Good Week/Bad Week

[Krafty]

Yes, we're back. After a trial run last season, we'll be trying to go on for a full season (unlike Spurs recently!). As always, this isn't literally who played well and who played badly, that's largely obvious, but a set of talking points that will take both a short and long term view.

Good Week:

Jermain Defoe
A goal for England in the week, a goal for Spurs at Newcastle on Saturday. There is much discussion about whether he can fit into an AVB system, where his future lies when we (surely) get in another striker or two, but goalscorers will always be in demand and on a personal level JD has had a great week.

Harry Kane
His Premiership career may only be five minutes old, but Kane has come a long way in the last three seasons. Turning out for the academy to being second choice striker, for the moment at least, Harry looks to have impressed the manager and can expect more and more game time, even when there is stiffer competition for a striking berth.

Our new striker’s agent
As if his hand wasn’t strong enough, that agent will be in control when it comes to talking terms and his fee with Levy.

Luka Modric and Daniel Levy
We missed Modric but not as much as we might have feared, and Real’s stuttering to a 1-1 draw with Valencia might force Mourinho et al to find the extra few million Levy wants. A solution that makes everyone a winner could be a step closer.

Brad Friedel
Keeps his run of games going.

Bad Week:

Rafa van der Vaart
The change of manager, coinciding with an extended break due to the Euros, has left VDV in a bit of limbo. He has not had the opportunity over pre-season to impress the new boss, and given the change of system Rafa was picked as the man to miss out. Starting on the bench for the season opener is not a disaster, but it’s clear van der Vaart needs to show his quality to get back in to the team, and being partly to blame for the penalty to cost us a point is not a great start.

Whoever trains our set pieces
To get caught at a short corner is unacceptable. We were slow to switch on to the danger, slow to close Ben Arfa down, and then Lennon and VDV defended poorly. It’s that kind of sloppy play that we need to eradicate if we want to return to the Champions League.

 

[dontcallme]

Good post.

I'm not sure VDV has been dropped or needs to work his way back into the team. He played in the Euro's and had a bit of a thigh injury so understandable that he was left out. I think he'll play a big role this season, as always.

 

[JimmyG2]

Good week for the SC fans and the THFC fans generally.
Never known such positivity after a defeat in a game
we should have won.
Good week for looking on the bright side

 

[jolsnogross]

Good week for the SC fans and the THFC fans generally.
Never known such positivity after a defeat in a game
we should have won.
Good week for looking on the bright side

I'm a bit baffled by the positivity. I can understand the motivation of a new season and all the hope and change etc, but how come so many saw so much "improvement" and "organization". Our tactical manager got outfoxed by Pardew it seems, and the game wasn't even close to the spectacle of last years 2-2 belter of a game.

I'm a bit disheartened by the idea that we'll feel the need to have two defensive midfielders rather than just one. That seems to be the big difference between AVB's brave new world and Harry's old "tactics-free" one: Harry played a creative guy and a more defensive guy in the middle and one forward and one in the hole. AVB plays two defensive covers and sacrifices a creative player. Am I wrong?

edit: (I suppose there always the hope, and I share it, that Sandro will become a real box-to-box midfielder who chips in with goals)

 

[jolsnogross]

How come AVB wasn't a loser this week. No signings, no Modric departure yet, and off to a losing start. It could be construed that I'm piling on now, but surely it wasn't the dawn of a new era that he'd have been hoping for?

 

[billnick]

I'm a bit baffled by the positivity. I can understand the motivation of a new season and all the hope and change etc, but how come so many saw so much "improvement" and "organization". Our tactical manager got outfoxed by Pardew it seems, and the game wasn't even close to the spectacle of last years 2-2 belter of a game.

I'm a bit disheartened by the idea that we'll feel the need to have two defensive midfielders rather than just one. That seems to be the big difference between AVB's brave new world and Harry's old "tactics-free" one: Harry played a creative guy and a more defensive guy in the middle and one forward and one in the hole. AVB plays two defensive covers and sacrifices a creative player. Am I wrong?

edit: (I suppose there always the hope, and I share it, that Sandro will become a real box-to-box midfielder who chips in with goals)

I'd imagine a lot of it comes from the realisation that with so much change there's also a requirement of time for it all to settle down.

That, plus we created far more scoring opportunities than Newcastle (a settled, and decent, side) and lost after conceding a rash penalty and equally schooboy defensive mistake. Of course, if our tactical plan was to give away a late penalty and for Walker to make dodgy headers then yes, our manager got outfoxed by Pardew. Care to shed any light on how you know we'll be playing two defensive players all the time, from ONE game?

 

[jolsnogross]

I'd imagine a lot of it comes from the realisation that with so much change there's also a requirement of time for it all to settle down.

That, plus we created far more scoring opportunities than Newcastle (a settled, and decent, side) and lost after conceding a rash penalty and equally schooboy defensive mistake. Of course, if our tactical plan was to give away a late penalty and for Walker to make dodgy headers then yes, our manager got outfoxed by Pardew. Care to shed any light on how you know we'll be playing two defensive players all the time, from ONE game?

We did create more chances to shoot, but still lost to a side who made maybe 3 or 4 chances. It wasn't the free flowing footy of the majority of last year, that's for sure. And yet people are relishing the fact that we run about a bit high up the pitch when we don't have the ball.

Pardew made a subtle change during the game to get Ba out left, occupy Walker, and create more space for themselves - that shifted the balance of the game in their favor after we failed to capitalize on the first half dominance.

But it is only one game and I think we'll improve. I think the formation is pretty set in AVB's teams. He plays 433 or 4231. That's only ever one forward, a number nine, with two wide attackers and gylfi or VDV. I suppose if we replace modric maybe we'll play just one of Sandro, Parker, Livermore. But I'm not so sure.