Our "Scattergun" Transfer Approach

[carpediem991]

I guess it is not that easy as it looks like.

I mean, this line up is too obvious for our squad, even AVB and Sherwood must have thought about that.

We are a good side on Football manager but it just don't work out in real. The big question is why...

 

[TheSecretNonFootballer]

I guess it is not that easy as it looks like.

I mean, this line up is too obvious for our squad, even AVB and Sherwood must have thought about that.

We are a good side on Football manager but it just don't work out in real. The big question is why...

Well you never know how players new to the league/country will adapt. Paulinho doesn't study English properly because he's lazy and Soldado takes extra English lessons. You just don't know.

 

[jolsnogross]

We are a good side on Football manager but it just don't work out in real. The big question is why...

This is the crux of the matter. Analyses of this nature (the original post) can make most teams look/sound good, but the practice is much harder. The original post is well reasoned but it's just like the problem with AVB himself - a lot of theory that falls apart in practice.

Using a comparison to AVB's season at Porto is to choose the outlier in the man's career, for starters. He had an 84% win ratio there, winning the title by 20 points, undefeated in the league, and conceding 13 goals all season. His win percentage throughout the rest of his career is: Academica (37%), Chelsea (48%), and Spurs (55%). These aren't bad numbers, but they serve to highlight how much of an anomaly he had at Porto. Starting any evaluation of his time with us by comparing to Porto is just unrealistic, and the man himself seems to have acknowledged that more than fans do.

Ultimately, he was sacked at Spurs for performance level and alienating people, not results. And that was a shame, but we became unwatchable so I think it was justified. In his time at Porto he had a phenomenon in Falcao. And at Spurs he had Bale in year 1. So that helps a lot - it doesn't explain all the success, and AVB had a lot to do with it, but when you take a worldie out of your team you're in a different place because one player racking up goals covers over a lot of cracks and brings better performances out of the rest (see Liverpool).

Ultimately, we over-rate Spurs players as Spurs fans. Paulinho has looked very average. Lamela won't/can't/isn't playing. Even Sandro, who is worshipped by many, gets kudos for his attitude, but his play for us isn't quite at the level of a Copa Libertadores winner and he seems unable to manage his body when it comes to raking tackles and injuries. We did scattergun/overload in midfield. We have isolated the striker(s) for a majority of the season. We sold Huddlestone when he offered quality of a much different type than all of our current midfielders.

You need a balance of attitude as much as defense-attack or left side-right side. More than any other top side, we're weak of mind as much as anything and this would be the quality any decent DoF or manager would try to remedy next season.

 

[ItsBoris]

I am surely not the only person that can see significant improvement there, not only in personnel but also in suitability for the system. Hardly "scattergun".

I think Baldini did an overall superb job. The only mystery is why AVB didn't practise the system that he preached now that he had been provided with the personnel.

Re: the defence. If AVB didn't fancy Caulker, why not replace him with Romania's captain while making a profit? Only 4 CB's you say? Capoue had played perfectly well there in the past. The only problem was LB, but how did we know that Jan was going to be such a gimp about being asked to play there? Rose had just had a pretty good season on loan at Sunderland and had earnt his chance just as Walker had done before him. I'm in the Naughton-supporter ranks and think he is more than adequate cover for Walker (who rarely gets injured or requires a rest anyway).

First of all, fantastic post. I agree with pretty much everything. The part in bold is probably what is most relevant, as answering that will answer other questions.

First, I don't think Chadli was really meant to be the first choice left winger, I think he was bought as a versatile squad player that could cover multiple positions, and maybe is more similar to Guarin than Varela imo.

I think Willian was the player for our left wing but he was of course stolen from us last minute. So I think the plan was a midfield with Sandro, Paulinho, and Eriksen, with a front 3 of Lamela, Willian, and Soldado.

Who knows why AVB didn't go with it? He started playing Soldado, but no creative players behind him. Then when Eriksen and Soldado showed promise as a linking up duo, he would abruptly change it and not give them the chance to form any understanding. He then started Townsend on the right instead of Lamela, who would constantly cut inside and shoot while Soldado was left standing in the box. Then started playing a 4-2-3-1 formation with Dembele and Paulinho in the pivot. So I have no idea what he was thinking, it was a shambles and definitely not the way to integrate new players.