Ratings & Reactions: Villa v Spurs

[skell]

2 hours ago, kurtsimonw said:

Dogshit performance overall. 

Smith getting it wrong far too regular IMO. 

Reina made the result flattering, could've easily been 7 or 8.

What exactly did he get wrong?

[WakefieldVillan]

42 minutes ago, Eastie said:

We signed and spent a lot but lacked premier league experience - Cahill rather than Engels or konsa would have allowed us to consolidate in this division and then kick on for the future 

Perhaps so. Or perhaps with our luck he would have got injured on his debut and we would have been forking out wages that we couldn't sustain due to FFP. Who knows eh?! 

Anyway, I respect your opinion, we do look weak in the centre half position but if Tyrone plays today I think we win that comfortably! 

[Herman22]

21 minutes ago, maqroll said:

How did Samatta and Baston look?

Samatta looked really bright. Some good hold up play and touches. 

Baston looked ok. Didn't have much time and we were quite defensive when he came on. 

[JAMAICAN-VILLAN]

1 hour ago, Eastie said:

Actually twice he tried to pass when i thought he should have shot but it’s all swings and roundabouts 

Nah you're right, I pointed that out in the match thread as well.

[ferguson1]

Absolutely gut wrenching way to lose a game, but we have done it to others the last few weeks. Swings around. We deserved a point or more today.

At times going forward we were very good. AEG carried a threat which had been missing for weeks, so the mini break has done the trick for him. Samatta was bright throughout and caused them problems. Grealish was his usual self, if a little selfish at times, but I can’t blame him really. If he lays one on a plate, like the Luiz chance then what more can he do. I don’t want to talk about the Baston cameo.

Drinkwater is an issue, no doubt about it. Was he pushed onto Smith? Who knows, but crikey is he off the pace. He will play more games it’s obvious, but he’s going to cost us. Luiz, barring his bad miss was pretty decent and Nakamba made some important blocks. However, we do lack industry and a spark from midfield though.

Defence. Well, we missed Mings it’s as simple as that. Engels still doesn’t seem fully fit to me or does he simply lack match sharpness? At times, people just run past him. Thought Targett, Konsa and Hause were good today. Reina was excellent.

Overall, we can’t keep a clean sheet to save our lives and ultimately it’s going to cost us. No point dressing it up or saying it’s negative. It’s a fact. We have the worst defensive stats in the division.

Edited February 16, 2020 by ferguson1

[OutByEaster?]

It's exasperating - football has found a way to get just about all of its tricks into that one.

• Opponent getting away with potentially being down to ten men after six minutes? Check.
• Dodgy penalty given on VAR? Check.
• Missing chances to put the opponent away in the first half an hour? Check.
• Cards only issued to one team? Check.
• Individual errors costing you at key moments? Check.
• Injury time opposition winner? Check.

It had just about every way to mess you up that was available, and it's frustrating that very good performances from Samatta, Guilbert, El Ghazi, Reina, Targett and Grealish don't matter at the end of it. 

I thought we were the better of the two sides, it was a close game between two very evenly matched sides that I felt we edged. Beating a team can be more difficult than being better than them, beating two teams is incredibly difficult and Martin Atkinson treated us to another one-eyed display to add to his collection, beating three teams is almost impossible and the boys in front of the monitors have very slowly made a bad decision to change the game too.

We looked decent going forward, our passing game providing a contrast to Spurs lumping balls into the channels (both teams playing against type) I thought Samatta did really well and El Ghazi did a great job of taking the game to them - at the other end, Moura looked a threat all game, Son never stopped running and the Dutch lad was lively too. 

The first half was dominated by the shambles that is the Spurs back four and the omnishambles that is Premier league refereeing - and yet the game has finished on a defensive error at our end that's let them in. It's a cruel mistress.

I thought there were eight bookable offences in the game, six committed by Spurs players and two by Villa players - there were two cards issued, both to those Villa players. In fairness, he got those two decisions right. How Aurier didn't get at least one booking for his three fouls on Jack in the first ten minutes will remain a mystery to anyone who believes that the multi-billion pound TV show is refereed by neutrals. I'm trying very hard to still be in that group. The added layer this year allows them extra scope to ensure things go the "right" way and the VAR penalty is utter bobbins. No man in football deserves the sack more than Mike Riley - and there really ought to be a lot more noise about him personally. 

But, the injustice of the first half at least sparked us into life in the second and we thoroughly deserved the equaliser and looked like we might go on to win it - there's a little lack of belief though I think that stops up taking that extra step and then our penchant for unforced errors catches up with us. 

Credit to the Tottenham front three - they kept making runs all game and troubled us, and Son (who should have been booked for a shocking dive in the second half, make that nine bookable offences) took his late opportunity really well. Lo Celso looked decent when he came on, but beyond that they look a poor side. 

it was interesting seeing Dele Alli and Jack Grealish on opposite sides and making that comparison in terms of the England team - Alli was poor throughout and invisible in the second half and Jack was the best player on the pitch - the more you see Grealish in direct opposition to those that are considered rivals, the more you realise that he's a class apart from some of them - he's ten times the player Alli is and I'm not sure we appreciate him enough.

There were points in this for us today, points that we desperately need, points that we haven't got. The injustice of it, the poor luck of it, the self inflicted calamity of it those things don't matter at all, the good performance, the energy, the movement, the passing, the determination we showed - those don't matter either. What matters is that this is another game that's passed by without a point added to our total. 

Twelve more chances remain - if we can perform like we did today, cut out a couple of errors and find a level playing field, there's no reason to think we can't take some of them.

 

[WakefieldVillan]

23 minutes ago, maqroll said:

How did Samatta and Baston look?

