Heroes & Villains, the Aston Villa fanzine
Heroes & Villains => Match Threads & Player Ratings => Topic started by: kippaxvilla2 on December 30, 2024, 09:57:17 PM
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Defenders needed urgently.
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4 wins in last 14 league games yet still only 3 points behind 5th place Newcastle. Very frustrating but still half a season to go.
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Defenders needed urgently.
2-3!
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Defenders needed urgently.
2-3!
Martinez out for 2 months!
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Not good enough in too many departments. Including, game management and substitutions by Emery.
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Defending is indeed a big problem for us!!
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Still all to play for but please buy a new right back asap and get Konsa and Mings back in the middle.
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We have a significant defensive problem but I am more and more starting to think Emery doesn’t know how to sort it out.
So wasteful in the later stages of games and it just goes on and on.
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I know it's not the be-all and end-all, but does anyone know how we rank xG against vs actual goals against? I don't know what's happening but it seems Unai sets us up right, and our defenders are all objectively good, but somehow we concede more goals against than we should, through sloppiness, fuckupiness whatever.
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At times we saw the best of us, sadly mixed in was the worst of us too. 7th - 12th beckons unless we tighten that defence up. Tileman's was dead on his feet after 60 mins so well done for the lack of changes.
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It snot just defence - the whole team falling apart, we should have controlled this game - we where not able to do that. There might be that some rethinking must be done from Emery and / or the leadership cause the signs not good at the moment.
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We have a significant defensive problem but I am more and more starting to think Emery doesn’t know how to sort it out.
So wasteful in the later stages of games and it just goes on and on.
I agree. Emery has no clue what to do, but Konsa simply should not be the RB.
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4 wins in last 14 league games yet still only 3 points behind 5th place Newcastle. Very frustrating but still half a season to go.
Yeah, its a bizarre season in that respect. No one other than Liverpool and Forest is being consistent at all. So we can definitely go on a run from where we are in the second half of the year and get at least Europa League back.
This one, I hate to say, is on Emery. The game was clearly drifting between 60-80th minute and he had no problem in bringing on Onana or Barkley earlier in the year for late game control, so why not now? It desperately needed it.
The other thing that is so apparent in comparison to last year is HOW we defend space... we've dropped the high line, which was very succesful, and are asking all our midfielders and centre backs to defend man-for-man and it just creates 20-30 yards between the midfield and defence, such a transitional game. This happened all match tonight. Teams have exploited that all season and it hasn't changed. Why? I get the needed to evolve year-on-year but this evolution was not the one to make. We may get better at it, but we're halfway through the year and it's not really improved.
This is not a manager who doesn't know how to fix it in my view, because **we played very differently last season**. It is a conscious decision to play this way and it could be reversed. I guess my question is - when does it get too kamikaze for Emery and he changes back to what is more familiar to him? Because the two goals we scored tonight should have been enough to win the game. We ship 2 goals a game and it is NOT sustainable.
I also genuinely don't think this is a 'Konsa at RB' or 'no right back' or 'not enough signings' problem. It is WHAT and HOW the players are being told to do.
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Disappointing, but overall the better team. If we had had the penalty, or scored from the couple of good chances missed it would have a comfortable victory.
Watkins, Rogers and Teilemans all did well. Bailey much improved.
Even having dropped the two points we are still only 2 points off 5th. This team are more than capable of going on a strong run in the new year.
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Can’t hold a lead and can't put a game to bed when on top. Their subs, especially Mitoma, changed the game.
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We consistently get in great attacking positions and then don’t take them. It’s not their keepers making great saves either. V frustrating
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It’s not just defenders it’s actually working on how we defend as a team - they don’t look like they’re working together.
Love him, but Unai cost us that win today in my view. It was very obvious they were building up a head up steam and players (specifically Tielemans) were tiring and making mistakes. He waited too long to change it and it cost us the win.
This continued weakness as a team and conceding makes winning a sequence of games utterly impossible. See people criticising Ollie - he got a goal and an assist (and ran the line really well) that is more than enough output. But because we’re so shit as a team at defending it makes that look insufficient. Sort it out Unai, it’s been going on too long.
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Do we have a defensive coach?
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We have a significant defensive problem but I am more and more starting to think Emery doesn’t know how to sort it out.
So wasteful in the later stages of games and it just goes on and on.
I agree. Emery has no clue what to do, but Konsa simply should not be the RB.
You have had it in for Emery for ages, our best manager in a generation.
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We had more than enough chances to put them away, Ollies decision making was off and he seems like Bailey to have lost a bit of speed, we missed Duran today so that tells you something. We looked a tired side at the end and i thought Brighton may go on and pinch it.Definately need a couple of players in January.
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When we are behind, we seem to play with a lack of heart, when we get in front, we play some lovely stuff. At 2-1 up, Emery should be thinking about winning the game and how he might achieve that with what he has on the bench. He fucked it up tonight by making subs too late and we could have lost it. We didn't, but is 2-2 good enough against Brighton. 4 wins in 14 games and another two goals conceded.
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Not good enough in too many departments. Including, game management and substitutions by Emery.
Yep we have looked shagged out now across squad and management now for some weeks. We seem to have lost our grip. No grit. It is so disappointing to watch. I guess a plateau was inevitable. Now we will see what Unai and the squad are made of. Can they reset? Can we get reinforcements that are better than what we have? Can we get more clinical and stop giving away so many goals? I think we will only see further development into next season when we won't have the CL [unless we win it :-) ] and can concentrate on the Prem again.
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If we had had the penalty, or scored from the couple of good chances missed it would have a comfortable victory.
My auntie's having a pair of bollocks fitted as I type!
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Disappointing, but overall the better team. If we had had the penalty, or scored from the couple of good chances missed it would have a comfortable victory.
Watkins, Rogers and Teilemans all did well. Bailey much improved.
Even having dropped the two points we are still only 2 points off 5th. This team are more than capable of going on a strong run in the new year.
Don't see where the strong run is coming from tbh
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Brighton were nothing special, we should have won that comfortably. Our defence is a major cause for concern. Watkins also had several opportunities to put the game to bed, his finishing and decision-making were not good today. The subs seemed to hurt us too - Bailey needs to stay on as our only pacy attacking threat to pin back their defenders.
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That is a hugely frustrating result. Especially given how other results have gone in the last 24 hours.
We had the chances to be 3 or 4-1 up before they equalised, and even at the death Ollie skies it right under the posts. I can't believe he didn't even get a shot away with his left foot when the ref played advantage from the Rogers pull-back booking. I can't help but wonder if Duran misses those chances? Maybe he wouldn't be in the position in the first place, who knows. Either way, Ollie has a goal and an assist and I can't help but think he should have done more tonight. Perhaps that's harsh.
We had 20 shots and 60% possession. We should not be drawing games like this.
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Do we have a defensive coach?
No we always fail to park it.
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We had more than enough chances to put them away, Ollies decision making was off and he seems like Bailey to have lost a bit of speed, we missed Duran today so that tells you something. We looked a tired side at the end and i thought Brighton may go on and pinch it.Definately need a couple of players in January.
Duran’s replacement got a goal and an assist, not sure we missed really. Ollie’s decision was pretty bloody goal for the goal that should have won the game.
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Emery got the line up wrong (Konsa RB ? ) and got the subs wrong (too late) .
We are a mid table team again , it is what it is .
Don't disrespect the FA Cup Emery , it's all that's left now this season.
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Galactically annoying game. Mind-meltingly annoying. I feel like I've lost my sanity.
I get that sometimes we're second best and we get nothing out of the game. Other teams seem to sometimes scrape a point off with the edge of their nails and we never, ever do, but fine. The frustrating thing is we're throwing so many points away in games where we've actually dominated! It's been careless from the players and frankly not decisive enough from Unai, who was unsentimentally subbing players earlier on in the game at the beginning of the season, but now we're playing every other day has decided that Youri Tielemans ought to keep going until the lactic acid is actually dissolving his socks.
Thank god I can drink this one into the memory hole tomorrow.
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We have a significant defensive problem but I am more and more starting to think Emery doesn’t know how to sort it out.
So wasteful in the later stages of games and it just goes on and on.
I agree. Emery has no clue what to do, but Konsa simply should not be the RB.
You have had it in for Emery for ages, our best manager in a generation.
Me? What are you on about? Emery is great and I am not saying anything other than he does not know how to sort out our defense. I think the evidence of this is plain for all to see. I certainly have not and do not have it in for Emery as he clearly is the best we have had for a long time. It is possible to say that he has no clue how to deal with a current issue without it meaning that I think he needs to go or whatever. Quite the opposite; but he is struggling to sort the defense out and it is hard to deny that.
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Don't disrespect the FA Cup Emery , it's all that's left now this season.
I too was gutted when we were knocked out of the Champions League and the Premier League season finished.
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This season’s turning into such a massive slog - all round, it should be said, with the exception of Liverpool.
We should have blown them away in the first 15-20 mins of the second half, but we just don’t seem able to get any swagger going in front of goal. Ollie seems to have been drinking from the same fount as Bailey.
We were then very static in the last 15 mins - lots of ball watching going on. The equaliser was coming, and of course it came.
Very disappointing… and yet we still have our hat in the ring, 3 points off 5th and the so-called super form team, the Jaudis. It’s almost cruel.
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Really disapointing - poor game management for at least the third time this season.
I am fed up of fucking Watkins and Bailey not being able to make up there mind what to do. Watkins a great player - and gets goals - but fuck me he should have had a hatrick tonight.
We know what Bailey can do but he is just not making or scoring goals.
