could be stretching it, but comfortable would be a word i'd use.

 

[billyiddo]

Re: ***The Official AVB Discussion Thread***

that's why i said glimpses of entertaining football im not saying we have played brilliant for 90 minutes in many games - just that there have been periods where i think we can see the type of passing/movement/creation etc that he expects us to do more often.

i don't think we'll see a return of the swagger we had under Redknapp at times but i do think we will see an upturn in our overall style a couple of notches (in relation to what it is now) and that, for me at least, will do just fine if it brought with it top 4 and some trophies.

 

[DHSF]

Re: ***The Official AVB Discussion Thread***

I'm going to be totally honest....beside Norwich (home) i genuinely can't remember a game where we played brilliantly? and i'm talking about since AVB arrived and not just this season.

I cant remember and I even go to most of them - well went to most last season. Then again I cant even remember who we played last week let alone last season.

There hasnt really been one game (off top of my head0 which has really got me up in raptures the way I was for example against Saudi Sportswashing Machine when we hammered then 5-0 (I think 5-0). I havent gone out of WHL thinking 'that was satisfying'.

 

[milo]

Re: ***The Official AVB Discussion Thread***

I'm going to be totally honest....beside Norwich (home) i genuinely can't remember a game where we played brilliantly? and i'm talking about since AVB arrived and not just this season.

Inter at home last season. We were awesome from start to finish.

 

[Kingdawson]

Re: ***The Official AVB Discussion Thread***

Inter at home last season. We were awesome from start to finish.

I agree.

 

[billyiddo]

Re: ***The Official AVB Discussion Thread***

Inter at home last season. We were awesome from start to finish.

yes - this game was awesome actually thinking back, probably the best 90 minutes under AVB. i don't think anyone could have complained if we had scored several more than we did such was the way we played.

 

[Kingdawson]

Re: ***The Official AVB Discussion Thread***

Arsenal 2-1 at home, thought we were brilliant defensively as well as pretty damn good offensively.
Saudi Sportswashing Machine 2-1 at home, thought once again we were good, should have been more than 2.
Man Utd 1-1 at home, thought we absolutely bossed it without Sandro, really should have won.
Aston Villa 0-4 away, complete.
West Ham 3-1 home, never looked out of the game.
Villa 2-0 home, once again, never looked out of the game, bossed it.
Reading 3-1 away, I remember this as the game Dembele ARRIVED, first start, dominated.

They were from last year. I would list games where we bossed a half but thats not full game really, Man Utd OT an honourable mention there. Maybe brilliantly could be stretching it, but comfortable would be a word i'd use.

Are some of these a joke?

Arsenal? we blitzed them for a 5 minute period but before that they controlled the game (without looking dangerous tbf). They then proceeded to play better than us in the second half.

Villa? was comfortable i guess but brilliant? ummmmm no.

Saudi Sportswashing Machine? again deserved victory but brilliant? far from it.


in fact none of those games (bar villa) did we play brilliantly.

 

[Mumorn]

Re: ***The Official AVB Discussion Thread***

Are some of these a joke?

Arsenal? we blitzed them for a 5 minute period but before that they controlled the game (without looking dangerous tbf). They then proceeded to play better than us in the second half.

Villa? was comfortable i guess but brilliant? ummmmm no.

Saudi Sportswashing Machine? again deserved victory but brilliant? far from it.


in fact none of those games (bar villa) did we play brilliantly.

Regarding Arsenal, I thought we were brilliant. Defensively one of our best performances under AVB easily, never have I felt so confident as a game wore on against a big team then that one. Vertonghens best game in a Spurs shirt too, even better then the following week where he scored 2 in the loss against Liverpool.

Regarding Villa, depends what you're expecting to be brilliant. Same with Saudi Sportswashing Machine.


Name a few games from Harry Redknapps golden era that you would say was brilliant from start to finish. I can name a few.

But lets not make this about Harry or AVB, both have different teams and style of play.

 

[Jordinho]

Re: ***The Official AVB Discussion Thread***

90 minutes of brilliance will rarely happen though. It's simply not worthwhile if you have the game won to exhaust yourself any further. The goal is to reduce to number of games where we simply don't turn up, thus increasing our points tally. In time I believe we'll look far more in control of matters than we do at times now.

 

[Mumorn]

Re: ***The Official AVB Discussion Thread***

90 minutes of brilliance will rarely happen though. It's simply not worthwhile if you have the game won to exhaust yourself any further. The goal is to reduce to number of games where we simply don't turn up, thus increasing our points tally. In time I believe we'll look far more in control of matters than we do at times now.

I'd much rather have a controlled comfortable performance than a brilliant one.

Mostly because the first are more likely over the course of the season. Sure a brilliant performance is good and I dont mind one of those every so often.

 

[Kingdawson]

Re: ***The Official AVB Discussion Thread***

Regarding Arsenal, I thought we were brilliant. Defensively one of our best performances under AVB easily, never have I felt so confident as a game wore on against a big team then that one. Vertonghens best game in a Spurs shirt too, even better then the following week where he scored 2 in the loss against Liverpool.

Regarding Villa, depends what you're expecting to be brilliant. Same with Saudi Sportswashing Machine.


Name a few games from Harry Redknapps golden era that you would say was brilliant from start to finish. I can name a few.

But lets not make this about Harry or AVB, both have different teams and style of play.

There were loads....ummm do you really want me to do this?

 

[Mumorn]

Re: ***The Official AVB Discussion Thread***

There were loads....ummm do you really want me to do this?

brilliantly for 90 minutes...

go for it, I'm sure i could find flaws in the games you pick.

