Andre Villas-Boas - Head Coach

[africanspurs]

So do i, those who can/will not see are either blind or not seen us play.

top post

i feel the same way about people that didnt notice this LAST season. Not to mention the Cb's pulling wide thing has been a main stay in our system since Jol started bringing that into prominence.

LOL, go figure. it only took people like 5 to 7 years to realise this

 

[africanspurs]

Another one, I'm not sure if being serious#-o

i'll yeild on the pressing over the course of the season....(the pressing in isolation is nothing new to us though)

but everything else has been evident in the evolution of our team for years now.

 

[africanspurs]

it's amazing isn't it?

last season imv we pretty much set ourselves up to let our our attacking 4 (Bale, Lennon, Adebayor and VdV) have the freedom to play how they wanted/to play their 'natural' game, when it all clicked it was amazing - but it was totally reliant on the individuals, whereas from what i have seen over the course of this season is that we are trying to develop a team style of play that is more about the unit than it is the individuals that start the game.

i find it amazing that anyone can think that a side without Modric or VdV and with an out of form Adebayor has been set up to play like we were last season, not to mention we have been playing 442 not the 4411 we were last season. from what i have seen we are set up almost entirely different (im not saying for better or for worse here btw, just there's a clear difference in how we are set up to play) i have to wonder how much of our games either this season or last that anyone making that claim actually has watched

hmmmm, you see now am not sure if you guys are serious

last season we set up with bale and lennon either side and VDV being annoying in not actually playing close to Ade but being an extra man in midfield.

bale was noticably drifting infield last season, so was lennon. kyle walker and BAE were overlapping, ledley king, kaboul and dawson (shudders) were occupying the empty zones. modric was at the base with thud/sandro or parker

aside from defoe being the number one guy upfront now...., dembele taking longer to move the ball,......parker doing the 1000 twirl before he passes routine......and a distinct difference in the strikers partner or supporting AM / forward to actually not isolate them like VDV used to, (all of of these which are individual player type differences and not SYSTEM differences).......what has actually changed? can you visualise it and explain a scenario that we didnt do last year?

 

[ArcspacE]

I agree with all of this. AVB is doing a great job, but I can certainly see no revolution in the way we're playing. Not even evolution. That happened at the beginning of the season, but we've reverted back to the style and formation that we played successfully last year.

Our full backs pushed up even further last year? In fact I'd say last season they often pushed forward TOO much. Our centre backs went wide last season too?

Do we play a higher line that last season? I don't think it's a massive difference. Last season we played possession football and squeezed the opposition into their half.

I do give AVB credit. He is doing a fantastic job, and a better one than Redknapp so far in my opinion. I don't think Redknapp would have got anymore out of the players than AVB has that's for sure. So I don't understand why you even bothered making the dig about Redknapp.

Why do you keep insinuating AVB has abandoned his ways and philosophies because they've failed after 3 games (??) and now seemingly reverted to your favourite Redknapp's style of play - suggesting he's some kind of a loser fool who had to go back to Arry's winning formula (the same one who had us collapse two seasons in a row like spineless qunts). Are you actually serious? :ross:

None of this has happened, and I don't see AVB as that kind of person any way, if anything he'll continue to instil his footballing philosophy and vision on the playersas well as club in general. We are playing completely different football compared to last season and for the first time in a long while have a medium-to-long term vision and someone who puts the club first ahead of his personal benefit and little agenda, while referring to Tottenham as 'we' not 'them' or 'idiots'.

 

[africanspurs]

its funny but just sitting here and thinking about it , there have been noticebale changes in our style....


what a massive back track, not even letting someone else see the light i do it to myself. LOL

but the full back thing is not correct though, we did that under harry ...

 

[Jordinho]

We pressed under Redknapp, but that was more to do with us coming out at 100 mph than any sort of tactical plan. Later in the season the players tired and we didn't do it as much.

Now we do it in a more controlled manner, so as not to run out of steam at 70 minutes. The positioning of our players and the way we pass the ball along the backline is much more down to tactics than just doing whatever comes naturally. It's why I think we'll stay the distance this season. Hopefully we could pick up some extra points once teams starting taking early holidays.

