AVB’s Blue and White Army

Article by Matt Tumminia (USA)

Tottenham’s new look squad

As we are on the verge of another season at Spurs, one that will hopefully be filled with much more triumph than tragedy, we must take a look at the changes that have occurred to our beloved Lilywhites and how these changes may impact our club this term. Needless to say, this summer has had a large, superstar-sized cloud hanging over the hallowed ground of White Hart Lane, and we will address that in due time, but in the same breath, it would be foolish to not see the massive amount of strengthening that has occurred at Tottenham. A new breed of highly sought-after international stars has been recruited to rise up and grab the suddenly wide open Premier League by its proverbial throat and muscle it into submission. It is time for the mighty cockerel to crow again, being the last one standing on the ashes of our enemies, letting the world know that the day of reckoning has come.

Summer Business

Almost from the word “Go”, Spurs have done their business early and often. Starting with the addition of Technical Director Franco Baldini, a clever man with many international contacts, we have been able to bring in top-class players from every corner of the globe. Players who were often looked at by other, more prestigious teams yet when push came to shove, they ended up being unveiled at Spurs Lodge rather than the Emirates, the San Siro or the Bernabéu. Funny how that works, huh? Maybe it was because AVB sold them on the plan he has for the recapturing of the Glory, Glory Nights at the Lane or maybe it was because they knew that they would be an integral part of something, not just a luxury afforded by owners with giant wallets. Whatever the reasons, we added the Brazilian midfield monster Paulinho, tricky Dutch winger Nacir Chadli, one of the most consistent goal scoring center forwards in the world over the past 4 years, the Spanish hitman, Roberto “Bobby Soldier” Soldado and our most recent addition, a player who last term was the most highly rated player in Ligue 1, the French Tank, Etienne Capoue. Four players from four different countries and leagues who are fast, strong, able to score goals and most importantly in AVB’s system, tactically flexible. Even better still, we were able to move deadwood such as Tom “Sour Grapes” Huddlestone, Jake Livermore and Scott Parker while clearing players such as David Bentley and William Gallas off the wage bill. Of course, even though we may have been able to sell some players who were clearly not to AVB’s liking, we also had to part ways with two of my personal favorites in Clint Dempsey and Steven Caulker, both sold for about £16 million combined. I do hope to see them both succeed at their new clubs but I would have preferred them to stay but I trust AVB and if he thinks lets them leave, all the best to them and let’s move on. All in all, we made vast improvements with a net cost of about £35-40 million which is fantastic for the caliber of players we recruited.

 

The AVB System

 

Now that AVB has gotten a whole summer to recruit the correct players capable of playing in his preferred 4-3-3 system, we will really be able to see how well his ideas are translated onto the pitch at White Hart Lane. We will look at the similarities between his tactics at Porto and compare them to how Spurs will probably line up. This is how Porto lined up in their Europa League final vs. Braga:

 

If we were to replace these players with our own Spurs players, the backline would be pretty obvious with Jan and Kaboul flanked by Walker and Rose/ BAE. The midfield 3 would consist of Sandro or Capoue being the most defensive with Dembele and Paulinho as the more forward thinking midfielders.

 

The question is then asked, which player would act as the Moutinho-type player aka the deep lying playmaker? This is where the translation gets complicated. Paulinho or Dembele both can play either of the two forward spots but I would prefer to see Dembele as the deeper lying midfielder as he can stride right through tackles and sprint away from any backtracking forwards with ease. Paulinho also possesses these talents but as he has a knack for scoring goals, he should try to stay more forward to make late runs into the box. We also have two capable back-ups for the deep lying playmaker position in Lewis Holtby and Tom Carroll, both who have stated in the past their preference for playing as the “regista”. One may question whether either could bang with the other tough tackling midfields but when your back line is as strong as ours and the other two midfielders are Sandro, Paulinho, Capoue or Dembele, Lewis or Tom should have no problem being effective. We also have Gylfi “Iceman” Sigurðsson who can play at the top of the inverted triangle and has been known to score big goals when needed.

 

At the top, Bobby Soldier would be playing as the spearhead with Gareth Bale, Chadli or Lennon flanking him. As illustrated in the graphic above, one of the wing forwards would tend to stay wide while the other would be an inverted winger to cut in and hit shots with their favored foot. Bale did this with much success last season as he cut in on the right and unleashed piledrivers from distance with his favored left foot. Azza is an “old school” winger and wants to stay wide, beat his man and then center it while Chadli can be either type of player as he was typically used at Twente on the left side, cutting in for shots with his right. I have a feeling that Azza will not be the full time starter as he doesn’t offer the same type of goal scoring threat that Chadli does so more than likely it will be Chadli on the left, Soldado center and Bale on the right. That three man attack would scare any defensive unit in England, maybe all of Europe, and create numerous goals while providing plenty of width and cutting edge.

 

Final Thoughts

 

This past 3 months have been exciting as it seems that Mr. Levy and Joe Lewis have finally opened up their purse and provided funds to buy players who can really make our squad one of the strongest in the entire league. Maybe it has to do with the new TV contract and how we have maintained a strict financial structure for many years that have allowed us to finally reap the benefits of being so financially conscience. Or maybe it may be that a certain Welsh superstar is being sold and we are spending the money before we receive it. Regarding Mr. Bale, I tend to ignore most of the papertalk about said Welshman and I still believe that he will be with Spurs come September 3^rd for a number of reasons, the most glaring one being the total cost of the transfer would be close to £200 million which I seriously doubt that Madrid have even close to that much free capital to spend on one player, so I will assume that he will stay with Tottenham at least for this upcoming season.

 

Regardless of where the money has come from, AVB himself has said that we are not done with business and we are strongly linked to Roma’s wonder kid Erik Lamela, a Baldini purchase while he was at Roma, Dinamo Zagreb’s young playmaker Alan Haliliovic as well as a few choice central defenders such as Ajax’s Toby Alderweireld and Steaua Bucharest’s Vlad Chiricheş, all of which would be welcomed with open arms. If I was to pick 2 of those 4, I would go for Alderweireld as he is familiar with the 4-3-3 and is the former teammate of Jan Vertonghen and Haliliovic simply because he is so young but has already become a household name due to his play during last year’s Champions League. Haliliovic would then be loaned out to a mid-table squad such as Fulham or Swansea while Alderweireld could play anywhere across the back line and prove to be a valuable back-up and cup starter.

 

Finally, I do believe that our time has come. Spurs are at the threshold of greatness and while some may settle for top four and a cup run, it is time to make the world aware of our ambitions and hostile intentions. With the new reinforcements, I do not see how we cannot place within the top three while taking some kind of silverware back to our trophy room. The journey starts Sunday…are you prepared?

 

COYS!!!!!

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