AVB uses a patient tactic where he wants us to keep the ball a lot in the 1st half which means that we have had many first halfs with more than 60% possession. It leaves our opponents chasing the ball and getting tired. Towards the end of the game we up the tempo while our opponents are longing for the game to end. How many goals come in the 2nd half? That's when we really get going.
Excellent point and something missed from a lot of the analysis of what AVB was about in this country.
Before he took over it was all 'high line', 'pressing', '4-3-3' without talking about the key part of AVBs preferred system which you identify here. Patience.
Rather than the high pressure attack that was talked about by the British press before he arrived at Chelsea what AVBs Porto were most notable for was the way they built a game. The first half would be fairly patient, the line quite deep as they played possession football to tire the opposition. The pressing was to ensure that the opposition could not settle and relax rather than hunting the ball to win it. A fair amount of Porto games would be 0-0 at half time.
In the second half it changed however. The still fresh Porto would begin actively hunting the ball all over the pitch moving in 3s to close down the midfield. The defence would step up and compress the space making the superior technique of the Porto midfield in close situations count and enabling them to be on the opposition in seconds if they miss controlled a ball.
Falcao, a fairly static figure in most first halves that year, would begin making runs into the right channel to drag the centre backs around, Hulk would dart across into the space and Varela would stretch the back line with his pace. As the opposition tired Porto would up the intensity of their game a further notch and would score, often several goals, in the last half hour.
The best example was the first leg of the Europa League semi against Villareal. A patient opening 45, Rossi having the best of the openings. They even went behind to a Cani goal but stepped up their game in the customary fashion and broke the Villareal team mentally and physically. Falcao scored 4 second half goals, Guarin the fifth and Villareal lost 5-1 from being 1-0 up.
Villareal should have done their homework. In the previous round Spartak thought they were in the game after 45 minutes too before 4 late goals sent them back to Russia with a 5-1 mauling. The ruthless efficiency of that Porto side was incredible to watch.
The West Ham game was very reminiscent of those Porto performances. Patient probing, making West Ham run around like twats all game and then the last 30 minutes was constant Spurs movement and pressure to the point where West Ham defenders were chopping our players down just to get a rest.
It's not the gung ho swashbuckle of the 'fucking run around' era, it's too calculated for that, too designed. But if we continue to develop that type of game further and get half as good as Porto were at it by the end of 2010-11 then we'll be winning a hell of a lot of games.
