Relax AVB lovers! No knives yet, as problematic as that performance was, not surprising really, if we take away the mind clouding events of yesterday. Ade's way off fit, the new lads will be able to get training too now, competition for places again is good, so its going to need a few games. The signs aren't that good in one or two areas, JD I'll forgive for being the only fit striker for 90, so no choice this week. I think AVB errs on the side of caution a bit too much atm, but again understandable...just! with Gallas in defence and 2 DM's, but he has deal with the curve ball thrown at him by Kaboul. Dembele has had maybe one or 2 sessions with us, so if he's gone for caution again rather than throw him in, ok, hindsight says on from the start and an early goal might have been different for us. Bale and Lennon were very quiet other than a few instances...too few! so it was all a bit disjointed really, but, the old team has been torn apart and is now confined to a memory, so half a new team and new style is unlikely to click instantly. We will come up against many organised teams at home like Norwich, and Brad and our woodwork were too busy for my liking aswell. 3rd game summary summary!...We all said time must be given, so I'm doing it. Lets allow this new group their first week together, the next games teamsheet will be interesting. Footnote: as far as I'm concerned we are chucking away points every season doing this in the TW, we will no doubt rue it come May with no England to blame!
Evening notso A very diplomatic summary. Driving home from the game this evening, there was a Spurs fan who came onto the 606 phone-in show, and said he had held a season ticket for 25 years and he had never booed the team before and he had never left the ground before the final whistle. Today, he did both. He confessed to booing the team off at half time and he was so disgusted, he left before the final whistle. I knew exactly how he felt.
Just to add to your thread notso, this is what avb said after the game And the part you said about Caution, is it understandable? surely he must realise that playing a negative formation is going to result in negative results, especially when the players aren't suited to the system.
He doesn't actually think it is a negative formation and I agree. It is supposed to free up Lennon and Bale to attack by reducing their defensive responsibilities. City scored loads of goals playing like this last year (eight of them against us). I know they have better players than us, but I still think the system is superior too. In some ways our players are more suited than City's as they have no really fast wide players and can get very narrow at times.
Ok I understand in his mind when he picks the formation he doesn't view it as being negative yet surely he must see as the game progresses that the formation is causing negative play, or is the guy that stubborn? City players can play quick short passes, drag players out of position, make runs and they have two of the best strikers in tevez and aguero, plus they have one of the best dm's in toure and I understand you don't need world class players to play this system BUT if you play a system that gets the best out of world class players or top class players then there really is only one result, a positive one. AVB is trying to use a system which looks negative because of the players in that system. I think that’s a fair point to make!
i wouldnt walk out on a team that has a new manager and a team that is fairly new to one another....shame on that Spurs fan for both actions. i also was disgruntled..but 3 god damn matches..i give up.
I know you wouldn't walk out Spurlock. I merely posted it on here to give an idea on what the mood was at the Lane this afternoon.
So the third match sees us with 2 points and a lot of depression. We played well last week and poorly this week and I don't really know why. We lost to a penalty the first match and we drew with the team which has beaten Liverpool and Everton with 5 for and no reply. But today we could have lost to the team which was thrashed 0-5 in their first match. My summary is that I'm totally confused. We are in an unprecedented situation with a not trusted coach in charge of a team which finished in a champion's league slot last season. I cannot remember sacking such a successful coach as Harry before for an untried man to take his place and with a lot of new players. I have to say that we will have to leave this to old father time to tell us more. I'm peed off with today's result and with Hud being sent off shows the luck isn't with us and I think it will continue. Let's see how the teams we have played do in the coming couple of matches so we can compare performances. That's all I have to say.
Evening SC, we could all murder the game tactically, but lets be honest, at this stage anything else would be just as experimental, so who's to say it would have been any better. Its more an attack on TW timing, this **** needs sorting before the 1st game imo. If AVB went on the attack, who knows, it could have gone all Ossie!
The worrying thing about today for me was the performance. We were awful for the most part, Norwich fully deserved the point they got and could easily have gone away with all three. The previous two games were disappointing results but at least the performances gave reason for hope - we dominated the first half of both those games and could have had two wins with better finishing and/or luck. Today we looked very slow and hesitant in comparison. Why is Ade taking so long to get match-fit? I thought he would start today. I know he wasn't involved in ManC's pre-season games but surely he should have been working on his fitness while waiting for the transfer to go through? What, so today was the worse thing he's seen in 25 years at WHL? Worse than 0-2 to Norwich last season? Or 0-5 to ManC? Bollocks.
I don't know. As I said earlier, I only mentioned it to highlight the general mood at the ground today. Jeez, I wish I'd never mentioned it now.
