glorygloryeze
Tom Huddlestone
Thanks to many that have entered posts here; I think they have all been VERY interesting (and therapeutic for me i'll admit lol).
I want to pick up on a couple of things posted recently.
Gutterboy - 2-0 being best scoreline:
Is AVB not too different to Rafa Benitez in this regard? I think this was often Rafa appraoch here in the PL and I have to wonder whether that appraoch can have as much success here in the British leagues when compared to the Continental leagues, especially those in Southern Europe. Often when I 've met football fans from the continent what they say that impressess them the most about the PL and English/British football genrally is that there is a lot of 'heart' and that you only know those teams are beaten when the final whistle has gone. Other have often said that if the passing and skill side of the game was there English/British teams would be unstoppable. My point is that I think European sides are more likely to 'give up' earlier in matches (hence the poor away records in the CL of sides like Porto and recently Italian sides; Spanish sides iirc were poor away from home on the whole prior to the mid-2000s, though I'm happy to stand corrected on that) and so the approach of killing off the game at 2-0 and then 'grinding the game down' is more likely to work in Europe than here. Psychologically, European teams seem to be more prone to being negatively affected by being 2 goals down in match compared to the PL imo.
I think taking this approach at 3-0 would be more safe imo; a case in point is that Arsenal during the Wenger heydays of 2001 to 2004 often used to go 2- up in the first half before taking it 'easy' until half-time before killing the game off swiftly at the start of the second half by scoring a third goal before then really seeming to look to the next game. I think this approach is more efficient in the PL in my opinion as it mentally prepares you to score 3 instead of just 2 and means you have a better cushion to take your foot off the gas in our (more relatively) never-say-die league.
If AVB has us set-up to go 2-0 then conserve, it's a recipe for underachievement imo; unless we have a Mourinho like defence (see Benitez).
Set-pieces: Ok a move to zonal marking can explain - perhaps - our weaknesses at defending set-pieces at present; but how can it explain how poor we've become at using them at the other end?? I would have thought that somebody that was part of Mourinho's coaching set-up would have had this part of the game as part of the training locker in a big way: a goal is a goal after all. Do you or anyone see any signs of improvment in our OFFENSIVE set-pices? We seem to be more static than ever; perhaps even worse than when Harry was in charge.
Raziel - I don't think last season can neccesarily be used to dispel the questions i've raised. Last season AVB was using mostly Hary's team who were getting used gto AVB's new approach and to mostly good effect; this season it cannot be called anything other than AVB's team as he has spent the 100-odd Million to assemble it (not sure if ANY other Spurs manager has been able to do that). My questions could be summarised by looking at the two situations this way: at Chelski AVB ran into huge problems and their levels of win success rate dropped markedly (goals conceded; goals scored; number of losses esp against other top 4/5 sides) as he tried to impose his methodologies (perhaps too quickly); in AVB's second season - when he now has his team - he now can and is imposing his methodologies so would it be fair to ask if our levels of win success rate will also drop, even compared to last season, perhaps also compared to Harry's previous 4-5-4s?
I want to pick up on a couple of things posted recently.
Gutterboy - 2-0 being best scoreline:
Is AVB not too different to Rafa Benitez in this regard? I think this was often Rafa appraoch here in the PL and I have to wonder whether that appraoch can have as much success here in the British leagues when compared to the Continental leagues, especially those in Southern Europe. Often when I 've met football fans from the continent what they say that impressess them the most about the PL and English/British football genrally is that there is a lot of 'heart' and that you only know those teams are beaten when the final whistle has gone. Other have often said that if the passing and skill side of the game was there English/British teams would be unstoppable. My point is that I think European sides are more likely to 'give up' earlier in matches (hence the poor away records in the CL of sides like Porto and recently Italian sides; Spanish sides iirc were poor away from home on the whole prior to the mid-2000s, though I'm happy to stand corrected on that) and so the approach of killing off the game at 2-0 and then 'grinding the game down' is more likely to work in Europe than here. Psychologically, European teams seem to be more prone to being negatively affected by being 2 goals down in match compared to the PL imo.
I think taking this approach at 3-0 would be more safe imo; a case in point is that Arsenal during the Wenger heydays of 2001 to 2004 often used to go 2- up in the first half before taking it 'easy' until half-time before killing the game off swiftly at the start of the second half by scoring a third goal before then really seeming to look to the next game. I think this approach is more efficient in the PL in my opinion as it mentally prepares you to score 3 instead of just 2 and means you have a better cushion to take your foot off the gas in our (more relatively) never-say-die league.
If AVB has us set-up to go 2-0 then conserve, it's a recipe for underachievement imo; unless we have a Mourinho like defence (see Benitez).
Set-pieces: Ok a move to zonal marking can explain - perhaps - our weaknesses at defending set-pieces at present; but how can it explain how poor we've become at using them at the other end?? I would have thought that somebody that was part of Mourinho's coaching set-up would have had this part of the game as part of the training locker in a big way: a goal is a goal after all. Do you or anyone see any signs of improvment in our OFFENSIVE set-pices? We seem to be more static than ever; perhaps even worse than when Harry was in charge.
Raziel - I don't think last season can neccesarily be used to dispel the questions i've raised. Last season AVB was using mostly Hary's team who were getting used gto AVB's new approach and to mostly good effect; this season it cannot be called anything other than AVB's team as he has spent the 100-odd Million to assemble it (not sure if ANY other Spurs manager has been able to do that). My questions could be summarised by looking at the two situations this way: at Chelski AVB ran into huge problems and their levels of win success rate dropped markedly (goals conceded; goals scored; number of losses esp against other top 4/5 sides) as he tried to impose his methodologies (perhaps too quickly); in AVB's second season - when he now has his team - he now can and is imposing his methodologies so would it be fair to ask if our levels of win success rate will also drop, even compared to last season, perhaps also compared to Harry's previous 4-5-4s?
