yes i dont understand why someone cannot be critical of a player without being lambasted himself...by no means does it mean that once the lad puts his Spurs shirt on..folk dont support him.
Im not a fan of Dawson. I feel LDL is right if your to okay the high line then Caulker should feature
The image of dawson in a high line is giving me high blood pressure. Don't get me wrong, I admire dawson for his never say die qualities, his power and at times is like a young john terry in throwing himself at every ball, yet when defenders have so much space behind them, it brings out their worst qualities. Most defenders feel at ease sitting deep, as they are relaxed and feel in control, when you push them high....they get a nose bleed and they start to look shaky.
What worries me about effectively concentrating the play in the 2/3 of the pitch away from our goal, is that we did not have the players to unlock massed defences last season and are not significantly different this term. What we are actually doing, while keeping the opposition away from our goal, is making them defend closer to theirs. I hope AVB is as good a coach as he is rumoured to be, or I can see problems with this and I do not mean just with the back four, who incidentally I think are more than capable of doing a good job in this system.
Dawson is a fine defender and leader who has had a torrid time in his last 2 seasons with injuries, and I have no doubt that if he can get this season under his belt with no significant problems then he will get back to his best. That said I echo the concerns of many posters - pace is not one of his strengths, and unless his reading of the game improves then he could be caught out playing a high line, and even then it would still be a worry. Kaboul and Vertonghen are, for me, our two central defenders who should be best suited to playing a high line but that is a new partnership with Verts being new to the league, and given that Dawson would appear to be AVB's choice of captain, one of Kaboul and Vertonghen would have to miss out presumably. I'm personally not too happy about AVB using a high line at Spurs, I see how it is needed for his 'high pressure' gameplan but feel that with the players at our disposal and the fact that it is a new system we may well be caught out far too many times. I also get the feeling that even if it doesn't work then AVB will not change his ways. I'm fully behind AVB in his new role with us and generally quite optimistic about the coming season but on the pitch this is my major concern, and for me it is a very big one.
Thats pretty much spot on as funnily enough when i've thought about our new defensive system, its the attacking play which concerns me just as much, as like you say, we don't have the attacking play to unlock teams if we pin them back. If we play a high line, try to dominant possession and apply high pressure tactics then we have to have the guile and passing ability to unlock defences AND have a predator in the box to finish them off. Do we have either of that? would have to say no. Bale, Lennon and walker are three of our main attacking threats and they all thrive on running into space, or running from deep. VDV is clearly a world class talent and capable of scoring a goal out of nothing yet he can't do it on his own. I remember last season agaisnt Sunderland away when Sunderland parked the bus, we looked clueless on how to draw their defenders out and create chances.
What we ARE doing is creating a situation we had no answers to last season all by ourselves. Breaking at pace is something few teams who attacked us had an answer to.
"Isn't the so-called 'high-line' just a consequence of the Spain/Barcelona tactic of pressing high up the pitch." The Barca attack really harrasses the back four + clearing MFs. The high line compresses the space for attackers to operate in straight off (the area between a back four and the defending MF) .
Walker is better than Benny, and Dawson isn't a worry for me in the high back line, it's people like BAE who give away possession and would then leave us ****ed. I hope Daws plays, because then the 'high line' will get pulled back. Daws like Terry knows more about Prem defending than AVB.
Playing a high line means te whole team need to play the system, not jsut DMs and FBs and CBS, it starts from the front men and goes right back through the team. Keep the ball or get slaughtered when playing a good side, so... what is most important in playing a high line is keeping the fooking ball. Something most teams in ENgland cannot do, in fact all teams in England cannot do against ha;lf decent europen opposition or a smaller team playing a cahvsky or city or united Retention sucks azz in the prem
We tended to dominate possession last season BBF, especially meaningful possession, but Modric and Adebayor were very important contributors to that. Two situations that need to be dealt with.
