MattVillaPortsmouth

Think lehmans been made a bit of a scapegoat there - Dali/Nobbs been less effective and most wasteful - putting turner on and moving mayling to RW is a weird decision. I can’t even remember either keeper making a save after 70mins, that’s says more than anything else. Injuries/suspensions aside, it’s not been anywhere near good enough

2 poor goals to concede, other than that not much in it - although it’s not been great football. Hansen looking our most dangerous, would say we miss Leon more than Daly at moment - her drive and attitude makes things happen. Plus our midfield is so unbalanced and out of form. Not a big fan of magill as focal point (granted don’t have many options) surely Salmon or Mullett would have been better. better final ball (as said above) and a bit more fight/passion and we can get something out of it (although why oh why are we so bad here, surely it’s time to reasses our home ground)

I really like what I saw, thought he was good on the ball, had good awareness and fitted in seamlessly, for the most part. Yes he tired, yes he struggled when momentum swung to Luton - but that has happened to far more experienced players this season, and will continue to do so. No issues with taking him off, he probably planned for 5mins, hoped for 30 but got a good 65 mins run out - all positives. i saw enough to see he will be a good player for us, as I said in other thread would like to see him in the second striker/10 role youri played in - think will give us more there.

Surely the noise is “we will have to sell to buy big” rather than “sell to be safe for PSR” 2 massively different statements, both on current financials and not what we could end up with, Prize money for 4th, ECL win and CL qualifiers all boost the coffers in many ways. same as jan, we moved on to bring in - which is prob (in my eyes) more to protect summer budgets, which we plan in - winter window is a chance to fix things, we didn’t need fixing. We don’t need a massive overhaul, 1 big deal would be nice buy not essential. We have done the rebuild - if we can find a gem of a DM or ST then awesome.

Yes he has his limitations, but he has had to play a large part in our season last 2 & 1/2 months - I don’t think he has let us down at all, and if anything has been very consistent. Overall today I thought he was good. Nowhere near as worried now with him in the team than I was after the first few ECL group games.

Best thing about next week is both spurs can’t go ahead of us and we have been generally V good at putting it right next game if it goes wrong - So if we lose I don’t think all is lost, but if we win I really wouldn’t bet against us, don’t see them having the same resilience. A draw maintains the status quou. On the field it’s a great time (not the best yet) time to be a Villa fan. Success breeds success and momentum is everything, so yeah a ECL win for me and 4th go hand in hand.

(Unsurprisingly) thought he was mostly a passenger again today, first half was hardly noticeable as we worked the ball into Olly and midfield progressed the ball fairly well, second half when that wasn’t working we needed him to be better. I for one would like to see Morgan (if JJ is fit) given a game in this position, it maybe tactically he doesn’t get involved, but I want my hybrid 10 to be in the pockets holding the ball, turning u to space, little one-twos and generally being busy - his press is ok (as in he tries) but in my eyes if that’s Emi B he would be on the ball way more than youri is. 1 or two well weighted through balls in a handful of games in not a decent return for me.

Not really, it’s was more like for like as opposed to Roger’s being above Diaby in the pecking order. The way we were playing was creating problems, was t really a game for 2 proper wide men, that’s not how we play.

Are we watching same game, largely passing him by

Seemed to be stretching hamstring a few times first half, sure I saw it on one of our corners - but looked ok in bench second half, hopefully precautionary

Great finish 1-2 nobbs - comes at a great time, been under the kosh a bit

HT 1-1 Good half I thought, unlucky to be level. Noticeably Hanson the driving force, along with Leon involved in all things good - patten and mayling good also. Still some poor decisions and loose balls, but not many and way more like our play last year were our wide play created the most chances, Could have had 2 or 3 goals here from that. Not sure what Magill offers, would like Mullet on and give Leon more freedom. Stay tight and we can get something out of this.

About the best line up we could muster today - need to dig in, work hard and we can cause them issues (although spurs look strong up top ).

