1. Bring back Benny 2. Er, that's it....... Frankly, if AVB and his management team cannot fathom results from the assortment of riches available to him, then we are royally ****ed!!
I know where NSIS is coming from with Daws. I think very highly of the guy. he's a fantastic pro, a great role model and always gives his all. However, when it comes to footballing ability, his weaknesses are exposed and he's vulnerable in our current system with the high line. As things currently stand, Vertonghen and Chiriches are our two best performing CB's, IMO. Kaboul hasn't quite got back to his best yet, but as others have said, that'll come in time.
Dawson has been our most consistent centre-half this season, in my opinion. Vertonghen has been pissed around a bit, though.
I agree with PNP that Dawson has been our most consistent CB this season. Granted, he has had 2 poor league games on the spin now, but overall he has been far better than anyone else. Kaboul on Sunday confirmed he is nowhere near back to his best and if I was still playing, I would not want Vertonghen in front of me thanks very much.
If I was the manager I would want to change the way we play so that we build our attacking play on a firmer base rather than our traditional approach which has led us to may dropped points in the past. I believe that you need six outfield players who can defend well and four skilful attacking players to break down stubborn defences. So I would play 4231 all the time. If one or both of the defensive midfield players can pick a pass, beat players or gets into the box regularly to score goals that is a bonus. Similarly if any of the attacking three have good defensive qualities that is great too. I would want to stick to essentially the same system all the time, because I think that is less confusing for the players, but I'd like to have a choice of players in each position with different qualities so that I can select a different team according to the strength and weaknesses of the opposition. Ideally I'd like 23-25 equally good players and rotate but I know in practice some cream would rise to the top. But everyone needs to play reasonably regularly so that they are confident if they have to play in big matches due to injury. I'd want to play a pressing game to restrict the opposition when they have the ball as their defenders are not likely to pass well under pressure. This implies the opposition midfielders being closely pressed too, or they will have too much space when they do get the ball. This will lead to the defence playing high up the pitch so it will be safer if we have fast defenders but I'm prepared to put up with losing the occasional goal to a break as I think we'll concede a lot fewer on average. I want the wider players in the attacking three to get close to the lone forward so that he has plenty of opportunity to keep moves going by close passing: so they will cut in often and our width will come from fullbacks. This is particularly true of the wide player on the field away from where we have possession of the ball. he needs to get into the box close to the striker and leave the wing to his full back. It is the job of the whole front four to score goals so they ought to be comfortable in taking shots but the priority is to retain the ball so I would work on decision making with the squad so that passes were preferred over speculative shots and crosses, including from set pieces. the most creative player goes in the middle of the attacking three. I would try to stress players in training so that I knew what their weakness were while under pressure and work with them to correct them. I would be ruthless in cutting out distractions to the players and would not put up with any player who disrupted the team ethos, however good he was. But i would take responsibility if I had signed such a player. I would also concentrate on details - including making sure that bedding, travel arrangements and diet were designed to make sure that every team member arrived in top condtion for the match.
In other words PowerSpurs you are 100% behind AVB. I think atm you will find yourself in the minority, but if you are right then it will be the best of all worlds and save further upheaval.
My point is that AVB is changing things and I believe it will lead to long term success. He deserves at least three seasons to see if the long-term plan is right
Only if Levy has the guts to back AVB against a media and fan backlash - I'm not that confident he will
Yes he certainly is changing things. No more of that clueless, tactically naive reliance on goals being scored, no more finishing fourth or ridiculous insistence on moving the ball and players somewhere roughly near the opponent's goal...
The only way to "change things" is to change the manager, It doesn't really matter what formation we use. 4231, 4141, or 3-5-2, its all the same with AVB.
He has had one season where he got our record number of points. I don't see how it was his fault that Arsenal got 28 points out of the last 30 to pip us for fourth. If we had been offered that points total at the start of last season with Modric and King gone and Kaboul out the whole year everyone would have said it was amazingly good. Look through history and see how often we've been better than 5th.....
Dawson's been a Spurs player since we were a mid-table team and has kept his place or challenged for a place as we've become top 5 side. No average or limited player would keep his place in this squad when you consider the amount of additions we've had to help improve it. Dawson has always been there or thereabouts challenging/ playing at CB and has been one of the biggest reasons towards our steady rise in the Premier League. I've stated countless of times that a fit Vertonghen and Kaboul are far better (in my opinion) but that doesn't mean I wouldn't Dawson a part of this squad, he's still a great player. His off the field attributes are also just as important as his on field ones and that alone makes him a very valuable. With City aside, he's been part of a generally very solid defence, again, no limited ability player could be in such a thing. Saying he's been responsible for as many goals against us as Gomes, yeah you might be right, but Gomes had what, two and half seasons with us? Dawson's had about nine. AVB on the other hand has managed to turn an exciting attacking outlet who'd finished 4th prior to his appointment into a team that plays arguably the dullest football in the league, can't score for love nor money and look to have no chance of getting a top 6 or 7 finish at this rate, let alone "taking us to the next level" which we were led to believe. You talk in other comments about giving him time but how much time can you afford to give him? Finish below 4th this season and you can kiss goodbye to one or two key players which will only result in us taking more steps back.
There will be 1000 great players by that definition so I can't argue that Dawson is not one of those. He wouldn't be near the squad of Chelsea, City or Utd though and those are the sort of players we need
The current Utd side could probably do with him. Rio's past it, Vidic gets injuries every season, Jones and Smalling have failed to reach potential and are often used out of position due to that, while Evans blows hot and cold. Is Demichiles really better than Dawson right now? The Demichelis of Bayern was class but Malaga and on wards I felt he's declined, still good but I'd have Daws over him, especially when you consider Daws' Prem experience.
Its not funny. For most of the time since Bill Nicholson was the manager Spurs were definitely in the top 5 best resourced clubs and yet our average league position in the 30 years to 2004 was tenth! Now we are sixth in terms of resources but fans are disappointed if we come fifth. That is the difference ENIC and Levy have made: but at the first sign of a bad patch everyone wants to panic.
We can't just use past league finishes as an excuse to remain satisfied in the present day. Aims and expectations rise with each season, especially when more money is spent.
