Andre Villas-Boas - Head Coach

[metalgear]

Re: AVB - Making Tottenham His Own

one chance yesterday when eriksen crossed beautifully across the six yard box and soldado wasn't there!

that's what you get when you stop feeding the striker.

 

[Bedfordspurs]

Re: AVB - Making Tottenham His Own

We go out NOT to lose... so when we are behind we go out to SALVAGE the game and thats when we go somewhat gung ho... we can mitigate against all that **** by actually going out to WIN the game in the first instance.

Last season we actually started games extremely well... always attacked in the first 15-20 mins... its changed this season and im unsure why.

It's very good point. AVB is a safety first manager as ultimately it's those teams that do best over the season. From a managers perspective a 1 nil is better than a 5-4 but from a fans perspective it isn't.

We will never get truly outplayed playing this way but we will struggle to be as effective as we could be

Someone suggested we need a home formation and an away one and I'm slowly but surely coming round to that. The current system works extremely well away from home but at home we need only one holder against most sides and that gives us many more options. I doubt AVB is flexible to see it like that but that's my view more and more now

 

[onlyme]

Re: AVB - Making Tottenham His Own

If AVB is the wrong man for the job we must not keep him on just because us fans cannot think of an alternative manager or for some misguided notion that continuity is best. Who would have come up with Poschetino as a name to replace Nigel Adkins that's why we pay people like Baldini to be our DOF because there might be a small chance he knows the football world better than any fan? As for continuity, well Chelsea change their manager regularly it hasn't harmed their ability to win things and a couple of seasons ago West Ham failed to get rid of Avram Grant and were relegated as a result, Fulham will have a similar decision to make with Martin Jol.

So the only reason to keep him is if Levy believes he is the right man. Do we think he is? Well from the point of view of a simple fan I will make a case. Last season we were conceding late goals, he quickly sorted it. Last season we won the most away games in our PL history and amassed the biggest total of points. We were resilient and hard to beat playing right up until the last whistle. Yes we had one of the best players in the world to score us goals but you could argue that AVB built the team to play to his strengths. This season we have a record number of clean sheets. We have also recently won a penalty shootout which may seem like a small thing in an insignificant tournament, but being that our ability to win penalty shootouts has mirrored our lack of mental strength in other areas of our play I think that is an achievement in itself. So my point is he is doing many things right and in the end we are only 5 points off Arsenal.

However, he is still very inexperienced imo and it shows, after all he had no professional foot ball career and was not even an assistant manager before becoming a manager. The Lloris decision last week, the decision to get rid of Dawson, the club captain, when he came in before taking a proper look only to have to rectify this later, now what ever you think of Dawson that smacked of a rash decision, then criticising the fans when your team is not playing well only for the fans to start cheering but your team to still play badly, are all examples of his inexperience. It's hard to believe we are the first club where he has stayed for more than 1 season. I must admit I did not support his appointment but the board must have seen something so I trusted them I still do.

Overall, for me, he has earned the benefit of the doubt at this point but he needs to sort this problem with our attack out and do it quickly as we cannot afford for us to finish outside the top 4 this season. Although I hate saying this, He has to prioritise his best team in the league, imo never play Defoe and Soldado together, do not slavishly employ tactics such as inverted wingers or a high line but be prepared to mix it a bit and finally sort his **** out with ADE, we need him.

Just my thoughts after a frustrating day. COYFS

Very good post. Long but good.

 

[onlyme]

Re: AVB - Making Tottenham His Own

We had 31 attempts on goal today, 14 of which were on target. A total of 36 crosses were put in and most of them were not met by anyone. We absolutely pummeled them in the 2nd half, just a shame we were half asleep in the 1st, but don't let the facts get in the way of the anti-AVB rants some of you've been dying to make though.