Unai has been poor a number of times this season - his standards are very high and obviously he’s a genius but his decision making has been poor too often this season. Tonight a prime example
Currently we’re averaging 1 good game in every 4 - and we’re rarely able to do enough in the games we’re not good. We’re seriously off the pace and worryingly our squad doesn’t currently look like one capable of getting top 6.
I get there having to work miracles but today should have been routine once we went 2-1 up and were dominating.
Really pissed off
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Emery got the line up wrong (Konsa RB ? ) and got the subs wrong (too late) .
We are a mid table team again , it is what it is .
Don't disrespect the FA Cup Emery , it's all that's left now this season.
European Cup?
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Emery got the line up wrong (Konsa RB ? ) and got the subs wrong (too late) .
We are a mid table team again , it is what it is .
Don't disrespect the FA Cup Emery , it's all that's left now this season.
Ned clearly clearly isn't ready to start Premier league matches, clearly so who else can he play there? You're absolutely obsessed with konsa at rb
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We have a significant defensive problem but I am more and more starting to think Emery doesn’t know how to sort it out.
They either can't follow instruction (quite worrying).
Or they are following instructions and this is the result (v worrying).
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We met our mirror image in a team tonigh in Brighton. Everything that could be said about us can be said about them.
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Galactically annoying game. Mind-meltingly annoying. I feel like I've lost my sanity.
I get that sometimes we're second best and we get nothing out of the game. Other teams seem to sometimes scrape a point off with the edge of their nails and we never, ever do, but fine. The frustrating thing is we're throwing so many points away in games where we've actually dominated! It's been careless from the players and frankly not decisive enough from Unai, who was unsentimentally subbing players earlier on in the game at the beginning of the season, but now we're playing every other day has decided that Youri Tielemans ought to keep going until the lactic acid is actually dissolving his socks.
Thank god I can drink this one into the memory hole tomorrow.
Spot on
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We have a significant defensive problem but I am more and more starting to think Emery doesn’t know how to sort it out.
They either can't follow instruction (quite worrying).
Or they are following instructions and this is the result (v worrying).
I believe its the latter. And I think it was an intentional decision to try and evolve on the tactics of Emery's first 18 months.
But all evidence points to it not working and the question is when, not if, it changes, IMO.
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It was just utterly predictable they would score. We looked gassed and subs came too late. That one is on unai today.
Another game and another no clean sheet. Very disappointing
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I know it's not the be-all and end-all, but does anyone know how we rank xG against vs actual goals against? I don't know what's happening but it seems Unai sets us up right, and our defenders are all objectively good, but somehow we concede more goals against than we should, through sloppiness, fuckupiness whatever.
Interesting - if I am reading this right - we’re under performing on both xGF and xGA. https://understat.com/league/EPL. It looks like we should have score 7 more goals and concede 2-3 less. Which is the reverse of what I was expecting (poor at both bit worse at defending)
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We met our mirror image in a team tonigh in Brighton. Everything that could be said about us can be said about them.
Nah. We were the much better team overall
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Fair result in the end but frustrating. Last seasons Ollie and it's 4 at least but all players form has it's ups and downs, Mings was good but you could see they targeted Konsa with Mitoma and sure enough that's where their excellent equaliser came from.
Odd season this but a good run in the 2nd half and we can make Europe.
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We have a significant defensive problem but I am more and more starting to think Emery doesn’t know how to sort it out.
They either can't follow instruction (quite worrying).
Or they are following instructions and this is the result (v worrying).
I wonder if we see a change in personal this summer as I believe it’s the players at his disposal who can’t play how he wants us to play.
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Konsa at right back has become a hologram in defence and where the ball goes to die in attack. Maybe it works against teams who dominate possession against us but today showed exactly the sort of game where it doesn’t work.
Barkley should have been on straight after Tielemans lung busting run forward that finished him completely. We didn’t do enough in the final third to create chances and it always looked likely they’d get another once Mitoma came on to target our right side.
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We were crap
Customary , give them a head start.
Go in front, do not capitalise on possession
They bring on subs, we are like rabbits in the fucking headlights, panic sets in, lose possession, give the ball away, stand off from their forwards , surprise surprise, they equalise.
This team needs some serious new faces
Last year we pulled up trees to get where we finished. 4 wins in 14 this season is bottom half of the league form
Bit of a rant, but I am fucking angry !!!
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4 wins in last 14 league games yet still only 3 points behind 5th place Newcastle. Very frustrating but still half a season to go.
Yeah, its a bizarre season in that respect. No one other than Liverpool and Forest is being consistent at all. So we can definitely go on a run from where we are in the second half of the year and get at least Europa League back.
This one, I hate to say, is on Emery. The game was clearly drifting between 60-80th minute and he had no problem in bringing on Onana or Barkley earlier in the year for late game control, so why not now? It desperately needed it.
The other thing that is so apparent in comparison to last year is HOW we defend space... we've dropped the high line, which was very succesful, and are asking all our midfielders and centre backs to defend man-for-man and it just creates 20-30 yards between the midfield and defence, such a transitional game. This happened all match tonight. Teams have exploited that all season and it hasn't changed. Why? I get the needed to evolve year-on-year but this evolution was not the one to make. We may get better at it, but we're halfway through the year and it's not really improved.
This is not a manager who doesn't know how to fix it in my view, because **we played very differently last season**. It is a conscious decision to play this way and it could be reversed. I guess my question is - when does it get too kamikaze for Emery and he changes back to what is more familiar to him? Because the two goals we scored tonight should have been enough to win the game. We ship 2 goals a game and it is NOT sustainable.
I also genuinely don't think this is a 'Konsa at RB' or 'no right back' or 'not enough signings' problem. It is WHAT and HOW the players are being told to do.
I think your right - that’s part of the frustrations we are choosing to play like this and I am not smart enough to see why
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Bailey has had one good season out of four and last season he was on the bench largely until December before becoming a starter.
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Poor start. Disaster of a right hand side. Suddenly string a few passes together and look a very good side again either side of half time. Go ahead and then attempt to do the bare minimum to win the game with the same personnel that started and we drop points with goal conceded in last 10 minutes.
Pretty much the story of our season right there tonight in about 110 minutes and we had the usual questionable decisions thrown in for good measure.
Newcastle have far more momentum than we do currently as they're backing up good home results on the road and I fancy them to turn over Spurs so we're starting to fall off the pace now.
Really need to find some pennies down the sofa and get a couple more players in. Looked a bad one for Pau so another CB in is a near certainty now.
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Some of this team are just reaching the end of the cycle and we will need to build again in the summer. Cash, Mcginn, Bailey, Carlos all need replacing or upgrading.
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I dont get why he didnt start onana today. With our defence issues surely he should ahve gone onana an d kamara again?
This team has so many issues. We are conceding too much and missing too many chances. We had none of these issues at this stage last season
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Ollie needs to find his shooting boots.
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https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/live/cq8qg5ql1y2t
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We have a significant defensive problem but I am more and more starting to think Emery doesn’t know how to sort it out.
So wasteful in the later stages of games and it just goes on and on.
I agree. Emery has no clue what to do, but Konsa simply should not be the RB.
Konsa is a horrific RB , no idea why Emery keeps the experiment going
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Emery got the line up wrong (Konsa RB ? ) and got the subs wrong (too late) .
We are a mid table team again , it is what it is .
Don't disrespect the FA Cup Emery , it's all that's left now this season.
European Cup?
Come on , we have to be realistic , we aren't winning that .
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I dont get why he didnt start onana today. With our defence issues surely he should ahve gone onana an d kamara again?
This team has so many issues. We are conceding too much and missing too many chances. We had none of these issues at this stage last season
because both of them are having their game time managed right now, Kamara because of his long-term injury and Onana because he's clearly had an on-going issue since early in the season.
On topic I don't think we have as many issues as you'd think. we have 1 massive problem which is popping up all over the place which is that, for whatever reason, we're playing like a team with no confidence in themselves. We're nervy and cautious in defence, which is leading to no one taking control of what should be simple situations, and we're hesitant in attack, trying to create the perfect chance instead of taking things early. The one player we have right now who is full of confidence is Duran which is why he stands out so much.
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Emery got the line up wrong (Konsa RB ? ) and got the subs wrong (too late) .
We are a mid table team again , it is what it is .
Don't disrespect the FA Cup Emery , it's all that's left now this season.
European Cup?
Come on , we have to be realistic , we aren't winning that .
'Would you like to bet against us?'
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I dont get why he didnt start onana today. With our defence issues surely he should ahve gone onana an d kamara again?
This team has so many issues. We are conceding too much and missing too many chances. We had none of these issues at this stage last season
Been defending Onana recently elsewhere but he was terrible in his cameo, second to most balls and a terrible pass nearly gave them a goal on one of the breakaways.
I didn't get at all why we waited so late to make that triple sub. Brighton made their one just after we made it 2-1 yet we throw them all on as soon as it goes to 2-2 with less than ten left?!
People not rating the Maatsen signing but we're not really giving him much chance to prove himself are we? Digne was superb tonight but if there was a feeling he was starting to flag from all the effort he made why not make the sub a bit earlier and then there's still space for Maatsen to run into?
Personally I'd try him at LW against Leicester with Rogers suspended and Ramsey surely not ready to start.
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Emery got the line up wrong (Konsa RB ? ) and got the subs wrong (too late) .
We are a mid table team again , it is what it is .
Don't disrespect the FA Cup Emery , it's all that's left now this season.
European Cup?
Come on , we have to be realistic , we aren't winning that .
The first and second favourites to win the Champions League will also be trying to stop us from winning the FA Cup as well.
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I dont get why he didnt start onana today. With our defence issues surely he should ahve gone onana an d kamara again?
