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Andre Villas-Boas - Head Coach

Kingdawson said:
Wait..so you don't think our home performances for the most part this season which has seen us struggle to Stoke, WBA, Norwich and Wigan is a genuine reason to be critical?
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Some feel that due to our current run these fixtures should be forgotten about. I'm disgusted about taking 3 points from WBA, Norwich, Wigan and Stoke at HOME. Right now, I agree, it's not important but if we miss out on CL come May maybe these WILL be viewed as important games.
 
Kingdawson said:
Wait..so you don't think our home performances for the most part this season which has seen us struggle to Stoke, WBA, Norwich and Wigan is a genuine reason to be critical?
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a handful of poor results when there were plenty of mitigating circumstances at the time, in the grand scheme of things, is really not that big of a deal.

there's being critical and then there's choosing to focus your energies on the negatives above all else, which imo you and a few others have been doing for some time now.
 
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Avb certainly failed at Chelsea but gven the context of the situation he was always likely to. He was brought in with the goal of overhauling an ageing squad and transitioning to a more progressive eye pleasing playing style. Yet he wasn't really given the tools to do so. Chelsea were unable (or unwilling) to sign his first choice targets which hampered him greatly. The only first choice player they managed to bring in was Mata the rest were either squad options or long standing Chelsea youth targets.

Given the squad he had, he should have been more cautious with the pace of his overhaul as he simply didn't have the raw materials to enforce it. But the Chelsea structure has to take great deal of blame given that they would have made some strong assurances to him before he took the job.

Spurs is a totally different scenario, we already plaed a system not that distant from the one he tried to implement at Chelsea and of course had players highly suited to said system.
 
billyiddo said:
a handful of poor results when there were plenty of mitigating circumstances at the time, in the grand scheme of things, is really not that big of a deal.

there's being critical and then there's choosing to focus your energies on the negatives above all else, which imo you and a few others have been doing for some time now.
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not that big a deal..wow ok. If i'm guilty of what you claim than you and a few others are definately guilty of trying to downplay our poor home performances and our dropped points to lesser teams (your mitigating circumstances comment pretty much sums it up for me).
 
Kingdawson said:
not that big a deal..wow ok. If i'm guilty of what you claim than you and a few others are definately guilty of trying to downplay our poor home performances and our dropped points to lesser teams (your mitigating circumstances comment pretty much sums it up for me).
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If it were a big deal then it would have impacted our season thus far to a greater degree than that which allows us to currently be 3rd in the table.

Maybe it's a mini-deal.
 
Kingdawson said:
not that big a deal..wow ok. If i'm guilty of what you claim than you and a few others are definately guilty of trying to downplay our poor home performances and our dropped points to lesser teams (your mitigating circumstances comment pretty much sums it up for me).
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..... in the grand scheme of things when you can point to :
new manager
new players
new way of playing
injuries
loss of key players to retirement/transfer

-as reasons why we might have experienced a bumpy ride at the beginning of the season. choosing to look at a handful of games during this 'settling in period' and focusing on them over all else is ridiculous.
 
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In terms of AVB's playing style it's definately different from last seasons style of play.

We look more disciplined this season generally and it does look more structured. It's far more rigid imo which is resulting in the opposition having very few chances against us (excluding a mad 10 minutes yesterday which was down to a substitution more than anything else). We're obviously pressing more (which i love away from home but feel pressing high up the pitch at the Lane is not the way forward at all). We're more reliant on wing play this season too but that's partly down to AVB not being able to bring in his creative midfielder. Our backline is obviously playing a highline which seems like it's working well. Overall it's been a very encouraging start but i will always comment when certain posters feel the need to praise him for absolutely everything but roll out the old "mitigating circumstances" line for his errors.

Edit: i feel we're not creating nowhere near the amount of chances we should be at the lane.
 
