With this defensive high line now being our defensive tactic, it will give a new look to the way the team performs, as i've always been a believer of you build from the back and your defence will make or break your team when it comes to success. Last season with Chelsea, AVB used his famous defensive high line, now we can talk about how the system wasn't suitable for that Chelsea team, yet this is a system AVB used and quite possibly is one of the main reasons he failed there as a manager. I found this when browsing online Playing a defensive high line will involve a more pressing game as we won't want the opposition to have time and space on the ball to play passes through our defence so we will have to be more aggressive. Do we have the players for this system? the squad? Currently we don't have the firepower, as if we're to be aggressive and try and dictate play then we have to have the front men to finish off chances. If this system to be a success, then who are the key players in this current squad and do we have cover for them. Walker and Ekotto are quick (in walkers case extremely quick) yet both players suffer from poor positional play and in ekottos case more so. Our centre back partnership of verts and kaboul is untried in the premier league. Of course there are positives, we have the speed of bale (and his goal threat) and lennon, parker and sandro are perfect for pressing the opposition and the pace of walker is crucial when running from deep. And there is VDV who is going to play a crucial role with the lack of strikers. However is the balance right and if not, what is needed to get the balance right?
think it will make our players into better footballers...im patient enough to realise that this system will take a while to come good and we may have to witness the odd embarrassing moment but in Kab and Vert we have 2 very good ball players.....if it works it will be great...AUDERE EST FACERE...i look forward to the project.
It'll take a little while to get the coordination there but it will be better in the long run. We sat deeper in the second half against Liverpool yet they had more chances against us than the first, even before their better players come on. Criticising a highline is easy because it's so obvious when it's exploited but the problems it solves are less obvious to lay people like us. There are games where will need to temper the line to allow for pacier attacks, or perhaps even abandon it and there will certainly be mistakes when it doesn't work. There's no doubt we're better suited to the style of defending than Chelsea were and if you compare goals conceded under AVB, they're very marginally better than under RDM so clearly the highline wasn't the suicidal tactic that some people like to portray it as.
I think we have the players to make it work: some really mobile CB's, quick FB's and quality DM's. Can see all those players being comfortable with the tactic. Yes, it could be regarded as a potentially risky strategy, but only a few games in the PL should give us a good idea as whether it is worth pursuing.
It didn't work at Chelsea because the personnel were wrong for it - Terry is too slow, Essien has lost a yard of pace due to his injury problems, Mikel isn't up to the task. It has a better chance of working with Kaboul, Verts and Sandro.
Which brings me to one of my concerns over avb, why did he use a system that couldn't work with the players at his disposal, as if he was tactically astute then he would adapt his tactics to the personnel available. So as some have mentioned the system would need to change at times or if it doesn't work then we try something else, this doesn't seem to be part of avb's mindset.
This is what I wonder too Boss, as you say, if he is tactically astute then game plans should alter according to the players available and the strengths/weaknesses of the opposition. Having one method of play regardless is not astute tactics that after all is what has been levelled against Redknapp. All will become clearer after a few games in the PL.
....FAST FORWARD!....if we could, as we're all bored of wondering and waiting to see......this is the worst part of the year to be a footie fan!
Precisely Luke. Its a bit early with this question as we don't even know what our first team looks like yet, let alone if it can play this intended system. You can get players in to suit a system you want to utilise, but only a fool would assume he could turn any existing 11 into what he wants. Quite obviously a good number won't have the necessary requirements, for example, if you're slow, you're slow, no coaching will change that. I'm already severely unimpressed with AVB's view of our striker situation, and if this all goes bad persisting belligerently with a system that doesn't suit, all of you lot that thought this was a wonderful appointment better have your answers ready! because I'll certainly have all the questions!
Walker Is the only player you have significantly quicker than any of the players AVB had at Chelsea. I knew at least one person would say this
Plenty of time to work it thru in training sessions before wheeling it out in anger in the PL. As with all these things, tis better to have this as another tool in the box rather than making it dogma. Some opponents it will be perfect for. Others not so.
"Which brings me to one of my concerns over avb, why did he use a system that couldn't work with the players at his disposal, as if he was tactically astute then he would adapt his tactics to the personnel available." Dogma +/- not realising you cannot always teach old dogs new tricks.
Even Gallas is significantly faster than cart horse Terry - and if there was one reason why the high line didn't work with your bunch of inflated egos it was the fact that he was still in the side.
This thread echos many of the reasons why I did not want AVB at our club. He is an experiment, nothing more. The experiment failed at the Chavs, and Levy has got him cheaply, but that does not mean that the experiment will succeed a second time under different working conditions. I have no doubts that AVB will set the team up very differently to what we've seen before, both in terms of players he gives chances to and in terms of the tactics that he adopts. What I need to be convinced with is that AVB has the ability to adapt tactics, when those he adopts don't work.
G*llas wouldn't be good enough to play for a top club, certainly not nowadays. Considering your side last year contained the likes of G*llas, Bale, VDV, Adebayor and Modric (a player who went on strike recently) etc it seems odd to be throwing the "ego" thing about. All club has big egos in them, it's what you need to have success. The high line didn't work because you can't play the same way against every team, even Barcelona have to adapt their tactics against some teams. If you have a midfield that can dominate possession and displays a high level of effiency and chance conversion then that tactic is fine but I don't think that would work with any PL team. AVB has often been compared to Mourinho but I feel he displays startling similarities to Wenger in terms of arrogance, stubbornness and unwillingness to change tactics. Spurs are going to dominate possession against the weaker teams and I feel the high line would be apt for probably 2/3 of prem teams however it will be suicidal against the likes of United, City, Chelsea and Arsenal all of whom have more technical quality than Spurs on the ball. It will be interesting to see how it works but I feel with the personnel you have you'd fare no better than we did playing that high line
I think the problem you had DL was that you also need a defence that is quick and able to turn quickly. Otherwise you are highly vulnerable to the ball over the top. If the opposition has a quick striker, and you have a less rapid defence, you're in trouble. You can't get the offside line right 100% of the time.
Its not just about the CB's, what about the FB's, positional awareness and decision making can reduce threat, and neither Walker or BAE are blessed with this, in fact this exposes BAE's worst quality, when he gets turned and has to chase towards our own goal, running into our penalty area gives me nightmares, he got away with a few pens last season imo. At least Walker has pace to compensate is all I can say. mmm... think I'll stay off this thread, its giving me the hump!
Our defence is perfect for it, but our goalkeeper (good as he is) isn't. We need a younger, better ball-playing keeper (Vorm would be my choice, but Lloris is another option if we're willing to spend), and then we're perfectly set to play the high line.
