Ratings & Reactions: Villa v Spurs

[hippo]

5 minutes ago, WallisFrizz said:

Just got back from the game. I don’t think this result is on Gerrard. We were brilliant first half, you can’t blame a manager for every individual mistake or the fact that Kulesevski, Son and Kane are in devastating form. I know the score line says we were battered but I actually felt the lads battled today and didn’t deserve that score or the boos that came from a few people at the end. 

 

 

Even if you give him a pass for today. We've lost 4 on the bounce and 7 from the last 10. ....

Any of those on him ?

[Zhan_Zhuang]

4 minutes ago, MaVilla said:

tbf, we were really, really good for about 80% of that Spurs game, we played some lovely football, anyone who says we didnt are either lying or didnt watch the game.

BUT:

1) We cant create that many chances and not take them, and expect or deserve to get anything out of the game.

2) Our defence is s***, we prob need 1 x DC in the summer, and shock horror we need a proper DM.

3) We need to sell Ings & Watkins in the summer, and get someone in who actually suits what we are trying to do, and ensure they are able to finish some bloomin chances, watching Watkins and Ings look like a Benny Hill type duo up front was something to behold.

Honestly, if you did watch todays game, if that's Gerrard ball im all in, we played some lovely stuff, but it also showed how poor we are defensively, and how we lack any type of clinical edge, we could have scored 4 goals today with more clinical finishing.

This team needs a big overhaul, i think we need 1 central defender, a number 6, probably a number 8, Coutinho and a striker as minimum, basically a whole new spine.

 

I agree.

We need a ball-playing CB almost elite level to play alongside Mings. Konsa has had a few errors recently and I just don't see him as a top player.

A top player to start in the middle, dominant. A major signing needed here.

I'm starting to believe we need a top striker now too, we have been so wasteful of late and especially against Spurs. If Villa had a top striker playing we would have been three or four up at half-time.

I'd say three winners to go into that first-choice eleven.

Gerrard has the name and is a draw to get players like Coutinho and Digne so it should be possible.

[OutByEaster?]

Today's game is brought to you by a great big sigh.

I don't get it, I'm not entirely convinced we deserved to lose that game, I thought we were the better side for the first hour and the better side by a distance in the first half.

You don't get what you deserve though, you get what you go out and get - Antonio Conte has turned Spurs into a very Italian side, eight men defending around the box and a couple breaking on you - tactically Spurs have become hard to break down and then they have a couple of very dangerous weapons on the break - it's a triumph of practicality, Antonio neither dares nor dreams, he defends.

Even so, we broke through that defence enough times in the first half to have gone in a couple of goals up - Lloris made several really good saves and it was only really a combination of him and some shoddy refereeing that was keeping them in it for the first forty-five minutes. Which they won 1-0.

I only really recall them being in our half three times in that first period, but they made sure to score on one of those visits - and that's the difference.

I think you have to review our performance in two separate chunks - one for the first hour when we were very good and we lost two nil, and one for the last half hour when things were more open, players were tiring and things were a bit messy, and we lost two nil.

While we played well, I thought the two Brazilians were excellent and Ramsey was very good - the triangle of Coutinho, Luiz and Ramsey with Digne to the left of them had Spurs all over the shop at times - Cash was also providing a threat down the other side and the centrebacks were providing a solid base behind. I thought Ings then should have put away one of a couple of chances, but he was positionally okay. For me, I thought that while we were playing very well, two things became clearer - Watkins for all his effort and his threat on the break isn't a good enough footballer for the clever stuff if looks like we want to play through the middle - when we're playing well, he looks like he doesn't fit in - the other thing was that John McGinn's passing isn't consistent enough, it's good one, bad one, and in the way we want to play, when everyone else is playing the ball around well, it sticks out. Both do good stuff, but I'm not sure they're right for the system when we're playing well - and I want us to play well more often.

