When avb became our manager my honest opinion was that he was likely to be like ramos only without a trophy. Obviously I supported him once he was our manager and think he did well in his first season. This season however reminds me of the end of ramos' reign. I know we only drew 2 and lost 6 of our first 8 when ramos was sacked but the truth is we were lucky to get the 3 pens which gave us 3 wins...scored a last minute winner v cardiff...and apart from the norwich match and the first half v chelsea we have been toothless. Todays performance has been masked by Krulls performance....the truth is that our finishing was poor...most shots were within reach of the keeper when they should not have been. The second half performance v everton was masked by the injury to Lloris. The hull cup performance was masked by the penalty win The hull prem game was masked by the late pen and avbs comments re the crowd There was no masking west ham And so it goes on... The difference re ramos and avb starts to the season is simply that avb has had an enormous amout of luck which has run out. We deserved nothing from today...we gave away a goal, finished poorly, played without speed for large chunks of the game against a team who loss away a lot...there ladt away match gave a **** sunderland team their ONLY win of the season. I have never favoured sacking managers... I thought that sacking ramos was too early... then saw the difference redknapp made in just days...in the week he took over we went from 2 points in 8 matches to beating bolton, drawing at the goons and beating Liverpool (who had been unbeaten til then) with the same players... so decided that there was a problem with ramos' coaching and tactics. I am now of the same opinion with avb...something is wrong with a managers tactics and coaching if this squad play this badly week in week out. So for the first time ever I am in favour of getting rid of a manager during the season
My main concern with AVB, is that things will never get better, in terms of the football we play, this is it, we're always going to be dour predictable and defensive. The team will become better at what it does, in terms of closing down and bullying the opponents, but if there is no attacking unit to score goals, then its always going to be close fought games, which may go our way, or like today in the way of the opposition. No that isn't a reason to want AVB sacked, even if many of us wouldn't care much if he went tomorrow.
Fair enough but it aint a reaction to one match...its to 11... Palace...won 1 match, drawn 1 ... took a penalty for us to score...we never really looked like scoring other than that Swansea....took a dodgy pen for us to score (although we were denied a certain pen earlier) but didnt look like scoring othrr than that Arsenal didnt look like scoring Norwich deserved winners Cardiff...deserved winners but took a last minute goal due to poor finishing Chelsea... great first half deserved draw West ham...shocking lucky to get nil Villa...deserved win but it took a fluke to break their resistance down Hull...huffed and puffed deserved a draw but got very very lucky Everton...great first half but didnt look like scoring...deserved our point Newcastle...poor poor finishing and a terrible first half From a team that spent £105 million this summer... £30m striker plays his best game in a spurs shirt on thursday and dont get on the pitch on sunday? Seriously? Like I said fair enough to disagree but this aint a knee jerk reaction...he has learnt nothing from the west ham match. I hope I am wrong...but this seems very poor to me given how long he has been here and how much he spent
It's not 11 - it's now 49. I know where PNP is coming from and I know that rationally what I've said before - AVB has to have at least til the start of next season - should still apply. But I totally know where you're coming from. There's a certain feeling that I'm getting which is a bit "this is what the football feels like before a sacking". However, AVB's still got enough points and results to point to so I have not a single inkling that this will or should happen. Though - as I say in the post I just made, it's frustrating to see obvious stuff that a new manager would do.
The thing is that I also know that we have just had a squad overhaul (not that I think we needed it), we have lost several of our best players over the last couple of years and all these players will take time to (here it comes)...gel. But hand on heart I really can't say that I think this team is suddenly going to start working. That possibility seems more distant to me than a managerial change making a difference. Of course there's always the outside chance of a third possibility - AVB will learn and adapt. Hmm.
Levy goes to these games, he's seen how we've played and he can see how AVB's team is playing; I don't think he will sack AVB and I don't think that would be right, but maybe he could have a little word in his ear..
Over football is boring....tedious....boring...turged...boring....pedestrian...boring...over complicated...boring...slow...boring...frustrating...boring...pointless....boring and worst of all BORING! AVB has been fully backed by the board.... £105m spent...I could happily accept our results as we wait to gel but the performances are unforgivable. A good half v chelsea, a good half v everton, a decent second half today, a decent performance against norwich and cardiff is not good enough...9 goals is not good enough anx to be honest if he can criticise us then we can give it back when its deserved....and boy is it deserved. Did I mention that I find our football boring?
This is way over the top. I thought second half we played really well, just a mix of great goalkeeping and poor finishing let us down. Eriksen, Sandro, Soldado were excellent and if we keep developing this way, with Lamela replacing Townsend, who was **** today, then I will be hopeful. The one thing I am angry about from today was that cowardly tackle from Paulinho that led to their goal.
Never! Exciting attacking football trusting class players to do their job and scoring plenty of goals with pace and skill is not enough to compensate for the fact that he's mates with the media. Priorities please.
Paulinho should be ashamed of himself and made to watch highlight reels of Sandro in action. Sandro lost the ball 2nd half, where the opposition getting away? where they ****, the beast won't give up in winning the ball back.
This was happening last season, we've been watching this all year, hardly an over-reaction to be fair, but we sold the only consistant game winner we had. Without Bale there would have been half a dozen more games and results like yesterdays, maybe more. Unless he shows some flexibility instead of the Barcelona or Bust approach, it may be his undoing, Levy was captured during the game with a less than amused expression I noticed. In seriousness, now is not a good idea though with little to choose from who are realistic.
Dear AVB, please start the following team in our next league game: Lloris Walker Dawson Vertonghen Rose Lamela Sandro Paulinho Townsend Holtby Soldado Regards, WY
The choice the stick with a woeful Eriksen but drop a good Lamela for this match was bewildering. The performance was pretty dire. If we had upped the tempo we would have ripped that Newcastle team apart. The problem is not with the forward unit, its with speed we bring the ball out from defence/central midfield. We don't have an incisive passer further back and it slows it down and teams regroup and suddenly we have no options. Its very difficult to pick apart a premier league defence that is organised and is allowed time to organise. I like the idea of dropping Holtby or Eriksen deeper. Probably Holtby as he is more battley. Dembele, who i do like, was shocking yesterday. Paulinho wasn't much better. I'll admit, i've changed my mind and i'll bow to Boss for seeing it first, but Tommy Carroll might, MIGHT, fix this too. People saying inverted wingers doesn't work is crazy. It works for loads of teams, but they don't faff around the halfway line waiting for opponents to sort themselves. Sacking at manager is also crazy talk. We're not bottom, we're just playing poorly.
Our own fans are as bad as the wums sometimes. We're one point behind Chelsea, behind United on goal difference and a point ahead of City so clearly we're not the only ones having trouble at this stage of the season. "But AVB has us playing such crap football" what's AVB supposed to do? When we win 1-0 and play boring football people whinge, when we play attacking football and lose people whinge.
Quite right. I was actually heartened by yesterday's game. More luck/composure in front of goal and we would have scored 2 or 3 in the second half. The disappointing thing has been lack of chances created and yesterday we created a hatful of them. 2 of them we would score 9 times out of 10 - Eriksens move from left to right that Krul stuck a foot out to stop and the one from the freekick deflection that had to be bundled over the line - although kudos to the Toon keeper/defenders for punishing our lack of a killer instinct. Next 2 games will be fascinating - both will come at us, and I think we may be a match for both. The result could go either way, but we'll give them a real match.
He's supposed to play attacking football and win 3-0 every week! All three teams you mention have squads which cost much more than ours and better managers too (apparently).
