Björn Engels

[wazzap24]

1 minute ago, Elton said:

It was a penalty all day. Total gift. Surprised referee didn’t give it.

Hause is so much better than Engels. I really don’t understand why so many fans don’t rate being able to win headers, speed, strength as absolute key attributes of a defender over the odd lapse pass.

Luckily Smith and Terry know what is needed to be a centre half, which is why Engels is 4th choice right now.

I agree it was a pen, I just don’t think it was a gift. His positioning could have been better, but he had to make the tackle at the end and he almost got the ball. I’ve seen worse. 

Hause is terrific in the air, but an accident waiting to happen on the deck - we just see it differently, that’s all. 

I didn’t think Konsa was particularly good today either and I felt like Engels at least held his position a bit better at times than the other two. 

He’ll be gutted after that and will probably be dropped anyway, but I don’t think he was that bad. 

[Delphinho123]

Another player that doesn’t look good enough. 

Honestly, as the weeks pass, our summer business just looks more and more horrific. 

Are Engels, Trezeguet and Wesley really cut out for this level? 

Then there is Nakamba and Luiz who, whilst not as bad as the above, are certainly projects and have had some awful games between them. 

Back onto Engels. You have to be a seriously good footballer to make it at this level with so little pace. He isn’t a seriously good footballer. 

Again, not bad but just not good. If we stay up, which I don’t think we will, it will be a summer of replacing all the players we bought last summer. 

[maqroll]

I think there's a serviceable player in there but he seems like his self belief is shot and is still rusty. Has he been mismanaged? Should he have been bled into the side early on instead of just thrown right in? Should he have been recruited at all and given that nice contract? 

Brutal mistake at the end there. His head is not in the game right now. 

[sidcow]

2 hours ago, villalad21 said:

Why did we let Chester go? Madness.

Our best defender after Mings.

It's because Smith is a pillock isn't it @villalad21. Go on you know you want to say it, which is why you keep repeating it was madness to let Chester go.  Just say it, go on.

[DCJonah]

1 hour ago, wazzap24 said:

I did say I was very much in the minority and I don’t think the penalty was a ‘gift’. 

I thought he was decent in both boxes and was generally solid defensively. 

The howler at the end made his overall performance look worse than it was IMO, but that’s the way it goes.  

I’d keep him in the middle and bring Mings back in for Hause TBH. 

Good god no. He is so slow, balls over the top would kill us. 

As someone said earlier, most of what he does is last ditch, which is why I think some view him as playing well today  

He's a car crash waiting to happen and has been since he was found out at home to southampton. 

[sidcow]

1 hour ago, VillaChris said:

Ultimately our defence just looks a mess whenever Mings isn't around, 

Ultimately our defence looks a mess when Mings is around as well, which is why we have conceded more goals than anyone else, and are moving towards conceding far more goals than anyone else despite Mings playing in the majority of our games. 

[wazzap24]

1 minute ago, DCJonah said:

Good god no. He is so slow, balls over the top would kill us. 

As someone said earlier, most of what he does is last ditch, which is why I think some view him as playing well today  

He's a car crash waiting to happen and has been since he was found out at home to southampton. 

You’re probably right, but I just keep thinking back to those early games when he looked a real player next to Mings.

Mings brings a bit of extra presence to our defence and the others always look a bit more comfortable when he’s there, I think Engels would be fine with Mings/Konsa either side of him. 

[VillaChris]

2 minutes ago, sidcow said:

Ultimately our defence looks a mess when Mings is around as well, which is why we have conceded more goals than anyone else, and are moving towards conceding far more goals than anyone else despite Mings playing in the majority of our games. 

My viewpoint always is if you concede two you've always got a good chance still of getting at least a point if you've got a decent attack. Spurs conceded two today (and really didn't look much better at the back imo) yet still won the game.

Concede three though and you've got little chance of getting anything.

I know not keeping clean sheets isn't a great look but feels to me this season even the top sides bar Liverpool aren't keeping many of them. Not sure on the other teams but Spurs have only kept 3 clean sheets since Mourinho came in (4 for the season in total).

Start of season we weren't conceding many but weren't scoring so it works both ways sometimes. If we'd played deeper today for 90 minutes we would've struggled to get up the pitch and might've lost 2-0 instead of 3-2.

