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Our home form...

After a small sample of games, real life isn't the BBC sport football predictor I'm afraid. Other teams have around us have improved also so this so called better points total may not have even have been good enough for Europa League qualification. Once again, are you really giving AVB credit for outhinking other coaches during Bale's great form?

Last season and this, yes. If he hadn't out-thought them, they'd have stopped Bale.
 
I would say Bale out thought them rather than AVB but each to his own. Is winning games only because of dodgy penalties outhinking the opposition too?

I think Bale became the player he did due to AVB. He clearly needed more instruction than "run about a bit" and improved from a very good PL player to a world class player under AVB.

I'll be the first to admit that we haven't clicked going forward yet, but I will stress yet. Given the chance I believe we would have though, but NBD made sure that didn't happen.
 
We didn't have Bale this season and we were on for a better points total than last season.

Or to look at it another way, we have picked up 1 less point and have a Goal Difference of -13 compared to the corresponding fixtures from last season (using Jordinho' comparison blog).
 
Or to look at it another way, we have picked up 1 less point and have a Goal Difference of -13 compared to the corresponding fixtures from last season (using Jordinho' comparison blog).

Still only one less point than our record total.
 
Still only one less point than our record total.

Speaking of Andre' record setting reign at Spurs, he added another 2 this season by equalling the club records for our heaviest ever Premier League defeats in both home and away fixtures :-"

But seems like he was undermined by Sherwood behind the scenes and guess we'll never know if things would've turned out different had Levy sorted out those 3rd party ownership issues with Moutinho before the end of the 2012 summer transfer window.
 
Speaking of Andre' record setting reign at Spurs, he added another 2 this season by equalling the club records for our heaviest ever Premier League defeats in both home and away fixtures :-"

But seems like he was undermined by Sherwood behind the scenes and guess we'll never know if things would've turned out different had Levy sorted out those 3rd party ownership issues with Moutinho before the end of the 2012 summer transfer window.

I know it matters to a lot of people but I really don't care about the size of those losses. If we finish the season level on points for 4th but behind on goal difference then maybe I'll care.
 
I know it matters to a lot of people but I really don't care about the size of those losses. If we finish the season level on points for 4th but behind on goal difference then maybe I'll care.

I realise that goal difference is highly unlikely to come into it but, considering we've finished just 1pt off a Champions League spot in both the past 2 seasons, it would just be our luck that we lost out due to our appalling goal difference at the end of this one #-o
 
I know it matters to a lot of people but I really don't care about the size of those losses. If we finish the season level on points for 4th but behind on goal difference then maybe I'll care.

The 0-3 to West Ham was the worst of the lot. The '0' part, with not looking like scoring, was also a worrying trait.

Sadly, the not looking like scoring bit was still evident today -- I know we scored, but we only got 3 shots on target and played like sh1t.
 
I don't think we were 'on target' for a record total. We've scraping through, getting the rub of the green in a lot of games. That was okay as new players needed time to gel. In fact it was pretty impressive - how a new team were grinding out results and getting points on the board. But after half a season, when you'd expect to see us settle and push on, we saw the opposite - the team fall apart. Stopped grinding out results and started losing heavily.

To bring through these many young players and to get us playing well at home, the team needs to be a cohesive settled unit that plays with confidence.

I thought the logical replacement for AVB would be an experienced Manager, but instead we went for someone with less experience than AVB! But Sherwood can do it. He has to have serious confidence in himself and his ideas, and pass that to the team.
 
The 0-3 to West Ham was the worst of the lot. The '0' part, with not looking like scoring, was also a worrying trait.

Sadly, the not looking like scoring bit was still evident today -- I know we scored, but we only got 3 shots on target and played like sh1t.

That result hurt me the most partly because it was so unexpected, what with them being so attrocious away from home this year and having not won at WHL since 1999, plus I fecking hate the Spammers almost as much as the Scum!
 
I know it matters to a lot of people but I really don't care about the size of those losses. If we finish the season level on points for 4th but behind on goal difference then maybe I'll care.

