Ratings & Reactions: Villa v Spurs

[KentVillan]

5 minutes ago, terrytini said:

Terrific performance, well done to every player and Deano and the Coaching staff.

In no way did Sours look like a team with years and millions of pounds advantage over us.

If we repeat that level of performance we will stay up comfortably.

Not read any comments yet but I’m certain there will be a few that are critical.

Will make it nice and easy to update my Ignore list.

I almost always agree with your take on things, but I think this is a bit too charitable.

Spurs had a weakened side, with Eric Dier in midfield, no Harry Kane, and they’ve been poor away from home this season.

I’m getting concerned now that Drinkwater still looks unfit - it’s been over a month now, what’s his excuse? Nakamba didn’t need a rest and would have been well suited to starting this game.

Too often we left Engels as high last man against a lightning fast attack - should we have moved Konsa to middle CB with Mings out? Or should we have kept an extra man back to cover?

I was impressed again with Samatta and with Targett, Guilbert, and obviously Grealish. Reina was brilliant. El Ghazi and Luiz were excellent at times, poor at others.

But overall I thought we were tactically naive, and left the counter on too often against a very good counter attacking side. We then didn’t do the necessary fouls / blocking runs to break up those counters.

Is it an irreparable disaster? No, but it’s a missed opportunity. I hope we work hard on fixing these weaknesses, and don’t write it off as bad luck.

 

[GingerCollins29]

Im all for playing out from the back and good football, with passing it around the bsck line etc, but why havent the players got the nous to just get rid, hoof it when necessary

[mikeyjavfc]

A pathetic ending after a decent performance I thought. If Engels doesn’t air kick that ball we would all be talking about a gritty and determined result that may just keep us up. Fine margins indeed.
 

Now we just need to Produce that level of performance for the rest of the season and against teams with less prolific strikers we’ll probably get the points we need.

[Eastie]

20 minutes ago, terrytini said:

Terrific performance, well done to every player and Deano and the Coaching staff.

In no way did Sours look like a team with years and millions of pounds advantage over us.

If we repeat that level of performance we will stay up comfortably.

Not read any comments yet but I’m certain there will be a few that are critical.

Will make it nice and easy to update my Ignore list.

We played with 3 centre backs and spurs were like a knife through butter having 23 shots at us .

granted going forward we were very good and I was very impressed with our front 3 and luis but the 3 at the back are nowhere near good enough and will cost us dear .

samatta looks much more of a striker than Wesley dId 

Edited February 16, 2020 by Eastie

[terrytini]

5 minutes ago, tezzaleed said:

well you can add me for a starter then.  Smith's mistakes cost us massively today.  the team played well going forward but taking off el ghazi and samata just handed the initiative to spurs when we should have been pushing them back.  he clearly shouldn't have played engels in a back 3 as he can't play there.  konsa and hause aren't good enough without mings to organise them.  even then they struggle.  If Terry is meant to be coaching that defence he should resign in shame asap.

Thanks for the heads up but no need I already was

[Aston_Villan4]

14 minutes ago, VillaFaninLondon said:

Informative comment. 

It’s better than you claiming Baston coming on “let them back in the game.” That’s an unfounded statement. Seems more like frustration coming through in your comment. Of all the things to criticize, Baston coming on is an odd one. 

[osmark86]

Ok calmed down a bit now...

Our defence without Mings is hopeless. Even with Mings we still concede waaaaay too many shots. If we don't shore up our defence it will take us down. Too many goals against and too many of those are gifts. I'm starting to wonder whether this is on Terry, the players or both. Leaning on both atm. Sort this shit out! Focus entire training sessions on defending please!

[nick76]

Absolutely heartbroken, thought we played well

Reina was awesome.

Loved Samatta play

Jack was just superb Jack

Drinkwater was awful, Luiz was average but can’t argue with the rest.  Felt sorry for Engels, such a silly mistake but he did well today otherwise.

Heartbroken!!!

[Okonokos]

Referee's and VAR cannot be that incompetent. I'm becoming more and more convinced they are corrupt from top to bottom.

[VillaFaninLondon]

19 minutes ago, Villa94 said:

Well I thought we were fantastic......... very unlucky in the end.........on to the next utv

Don't think anyone would say we were poor today, we played well, could easily have won the game too. But that's just it, we've said that so many times this season and ended up throwing the game away, all because our god damn defence can't concentrate properly and do their jobs. 

