AvB

[Spurs_Bear]

Love him as a bloke.

Not convinced as anything else.

Sorry.

 

[mattstev2000]

Made us hard to beat, organised us, tactically astute, changed games with his substitutions, has a rapport with the players, impressive with the media, improved our performances against the big teams, shows passion in games and hauled the best points total ever out of a squad that lost real quality last summer.

Also a snappy dresser.

Not sure what else you'd need convincing about.

AVBs blue and white army for a long time please.

 

[absolute bobbins]

You become a big club by winning things. When you win things you attract players. Did Chelsea not just with the Tin Cup when their own qualification for the champions league was precarious? If you think finishing top four is an achievement then you just have a small mentality like the club down the road who have not won a single trophy in 7 seasons.

The other thing that people seem to forget about the Europa league is that its matches work towards our coefficient for the Champions League, if we progress the EL and qualify for CL football we are far more likely to be in the second pot. This makes our route out of the group stage far easier

 

[dn013]

Love him as a bloke.

Not convinced as anything else.

Sorry.

What in particular are you not sold on for him?

 

[worcestersauce]

where Adrian durham?

I hasn't got a clue!

 

[danielneeds]

Overall he has dispelled all the fears I had about him last summer. As previous posters have all ready pointed out, it's as a person where he's really impressed, always talking about the club and never moanin or shifting blame.

As far as how he's shaped the team, I haven't seen any quantum leaps from how we're we're playing under Harry. A bit better organised off the ball, but still attacking too slowly and playing infront of teams, making it too easy for them to defend against us.

 

[parklane1]

Agreed.
What is more important, IMO, is that when we did play in the CL we failed to finish in the top 4, and obviously suffered from our heroics. Clearly, a team needs to be acclimatised to competing in Europe as well as the EPL. What better way to do that than by using the Europa for that - with the added benefit that we might actually win a trophy, and one that, IMHO at least, is still fooking well worth winning!

Always amazes me at the short sightedness of some fans, we can not compete in the Europa Lge and the Prem but some fans think we can in the CL and the Prem.

The only way we will ever be able to do so is play twice a week and the Europa is the way we should learn how to do that.

 

[parklane1]

The other thing that people seem to forget about the Europa league is that its matches work towards our coefficient for the Champions League, if we progress the EL and qualify for CL football we are far more likely to be in the second pot. This makes our route out of the group stage far easier

Why let facts get in the way of those fans who can not see past the end of their noses? the only way we will ever become a top team is by managing to play twice a week and the Europa is one way of doing that.

 

[SEANSPURS1975]

Was pleased when he became our manager. I am convinced we have a top manager.
Think given the right backing can become a great at our club. AVB's blue and white army...

 

[hugrr]

Great manager who is a top technician.

I just hope he gets in a set piece coach, as if we could actually attack using them, or defend from them, we would be challenging at the top.

Maybe we can get Pulis on the coaching team

 

[Spurs_Bear]

What in particular are you not sold on for him?

One of the best players in the world.

 

[StartingPrice]

Always amazes me at the short sightedness of some fans, we can not compete in the Europa Lge and the Prem but some fans think we can in the CL and the Prem.

The only way we will ever be able to do so is play twice a week and the Europa is the way we should learn how to do that.

Indeed.

 

[JayB]

One of the best players in the world.

Who blossomed after adopting a new role around Christmas. Who do you suppose thought that one up?

 

[Spurs_Bear]

Who blossomed after adopting a new role around Christmas. Who do you suppose thought that one up?

Played the same role last year. And at times when it was needed we would have been better off with him at least notionally having a starting position.

Scored the most goals from outside the box in Europe or some ridiculous stat. Do you attribute that to his position swap?

 

[Blake Griffin]

Played the same role last year. And at times when it was needed we would have been better off with him at least notionally having a starting position.

Scored the most goals from outside the box in Europe or some ridiculous stat. Do you attribute that to his position swap?

i must have missed that one bear.

 

[Spurs_Bear]

i must have missed that one bear.

What the free role?

We sung "Gareth Bale, he plays on the left" at various points of last season when he was playing central. We were fickle then too.

 

[Blake Griffin]

What the free role?

We sung "Gareth Bale, he plays on the left" at various points of last season when he was playing central. We were fickle then too.

he never played central, not even once. he played maybe twice on the right when harry decided to blow up the team because lennon was injured. one of them was away to everton when we had this horrible formation of modric left, bale right and defoe+ade up top.

 

[JayB]

Played the same role last year. And at times when it was needed we would have been better off with him at least notionally having a starting position.

Scored the most goals from outside the box in Europe or some ridiculous stat. Do you attribute that to his position swap?

I absolutely think that Bale playing centrally and on the right contributed to his goal tally from outside of the box as it allowed him to get into spaces to cut inside onto his left foot and blast it into the net. How many times did we see the same goal?

He may have been given a free role here and there by Redknapp, and indeed put in some good performances (Norwich away sticks out), but he lacked influence in others (hence he plays on the left). AVB made a conscious, permanent change to the player's position and his form skyrocketed. I think Bale's reaction after the WBA winner says it all really.

 

[Spurs_Bear]

he never played central, not even once. he played maybe twice on the right when harry decided to blow up the team because lennon was injured.

Central/free role. The difference between tactical genius and tactically inept I guess.

Norwich (a) one of our best performances.

Some fickle fuckers out there, play the ball not the man.

 

[mpickard2087]

I see where Bear is coming from. Defensively we did pretty well for most of the season but we tailed of towards the end, set pieces have been an issue all season which is disappointing, and the attacking game has been very disappointing/verging on clueless for the most part. When you see the U21's passing and moving with much more cohesiveness and ease and putting the first team to shame I do start to wonder why we see no signs of this at first team level, it can't all be down to not having the players... even Brenton up in ScouseLand has made some progress in getting the squad round to his way of playing. Maybe AVB is holding back this season and being conservative, it is an assumption we are all making at this stage though... we haven't seen anything attacking wise so far and lets hope it changes.

I think we have also been flattered a bit by Bale (obviously), and also that the league has about 12 pretty average teams, which explains for the high points tallies picked up and how many needed for 4th place.

He does deserve credit for getting us to tough it out and finding a way to break through, so often late on, in games. This cannot all be down to luck, there is a definitely more steel and battling qualities in the side which is imperative and something we have traditionally lacked.

There is a lot to improve on though, lets be under no illusions. Still to early to judge him in my opinion. Definitely deserves the time and be backed with resources in order to move us forward though.