Sure, there were a few mistakes made, but some of the stuff I've read is just baffling. Not necessarily mistakes either, but little things that in retrospect could have been done differently. People slating players that did okay, while praising others that were poor. Never seen so many agendas. People moaning over things they've just made up.

Yeah, those people....

The correct result was recorded today.

 

[Mulletperm]

Re: AVB - Making Tottenham His Own

The 'damned either way' point is something that most people just fail to realise about football, and it's infuriating. There is absolutely no sure fire way to win any football match without any problem. Leaving aside luck, and the fact that another elite team is also competing to win points, there simply just is not an absolute perfect tactic, a perfect way to play or anything like that with any given set of players.

It's like of you are watching a poker tournament, and a guy with trips gets sucked out on because his opponent makes a runner runner flush on the river. Football fans would look at that and say 'he should have NEVER bet so big because the risk of the flush was there' despite the fact that the guy with trips was the massive favourite.

You can literally take any football decision and criticise it, and claim that something else should have been done. But there difference you don't have an odds calculator telling you what the best play is. This magical alternate suggestion has just as much, or just as little, chance of affecting the result as the choice that was actually chosen.

So AVB brought Defoe on? Silly him? But there is just an easy argument the other way to say that once we have established territorial advantage, and we have forced Saudi Sportswashing Machine deeper, with defensive subs, that the need to control midfield isn't as great as the need to get men in the box. So there's every chance it could have worked. It didn't today but it hardly makes it a stupid move. Ditto most other decisions. How many times did I read that Holtby was stifling our play and Eriksen would improve it in the league this week? A lot. What happened?

Seriously scraping the bottom of the barrel with that as a defence of bringing Defoe on.

 

[thfcsteff]

Re: AVB - Making Tottenham His Own

One thing which has struck me is that AVB is 36 years old.
36
A decade YOUNGER than me!!!

And I think that sometimes he is perhaps guilty of trying a little too hard to get things working, trying a little too hard to make things perfect and to plan, and is maybe trying a little too hard right now as opposed to 'feeling' the 'moment' so-to-speak. I believe that will come fairly quickly with him…

Of course, a funny aspect to all this is to consider that had we taken three of our EASIEST chances all season, we'd have won 3-1 and nobody would be mentioning any of this…

He does need to find a way to address these relatively slow first-half starts however…although today, in fairness, we started well but quickly seemed to slur our lines...

 

[thfcsteff]

Re: AVB - Making Tottenham His Own

one chance yesterday when eriksen crossed beautifully across the six yard box and soldado wasn't there!

that's what you get when you stop feeding the striker.

Yes yes, remember that clearly…I was very disappointed that there wasn't also a midfielder running onto that...

 

[africanspurs]

Re: AVB - Making Tottenham His Own

I left out Capoue because he's still so unproven for us because of his injury problems. I rate him highly so far an higher than the other 3 in terms of passing, but others have disagreed completely including people that follow French football so I figured we were better off just going with the 3 we know more about.

Eriksen, Lamela and Siggy are all different players though. I was talking about central midfielders as in those that play in the slightly deeper roles, or have done so for us. And so far this season it's been Sandro, Paulinho, Dembele and Capoue.

Do you think he would do that by changing the team selection or by improving each player individually?

i am still yet to address the rest of that well thought out post of yours mate...sorry. we may start having two different convos.

okay if wenger was here he would actually make them play better as a unit without making their abilities necessarily any better.

i keep mentioning this but to no sucess but its an issue for style, urgency, movement and spatial awareness IMO..basically chemistry. i do not think that wenger would be okay with his players ONLY MOVING AFTER A SUPPLIER HAS THE BALL. an old colleague of mine i used to work with when i helped him train youths that were released by clubs had a meal with all the kids at his place......at that time...wenger made his young players play basketball with a frequency that, to me, seemed to indicate there was something that he wanted them to take home from it

when arsenal start to break the opposition down they do things in moves. if you had 4 players in a move from A-D...say A is sagna and B is either a centre mid or a wing forward....sagna's decision dictates the movement of players C and D.....people start moving into space once player A has released the ball....and the benefactors are most likely players C and D. this isnt an ability issue so much as it is an intelligence one..of course you'll need a certain level of of ability with the pass but we have that level for sure.