While we played well, what was clear was that we needed a striker - the build up play was excellent, we controlled midfield completely, we were an almost constant threat, but there was no end product at the top end of things, the ball would fizz into the striker and we didn't shoot or develop play - very often, we just lost the ball. I found myself wondering if we might have won the game with Davis and Archer - which I'm not sure is actually a sensible argument for me to be having in my head, as we had enough quality on the pitch in order to win it anyway, and for much of the game we were playing like we would.

During the last half an hour, when we didn't play as well, I think it showed a little bit of a lack of depth - we didn't have a striker on the bench and we didn't replace any of the midfielders with fresh legs - if he doesn't trust Sanson at this point to do that, we're going to need someone else. We occasionally looked a little exposed and I suspect we might benefit from a rangy defensive midfielder who can cover breaks - I'm not sure if anyone has mentioned that - but mostly, I again found myself wishing we had a striker. It's sort of understandable given the way the game had gone up to the second goal that heads would drop, I think the players shared my disbelief, but it was over as soon as the second goal went in and we didn't have anyone on the bench that could galvanise this side.

Spurs continue to be a fancy-dan classless group of players and fans that genuinely believe that they are significantly better than they are - they ole'd a passing movement in the 91st minute that I think may have been only their second period of sustained passing in the entire match for example, and I expect they'll believe they fully deserved the four goal margin. If I had a partner that went down and stayed down as easily as Tottenham, I'd never leave the house. I'll be rooting for Arsenal.

For us, I'd like the manager to shut up about the summer and think about his next game - that's four defeats on the bounce and only one win in our last six homes games - some of those have been tough fixtures, but Norwich at home has weirdly become a sort of must-win. If we play like we did in the first half that win will come, we were really good for an hour today - but we have to learn the lessons being taught by Kane and Son; we have to take chances, we have to turn chances and possession and domination into goals, and we can't necessarily wait until the summer to do that.

The players were applauded off at half time and deserved it, they didn't deserve to lose 4-0, it just wasn't a 4-0 sort of game. 

There's a big lesson available from this one.

 

 

 

[dubbs]

Can't put it all on Gerrard when the opposition keeper made 7 saves in the first half alone.   Just need a top class striker cuz the ones we've got are badly out if form or just not good enough. 

[Ingram85]

21 minutes ago, MaVilla said:

tbf, we were really, really good for about 80% of that Spurs game, we played some lovely football, anyone who says we didnt are either lying or didnt watch the game.

BUT:

1) We cant create that many chances and not take them, and expect or deserve to get anything out of the game.

2) Our defence is s***, we prob need 1 x DC in the summer, and shock horror we need a proper DM.

3) We need to sell Ings & Watkins in the summer, and get someone in who actually suits what we are trying to do, and ensure they are able to finish some bloomin chances, watching Watkins and Ings look like a Benny Hill type duo up front was something to behold.

Honestly, if you did watch todays game, if that's Gerrard ball im all in, we played some lovely stuff, but it also showed how poor we are defensively, and how we lack any type of clinical edge, we could have scored 4 goals today with more clinical finishing.

This team needs a big overhaul, i think we need 1 central defender, a number 6, probably a number 8, Coutinho and a striker as minimum, basically a whole new spine.

 

80% of the game or 80% of the first half?

Edited April 9, 2022 by Ingram85

[rodders0223]

9 minutes ago, dubbs said:

Can't put it all on Gerrard when the opposition keeper made 7 saves in the first half alone.   Just need a top class striker cuz the ones we've got are badly out if form or just not good enough. 

They were all routine saves man.

[John]

How we didn't score in the first half, is beyond me and how we then ended up losing the game 0-4, having had Spurs under the cosh for most of the first half, is equally beyond comprehension. 

[dubbs]

Just now, rodders0223 said:

They were all routine saves man.

Not every one of them were routine. 

[Demitri_C]

I cant believe how bad our defence has got. Its a absolute shit show watching these guys defend at times.I 

[tom_avfc]

Just now, dubbs said:

Not every one of them were routine. 

I’d expect a premier league keeper to make every one of those saves. Our best chances were ones where we didn’t hit the target (or even the ball in Ings’ case). 