 

[africanspurs]

We pressed under Redknapp, but that was more to do with us coming out at 100 mph than any sort of tactical plan.

not so sure, there was that season that we really incorporate it into our game for like the first 1/3 to half of the season...everyone said it was because we saw barca do it, but i think that was a bit naive to say that. it was getting more and more evident that we were working towards this. the pressing we did in that period was better than any of the pressing we have done this year. but i definately agree with you that it was white hot initially then went freezing cold...over the season and even within a 90 min game. i put it down to fitness and a lack of awareness organisation ti read when the pressing is required.

Later in the season the players tired and we didn't do it as much.

agreed here, though am not sure if it was primarily fatigue...i dont know what it was though but i suspect it wasnt really that simple

Now we do it in a more controlled manner, so as not to run out of steam at 70 minutes.

i think i can agree with this. the highER (not highline) line helps for sure

The positioning of our players and the way we pass the ball along the backline is much more down to tactics than just doing whatever comes naturally.

i disagree witth this totally. we did this under jol and redknapp..ask yourself....when we doominated possesion and people complained that it was not forward , penetrative passing...where did you think our players were? and where do you suppose the ball was being moved around? take into account that YPL spent most of his time down the entire left side...who would occupy his post? and pascal? and BAE (when bale was going more and more infield in his free role...which btw was successful)and Walker?....do you honestly believe that thei posts were left totally empty and unoccupied?

It's why I think we'll stay the distance this season. Hopefully we could pick up some extra points once teams starting taking early holidays.

i actually think we will last the season too...mainly cause we play a duller, mor disciplined and structured system under AVB. it isnt as free flowing and quick tempo as harry (which would result in the possiblity of burn out) this way we can be the master of our own destiny.

though his lack of lennon rotation is quite telling

 

[Spursalot]

i actually think we will last the season too...mainly cause we play a duller, mor disciplined and structured system under AVB. it isnt as free flowing and quick tempo as harry (which would result in the possiblity of burn out) this way we can be the master of our own destiny.

Can get behind this, we seem far more economical. We won't go all match guns blazing but we'll sit back more and wait for those 3-4 extremely good chances.



People seem to keep mentioning that we are still counter-attacking, but not to anywhere near the same extent we were last season. It's much more structured and disciplined then just 'we won the ball, charge!' Which imo is good because it used to leave us open to the sucker punch quite often.

 

[africanspurs]

Can get behind this, we seem far more economical. We won't go all match guns blazing but we'll sit back more and wait for those 3-4 extremely good chances.



People seem to keep mentioning that we are still counter-attacking, but not to anywhere near the same extent we were last season. It's much more structured and disciplined then just 'we won the ball, charge!' Which imo is good because it used to leave us open to the sucker punch quite often.

agreed entirely..epecially on the scenarios where when we lost the ball all you could see was our people just running back to get to thier positions

 

[Kingdawson]

We pressed under Redknapp, but that was more to do with us coming out at 100 mph than any sort of tactical plan. Later in the season the players tired and we didn't do it as much.

Now we do it in a more controlled manner, so as not to run out of steam at 70 minutes. The positioning of our players and the way we pass the ball along the backline is much more down to tactics than just doing whatever comes naturally. It's why I think we'll stay the distance this season. Hopefully we could pick up some extra points once teams starting taking early holidays.

I definately don't agree with that and the obsene amount of late goals we've conceded this season certainly doesn't back what you say. In fact i think that's the main reason why we haven't really managed to control our home games (there has been an improvement though lately).

The differences from this season to last season are as follows IMO

1) This season i feel there's more structure to our play and we're actually playing to a plan that the manager discussed before the game.

2) We're closing down far more this season which is both a positive and negative. Away it works but at home it certainly doesn't imo.

3) The AMC (be it clint or Sig) plays further up the pitch than VDV did last season.

4) We play a high line. Last season we kind of did the same thing tbh but it's more apparent this season (and Kyle walker is the one that usually fudges it up btw....not galls that everyone tried to blame for it not working at times).