This team has so many issues. We are conceding too much and missing too many chances. We had none of these issues at this stage last season
because both of them are having their game time managed right now, Kamara because of his long-term injury and Onana because he's clearly had an on-going issue since early in the season.
On topic I don't think we have as many issues as you'd think. we have 1 massive problem which is popping up all over the place which is that, for whatever reason, we're playing like a team with no confidence in themselves. We're nervy and cautious in defence, which is leading to no one taking control of what should be simple situations, and we're hesitant in attack, trying to create the perfect chance instead of taking things early. The one player we have right now who is full of confidence is Duran which is why he stands out so much.
I do find it abit concerning if onana cant play two games back to back though. I would have started him and taken him off later in game.
Although agree with your point about playjng with nervousness its more than that i feel.
We just can't defend consistencly. We concede far too many, ans have made so many individual errors. Its clear to me next season it cant be this back four. Some changes will be needed. We are missing so many chances as well and getting punished for those misses. We have issues this season. I wasnt worried at all last season. This year i am. Im still thinking its going to be between 7th and 9th for us unless we bring 2-3 players in which i cant see happening
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1/2 way through the season and we are miles off top spot and a long way back from where we were last season. It’s been a season so far of some great highs mainly in the CL, some real lows and mostly massive frustration. Perfectly demonstrated by the game tonight. So many chances to win the game by many goals and once again falling victim to our own errors and wastefulness to gift the opponent something. All season long we have been the architects of our own downfall. And what is becoming a major issue is that not one of our summer signings have contributed much of late or overall across the season. We will get through to the next round of the CL and might get to the QF. That’s nice and everything. But right now, as it stands we will be lucky to make the Conference League next year. That will be a real kick in the bollocks.
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Also lets not forget pedro who helped them today massively should have been banned. Very frustrating
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Emery got the line up wrong (Konsa RB ? ) and got the subs wrong (too late) .
We are a mid table team again , it is what it is .
Don't disrespect the FA Cup Emery , it's all that's left now this season.
European Cup?
Come on , we have to be realistic , we aren't winning that .
'Would you like to bet against us?'
I've already backed us to win the Prem, can't afford another bet (though I might )
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It’s really simple for me, unless Unai can work out a way to do something different with how we play defensively ( I don’t mean personnel, although that’s a factor, I mean more how the whole system functions back to front and vice versa) we have maxed out. We will not go on a sequence of wins because we simply concede too many goals for the attack to compensate.
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No matter who plays our defending is atrocious. Another couple of gifts tonight added to the ever growing list. We need a backbone and quickly.
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1/2 way through the season and we are miles off top spot and a long way back from where we were last season. It’s been a season so far of some great highs mainly in the CL, some real lows and mostly massive frustration. Perfectly demonstrated by the game tonight. So many chances to win the game by many goals and once again falling victim to our own errors and wastefulness to gift the opponent something. All season long we have been the architects of our own downfall. And what is becoming a major issue is that not one of our summer signings have contributed much of late or overall across the season. We will get through to the next round of the CL and might get to the QF. That’s nice and everything. But right now, as it stands we will be lucky to make the Conference League next year. That will be a real kick in the bollocks.
That’s some of my fear - mainly because with no European football do we keep all our stars? I agree too on the summer signings - nowhere near enough from them. Onanas been ok - but he is the club record signing and used to the PL the rest have been inconsistent at best and had limited envolvement. We basically struck our squad but are competing on more fronts.
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Konsa at right back has become a hologram in defence and where the ball goes to die in attack. Maybe it works against teams who dominate possession against us but today showed exactly the sort of game where it doesn’t work.
Barkley should have been on straight after Tielemans lung busting run forward that finished him completely. We didn’t do enough in the final third to create chances and it always looked likely they’d get another once Mitoma came on to target our right side.
Maybe Tielemans needs to work on his stamina? Hardly broke sweat at Newcastle and blowing out his arse tonight in second half...
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Konsa at right back has become a hologram in defence and where the ball goes to die in attack. Maybe it works against teams who dominate possession against us but today showed exactly the sort of game where it doesn’t work.
Barkley should have been on straight after Tielemans lung busting run forward that finished him completely. We didn’t do enough in the final third to create chances and it always looked likely they’d get another once Mitoma came on to target our right side.
Maybe Tielemans needs to work on his stamina? Hardly broke sweat at Newcastle and blowing out his arse tonight in second half...
He’s played pretty much every game hasn’t he? I think it’s more the manager cocking up on this one.
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We have a significant defensive problem but I am more and more starting to think Emery doesn’t know how to sort it out.
So wasteful in the later stages of games and it just goes on and on.
I agree. Emery has no clue what to do, but Konsa simply should not be the RB.
Kosta? Or the one who somehow manages to injury prone so hardly plays, but still gives away more penalties than any other defender in the league and picks up enough silly bookings to be suspended?
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No matter who plays our defending is atrocious. Another couple of gifts tonight added to the ever growing list. We need a backbone and quickly.
Yes some tiredness and if subs were made, we might have stopped it. However Lampty did well to carry the ball into midfield and then stay there. If Cash had been on the end of a move where Rogers had played the ball in for Watkins to volley pass with the outside of his foot for a blistering shot into the corner, I doubt many would be stating it was defensive mistakes. Sometime teams do play well and open a team up to score no matter who is defending.
First one was a massive embarrassment though and god knows what Konsa's mindset was leading up. Looked to me like he wanted Torres to take charge when the ball was closer to him to do.
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Emery got the line up wrong (Konsa RB ? ) and got the subs wrong (too late) .
We are a mid table team again , it is what it is .
Don't disrespect the FA Cup Emery , it's all that's left now this season.
European Cup?
Come on , we have to be realistic , we aren't winning that .
The first and second favourites to win the Champions League will also be trying to stop us from winning the FA Cup as well.
I don't want him throwing the FA Cup though like he has done and the league cup. It keeps the season alive if we are in it.
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Looking at the stats I think attack is at least as much of a problem as our defence. We’re missing a lot of big chances. Beyond Rogers, Watkins and Duran were just not scoring.
Basically we miss to may easy chances and gift too many easy goals - some of its form - but I think it’s our style of play and game management that is the issue.
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We never really looked in control of the game, Brighton were a constant danger in the break.
We were not ruthless enough in front of goal, and failed to put their (very suspect) keeper under much pressure.
Ollie again, towards the end has another one of ‘those’ chances.
He looked frightened to death when he received the ball, and you could tell from the instant he got it there was no conviction in him.
And yet again, in the dying minutes of the game, when we are not winning, we amble and stumble to the final whistle.
We never get up a head of stream and attack in waves, putting the opposition under pressure.
We are just content to play our patient, backwards and sidewards football until it all peters out.
Another thoroughly disappointing result and performance.
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Emery got the line up wrong (Konsa RB ? ) and got the subs wrong (too late) .
We are a mid table team again , it is what it is .
Don't disrespect the FA Cup Emery , it's all that's left now this season.
European Cup?
No such thing.
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Very underwhelming. The constant errors by the defenders and concentration issues have affected the whole team.
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Konsa at right back has become a hologram in defence and where the ball goes to die in attack. Maybe it works against teams who dominate possession against us but today showed exactly the sort of game where it doesn’t work.
Barkley should have been on straight after Tielemans lung busting run forward that finished him completely. We didn’t do enough in the final third to create chances and it always looked likely they’d get another once Mitoma came on to target our right side.
Maybe Tielemans needs to work on his stamina? Hardly broke sweat at Newcastle and blowing out his arse tonight in second half...
Don't think he has ever been described as having a decent engine.
Which is an issue, if we're intent on making him the fulcrum of the side (which Emery seems set on).
He has quality. But needs to be rested and rotated to a far greater extent than Douglas Luiz, for example.
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To round the night off I'm hearing Southgate is getting a knighthood. I'm done with this country
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If we had had the penalty, or scored from the couple of good chances missed it would have a comfortable victory.
My auntie's having a pair of bollocks fitted as I type!
Haha
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Disappointing, but overall the better team. If we had had the penalty, or scored from the couple of good chances missed it would have a comfortable victory.
Watkins, Rogers and Teilemans all did well. Bailey much improved.
Even having dropped the two points we are still only 2 points off 5th. This team are more than capable of going on a strong run in the new year.
Don't see where the strong run is coming from tbh
That’s my concern.
We look way too fragile to put together a string of wins. We’re struggling to manage the one win at the moment and one seen absolutely nothing recently to suggest that good run is just around the corner.
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I dont get why he didnt start onana today. With our defence issues surely he should ahve gone onana an d kamara again?
This team has so many issues. We are conceding too much and missing too many chances. We had none of these issues at this stage last season
I reckon Onana’s performance when he came on goes a long way in explaining why he didn’t start and secondly at this stage last season we were hardly pulling up any trees performance wise.
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Only positive is I had a bet on 2-2 in play at 9-1
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It's looking more and more like we'll limp along and finish around 9th-10th this season. None of the problems look remotely like being fixed. Defensive mishaps, concentration, poor finishing and early and late goals conceded.
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To round the night off I'm hearing Southgate is getting a knighthood. I'm done with this country
Good luck Tim, safe journey
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I dont get why he didnt start onana today. With our defence issues surely he should ahve gone onana an d kamara again?
This team has so many issues. We are conceding too much and missing too many chances. We had none of these issues at this stage last season
I reckon Onana’s performance when he came on goes a long way in explaining why he didn’t start and secondly at this stage last season we were hardly pulling up any trees performance wise.
Yes it was a remarkable cameo and not for the right reasons unfortunately.
