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Knee jerk thread,

No knee-jerk but I can't wait for the return of BAE and of course Dembele. It all went to pot when the latter got injured.

BAE in and Verts back to the centre.

Some of the rating for Caulker have been good, I have to admit - I haven't seen it; maybe that's a good thing (and I'm not discounting a very young local lad)? I'm surprised Dawson hasn't started at some point with the injuries we have.

Oh and I miss Kaboul too!!!

I really hope that with the return of Kaboul, Walker's form starts to pick up again.

In regards the keepers... I was glad that Friedel started - a good move by AVB however when he was dropped for the one game, I think that was the chance to go with Lloris.

All that said; I don't watch them in training or know their mindsets before games.
 
We need a proper shake up for the next game - some ball players and a #9 in particular:

------------Lloris

Walker Caulker Verts Naughton

----Carrroll Sandro Falque

---Lennon--Ade---Bale
 
I was at game and I'm not gonna say to much apart from how fudgein outrageously brick we were.

What I will say is that the sub to take Defoe off - anyone fudgein explain it? Cos I can think of worse players on that pitch. Defoe did nothin but he also had nothin to play with.

The funny thing is we will beat Man bricky but my grumblings are on the fact our home performances have been pretty tragic
 
Normally I would feel annoyed, disappointed but at the moment I'm accepting our defeat with the resigned state of emotion and apathy that it seems to deserve. At the moment we are dull, flat, there is nothing going for us with no attacking threat and so consequently we will struggle to score and the opposition will have attacks and will often take them.

We are missing too many players but there appears to be noone who will take the game by the scruff of the neck and make it happen for us. We need Bale or Defoe to just go for the jugular of the opposition and create danger, pushing the opposition on the back foot. We need to push them in to their own half so that we remove constant pressure and create some of our own but at the moment we seem to be lacking the players, we seem to be missing Modric and Van Der Vaart and so we struggle to maintain possession and to use the ball effectively.

There are going to be many more games like this until we sign in someone like Moutinho, who can recycle the ball and make it work as a focal point for our attacks.
 
i want to see us with 2 strikers. I dont care, im sick of all this 1 up top nonsense. Ade and Defoe together, and behind them AVB can sort it out.

If he doesnt want to play with wingers then he can give Bale a free role behind the front 2 and have 3 midfielders with the full backs providing width. Any way Bale has made his mind up to float all over the place

................Adebayor....Defoe

..........................Bale

...........Carroll....Sandro..Thudd

waiting impatiently for Dembele to come back, and then Jan when we are supposedly buying Moutinho who was so close to signing in the summer
 
It will be interesting to see how long AVB continues to start with 4-2-3-1 at home. Unless we are playing a three man midfield, or one of the top teams and we want to stifle them at the beginning of the game, I can't see any point in it. The opposition knows exactly how we are we going to line up, and we give them a nice 45 minutes to get into the game and get a bit of self-belief while we pass the ball backwards and forwards across the defence.

What are we doing starting with two defensive midfielders against Wigan? It says 'we're afraid you might score' rather than 'we are going to stuff you at our home ground'. It is crap psychology. It is crap football tactics too.
 
ringo said:
It will be interesting to see how long AVB continues to start with 4-2-3-1 at home. Unless we are playing a three man midfield, or one of the top teams and we want to stifle them at the beginning of the game, I can't see any point in it. The opposition knows exactly how we are we going to line up, and we give them a nice 45 minutes to get into the game and get a bit of self-belief while we pass the ball backwards and forwards across the defence.

What are we doing starting with two defensive midfielders against Wigan? It says 'we're afraid you might score' rather than 'we are going to stuff you at our home ground'. It is crap psychology. It is crap football tactics too.
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The problem in the first half, and has been in every first half we've played at home this season, is that we have no "out ball" from the back. Friedel passes to Caulker who gives it to Gallas who sees no pass on so gives it back to Friedel who hits it long to Bale who might win a header 6 times out of 10. The other 4 times we lose possession. Or instead of going long we continually go around in this circle of possession at the back going nowhere. Main problem is no presence up top. I don't mind going direct if we mix it up a bit. Adebayor needs to start. fudge his attitude, it would be a lot better if he was starting games. Whether that's alongside or in place of Defoe I'm not sure. At the end of the day playing someone off Defoe isn't working as they're mostly invisible anyway. We may as well go back to 4-4-2 and play both of them as have an invisble man behind Defoe!
 
ringo said:
It will be interesting to see how long AVB continues to start with 4-2-3-1 at home. Unless we are playing a three man midfield, or one of the top teams and we want to stifle them at the beginning of the game, I can't see any point in it. The opposition knows exactly how we are we going to line up, and we give them a nice 45 minutes to get into the game and get a bit of self-belief while we pass the ball backwards and forwards across the defence.

What are we doing starting with two defensive midfielders against Wigan? It says 'we're afraid you might score' rather than 'we are going to stuff you at our home ground'. It is crap psychology. It is crap football tactics too.
Click to expand...


i am pretty sure AVB wont change his tactics or philosophy, even if things start to go t!ts up. The guy strikes me as being pretty stubborn
 
My take on AVB so far is that he is primarily a cautious manager, who approaches the game with the philosophy of take care of defence first, keep the ball, then score goals second. Now that is fine if you have some of the best forwards in the world, and a brilliant playmaker, as he did at Porto -and to an extent at Chelsea. But we don't have those players, and AVB is going to have to become a little less risk averse if he wants to succeed.

We may be 4th, and I still think we might nick a win or a draw away from home the way he plays. But I don't see us making 4th without some big money signings -unlikely in January -or a bit of rethink of his football philosophy.
 
One thing i don't get about AVB's decisions is if he's picking the team based purely on form then why hasn't Walker been dropped yet. Give Naughton some games now.
 
ringo said:
My take on AVB so far is that he is primarily a cautious manager, who approaches the game with the philosophy of take care of defence first, keep the ball, then score goals second. Now that is fine if you have some of the best forwards in the world, and a brilliant playmaker, as he did at Porto -and to an extent at Chelsea. But we don't have those players, and AVB is going to have to become a little less risk averse if he wants to succeed.

We may be 4th, and I still think we might nick a win or a draw away from home the way he plays. But I don't see us making 4th without some big money signings -unlikely in January -or a bit of rethink of his football philosophy.
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thing is im sure if you gave Ian Holloway big money signings he could be a manager of a top 4 challenging team too.

many people said AVB was a lucky boy to get the Chelsea gig after one successful year at porto, but he was even luckier to get the Spurs job after the disastrous time at Chelsea
 
indianspur said:
i am pretty sure AVB wont change his tactics or philosophy, even if things start to go t!ts up. The guy strikes me as being pretty stubborn
Click to expand...

it will be interesting to find out. My worry was that he was good on football theory but didn't understand man-management and the dynamics of game in the way someone like Harry did (Don't get me wrong, Harry used to frustrate me with some of his decsions too). but I'm beginning to think that AVB is that strong on the the theory/tactics either. A lack of adaptability will get him fired if he doesn't watch out -because every team gets injuries and you have to adapt accordingly.

Defoe and Ade are two of our best players and they should BOTH be on the pitch. And if that doesn't suit 4-2-3-1 then change the system.
 
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