A fan talking about AVB.

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Lifted from The Spurs Community Forum

AVB had the team fired up at the start, we scored and they didn't
look dangerous. Ade was an idiot and got sent off. That red card killed
the game then and there. You can argue that one player being sent off
shouldn't affect us that much but we are scraping the barrel with
injuries and Ade was the man holding us together. He made playing two
deep laying midfielders possible. He brought Defoe in to the game and
made him a threat. He brought Lennon and Bale in to the game, making the
Arsenal fullbacks and deeper laying midfielders too scared to come
forward and dominate the midfield two. Him departing broke down all of
that. Hudd doesn't have an outlet to pass to anymore and instantly
becomes a liability (his movement today was f*cking appalling today, I
used to be a big fan of his...not any more) and with Sandro dropped in
to the defence meaning we didn't have any passing or movement to release
pressure. Gallas let us get too deep and wave after wave of Arsenal
attack came at us and they kept scoring.
AVB changed it at half time and his substitutions were excellent. He
knew that Defoe was isolated and we needed someone to get him in to the
game and that we had to provide a threat to prevent the Arsenal defence
coming forward and overloading our midfield. Dempsey was his only
option. Gallas and Vert were were getting overloaded and couldn't deal
with the aerial threats, Walker and Naughton were getting taken out of
the game anyway so he brought them off and put on Dawson. The changes
were effective and we did ourselves proud. We caused them a problem and
in the end scared them enough that they were forced in to running the
clock down. He replaced Hudd with Carroll and we looked much better for
it. I wanted Carroll on much earlier but I guess he is a very
inexperienced player for the situation.
Special mention to Vertonghen, Sandro, Bale and when they came on;
Dawson and Carroll. Verts was solid at CB, Sandro was a total f*cking
beast again. He is going to be one of the best DM's in the business,
great buy by Levy. Bale is an absolute legend for that goal, you could
see he really cared and some of the ground he covered was insane.
Defensively he didn't help out enough but I actually thought he had been
back defending at the times in the 1st half when they scored (could be
wrong there!). The kid is a cut above most prem players anyway, I'm glad
we have him. Dawson did a good job and made some great tackles despite
the open game and fast intelligent forwards of Arsenal being exactly the
opposite of what suits him. And the highlight for us of the day, Tom
Carroll. He looked utterly class. Exactly what we've been missing and he
has to be a regular starter for us now. A future midfield of him,
Sandro and Dembele is mouthwatering. With them three you have class,
vision, sheer physicality and pace. Everything you need from a midfield.
The villians....well. I think Gallas, despite giving a 100% is costing
us indirectly. I can't wait until we have Vert and Caulker as the main
CB two, backed up by the returning Kaboul. Hudd is now dead to me. We
know he is limited off the ball but the lack of effort to make himself
available today was driving me insane and he was utterly outshone by
Carroll when replaced. Defoe, well he did well for our 1st goal but
dissapeared all game after that. I get the feeling that if it had been
him rather than Ade sent off we would have hardly noticed the
difference. Lennon didn't do enough to get in the game, Walker and
Naughton were both struggling. Dempsey just proved yet again that he is
simply an average footballer.
I think that we're just not going to have much luck in the 1st half of
this season. It's just not going to click thanks to all the injuries and
suspensions we have to deal with. After christmas however everythings
going to come together and we will be a nightmare to play against.
Walker will find form, Dembele will come back and dominate the midfield
with Sandro. Ade will start getting a decent run in the side and we
should have a new striker in January to cover him if he get injured. We
also have Tom Carroll to look forward to seeing, and can wonder just how
good he can become. We just need to back the team and manager through
this difficult spell. They came out and did us proud in the 2nd half. I
wanted to kill AVB last week but he's learned and got it right today.
As a plea to the spurs fans that don't like AVB; even if you want him
replaced it's not because of his philosophy on football but individual
decisions during the games and his limited man management. Any players
that he wants in January will be good for us, no matter whether AVB is
in charge at the end of the season or someone else. If over the next
month we try to push AVB out however, Levy will be too scared to spend
big on the players we desperately need because he's afraid we won't let
AVB stay. Please, please please, even if you don't like AVB, we need
that money in January. If you can't get behind AVB, get behind the team.
Get behind Spurs because otherwise you are going to f*ck it up for all
of us. If he has to go, let it be at the end of the season.
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very well written

brillant post

Very good post. But I can not see any reason why AVB should go at the end of the season. Gutted we lost to the Arsenal but I would like to say that I am pleased that the supporters have took this defeat on the chin and are not calling for AVB to be replaced. I read a post on News Now from a supporter who said that AVB did all he could to salvage the game but could do no more. One thing I would like to say however is that we need a top right back, Walker imo is very over rated. Infact I can not remember the last time we had a couple of solid full backs, can anyone remind me. I keep going back to the days of Baker and Henry and Kinnear and Knowles, cant say I remember much after these players, not backs anyway. It's been a funny weekend with some strange results, United loosing to Norwich, Newcastle loosing at home to Swansea, and they gave Pardew a was it a 10 year contract?. WBA beating Chelsea and Reading beating Everton. It is a funny old game. We really need to bounce back with a win over West Ham, and I think we will.

Dead right Len, everybody wanted Lloris in goal, they got it, everybody wanted Verts in central defence, they got it, everybody wanted two up front, they got it. But for Ade losing his head, im sure we would have beaten them had we managed to keep eleven players on the pitch.

What about Austin and Edinburgh lol

stephen car was the best in recent times its a shame he got greedy and left.

i thought hutton was good better then walker at getting forward but was a bit suspect at the back lol

I forgot about Hughton Baz, you are right, a very good back. I also liked the lad that was here in, was it Jol's reign, he was either Chinese or Japanese, what was his name?, I thought he was very good and a player we should have held on to. Short term memory getting bad. I keep thinking I am an Arsenal supporter and keep visiting their chat site, then the wife gives me a good slap round the face to bring me back to my senses. I feel quite ill afterwards, it's like wakeing up from a mightmare.

LEE YOUNG- PYO. i liked chimbonda myself. on his day was a very good player in defence

[quote="BazSpur"][b][color=darkblue]I think Walker maybe suffering a little bit of burn out Len. I agree with Lought maybe he should be benched for a while and let Naughton play there for a while. full post

I think its long overdue, Baz. Naughton is a right-back and Walker has played far to many consecutive games at his age for the level of performances he's given us . I were saying when we had Corluka that Harry needed to rotate Walker back then as it were unfair on a youngster playing week in week out regardless of a dip in form .

This seasons poor form by Walker is of no surprise to me.

Perhaps a backline against Lazio of,
Naughton - Dawson - Caulker - Verts