Sacking Redknapp was crazy finished 4th,5th and 4th in 3 full seasons at Spuds. I was shocked when it happened.
Yes and no, you have to remember that firstly he built most of his form off new in form players and struggled(at every club he's managed) trying to get form out of players longer term when he isn't spending. Likely he got fired more for his attitude than performance, the England job, he was clearly willing to chuck the Spurs job in at the drop of a hat and likely told Levy that he was just waiting for the phone call.
I also think he likely had no long term plan to crack top 4, IE did his plan consist of selling 5 and buying 10 players every year?
No other player in the league scores the goal Suarez scored today. The way he robbed Kaboul and then was able to get the ball out of his feet and run on goal, with 2 defenders clsoing him down is ridiculous.
I'm all for fans wanting to talk up their players but are you having a laugh. Dawson sets up a back pass, Suarez already on the move. You find that 8/10 times the defender struggles to get around to the ball when they start off chasing the player. Kaboul is also rubbish and two defenders closing... is that supposed to include Dawson because if so.... LOLOLOLOL. Yeah, if he ran in the box and took a 5 minute nap Dawson may have caught up.
He got a ball in behind, ran on to it and slotted it in, that is as complex as it was. it was well taken but pretty simple and we see strikers score such goals all the time.
In terms of Spurs/Sherwood situation...
Kaboul was always for some reason highly rated by Spurs fans, never saw it. Huge and powerful, constantly injured and mistake prone. Same as I never saw anything at all in Dawson despite them loving him too(at times). King was at least better than those two, but still massively over hyped. For every brilliant game he had meh ones.
Spurs need one quality central midfielder, for me Sandro nor Paulinho are it, not even close to it. They need 4 fullbacks, 2 CB's, a DM or just a CM who is strong defensively and another striker. Soldado has shown a nice touch but he's someone who very much needs the right midfield behind him, the right delivery and the right kind of interplay.
I think people are getting WAY too in to judging managers. Sherwood is ultimately a care taker, he didn't have 3 transfer windows, nor 100+ million, he has had no choice in players and is very much trying to take care of someone else's team. The poor choice in transfers(I don't think all the players were poor buys, just wrong in combination and for this particular team at this time) isn't his fault. The season was and is over, AVB isn't the right guy, nothing in anything he did in England said to me he was remotely capable. As such this season is, regardless of what other people may want to be true, over, and has been for 4+ months.
Blooding Bentaleb who is young and put in some great performances, could end up being important in terms of him becoming a potentially great player in the next couple of years. They've got little to lose doing it. Defensively injuries/lack of talent preclude them doing well. Not sure exactly what people were expecting. Part of the reason AVB was fired was the team he put together wasn't good enough, so why is Sherwood being judged in the same way when he's still got that squad that isn't good enough?
He certainly hasn't made them worse, he's won 9 in 16 compared to AVB's 8 in 16. But as above AVB built that team, not Sherwood. Also compare who they've beaten.
AVB wins
Palace, Swansea, Norwich, Cardiff, Villa, Hull, Fulham, Sunderland.
Sherwood wins
Southampton, Stoke, Utd, Palace, Swansea, Everton, Newcastle, Cardiff, Southampton again.
AVB's record against the top half was disgraceful, nothing short of it. His wins were purely bottom half and mostly the very worst. Sherwood has managed 6 wins against the top half. I don't know if he's a good manager or not, but mentality wise he's certainly got them beating significantly higher quality opposition.
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