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To round the night off I'm hearing Southgate is getting a knighthood. I'm done with this country
Good luck Tim, safe journey
England's loss is Timor-Leste's gain.
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To round the night off I'm hearing Southgate is getting a knighthood. I'm done with this country
North Korea is nice this time of year.
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I thought their defence was as calamitous as ours at times, if not more so, and we should have been clear before they put on the attacking players.
Watkins had the beating of Van Hecke but his final ball, trying to score himself or making wrong choices was part of the reason we didn't win. We completely controlled the game for the second half of the first half and the first half of the second. Bailey was better than he has been, but with no end product again.
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Konsa at right back has become a hologram in defence and where the ball goes to die in attack. Maybe it works against teams who dominate possession against us but today showed exactly the sort of game where it doesn’t work.
Barkley should have been on straight after Tielemans lung busting run forward that finished him completely. We didn’t do enough in the final third to create chances and it always looked likely they’d get another once Mitoma came on to target our right side.
Maybe Tielemans needs to work on his stamina? Hardly broke sweat at Newcastle and blowing out his arse tonight in second half...
Don't think he has ever been described as having a decent engine.
Which is an issue, if we're intent on making him the fulcrum of the side (which Emery seems set on).
He has quality. But needs to be rested and rotated to a far greater extent than Douglas Luiz, for example.
He started the season very well but he has regressed rapidly to the show pony I feared he would be playing in that position. It's not as if Emery doesn't have other options, I was against Barkley resigning but if he can't be trusted at home to Brighton over Xmas then no point having him in the squad. Onana is our record signing and surely could have played tonight. That midfield picked tonight was unbalanced.
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It's looking more and more like we'll limp along and finish around 9th-10th this season. None of the problems look remotely like being fixed. Defensive mishaps, concentration, poor finishing and early and late goals conceded.
We'll finish higher than that I'm sure. However our right hand side is nowhere near good enough for a serious CL challenge, I think that's pretty clear and we're seeing the limitations down that side in pretty much every game we play.
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Still all to play for but please buy a new right back asap and get Konsa and Mings back in the middle.
This
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I dont get why he didnt start onana today. With our defence issues surely he should ahve gone onana an d kamara again?
This team has so many issues. We are conceding too much and missing too many chances. We had none of these issues at this stage last season
I reckon Onana’s performance when he came on goes a long way in explaining why he didn’t start and secondly at this stage last season we were hardly pulling up any trees performance wise.
Onana was awful when he came on. Couldn't trap a wet bag of cement
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We have a significant defensive problem but I am more and more starting to think Emery doesn’t know how to sort it out.
They either can't follow instruction (quite worrying).
Or they are following instructions and this is the result (v worrying).
I wonder if we see a change in personal this summer as I believe it’s the players at his disposal who can’t play how he wants us to play.
That’s probably the case but in the meantime Emery could do with thinking up a plan that the players that are there at the moment can implement.
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Whilst we seem to have lost the ability to keep a clean sheet & are too easy to score against. We had complete control of the game for 80 mins. It's our inability to capitalise when we are in control that's killing us. For all the good situations we had tonight their keeper never made a save other than the one from Tielemans. You put any other top 6 side with the opportunities we created & they scored 4 or 5.
We need to sort out the right side of the team with some real quality.
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Emery got the line up wrong (Konsa RB ? ) and got the subs wrong (too late) .
We are a mid table team again , it is what it is .
Don't disrespect the FA Cup Emery , it's all that's left now this season.
European Cup?
Come on , we have to be realistic , we aren't winning that .
Nope, not like we've got any history in that competition, and the manager certainly has no idea what he's doing in Europe.
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https://www.avfc.co.uk/news/2024/december/30/Emery-reflects-on-a-positive-2024/
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Whilst we seem to have lost the ability to keep a clean sheet & are too easy to score against. We had complete control of the game for 80 mins. It's our inability to capitalise when we are in control that's killing us. For all the good situations we had tonight their keeper never made a save other than the one from Tielemans. You put any other top 6 side with the opportunities we created & they scored 4 or 5.
We need to sort out the right side of the team with some real quality.
We never had "complete control" for 80 mins ! We wine one down , first half was a basketball match . 2nd half we were dominant until 75 mins then it was all them
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Whilst we seem to have lost the ability to keep a clean sheet & are too easy to score against. We had complete control of the game for 80 mins. It's our inability to capitalise when we are in control that's killing us. For all the good situations we had tonight their keeper never made a save other than the one from Tielemans. You put any other top 6 side with the opportunities we created & they scored 4 or 5.
We need to sort out the right side of the team with some
real quality.
That is true to an extent - but when “killing the game” means scoring 3 or 4 most times you step on the field it’s completely unsustainable. We should not have conceded 2 tonight, both goals weren’t brilliant Brighton play (good finishes though) they were entirely our ongoing inability to defend as a team.
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Whilst we seem to have lost the ability to keep a clean sheet & are too easy to score against. We had complete control of the game for 80 mins. It's our inability to capitalise when we are in control that's killing us. For all the good situations we had tonight their keeper never made a save other than the one from Tielemans. You put any other top 6 side with the opportunities we created & they scored 4 or 5.
We need to sort out the right side of the team with some real quality.
This. Very impressive in patches all season and seem to concede inevitably in the 10/15 minute patches where we’re not so impressive.
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I know it's not the be-all and end-all, but does anyone know how we rank xG against vs actual goals against? I don't know what's happening but it seems Unai sets us up right, and our defenders are all objectively good, but somehow we concede more goals against than we should, through sloppiness, fuckupiness whatever.
Interesting - if I am reading this right - we’re under performing on both xGF and xGA. https://understat.com/league/EPL. It looks like we should have score 7 more goals and concede 2-3 less. Which is the reverse of what I was expecting (poor at both bit worse at defending)
Actually, that means we’re poor at taking chances, and our keeper is not quite performing as he should.
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Most of the team played quite well I thought, but I will single out Diego Carlos and Ezri Konsa for criticism. Our RB plight is really starting to affect Konsa’s form lately- neck and neck with Diego for worst player on the pitch. Since when does Ezri wait for the ball to bounce before clearing it?! Shocking performance tonight.
Also - the blanks fired up front…again!? With Jhon Duran playing tonight, we’d have won that game.
DESPERATELY NEED A TOP QUALITY RIGHT BACK ASAP. Fuck FFP too, the points gained would easily make up the shortfall.
Annoyed tonight as we should have won that at a canter.
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The last back to back clean sheets we kept in the league was over 12 months ago now.
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We have far too many problems to make the top 5 this season I suspect. Too much to sort out during a season.
Defensively we seem to be getting worse, conceding two goals per game and often without the opposition having to do much.
Added to that, we are wonderfully adept at both conceding early goals to put ourselves on the back foot and late goals to turn points into less points. I trusted the side to see out games a year ago, it is the opposite now.
Of the team that started today, only three players have scored in the league and one of them is Konsa is one goal. To be halfway through the season with so few having contributed is naff.
We were clinical last season, often emerging with points from games where we had the worst of the chances. This season, we spurn great positions through poor decision making and/or execution time and time again.
Bailey was much better tonight but we desperately missed his form of last winter and lack creative options. It had got to the point where Rogers has to play well for us to play well. The window wasn't good enough, the starting XI today were all here last season. You can't afford to stand still.
I still enjoy watching some of our attacking play but you just constantly feel like we're about to concede so it isn't exactly a relaxing experience. So, so frustrating.
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Konsa at right back has become a hologram in defence and where the ball goes to die in attack. Maybe it works against teams who dominate possession against us but today showed exactly the sort of game where it doesn’t work.
Barkley should have been on straight after Tielemans lung busting run forward that finished him completely. We didn’t do enough in the final third to create chances and it always looked likely they’d get another once Mitoma came on to target our right side.
Maybe Tielemans needs to work on his stamina? Hardly broke sweat at Newcastle and blowing out his arse tonight in second half...
Don't think he has ever been described as having a decent engine.
Which is an issue, if we're intent on making him the fulcrum of the side (which Emery seems set on).
He has quality. But needs to be rested and rotated to a far greater extent than Douglas Luiz, for example.
He started the season very well but he has regressed rapidly to the show pony I feared he would be playing in that position. It's not as if Emery doesn't have other options, I was against Barkley resigning but if he can't be trusted at home to Brighton over Xmas then no point having him in the squad. Onana is our record signing and surely could have played tonight. That midfield picked tonight was unbalanced.
Show pony? You're talking directly out of your arse here. He's created one of the highest amounts of chances in the league this season and has been one of our most consistent and best performers. He looked leggy tonight and has played a lot of football recently owing to Onanas injury
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Still all to play for but please buy a new right back asap and get Konsa and Mings back in the middle.
This
Konsa / Mings CB pairing is the way to rebuild , hope Emery can see it finally
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Konsa at right back has become a hologram in defence and where the ball goes to die in attack. Maybe it works against teams who dominate possession against us but today showed exactly the sort of game where it doesn’t work.
Barkley should have been on straight after Tielemans lung busting run forward that finished him completely. We didn’t do enough in the final third to create chances and it always looked likely they’d get another once Mitoma came on to target our right side.
Maybe Tielemans needs to work on his stamina? Hardly broke sweat at Newcastle and blowing out his arse tonight in second half...
Don't think he has ever been described as having a decent engine.
Which is an issue, if we're intent on making him the fulcrum of the side (which Emery seems set on).
He has quality. But needs to be rested and rotated to a far greater extent than Douglas Luiz, for example.
He started the season very well but he has regressed rapidly to the show pony I feared he would be playing in that position. It's not as if Emery doesn't have other options, I was against Barkley resigning but if he can't be trusted at home to Brighton over Xmas then no point having him in the squad. Onana is our record signing and surely could have played tonight. That midfield picked tonight was unbalanced.
