Ratings & Reactions: Spurs v Villa

[AVTuco]

Our players are 10 million players, theirs are 40 million players, and it showed. We need to release the ball quicker, good thing is now everybody believes and accepts that.

[Xela]

Welcome back

[jim]

9 minutes ago, villa89 said:

We weren't schooled, Norwich were schooled last night. We were just playing a team that's much better than us away from home and we can leave with some positives and some things to work on.

They battered us, and didn’t take their chances. We were as bad as Norwich were as bad a Norwich were yesterday. 

 

 

[Mazrim]

I enjoyed the summer. Haven't missed all the overreaction, excessive negativity and ridiculous hyperbole.

[Tomaszk]

Grealish obviously a cockup, but had had no pass on 80% he got the ball that second half. Usual story of players running away when you need to be brave and get on the ball. He lapsed and dwelled stationary for too long, he had been trying to pass the ball otherwise.

[OutByEaster?]

Plenty of obvious lessons to learn from that one; we need to be able to keep the ball, in the second half we barely had a touch, Grealish needs to realise that at this level he sometimes needs to move the ball away quicker, he got caught on it more in this game than in all of last season and we need to take our chances, we had a couple in the first half at one nil that would have given us a proper lead to defend.

I thought in the end, they stepped up the pace in the second half and wore us out, then had the quality to make something of that. Erikson changed things. Throughout the game there was a whole of lot of Sissoko to Winks to Rose to Winks to Sissoko to Lamela to Sissoko to Winks - where it looked like they were going side to side and getting nowhere - they were, but they were also wearing us out and in the end our midfield just couldn't cope with chasing the ball. Their dominance of possession allows them their chances. They had 5 shots on goal in the first half and 25 in the second half - largely because we couldn't get tight on them and we couldn't keep the ball.

I thought our lack of a back up striker showed - we needed either a threat or someone who could hold the ball up and Kodjia is neither of those things at this level, he'll be useful off the bench against lesser teams, but he's a good championship striker against a champions league defence - personally I'd have preferred Davis and the ability to hold it. Wesley struggled a bit and he's going to be incredibly important for us this season, hopefully he'll have a better run at Villa Park next week.

The midfield three were excellent in the first half, as were the full backs, both wingers were bright early and died on the hour mark. Jota isn't really a winger and again, I think we might struggle with a lack of depth down the flanks. We'll trouble people though and against lesser teams I think we'll create chances from wide areas.

The real bright point for us was the centre backs and keeper, they looked excellent, and although we conceded three goals I don't think you can judge them on that as they defended manfully long after any protection in front of them had melted away. Unheralded centre back makes impressive debut away at Tottenham on the opening day? If he goes on to have a career as good as the bloke that did that in 2001 I'll be delighted - as it is, I'm impressed by Engels performance today and I think his partnership with Mings looks especially promising.

Spurs away is tough, and we made it tough for Spurs, but there are lots of areas to improve on and a couple of concerns. Not every team in this league can do what Spurs do though and if anything, our real challenge starts next week when we play a team from our division.

Dust yourself off, learn, improve and come back against Bournemouth.

 

 

 

[MikeMcKenna]

Always disappointed when we lose, however Spurs are a very strong and settled team.  We on the other hand are very much an unknown quantity with so many new players and need time. In the first half we played well but in the 2nd our midfield was over-run. IMHO we will not get relegated and can only get better. 

[Mantis]

For a lot of the game I really don't think Spurs "destroyed" us at all - we did quite a good job of containing them. Obviously though you can't spend the whole game defending and it shows.

[sheepyvillian]

6 minutes ago, thunderball said:

Rubbish

We were still relatively comfortable defensively before Jack's mistake, then our heads just dropped. That's how I saw it.

[BigJim]

12 minutes ago, andym said:

Big difference was how much pace and power Spurs had in the middle compared to us with Ndombele and Sissokho - it took its toll on us 2nd half and opened up things for Erikssen and Kane.

Hopefully Luiz or Marvellous can provide the same sort of thing for us when they are up to speed

Absolutely. If we could have started that game with a fit and assimilated Douglas and Marvellous it might have been a bit different.