[Zhan_Zhuang]

2 minutes ago, rodders0223 said:

They were all routine saves man.

No way...

Loris was at full-stretch for a couple.

And a decent striker would have buried the three Ings had.

We are sloppy infront of goal, seven shots on goal first half, four were great chances to score!

[WallisFrizz]

9 minutes ago, OutByEaster? said:

Today's game is brought to you by a great big sigh.

I don't get it, I'm not entirely convinced we deserved to lose that game, I thought we were the better side for the first hour and the better side by a distance in the first half.

You don't get what you deserve though, you get what you go out and get - Antonio Conte has turned Spurs into a very Italian side, eight men defending around the box and a couple breaking on you - tactically Spurs have become hard to break down and then they have a couple of very dangerous weapons on the break - it's a triumph of practicality, Antonio neither dares nor dreams, he defends.

Even so, we broke through that defence enough times in the first half to have gone in a couple of goals up - Lloris made several really good saves and it was only really a combination of him and some shoddy refereeing that was keeping them in it for the first forty-five minutes. Which they won 1-0.

I only really recall them being in our half three times in that first period, but they made sure to score on one of those visits - and that's the difference.

I think you have to review our performance in two separate chunks - one for the first hour when we were very good and we lost two nil, and one for the last half hour when things were more open, players were tiring and things were a bit messy, and we lost two nil.

While we played well, I thought the two Brazilians were excellent and Ramsey was very good - the triangle of Coutinho, Luiz and Ramsey with Digne to the left of them had Spurs all over the shop at times - Cash was also providing a threat down the other side and the centrebacks were providing a solid base behind. I thought Ings then should have put away one of a couple of chances, but he was positionally okay. For me, I thought that while we were playing very well, two things became clearer - Watkins for all his effort and his threat on the break isn't a good enough footballer for the clever stuff if looks like we want to play through the middle - when we're playing well, he looks like he doesn't fit in - the other thing was that John McGinn's passing isn't consistent enough, it's good one, bad one, and in the way we want to play, when everyone else is playing the ball around well, it sticks out. Both do good stuff, but I'm not sure they're right for the system when we're playing well - and I want us to play well more often.

While we played well, what was clear was that we needed a striker - the build up play was excellent, we controlled midfield completely, we were an almost constant threat, but there was no end product at the top end of things, the ball would fizz into the striker and we didn't shoot or develop play - very often, we just lost the ball. I found myself wondering if we might have won the game with Davis and Archer - which I'm not sure is actually a sensible argument for me to be having in my head, as we had enough quality on the pitch in order to win it anyway, and for much of the game we were playing like we would.

During the last half an hour, when we didn't play as well, I think it showed a little bit of a lack of depth - we didn't have a striker on the bench and we didn't replace any of the midfielders with fresh legs - if he doesn't trust Sanson at this point to do that, we're going to need someone else. We occasionally looked a little exposed and I suspect we might benefit from a rangy defensive midfielder who can cover breaks - I'm not sure if anyone has mentioned that - but mostly, I again found myself wishing we had a striker. It's sort of understandable given the way the game had gone up to the second goal that heads would drop, I think the players shared my disbelief, but it was over as soon as the second goal went in and we didn't have anyone on the bench that could galvanise this side.

Spurs continue to be a fancy-dan classless group of players and fans that genuinely believe that they are significantly better than they are - they ole'd a passing movement in the 91st minute that I think may have been only their second period of sustained passing in the entire match for example, and I expect they'll believe they fully deserved the four goal margin. If I had a partner that went down and stayed down as easily as Tottenham, I'd never leave the house. I'll be rooting for Arsenal.

For us, I'd like the manager to shut up about the summer and think about his next game - that's four defeats on the bounce and only one win in our last six homes games - some of those have been tough fixtures, but Norwich at home has weirdly become a sort of must-win. If we play like we did in the first half that win will come, we were really good for an hour today - but we have to learn the lessons being taught by Kane and Son; we have to take chances, we have to turn chances and possession and domination into goals, and we can't necessarily wait until the summer to do that.

