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OT: What next for Harry?

Regarding the point push and run was making on the squad rotation it has been bothering me, i blamed redknapp for not rotating as the reason we fell away two season running and am concerned that with AVB not rotating in the europa league it may come back to bite us. Infact i will bump the rotation thread i did when i come back online this afternoon.
 
A good blog written by Dan Fitch on ESPN soccernet a couple of weeks ago...

<<Of all the qualities that Andre Villas-Boas has brought to Tottenham since becoming manager, it is the fact he has made the squad a meritocracy I find the most refreshing.

Under Harry Redknapp, you knew that when certain players were fit that they would be in the team. It's one of the reasons why Sandro's career stalled somewhat last season and Scott Parker eventually burned out.

Since AVB took charge this has changed. Now, if you play well when you're in the team, then the chances are that you will keep your place.

I was critical of the way Villas-Boas handled the arrival of Hugo Lloris, as he rotated the Frenchman and Brad Friedel, but I entirely support the fact that he didn't immediately drop the veteran goalkeeper, who was in fine form.

Kyle Naughton is another selection of the manager that I've criticised. I stand by the fact that he should never be played at left-back when he has a right-footed player in front of him on the left of midfield. However, since Gareth Bale returned to the team, Naughton has played well and it’s not a bad thing that Benoit Assou-Ekotto has been made to wait his turn.

I’m sure that BAE will eventually regain his place, but Spurs' results haven’t been affected in the interim and Naughton will have gained confidence for the show of faith. The youngster will have a big part to play this season, covering for both Kyle Walker and Assou-Ekotto when either is injured, or needs to be rested.

The centre of defence has seen Steven Caulker get plenty of chances and not necessarily get dropped when a more experienced player returns. Indeed, the centre-back with the most appearances for Tottenham is Michael Dawson and he started as fifth choice, despite being named as club captain.

Yet even though Spurs were clearly keen to sell Dawson in the summer and Villas-Boas seemed to have misgivings about the player, he too has been given a chance of redemption. Dawson is now a regular in the team again, having grabbed his chance to prove the Portuguese wrong.

Last season it really didn't matter what Jermain Defoe did on the pitch. Redknapp would always pick Emmanuel Adebayor and Rafael van der Vaart ahead of him if they were fit. This season Villas-Boas has kept Defoe in the team when he's scoring and it's translated into better form on the pitch.

If players think that it is impossible to change a manager's mind, they won’t give their all. That’s human nature. It seems at Spurs that everyone believes that hard work and performances on the pitch will be rewarded. That's a healthy situation.

It means that there's no 'them' and ‘us’ cliques, between the players that are in the manager’s plans and those that aren’t. Everyone pulls together in the right direction knowing that they have an equal chance to impress.

A lot of players and coming out and praising Villas-Boas. It genuinely seems like a happy camp. When you think of the newspaper headlines earlier this season, with the UK media clearly desperate to see a repeat of the scenes that accompanied AVB's spell at Chelsea, then it’s really quite laughable.

Perhaps Villas-Boas learned a hard lesson at Stamford Bridge and it will be Spurs who benefit. Some managers can get away with ruling by fear, for some it is better to be liked and respected. When the manager in question is not much older than the players, then the latter is the more sensible option.>>
 
apparently QPR are in for Rolando, bearing in mind last years court case 'Arry might be a bit disappointed when he see's who turns up to training
 
apparently QPR are in for Rolando, bearing in mind last years court case 'Arry might be a bit disappointed when he see's who turns up to training

I blame this for the Zaha/Saha confusion. Didn't we have a portuguese/ cape Verdean player called Rolando on trial at the team once?
 
Steff you should post that in the AVB thread if you haven't already. Its spot on and the bit about Dawson having most appearances shows that AVB is not too proud to change his opinion which is a great trait to have in getting respect from a group of professional players imo.
 
Steff you should post that in the AVB thread if you haven't already. Its spot on and the bit about Dawson having most appearances shows that AVB is not too proud to change his opinion which is a great trait to have in getting respect from a group of professional players imo.

Will do mate...
 
Probably a post for a new thread, but as the mods on here are so merge happy and it relates to Redknapp I'll stick it in here.

Redknapp last season came under a fair bit of pressure for not taking the cups seriously and especially came under a lot of pressure for the Stevenage away performance and result (despite rotating the squad massively for that game).

