Villas Boas (EX) Chelsea manager

[-V-]

He keeps playing a 433 and getting overrun in midfield. It doesn't work and it wont work the players he has but he doesnt seem to have any other system he knows

[Imy]

Being undermined by both senior players and senior ownership does not help him.

If he does make it to the summer he needs to clear out the senior players like Terry, Lampard, Drogba, Torres etc. He needs players that'll play for him, players that he chooses (like Meireles and Mata).

Can't see it happening though, the Chelsea fans would be up in arms if Terry and Lampard were both sold.

[-V-]

And by players he has I mean a Striker who cant score to save himself. They lose the midfield battle and therefore need to outscore opponents

[Craig_H]

He keeps playing a 433 and getting overrun in midfield. It doesn't work and it wont work the players he has but he doesnt seem to have any other system he knows

I love it. Previously he had the problem of his defence holding too high a line and being caught out time and time again - he eventually caved in and changed it, only for a newer and more serious problem to occur

[Chazza]

From the Independent

AVB has a worse record than Scolari before he got the boot

James Lawton: Patience may not be a virtue this time, Roman – Andre Villas-Boas looks all at sea

Abramovich's visits to training reinforce the idea of a coach feeling pressure from above and below

One day it might just dawn on the man who started off making plastic ducks in a Moscow apartment block. In some ways winning in football is not too dissimilar from becoming one of the richest men in the world. A lot of it has to do with timing, knowing when to hold the cards and when to toss them aside.

The least disposable of all those Roman Abramovich has strewn so impatiently across the table at Stamford Bridge was Jose Mourinho.

Carlo Ancelotti was certainly worth a second look, especially when you measured his track record and general knowledge of the game against the tyro who was being fitted for his shoes, and even the oligarch grasped the value of Guus Hiddink.

But Andre Villas-Boas, what does he do with him?

It's getting near impossible to believe that he shouldn't junk all the free advice he has been given down the years, all those solemn reminders that every story of significant success in football can be traced to the moment a club identified outstanding quality in their hired professional and pledged their long-term support.

However, the boy prodigy from Portugal is surely pushing this impeccable theory to breaking point.

He has now been in office at Chelsea for almost precisely the time Luiz Felipe Scolari, a World Cup-winning coach of huge experience, took to persuade Abramovich that he was an expensive mistake.

As it happened, Scolari's record was rather better than the one Villas-Boas now boasts, 20 wins in 36 games against 18 in 36, a winning percentage of 55 per cent against 50.

Unfortunately for Scolari, the owner of vast mineral rights in Mother Russia was never going to be assuaged by such piffling data.

He wants swift evidence of a winning dynamism and, if Scolari had a slight edge over Villas-Boas in the win and loss column, he was just as quick as his young successor in turning the dressing room from a happy home of millionaire brothers-in-arms into a hot bed of rebellion.

Villas-Boas's decision to haul in his players for Sunday training after the dispiriting weekend defeat at Everton might have made more sense if his relationship with the squad had not already appeared quite so fragile.

Abramovich's increasingly frequent visits to the club's training ground can only reinforce the idea of a coach feeling the pressure from both above and below his precarious position at a club which is not so much underperforming as threatening to fall through the floor.

If it is true, as the vibes increasingly suggest, that disaffection with Villas-Boas has reached a point where the resentment of some players is being replaced by something uncomfortably close to outright pity for a man out of his depth, each new visit from the owner must bring a new pang of dread.

It is a chill even such an iconic figure as Kenny Dalglish must have felt at his troubled weekend when the word came from across the Atlantic that, if Liverpool have largely absent landlords, they are still very much aware of the rise and fall of the club's corporate image.

In this case, an editorial lecture from the New York Times on the need to clean up Liverpool's profile to the point where it might sit more comfortably with that of their stablemates, the Boston Red Sox baseball team, was surely as threatening to Dalglish's peace of mind as the latest evidence that the signings of Andy Carroll, Jordan Henderson and Stewart Downing are beginning to resemble some of the last words in football inflation.

Dalglish at least has the underpinning of the Liverpool support, a luxury that Villas-Boas can only envy as he sees – and hears – large sections of Stamford Bridge withdrawing a benefit of the doubt that was hardly overwhelming from the start.

His tendency to hit the wrong note is a weakness that leaves him a little more vulnerable with each disappointing result.

When Ancelotti suffered a reverse his touch was infinitely more relaxing. After one defeat at Wigan Athletic the man who won the Double at the first time of asking was at his most disarming. "The big secret," he declared, "at times like this is not to make a drama of a single defeat. You have to remind the players of who they were a few hours ago ... you have to remind them that even the greatest teams sometimes have to lose." At such times Ancelotti drew the benefit of a great playing career.

Villas-Boas, of course, never played the game professionally. Nor did his mentor Mourinho, it is true, but then Mourinho is a genius who makes his own rules and creates his own experience.

Certainly, for Villas-Boas the brilliant momentum he achieved at Porto has at times appeared to be no adequate substitute for the kind of understanding an Ancelotti might have brought to the feelings of his players at some of the rougher passages of Chelsea's season.

The idea that players should involve the coaching staff in their goal celebrations seemed like nothing so much as an invitation to rejection. Players, inevitably, live in their own closed worlds, and at certain times outsiders – even if they happen to be coaches of impressive pedigree – only intrude at their peril.

There are other and perhaps more substantial issues, the tactical confusion, the persistence with the agonised Fernando Torres, the strange exile of new signing Gary Cahill, the disconcerting level of Jose Bosingwa's current form, and the sense of Daniel Sturridge's growing dissatisfaction with his banishment to wide positions. None of these is a portent of any early breakthrough.

