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The decision to fire AVB

NWND said:
They're worth going for in case we can pull it off but they're not realistically going to have a high chance of happening
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I completely get why people think that, but we had better players previously, Modric, Bale, etc
 
scaramanga said:
Name me a team in the world outside Barca/Madrid that wouldn't use that tactic if they had Bale in the team.
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its a tactic that eventually gets found out and is hard to maintain. There has to be more to a team. You cannot rely forever on one man to hit 25 yard blockbusters every game
 
galeforce said:
I completely get why people think that, but we had better players previously, Modric, Bale, etc
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Yes, players WE developed to be that good by buying before they were forbmodest fees and wages then developing them. That is what AVB clearly failed to grasp - you get given an Eriksen its your job to help him turn into a Moutinho, we aren't the sort of club to easily sanction a £23m fee and £80k wages for the finished product
 
indianspur said:
its a tactic that eventually gets found out and is hard to maintain. There has to be more to a team. You cannot rely forever on one man to hit 25 yard blockbusters every game
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We didn't, we moved towards it in the second half of last season after Lennon got injured, our strikers were on a barren spell and Bale had improved dramatically during the campaign.
 
NWND said:
Well what i read was AVB had spent his time out of football post-Chelsea travelling around watching games and preparing scouting reports on lesser known or young players, which he used with his comprehensive powerpoint to wow the Spurs board.

There was then ITK that the club had agreed a transfer list of players to fit AVB's system but he became stubborn and started asking for Hulk, Moutinho and the like rather than the players that wre on his list like Ganso, Gaston Ramirez, Dzagoev etc
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He certainly travelled and watched a lot of football in his time out of work but I think that the list of players was speculation and wishful thinking from fans rather than a confirmed fact. We certainly saw little evidence of it at Spurs because most of the signings and targets were already on the radar before AVB came in.

I have read that he asked for big name signings after he came in but my understanding was that these were in preference to the club's targets rather than players on a list he had come in with.
 
milo said:
He certainly travelled and watched a lot of football in his time out of work but I think that the list of players was speculation and wishful thinking from fans rather than a confirmed fact. We certainly saw little evidence of it at Spurs because most of the signings and targets were already on the radar before AVB came in.

I have read that he asked for big name signings after he came in but my understanding was that these were in preference to the club's targets rather than players on a list he had come in with.
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The list of scouting reports was widely reported in the press after AVB joined as being one of the key reasons he got the job.
 
milo said:
You can have a collectivist approach to maximise the impact of your most effective player.
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Yes, Liverpool have done this perfectly with Suarez, but our approach wasn't so much about getting the best out of Bale, but relying on Bale to dig us out of countless poor team displays
 
scaramanga said:
Name me a team in the world outside Barca/Madrid that wouldn't use that tactic if they had Bale in the team.
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Off the top of my head the only team I can think of that played like we did with Bale was Argentina in the 1986 World Cup. I'll turn that question around can you name me any team that had a tactic so reliant upon one player to the detriment of any other attacker?
 
NWND said:
Yes, Liverpool have done this perfectly with Suarez, but our approach wasn't so much about getting the best out of Bale, but relying on Bale to dig us out of countless poor team displays
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exactly was just about to post something similar. BTW as we have seen when he has been missing- their system maximises Suarez but they can still function pretty well without him. So actually it's not the collective working for Suarez, but rather Suarez complementing the collective resulting in a synergistic effect.
 
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milo said:
We didn't, we moved towards it in the second half of last season after Lennon got injured, our strikers were on a barren spell and Bale had improved dramatically during the campaign.
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Not in my recollection. We were poor in the first few games then Bale started to find his rhythm. BTW Lennon came back and we were still mostly reliant on Bale and our attackers were hardly utilised in a way that would have ended their barren spell.
 
NWND said:
Yes, Liverpool have done this perfectly with Suarez, but our approach wasn't so much about getting the best out of Bale, but relying on Bale to dig us out of countless poor team displays
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That was certainly how it turned out but I doubt that was the intention back in August. I think that AVB changed things because of the ineffectiveness of most of the side and just tried to maximise the impact of the one effective player that he had.
 
NWND said:
The list of scouting reports was widely reported in the press after AVB joined as being one of the key reasons he got the job.
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I'd be interested in reading those reports because I either missed or have forgotten that. Do you have any links?
 
milo said:
That was certainly how it turned out but I doubt that was the intention back in August. I think that AVB changed things because of the ineffectiveness of most of the side and just tried to maximise the impact of the one effective player that he had.
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I disagree he employed Bale as he did because the system he wanted to employ was inherently cautious, centred on keeping possession so the rest of the team could pass the ball simply to each other or Bale without leaving themselves open to counter attack, while having the luxury of Bale to carve out goals from nothing.
 
Robspur12 said:
I disagree he employed Bale as he did because the system he wanted to employ was inherently cautious, centred on keeping possession so the rest of the team could pass the ball simply to each other or Bale without leaving themselves open to counter attack, while having the luxury of Bale to carve out goals from nothing.
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So why didn't he start last season like that? We changed formation a few times in his first season and it was only after Christmas that he settled on Bale in the free role with the rest of the team set up to support him.

I don't disagree that AVB is at heart a safety first coach by the way. His fondness of big, athletic central midfielders aptly illustrates this. I just think that the handling of Bale last season was a pragmatic solution to trying to get the most out of a misfiring team short on attacking options.
 
My view is that he should have stayed till the Summer even if the Plan was to get rid of him then.

We are much worse off now than when we had him in Charge, we look clueless and rudderless and concede goals for fun. Starting to realise there was a reason AVB played the way he did, our defence is rubbish.
 
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