Ratings & Reactions: Villa v Spurs

[Raver50032]

Lol...

Aston Villa with no filter. By my reckoning, that makes next week a must win. Yeah, we're 17th... but the team below us has a game in hand. Our destiny isn't fully in our own hands.

Edited February 17, 2020 by Raver50032

[villalad21]

25 minutes ago, Raver50032 said:

but the team below us has a game in hand. 

Against Man City.

Although i've got my concerns about the Man City players motivation after recent news...

[Raver50032]

Doesn't change the fact... even Benitez would recognise that fact

[Kiwivillan]

1 hour ago, villalad21 said:

Against Man City.

Although i've got my concerns about the Man City players motivation after recent news...

Sadly I agree 

[VillaFaninLondon]

3 hours ago, romavillan said:

Yeah Smith, what a word removed, took us from 15th in the Championship and playing like 11 random fans picked from the car park any given Saturday to being promoted and not in the relegation places with 12 games to play. Whilst playing some of the best football we've played in a very long time. Smith didn't let the ball run under his foot.

We play attacking football under Smith yes, but he’s had 26 games to get the defence right and still hasn’t succeeded. It actually doesn’t seem real that we have a manager and an assistant manager who were both defenders as players, one of them probably one of the best defenders of his generation, yet our defending time and time again is appalling. We might win plaudits for trying to win and not being negative, but the fact is we don’t have the personnel to play like that at the moment.

 

How many international caps do our defenders have at senior level? The answer is 2 between 5 of them, and that player wasn’t even on the pitch yesterday. Spurs had a back four yesterday with 241 senior international caps, and even their defence has been ropey all season and they’ve had to hire a more negative manager to start getting consistent results. The naivety of Smith as a manager is clear as daylight and you need a more pragmatic approach if you’re to survive in this league as a newly promoted club. Even Wolves who have recruited far better than us and stormed the Championship when they went up have a pragmatic and balanced style of play.

 

I like Smith as a guy, glad he’s a Villa fan etc, but I can’t accept his deficiencies as a manager any more than any other manager. We can’t keep harping on about nearly going into administration as if we should be happy with whatever happens to us, we’ve spent an awful lot of money on staying up and though we aren’t down yet we’re clear favourites with the bookies (after Norwich) to be relegated for a reason.

Edited February 17, 2020 by VillaFaninLondon

[villalad21]

26 minutes ago, VillaFaninLondon said:

We play attacking football under Smith yes, but he’s had 26 games to get the defence right and still hasn’t succeeded. It actually doesn’t seem real that we have a manager and an assistant manager who were both defenders as players, one of them probably one of the best defenders of his generation, yet our defending time and time again is appalling. We might win plaudits for trying to win and not being negative, but the fact is we don’t have the personnel to play like that at the moment.

 

How many international caps do our defenders have at senior level? The answer is 2 between 5 of them, and that player wasn’t even on the pitch yesterday. Spurs had a back four yesterday with 241 senior international caps, and even their defence has been ropey all season and they’ve had to hire a more negative manager to start getting consistent results. The naivety of Smith as a manager is clear as daylight and you need a more pragmatic approach if you’re to survive in this league as a newly promoted club. Even Wolves who have recruited far better than us and stormed the Championship when they went up have a pragmatic and balanced style of play.

 

I like Smith as a guy, glad he’s a Villa fan etc, but I can’t accept his deficiencies as a manager any more than any other manager. We can’t keep harping on about nearly going into administration as if we should be happy with whatever happens to us, we’ve spent an awful lot of money on staying up and though we aren’t down yet we’re clear favourites with the bookies (after Norwich) to be relegated for a reason.

I can guarantee you we wouldn't be playing this high line if Terry was our head coach.

These are instructions coming from Dean. Blaming Terry is dumb.

[TheMelvillan]

should i be worried or happy that Reina is the best passer of the ball out of our back line? Hell, he is a better passer of the ball than some of our midfielders too 

[Danishlad]

18 hours 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 

Is this the Cahill that let Richarlison just run past him the other day. I hope he plays when Palace come to villa park. Samatta will score a few.

[VillaFaninLondon]

41 minutes ago, villalad21 said:

I can guarantee you we wouldn't be playing this high line if Terry was our head coach.