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billyiddo said:
..... in the grand scheme of things when you can point to :
new manager
new players
new way of playing
injuries
loss of key players to retirement/transfer

-as reasons why we might have experienced a bumpy ride at the beginning of the season. choosing to look at a handful of games during this 'settling in period' and focusing on them over all else is ridiculous
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Stoke and Wigan wasn't a settling in period and neither was the other home games where we've performed badly.
 
If those 4 games were the only games we've performed badly you might have a point but then you have to factor in our other home performances:

liverpool? not good.
Chelski ? not good but against good opposition where we're missing our 2 best players so excused.
QPR? again not good.
Aston Villa ? decent
West sham? good second half.
Reading ? good.


There's only so many times you can say it was because of injuries, new manager, new playing style etc etc etc.
 
Kingdawson said:
Stoke and Wigan wasn't a settling in period and neither was the other home games where we've performed badly.
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depends on what you consider a settling in period or a bad performance really

i don't think Stoke was a bad performance, a bad result yes but a game which we dominated and should have won. Wigan at home was a bad result and a poor performance in November so i'll give you that one but our other bad results at home? Norwich, West Brom etc etc were all early in the season when the things i mentioned above are all very much at play

personally ive always been of the belief that a managers first season in charge at a new club (especially one where there is a turnaround like we had over the summer) will always have the chance of being inconsistent - i said exactly the same this summer when AVB was appointed - you can't put a definitive amount of time on a settling in period ie 1 month 2 months etc

i believe you are reading too much in to some bad games under him, maybe you aren't but the amount of posts you make that arwe about these bad games suggests to me that you are. we're 3rd, playing well, have key players to still return from injury yet all you seem to post about is some poor results at home. no one is happy about those games, most if not all of us are critical of them - but where we differ is that some of us can see them for what they were - a few bad games, nothing more

if you want to use these games as the defining aspect of AVB's time here then that is a real shame as personally i see a lot to be positive about going forwards
 
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Kingdawson said:
Wait..so you don't think our home performances for the most part this season which has seen us struggle to Stoke, WBA, Norwich and Wigan is a genuine reason to be critical?
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Nothing new in us struggling against so called infreior teams, we only took 2 points against Norwich, Stoke, Wolves last season annd 3 points from Blackpool, WBA, Wigan and W.ham the season before, we can all play that game.
 
billyiddo said:
a handful of poor results when there were plenty of mitigating circumstances at the time, in the grand scheme of things, is really not that big of a deal.

there's being critical and then there's choosing to focus your energies on the negatives above all else, which imo you and a few others have been doing for some time now.
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Indeed.
 
BrainOfLevy said:
Agreed with everything...I would also say - I wanted him here since it became clear Harry needed to go too - that there has been clear improvement. The people that said during the shaky first few games 'stick with it, it will come good, there is a plan being put into action here' are being vindicated. I don't see how that can be argued. I know it was only Reading today, but the difference between this game and even the Villa home match for example (one of our better performances in the early days of his reign) is completely marked. So much better. Very clear improvements have been made.

We started off probably being a bit more safety first, but I think it was calculated. The way you build any team is to build from the back. He tried to make us solid at first - using double pivots even though he's stated before he doesn't like doing it as one example - and having us play a deeper defensive line than he would usually prefer. I think this is because he wanted us to not move too quickly from Harry's tactics, and also because of something he said while at Chelsea, that if you implement a new style too early and you hit bumpy results, the players lose confidence and revert to their old ways of playing anyway. So what he did, moving towards it gradually and slowly, meant that when he moved to his ideal style the players were probably actively wanting to do it, actively wanting to implement the new changes to add to what they can do, to help them. This is opposed to the Chelsea guys that tried at first to play his way, and then lost confidence and reverted back to Mourinho era style football. Which is fine, but it meant the forces of player and management were pulling in the opposite direction. A club is at it's best when everyone is pulling in the same, which we are.