Swansea seem to have been able to get this done with the likes of leon britton and jon jo shelvey for instance..our players are better than these guys. wenger can do this....infact he can do this to a painstaking level that people say he is one dimensional..thats his only trick...and if you mark out the space and clog the lanes you can stifle arsenal...all very true.

another thing you have to appreciate about the players we have is that they are AVB's type players ..as KINGDAWSON and i pretty much said from the start. he doesnt look for technical players like wenger does...he goes for overpowering ones in midfield. so in that regards i agree with you about personnel selection being a major part to do with how we play

...but AVB can quite easily turn this around if he wanted to. He is more than capable , there is nothing that i can think of that he hasnt considered and studied at a PhD level......he just choses not to do it from the start

look at yesterday...we looked void of ideas cause we didnt put moves together and didnt commit players forward......then we did both in second half and we looked a different outfit....simple instructions...and more acceptance to take risks

thing is though AVB has been jacking Jose Mourinho's style since day one....people dont realise but the old school jose's team was quite industrious, boring, efficient and strcutured, disciplined and had a physically overpowering middle with inverted wingers....or wingers playing narrow for goodness sake even to a degree wenger did the exact same thing with the invinsibles...only they had better technical players

I actually think AVB so far has done a great job for the level that tottenham should be at..or even aim to be at for the near future. but to get that little bit further i would say there is more he needs to commit to and be willing to risk before he can take us there

 

[Yiddo]

Re: AVB - Making Tottenham His Own

What ever happened to that Bale chap? Injured?

 

[BrainOfLevy]

Re: AVB - Making Tottenham His Own

Seriously scraping the bottom of the barrel with that as a defence of bringing Defoe on.

Not really. I thought it was actually quite well thought out tactical reasoning rather than bashing my head against the keyboard and hoping 'Lol AVB stupid cos he brought on striker when chasing goal!' came out. But really there's a million different explanations I could use for that sub. It's a move he made often at Porto and it often worked. But if our players aren't comfortable attacking how he wants yet, then they probably won't be comfortable doing similar when the formation changes mid game. So we either change completely and lose any benefits that the system will bring us in the future, or we persevere, learn and get better at it until we are comfortable and confident.

AS, I agree that Wenger, or even Harry, would have us playing better looking football right now. But I think we are working towards it and going through a learning process first.

 

[DubaiSpur]

Re: AVB - Making Tottenham His Own

Not really. I thought it was actually quite well thought out tactical reasoning rather than bashing my head against the keyboard and hoping 'Lol AVB stupid cos he brought on striker when chasing goal!' came out. But really there's a million different explanations I could use for that sub. It's a move he made often at Porto and it often worked. But if our players aren't comfortable attacking how he wants yet, then they probably won't be comfortable doing similar when the formation changes mid game. So we either change completely and lose any benefits that the system will bring us in the future, or we persevere, learn and get better at it until we are comfortable and confident.

AS, I agree that Wenger, or even Harry, would have us playing better looking football right now. But I think we are working towards it and going through a learning process first.

It's a very, very long process, apparently. And that in itself is causing a fair few grumbles, both here and on the Fighting ****. Rodgers has been here as long as AVB has, yet has turned Liverpool into a fearsome attacking machine in that time, while we're still struggling to score them at one end and keep them out at the other, while looking absolutely atrocious at set pieces throughout. What exactly have we learnt under AVB?

