Ok so we have played our 3rd League Match under AVB's guidance and so far we haven't won a game. Many of you are going to be of the opinion that he has to be given time and now that the transfer window is closed and we have re shuffled our squad things should improve. There is also a general consensus of opinion that AVB is tactically superior to 'Arry and it's going to take time for him to implement his system of play at the club.
Well I'd just like to point out one or two things that I have noticed in our opening games...
1. For the second week running we have started with Jermaine Defoe as our one and only striker, and although I think JD is an excellent goalscorer he is not a lone striker / frontman. This is even more surprising as we have Adebayor sat on the bench who is funnily enough able to play the lone striker role extremely well !! But I hear you all shout Adebayor isn't match fit..... so how the hell is going to get match fit by sitting on the bench, I was under the impression that you play him for an hour then take him off and build his match time up over a few games.
2. We have played WBA and Norwich at HOME and we started both games with two holding midfield players !!!! I mean no disrespect to either team but we should be taking them apart at home with fluid attacking football (much like the football we have been used to over the last 2-3 seasons). So why the defensive pairing in midfield why the negative approach at home, what does this actually gain us ...... nothing but it allows the opposition the opportunity to effectively police our attacks especially when our fullbacks don't get forward.
3. In both games we have scored first and as soon as we have scored AVB has taken of an attacker and bought on another midfielder to tighen up and hold on to what we have..... and invited pressure straight on to us. This has resulted in both teams scoring against us in the last few minutes as our defensive unit slowly crawls backwards towards it's own 18 yard line !!! In fact the only good thing to come out of the opening 3 games is the form of Brad Friedel because without him we wouldn't have any points at all !!! Funny AVB's gonna tell him he's dropped now that we have Lloris, wonder how that's going to down in the dressing room !!!
The whole high line high pressure system is fine..... if you are playing in Europe, let's say Spain, Portugal, Italy or even France because the football in these leagues is shall we say less physical, powerful and pacey. The system just does not work in the Premier League due to the high tempo and aggressive style played in this country, it may well work against the better teams but against teams already fighting for every point it just breaks down and players find themselves in trouble !!!
AVB tactically aware and better than Redknapp, maybe but at least with 'Arry we played to our strengths and took the game to teams especially at home and we all felt the only thing that was missing was a quality striker !!!! AVB seems to unable to learn from his mistakes and even more disturbingly seems unprepared to admit them too !!!!
Once we were all crying out for a quality Striker.........Now I fear we are missing a hell of alot more !!!!
The team seems to have lost it's heart and it's passion, and I don't see AVB being able to replace that with his logical and systematic approach, he just isn't a man motivator !!!!!
I agree with pretty much everything you wrote, ugs.
1. Defoe's height is 1.67m, exactly the same as my wife. Using him as the lone striker is as reasonable as using him as the holding midfielder. He cannot challenge for headers, he cannot tackle, he is relatively poor passer and his small stature means he is hardly a intimidating figure one lone striker should be. Defoe is one of the best finishers in the league but how is he supposed to score goals when he cannot get the ball. We have Adebayor, but that means we cannot play two strikers at the same time because we only have two strikers. Even Kane was loaned out. Bloody genius, Levy!
2. Looking our squad, we actually don't have many attacking midfielders left. Kranjčar, van der Vaart and Modrić are all gone. Sigurdsson and Dembele are attacking midfielders, other ones we have, not so much.
3. We used to give Harry slack for f**king up substitutions on occasions, but the fact we have thrown away our slim leads ine every game, is simply pathetic. Every decent manager knows you cannot start defending a one goal lead (unless you're Italian).
All in all I am not sure whether this really is just a slow start (new manager, new players just added, many players sold/loaned out) or is it actually as good as it gets. I won't be calling for Villas-Boas' head after three games but I can't say I'm too optimistic. We play Reading away in two weeks and should we cock that one up... I don't know.
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