Show pony? You're talking directly out of your arse here. He's created one of the highest amounts of chances in the league this season and has been one of our most consistent and best performers. He looked leggy tonight and has played a lot of football recently owing to Onanas injury
He has been rubbish in that position for weeks.
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Subs were too late. Should have responded to their three subs much sooner.
Thought Konsa was okay up until Mitoma came on.
Watkins did well playing off the last man, chance at the end was a difficult one, but the header before it looked like he should have done better with.
McGinn was shit on the right, wonder if it would have been better bringing on Philogene on for Bailey to keep the shape better.
Hope Pau isn’t out for too long
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It’s really simple for me, unless Unai can work out a way to do something different with how we play defensively ( I don’t mean personnel, although that’s a factor, I mean more how the whole system functions back to front and vice versa) we have maxed out. We will not go on a sequence of wins because we simply concede too many goals for the attack to compensate.
Agree, and the worry is that he does not seem to know how to fix it.
Also of concern is his lack of in game management, as the second half progressed our midfield was slowing and their intensity increasing. He did nothing to arrest this.
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It’s really simple for me, unless Unai can work out a way to do something different with how we play defensively ( I don’t mean personnel, although that’s a factor, I mean more how the whole system functions back to front and vice versa) we have maxed out. We will not go on a sequence of wins because we simply concede too many goals for the attack to compensate.
Agree, and the worry is that he does not seem to know how to fix it.
Also of concern is his lack of in game management, as the second half progressed our midfield was slowing and their intensity increasing. He did nothing to arrest this.
The defence has conceded 65 goals in the 37 games this calendar year. Whatever videos they're watching before games, it isn't working. The defence is a long standing problem that will make it impossible for us to progress unless it's rectified. You aren't going to win many games 3-2.
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Subs were too late. Should have responded to their three subs much sooner.
Thought Konsa was okay up until Mitoma came on.
Watkins did well playing off the last man, chance at the end was a difficult one, but the header before it looked like he should have done better with.
McGinn was shit on the right, wonder if it would have been better bringing on Philogene on for Bailey to keep the shape better.
Hope Pau isn’t out for too long
McGinn wasn’t shit at all, one of our best players on the night
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Torres is the elephant in the room central defensively . Konsa simply isn't a RB , why Emery keeps playing him there is bizarre . Emery is supposed to be meticulous around planning , stats etc but that notion seems juxtaposed to our defence and its performance. Stubbornness? We've seen many mangers before who become blinkered and refuse to accept their errors and correct them .
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Frustrating one that. Maybe could have won it, maybe could have lost it, so guess a draw isn't the worst result. Thought we had a chance to push on and take the game away from them for a period when we went 2-1 up, but there were just too many mixed bag performances to gain any real control over the game.
I thought we looked a bit jaded by the end and the January fixture list looks quite daunting with three midweek fixtures in a row during the month. Not sure which genius thought it would be a good idea to throw a round of league fixtures in the calendar the week starting the 13th January.
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Bailey has lost a lot of his pace, yes he was better but on both wings we need more speed.
We looked far better playing a high defensive line last season, why Emery changed the style of play i'm not sure but then, every defender knew what he had to do. We played some nice football but we have become erratic. The high through ball seemed to terrify our backline.
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Torres is the elephant in the room central defensively . Konsa simply isn't a RB , why Emery keeps playing him there is bizarre . Emery is supposed to be meticulous around planning , stats etc but that notion seems juxtaposed to our defence and its performance. Stubbornness? We've seen many mangers before who become blinkered and refuse to accept their errors and correct them .
And yet Torres played about 10 mins today, so how do you account for the last twenty minutes. You’ve bern banging on about Mings In numerous threads for weeks, but as much as he didn’t do badly at all, there was no obvious difference.
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Torres is the elephant in the room central defensively . Konsa simply isn't a RB , why Emery keeps playing him there is bizarre . Emery is supposed to be meticulous around planning , stats etc but that notion seems juxtaposed to our defence and its performance. Stubbornness? We've seen many mangers before who become blinkered and refuse to accept their errors and correct them .
And yet Torres played about 10 mins today, so how do you account for the last twenty minutes. You’ve bern banging on about Mings In numerous threads for weeks, but as much as he didn’t do badly at all, there was no obvious difference.
Needs to be Konsa Mings in the middle . We also need to give Mings a few weeks to get fully up,to match speed . When he came on today he made an immediate impact after the extremely shaky start .
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Mings yellow was crazy really and filthy on Pedro. Was there a collision between them beforehand? Just seemed very strange
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Didn't see the game but followed through the BBC Live Text on their website. From the hour mark, it seemed a Brighton equaliser was inevitable especially after they made 3 changes. Again, Emery's subs are too late.
How did JJ do by the way?
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So frustrating to throw away another 3 points when we dominated for such large periods if the game. Uni was slow to bring on the Villa subs as we started to loose some control after the Brighton changes. Common threads tonight though were Konsa should not play at right back. He was awful. Another goal against from our opponents first effort on goal. Another late goal let in to let slip 3 points from a winning position.
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Strange game they pressed us quite well and you could sense they would get opportunities to score ,I think most teams know if they press us we lose our concentration this is a huge issue when we are constantly playing out from the back. Can Unai and the coaching team fix it or will our Season just fizzle out. Not enough CBs now surely it’s Courtney’s time.
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As much as Tim, and some others, steadfastly stick to the view there is a single combination of defensive players that fix our issues, there just isn’t. That’s not to say Mings isn’t a good player - but all of the defensive players have shown they can play to a good level in the Premier League. It gets dismissed, because it was last year but Pau, DC, Konsa, and Cash were all playing when we were really good last year. The issue is that since then the whole defensive system, across the team has collapsed. You can spin up all the narratives around Pau or whoever you want (Mings will be next in a few weeks when he’s made some errors) but basically the system is exposing individual flaws/errors rather than accentuating strengths. Shuffling deck chairs won’t meaningfully change it, beyond some incremental short-term changes. Unai has to work out a way to get the team defending as a team rather than a group of disjointed individuals.
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A mixed bag of a game. Thought we played some lovely stuff at times but other times looked extremely vulnerable.
The main thing is pretty much as many on here have said in that some of our players, Tielemans particularly, looked out on their feet just after an hour and changes were crying out to be made. I don't know why Emery waited as long as he did to make them. Cost us.
Ollie still isn't himself. He took the penalty well and was cool for Rogers' goal but he looks indecisive and lacking in confidence. That one on one towards the end when he took so long that he almost seemed to want to be tackled kind of summed up his lack of belief at present.
Still, an enjoyable game to end the year and really enjoyed another fine performance from Morgan Rogers.
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Watkins lack of killer instinct was one of the reasons we didn’t win that game.
We need a right footed Digne at RB.
Some serious work needed on our central defence. I think the players are good enough, it’s either the role they’re asked to play or the system that’s causing the problems. I think Mings did improve us when he came on.
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As much as Tim, and some others, steadfastly stick to the view there is a single combination of defensive players that fix our issues, there just isn’t. That’s not to say Mings isn’t a good player - but all of the defensive players have shown they can play to a good level in the Premier League. It gets dismissed, because it was last year but Pau, DC, Konsa, and Cash were all playing when we were really good last year. The issue is that since then the whole defensive system, across the team has collapsed. You can spin up all the narratives around Pau or whoever you want (Mings will be next in a few weeks when he’s made some errors) but basically the system is exposing individual flaws/errors rather than accentuating strengths. Shuffling deck chairs won’t meaningfully change it, beyond some incremental short-term changes. Unai has to work out a way to get the team defending as a team rather than a group of disjointed individuals.
I agree, it is the way the team is set up and opposing teams have worked us out.
Although the problem at RB is too obvious to ignore, with either Konsa or Cash.
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Watkins lack of killer instinct was one of the reasons we didn’t win that game.
We need a right footed Digne at RB.
Some serious work needed on our central defence. I think the players are good enough, it’s either the role they’re asked to play or the system that’s causing the problems. I think Mings did improve us when he came on.
Agree with all that. I didnt think we we were that bad overall but we really needed that third goal because you just knew they were going to score again. They pressed us really well in the early stages then seemed to tire a little which got us back into it. Judging by some of the comments, you think we had lost but it one we really should have won.
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Subs were too late. Should have responded to their three subs much sooner.
Thought Konsa was okay up until Mitoma came on.
Watkins did well playing off the last man, chance at the end was a difficult one, but the header before it looked like he should have done better with.
McGinn was shit on the right, wonder if it would have been better bringing on Philogene on for Bailey to keep the shape better.
Hope Pau isn’t out for too long
McGinn wasn’t shit at all, one of our best players on the night
McGinn was ineffective on the right and we lost a lot when we moved him away from the center for the last 10 mins. I wonder if we would have been better off brining on Philogene for Bailey rather than JJ and shuffling the midfield around to accommodate.
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Our home is whats keeping us in with a shout as our away forms been woeful - but even now we are dropping points at home to teams we should be beating like brighton.
It also feels like we have to score 3 or 4 a game to win a game now as we seem to concede so many goals. Poor ones too.
The gaps just increasing from the top 5. Newcastle and forest look so much better than us
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It's a bit harsh criticising a player who had a really good game though.
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Our home is whats keeping us in with a shout as our away forms been woeful - but even now we are dropping points at home to teams we should be beating like brighton.
It also feels like we have to score 3 or 4 a game to win a game now as we seem to concede so many goals. Poor ones too.
