Veron was a star for Argentina and playing in Italy
However he never lived up to that standrard for either Chelsea or Man U - reason was that he didn't suit their type of play.
Derby do not play like Spurs - hence your statement isuggesting a loaneee at Derby being dropped is invalid.
If you read my posts carefully you will see that I say Smith as an attacking RB fits Spurs requienment for attacking full backs - Naughton is ok as a defender but is not a good attacking full back, hence Spurs/AVB's desired formation falls apart when Naughton plays.
Derby's style of football will surely change now that Maclaren is in charge?
I heard so many good things about this lad when he was at MK Dons, hope he bring it through to our first team
When you have seen him, what did you think ?
Well my biggest impression of him came away at Carlisle when he played 65 minutes at right back before swapping to left back for the remainder of the game.
Bearing in mind this was against Carlisle, he was consistently caught out of position seemingly unsure as when to push forward and stay back. More concerning was his inability to simply retain possession, whilst his final ball also left a lot to be desired.
Jonathon Obika came on and was even worse incidentally.
Does AVB really want attacking full backs?
I am not so sure. .
Another club where he struggled to hold down a starting role despite us all hearing "so many good things".
AVB's formation of choice used currently relies upon 'inverted wingers' , that is wingers who cut inside mainly (or in AVB's case almost completely to date). Width is provided by the attacking fullbacks (or wingbacks) which are the essential balance to AVB's inverted wingbacks
I've seen him about 8-10 full games I reckon. 2/3 for Spurs development teams, 6/7 for England and snippets of loan games.
he was excellent for the development team against Barcelona. Have yet to see him have a bad game for an England team, and one of the games was outstanding and was awarded man of the match - quite a rarity I would imagine for an U21 RB.
I think he does need to improve defensively, but he's not daft, so I believe he can. He has excellent technique, is composed on the ball and gets forward with purpose and tries to do something intelligent when he gets there.
personally I think he'd be perfect for the system we are trying to play.
I think just as it's dangerous to over hype young players, it's equally daft to write them off too quickly, based on loan spells in lower league teams, that might not play to that players strengths, or based on seeing them once or twice.
If you look around the perm at the moment there is a real shortage of quality rb's, so I'd be amazed if the kid didn't end up earning a decent living, hopefully with us, but if not elsewhere.
Just because our wingers are inverted, when we are in possession they are still the ones expected to provide the width.
If we look at Smith's ability and career - compare that to what Walker and Naughton achieved at the same age. The differences are astronomical.
I would definitely agree with regards to the quality of right full backs, I would probably extend your point to left backs aswell.
I watch the England U21s only to check on the Spurs contingent, but to be quite frank I would be disappointed if our players didn't stand out because in general the standard of football is awful (England went through the last qualification process without conceding a single goal).
We have been hyping him for probably four years now, yet he is no closer to the first team now than he was then.
But most importantly, he is along way behind both Walker and Naughton in terms of quality and development.
If we look at Smith's ability and career - compare that to what Walker and Naughton achieved at the same age. The differences are astronomical.
Sorry that's not how AVB has the side set up - elsewhere I have suggested that the inverted wingers should both cut inside and go outside from time to time to vary the attack, but the latter is very rare in AVB's tactics.
Hence the reliance on speedy attacking full backs.
I would say part of the problem is that he has had Walker ahead of him for the last 3, no matter what my opinion is, Walker is clear first choice (and rightly at this stage) but if Walker hadn't emerged I'm pretty sure Smith would be knocking on the door or playing a lot more games for us by now. He is a better footballer than Naughton, maybe not as sturdy defensively though.
He reminds a little of Steve Carr.
Our wingers create width first and foremost, are you seriously arguing against this?
In a 4-2-3-1 there on no wingers just attacking midfielders with responsibility for a certain area of the pitch but with freedom to move inside and create. It is the full backs responsibility to keep width in this formation.
So we are playing with five central midfielders?
No, we are not.
Lennon and Townsend were selected to provide width at the weekend, not Walker and Verthonghen
Our wingers create width first and foremost, are you seriously arguing against this?
BTW MiinMan - when everyone in this thread is telling you that width in AVB's system is being provided by the full backs and not the wingers, why are you surprised ?