Ratings and Reactions: Tottenham v Villa

[ermie123]

\today was the reason for Amavi to become a winger/wide midfielder not a defender!

[theboyangel]

It's difficult to rate our players as we were set up very defensively with both bacuna and adomah working  very hard trying to nullify their wing backs.

positives:

johnstone in goal

chester and baker combo again

adomah and bacuna workrate

 

negatives

gabbys fitness (not his effort)

grealish falling over a lot

mike dean and the BBC motd team

 

 

[sheepyvillian]

1 hour ago, pintpotvilla said:

Murphy really doesn't like us does he?

He had a passion for Shaking Stevens at one time ,which , let's be honest , kind of negates any opinion of his .

[sheepyvillian]

8 minutes ago, One For The Road said:

Well, I love playing chess so I have to agree.

And I don't so I have to agree .

[Rugeley Villa]

1 hour ago, pintpotvilla said:

Murphy really doesn't like us does he?

No he does not. We are not a big club but we are a dull club and VP was never full when he played against us which was bullshit and we are not a big game for the big clubs .He also said villa park was a dull place to play football. He's obviously got something against us. 

[One For The Road]

7 minutes ago, ermie123 said:

\today was the reason for Amavi to become a winger/wide midfielder not a defender!

Apparently he is worth 25 million so he can play anywhere he likes. (Unless he really isn't worth that much of course. )

[Rugeley Villa]

46 minutes ago, One For The Road said:

What annoyed me most is how little the Spurs fans celebrated scoring a late winner against us. It was like they had scored against Oldham in a friendly. We really aren't important anymore are we. Well, not to other clubs it seems.

I'm afraid no one gives a toss about us apart from local rivals. We've never been one of those clubs. 

[Godders]

To those of you who seem to be disappointed/annoyed we didn't make more of a game of it, I have to say I'm surprised at your reaction.

The club is much better off not being in the FA Cup this season. If we had an opportunity to officially opt out of it, I'm sure we would have done. The only focus this season has to be getting promoted. Everything else that does not help us achieve that is a distraction, including the requirement to turn up at WHL today for a game.

Our gameplan today was to not lose embarrassingly. It was not to try and get a win, and it wasn't to try and force a replay. We achieved what we set out to do. Job done. Now lets focus on what really matters this season and not a meaningless dead rubber.

[GNeeUs]

Let's get a few things straight.

Team selection was perfect.

How we started with Adomah and Bacuna was brilliant.

New Keeper, Baker/Chester were near faultless.

I thought we would get beat 4-0.

HOWEVER 

Spurs basically played their B Team. We never got out of 1st gear until the last 5 mins when we might have got into 2nd gear (more like 1 1/2 gear if such a thing existed).

It really was pathetic!! I expect these guys to put in 100% for 90 mins each week. These guys put in 10%, stroll around the pitch and it really is simply pathetic. Statistically these guys (midfield and attack) must cover/run about 1/4 of what the top players in the world do. There's no give and go's, nobody trying to dribble (apart from a poor Grealish), nobody blasting into the box and nobody (bar Adomah on the odd accession) ripping in crosses. 

Its all a bit meh from Villa. I'd take that result before the match but the desire/effort/commitment from midfield forward was 0/10.

[sheepyvillian]

Your post kind of sums up everything that is wrong with the game today , " a meaningless dead rubber " ,for you maybe , but not for any self _ respecting Villa supporter .

[Godders]

3 minutes ago, sheepyvillian said:

Your post kind of sums up everything that is wrong with the game today , " a meaningless dead rubber " ,for you maybe , but not for any self _ respecting Villa supporter .

Well I do consider myself to be a self respecting Villa supporter, and I would much rather see my club competing in the premier league next season than turning up to an FA cup 5th round match at the Etihad in a few weeks time.

[sheepyvillian]

6 minutes ago, Godders said:

Well I do consider myself to be a self respecting Villa supporter, and I would much rather see my club competing in the premier league next season than turning up to an FA cup 5th round match at the Etihad in a few weeks time.

