I was surprised how well we performed in the two games, considering they were largely our second and third-choice players. PS. Can anyone explain why AVB insists on you playing everything through the middle, no matter how effective it is against whoever it is you're playing? It's more than a wee bit ******ed from a title and UEFA Cup-winning manager.
I want to say "tactically clueless," but I don't want to be accused of slating the manager. I already have one strike against my name on account of my infamous "AVB is a clown" thread, of last season.
I was at last nights match and it was a great atmosphere throughout...maybe the website you watched it on had crap microphones for picking up the crowd...not taking the piss but it genuinely was noisy and lively all match
Oh good. That is weird though - there seemed to be long periods of silence on the stream I had. I'm glad it really was a decent atmosphere. It should always be something we have over the goons.
As someone who's been one of the steadier backers of AVB, I'm a little clueless as well. But let me tell you what I saw: For the first fifteen minutes or so, the team worked out what I believe was AVB's plan flawlessly, passing it around the perimeter, patiently looking for an opening...and passing...and passing some more. Dull, sure, but we were looking for an opening, completely safe since we had the ball, and you were sweating and working hard. Then, progressively, after messing up a few good opportunities this tactic got us, we went downhill and you clawed back into the game, Gylfi's goal marking the point when we started to go downhill and you started to improve. We went, in particular, from winning all the 50-50s to losing at least half of them. When we got the ball, we immediately tried to bat it through the middle, typically poorly, to one player surrounded by two or four of yours. The funny thing was that this scramble the ball through strategy produced a goal, and the only goal produced by the period we followed the script was produced by a wonder strike. I'm not particularly inclined at this early stage to blame a progressive lack of composure, which seemed to be what I was watching, on AVB. What I do blame him for, on the other hand, is how pathetic we looked when we tried to hit you on the break, as those chances occurred more and more often as the game went on and you attacked more and more. My god we looked awful when we tried to move the ball quickly--very much, I'd say, as if we never practiced moving the ball quickly, which surely is unwise if that's the case. The triangles we played when we were on script look very neat. But surely we need to be able to hit teams on the counter as well. We have the players to do it. If we look inept when we try, I blame the coach for not practicing it.
It took me a while to find English comms. Danish and Russian, no problem. It's almost twice the size of a normal game. Will take me a while to finish. Probably Saturday. I still haven't seen the last 30 minutes.
Thats interesting rcl, where were you sitting? Spurcat also at the match said this... "As for the improved atmosphere, well the 1882 group did their best, but it still fell short of what it could be and should be and in fact there was booing in the extra time period."
2013.10.30 - Tottenham vs Hull (250p).mkv (844.4 MB) https://mega.co.nz/#!uA8mXLzD!AZ2g6UWxea5F21pc0kvCCjm8SgIfHgeUeKL0Oafuvn0