These are instructions coming from Dean. Blaming Terry is dumb.

For the style of play yes, but JT works with the defence individually and does drills with them, so of course he's also also responsible for them switching off and making individual errors. 

[LakotaDakota]

11 minutes ago, Danishlad said:

Is this the Cahill that let Richarlison just run past him the other day. I hope he plays when Palace come to villa park. Samatta will score a few.

it's also the same Cahill that has been part of the 6th best defence in the league this year... Palaces problem is putting the ball in the other goal, not keeping it out of theirs

[villalad21]

2 minutes ago, VillaFaninLondon said:

For the style of play yes, but JT works with the defence individually and does drills with them, so of course he's also also responsible for them switching off and making individual errors. 

Do you think it was a coincidence how Brentford defensive record dramatically improved after Dean left?

[Danishlad]

Just now, LakotaDakota said:

it's also the same Cahill that has been part of the 6th best defence in the league this year... Palaces problem is putting the ball in the other goal, not keeping it out of theirs

But that is down to style of play , the fact they have defensive midfielders. Not Cahill. He is a liability.

[Tomaszk]

5 minutes ago, Danishlad said:

But that is down to style of play , the fact they have defensive midfielders. Not Cahill. He is a liability.

Also, just like everyone else in the league apart from Liverpool, they sit deeper than us.

We are so high all the time. It's OK if you can run and press the ball to stop them picking passes through, but we can't.

[VillaFaninLondon]

12 minutes ago, Danishlad said:

Is this the Cahill that let Richarlison just run past him the other day. I hope he plays when Palace come to villa park. Samatta will score a few.

I don't think Cahill was the answer either. I do think we needed someone with the experience and quality at this level, but Cahill didn't play for Chelsea at all last season and is clearly on his last legs. Personally liked the link with Vida as though he's not PL proven, he's got tons of experience and still at a good enough age to perform week in week out. Shame we couldn't get the deal done.

 

We clearly need to upgrade our signings in the defenders department but this is not just an issue of personnel - our high line and naivety without the ball, plus our inability to defend set pieces, are what gives the opponents chance after chance every week. 

[flashingqwerty]

3 hours ago, Sid4ever said:

What even if we score 3 in each of those games?

Benitez isn’t coming so we have to back the manager and the team.

DS has used up all the good will he built up in the championship.

He has proven, time and again, he is out of his depth at this level.  He isn't learning from his mistakes, and you can see from the performances, he isnt coaching mistakes out of the players, so what is he bringing to the table now?

There are loads of managers out there that can play and instill an attacking ethos in a team at the expense of defensive cohesion.  They make a living in the champ and other such leagues around the world.

What we need is a coaching team that can do both, and the current regime isnt doing it.  26 games is more than enough time to get a cohesive defensive unit working with a dangerous offensive unit, but its the same mistakes by the same people every game, and a lot of it is down to the tiki-taka football we play at the back.

For me, even in players like Engels who had a mare yesterday, there are some signs he is adjusting to the league, i just dont see it from DS.

Drinkwater was garbage all first half, should have come off long before he did, but no, DS has his pride or cant see the wood for the trees and does nothing.

Samatta was causing all kinds of issues and holding up play really well, and to me didnt look tired, i even recall the commentator saying a few mins before he came off how much fresher he looked at the game went on.  DS takes him off and suddenly that danger to the spurs defence is gone, the hold up play disappears and we go front front foot to back foot in an instant.

Its not just this game its pretty much every week.  DS consistently makes poor choices in team selection, tactics, subs, etc. Its so frustrating.  Even when he makes the right move its often 20 minutes too late.  The fans can see it do how does an experienced manager not?

[VillaFaninLondon]

14 minutes ago, villalad21 said:

Do you think it was a coincidence how Brentford defensive record dramatically improved after Dean left?

I'm not letting Smith off the hook, far from it, but JT is paid as an assistant manager to improve our defence and give advice to Smith. Either he isn't getting his point across well enough or he isn't doing his job, simples. 

[VillaFaninLondon]

7 minutes ago, flashingqwerty said:

DS has used up all the good will he built up in the championship.

He has proven, time and again, he is out of his depth at this level.  He isn't learning from his mistakes, and you can see from the performances, he isnt coaching mistakes out of the players, so what is he bringing to the table now?