The gaps just increasing from the top 5. Newcastle and forest look so much better than us
How can you say that? Forest were lucky to beat us and we suffered from pathetic refereeing on both games. There is no way then are both better than us, then are both just having a run of confidence which will disappear as quickly as it came
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The way we.fade in the last 15 mins of games is concerning. Fitness issues ? Think we've conceded more goals in this period than any other Prem team.
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McGinn 8/10 playing CAM and 5/10 playing Right Wing offering no support to Konsa against Mitoma, presumably because he was knackered and fresh legs would have been better against a pacy player.
Is that better?
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Our home is whats keeping us in with a shout as our away forms been woeful - but even now we are dropping points at home to teams we should be beating like brighton.
It also feels like we have to score 3 or 4 a game to win a game now as we seem to concede so many goals. Poor ones too.
The gaps just increasing from the top 5. Newcastle and forest look so much better than us
How can you say that? Forest were lucky to beat us and we suffered from pathetic refereeing on both games. There is no way then are both better than us, then are both just having a run of confidence which will disappear as quickly as it came
They are second in the table as it stands eight points better than us. You cant say thats a fluke or lucky. Even with bad referring you cant blame anyone but ourselves for that forest loss. The collapse was pathetic in that game. Newcastle are in form and look strong they lookd defensively better than us and score a lot of goals. Half way in the season as it stands they both look better than us.
Even if their confidence does drop ours has to get better. We cant win away from home, we cant keep clean sheets and we miss so many chances. There is a hell of a lot of work to be done to finish above both of them.furthermore we have players adding nothing to us, buendia, philiogene being prime examples
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McGinn 8/10 playing CAM and 5/10 playing Right Wing offering no support to Konsa against Mitoma, presumably because he was knackered and fresh legs would have been better against a pacy player.
Is that better?
Fair enough. Im not sure what the alternative would of been though. We have to get Ramsey back in this side for his energy and direct running, but Philogene certainly hasn’t shown anything. As you say McGinn may have done better for than last 15 if he wasn’t knackered.
It may well be Bailey right, Ramsey left on Saturday against Leicester.
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None of our summer signings started last night which tells it's own story. We all thought having Kamara back would help solve some of our defensive problems. He has played really well in each game yet still we concede 2 or 3 every game. Surely it just has to be Onana and Kamara as a double pivot in front of a back four with Konsa as a centre half alongside Mings.
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Defenders needed urgently.
Err...NO. If you were there last night you would have noticed that It was our attackers and Ollie in particular who were responsible for some abject finishing when found in great positions. If forwards keep fluffing it there is always a chance that opposition will get a lucky break.
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None of our summer signings started last night which tells it's own story. We all thought having Kamara back would help solve some of our defensive problems. He has played really well in each game yet still we concede 2 or 3 every game. Surely it just has to be Onana and Kamara as a double pivot in front of a back four with Konsa as a centre half alongside Mings.
With Torres now out for a few months, I think Unai’s hand will be forced in regards to Mings and Konsa.
Agree about Onana and Kamara, but God Onana had a poor cameo last night, but do agree with those two in general.
I posted on the Maatsen thread, it seems really strange to suggest this, given Digne has been one of our best performers this season, but when Emery came a large element of the sides structure and attacking thrust was built around the Moreno/Ramsey partnership on the left, with Moreno bombing forwards and overlapping. I think Emery seems to have abandoned to an extent that lop sided defence, i think because of Dignes form. But I think we’ve lost something because of it. I’d therefore be tempted to throw Maatsen in for the next two or three games.
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Defenders needed urgently.
Err...NO. If you were there last night you would have noticed that It was our attackers and Ollie in particular who were responsible for some abject finishing when found in great positions. If forwards keep fluffing it there is always a chance that opposition will get a lucky break.
Erm nope, if it happened once in a while you might be right, but we regularly concede multiple goals and pretty much never keep clean sheets. If you’re expecting your attack to always score 2 and often to score more than that then you’re never going to keep winning games on a regular basis. Our inability to be defensively solid as a team is definitely the main issue.
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Can’t hold a lead and can't put a game to bed when on top. Their subs, especially Mitoma, changed the game.
Mitoma did nothing of the sort. He was ok but let's not turn him into a some sort of super god. It was our "can't put the game to bed" as you said that cost us the win.
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But I think we’ve lost something because of it. I’d therefore be tempted to throw Maatsen in for the next two or three games.
Yes, let's break the side that doesn't need fixing whilst we have huge problems in centre and RB positions. .
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Disappointed I wish we could have seen the game out at 2-1.
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None of our summer signings started last night which tells it's own story. We all thought having Kamara back would help solve some of our defensive problems. He has played really well in each game yet still we concede 2 or 3 every game. Surely it just has to be Onana and Kamara as a double pivot in front of a back four with Konsa as a centre half alongside Mings.
With Torres now out for a few months, I think Unai’s hand will be forced in regards to Mings and Konsa.
Agree about Onana and Kamara, but God Onana had a poor cameo last night, but do agree with those two in general.
I posted on the Maatsen thread, it seems really strange to suggest this, given Digne has been one of our best performers this season, but when Emery came a large element of the sides structure and attacking thrust was built around the Moreno/Ramsey partnership on the left, with Moreno bombing forwards and overlapping. I think Emery seems to have abandoned to an extent that lop sided defence, i think because of Dignes form. But I think we’ve lost something because of it. I’d therefore be tempted to throw Maatsen in for the next two or three games.
Definitely think it's worth giving Maatsen/Ramsey a go on the left v Leicester. No point having a squad if Emery won't use it over Xmas.
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I agree, it is the way the team is set up and opposing teams have worked us out.
With respect that's bollox. We absolutely mullered Brighton and with a better finisher could have scored 5 or 6.
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Can’t hold a lead and can't put a game to bed when on top. Their subs, especially Mitoma, changed the game.
Mitoma did nothing of the sort. He was ok but let's not turn him into a some sort of super god. It was our "can't put the game to bed" as you said that cost us the win.
Agree we had a 20 min spell after half time when we should have got the third but Konsa couldn’t handle Mitoma and that’s where their goal came from. Brighton just kept getting it to him as quickly as possible.
I’m also puzzled by Emerys habit of changing his centre midfield. It seems to completely flatten us and we lose all momentum. Very difficult for both midfielders to get up to speed straight away. I would have left Kamara on.
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I agree, it is the way the team is set up and opposing teams have worked us out.
With respect that's bollox. We absolutely mullered Brighton and with a better finisher could have scored 5 or 6.
5 or 6?? What game was you watching?
We didnt batter them at all. They had chances as well. We missed chances but they did as well
I also disagree with you on kippas point. We do need defenders, we are conceding far too many goals and the lack of clean sheets is telling.
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The story of the season is not holding on to leads and letting in early goals.
Fix those and things would be much better.
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That is a hugely frustrating result. Especially given how other results have gone in the last 24 hours.
We had the chances to be 3 or 4-1 up before they equalised, and even at the death Ollie skies it right under the posts. I can't believe he didn't even get a shot away with his left foot when the ref played advantage from the Rogers pull-back booking. I can't help but wonder if Duran misses those chances? Maybe he wouldn't be in the position in the first place, who knows. Either way, Ollie has a goal and an assist and I can't help but think he should have done more tonight. Perhaps that's harsh.
We had 20 shots and 60% possession. We should not be drawing games like this.
This echoes the conversation in the pub after the game and it’s our season in microcosm. It’s so easy to point the finger at the manager but he’s not the one missing the chances that would have rendered the other criticisms irrelevant. The match stats have us well ahead on all of the important parts of the game yet still we conspire not to win. It’s just so frustrating and on top of that it looks like Torres is going to be out for a good while.
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We need a statement win against Leicester, where we score a few and take our chances and don't give the imbeciles at the back a chance to bump in to each other and give the opposition free goals that gift them points.
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The way Torres was walked off the pitch and down the tunnel was painful to watch.
It took an age and the bloke was clearly in a lot of pain and discomfort.
It happened to another player last year (I can remember who) and it looked like it nearly killed him getting from the pitch to the tunnel.
Is there no way of transporting an injured player other than a stretcher.
Surely making a player hop / hobble that far on an injury cant be be good for him?
I guess they are too butch to use something like a folding / collapsible wheelchair ?
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Honestly, everyone - especially Unai - knows what happened here. We were the better team, but our midfield got tired especially against their subs, and Emery changed it too late.
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The way Torres was walked off the pitch and down the tunnel was painful to watch.
It took an age and the bloke was clearly in a lot of pain and discomfort.
It happened to another player last year (I can remember who) and it looked like it nearly killed him getting from the pitch to the tunnel.
Is there no way of transporting an injured player other than a stretcher.
Surely making a player hop / hobble that far on an injury cant be be good for him?
I guess they are too butch to use something like a folding / collapsible wheelchair ?
Exactly what I said at the time and it made me recall:
"Tony! Cascarino! Cascarino in the chair"
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The story of the season is not holding on to leads and letting in early goals.
Fix those and things would be much better.
We’ve let more late goals in (11 after 75th minute) than anyone in the league, so we’ve got an issue letting in early and late goals, not a great combination.
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The way Torres was walked off the pitch and down the tunnel was painful to watch.
It took an age and the bloke was clearly in a lot of pain and discomfort.
It happened to another player last year (I can remember who) and it looked like it nearly killed him getting from the pitch to the tunnel.
Is there no way of transporting an injured player other than a stretcher.
Surely making a player hop / hobble that far on an injury cant be be good for him?
I guess they are too butch to use something like a folding / collapsible wheelchair ?
Exactly what I said at the time and it made me recall:
"Tony! Cascarino! Cascarino in the chair"
It happened right in front of us. Torres seeed to by laying there for quite a while before anyone noticed. Really half arsed. Kind of sums us up right now.
