Ratings & Reactions: Villa v Spurs

[TRO]

9 hours ago, Jas10 said:

Yep

 

I agree with Luis....it was embarrassing how he was the only one showing any intensity/urgency.....and it got to him.

[TRO]

8 hours ago, sharkyvilla said:

Yeah he can't be starting on Thursday.  We need to give Tim his chance and McGinn owes us a performance (to say the least), bring Doug on for half an hour if needed.

I think the rest of the team owes McGinn an apology....for an abject display of a lack of intensity.....It was insipid in its execution/ application.

They drove McGinn to that.

[TRO]

8 hours ago, Lerner's Driver said:

Yeah spot on. 

It comes back to the thing that Tro and I have been banging on about all season. Any team that harries us and stresses us out when in possession has a good chance of winning.

Our champagne football comes when the opposition lets us play. Spurs hassled us and we're much better on the ball when they had it and that is because on the whole, they have better players.

Doesn't stop our achievements this season from being amazing, but it does look to be the case that we are running out of steam as Spurs are gathering theirs.

I couldn't agree more..

Been saying it for some time, we have very few press resistant players....When they upped the press, we wobbled....as has been the case, in many games this season.

They was too quick, in movement and thought and showed more intensity in their approach....Son was running around like a cheetah, chasing everything down.....we in contrast, were just waiting for the "Roy of the Rovers" pass.

The times, we just get caught nonchalantly on the ball....or fail to win it in a duel....its turgid uninspiring football.

They were forcing our players in to errors on the ball....and we in return, give them the freedom to pass at will.....that was the main difference......and again, not for the first time...Chelsea and Newcastle did it, too.

Folk can muster their own reasons, but we are gradually fading, in terms of performances and its registering in negative results.

[TRO]

8 hours ago, OutByEaster? said:

I don't think there was that much in that game - four-nil certainly flatters them - but they defended brilliantly and were sharp enough to take their chances on the two goals that really mattered. The first from a fortunate deflection and the second from a mistake on our part - but even at two-nil with eleven against eleven I thought we were still in it and had a chance of getting something out of the game. I thought the performance was improved from the one against Ajax midweek.

I thought the move to five at the back worked to a large extent and until the extra time goals I don't think they beat the high line with a pass. That said I don't think we can complain about the loss, defensively they were really impressive, Van Den Ver especially so, completely negating Bailey in the first half - Udogie and Porro were very good, the defensive mids held the shape in front of the defence and we never really found a way to pick the lock.

We've now got a huge problem with McGinn out, it might have been a yellow for me, but it was definitely at least a yellow, we're going to miss him and it's hard to see any way around it other than playing Iroegbunam (who I thought did okay when he came on).

It's a defeat, one that looks worse than it was, and probably feels worse than it was too, we're two points ahead with ten games to go and Spurs have a game in hand - there's a long way to go and hopefully European results can make 5th a Champions League place too.

The big worry for me is that we've now got two massive games, without two of our three key midfielders against teams that are chasing European places - if we don't get at least a couple of points out of West Ham and Wolves, we're going to be in a huge battle with Man Utd for 5th - and that could easily happen.

Crap day at the office, not the worst performance, but the result hurts in a couple of different ways, both in terms of how it feels and in terms of what it does to the table - we now need to refocus on the two tough games coming up and make sure we don't let this wonderful season fizzle out.

 

I thought, take away the goals, and they still outplayed us. they pressed us, was quicker to the ball, and won most of the duels.

We keep conceding goals, avoidable goals.....and defending is an integral part of the game. You praise them for defending, but frustrating us, is part of why they stole the initiative.

They was a much better side, and individually.....no one in our team could match Udogie for workrate/urgency and sharpness, he was like a box of frogs.....we in contrast was blunt, lethargic and passive.

[Hev]

Media saying we were "thrashed" by Spurs. I am sure if it were the other way round it would be "Villa thrash TEN MAN Spurs". We were losing, yes, but the so called "thrashing" came after the sending off

[DJBOB]

It should be noted that Spurs were fully fit and we were missing key players.

But one of the things that Ange did when they had injuries was to continue playing the same system, even with fullbacks at CB and giving up goals, playing suboptimal players.

And as a result, their players are in full flow with keen awareness of their respective positions. 
 
I think Unai is trying too hard to fit certain players into the side in lieu of injuries instead of playing the system that got us here and living with the results. 

[TRO]

15 hours ago, AV82 said:

That cross from Sarr and a mistake from Konsa/Tielemans killed us today. That and a red from our dimwit of a captain. 

He is far from a dimwit.....more of a warrior, which the others could emulate, and maybe he wouldn't have to do it all on his own.

He seemed to get the support of the Villa Park crowd too.

The outcome was regrettable, but in a certain way, they deserved it, for their robust and aggressive challenges....unfortunately, due to a possible lack of practice, we are not very good at it, and get carded, more regular than most teams.

I find it laughable, that we have the 3rd worst yellow card record this season.....We wouldn't hurt a fly.

 

Edited March 11 by TRO

[delboy54]

4 hours ago, TRO said:

I don't think 4th place was representative, of that performance or result......We would not be where we are, playing like that. It certainly seemed like a big game to them.

The first half result was ok 0-0 but Ange felt that we was struggling to contain them, so he could clearly see an intensity advantage by them.....then the customary second half gift, and it was slipping away.

I think John McGinn lost his head, because he was the only one engaging, and frustration got the better of him....I don't think it was a bad day at the office, because it has happened in similar circumstances too often lately.

I think we have a lot to do, to be the team we think we are.

 

TRO, as always, great comments and the voice of reason.

[ben1505]

Many Spurs “fans” online are crowing about how good their side is and how their manager is a “genius”.