I really can’t see it, I thought he didn’t do much at all yesterday, looked like he was running through custard, and had zero confidence he would score that chance looked gassed. The pass for Watkins was no more than I would expect from any half decent midfielder the way it opened up - the movement was class (and their defence parted way to easily) - was screaming for him to be taken off at at 45 let alone 60, 70, 80 the amount of cheap balls he gave away was shocking (JJ should have gone off as well).

Totally agree, miscommunication aside thought he did well.

Any chance of a sub before we chuck this

Would hope for this: Emi Cash. Lenglet. Pau. Moreno Tim Dougie Bailey. Ramsey. McGinn Olly or Emi Cash Lenglet Pau Moreno Dougie McGinn Bailey Ramsey Diaby Olly Either of them should have enough

A goal and we will see him back, I liked the starting line up today - we need him to carry the ball forward, makes a huge difference.

We have Fulham and Forest left this month, win this and we go into March at worst still 5 points clear in 5th with a a gulf in goal difference (to Utd) - still in our hands. Lots of points to be won or lost yet.

Shocked he seems to have dodged many critics for last night, was terrible - wandered around like people were lucky to come see him. I now plenty of others weren’t great, but I think against the better teams he hinders us too much.

No one carries/drives the ball. Bailey to deep when cash is there, tielemens is either half decent or 9 times out of 10 poor - so have zero attacking threat other than Ollie, and if he has no space or is pot muscled we have nothing. Need Pau back as that takes dougie another 10 yards up the pitch. It’s like walking football half the time - which is not what we were pre Christmas.

Prob should be level, pretty even. Can’t decide if that’s poor keeping, seen it late or deceived, gut is she should have got that. Magill should have scored, other than that not created much (or given many chances away), ball retention and decision making poor again - noticeably you can hear the Brighton coaching - not much from us. Would take off Magill and put Mullett up top with Salmon

When your lucks out, it’s out. Great hit for their second, we should have had enough to win, created enough but the same old story (decisions, composure, defensive lapses) something needs to change

So if someone doesn’t agree with your claret and blue tinted view they are either ignorant or their view is dumb (I only wish I had your knowledge of all the players etc it’s commendable - but doesn’t make other views less important or right) - I was talking about progression, every club (and in any part of the game from Sunday league to top) gets injury’s in a season - having a squad so bare is the problem, not the 1 or 2 injury’s, but even then on the pitch we look so tactically inept and have no real pattern of play - the fundamentals of football. We didn’t make 6 first team signings, DvD was effectively a swap for HH, Patten/Hansen were already here on loan, Salmon has made 1 WSL start - so Leon (who I agree has been ok, but wrong side of 30 and no real improvement on stats from last year) and Parker who was shoe horned into the team before injury - so I would say 2 at best maybe 3 - but they replaced 13 in total (of which 6/7 played some part in last season) - so yeah I stand by my stance we didn’t standstill let alone progress - I said this before the window shut. We didn’t strengthen in the areas we needed - 3 wide midfielders when we needed a DM/CM and maybe a FB. So my expectations were mainly high due to form of last year (team bond, the way the fought etc) and those coming in were to support and give us more options, and the buzz around the team (everything being pushed out by club, players, media etc). Most talk about the good or bad things, unfortunately there is very little or any good things this season. A few results against poor or championship teams is nothing to write home about. I hope we can improve our overall play and keep the form going, god knows a cup run to final would be nice - but if I were a betting man (which I’m not) I can see no more than 3 further wins in WSL and prob 7/8th place finish and a humbling defeat in the semis if we can beat Brighton (manger less as they are). UTV

It’s easier to attract in summer on the back of a good season - we having fallen behind in that regards, summer just gone we would have been an appealing offer for players - next summer that won’t be the case. You can dress it up as what you want, but it’s piss poor across the board - recruitment, communication, tactics, Image - everything this season screams amateur. I stand by my quote after the first game this season, we didn’t even tread water in summer and have just gone backwards, that’s not down to bad luck - massive lack of progression.. We should be pushing the women’s game, it’s good for the club overall - there seems to be a massive disconnect with the rest of the squads. We have a good following, always comes across in games - we/they are the ones being let down. Maybe I am over critical, as I want us to be a success and was generally excited in what we looked to be doing last season.