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The story of the season is not holding on to leads and letting in early goals.
Fix those and things would be much better.
We’ve let more late goals in (11 after 75th minute) than anyone in the league, so we’ve got an issue letting in early and late goals, not a great combination.
What did your lad make of the evening?
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Defenders needed urgently.
Err...NO. If you were there last night you would have noticed that It was our attackers and Ollie in particular who were responsible for some abject finishing when found in great positions. If forwards keep fluffing it there is always a chance that opposition will get a lucky break.
I’m not sure why you needed to be there to notice stuff about the match, but whilst Ollie was ponderous in front of goal, he scored and assisted whilst our defence let in two goals. AGAIN.
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Honestly, everyone - especially Unai - knows what happened here. We were the better team, but our midfield got tired especially against their subs, and Emery changed it too late.
Agree with this.
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Honestly, everyone - especially Unai - knows what happened here. We were the better team, but our midfield got tired especially against their subs, and Emery changed it too late.
Agree with this.
Yep.
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Honestly, everyone - especially Unai - knows what happened here. We were the better team, but our midfield got tired especially against their subs, and Emery changed it too late.
Agree with this.
Spot on.
As soon as they made the 3 sub change I knew Emery had to react. He didn’t. That moment cost us
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After our second goal we were all over them, one way traffic playing some great stuff for 25 mins
Unfortunately abysmal in front of goal and also squandering some decent opportunities even before a chance is created
we all knew that if it went into the last 15 mins at 2-1 our bottle jobs would cough up a goal and so it proved
another game where we should have scored 3/4 at least but we didn’t which is worrying because we concede 2 goals minimum in most games
for all those using statistics to prove points on here
Watkins came off the pitch with a goal and an assist which is the difference between stats and reality
his finishing is woeful but he’s not the only culprit by a long way, to many players making bad choices when we’re going forward
As for the defence when the going gets pressurised at the end of games they turn into 4 Christmas trifles wobbling about like twats
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Agree too, Onana on for Tielemans would have been enough to initially respond with
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Piss poor again. Frustrating as Forest are where we were last year.
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After sleeping on it, I thought we were pretty good for about an 50-60 minutes yesterday. Let down at important times at both ends of the pitch.
We’re very close to being a really good team again but confidence seems low.
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After our second goal we were all over them, one way traffic playing some great stuff for 25 mins
Unfortunately abysmal in front of goal and also squandering some decent opportunities even before a chance is created
we all knew that if it went into the last 15 mins at 2-1 our bottle jobs would cough up a goal and so it proved
another game where we should have scored 3/4 at least but we didn’t which is worrying because we concede 2 goals minimum in most games
for all those using statistics to prove points on here
Watkins came off the pitch with a goal and an assist which is the difference between stats and reality
his finishing is woeful but he’s not the only culprit by a long way, to many players making bad choices when we’re going forward
As for the defence when the going gets pressurised at the end of games they turn into 4 Christmas trifles wobbling about like twats
Well yes but the point is the team constantly conceding lots of goals is the problem. Two goals by the attack in most games should be plenty, but it rarely is for us and one goal is pretty much never enough. I know you don’t rate Watkins, my view is you’re wrong but that’s just a difference of opinion. But the root cause of problems is very clear —all teams, regardless of level, miss chances but few decent sides concede goals with the alarming regularity we do.
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After our second goal we were all over them, one way traffic playing some great stuff for 25 mins
Unfortunately abysmal in front of goal and also squandering some decent opportunities even before a chance is created
we all knew that if it went into the last 15 mins at 2-1 our bottle jobs would cough up a goal and so it proved
another game where we should have scored 3/4 at least but we didn’t which is worrying because we concede 2 goals minimum in most games
for all those using statistics to prove points on here
Watkins came off the pitch with a goal and an assist which is the difference between stats and reality
his finishing is woeful but he’s not the only culprit by a long way, to many players making bad choices when we’re going forward
As for the defence when the going gets pressurised at the end of games they turn into 4 Christmas trifles wobbling about like twats
Well yes but the point is the team constantly conceding lots of goals is the problem. Two goals by the attack in most games should be plenty, but it rarely is for us and one goal is pretty much never enough. I know you don’t rate Watkins, my view is you’re wrong but that’s just a difference of opinion. But the root cause of problems is very clear —all teams, regardless of level, miss chances but few decent sides concede goals with the alarming regularity we do.
Can’t disagree with any of that
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We've conceded 2 or more in 10 of 19 league games, blaming the strikers for not scoring 3 more often seems the wrong end of the pitch to be blaming.
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Apparently, 11 of the 19 teams have scored against us with their first shot on target too.
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The story of the season is not holding on to leads and letting in early goals.
Fix those and things would be much better.
We’ve let more late goals in (11 after 75th minute) than anyone in the league, so we’ve got an issue letting in early and late goals, not a great combination.
What did your lad make of the evening?
He absolutely loved it. To be fair he’s not one that’s needed much persuasion or conversion. Mom, Dad and his 5 older siblings are Villa mad. All 8 of us were there last night, a cracking evening slightly spoiled by the late equaliser of course.
A very proud Dad, who got talked into ordering West Ham tickets on the way home! Thanks for asking.
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When strikers do not finish off team's hard work it puts extra pressure on defence, impacts confidence and generally leads to a compromised result. Attackers make 10x as many mistakes as defenders. Let's not oile it all on defence.
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Digne has been one of our better players this season, makes no sense dropping him for Maatsen who has looked very hit and miss .
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Or the defence that can't defend a simple long ball put pressure on the attack, which still did their job by putting us 2-1 up with 10 to go. Your attack scoring twice at home to a side that hadn't won in 6 isn't the failure.
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Or the defence that can't defend a simple long ball put pressure on the attack, which still did their job by putting us 2-1 up with 10 to go. Your attack scoring twice at home to a side that hadn't won in 6 isn't the failure.
Quite - and it’s not just the “defence”, although that first goal was entirely Konsa, it’s the whole defensive system.
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When strikers do not finish off team's hard work it puts extra pressure on defence, impacts confidence and generally leads to a compromised result. Attackers make 10x as many mistakes as defenders. Let's not oile it all on defence.
Do you think a team should have to score 3 times in most games to win a match though?
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Or the defence that can't defend a simple long ball put pressure on the attack, which still did their job by putting us 2-1 up with 10 to go. Your attack scoring twice at home to a side that hadn't won in 6 isn't the failure.
Quite - and it’s not just the “defence”, although that first goal was entirely Konsa, it’s the whole defensive system.
I wouldn't say it's entirely Konsa, given he's only there in the first place because Diego Carlos is nowhere to be seen.
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It’s not an either or
Defence is rubbish
Attack is profligate
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When strikers do not finish off team's hard work it puts extra pressure on defence, impacts confidence and generally leads to a compromised result. Attackers make 10x as many mistakes as defenders. Let's not oile it all on defence.
Do you think a team should have to score 3 times in most games to win a match though?
That's not the point. An effective attack would have killed off Brighton long before we started getting nervous in the last 10.
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We played well in patches, but weren't clinical enough. 3-1 up with 25mins to go and they would have collapsed.
Too slow with later subs. Unai seemed to be hanging on as long as he could when we needed fresh legs.
Konsa seemed surprised as to how quick Mitoma is.
Bailey was decent, but I'm not a fan; he takes too long to move the ball and seems to take the hard option.
Booby was class.
Ref was terrible.
PS why was their number 9 allowed 5mins of treatment on the pitch when it was clear it wasn't a life threatening injury?
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When strikers do not finish off team's hard work it puts extra pressure on defence, impacts confidence and generally leads to a compromised result. Attackers make 10x as many mistakes as defenders. Let's not oile it all on defence.
Do you think a team should have to score 3 times in most games to win a match though?
That's not the point. An effective attack would have killed off Brighton long before we started getting nervous in the last 10.
Didn’t the effective attack get us into the lead after the defence gifted them a goal? I’m not saying it’s purely the defence but 2 goals at home should be enough to win games. It isn’t, which means we have to score 3. The pressure is clearly created by the defence, for me.
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Apparently, 11 of the 19 teams have scored against us with their first shot on target too.
Fuck my boots, that's awful if true.
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Apparently, 11 of the 19 teams have scored against us with their first shot on target too.
Fuck my boots, that's awful if true.
It’s pathetic is what it is
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Or the defence that can't defend a simple long ball put pressure on the attack, which still did their job by putting us 2-1 up with 10 to go. Your attack scoring twice at home to a side that hadn't won in 6 isn't the failure.
Quite - and it’s not just the “defence”, although that first goal was entirely Konsa, it’s the whole defensive system.
I wouldn't say it's entirely Konsa, given he's only there in the first place because Diego Carlos is nowhere to be seen.
He was stuck in concrete somewhere near the half way line. Carlos can't turn and is a liability in that high defensive line as a result.
But Konsa has to deal with it anyway. Appalling from him. Hopeful punt over his head and we concede seconds later. Nowhere near good enough.
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Last year we win that by a goal, maybe two and we all come away saying its a routine win we didn't have to go through the gears for. This year we seem to concede with a very high percentage of the chances we give up and a well organised but limited opposition leave with a point. Again.
We also seem to look great attacking until we get to where it counts in the final third, then we run into traffic and out of ideas.
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It’s not an either or
Defence is rubbish
Attack is profligate
Not entirely, but it’s not 50/50 either. Our defensive play (as a team) is very clearly our main issue. We could be more clinical in attack, but if the defensive side was functioning even remotely competently our attacking output would be fine.
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In reality, it’s a team responsibility.