I just wish we had better game management once we go into the lead or are drawing with five minutes left. Cost us too many times already.

[DCJonah]

46 minutes ago, wazzap24 said:

You’re probably right, but I just keep thinking back to those early games when he looked a real player next to Mings.

Mings brings a bit of extra presence to our defence and the others always look a bit more comfortable when he’s there, I think Engels would be fine with Mings/Konsa either side of him. 

He looked absolute top class when he started. I think he's been found out and as a team, we've been very poor defensively. 

Neither thing really helps him. When you're as slow as he is, especially when turning then you need to make it for it with exceptional tackling and reading of the game. I'm not sure he possesses either of them. 

 

[New_Hope]

The monumental cock up is seriously adding weight to his overall performance.

He was unlucky with the penalty as the spurs player was already falling over before even the slightest bit of contact. A 50-50 imo...on another day it's not given.

He scores our first goal from a corner this season and for the rest of the game looked quite solid and was there to block or clear.

For me, I think he has enough quality to be a good premier league player for us. He is still a youngish player.

[Farlz]

 Bit gutted for him. Started the season so well but it's all gone a bit tits up since about December. 

[MaVilla]

I still like him.

He made a mistake, so do others, personally I think there is a good player in there, probably just a bit rusty as he hasnt played much for weeks and weeks (wasnt even in the squad for weeks).

I think he will come good in the end, whether that be this season when we stay up, or worst case next season in the champ, regardless in think there is a very good player in there once he gets some game time and confidence back.

[screwdriver]

after listening to fans slaughtering Engles I was suprised the reaction he received on twitter. I thought he'd get a load of flack.

[Philosopher]

For me this guy is the best on the ball of all our defenders, but 2 costly errors even with the goal he scored. Is young and will improve.

[striker]

34 minutes ago, screwdriver said:

after listening to fans slaughtering Engles I was suprised the reaction he received on twitter. I thought he'd get a load of flack.

This is a very unfortunate post.

[KentVillan]

I think Engels is a good player, but one thing you cannot afford to do is leave him last man against pace. I'd have a go at playing him RCB if we're going to persist with the 3-man defence. He looked useful there against Bournemouth, and he seems to link up well with Guilbert.

Unfortunately, his lack of pace will hold him back in his career, there's no getting around that. But it's possible to work around it with the right system, and he does bring lots of other useful qualities. A lot of people were talking him up as our best signing of the summer earlier in the season, but I think he's a victim of opposition scouting now - teams will always try and create 1v1 pace mismatches with him. I also think Smith hasn't always used him wisely when we are up against pacy attacks.

[Dave-R]

Both teams were going at it relentlessly, when those final minutes occur, that pressure gets insane. It's easy for all of us to sit here and say Engels should of done this or that, but that pressure could of been at the other end and someone was always going to make a mistake, it just so happened to be us.

[Dave-R]

I did honestly think because we were so high up the pitch, that when Nakamba was brought on that he'd remain at the back mopping balls up behind the defence. He was at the back most of his time but the final ten minutes I think he just joined in our attacks and stopped mopping balls up. If Nakamba had remained at the back with his speed, I really don't think that 3rs goal would of been, I don't blame Nakamba, it's just the way both teams played.

We went for the win and lost, that's it.

[Digavilla]

To be far he’s last played on 21 Dec & not had any competitive games since , sure to be a bit rusty & tired at the end & commit error... 

[Rob182]

Jeez. Once again, people seem almost joyous at using Villa's misery as a way of spouting a few 'I Told You So's on here.

To all the people asking 'How can people think Engels is better than Hause?', how do you think Hause would do in the centre of a 3? As the main defender? Because I think he would be an abomination.

Playing as the wide defender is easier. Engels is not as good as Mings but, in my opinion, is better than Konsa and Hause, and I'm confident that would become clear if we ever got to see Konsa or Hause playing in the middle.

Players shouldn't just be judged on a silly individual error. If we decided to drop a defender whenever they made a mistake that lead to an opposition goal, then we'd currently be playing with NO defenders.

Players should be judged on the good and bad things that they do consistently. Two mistakes aside, I thought Engels had a good game. He looked the most dominant out of our defenders, he passed well, and I thought he wont a fair few headers too. I'd be interested to see how many headers he won in comparison to Hause, as that seems to be cited as his main strength.