Well done Harry...

[ItsBoris]

If you are going to rely exclusively on stats to prove your point you cannot go looking for mitigating factors when the stats do not support your argument, like you have done with regard the last four games of the season.

Well no the stats still support my argument taking into account the last 4 games. I would say I don't need to try and exclude the 3 wins in the last 4 games or even try to explain them to prove my point statistically.

But it is important to ask if the same issues were evident despite winning those games. That's not looking for mitigating factors, it's putting the results of individual games into perspective to paint a larger picture. If you think that's manipulative then fine that's your opinion, I personally think it's important to look for the negative in victories and the positives in defeats. Otherwise your point of view will always be clouded by bias imho.

 

[Eric_s]

so what about the first season we finished fourth? Modric out for over half the season and no VDV at all yet still played very good football. You could argue we had a weaker squad then than this current one. I thought the reason AVB was brought in was because it wasn't about individuals, more about tactics and systems.

Compare our opposition for fourth then and this season plus the qualities for the promoted teams. Tell me our oppositions then were not weaker? Even city was much weaker that season. Plus without Modric our football is hardly free flowing. Just grab yourself a few videos of games then.

 

[eddiebailey]

Well no the stats still support my argument taking into account the last 4 games. I would say I don't need to try and exclude the 3 wins in the last 4 games or even try to explain them to prove my point statistically.

Perhaps if you had not first excluded them and then explained them we would not be having this debate!

The strength of your arguments depends on picking an arbitrary start and arbitrary finishing point. It is not really possible to argue that AVB inherited a team beset by problems, because the squad we had at the end of the season was by and large the one we had at the end of the season, the only truly significant factors that had changed during the course of the season being King's fitness, and possibly Harry's level of engagement. Overall though that team had achieved fourth, and was back in winning habits at the season's end.

So AVB is not struggling with Harry's legacy. What he is struggling with is the loss of three world class players, Levy's late and only partially successful transfer activity, and embedding a changed style of play.

The difficulties AVB finds himself in have very little to do with any slump under Harry, and it is up to AVB to find solutions to a changed situation, just as Harry would have had to do if he had stayed on.

 

[Luka Van der Bale]

so what about the first season we finished fourth? Modric out for over half the season and no VDV at all yet still played very good football. You could argue we had a weaker squad then than this current one. I thought the reason AVB was brought in was because it wasn't about individuals, more about tactics and systems.

Three. Fucking. Games.

 

[CosmicHotspur]

Rather than start a brand new thread on 'Arry, I see he's now an unpaid volunteer at Bournemouth, just minutes away from his home as he still wants to be involved in the game. He'll go to matches and attend training sessions on an ad hoc basis. So no pressure, just staying in touch with football.

Well done 'Arry!

 

[kendoddsdadsdogsdead]

Compare our opposition for fourth then and this season plus the qualities for the promoted teams. Tell me our oppositions then were not weaker? Even city was much weaker that season. Plus without Modric our football is hardly free flowing. Just grab yourself a few videos of games then.

every season we say it's going to be harder this year, teams are much stronger etc. We said it that season, we said it before the start of last season and we are saying it again this season, who knows. liverpool and arsenal were far stronger than they are now, man city stronger now. Much of a muchness for me. of course it wasn't all free flowing that year, but it was good for a lot of it. I would take similar this season

 

[kendoddsdadsdogsdead]

Three. Fucking. Games.

I'm not having a go or calling him out. I more than think he can do well here, but the Harry is shit brigade are getting there excuses in early.

 

[Bill_Oddie]

Rather than start a brand new thread on 'Arry, I see he's now an unpaid volunteer at Bournemouth, just minutes away from his home as he still wants to be involved in the game. He'll go to matches and attend training sessions on an ad hoc basis. So no pressure, just staying in touch with football.

Well done 'Arry!

That sound you hear is the alarm bell on the wall at Her Majesty's Customs and Excise...


EDIT: Speller. That'll teach me to post during bedtime stories (the kids, not mine)

 

[eViL]

 

[CosmicHotspur]

That sound you here is the alarm bell on the wall at Her Majesty's Customs and Excise...

I hear you...

 

[TheGreenLily]

Thanks for this. I stand by my rating of "Informative".

However, in the interests of fairness, I want to point out that the dates here are not strictly doing what you claim. They run from after the Newcastle game - fully obvious why that's a benchmark, rightly so - but ONLY until April 22. We still had 4 games left then. And we did okay in those.

I think the last four games was when Lennon came back from injury then and old Arry, could have revert back to his favourite formation. The period clearly shows Arry's in ability to cope with the loss of key players in his one formation as it was all about his starting 11 and not the rest of the squad. It was also then that England announced old Roy of the Rovers as England manager. So yes I think, that is the correct period of time to take the stats from as this was the period were Harry had to stand up and make himself counted, which ultimately he failed in dramatic style costing us 3rd in the league and champion league position.

The table that runs from the same date until the END of the season - when Harry technically "handed over" the team - actually has Spurs in 11th place. Feel free to check for yourselves. http://www.statto.com/football/stats/england/premier-league/2011-2012/custom-table

Still well lower than the 4th place we finished and shows exactly why we threw away the Champions League this season, for which Harry imo was rightly removed. But, the above table is more than a little disingenuous.

It is not for the above reasons, so the last four games are in consequential as the formation and England debate had ended by then.

That is what I think anyway.

 

[NEVILLEB]

Harry did very well. Wish Levy had seriously backed him in the last 2 seasons.