Harry's teams were exciting to watch. I think that was equal measures of not having the expectations and pressure we have now, a squad that had entertaining characters, and just the complete knowledge that anything could happen - we could whack someone, get whacked, blow a big lead, or overcome a big deficit. Nothing ever felt safe. And we played like most spectators understand football, 11 blokes running around with a ball - which made us reliant on individual moments of brilliance.
Which is probably what made life so hard for AVB, trying to institute a system on a team that hadn't played in such a way and couldn't fall back on their previous ways because the individual brilliance was gone. I still believe AVB is a class tactician, knowledgeable about football, and was trying to move us to a future not unlike what we enjoy now - for whatever reason his struggle is in player management. What makes Poch so impressive is his tactical requirements are so much more than AVB's and he was able to get the same squad that tuned AVB out to completely buy in.
Which is probably what made life so hard for AVB, trying to institute a system on a team that hadn't played in such a way and couldn't fall back on their previous ways because the individual brilliance was gone. I still believe AVB is a class tactician, knowledgeable about football, and was trying to move us to a future not unlike what we enjoy now - for whatever reason his struggle is in player management. What makes Poch so impressive is his tactical requirements are so much more than AVB's and he was able to get the same squad that tuned AVB out to completely buy in.