Baleforce
Arthur Rowe
They're worth going for in case we can pull it off but they're not realistically going to have a high chance of happening
I completely get why people think that, but we had better players previously, Modric, Bale, etc
They're worth going for in case we can pull it off but they're not realistically going to have a high chance of happening
Ironic then that his tactic for the majority of last season was to get the entire team to pass to Bale.
Ironic then that his tactic for the majority of last season was to get the entire team to pass to Bale.
Name me a team in the world outside Barca/Madrid that wouldn't use that tactic if they had Bale in the team.
A Sam Allardyce team with Peter Crouch up front...
Name me a team in the world outside Barca/Madrid that wouldn't use that tactic if they had Bale in the team.
Yes, players WE developed to be that good by buying before they were forbmodest fees and wages then developing them. That is what AVB clearly failed to grasp - you get given an Eriksen its your job to help him turn into a Moutinho, we aren't the sort of club to easily sanction a £23m fee and £80k wages for the finished productI completely get why people think that, but we had better players previously, Modric, Bale, etc
Ironic then that his tactic for the majority of last season was to get the entire team to pass to Bale.
its a tactic that eventually gets found out and is hard to maintain. There has to be more to a team. You cannot rely forever on one man to hit 25 yard blockbusters every game
Well what i read was AVB had spent his time out of football post-Chelsea travelling around watching games and preparing scouting reports on lesser known or young players, which he used with his comprehensive powerpoint to wow the Spurs board.
There was then ITK that the club had agreed a transfer list of players to fit AVB's system but he became stubborn and started asking for Hulk, Moutinho and the like rather than the players that wre on his list like Ganso, Gaston Ramirez, Dzagoev etc
He certainly travelled and watched a lot of football in his time out of work but I think that the list of players was speculation and wishful thinking from fans rather than a confirmed fact. We certainly saw little evidence of it at Spurs because most of the signings and targets were already on the radar before AVB came in.
I have read that he asked for big name signings after he came in but my understanding was that these were in preference to the club's targets rather than players on a list he had come in with.
You can have a collectivist approach to maximise the impact of your most effective player.
Name me a team in the world outside Barca/Madrid that wouldn't use that tactic if they had Bale in the team.
Yes, Liverpool have done this perfectly with Suarez, but our approach wasn't so much about getting the best out of Bale, but relying on Bale to dig us out of countless poor team displays
We didn't, we moved towards it in the second half of last season after Lennon got injured, our strikers were on a barren spell and Bale had improved dramatically during the campaign.
Yes, Liverpool have done this perfectly with Suarez, but our approach wasn't so much about getting the best out of Bale, but relying on Bale to dig us out of countless poor team displays
The list of scouting reports was widely reported in the press after AVB joined as being one of the key reasons he got the job.
That was certainly how it turned out but I doubt that was the intention back in August. I think that AVB changed things because of the ineffectiveness of most of the side and just tried to maximise the impact of the one effective player that he had.
I disagree he employed Bale as he did because the system he wanted to employ was inherently cautious, centred on keeping possession so the rest of the team could pass the ball simply to each other or Bale without leaving themselves open to counter attack, while having the luxury of Bale to carve out goals from nothing.