The players were applauded off at half time and deserved it, they didn't deserve to lose 4-0, it just wasn't a 4-0 sort of game. 

There's a big lesson available from this one.

 

 

 

Such an excellent post. So many of our own fans calling us sh*t when we really weren’t but we were wasteful. Ings and Watkins were our poorest players. Luiz had a great game. 
 

Favourite moments of the second half- Young hacking down Kane- totally worth the card and Luiz dragging the spurs player to his feet…the amount of theatrics from them was ridiculous. 
 

As for the Spurs fans, they’re living the dream under Conte you can’t blame them for celebrating but the big group of drunk lads walking up Bevington Road after the game winding up the locals most of whom probably couldn’t care less about the football, I hope they have a hideous trip home.

[El Segundo]

Difficult to know what to make of that.

My emotions went from anger at gifting a goal after 3 minutes yet again, to delight at the way we murdered them for the rest if the half tinged with frustration that we couldn’t make it pay.

Digne was having Emerson on toast down the left, Coutinho was great, and the others were all doing their bit. Lloris, poor finishing, and over-elaboration were the only reasons we weren’t 3-1 or 4-1 up at half time and I was optimistic we’d get back into it.   Then we just decided to give a couple of world class players the run of our half.  Bonkers.

Konsa has become a liability and Chambers or Hause should be in ahead of him.  What the **** was that weak header under no pressure straight to Kane to gift a goal, utter shit.

I’ve said it before and I know a lot of people will disagree vehemently and call it blasphemy but I honestly do not think Martinez is a top notch keeper, certainly not a good low shot stopper.   Should Kolosveski really have been beating him from there? It’s not the first low shot that he should have saved but hasn’t, not by a long way.  Very slow to get down to the low ones. Ask yourself if Lloris would have let that one past him.

Overall it was no better or different to a lot of schizo-type performances under Smith.  One more defeat and StevieG has matched Smith’s 5 defeats in a row, having already come close to it.  Progress? Hmm doesn’t feel like it.

 

[Adman]

At half time if someone told me we were 4-0 up I wouldn't have thought it too unfair. I think effort and desire was really good in the most part although I did stop watching after the game got away from us

 The main point for me is that konsa is not going to work under Gerrard.  He needs mings close to him, in the classic big bruiser / someone to mop up partnership. With both CBs expected to get forward, CDM dropping in-between and full backs playing high up dragging CBs wide he is all at sea.  I rate konsa very highly but he's just awful and getting worse.  Maybe the pressure of playing for the shirt doesn't suit him either...

Ings and Watkins look they could play forever and not score.  

Digne doesn't appear to be a worthwhile upgrade on target for me

If we could get our money back on Bailey I'd snatch their hands of

It would be good if Emi made the odd save

 

 

 

[foreveryoung]

1 hour ago, mottaloo said:

We just have no finishers at the club. 

How many of us thought during our 1st half pressure that these chances will not be taken ?

Just me ? Dont think so.

I think this is the biggest issue to be fair.

Game would have been over if we took our chances in the first half.

[WallisFrizz]

Mental really…

 

[PerryBarrPet]

9 minutes ago, Zhan_Zhuang said:

No way...

Loris was at full-stretch for a couple.

And a decent striker would have buried the three Ings had.

We are sloppy infront of goal, seven shots on goal first half, four were great chances to score!

All very true but some are unhappy when truth gets in the way of their propaganda. 

[Bizzzle]

Kinda glad I’ve got covid and had to miss the game

[smg]

Why are we spending an absolute fortune on Gerrard? There are a at least a dozen on here who know how to sort the team out and I’m sure would do the job for a lot less. Let’s give it a go and use the money we save on his salary to buy another overpriced player that everyone wets their pants over until they pull on a shirt.

[Shirtman]

Positives, in first half. Just unlucky and poor finishing.

Wouldn't blame Gerrard for this one, although Conte's sky interview made me think about leadership. He said that he assesses the talent he has and builds a team around it. Gerrard seems to have a system and wants to coerce our players into it whatever their qualities.