Abramovich may growl that whatever he does he is damned. He may also count up the occasions he has been urged to be patient. Better, though, to remember that mere time is never an asset if you've neglected to put the ducks in a nice, coherent row.

[Chazza]

Sam Wallace @SamWallaceIndy
Gazzetta quoting Pinto da Costa today saying AVB could go to Inter. He would certainly be emulating Mourinho. Just without the 2 PL titles

[dww]

I honestly don't think he'll make it to the end of the season, they've spent a lot of money as you've said and really the only one that has looked decent from them is Mata.

They needed to get in Cahill in the summer and add another CM then. Without time to bed players in the transition from the old style to the new, along with resistant/ill suited older players, it was always going to be a transitional season for them. I think if he gets another season he'll be a big success. I'm doubtful that he will get it though.

[Mostar]

From the Independent

AVB has a worse record than Scolari before he got the boot

Sickening to see that even this article has to involve us in some way, shape or form...

[ric.williams]

he inherited a squad that was well past its prime with way too many egos. they'd be better sticking with him and let him rebuild

[lfcred]

Yeh totally agree! He didn't have a full summer to build his own squad, and never got any players in that he actually wanted. But will he ever get the chance to bring in the players he wants? The guy they have brought from genk was according to AVB a 'club signing', that insinuated that he didn't really know anything about it! If chelsea carry on working like that they wont see much success!

[Phoenix07]

Inevitable Guus Hiddink links again. No surprise.

[Mostar]

He's a prick and I don't like him at all but for us it would be the best if he stays until the season is over.

If they sack him now a new manager may be able to temporarily change the momentum and get more out of them than he did so far.

[Shaggy]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2012/feb/13/chelsea-players-andre-villas-boas-row

Chelsea players confront André Villas-Boas in training-ground row

• Club tensions mounting following 2-0 defeat at Everton
• Owner Roman Abramovich at Cobham on day of row

David Hytner
guardian.co.uk, Monday 13 February 2012 22.59 GMT
Article history

André Villas-Boas sparked a blazing row with some of his senior Chelsea players on Sunday after calling the squad in on their day off to vent his anger over the 2-0 defeat at Everton. The manager tore into his players, who had pockmarked their display with sloppy errors, but he found that some of them gave back as good as they got. In the blow-up, they told him exactly what they thought of him and his tactics, to lay bare the tensions at the club.

Villas-Boas believes that he has the support of the owner, Roman Abramovich, who was also present at the training ground on Sunday. Abramovich's focus is no longer consumed by his $5bn (£3.2bn) litigation battle with Boris Berezovsky – the high court hearing ended on 19 January and Mrs Justice Gloster is in the throes of writing her judgment – and he has been a regular at Cobham since the Saturday before last which, inevitably, has heightened the pressure on Villas-Boas. Abramovich, though, does not want to sack the young Portuguese, having taken the decision on his own to appoint him as the successor to Carlo Ancelotti last summer, and he shared in the manager's frustrations with the players.

The defeat at Goodison Park, which exacerbated the club's Premier League slump and dropped them out of the Champions League places, was, by common consent, the team's worst performance of a season that has seen them fail to compete for the title. They lag 17 points behind the league leaders Manchester City.

A big part of Villas-Boas's brief is to rejuvenate the Chelsea squad, to assimilate talented young players while still competing for silverware. He has maintained that a club of Chelsea's stature cannot tolerate mere transition. But, inevitably, he has found himself unpopular with the older guard, whom he feels he must phase out.

He caused a stir with his man-management when he banished Nicolas Anelka and Alex to train with the reserves, after they had requested transfers in December; the popular pair departed in January for Shanghai Shenhua and Paris St-Germain respectively. Villas-Boas has also clashed with Frank Lampard and Didier Drogba while even the high-profile January signing, Gary Cahill, has been left bewildered at his treatment. He has played only once in his five weeks at the club.

Chelsea's hopes of a trophy have come to rest on the FA Cup and Champions League – the latter is the one that Abramovich covets above all others – and their next two fixtures are in those competitions. They play Birmingham City in the FA Cup fifth round at Stamford Bridge on Saturday before they travel to Napoli for the Champions League last-16 first-leg next Tuesday. The captain, John Terry, hopes to return from a knee injury to face Birmingham, while Drogba and Salomon Kalou are due back on Wednesday from the Africa Cup of Nations.

The pressure in each tie will be intense, with the resentment towards Villas-Boas in some quarters adding further spice. Villas-Boas's assistant, Roberto Di Matteo, is also under scrutiny, with Abramovich picking up on the feeling during his visits to the training ground that the former Italy international is unpopular with the players. Abramovich turned to Villas-Boas after dismissing Ancelotti at the end of last season following, coincidentally, a Premier League defeat at Everton, having been impressed at how the 34-year-old won the treble of league, cup and Europa League with Porto. He is desperate for Villas-Boas to succeed, not least as firing him would call into question the wisdom of investing such faith in a talent without an extensive track record.

It is never prudent, though, to second-guess Abramovich, who has sacked five managers during his eight-and-a-half-year stewardship of the club. He dismissed Luiz Felipe Scolari in February 2009 when the club's membership of the Premier League's top four was in jeopardy. Villas-Boas is acutely aware of the need to qualify for next season's Champions League.

The fallout from Everton in the Chelsea dressing room also featured a candid assessment from the goalkeeper Petr Cech. "When you lose a game 2-0 and you are Chelsea football club, playing for the Champions League and with big expectations, losing is not good enough and the performance was not good enough. That's why we lost.

"We took so many passes side to side and we never really opened them up. In the second half, we tried to play more direct but they were fighting well and kept organised, and 1-0 up so early became so much more difficult to break."

[Alex]

Sounds to me that AVB will be staying and there will be a fair few older players shipped out in the summer.

[lickedlollipop]

^^

best solution, IMO