 

[Kingdawson]

Re: ***The Official AVB Discussion Thread***

brilliantly for 90 minutes...

go for it, I'm sure i could find flaws in the games you pick.

put it this way....our performance against Chelsea away that season was better than anything we've produced under AVB (bar Inter milan)...and we drew 0-0.

 

[Mumorn]

Re: ***The Official AVB Discussion Thread***

put it this way....our performance against Chelsea away that season was better than anything we've produced under AVB (bar Inter milan)...and we drew 0-0.

His fourth season into the job? against a team whos manager gave up the league in hope to win the FA Cup and Champions League? In which he successfully did ending our hopes of Champions League football.

Next.

 

[Nigeyman]

Re: ***The Official AVB Discussion Thread***

I genuinely think its too early for avb V arry comparisons.....

under arry we qualified for ucl in his second season finishing 4th......I think its achievable for AVB to do the same.

I think we are more solid now at the expense of free flowing wonder days that were imo more frequent under Redknapp thus far. though in saying that it was always frustrating that we fell away at the end of seasons and the players looked tired perhaps avb's rotation policy will see us finish strongly towards the end of this season.... who knows.....but thats what I think will happen.

I dont know why but im expecting us to stand up and be counted towards the end of the season.....where I expect some of the new signings to start showing us what they can do.

AVB needs more time to be compared against arry though......... im already thinking if we can keep this squad together and add a little more quality.....basically have a much more settled summer without marca shenanigans and so on that next season we should be looking good and avb will have no excuses if we are still labouring.

 

[glorygloryeze]

Re: ***The Official AVB Discussion Thread***

Does anybody know how good a journo Pedro Pinto, of CCN, is?

 

[Kingdawson]

Re: ***The Official AVB Discussion Thread***

His fourth season into the job? against a team whos manager gave up the league in hope to win the FA Cup and Champions League? In which he successfully did ending our hopes of Champions League football.

Next.

WTF has this got to do with anything? we're talking about good performances...we're not evaluating the opposition and determining what sort of condition they were in at the time of the game.

You bring up **** stain teams like QPR and Villa but have a problem with Chelski away being brought up..says it all:ross:

 

[spurs' magna carter]

Re: ***The Official AVB Discussion Thread***

Does anybody know how good a journo Pedro Pinto, of CCN, is?

Seems to be very weel respected in his profession but found his info a bit hit and miss during the summer.

Why?

 

[BrainOfLevy]

Re: ***The Official AVB Discussion Thread***

WTF has this got to do with anything? we're talking about good performances...we're not evaluating the opposition and determining what sort of condition they were in at the time of the game.

You bring up **** stain teams like QPR and Villa but have a problem with Chelski away being brought up..says it all:ross:

We played really well in that Chelsea game and missed a lot of chances, infuriatingly so because a win there and whatever Chelsea did in the CL woudn't have mattered to us. I remember Modric and VDV missing from 6 yards. Bale heading over when easier to score.

But do you know what? For all the good performances under Harry, and there were plenty, I also remember a lot where we looked absolutely toothless and despite having the possession, failing to come really close to a goal. Kind of like Liverpool's performance away to Hull and Arsenal this season. I think being the kind of team that is 'capable of beating anyone on it's day' is great and those kinds of teams will usually smash the inferior ones, but when it all isn't clicking and popping off as it should it looks really disappointing. It's at this point we look like we have no plan and people start craving a system.

I know we've had games under AVB where we've looked toothless for large periods but in most if not all games there always comes a point where we genuinely threaten the opposition goals with clear chances. Away games, we would peel one after the other last year and just keep winning. I don't think our squad under Harry would have done similar, but we might have smashed Southampton at home rather than needing a Bale goal for example. But at the end of the day, under AVB we just kept winning, more than we ever had done before. You're probably right in that there are more '90 minute' performances under Harry, certainly against teams we 'should' be beating. But I'd say there's also more games where we look like we have absolutely no idea and don't threaten the opposition goal whatsoever under Harry than there has been under AVB. Because even in most of AVB's worst games, we still have a spell where the switch is flicked. Which is kind of his whole strategy - blitzing a team in short bursts.

The games I'm talking about in Harry's years are the likes of QPR away, Everton away that season. Tonnes of possession but no real plan or strategy for the game. Just a mish mash of players told to go out there and play and because they were better players, they would whole possession for a longer period. But we never, ever came close to threatening in those games with serious chances. Even last year the QPR game we drew 0-0 and Sandro got injured Ade was missing chances that were easier to score.

 

[Jurgen the German]

Re: ***The Official AVB Discussion Thread***

as great as it was watching us at times in the 11/12 season the pain of missing out in the manner we did at the end kind of wrote it all off really.

i don't think the way we play, in terms of style, is as good as it is going to get under AVB - we have shown glimpses of entertaining football, although not at the level we did at times under Redknapp admittedly. i think we'll improve in this aspect and should that bring with it CL qualification and a trophy or two then i will be more than happy with sacrificing a little on the style front.

Yeah I agree. I'm a results guy at the end of the day.

However, I don't agree the style of football under AVB is going to change all that much, it wouldn't/shouldn't take a year and a half to get a team with very good attacking players to play free flowing football.

But I'm noticing some contradictory statements regarding AVB. On the one hand you have some of his biggest believers claiming we can be a top 4 team this season or perhaps higher, but on the other hand I see people saying how we should stick by him even if we have a bad season as long as "the signs are there that we are improving"? What signs? Why should we tolerate poor league positions? I'm talking anything lower than 6th (and that's being generous in my opinion). It's these kind of vague responses that frustrate me and other posters. Everything was cut and dried for our previous managers during the last 20 years, it was basically top 4 or you're a goner in a couple of seasons, why is it different now?