I completely believe it.
I was at a lecture/talk the other week by Chris Anderson - he wrote 'The Numbers Game' which is a pretty interesting book on football, basically using his research and statistical analysis of years upon years of data to disprove a lot of commonly held myths about football. Kind of like Freakonomics for the sport. Anyway, he said that in terms of what we know about football, and even what the professionals know about football, the game is - if we compare it to say medicine - still in the leeches stage. There is so, so much more than everyone can learn.
So while I don't think AVB has come along and literally figured out all there is to know about football - because he is nowhere near that and neither is anyone else - I do have a lot of trust in him. So we lost to West Ham? Big flipping deal. I don't pay much attention to individual results because we are just as capable of going to Old Trafford and winning (we did that last year, remember?) and ultimately teams will have ups and downs during a season as an absolute guarantee. Getting worked up over results this early in the season is, especially, a total mugs game.
I don't think he's playing a Mourinho style of football at all. I don't know where this comes from, beyond wanting physical midfielders but even then he's wanted Moutinho here and Modric at Chelsea, and I don't think either would have fitted into that original Mourinho side. It's an incredibly lazy comparison. Kudos though for listing out every type of football that a club could possibly play, I thought there would be way more than three types, but whatever.
I don't think he needs a battering ram. He actively wants strikers like Soldado, and seems very happy with Defoe - pure poachers. We just need to get better playing the way he wants.
And again, it's only looking pretty bad in one particular aspect of our play. If we need to create chances, we usually do it. I know you will come back with 'but that was only because Saudi Sportswashing Machine forced us into it!' and you act like that is a bad thing. Like the only possible alternative in that match was for us to roar back. Well actually, we could have if the team was so poorly prepared by this clutz of a manager, completely capitulated and lost 3-0 again. We could have failed to create any chances whatsoever. But we did create chances. Against Chelsea at home, we played a fantastic half. Against Cardiff away, against Norwich at home, we created lots of chances. We were tearing Villa to shreds on their own patch. We were dominating Everton like they haven't been all season on their own ground. All of these performances have positive aspects. Some things to improve on but a lot of good work. We are doing a lot of good things, and just need to turn it into a consistent effort.
I think, when chasing a game, we are very capable. Going to an away ground against most teams now, we are very capable. Even playing against most top teams, we are very capable - if you look at our performance vs Man United at Old Trafford for example we showed we can execute a counter attacking strategy well, while this year at home to Chelsea they sat back and we took the game to them first half. We just need to be able to face lesser teams at home and control the game against them on a consistent basis....it's a very achievable goal.