Sigh. Jurgen Klopp took a while to turn Dortmund into the team they are today (though I will point out that he won a cup in his first season), so there's that in favour of giving AVB a lot more time. But he didn't have 100 million to spend creating his own side, and he certainly didn't have the quality we do now, even during his first title-winning season. And for every Klopp, there's a Pochettino, Conte, Garcia or Simeone: managers who have come in, completely altered their team's playing style and created winning machines while also bonding their squad together and getting them learning new tactics and new combinations, all in far less time than AVB's taken so far. Sure, the argument could be made that AVB's had a lot of squad disruption to deal with (Modric's departure last season, and Bale's this season), but Rudi Garcia wasn't exactly dealt a great hand with Marquinhos, Lamela and Osvaldo all leaving and a lot of new faces arriving, and he's taken Roma to the top of Serie A with ten wins from eleven games, if I remember correctly.

There needs to be tangible progress this season. AVB has shouldered a lot of expectations now, having spent 100 million + on these players. Squad deficiencies are now not just something he has to deal with, they're also something he is partly responsible for (loaning out BAE and leaving us with no LB cover was a bit of an odd one, for example), and we must look like we are learning every single game, with some success coming at the end of this season, one way or another. Win a cup (and finish in the top six), or finish in the top four. It's not an opinion, it's simply fact. And, the way we're currently blundering around, we don't look remotely capable of achieving either, which is concerning considering we're in the middle of the AVB revolution and we're seeing a club who brought in a new manager at the same time as us (Liverpool) play far better than we are and achieving victories far more easily than we are.

I will deliver a verdict on him at the end of the season, but for the sake of the mood of the fans (who did a decent job yesterday, all things considered) and our chances of success this year, he needs to whip this squad into a coherent shape. Fast.

 

[BrainOfLevy]

Re: AVB - Making Tottenham His Own

It's a very, very long process, apparently. And that in itself is causing a fair few grumbles, both here and on the Fighting ****. Rodgers has been here as long as AVB has, yet has turned Liverpool into a fearsome attacking machine in that time, while we're still struggling to score them at one end and keep them out at the other, while looking absolutely atrocious at set pieces throughout. What exactly have we learnt under AVB?

Sigh. Jurgen Klopp took a while to turn Dortmund into the team they are today (though I will point out that he won a cup in his first season), so there's that in favour of giving AVB a lot more time. But he didn't have 100 million to spend creating his own side, and he certainly didn't have the quality we do now, even during his first title-winning season. And for every Klopp, there's a Pochettino, Conte, Garcia or Simeone: managers who have come in, completely altered their team's playing style and created winning machines while also bonding their squad together and getting them learning new tactics and new combinations, all in far less time than AVB's taken so far. Sure, the argument could be made that AVB's had a lot of squad disruption to deal with (Modric's departure last season, and Bale's this season), but Rudi Garcia wasn't exactly dealt a great hand with Marquinhos, Lamela and Osvaldo all leaving and a lot of new faces arriving, and he's taken Roma to the top of Serie A with ten wins from eleven games, if I remember correctly.

There needs to be tangible progress this season. AVB has shouldered a lot of expectations now, having spent 100 million + on these players. Squad deficiencies are now not just something he has to deal with, they're also something he is partly responsible for (loaning out BAE and leaving us with no LB cover was a bit of an odd one, for example), and we must look like we are learning every single game, with some success coming at the end of this season, one way or another. Win a cup (and finish in the top six), or finish in the top four. It's not an opinion, it's simply fact. And, the way we're currently blundering around, we don't look remotely capable of achieving either, which is concerning considering we're in the middle of the AVB revolution and we're seeing a club who brought in a new manager at the same time as us (Liverpool) play far better than we are and achieving victories far more easily than we are.

I will deliver a verdict on him at the end of the season, but for the sake of the mood of the fans (who did a decent job yesterday, all things considered) and our chances of success this year, he needs to whip this squad into a coherent shape. Fast.

I absolutely agree. There needs to be tangible progress over a season. And if AVB isn't delivering that considering we do have a squad of depth and balance, then he will need to go.