You don't care about the scale of the humiliation of those losses?
 
That result hurt me the most partly because it was so unexpected, what with them being so attrocious away from home this year and having not won at WHL since 1999, plus I fecking hate the Spammers almost as much as the Scum!

And not playing with a striker.
 
That result hurt me the most partly because it was so unexpected, what with them being so attrocious away from home this year and having not won at WHL since 1999, plus I fecking hate the Spammers almost as much as the Scum!

We have lacked the ability to pass and move through these kinds of teams. We don't drag them out of position and create space. I hope AVB can work on our passing game, as other teams unlock the likes of wham with quick passing interchanges. We don't seem able.

Edit: though to be fair we have tried to moved the ball forward much quicker in the 2 Sherwood games.
 
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I think Bale became the player he did due to AVB. He clearly needed more instruction than "run about a bit" and improved from a very good PL player to a world class player under AVB.

I'll be the first to admit that we haven't clicked going forward yet, but I will stress yet. Given the chance I believe we would have though, but NBD made sure that didn't happen.

Run about a bit got us top 4, twice. Understanding the situational discrepancies between the attacking formation of the offensive minded outset and tactical solutions lead to 6-0, 3-0 and 5-0 drubbings. Even if AVB gets credit for Bale's good form which is fair, do you honestly think he would sit in the dressing room and say we're going to play tedious, mind numbing football for 88 minutes and 45 seconds only for Gareth to step forward, score a wondergoal and get us out of trouble?
 
Run about a bit got us top 4, twice. Understanding the situational discrepancies between the attacking formation of the offensive minded outset and tactical solutions lead to 6-0, 3-0 and 5-0 drubbings. Even if AVB gets credit for Bale's good form which is fair, do you honestly think he would sit in the dressing room and say we're going to play tedious, mind numbing football for 88 minutes and 45 seconds only for Gareth to step forward, score a wondergoal and get us out of trouble?

I suspect Bale shooting from distance was a long way down a list of if....then.... decisions.

If the opposition were stopping all the other methods we'd been trying then that would be one of the many options.
 
On the 3-0 against West Ham, why do people think this happened? Is it AVB incompetence? West Ham tactical master class? Bad luck? Stupid playing system? Poor preparation?

To me, with AVBs system, because we were in the process of assimilating a lot of new players, it was the kind of thing where if it wasn't going to work on the day, because we were in the relatively early stages, it REALLY wasn't going to work. Most other games, we were really solid and would usually recover from a goal down if it happened. Against Hull at home even we were solid. But these hammerings, to me it looked like the result of a team coming to terms with itself, trying to enact something that they weren't entirely comfortable with.

I'd be much more worried if, when we needed to create chances we weren't actually doing it, or we were attempting to play a solid, controlled game but ended up in an end to end slugfest and lose 4-3. The fact that we got totally hammered suggests it was because we were trying to do something that simply didn't click on the day, and if it is because of that reason there's every reason to think that throughout the rest of the season as the players get to know each other more, they will play the system even better.
 
I suspect Bale shooting from distance was a long way down a list of if....then.... decisions.

If the opposition were stopping all the other methods we'd been trying then that would be one of the many options.

Our rivals don't have to rely on wonder strikes like we do. Arsenal, Liverpool and even Everton can break teams down.
 
We have lacked the ability to pass and move through these kinds of teams. We don't drag them out of position and create space. I hope AVB can work on our passing game, as other teams unlock the likes of wham with quick passing interchanges. We don't seem able.

Edit: though to be fair we have tried to moved the ball forward much quicker in the 2 Sherwood games.


Managed to go fishing yesterday and found a lovely river, despite having all the family round for a meal. Said to the father-in-law after 60mins it would end 1-1, you can almost tell these days when we arent going to break a team down.

Credit to Rose and Walker they went close, but again it was from distance, we just dont seem to be able to create any concrete chances in the heart of their defence
 
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