There are loads of managers out there that can play and instill an attacking ethos in a team at the expense of defensive cohesion.  They make a living in the champ and other such leagues around the world.

What we need is a coaching team that can do both, and the current regime isnt doing it.  26 games is more than enough time to get a cohesive defensive unit working with a dangerous offensive unit, but its the same mistakes by the same people every game, and a lot of it is down to the tiki-taka football we play at the back.

For me, even in players like Engels who had a mare yesterday, there are some signs he is adjusting to the league, i just dont see it from DS.

Drinkwater was garbage all first half, should have come off long before he did, but no, DS has his pride or cant see the wood for the trees and does nothing.

Samatta was causing all kinds of issues and holding up play really well, and to me didnt look tired, i even recall the commentator saying a few mins before he came off how much fresher he looked at the game went on.  DS takes him off and suddenly that danger to the spurs defence is gone, the hold up play disappears and we go front front foot to back foot in an instant.

Its not just this game its pretty much every week.  DS consistently makes poor choices in team selection, tactics, subs, etc. Its so frustrating.  Even when he makes the right move its often 20 minutes too late.  The fans can see it do how does an experienced manager not?

Agree we need a change of manager whether we go down or stay up. For where we want to get to we need someone capable of seeing results out and Smith has shown time and again he isn't capable of that. I said exactly the same about Samatta who had a fantastic game and was completely bewildered why he took him off when it was clear as daylight he wasn't tired or needed to go off. 

[terrytini]

13 hours ago, TRO said:

Some how......"we played well, but the defending was a shambles" seems contradictory to me.

I always thought defending was an integral part of the game and part of the analysis of playing well.

 

Fair point.

[markavfc40]

14 hours ago, TRO said:

Mark, if you listened to Jermaine Jenas summing us up, on Motd, he hits the nail on the head......its been there all season......its frustrating.

The result was harsh, but you don't concede c 50 goals without having an innate problem....Jack goes a long way to masking the problem with the superb  skills that he possesses, but defending is a part of playing well......we play well in parts and play poorly in parts, during the same games......goals against is simply unacceptable.

It needs to be adressed mate.....as disappointing as that late goal was, c 20 seconds left.....its happens too many times.

The manager has to deal with it.

Very insightful that from Jermaine. Next he'll be telling us that as Norwich are scoring less than a goal a game and conceding almost 2 goals a game they therefore have problems scoring and are poor defensively. Every team in the relegation mix will either be poor defensively, not score enough goals or both.

We all know we have issues defensively.  Thankfully though we have been good enough going forward that we have gotten enough results to be out of the relegation places.

The reasons we are struggling defensively are most likely numerous. Lack of understanding, I'd imagine that is the first time those players have played together as a back 3 and even our most established defensive line up would only have played half a dozen games together be it a back 3/5 or back 4. Too many needless individual errors. Perhaps players simply not being good enough for this level. Lack of midfield cover leaving the defense exposed. Being too attacking leaving us exposed defensively. Poor coaching. I really don't know. I am not surprised though given that most of us expected us to struggle that we do have a major deficiency. The other 6 or 7 teams in the mire with us, some way more established at this level than us, also have at least one major deficiency. I don't think we need Jermaine Jenas or anyone else to tell us that do we.

[terrytini]

3 hours ago, VillaFaninLondon said:

our defending time and time again is appalling. 

 

How many international caps do our defenders have at senior level? The answer is 2 between 5 of them, and that player wasn’t even on the pitch yesterday. Spurs had a back four yesterday with 241 senior international caps, and even their defence has been ropey all season

I think that’s the point a lot of us have been trying to make

For all the criticism of Smith, as you have just pointed out, Spurs, with all those International Caps, a decade of Top 4 football, hundreds of millions of pounds, and both Poch and Jose in charge, still have a ropey defence.

So maybe, just maybe, Smith, with one truncated summer in charge of a Team that was mid table Championship going nowhere about 50 games ago, deserves a bit of time and patience ?

Of course the defence needs to be better. And when it is, everything else will need to be better, and so on.

There is little to debate about our shortcomings, the difference is between those that think the circumstances lend themselves to a more tolerant view, and those that don’t.

Thankfully I am 100% certain the Owners, and majority of fans, not necessarily on Forums, fall into the former camp.