This is where our stupidly late business in TW is hurting us. We missed out on Moutinho because of our stupidly late activity and Adebayor signed late so is not match fit which leaves us stuck playing with Defoe who is useless as a lone striker. We then have Gylfi in a role that Dempsey would thrive in and we are playing sandro (who looks shattered after the olympics) and livermore who are too defensive. For it to work better one of them needs to drive forward more - this is going to be where Dembele is going to make a massive difference as we saw today. Lennon is wasting too many opportunities with a pathetic final ball - he seems to love the little chip cross for some reason even though its useless most the time. All in all a combination of late transfers, injuries and fitness problems is the problem here and I expect performances to improve once everyone settles in.
I'm 22, Haven't missed more than 5 homes games in the last 7 years (league and cups) and have been to a good few away games, I've never (and still won't) boo or leave before the final whistle, but like yourself, can completely understand how the season ticket holder felt. I'm quite a loud lad at the games, today however, I could barely bring myself to chant "Oh when the Spurs". I'm utterly depressed at how AVB is ruining the club I love. I'm not a glory hunter (being a Spurs fan proves it ), I don't expect us to win every game but what I do expect is heart, commitement and exciting football... I can't see any of it with this team. The players look like they've taken part in the London marathon prior to kick off, the tactics and selections AVB has chosen is disgraceful and not in line with the usual tradition of our club, the treatment of Dawson has been upsetting and the general mood is just dire. We may only be 3 games in but my ambitions for the season are decreasing with every game. I honestly don't expect us to finish higher than 10th with this man in charge. We have a squad more than capable of challening for a top 3/ top 4 place, yet we have a manager who's capable of getting us relegated. Truly worrying.
OK. I didn't see the match. I just caught the MOTD highlights, and the pundit's comments with Harry. To me, the underlying problem lies in the CM or DM pairing. Livermore played the whole match, right? Yet he features in NONE of the highlights. This would never be the case with a Parker and Modric pairing. For me, this is where we lose shape, and games (Or fail to win). Being soft or floppy and sloppy in the middle. It took Harry a while to get this right. Livermore has been the only consistently fit player for the position this season. This is a big problem, because we fans all know that he is average cover at best and not real genuine cover for either Parker or Modric. If Parker was in, that second goal might not have happened and we'd generally be less beatable. Livermore, for me, is the reason why we never need to see Jenas again. He covers Jenas. Not Parker. Not Modric. All of the chopping and changing, Sandro off for Dembele etc. can only work if Livermore is Modric, or a rock like a Yaya Toure. He's not. He's not at that level yet. That quality, or as AVB puts it, of that 'dimension' lol. Unfortunately, until Parker comes back to full fitness, the closest we have to the quality and consistency required for CM is Dembele, who must start from now on surely. Dembele / fit Parker or Dembele / fit Sandro would be much more effective than Livermore / (any of the CMs). If anyone who saw the match can correct me and tell me that Livermore had a blinder, please do. I'd love to be wrong here. Also, I hope that Dempsey coming in marks the end of Defoe starting as lone striker. Defoe is a GREAT impact sub. I think he needs to understand that for us to be successful. I'd much rather Dempsey or Ade with Sig behind or Ade with Dempsey behind to start. Defoe works much better against a tired defence and proved this not only last season for us, but at international level too. What irks me a little bit is that I'm not football manager, but this is obvious to me, as I'm sure it is to lots of tottenham fans, yet it seems that AVB and co. may not see it. I hope they do.
The real problem is the transfer deadline day dealings. Our chairman thinks he can force bargains at the last miniute, he really needs to rethink this policy because he is the real joke in this not AVB. He knew who AVB wanted in July so to finally make concrete bids on the last day in august is very STUPID! Even if we got all the players we wanted its still very late as no pre season for the newest players makes bedding them in difficult. Ade's fitness or lack of stems from the lack of pre season conditioning he would've got if we had signed him earlier. This penny pinching will continue to delay the points gathered at the start of the season until we move quicker in the transfer window.
Levy has cost us again with his 'leave it late' show . I sincerely hope AVB is just being nice about Brad, because to get the captain of France in and stick him on the bench, oh dear. Brad does still make great saves, but his stay on the line approach costs us time and again. Once again we were all at sea when early on Norwich hit the bar from a header from a free kick. Maybe it would be unfair to start Lloris at Reading, but hey I think we have to do it.
The defence being "all at sea" from Snodgrass's delivery was in no way down to Friedel staying on his line which he was quite correct to do. It was down to the inability of the defenders to attack a routine ball coming into the box. I have read a lot of your previous observations on Friedel and there are many I agree with and many I don't agree with. I think he should start at Reading and I believe AVB will pick him. It's his jersey at the moment and it's up to Lloris to come in and work hard to take the number 1 spot off him.