 

I'm convinced if we'd recruited properly in defence and had proper coaches for them (not John Terry who clearly isn't a good coach) then we'd be comfortably midtable this season. Our defence is the worst in the league for a reason. 

[ThunderPower_14]

I think there was plenty to like about today against quality opposition, but we defend like it's a meaningless dead rubber and not a key game in a relegation battle. That will catch up with us if we don't sort it out. 

[VillaFaninLondon]

9 minutes ago, Aston_Villan4 said:

It’s better than you claiming Baston coming on “let them back in the game.” That’s an unfounded statement. Seems more like frustration coming through in your comment. Of all the things to criticize, Baston coming on is an odd one. 

No it's not an unfounded statement. I watched the guy and as soon as he comes on we retreated further and further letting Spurs dominate the game. I'm not picking on a player for the sake of it, he came on, didn't hold the ball up, when he got involved he made mistakes (see him giving the ball to Son from a corner instead of clearing it), and he was generally just rubbish. 

 

So no, it's not odd comment, taking Samatta off clearly cost us. Before that we were looking the more likely to win the game.

[JAMAICAN-VILLAN]

37 minutes ago, AVTuco said:

I'm left wondering what Jack has to do to keep us up. Our offense cannot be much better with these players. And yet, nothing to show for it again. That game must be a major deflator for him mentally.

Well he could have passed to team mates in better positions than him on goal, for one.

[SimplyTheBez]

Obviously gutted sitting in my car waiting to get off the car park, but that was the best we've played at VP for months. Yes we make mistakes, we've got a load of players that this is all so new to, but on the whole they looked like they knew what they were supposed to be doing and executed the game plan well. DD aside, who was poor, I was happy with the performance. If we continue in this fashion I am hopeful that we can escape relegation. Samatta looks lively and gets in some really good positions. Was noticeable when he was subbed, but I daresay he didn't have much left in the tank. Really missed Mings. Feared the worst when I saw he wasn't on the team sheet. Corners looked far better drilled than they have been. Have they at last started practicing them? Was definitely a noticeable difference.

Jack was a cut above as is so often the case.

So disappointed at how many people were walking out after 80+ minutes again. Can't help surely?!

No protection from the ref. Thought there were quite a few potential cards and he gave none.

Season was always going to be tough. There is still time...and hope!

I still believe and in Dean I trust.

Come on you Villa boys!

Edited February 16, 2020 by SimplyTheBez
Typo

[Eastie]

2 minutes ago, JAMAICAN-VILLAN said:

Well he could have passed to team mates in better positions than him on goal, for one.

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

[sne]

[KenjiOgiwara]

1 hour ago, VillaFaninLondon said:

Smith lost the game by taking Samatta off for the dreadful Borja. We were on the back foot from then on, before that we were on top.

 

Engels is also an absolute muppet. All he had to do was put his foot through it and we get a draw, instead he completely misses the ball. Joke.

Harsh, but all true. 

[Laughable Chimp]

53 minutes ago, VillanousOne said:

If you read match reports and supporter comments for the last two Stoke games you'll find Chester has had two pretty bad games. Mainly because he has played so little this season and lack sharpness and match fitness. If he played today things could have been even worse.

That's funny, considering he scored a 7.09 and a 7.48 rating on whoscored in his first two matches. Those are good numbers, especially for a centreback.

He did follow those two performances with a 6.39 but overall, I'd say he's done decent for them.

Edited February 16, 2020 by Laughable Chimp

[KenjiOgiwara]

13 minutes ago, Okonokos said:

Referee's and VAR cannot be that incompetent. I'm becoming more and more convinced they are corrupt from top to bottom.

Spot on. 

[Elton]

Tough one to take but our charitable defending costs us again. Engels is too slow and so is Drinkwater in front of him. Mings and Nakamba would have made a huge difference to the amount of times Spurs were running through onto Reina.

Still there were positives. We rode our luck a little last  but should have gone 2 up in a very positive 1st half performance. Samatta looks encouraging and will hopefully only get better. Defence needs more protection by us keeping the ball better. Hopefully McGinn won’t miss too many more games.