Samatta played well, worked hard, linked up play, not a typical hold-up striker but still capable of doing that at times but also has the ability to run into channels, pressurised Alderweireld for the opening own goal and wasn't too far off with an header, tidy in possession and harassed when he could. He was tired when he came off but in hindsight we should have kept him on because Baston was poor when he came on to be honest. Nearly set them up for a goal then came to challenge for a header when he didnt need to which ultimately led to the goal. Not the best 8 minutes or so but hopefully he will settle in and prove to be of use.

[Robbie09]

Deserved a point. Not surprised by the usual overreactions though. That wasn’t a performance from a team that is nailed on for relegation like so many claim.

[OxfordVillan]

3 minutes ago, skell said:

What exactly did he get wrong?

He got it wrong by sitting and watching our defence for 94 minutes and not changing a single thing. That back 3 were shambolic today and we looked like conceding at every simple ball pushed over the top or in between. We were 1-0 up and kept pushing forward with a shit defence, stupid. We got back level at 2-2 and still didn’t learn, and kept trying to go forward rather than defend properly. Mourinho took Smiths pants down. He calculated it would be won in midfield, as I have said, and he made the changes that saw Spurs go pretty much the entirety of the 2nd half unscathed. Targett &Guilbert were nullified, as was Grealish. Because Mourinho got his team to control midfield, in the full knowledge that we were defensively shit. Spurs didn’t have to do anything even remotely special to win that game. When I see us like this I cannot see anything other than relegation, it’s like we are learning nothing tactically. 

[Genie]

Couldn’t follow the game today, saw the score, was absolutely certain it would be a late winner.

[Graham t]

7 minutes ago, Robbie09 said:

Deserved a point. Not surprised by the usual overreactions though. That wasn’t a performance from a team that is nailed on for relegation like so many claim.

Love your optimism Robbie. Are you saying ' too good to go down'. I don't know if you noticed but our goalkeeper was voted MOM again.....

Regards,

VLD.

[AVTuco]

1 hour ago, stewiek2 said:

If Danny Drinkwater starts another game for us we are down. He looks a stone and half overweight, has the look of a bloke who turned up after a night on the tiles and hoping a run around would sweat it out of him. Far too slow mentally as well as physically for where we are at this moment. Whoever sanctioned this signing wants shooting.

This loss was on others, not Drinkwater.

[romavillan]

21 minutes ago, OutByEaster? said:

Twelve more chances remain - if we can perform like we did today, cut out a couple of errors and find a level playing field, there's no reason to think we can't take some of them.

Completely agree, we could have won that, we played some really good football at times and on balance looked better than them for much of the 90 minutes. We *had* to find a reaction to the last away game where we just didn't play at all and we did and then some. 

Result is not great, we're still not in the bottom 3 though and if we play like that in 10 of the next 12 games we'll get the points we need to stay up. 

[TRO]

2 hours ago, VillanousOne said:

only Villa could hand a team the game in the last twenty seconds of injury time!

Also we give some pretty poor balls away cheaply......that encourages the opposition back in to the game.......we simply can't contain, opposing teams.

its not just the defence, its the defending......and if we do go down, it still needs to be addressed.

[foreveryoung]

10 minutes ago, AVTuco said:

This loss was on others, not Drinkwater.

Good job he came off early.

Only player Smith has took off before 60 minutes, an not injured, speaks volumes really.

[blunther]

Plenty of good performances today from us. The main thing I took home from that though is the conviction that the referees are on the take. No yellows for Spurs in that game is so demonstrably corrupt it's unbelievable. They're obviously all at it though so no one does a thing. 

[TRO]

That was only Spurs 3rd away win of the season.

We simpy cannot continue conceding goals at the rate we do, without consequences.

We made some good passages of play and started very brightly, but the result is oh so familiar.....Engels approach to that long ball was half soaked, he has to concentrate better than that.......overall despite us being unlucky, we was beaten for pace quiet often.

Edited February 16, 2020 by TRO

[AVTuco]

8 minutes ago, TRO said:

Also we give some pretty poor balls away cheaply......that encourages the opposition back in to the game.......we simply can't contain, opposing teams.

its not just the defence, its the defending......and if we do go down, it still needs to be addressed.

We are able to go from domination to succumbing under pressure in 20 seconds. All we need is one poor pass. It's just unbelievable.

[TRO]

17 minutes ago, AVTuco said:

This loss was on others, not Drinkwater.

I thought he showed tenacity in the challenge and was picking up many bits and pieces....not great, but better.

not seeing why chelsea parted with such a huge sum for him.

but our fitness training does raise questions ,how players get knackered so easily.

[TRO]

40 minutes ago, OxfordVillan said:

He got it wrong by sitting and watching our defence for 94 minutes and not changing a single thing. That back 3 were shambolic today and we looked like conceding at every simple ball pushed over the top or in between. We were 1-0 up and kept pushing forward with a shit defence, stupid. We got back level at 2-2 and still didn’t learn, and kept trying to go forward rather than defend properly. Mourinho took Smiths pants down. He calculated it would be won in midfield, as I have said, and he made the changes that saw Spurs go pretty much the entirety of the 2nd half unscathed. Targett &Guilbert were nullified, as was Grealish. Because Mourinho got his team to control midfield, in the full knowledge that we were defensively shit. Spurs didn’t have to do anything even remotely special to win that game. When I see us like this I cannot see anything other than relegation, it’s like we are learning nothing tactically. 

Most of our games are lost in midfield...no domination from the centre.

but the reaction of our players to the penalty save was poor.

Engels attempt to trap that ball was meh!!!

Edited February 16, 2020 by TRO