I would say that the Everton game was probably the last one that happened before the transition to the style we are seeing now. AVB said that we would move up another level for the game against Swansea which was after a week's break and I think we have done. We fully deserved to win against a Swansea side that only a week or so previously won at Arsenal, and while we didn't break Stoke down, we have clearly played a style of football since then that more closely resembles what AVB was supposed to be known for. Pressing, patience in possession, intelligent movement. At the start of the season, the focus was on being solid, we had a more withdrawn pressing game. Then we moved on slightly with the introduction of Dembele and got some more improved performances, although I felt by that point we were adapting strategy game to game as opposed to imposing our own. But then, from Swansea onwards, I feel we are really playing what AVB intended us to play.

I feel that's a pretty fair summing up of the season so far - would anyone disagree? If people are apologising for AVB, it's because he received criticism 3 games in, and people were saying to give him a chance. Some people decided to be against him way too early IMO. We have seen clear improvements in terms of style and consistency. That will only get better once we sign players suited to this way of playing or our current ones learn it even better. It doesn't mean we will win every game, and we will have some bad luck and not win. We may have bad performances occasionally. But I think our chances of picking up points will be much improved in this second half of the season. We've gone to 4 of the hardest grounds in the first half and we are sitting in 4th if games go against us. Great achievement. We can push on from that with confidence now.

Another thing I would also say is that AVB has shown much more flexibility than people thought he would. They feared he would stick rigidly to his system and good players who didn't fit wouldn't get a look in. Well that hasn't been the case at all. He's shown himself to be adaptable, and has implemented his style within their strengths of our squad, and is improving players in the process. I really do believe Defoe has improved - I don't believe under Harry Defoe as a lone striker for the majority of the season would have seen us in 4th in January. But the early days of playing Defoe upfront by himself and getting through the hardship associated with that has seen us in a great position now, because if needs must Defoe can now do it again. But he's gone 4-4-2 because our current players are comfortable with it. And I really do think Bale and Lennon are making much more intelligent runs. Bale especially, still cuts in and swaps wings like under Harry, but I really think there is a process there now to doing it. It isn't as aimless as it was before. I can't really quantify that with anything, but it's the sense I get from watching the players. Everyone is playing to a plan and it's working well.
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Great , Great post.
 
Roy1983 said:
Everything from his mannerisms to his appearance. His voice just everything. His failures at Chelsea, the way he's compared to Mourinho, he looks about 16. It's very much my issue I'm aware of this btw lol. However, somehow, he's our boss so can't do anything about it.

I was gutted when he was appointed absolutely gutted. He's doing a decent job at the moment though so long may he prove me wrong on the footballing side of things.
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So, do you think Harry had better qualities. And who would have preferred to replace Harry.
 
thfcsteff said:
Cannot be sure who you're referring to here mate, but speaking for myself, I very clearly pointed out EXACTLY what you have said, furthermore, I clearly praised Harry Redknapp for signing him, not once,not twice, not three times but MANY TIMES! What AVB has done has helped him rediscover himself as a more progressive passing midfielder. And what's more, I made the point to show certain folk on this board went into cack-themselves mode over another 'poor AVB substitution' that he had, in fact, put on our player of the season last season and a player who is now being given the license (indeed ENCOURAGED TO TAKE THE LICENSE) to look forwards, advance and play positive attacking balls.

Dress it up all you want, Andre Villas Boas is doing a great job at this football club. What's actually becoming tedious is your repeated need to find an argument about it. Good grief! Is there ANY joy in this for you?
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This, THIS and THIS
 
In regards the improvement in Defoe - I think the biggest improvement is his movement, I don't think I'm imagining it but he's offside a lot less now (one of my gripes about him in the past). That said, he was a little bit too greedy yesterday :D
 
We're still in a settling in period, and we are comfortably competing for the 3rd/4th. A lot on here predicted we'd be 6th-8th this season, and as the season is progressing we are getting better - funny that. Not really sure what the issue is....
 
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