AvB

[Graysonti]

Doing a good job eh

I was a wrong doubter.

Without our two best midfielders too today - Sandro and Dembele.

Please back him in summer Levy

 

[pablo73]

He's doing a great job. I am very optimistic about the future as long as he stays in charge, provided Levy backs him,which is by no means certain....

 

[The Watcher]

Absolutely, we could really do with that Champions League cash to ramp things up a notch or two. You never know, might still happen!

 

[EnfieldYiddo]

Great job.

Just you wait to see what he can when he can bring in his own personnel (presuming he can).

 

[beats1]

Im not sold on him like most of the board is but I wont judge him on this season, I will judge him on his next season unfair to judge in one season imo.

I think there are some worrying signs and some promising, next season will dictate which way we will go

 

[Gazza71]

Great job.

Just you wait to see what he can when he can bring in his own personnel (presuming he can).

I really hope he gets the backing he deserves !!
And we build on what we have

 

[buttons]

Love the guy. Him screaming 'WIN WIN' at Jan in about the 88th minute was brilliant, love his passion. Really pleased the fans were chanting his name late on as well, super away support as always!

 

[WiganSpur]

Don't fuck this summer up Levy. Back your man or he'll be off.

 

[JerryGarcia]

I'm still hoping for Moutinho and Leandro or two players of that quality. I'm delighted to have AVB as our manager, we need to tighten up at the back but I think with another summer to refine the squad we should be breaking the 70 point barrier and then some. With Man Utd and Chelsea changing managers, it will be an interesting season and Levy will hopefully take the opportunity to invest in the squad early and get off to a strong start for a change!

 

[cjsimba]

I think Bale is smart and recognises that AVB has some great ideas but just hasn't (yet) really been able to put his stamp on the team with signings he really wants. This is why (hopefully) Bale will stay another season, as the future really does look bright. At the moment, we don't have the same quality as last year, but we have a certain never say die attitude that we have lacked in the past. Installing this belief into the players is firmly what made Alex Ferguson such a great manager. Fergie's teams sometimes looked suspect on paper, but the winning mentality was forced into them by Fergie and the results are there for all to see. I think we are taking our first steps in a similar manner in this respect. Now hopefully AVB will be given some cash to buy his chosen players this summer and we could really be on the way to a great team!

 

[Gazza71]

DL Please Please do our transfers business early the next window give AvB the longest time possible in pre season with the players he wants !!

 

[camaj]

Hoddle touched on an important point after the game. Levy has a bit of a dilemma, does he spend money on players which might help short term or does he spend it on the stadium which will have a massive effect on the club but long term. The one bonus for us is that TV money seemingly goes up and up each season and while transfer fees and wages rise with it building costs don't

I think there are some worrying signs and some promising, next season will dictate which way we will go

Even though I rate him very highly there are certainly question marks but as fans it's almost impossible to know who's to blame in certain situations. Watching us tonight I would say we haven't progressed from the Harry era but we've seen that he has had the players organised and well drilled and that is progress. What we need is to play that way in every game, in the same way that Arsenal and Man U play the same way in every game. The players know their jobs inside out and know what's expected of them in each moment.

 

[beats1]

Hoddle touched on an important point after the game. Levy has a bit of a dilemma, does he spend money on players which might help short term or does he spend it on the stadium which will have a massive effect on the club but long term. The one bonus for us is that TV money seemingly goes up and up each season and while transfer fees and wages rise with it building costs don't



Even though I rate him very highly there are certainly question marks but as fans it's almost impossible to know who's to blame in certain situations. Watching us tonight I would say we haven't progressed from the Harry era but we've seen that he has had the players organised and well drilled and that is progress. What we need is to play that way in every game, in the same way that Arsenal and Man U play the same way in every game. The players know their jobs inside out and know what's expected of them in each moment.

Im not 100% sold on our player organisation tbh, because to be brutally honest we look fucking clueless most of the time. I have liked some of the things he has done and I as said a couple of month back we perform better against the bigger teams but today we lacked desire. What pissed me off wasnt the fact they were better than us is just they were showing the desire we needed to, hazard, mata and Oscar ran their socks of when we had the ball in their half where as we waiting for them to put pressure on us when they had the ball.

