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Andre Villas-Boas - Head Coach

raboner said:
why are we still talking about redknapp FFS? AVB is doing a great job, different style or not.. this constant looking back, comparison and pointless squabbling really is tiresome.

lets use this thread to discuss AVB, positively, negatively or otherwise, but for crying out loud let's leave harry out of it.
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Looking through the thread, it appears to me that it's whether AVB has implemented something revolutionary this season. Some people claim he has or is, others don't. It's just a matter of perception usually, with hardly anyone on here truly having the required level of knowledge (including moi!) to really have a valid point of view on the matter.

So with that in mind I truly don't understand why people get so worked up about it. All the matters is that we superb more often than not last season, and we've been superb more often than not this season. Redknapp did an excellent job for us, and AVB is doing an excellent job for us.
 
i think what armchair expert is talking about is the structured relationship and the pass/movement of the the front 4 or 5 players.

i have to say he might have a point....if your talking about player movement overall then i too dont agree cause there was plenty of movement ...what i dont think was evident under harry was the link up play between the wide men and the front player...infact under harry i thought there was quite a bit of pedestrian behaviour...i.e we would have some beautiful buuild up play but after all this complicated passing AND movcement in non threatening areas where we would end up would almost invariably be going out wide for yet another cross....there was less penetrative movement and passing towards and THROUGH THE middle of the final third in Harry's time IMO

now though it seems that we have more of a willingness to do this under AVB

far less movement under harry is wrong if that is truly what he mean...the dynamic variety of our killer blows / move attempts though i think he might have a case.

reason i remember this is xcause of how much i hated the fact that all we did was go wide and then cross the ball to ONLY crouch.....or only defoe or only adebayor...with VDV doing a good lampard impression by trailing late into the box for knock downs.....

having said all this last season redknapp was clearly in the process of fixing this...bale was getting into the box muxh more, not so much lennon although he did do it too but not nearly as noticeable as bale though. but even with more presence in the box and even with bale being taught how to use the inside channel with and without the ball i still felt that the connnectivity and relationship between the front lot was lacking variety and creativity.....when looking for the murderous shot
 
Rossi22 said:
Our possession is not up ..

12/13 | 51% | rank: 9th
11/12 | 56.7% | rank: 5th
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We've only probably really been playing the possession style football from December onwards. Before that it was more of a counter attacking style. The last few weeks we've regularly been dominating possession in matches.
 
Armchair Expert said:
Im suprised people cant see a change in style. 1) Under Harry there was far less player movement: 2) Defoe pulls all over the place now getting involved in the build up play, 3) many times ive seen Lennon in possession of the ball at basically a standard right back position with Walker ahead of him not up the wing but in field. Last year we had "the roaming Bale" who roamed completely out of the second half of the season, this year he's been extreme effective coming off the wing and i think he already 4) has his best PL goals tally. 5) Our possession stats are up, 6) last year United came to the lane and walked it, 7) this year we had 60% possession, despite our best ball retaining midfielders no longer being at the club.

In this thread people have acknowledged that our ball playing midfielders are gone, 8) and yet were dominating possession. 9) We're not playing in a traditional british way at all: break neck speed, frantic get it up there as quickly as possibly, 10) we play a probing game, complemented by the ability to launch extremely effective counter attacks that are yielding results.

If people cant see a difference in the method/style then I really am shocked.
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1) Don't agree. Adebayor and VDV in particular popped up all over the pitch, something which people on here even complained about. Modric joined in with that more than Dembele has shown.
2) Occasionally, but even if true, less than Adebayor/VDV of last season
3) And? Most probably because he's covering for Walker who has left his position, that's not something new. As I said earlier, our full backs attack a lot less now
4) Joint best. But the previous two seasons he also had the same tally at this point and fell off a cliff so it's not anything new
5) No they are not, see above
6) No they did not, scoreline suggests they did but anyone watching the game saw that we were incredibly unlucky that day
7) No we didn't, we had 51%. Last season in the same game we had 52%
8) 51% isn't dominating
9) Do not agree. We rely on our wingers, wingers are a part of the traditional English way of playing. Without them we don't look like doing anything
10) We play a probing game(not a very effective one) when teams put 10 behind the ball. As shown by numerous games this season this is where we struggle massively. We're not complimented by our "ability to launch extremely effective counter attacks" - that IS our game, without that I'd hate to think where we'd be in the league.

So other than those 10 points I completely agree with your assessment ... and this is coming from someone who is probably seen on here as an AVB lover/defender + Harry hater.
 