We've taken the cups very seriously this season and pretty much fielded the majority of our available first team players in each and every game. The net result has been a shambolic Europa League where we failed to win the group and look totally unconvincing, and early knockouts from both the domestic cup competitions.

During these games we haven't rested many players, so the question is. Was Redknapp making the right call when he rested large amounts of first teamers for the cup competitions, or should we play our best players whenever possible? And a side issue is, does our poor cup performances and showings this year mean that although the management care about the competitions deep down the players couldn't give a brick?

Poor effort man, you're better than that
 
Probably a post for a new thread, but as the mods on here are so merge happy and it relates to Redknapp I'll stick it in here.

Redknapp last season came under a fair bit of pressure for not taking the cups seriously and especially came under a lot of pressure for the Stevenage away performance and result (despite rotating the squad massively for that game).

We've taken the cups very seriously this season and pretty much fielded the majority of our available first team players in each and every game. The net result has been a shambolic Europa League where we failed to win the group and look totally unconvincing, and early knockouts from both the domestic cup competitions.

During these games we haven't rested many players, so the question is. Was Redknapp making the right call when he rested large amounts of first teamers for the cup competitions, or should we play our best players whenever possible? And a side issue is, does our poor cup performances and showings this year mean that although the management care about the competitions deep down the players couldn't give a brick?



Er, you posted this in the Leeds match thread and the next few posts were proof that AVB has rotated during the cups..
 
Er, you posted this in the Leeds match thread and the next few posts were proof that AVB has rotated during the cups..

He rotated during the cups through injuries and the odd player. A lot of the first team regulars played 90 mins on a regular basis during these cup competitions. Where AVB has been superb is that he made selection mistakes, then gave other players a chance and now those other players have proven they are superior to AVB's original selections and therefore those players are already rested due to not getting many games at the beginning of the season.
 
He rotated during the cups through injuries and the odd player. A lot of the first team regulars played 90 mins on a regular basis during these cup competitions. Where AVB has been superb is that he made selection mistakes, then gave other players a chance and now those other players have proven they are superior to AVB's original selections and therefore those players are already rested due to not getting many games at the beginning of the season.


Bolded is a load of crap.


24 Friedel
16 Naughton
20 Dawson
32 Assou-Ekotto
33 Caulker
02 Dempsey
06 Huddlestone
08 Parker (Dembele - 80' )
11 Bale (Townsend - 70' )
22 Sigurdsson (Carroll - 79' )
10 Adebayor


FA Cup third round. How is that not resting players?

Lennon, Defoe, Sandro, Lloris, Dembele, Walker.


I'd go back further if i had a better memory for injuries..



CARLISLE (FLC)

Cudicini
Adam Smith
Dawson
Caulker
Vertonghen (65 Walker)
Huddlestone
Mason (70 Carroll)
Townsend
Sigurdsson
Falque
Dempsey (75 Obika)


NORWICH (FLC)

Lloris
Walker (89 Defoe)
Dawson
Caulker
Naughton
Livermore (45 Huddlestone)
Carroll (79 Vertonghen)
Falque
Sigurdsson
Bale
Dempsey
 
Move along, nothing to see here.

This thread will now be closed as the OP post has been answered. If anyone needs to talk about Harry at QPR they can start a new thread.
 
Time to say goodbye.

After much deliberation, and based on majority views expressed recently in the "merged threads" thread, the mods have concluded that we are going to lock and move both the What next for Harry, and the AVB-Head coach threads into Classics.

There are many reasons behind this (apart from the stated desire of so many posters to get rid), but one of the main ones for the mods is the amount of in-board animosity these threads have created. It has, sadly, made this place a lot harder to moderate, and has even, created enemies amongst posters where before there were none.

Now, before we get accused of over-use of powers, stopping free speech and being Nazis, let me explain, we are NOT stopping you from talking about these subjects. We just feel a need to alter direction a little.
We know that other threads will spring up, with the same arguments probably repeated, but we also hope/expect them to take on different directions now. Especially, as far as the Harry thread is concerned, his time with us is now drifting into history and becomes less of a current topic.

Obviously, AVB is very current, but having listened to posters views, we feel that other "fresher " threads would now benefit from some of the insight into his methods.

You will all be able to read the original threads in Classics, to use as reference if required.

We know some of you will disagree with this move, and we understand that viewpoint, but as stated, this is an action based on the majority view.

Finally, please help us, and the board you use, to get back on track with positive and meaningful posts on subjects that interest you, without resorting to point-scoring arguments that take threads off topic.

This post will appear across both threads.
 
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