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the away form in the league is exceptional
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Are you sure on that ? Other than beating utd away (which we were lucky to do) who else have we beaten ?

4 of our 5 away wins have been against teams in the bottom 7 of the division. Hardly exceptional is it ?

As for HR I dont see the point in any comparison between the two because I was one who thought it was time for a change of manager when Levy sacked HR anyway

AVB has had to deal with losing BAE and Kaboul right at the start of the season so had to do with a make shift defense so far, also Lloris is now integrated in to the first team and looking a lot better then Friedel.

We also lost Dembele for a while and had no Parker also so our midfield and defense were weakened, didn't help we only had 1 recognized striker till Adebayor got through his injury and fitness problems.

Regarding the Europa League we had perfectly good goals ruled out which would of put us top of the group early on, you can't argue against that one.

The team has had to do deal with a big change in terms of training and tactical instead Harry's run around a bit and starting to look like they're reaping the awards, after the Everton game AVB has addressed defensive problems in training which has seen us pick up 3 clean sheets.

Losing a big character like King was a big loss to morale I suspect and it didn't help we lost Modric and VDV.

We have gradually improved over the season in attack and defense, and once BAE and Kaboul return we should be much stronger in defense.

Judge AVB by the end of the season since we're improving and injured players are returning.

Also we have lost I think it was 22 points from winning positions and 8 points in the final 3 minutes and if AVB does sort out our nervy 10 minutes we should pick up a few more points. Also with a potentially stronger defense drop less points from winning positions.

But good article all together

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do i have to present my library card before reading this thread ?

this is all you need to know about AVB : After 2 games people were baying for blood. The media were already putting the groundwork in for AVB out campaign, as were many fans. Where's the AVB out campaign now ? it's nowhere.

It's all very well picking and choosing games and saying 'we won this one,but we didnt win that one' etc, but everyone plays the same teams and half way through the season we're in the top 4 having been hit by a spate of injuries and in spite of the manager not getting any of the players that he wanted in the transfer window.

Criticising his man mangement seems strange as well. The previous manager must have alienated half a dozen players and his refusal to play certain quality players led to them requesting a transfer which left us with a weaker squad. In contrast you can see the respect and camoradory from the players when the new manager talks to them from the touch line. It's also blatantly obvious on match days how committed and united the caiching staff are.

AVB and his team are clearly the right team for the job.

So what do you want to do Grandspurs, sack AVB and put David Pleat in charge?
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No but that does not stop me thinking he is not a good enough manager for where we want to be.

As for the excuses regarding the loss of players. We had a full strike force and midfield available for the stoke game and failed to score.

We had a full strike force available for the wigan game and failed to score.

Having defenders missing for those games should not have stopped us scoring ?

AVB and his team are clearly the right team for the job.
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and thats the sort of statement thats particularly annoying. Neil warnock was committed did that make him a good manager ?

Bit like these players kissing the badge and then requesting a transfer a week later really. Commttment is for the fans its not for the players, managers or coaches and thats for sure and if you think otherwise then you really are naive

If barca came in for AVB at the end of the season he would be off like a rocket so dont give me that committment BS.

If its missing out on a top 4 place and going out of cups to average sides then you are spot on so far AVB has proved to be exactly the right man for the job

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so in my mind AVB is short one big ticket player
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and IMO most Spurs fans have been using the same excuse window after window.

IMO we have the 4th best squad in the prem so in that case a decent manager should be odds on to take 4th place its not rocket science.

I wonder how many of thes AVB supporters are willing to gamble a couple of hundred quid on us taking 4th place ? Not many I bet and considering we have the 4th best squad in the prem then WHY NOT if AVB is the right man for the job ?

Everton game AVB has addressed defensive problems in training which has seen us pick up 3 clean sheets.
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No after the Everton game we played Swansea and Stoke who made virtually no effort to attack whatsoever and a villa side who were not capable of attacking. Thats why we have 3 clean sheets on the bounce.

We should keep another against Sunderland really as they score about every 3 months or so but how many of are confident of doing that ?

We should be if AVB has addressed the problem shouldn't we ?

half way through the season we're in the top 4
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but we wont be there at the end of the season if we fail to beat any team thats in the top 8 will we ? and so far we have won one game against a top 8 team.

Everybody that is vying for that 4th spot has taken points of us, that does not bode well at all

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I presume everyone engaged in this discussion is well into there 60's, a crazy night crawler or lives in some alternative time zone

As for the discussion itself, you guys really need to give it a rest...

Just support the team and try as much as possible to enjoy the football (not always inspiring i know...)

