Oh come on after every defeat or draw after being ahead we can't start questioning AVB's future. He has no chance in that case.
If it continues like this I can't see him lasting. It has to improve. Consistency doesn't exist and neither does attractive football. I'm not sure that things will improve because even with Bale our football hasn't been great. I wish we would have a few draws,at least then we could measure consistency a bit better. Yes we had played 10 matches in a month and I thought before the match that Everton would be fresher than us because we had a tough midweek match but we still should not have lost the match from that position. Believe me I want him to do well for the team and I hope we win against Swansea but if we lose it Levy will start writing on the wall.
The fact that AVB has us around the 4/5/ spot shows he is doing ok, so to talk of sacking him is just knee jerk. In fact maintaining that position at the beginning of his time at Spurs through an injury crisis to a number of crucial players is a very good sign for him. AVB and Spurs will develop given time but it's no good altering your perception on the basis of results in individual games. Unless we go on a downward spiral there is every reason to support AVB and let him get on with the job.
[SUP][/SUP] I'd agree. But I also think there's more to it than just that. Levy seems to have a lot of his own personal credibility invested in AVB. If it all goes tits up, it could be more than just AVB's head on he block!.
A few years ago before Harry we'd have given anything to be a 5th placed team. How soon we get spoiled by a few relatively good seasons. There is no perspective in the current disappointment, it's as if we now expect success. I didn't want AVB (as I keep saying) but it's ridiculous to draw conclusions based on such a few games. NB, who thinks Everton would be where they are now if they'd had to manage with as many injuries as us? and by the way, we're 5th, not fighting relegation.
I'm sorry, but people talking about him being sacked are being ludicrous. This is off the back of one loss, following on from four consecutive wins. We lost King, Modric and van der Vaart in the summer, Parker, Kaboul and Assou-Ekotto have managed two games between them and we had several protracted transfer sagas. We're 5th on goal difference, above Arsenal and Liverpool and we've progressed in the Europa, yet some people want to see the back of our manager before Christmas? Ridiculous. Give the guy a bloody chance, for ****'s sake.
Christ,I didn't say that I wanted him out but what I'm saying is that Levy might start to get concerned if this sort of form continues. Yes we are 5th but ffs have thrown away being much higher haven't we? The football isn't great as you've all admitted. Losing from winning positions isn't something that Levy will tolerate for long.
Other teams haven't got themselves into (or been good enough to get themselves into) winning positions in order to lose those positions. Which is worse? In fact I would argue that the most important stat is the points tally, which logically represents positions we haven't gone on to lose. By definition we've not "gone on to lose" 10 times in 16 games, and there's 15 teams in one of the most competitive leagues in the world who have a worse record than that. When you add in the injuries factor (and others), I don't think our record is bad at all. Yes we could have done better, but the fact that we were heading for better before losing it in the last minute (almost literally) is actually a positive sign for the future.
A good point on Vertonghen is spoilt by dubious stats. We are looking at trends at this stage of the season, stats are pretty meaningless as the games are different. The Everton game is one among 36 and one we do not expect a lot from away on past performances. We can access all this at the end of the season at this stage 3 'extra points' at Old Trafford do not mean much either.
This thread stopped after the Everton defeat, having travelled through the Arsenal defeat. Both of these defeats were followed by changes from AVB. After the Arsenal game he became more aggressive and started using 442. After the Everton game losing last minute goals was addressed and with some success. Now the Liverpool defeat? The pass back to goalie? The left wing? What do you think the changes, if any, will be this time?
At the very least, the squad has shown itself to be resilient to the loss of Modric and VDV, and a change of manager (if you think AVB deserves no credit for the performance this season - which may be fair comment) .
Not much you can do about individual moments of madness, unless the player/s keep doing it, then you change them!
I am still trying to get my heard around what was in Walkers mind in attempting that back pass in the first place.
I don't think much needs to be, nor can it be changed to be honest Spurf. We've been playing pretty well recently and mistakes aside, we would've beat Liverpool. So while the mistakes pissed me off, I couldn't fault the actual performance as I felt we were just about the better side, which, away to Liverpool is definitely a positive. Sigurdsson has done a great job on the left in my opinion and hope he keeps his place providing he continues to play as he has been. Think he's got 3 assists and 2 goals in 3 and half games which is a fantastic contribution. For me, the only thing I'd like changed is our RB situation. Walker's been in the squad too long for my liking and bar a 5 game period where it looked like he was turning a corner, he's been by far our weakest defender and arguably player alongside Adebayor. I'd really like to see Naughton given a chance at RB as he's only played about 3 or 4 games there (I think) despite it being his strongest position. I also hope that as of next season, Adam Smith - whom I'm a big fan of - can come in and challenge for a starting role, similar to how Walker, Caulker etc have done in the past. Perhaps AVB really doesn't rate Naughton as I see no other reason as to why Walker's kept his place for so long. Where's Kaboul too?!?! He'd be a good temporary option for RB, he was supposedly back in training 2/3 weeks ago yet I've not seen a training photo nor has he featured for the U-21s...