[The Other Mat]

Played well for the majority of the match. Spurs had lots of possession but Erikson changed the game.Thought Jota was out of his depth and just couldn't get into it. Grealish's mistake was bad, but the ball literally deflected off 2 players and fell at Kanes feet, huge amount of luck in that. Engels and Mings look good together and Heaton was quality. I reckon once Guilbert, Marvellous and Luiz come into the side we'll be fine. 

[Ponky]

Got what we deserved in the end. Gave the ball away consistently in the final 15 minutes. 

Once Trez went off our counter attacking threat went with him, so we were really just treading water hoping to keep afloat. 

Definitely the performance of our 2 centre backs was the most encouraging part of the game. Hopefully we'll see more of the attacking Villa next week. 

[Daweii]

We lost 3-1 to Spurs and kept them at bay until around the 70th minute. Yes it all fell apart in the end, but we won't face many teams better than them. 

As we saw yesterday Norwich got comfortably dismantled by Liverpool, and today West Ham got dismantled by Man City. These three teams are just world class and several levels higher than Villa will be for years to come. 

[QldVilla]

I thought we were ok for 60min,-then fatigue set in. It was noticeable with the Liverpool and Man City games as well, the speed and intensity of play for 90min. We didn't have that gear when Spurs went up, we fatigued quickly and made numerous errors with the ball in possession. Wesley needs to grow up quickly and play like a man, I thought Trezeguet was good and will get better, Jota concerns me. The rest of the team put a shift in, we need to keep improving and we should be ok.

[Davkaus]

1 minute ago, Mazrim said:

I enjoyed the summer. Haven't missed all the overreaction, excessive negativity and ridiculous hyperbole.

I haven't missed all of the snark if anyone dares to not get on board with the happy clapping. 

Close game, lads. We had them right where we wanted them.

[CharlieAitken59]

1 minute ago, jim said:

They battered us, and didn’t take their chances. We were as bad as Norwich were as bad a Norwich were yesterday. 

 

 

Absolutely 100% correct. Its no good being in denial because that will get you relegated PDQ

[Lerner's Driver]

We were battered, yes. But we held the Champions League Finalists for most of the game. They absolutely deserved to win, but they are an excellent, established top four team playing at home. We did very well, considering. I have seen enough to feel encouraged.

Obvious weakness is that we are not as impressive in attack as we are defense and against the better teams that will see us beat, as it did today.

We need to attack more confidently and I think we will against lesser opposition. Nice composed cameo from Luiz and he has to start ahead of Hourihane who was overrun.

Jack needs to sharpen up, he wants too long, he's no longer the King. Engels, Mings and Heaton all excellent. We will be okay this year. Just need to gel ASAP which is no small task, but I think we will get there. Well played chaps.

Edited August 10, 2019 by Lerner's Driver

[PrimevalVillan]

My notes:

Smith 95% right today, 2/3 subs were bad but the timing for all three was probably fitness related.

We literally gave the game away in the second half...but it is not just Grealish's mistake, it was all half. Being caught out or missing fundamental passes. It suggests we were tired, honestly. Our luck eventually ran out. Still I hope Smith and the staff really get on the boys for things like that regardless. We need to set standards and we did not play well in the second half going forward.

Defense and goal keeping was outstanding. A more open game will test their positioning but we showed we can defend well when protecting a lead, which has not always been the case.

Ref was really bad today. Spurs fouled us every time we moved forward with the ball, almost all game. McGinn flat out got fouled in the box and no call. Ref needs to call that and let VAR decide because it really would have been a PK if so. Can't complain too much though given the no call on Kodija's handball. 

Overall: Yay, we are back and we are competitive! First half shows it just need to tidy up in midfield. We got dealt a shit hand, Spurs debut in new stadium, first game back.

 

 

[Ingram85]

6 minutes ago, bose said:

A lot of angry and deluded reactions here.

Good first half but a poor second half against one of the best teams in Europe.

Anything other than a loss was always going to be a bonus.

Oh stop stoking.

[Xela]

Our season won't be defined by an opening day defeat at Spurs, last seasons runners up in the Champions League. 

Next 3 games... home to Bournemouth and Everton then away to Palace will be truer reflectors on how our season will be.