But right now, it's November. I don't agree with saying Rodgers has turned Liverpool into a winning machine because again, it's only November. Ditto Roma. Let's see how they've done at the end of the season and if they (Liverpool) have kept it up over the year, continued the great football and finished above us, then you'd have to say Rodgers has done a better job. Same with Roma, they may have had squad upheaval but I've seen us go on fantastic runs of form before, either at the beginning or during the middle of a season, and it often leads to collapse. I've become desensitised to it now which is why I feel I don't need to get too angry with results (and why some posters are annoyed at that positivity) because I've seen it all before and so has everyone else if they look back, and not very hard. We've often been the team in form with everyone claiming 'this is our year' and we've also had bad runs where everyone is saying for a club of our stature we are falling well behind. It means nothing until the season is finished.

Athletico Madrid are an interesting one, as I'm not shre about their squad upheaval but they did have Falcao, and now don't but seem to have maintained their progress. If they can finish top two it's obviously a massive achievement but I don't know how likely that is. I think the Dortmund comparison is fair. Klopp clearly wanted to achieve something with a style beyond what was to be expected as the norm, and so taking a couple of seasons as 6th/5th to establish that was accepted, to get them as title winners. Maybe we are going through a similar painful process because the result won't mean we are merely top 4 contenders if we get it right, but title challengers for proper.

Me and Milo mentioned a recently released football book last night that contains some interesting research. Another idea from it is 'regression to the mean' which basically disproves that sacking a manager is ever often worth it. Taking control groups of teams that didn't sack the manager vs teams that did, and had similar dips in form over something like a 15 year period, there was no statistical difference. The idea is that teams will rise and fall around a natural level. And once I heard that it really did confirm that getting too worked up over results is pointless. Yes yesterday sucked, but I don't look at Liverpool's squad and think that their natural level is to keep that up over a season. We've had better squads than they have now and have been on similar runs of form, only to fall back down to our natural level. And it happens to every club.

 

[DubaiSpur]

Re: AVB - Making Tottenham His Own

I absolutely agree. There needs to be tangible progress over a season. And if AVB isn't delivering that considering we do have a squad of depth and balance, then he will need to go.

But right now, it's November. I don't agree with saying Rodgers has turned Liverpool into a winning machine because again, it's only November. Ditto Roma. Let's see how they've done at the end of the season and if they (Liverpool) have kept it up over the year, continued the great football and finished above us, then you'd have to say Rodgers has done a better job. Same with Roma, they may have had squad upheaval but I've seen us go on fantastic runs of form before, either at the beginning or during the middle of a season, and it often leads to collapse. I've become desensitised to it now which is why I feel I don't need to get too angry with results (and why some posters are annoyed at that positivity) because I've seen it all before and so has everyone else if they look back, and not very hard. We've often been the team in form with everyone claiming 'this is our year' and we've also had bad runs where everyone is saying for a club of our stature we are falling well behind. It means nothing until the season is finished.

Athletico Madrid are an interesting one, as I'm not shre about their squad upheaval but they did have Falcao, and now don't but seem to have maintained their progress. If they can finish top two it's obviously a massive achievement but I don't know how likely that is. I think the Dortmund comparison is fair. Klopp clearly wanted to achieve something with a style beyond what was to be expected as the norm, and so taking a couple of seasons as 6th/5th to establish that was accepted, to get them as title winners. Maybe we are going through a similar painful process because the result won't mean we are merely top 4 contenders if we get it right, but title challengers for proper.

Me and Milo mentioned a recently released football book last night that contains some interesting research. Another idea from it is 'regression to the mean' which basically disproves that sacking a manager is ever often worth it. Taking control groups of teams that didn't sack the manager vs teams that did, and had similar dips in form over something like a 15 year period, there was no statistical difference. The idea is that teams will rise and fall around a natural level. And once I heard that it really did confirm that getting too worked up over results is pointless. Yes yesterday sucked, but I don't look at Liverpool's squad and think that their natural level is to keep that up over a season. We've had better squads than they have now and have been on similar runs of form, only to fall back down to our natural level. And it happens to every club.