We are on the up and up and looking progressively better as the season has progressed...

So get behind AVB God damn it

I agree with you Ginger

As a lot of you know im not not AVB fan , but after the past few games , You can see the team are starting to gel and understand his style.

I said at the beginning of the season that we would struggle up until around December or the new year , but just lately iv started enjoying watching us play , as for the first 10 games were just poor.

We have made a lot of changes. New manager, new players, new approach, different training methods, different strategies.....it was always going to take some time to settle in.

Progress has been held up a bit by injuries and we are clearly lacking at least a couple of played in the squad. The form of some individuals has not been great.

All in all I think we have done well to have maintain a top 4 challenge through this transition. Look at LFC, they've gone backwards

2nd half the season will tell a lot but wen have a decent platform now to crack on and make real progress with a bit more consistency. If we do improve a little we will better the 33 pts we have and push us towards the 70pts mark

Overall we have to be satisfied with where we are for now

grandspur, we all know you were against the appointment of AVB right at the start and we both had lengthy debates about why i thought AVB was and would be a good appointment and you gave you're reasons against it. Now flash forward 6 months........If i said to you before that we would be 4th on the 29th Decemeber then you would be well happy so why do i get the feeling you are still trying to put a negative spin on the good job AVB has done so far. I'm not saying it's perfect and even i have been baffled by the odd decision he has made ie the Defoe substitution v Wigan but you can't sit there and say "we should of won this game and that game" etc etc.....you don't think Harry had the same dodgy results against the likes of Wigan at home? etc.......our away form is excellent this season and that's a huge positive.

The 606 establishment won't be happy

It's widely known on here what I think of AVB at home. We have been dreadful to watch, and have run out of ideas regularly. The only good side we have faced, Chelsea, gave us an absolute hiding too (deserved or not). He doesn't seem to be able to alter his tactics at home at all, and they don't work on the whole.

The away form is much better. Not got a great record at the better sides, but we seem to be slaying the fodder quite easily. We have a lot of fodder to play away so I'm hopeful that will continue....it may need to.

We definitely need to tighten up v CL contenders overall though...two hidings so far, 4 defeats from 5 overall....all from winning positions too.

I said on another article, AVB hasn't done as badly as I feared, but on the evidence so far he's no better than Redknapp. I wanted a change for improvement after all and we seem to have another manager that can't see past his favoured system.

...but you can't sit there and say "we should of won this game and that game" etc etc.....you don't think Harry had the same dodgy results against the likes of Wigan at home?

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Don, neither Grand or I are Harry fanboys. The reason we both wanted rid was for improvement

I said on another article, AVB hasn't done as badly as I feared, but on the evidence so far he's no better than Redknapp. I wanted a change for improvement after all and we seem to have another manager that can't see past his favoured system."





This is not a bad thing though as Harry did an excellent job at spurs so being on par with him so far is a good thing. I think a lot of people thought we would be worse off with AVB and losing players like Modric and VDV but facts and the league table show we are not worse off. We might not play the free flowing football we played under Harry but we are getting results and that's all that matters to me although 4-0 v Villa weren't to bad was it

Don, neither Grand or I are Harry fanboys. The reason we both wanted rid was for improvement"





I'm not saying you are mate. I'm just pointing out that Harry who did an excellent job also got pathetic results against weak teams ie Wigan at home. This ain't nothing new for spurs to be dropping stupid points to teams like this.

But I think we will be beating teams in the top seven during the second half of the season.

Of the top seven we've played City, United, Arsenal, Everton, away. We still have these teams to play at home.

Of the top teams we've played Chelsea and WBA at home. Clearly these games haven't gone to plan but I'm not going to sit here making excuses about them - that's been done to death.

I would suggest however that we are 4th - this is a fact. Predicting how we will do in the second half of the season is just a matter of opinion and perspective - mine is that we will do well enough to land top 4.

Grandspurs, when our illustrious chairmen decided to sell our best players and completely change one of our most successful management teams ever, I completely wrote this season off (much like I have the last eight times he has fired coaches in the last ten or so years)
However I have been pleasantly surprised with us this year and I must give credit to AVB. He has lost his bet players in the summer and had other very important players out injured. He was completely mugged off in the summer with Levys last minute rubbish yet we are still sniffing around fourth at Christmas. Yes we have been inconsistent but that's what happens when you have a trigger happy penny pinching chairman.

I'm warming to AVB

Levy

Yawn, I am bored of your pessimistic downers. What is the aim of this article? To help us realise were not Barcelona?