Of course if we had Dembele, Sandro and Kaboul back i hope we would of done better, these 3 players win more balls than most of the PL. Also I wrote this about us in another thread about some of the bad luck he has had to deal with:

"True when you look at it like that and i can list loads of things that avb has had to deal with like for instance half of our available defence hadnt played with each other at the start of the season and it shows.

But on the flip side we have dropped 24 points from winning positions this season and yet we are still in the race, it shows how poor the rest have been tbh."

 

[camaj]

I just realised I didn't answer the OP's question. I'd say A is better than B but I don't have anything to back that up

But on the flip side we have dropped 24 points from winning positions this season and yet we are still in the race, it shows how poor the rest have been tbh."

I don't think it tells us anything about the other teams. Chelsea have been slightly better, Arsenal about the same and us about the same. It shows how bad we were last season, perhaps.

 

[sunnydelight786]

Love the guy. Him screaming 'WIN WIN' at Jan in about the 88th minute was brilliant, love his passion. Really pleased the fans were chanting his name late on as well, super away support as always!

We were chanting his name all the way back to Fulham Broadway station and were proper taking the piss on the platform. AVB's Blue & White Army sung loud and proud!!!

 

[beats1]

I just realised I didn't answer the OP's question. I'd say A is better than B but I don't have anything to back that up



I don't think it tells us anything about the other teams. Chelsea have been slightly better, Arsenal about the same and us about the same. It shows how bad we were last season, perhaps.

I disagree slightly Chelsea have been better at times but season they have pulled jammy wins by their strength of character. Arsenal on the other hand are worse but expect that when you lose someone like Van Persie. Also only Southampton have lost more points from winning positions than us had we got half those points we would 7 points behind Utd today and they would of won the title after our draw. Sounds depressing doesnt it.

 

[Dharmabum]

Apart from being without Sandor and Dembele, he also had to do without Kaboul (who at the start of the season was a towering rock in Spurs' defense).
Remember, this is Andre's first full season the EPL; a season that started with him losing v.d. Vaart and Modric (both sold), King (retired), Kaboul (injury) and not getting his 2nd striker (what club with big ambitions would start a season with only ONE striker?!), Ade, 2 months after pre-season practice had started!

 

[hellava_tough]

Don't fuck this summer up Levy. Back your man or he'll be off.

I agree with you, but I can't see Levy spending anything over £10m without first selling a few players

 

[playboypaul]

Im not 100% sold on our player organisation tbh, because to be brutally honest we look fucking clueless most of the time.

This. Fucking hell this.

I think people are getting confused. The fact that we have become somewhat resilient doesn't mean we are well drilled. We are resilient, more so then in recent seasons. We are however, not well drilled, our shape has been atrocious for large parts of the season. When we are defending, our defence isn't even in a line let alone the rest of our team in any sort of drilled in defensive shape.

We have been ragged and loose for the most part and it has cost us a lot. On Saturday when I watched the Southampton game I watched the way the Southampton defence fell back in to a cohesive unit when they had to defend. They had two banks, the defensive one of four and the midfield was one of three with the left or right midfielder, depending on whatever way the ball was being played joining up the forward two to chase the ball down to win it from the front.

We do not do this.


If an attack breaks down we fall back as individuals. The defence is there already but our midfielders drift back and chase the ball down rather then getting in to any sort of defensive shape and are leaving pockets of space everywhere. We sometimes end up having four players around the attacker with the ball only for him to play it 30 yards across the pitch to a team mate who has now been gifted acres of space.

We have to be better drilled. I could go on about this at length but cant be asked but I think it is there in plain sight for all to see.

 

[WoodGreenSpur]

Great the Martin Jol Brigade have come back and they have a new hero and his name is AVB. What is it with this section of our fans? Anybody who is average they just latch onto them in some homoerotic obsession. I for one believe now that the rumours circulating about him during his time at Chelsea were true and that his underdstanding of the game is very limited and the small knowledge he has is from books.

An article a while back had a direct quote from two people high up at Spurs who said 'we think he is a fraud'. When have you ever heard a manager being called a fraud?