There are always positive outliers, and I'd like to think that our 09/10 side was one, as was Chelsea's side under Di Matteo (won the damn Champions League after sacking AVB - surely not their permanent level). Similarly, our side under Ramos was a negative outlier (2 points from 8 games: we're not giants, but we're not THAT bad either), as Hamburg's current side appears to be (the only club in a rich, one-club city, and they constantly struggle). I'd always hoped that hiring AVB would be the catalyst that would spark a very un-Spurs-like run of form and trophies, making us a positive outlier: after all, isn't that what we hired him for? (Using his tactical ability to overcome the shortcomings of the side (something Redknapp failed to do) and make us better than the sum of our parts?) However, at the moment he doesn't appear to be doing that, which somewhat worries me.

I agree, though: he needs to be judged over an entire season, namely this one. I just wish he would hurry up and make us the side we all hoped we would become under him: unfortunately, I don't seem able to switch off to this constant back-and-forth emotion-wringing as easily as you seem able to.

 

[NLS]

Re: AVB - Making Tottenham His Own

To repeat what I have said on other threads....

Defoe has scored 1 league goal from open play in 2013... That suggested that a small lone striker was not working. Response - pay 26 mil for another small striker and result one league goal from Soldado in open play. And I read yesterday that we are looking at Hernandez in January (who knows how true that is) but if we get him I will have serious doubts about AVB.

Teams know how to play us.....defend deep, lots of players behind the ball and allow us to put in crosses as their tall defenders will clear. Put Benteke up top and they can't do that as at 6'4" he will win his fair share either with direct attempts on goal or lay offs to other players.

9 goals from 11 league games and just 2 from Defoe and Soldado (forgetting penalties) in 2013 is pretty damning!!

I'd put Kaboul up top in the meantime....well maybe not but our strikers at the moment hardly ever touch the ball and they don't score and I'm getting desperate!!

 

[indianspur]

Re: AVB - Making Tottenham His Own

To repeat what I have said on other threads....

Defoe has scored 1 league goal from open play in 2013... That suggested that a small lone striker was not working. Response - pay 26 mil for another small striker and result one league goal from Soldado in open play. And I read yesterday that we are looking at Hernandez in January (who knows how true that is) but if we get him I will have serious doubts about AVB.

Teams know how to play us.....defend deep, lots of players behind the ball and allow us to put in crosses as their tall defenders will clear. Put Benteke up top and they can't do that as at 6'4" he will win his fair share either with direct attempts on goal or lay offs to other players.

9 goals from 11 league games and just 2 from Defoe and Soldado (forgetting penalties) in 2013 is pretty damning!!

I'd put Kaboul up top in the meantime....well maybe not but our strikers at the moment hardly ever touch the ball and they don't score and I'm getting desperate!!

=D>

I like Soldado, I like Defoe, but the stats speak for themselves and its clear the way we play is not getting the best out of them

2 PL goals from open play in 2013 from Defoe and Soldado

 

[Kingdawson]

Re: AVB - Making Tottenham His Own

Why is it not teething problems? We didn't try and play totally the way we are now last year, except for when without the ball, and we've just signed 7 new players, most of which are in the attacking end of the pitch and unsurprisingly this is where we are looking to gel.

The analysis of the Swansea game from a number of people on here absolutely baffles me. It wasn't the best performance ever but I tonight we easily deserved to win it. It just so happened we won by a single penalty but to my mind we were penetrating the box more than in a number of recent games. We clearly deserved it.

I think teething problems will be a factor because the team needs to get comfortable facing different kinds of situations. Like today, Saudi Sportswashing Machine didn't sit back and pressed the 2 central midfielders we had. We couldn't find a clear route up the park and struggled. I'm sure some people may say the solution is easy but it is rectifying that and at the same time staying true to the style and the gameplan which is where teething will come in. Once they are comfortable and can adapt in game we should be able to deal with different types of games and have the solution for each.