5) I trust us more defending set pieces this season than most other seasons.

6) Last season i was far more confident we would score at the lane than this season. Whereas last season we played like we would eventually get a break through, this season there's been quite a few games where it looked like we would never score (at the lane).

7) We take far more pot shots this season. when things are not going our way we take long rangers galore which gets irritating. last season we didn't resort to that as much but this season Bale and JD especially resort to long rangers rather than patiently waiting for an opening. We must have the most long range shots attempt in the league this season (which bumps up our shots on goal stat incredibly).

8) We don't create that many clear cut chances this season (again especially at the lane). There's been improvements lately for sure but generally we don't.

9) AVB doesn't seem to panic as much as Arry when things are going wrong which i like. Wheras Arry would tend to put another striker on, or tweak formation if we're 0-1 down at HT...AVB like to wait until the 60th minute and still keep the formation. There's positives and negatives for both but generally i prefer how AVB does it.

 

[Kingdawson]

Can get behind this, we seem far more economical. We won't go all match guns blazing but we'll sit back more and wait for those 3-4 extremely good chances.



People seem to keep mentioning that we are still counter-attacking, but not to anywhere near the same extent we were last season. It's much more structured and disciplined then just 'we won the ball, charge!' Which imo is good because it used to leave us open to the sucker punch quite often.

He's 100% correct. We're more rigid this season and it isn't as attractive as lasts season BUT it could have a better long term effect and it's the main reason we look damn good away.

 

[Jordinho]

I definately don't agree with that and the obsene amount of late goals we've conceded this season certainly doesn't back what you say. In fact i think that's the main reason why we haven't really managed to control our home games (there has been an improvement though lately).

We've conceded late once (Everton) since the West Ham match in November.

Having 20+ shots at goal, but hardly any clear cut chances has been a problem for several seasons.

 

[metalgear]

we're playing a different game alright - how else did we manage to get 4 points from Man U? unless you're saying that as individuals: dempsey+dembele > modric+dempsey.

 

[Kingdawson]

We've conceded late once (Everton) since the West Ham match in November.

Having 20+ shots at goal, but hardly any clear cut chances has been a problem for several seasons.

Well twice against Everton technically but that's besides the point. We're comparing this season to previous seasons and being that we didn't adopt a new tactic or alter the closing down tactic after the Everton game then we have to mention the late goals this season...not just after the everton game .

 

[Kingdawson]

we're playing a different game alright - how else did we manage to get 4 points from Man U? unless you're saying that as individuals: dempsey+dembele > modric+dempsey.

Do you know how small time that comment makes us sound?

 

[Spursalot]

we're playing a different game alright - how else did we manage to get 4 points from Man U? unless you're saying that as individuals: dempsey+dembele > modric+dempsey.

Er..

That's not particularly accurate. Sometimes it just happens to be how they do on the day.



Are you going to blame the system for points we gained last season, and haven't this?

 

[Jordinho]

My point is that we're "evolving". Our poor home form and all these late goals happened in the first couple of months of the season. Why still go on about our poor home performances when, Stoke aside, that hasn't been the case since October?

 

[Kingdawson]

My point is that we're "evolving". Our poor home form and all these late goals happened in the first couple of months of the season. Why still go on about our poor home performances when, Stoke aside, that hasn't been the case since October?

WTF man we're comparing what's different from this season to last season? why are you picking on the negative part that i said and completely ignoring the numerous positive things i've just said? not everything is or has to be fudging perfect.

 

[Jordinho]

How can you pick something that happened in a short period and use that to compare this season to the last? When we're away to Everton and leading, you kind of expect them to put pressure on us. Against a lesser team we would have held on IMO and what happened there was just freaky and in no way useful in a seasonal comparison.

I'm just pointing out that we have improved since this season started, unlike last season where we started off great, then tailed off.

 

[metalgear]

Do you know how small time that comment makes us sound?

Haha ... But you all were there with me celebrating our last minute draw like we've won the cup!