Well I would rather have both ,being as one doesn't exclude the other .

[mottaloo]

2 hours ago, pintpotvilla said:

Murphy really doesn't like us does he?

For me, the d1cksplash of a commentator (can't recall his name) was worse. He was either a closet spuds fan or he was just a bit irritated that he didn't have a goalfest to report on. He even took a sideswipe at us singing "Champions of europe, you'll never sing that", indicating we could only bang on about our history.

Otherwise, I'm "meh" about the game. Keeper looked good and has a decent kick on him.

We go again  

[Delphinho123]

Don't buy into all the 'we don't need the distraction of a cup run'. Never have done and never will do. Martin O'Neill made sure of that. Football is about winning matches and winning trophies.

Onto the match...

It pretty much went exactly to script. They proved we're nowhere near good enough for the premiership. Baker and Chester were excellent (as per), Amavi makes sloppy defensive mistakes and watching Hutton dribble out of defence is mind numbing.

The midfield worked hard, particularly impressed with Adomah and Bacuna on the flanks. Tshibola, although not brilliant, proved he's still a better option than the two that shall not be mentioned. Grealish showed flashes.

Gabby was better than he has been, still nowhere near good enough and you pretty much just accept that if he starts, you ain't gonna score.

We'll struggle if we don't bring in another striker this window to go with 2/3 midfielders. 

Fans were great.

 

 

[Godders]

11 minutes ago, sheepyvillian said:

Well I would rather have both ,being as one doesn't exclude the other .

I'm afraid it does. Going on a cup run means having more games to prepare for. We will mostly have a week to prepare for league games not having to worry about the cup. On a cup run though, we may have 2-3 days to prepare for a cup game, then 2-3 days to prepare for the league game. Playing an extra game means losing training sessions as well. If we want to go deep into the cup as well, we'll have to play our better players, which puts more strain on them running the risk of them getting injured or needing extra rest, further compromising preparations for league games.

In this day and age I'm afraid, it really is one or the other.

Once we're established back in the prem, in little danger of going down again, then we can focus on a cup run if the club wants to. Not until then though.

Edited January 8, 2017 by Godders

[smg]

Why is promotion this year the sole aim for some on here ? We are not good enough to go up automatically and a play off place is the back door. Today showed the difference in quality between the two squads, if we were to sneak in we would not be able to cope next season. Money will not guarantee survival. Another season might just allow us to build a squad that would be better able to cope. When we get promoted we need to be able to compete in the next division not just fulfill our fixtures.

[ismail-villa]

Never got to watch the match (had work) so couldn't see how we performed but it's good to see from the reactions that Johnstone did good let's hope he keeps that standard up for the rest of the season. 

[Godders]

3 minutes ago, smg said:

Another season might just allow us to build a squad that would be better able to cope. When we get promoted we need to be able to compete in the next division not just fulfill our fixtures.

So you're suggesting we would be able to build a better squad in the Championship than we would in the Prem? That we could get better players as a Championship team than we could as a Premier League club?

Two reasons why it's better to go up this season:

1. TV money

2. Ability to attract better players to the club.

[smg]

You don't attract players to a losing club. (Let's see how Sunderland do this month.) you take a strong team up and then attract the better players in the next few seasons. The key is building success not instant success I think patience is the key and unfortunately that seems in short supply on here. 

[sheepyvillian]

22 minutes ago, Godders said:

I'm afraid it does. Going on a cup run means having more games to prepare for. We will mostly have a week to prepare for league games not having to worry about the cup. On a cup run though, we may have 2-3 days to prepare for a cup game, then 2-3 days to prepare for the league game. Playing an extra game means losing training sessions as well. If we want to go deep into the cup as well, we'll have to play our better players, which puts more strain on them running the risk of them getting injured or needing extra rest, further compromising preparations for league games.

In this day and age I'm afraid, it really is one or the other.

That post really does confirm all that is sad and wrong with the game today , and being as I'm not one for treading on egg shells ,I'll stick with  brevity and for the sake of sanity ,get my coat .