To say that I will 'never' work at home though, how can you possibly say that?

It will never work FOR A SUSTAINED PERIOD and i stick by that opinion. There's just too may flaws in the system for it to prevail on a regular basis so we're probably going to experience a couple of good games followed by a few bad ones which shouldn't be the case at home. It's simply too easy to contain our brand of football

 

[billyiddo]

Re: AVB On Reals Madrid's Short List For New Manager

Re Rodgers at 'pool - rewind to this time last season and they were getting roundly mocked for their 'we won the passing' attitude - it wasn't until later in the season (after the arrival of Couthino possibly) that their game became effective - it's no wonder their good work has continued compared to us when you compare each sides transfer activity the summer just gone - our primary attacking threat has been sold and almost an entirely new attack has arrived in his place.

 

[BrainOfLevy]

Re: AVB - Making Tottenham His Own

It will never work FOR A SUSTAINED PERIOD and i stick by that opinion. There's just too may flaws in the system for it to prevail on a regular basis so we're probably going to experience a couple of good games followed by a few bad ones which shouldn't be the case at home. It's simply too easy to contain our brand of football

I just don't agree that one system is inherently flawed and cannot work while another is better. All systems will work if you have the players suited to it.

I could go into the merits of the style we seem to be trying to implement but you've clearly made up your mind on it. But to say that one just will not work while other systems are more likely to is plain wrong.

 

[ringo]

Re: AVB - Making Tottenham His Own

It is ironic really. Chelsea have got the Special One back --but the fans are moaning about how negatively the team are playing, and being set up, how stubborn hew is not to play Mata, and starting to concede that Mourinho is not so special after all.

We have Mourinho's apprentice, and pretty much the same criticisms.

AVB reminds me of a limited chess player in a championship competition. He has done deep preparation for a few openings, but once he is out of his preparation he struggles.
it is football by numbers - last season it used to be 4-2-3-1 first half at home. 4-4-2 at half time, and then back to 4-2-3-1.

I really hope it changes, but I can't see why it would, it would require an AVB change of mindset, to go against his natural percentages cautious approach.
Redknapp was an interesting contrast, I think he had a better instinctive appreciation of the need to take risks in football sometimes. And I also think, while he may have ****ed some players off, he kept a core of players happy with how and where they were playing. (But we did have Bale/VdV/Modric)

At least AVB got his complaint about the crowd in first.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/fo...here-at-Chelsea-games-at-Stamford-Bridge.html

Similar approach, similar crowd reaction.

 

[Kingdawson]

Re: AVB - Making Tottenham His Own

I just don't agree that one system is inherently flawed and cannot work while another is better. All systems will work if you have the players suited to it.

I could go into the merits of the style we seem to be trying to implement but you've clearly made up your mind on it. But to say that one just will not work while other systems are more likely to is plain wrong.

In your opinion of course.

* Close down opposition at every opportunity
* Play a slow paced brand of football and don't commit unless you see a clear opening
* focus passing through the middle
* Play a high line

Those are the 4 main things he's been trying to implement into the team since his arrival. If we persist with points 1 and 2 we will not improve our home form imo (performance wise anyway). Yesterdays second half showed what we can achieve should we take the game to the opposition from the very beginning but the stubbornness of the manager will see us continue playing this super boring brand of slow paced football where the creative players are not even allowed to express themselves unless they see a clear opening. The weird thing is this brand of football suits NONE of our new signings bar Chiriches who is allowed the opportunity to get forward (maybe Chadli too who is a winger that keeps things simple).

Lamela? nope
Soldado ? nope
Chadli ? maybe
Paulinho ? nope
Eriksen? nope
Capoue ? maybe
Chiriches ? yes