Ratings & Reactions: Spurs v Villa

[fightoffyour]

 

20 hours ago, Genie said:

Yeah, my new, new year’s resolution will be to perform a full scale assessment of my life. 

First up, do my kids really need a dad? 

 

20 hours ago, jim said:

He barely had anything to do. Even when he did he nearly fluffed his lines and [his] young bailed him out.

 

[TRO]

14 hours ago, mjmooney said:

Classic.

[stewiek2]

I see in the media Spurs lost yesterday, but I can't for the life of me find how Villa got on?!

Edited January 2, 2023 by stewiek2

[thunderball]

16 hours ago, maqroll said:

I'm tempted to rewatch the game just to see exactly what Emery was doing systematically and how it evolved over the 90 minutes. 

My old Dad watched the game with me and asked how Emery was getting on, what were the differences: the camera angles at Spurs are pretty accommodating and the overview is pretty expansive, and I pointed at the screen and said “look at that shape” - a 5 man defensive line with two central defensive midfielders just ahead whenever we were not in possession, Spurs could not find a way through and when it went wide we shuffled and smothered any opportunity, it just ended back in the mixer where there was no way through. It was the same on repeat, it was so  good and reassuring to see. They slickly moved from a defensive formation to an attacking or pressing formation so well and it will only get more second nature and quicker as the muscle memory builds. Add some attacking patterns and we will surely kick on.

What is evident is how important Watkins is to this Emery team, even though his finishing isnt his greatest asset - he will take some replacing as he a key outlet and runs all game just like Milner used to. The forward three is a conundrum and something for Emery to work out as when Bailey is unable to make any impression, like vs Spurs, we don’t seem to have anything on the bench to stretch the game at present.

[wedge]

17 hours ago, GlobalVillan said:

On a side note, I dont think I've ever so many half and half scarves at a game.

Seemed every second person was either an Asian or American tourist sporting one of them.

More like Disneyland than a Premier League match.

It was so noticeable wasn't it! One guy stood by us in the away end commented that it was like being at the casting auditions for Squid Games! 

 

A dubious (yet slightly humorous) comment, but it was quite funny watching loads of tourists in box-fresh club shop Spurs gear all taking photos smiling at the full-time whistle when 95% of the Spurs faithful starting buggering off after Luiz's goal. It's as much of a different game off the pitch these days as it is on the pitch. 

[El Segundo]

It was a fairly dull first half because we just nullified Spurs and were content to do so for that period. That was good tactics, to frustrate them.  They lacked the creativity to break down a deeper sitting defence - If we'd played the highline like we did against Liverpool, Kane and Son would have murdered us like they have before.  It's a shame we didn't do the same against Liverpool as they were very beatable. 

Emery very impressive so far, looks like he knows what he's doing and has got buy-in from the players. 

Watkins' miss early doors was awful and typical Ollie, but he redeemed himself with his overall performance.  If he could just find a bit of composure in front of goal more often he'd be a top striker.   

 

 

[BOF]

On 01/01/2023 at 15:59, Nigel said:

9 points from 12, all from teams in the top 7....simply magnificent.

Funnily enough, we now need to start looking at our record against the bottom half.  We're joint rock bottom in the league against lower half opposition. 8pts from 7 games. Tied with Southampton and Forest. Hopefully we can start against Wolves tomorrow.

[Nigel]

14 minutes ago, BOF said:

Funnily enough, we now need to start looking at our record against the bottom half.  We're joint rock bottom in the league against lower half opposition. 8pts from 7 games. Tied with Southampton and Forest. Hopefully we can start against Wolves tomorrow.

Absolutely,  wonder how he will change it up. Will he push more or stay to the same mindset/formation?

[fruitvilla]

What surprised me about Luiz's goal was how much time McGinn had to stop and tee up the pass. Nobody looked like they were close or even going to be close anytime soon.

just adding

Emery was enjoying the play even before the goal was scored.

Edited January 3, 2023 by fruitvilla

[Thug]

At one point, we had 6 in a straight line at the back.

However, at no point did it feel like we had parked the bus.

That’s Emery magic.

[sidcow]

Wow. We beat Spurz away and we've got 2 pages dedicated to trying to work out who to pin the blame on for a goal we didn't concede. Villatalk at it absolute peak. 

[Pelle]

18 hours ago, sidcow said:

Wow. We beat Spurz away and we've got 2 pages dedicated to trying to work out who to pin the blame on for a goal we didn't concede. Villatalk at it absolute peak. 

Point taken.