 

i do hope that we finish higher than them this season. I’ve never known a more deluded set of fans… 

[Pinebro]

Thought the tactics was spot on first half. Spurs didn't create anything, problem was our players not being decisive with the opportunities we got.

1st goal in the second half is just an absolutely brilliant cross which is difficult to defend against. That's what top teams can do to you.

Konsa screws us and shows a lack of bottle and character. He may not be good enough for us going forward if he is that frail when things are going a bit rough.

McGinn incident just seals the game. Unai can't do anything about the 3 last sentences.

It isn't the tactics it's the players. They have shown time and time again that they can't handle the big occasions when loads are at stake.

Edited March 11 by Pinebro

[Zatman]

For people moaning about the system, its how we lined up vs Spurs earlier in the season

[Ponky]

11 hours ago, OutByEaster? said:

Brennan Johnson is a dick

He and Maddison are a tad unlikeable 

[Ponky]

2 hours ago, Pinebro said:

Thought the tactics was spot on first half. Spurs didn't create anything, problem was our players not being decisive with the opportunities we got.

I'm inclined to agree with this. We had several clear opportunities to score and both Bailey and Watkins seemed uncharacteristically indecisive and lacking in confidence and nothing really clicked for us.

Compare us intercepting one of their defensive passes and it fizzled out to nothing. They intercepted one of ours and it was a goal.

[Herman22]

3 minutes ago, Ponky said:

He and Maddison are a tad unlikeable 

There’s no doubt Johnson’s and Maddison’s reaction got McGinn sent off. Refs in the premier league are weak and that’s why players get after them. 

You’ll notice McGinn was pushed repeatedly by Spurs players after the foul and the ref did absolutely nothing about it. 

[TRO]

2 hours ago, ben1505 said:

Many Spurs “fans” online are crowing about how good their side is and how their manager is a “genius”.

 

i do hope that we finish higher than them this season. I’ve never known a more deluded set of fans… 

when we play like that.....We invite that kind of crowing.

We only have ourselves to blame.

[Made In Aston]

In the first half we limited spurs to 1 shot, whilst we had 7. I'd say the tactics were working pretty well then. Unfortunately we have a trend of conceding early in the second half and that changed the whole game.

It was interesting that Ange said he thought we liked tired towards of the end of the first half and maybe this is why we fell apart in the second, rather than poor tactics.

[StefanAVFC]

2 hours ago, Zatman said:

For people moaning about the system, its how we lined up vs Spurs earlier in the season

It was slightly different, and we got absolutely battered anyway. Should have been 3-1 at HT with the chances they missed. Then we tweaked it and went onto win.

[TRO]

2 hours ago, Pinebro said:

Thought the tactics was spot on first half. Spurs didn't create anything, problem was our players not being decisive with the opportunities we got.

1st goal in the second half is just an absolutely brilliant cross which is difficult to defend against. That's what top teams can do to you.

Konsa screws us and shows a lack of bottle and character. He may not be good enough for us going forward if he is that frail when things are going a bit rough.

McGinn incident just seals the game. Unai can't do anything about the 3 last sentences.

It isn't the tactics it's the players. They have shown time and time again that they can't handle the big occasions when loads are at stake.

I look at Mickey Van der ven and Udogie, and wonder if we could do better, when searching for defenders.....I think we have shown in so many recent games, we have too many players who are not natural defenders.

[Lerner's Driver]

Our cautious 'baiting the press' isn't working how it used to. Cautious has become passive and/or too casual, whereby our defensive players think they have more time than they do.

The quick infield passes that were helping us to cut through teams earlier in the season are no longer happening to the same extent because teams are closing off the second, third and fourth pass after Emi's first .

I know injuries have played a big part, but it feels like our system can be negated when opponents force us into mistakes because we very quickly run out of outball options.

[TRO]

12 hours ago, markavfc40 said:

I think it is easy in hindsight to say he got it wrong today but being honest I felt when I heard the line up before the game that it was a little negative. I think for the first half though Emery was arguably proved right. Whilst they had more possession they created next to nothing whilst we had 3 or 4 promising openngs. The general feeling in the ground at half time seemed to be so far so good and that we'd done okay.

Clearly the second half didn't plan out as Emery would have hoped. I'd imagine the plan was to keep it tight until around the hour plus mark then make 3 or 4 positive changes and utilise Diaby, Moreno, Zaniolo, Rogers (and possibly even Duran) and go for the win. 2 quick goals, from our own mistakes rather than due to the system and McGinn, who otherwise had a good game, losing his head for a split second, put paid to all that though.

We can debate why we didn't take the game to Spurs from the off but I'd imagine the game in Europe less than 3 days earlier plays a part and it would have always been in his mind to utilise all his subs to offset that in terms of freshness of legs.

Goals change games don't they though and two quick ones and the sending off soon after killed today's game for us. Regardless of formation you make errors like we did, both in terms of the goals and the sending off, then you'll lose. I'd imagine up until the point of them scoring the game was playing out pretty much how Emery would have hoped. 

On reflection I'm therefore not putting too much on him for today.

I too am not looking to systems to blame.....we are engaging in too many individual errors in games lately...why? I don't know.

I look at the players demeanor at times, and I am not convinced, they are up for it.

I watched Bailey yesterday, show immaturity, drifting around, towards the action,  leaving cash to deal with Johnson and Udogie on his own.

When they are in this mood, like they have been recently at home.....I'm not sure, I like this team.

Sure we can all cling to 4th for comfort....this team in its current mood is not playing anything like 4th place football.

I think Unai has a real challenge on his hands, not to just improve the team.....but to sustain, what he has already created.