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BrainOfLevy said:
We've only probably really been playing the possession style football from December onwards. Before that it was more of a counter attacking style. The last few weeks we've regularly been dominating possession in matches.
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Yes, two reasons

1) (bar Man Utd) poor opposition
2) (including Man Utd) playing teams who were happy to sit in their own third for the majority of the game - the reason for this being they know we rely on our pace, so take away the space and the pace means little. We can't pick our way through teams and they know this. Hell, even Paul bloody Merson has managed to conclude the same.
 
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Well after receiving a warning for my last post (probably the tamest of the bunch) I probably should stay out of this thread (but I won't). firstly I'd like to suggest whoever complained should be less sensitive and encourage honest open discussion, even if this results in someone thinking your opinion is a joke (as we have all had to put up with in the past).

But I think people have forgotten just how good our play was last season. AVB is not doing too badly at all now, but lets not build it up into something it isn't. I see a lot of similarities in HR and AVB, I don't think how we end up playing will be too different from last season (this is based on seeing AVB realising certain things weren't working and changed it, I think now its clicked he'll progress it).

People tried to tell me earlier on in the season that we were doing well, we weren't and now I think it is easier to see what I meant after seeing us do the things I said we should do. I'm hoping come the end of the season we will be better again, with much more creativity. Then I'll come back in here and agree with "intelligent" play.
 
africanspurs said:
great post, only adults admit to something like this and try and see both sides
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Still don't see the point of his post in the first place, other than to get a reaction from people. I got warned for bringing Redknapp up in another thread (I'm aware I've just done it again), but it's fine for the other side to do it.
 
Golfball said:
Well after receiving a warning for my last post (probably the tamest of the bunch) I probably should stay out of this thread (but I won't). firstly I'd like to suggest whoever complained should be less sensitive and encourage honest open discussion, even if this results in someone thinking your opinion is a joke (as we have all had to put up with in the past).

But I think people have forgotten just how good our play was last season. AVB is not doing too badly at all now, but lets not build it up into something it isn't. I see a lot of similarities in HR and AVB, I don't think how we end up playing will be too different from last season (this is based on seeing AVB realising certain things weren't working and changed it, I think now its clicked he'll progress it).

People tried to tell me earlier on in the season that we were doing well, we weren't and now I think it is easier to see what I meant after seeing us do the things I said we should do. I'm hoping come the end of the season we will be better again, with much more creativity. Then I'll come back in here and agree with "intelligent" play.
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I actually commend people who were 100% behind AVB from day one. I wanted him to succeed, but was unconvinced at the beginning. I'm starting to believe that he could be a top manager though. BUT, my main gripe was that people were shifting the blame to anyone but him when we were getting bad results, but giving him all of the praise after positive results.

I've said all along that 5th would be a great start for AVB if he achieves that this season. Anything lower than that is a disappointment as far as I'm concerned. That doesn't mean I want him sacked if we finish 6th, but it would be underachieving in my eyes. But I really don't understand the logic of some of the Spurs fans who from the sounds of it wouldn't be too disappointed if we finish say 7th.
 
Jurgen the German said:
I actually commend people who were 100% behind AVB from day one. I wanted him to succeed, but was unconvinced at the beginning. I'm starting to believe that he could be a top manager though. BUT, my main gripe was that people were shifting the blame to anyone but him when we were getting bad results, but giving him all of the praise after positive results.

I've said all along that 5th would be a great start for AVB if he achieves that this season. Anything lower than that is a disappointment as far as I'm concerned. That doesn't mean I want him sacked if we finish 6th, but it would be underachieving in my eyes. But I really don't understand the logic of some of the Spurs fans who from the sounds of it wouldn't be too disappointed if we finish say 7th.
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I am involving in this bit of the thread because it pertains to AVB...with the greatest respect in the world, the main reasons I PERSONALLY allowed AVB PLENTY of slack early season was because he was new to the job, new to the club, fighting a stigma which had been (IMO) disproportionately attached to his abilities, was bedding in several new players, was dealing with the re-routing of our play from two of it's three most central mainstays of the past two seasons and had to deal with the high-pressure expectations involved with taking this job on. I have recently tried very hard to simply repeat some of the observations I made about both these points and what he has done, but these have not (I suspect) been read OR people disagree. Which is absolutely fine. As long as those (lack of) reactions pertain to AVB, great. Each to their own. Let's strive to keep it all on point.
 
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