Villas Boas (EX) Chelsea manager

[dom9]

A bit strong.

[badpiggy]

The squad is well below the level it was a few years ago but I don't think AVB is adapting his tactics to get the best out of the players he has. He's also tended to fudge the big decisions about easing Terry and to a lesser extent Lampard out of the team. His pressing game really doesn't suit either of them.

Terry and Luiz is a terrible pairing. Both go to challenge for the first ball and neither covers the other. I think Luiz will come good though, he's got a lot of skill and by all accounts was an excellent defender before his move to CFC.

I think you're on the money there. He's come into Chelsea at the worst possible time and there's probably no good way of getting rid of Terry or Lampard, partly because they're both good but declining players and partly because they're both unsuited to the high defensive line pressing game that AVB seems to want.

I also agree that Luis is not a horrible defender as people keep claiming - he's young and getting used to a situation that is sort-of changing and Terry is probably the main problem for him cos he's obviously an egostistical thinks-he-Mr. Chelsea cunt who just won't be told. I think his mistakes have been positional mainly which show the confucion he's probably feeling as a result of having a failing uinsuited Terry controlling the defence.

Torres is also a huge problem for AVB and despite the mounting evidence for his decline there's still the possibility that he could score a lot of goals. Noone on here has the expertise to say that he's shot because of injuries even though the case for that seems strong. I'd maintain that his performance against the Scum a few games back could be evidence that it's still in him - equally it could be the one last excellent game he had in him.

Anyway, it's unlikely that he'll get much more time so none of this really matters for him. If nothing else I hope I've helped show that Terry is a cunt.

[badpiggy]

That's true, but it also shouldn't be the measure of a manager. Sacking him without allowing him to rebuild the squad with his players would mean they'll never know whether his 'footballing vision' is effective or not.

[dom9]

I think you're on the money there. He's come into Chelsea at the worst possible time and there's probably no good way of getting rid of Terry or Lampard, partly because they're both good but declining players and partly because they're both unsuited to the high defensive line pressing game that AVB seems to want.

I also agree that Luis is not a horrible defender as people keep claiming - he's young and getting used to a situation that is sort-of changing and Terry is probably the main problem for him cos he's obviously an egostistical thinks-he-Mr. Chelsea cunt who just won't be told. I think his mistakes have been positional mainly which show the confucion he's probably feeling as a result of having a failing uinsuited Terry controlling the defence.

Torres is also a huge problem for AVB and despite the mounting evidence for his decline there's still the possibility that he could score a lot of goals. Noone on here has the expertise to say that he's shot because of injuries even though the case for that seems strong. I'd maintain that his performance against the Scum a few games back could be evidence that it's still in him - equally it could be the one last excellent game he had in him.

Anyway, it's unlikely that he'll get much more time so none of this really matters for him. If nothing else I hope I've helped show that Terry is a cunt.

Thing is it is possible to ease older, local, 'heartbeat of the team' players out the first team. Carragher being a case in point. It requires strong leadership. I would play real Alex instead, personally.

[badpiggy]

Thing is it is possible to ease older, local, 'heartbeat of the team' players out the first team. Carragher being a case in point. It requires strong leadership. I would play real Alex instead, personally.

It's a tough one - AVB has to be super confident to do this at his age but Terry is a supercunt.

[dom9]

Kenny is starting from a stronger position too. A completely new manager at LFC would have a much harder time doing this.

[red g]

Alex and Anelka, confirm they have put in transfer requests....

lets get Alex.

[little dave hedgehog]

can't imagine he'd be any happier on our bench.

[cream]

You couldn't make it up. The plastic club, with plastic fans now want plastic goal celebrations with the plastic Mourinho.

[GTi]

AVB really is special.

[Chazza]

Villas-Boas can only look on as the old guard close ranks

Here, the crux of the issue facing Andre Villas-Boas, laid bare. As Chelsea drew deep into their well of resilience and determination and grit to staunch Manchester City's tide and then to turn it, ending a game with their title credentials enhanced, the futility of the Portuguese's position crystallised.

Not because, when Raul Meireles equalised and when Frank Lampard won the game, both failed to involve their manager in the ensuing celebrations, but because, with this win, they proved Chelsea's absolute conviction that they will succeed their way, not anyone else's, and most definitely not Villas-Boas's. There is a way he wants Chelsea to play, and there is a way that Chelsea play. He is not about to change it, because it works.

One by one, the tactical nuances and the philosophical tenets which brought Villas-Boas such unprecedented success at FC Porto, the dashes of dugout wizardry which brought the boy wonder to the eyes of the world, are being disassembled. He has acknowledged that he has had to do away with a rotating midfield – three players, each assuming the defensive, shielding role in turn, that the others might break forward – because, without a static holding player, the chaos of the Premier League becomes unmanageable.

He has, first tentatively against Newcastle, then in immaculate victory against Valencia, and now with this most valiant of points against the league leaders, the champions anoint, done away with his high line, replacing it with what he euphemistically calls a "low medium block". More plainly, it is a deep-lying defence. More honestly, it is the position which makes John Terry feel most comfortable.

And with it, Villas-Boas has lost much of the intensive pressing that helped Porto asphyxiate opponents, at home and abroad. Instead, they lie in wait for their foes, picking them off in their own half and breaking quickly; that one trait is what linked the Chelsea of old, the Chelsea of Jose Mourinho, with the Porto of Villas-Boas. The difference is that, where the latter preferred to do it along the ground, the former prefer to scud the ball through the air; his team, now, prefer to fly, too.

"This Chelsea is not the Chelsea which we are creating, that is for sure," said the Portuguese on the eve of this game, when asked whether he had betrayed his principles in acquiescing to reality. But it is the Chelsea which he has, and as long as its deployment brings victory, it is the Chelsea he must use.

It is the Chelsea where Terry and Ashley Cole seek Didier Drogba from deep, the Chelsea where a defensive midfielder sits deep, prowling in front of the defence and where the wingers tuck in narrow to play off their totemic Ivorian target. It is a chimera whose only beauty lies in its efficacy.

Villas-Boas was supposed to herald revolution, to wean Chelsea of their dependency on that old guard. It is not that simple; Carlo Ancelotti and Luiz Felipe Scolari could have told him that.

A club's players, ultimately, define its style. That is why Roberto Mancini has overseen such a huge turnover in personnel: he has been seeking those who might implement his beliefs.

Until Villas-Boas has the chance to do the same, his Chelsea will continue to be a utopia, in both senses: the best place, and no place at all.

http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/f...s-6276214.html

[dww]

I think a lot of managers coming from abroad find they have to at least adapt their beliefs to the higher tempo of the premier league. It's far to early to tell what AVB will do long term or whether the last few games are a sign that he has given up trying to impose his beliefs (at least temporarily) or whether he is just searching for a way to make them work.

He appears to have realised that Mikel is a bit rubbish though, so I think he'll do okay.

[Neil Young]

He's starting to behave like a complete tosser though.

[dww]

He's certainly much less likeable than he appeared when he arrived (and when seen from afar at Porto). But then he is a Mourinho protégé.

[Chrono]

He's starting to behave like a complete tosser though.

Absolutely, the minute the pressure was on he showed his true colours.

Found it really interesting that he belittled Gary Neville while at the same time claiming Neville should have respect for a Brazilian international (his comments about David Luis). He also spat his dummy out about several commentators and journalists which to me is a clear sign of his lack of maturity and spoilt brat behaviour.

Can't stand the guy, he's been in management 5 minutes yet feels that he is above criticism.