The attackers don’t put the chances away.
The midfielders don’t do a great job in protecting the defence
And the defence are prone to errors……regularly.
But why on earth our defenders are suddenly deciding it’s a great tactic to let the ball bounce in front of them though and waiting, is a new one that has crept into our game over the last few weeks.
That needs stamping out, right now.
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More than anything, I just think we’ve been really unlucky this season.
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In reality, it’s a team responsibility.
The attackers don’t put the chances away.
The midfielders don’t do a great job in protecting the defence
And the defence are prone to errors……regularly.
But why on earth our defenders are suddenly deciding it’s a great tactic to let the ball bounce in front of them though and waiting, is a new one that has crept into our game over the last few weeks.
That needs stamping out, right now.
The sloppiness at the back crept in last season, but didn't really cost us too much. It has continued into this season and has cost us on a number of occasions now.
I think it's probably more of a mindset and concentration issue than anything.
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we all knew that if it went into the last 15 mins at 2-1 our bottle jobs would cough up a goal and so it proved
another game where we should have scored 3/4 at least but we didn’t which is worrying because we concede 2 goals minimum in most games
We'll be fine if we can manage to score three goals between the gimmes we present to teams early and late on.
So just the little matter of 100+ goals scored over a 38 league game campaign to have a decent season, then. Piece of piss.
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More than anything, I just think we’ve been really unlucky this season.
In sport luck is normally very closely tied to confidence. When you're playing well 50/50s seem to fall for you but that flips when you're not quite right. As a squad we seem to be a little down on ourselves and it's creating all sorts of tiny problems that manifest as the sort of silly mistakes that have crept into our game. I'd say we're playing at about 95% right now but the 5% that's missing is killing us.
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Or the defence that can't defend a simple long ball put pressure on the attack, which still did their job by putting us 2-1 up with 10 to go. Your attack scoring twice at home to a side that hadn't won in 6 isn't the failure.
Quite - and it’s not just the “defence”, although that first goal was entirely Konsa, it’s the whole defensive system.
In your opinion.
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Could it be explained to our boys that" a ball over the top" means over the top of the opposition's defence and not over the top of their crossbar?
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I agree with the confidence/luck scenarios.
Watching Man City and their recent bad run of form, they were creating chances (Gvardiol header), in almost every game they lost, but that last 5% whether it’s luck or confidence was missing.
The same goes with teams on a good run, everything seems to just click, and confidence grows.
We are very Spursy at the moment, you never know if you are going to win a game even when we’re winning a game.
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We don't seem to win any games against the run of play and we quite often fail to win games that we dominate. That's not a good combination. More of a threat on the break would almost certainly help with the former, at least.
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We don't seem to win any games against the run of play and we quite often fail to win games that we dominate. That's not a good combination. More of a threat on the break would almost certainly help with the former, at least.
We won many of them last season and 2nd half of 2022/23 (think 2.0 at the Bridge when we had 4 good chances, they had 6 or 7). We still took the odd pasting but got more points.
This season not happening. We played really well in 3 CL games and well in another. In the league recently we have played well v Brentford and City. Not enough in 10 games.
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But I think we’ve lost something because of it. I’d therefore be tempted to throw Maatsen in for the next two or three games.
Yes, let's break the side that doesn't need fixing whilst we have huge problems in centre and RB positions. .
You’ve just picked out part of what I said. I acknowledged Digne has been one if our better players this season. My point about Maatsen in relation to Moreno and Ramsey in 2023, is that it was a distinct aspect of Unai’s tactics and balance of the side. Digne is excellent at what he does, but he doesnt attack in the same way Moreno did and Maatsen has done for other teams.
Doesnt mean we don’t have to look at other options on the right.
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Or the defence that can't defend a simple long ball put pressure on the attack, which still did their job by putting us 2-1 up with 10 to go. Your attack scoring twice at home to a side that hadn't won in 6 isn't the failure.
Quite - and it’s not just the “defence”, although that first goal was entirely Konsa, it’s the whole defensive system.
In your opinion.
Clearly, but it’s quite apparent too. Just watch some of play from first half of last season versus this. Many of the same players, but the cohesion just is not there.
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Just watch some of play from first half of last season versus this. Many of the same players, but the cohesion just is not there.
Equally we could compare second half of last season to first of this and you will find we have been better. So to make top 5 we need to get closer to our point per game retention in the first 19 games of last season. It's not an insurmountable task. We are actually in a great position to do so.
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Pleased to hear it didn't kick off big time last night, what with Brighton being a Category A game.
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Just watch some of play from first half of last season versus this. Many of the same players, but the cohesion just is not there.
Equally we could compare second half of last season to first of this and you will find we have been better. So to make top 5 we need to get closer to our point per game retention in the first 19 games of last season. It's not an insurmountable task. We are actually in a great position to do so.
Your right of course - but it just doesn’t feel like it’s going to click
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Just seen the first goal on the highlights reel. As has so often happened when Konsa has played at right back, he drifts naturally to the centre when retreating. And the manner in which Carlos jogs after the ball floating over his head is nothing short of a disgrace, he should be busting a lung to get back there
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It’s up there with the sort of goals my old Sunday side would let in.
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It’s up there with the sort of goals my old Sunday side would let in.
Was part of the confusion, they thought EMI was going to deal with it?
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Konsa throwing his arms around in rage - seemingly unaware of his own starring role in that cluster fuck.
And I agree, Carlos ambling back was fucking disgraceful.
I hope we move him on at the earliest opportunity. He is capable of playing very well but absolutely can not be trusted, or in any way relied on.
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It’s up there with the sort of goals my old Sunday side would let in.
Was part of the confusion, they thought EMI was going to deal with it?
I’m not sure if it was Emi’s to claim, surely it was Konsa who should have owned it?
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It’s up there with the sort of goals my old Sunday side would let in.
Was part of the confusion, they thought EMI was going to deal with it?
His starting position was too low again for a ball over the top. Far from the first time lately. But Konsa had more than enough time to deal with that situation. Watkins or Duran will have to perform like peak Ronaldo or Messi for the rest of the season to make up for goals being conceded in such a manner.
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Onana should have been on earlier, and I think we would have won the game, but it’s worth noting he did really poorly when he was on. Not sure what was going on but it was like his boots were on the wrong feet.
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More than anything, I just think we’ve been really unlucky this season.
In sport luck is normally very closely tied to confidence. When you're playing well 50/50s seem to fall for you but that flips when you're not quite right. As a squad we seem to be a little down on ourselves and it's creating all sorts of tiny problems that manifest as the sort of silly mistakes that have crept into our game. I'd say we're playing at about 95% right now but the 5% that's missing is killing us.
We haven't been right since the Bournemouth game imo.
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It’s up there with the sort of goals my old Sunday side would let in.
Was part of the confusion, they thought EMI was going to deal with it?
His starting position was too low again for a ball over the top. Far from the first time lately. But Konsa had more than enough time to deal with that situation. Watkins or Duran will have to perform like peak Ronaldo or Messi for the rest of the season to make up for goals being conceded in such a manner.
It looked like EMI was coming then ran backwards, the camera angle does not pick it up but , live it looked like what happened.
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It’s up there with the sort of goals my old Sunday side would let in.
Was part of the confusion, they thought EMI was going to deal with it?
His starting position was too low again for a ball over the top. Far from the first time lately. But Konsa had more than enough time to deal with that situation. Watkins or Duran will have to perform like peak Ronaldo or Messi for the rest of the season to make up for goals being conceded in such a manner.
It looked like EMI was coming then ran backwards, the camera angle does not pick it up but , live it looked like what happened.
He has been a lot more hesitant off the line of late. He used to play that sweeper keeper role to perfection. If we play a high defensive line with likes of Carlos and Torres who can't turn, then Martinez needs to be starting from the edge of his box.
None of that excuses Konsa in particular for that goal, nor the other two centre backs to a degree. But it just points to a lack of cohesion throughout the team .
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More than anything, I just think we’ve been really unlucky this season.
In sport luck is normally very closely tied to confidence. When you're playing well 50/50s seem to fall for you but that flips when you're not quite right. As a squad we seem to be a little down on ourselves and it's creating all sorts of tiny problems that manifest as the sort of silly mistakes that have crept into our game. I'd say we're playing at about 95% right now but the 5% that's missing is killing us.
We haven't been right since the Bournemouth game imo.
The rot set in from the Palace cup game onwards
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Could it be explained to our boys that" a ball over the top" means over the top of the opposition's defence and not over the top of their crossbar?
& that ‘Get behind the boys in claret & blue’ is not an instruction for the opposition.
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It’s up there with the sort of goals my old Sunday side would let in.
Was part of the confusion, they thought EMI was going to deal with it?
His starting position was too low again for a ball over the top. Far from the first time lately. But Konsa had more than enough time to deal with that situation. Watkins or Duran will have to perform like peak Ronaldo or Messi for the rest of the season to make up for goals being conceded in such a manner.
It looked like EMI was coming then ran backwards, the camera angle does not pick it up but , live it looked like what happened.
Thats exactly what happened.
He came out, then went back.
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Just seen the first goal on the highlights reel. As has so often happened when Konsa has played at right back, he drifts naturally to the centre when retreating. And the manner in which Carlos jogs after the ball floating over his head is nothing short of a disgrace, he should be busting a lung to get back there
It reminded me of the horrific goal we conceded at Leipzig. Almost exactly the same scenario.
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Watkins or Duran will have to perform like peak Ronaldo or Messi for the rest of the season to make up for goals being conceded in such a manner.
Not really, goals can be conceded through mistakes like that by any team. Watkins needs to do his job. He hasn't scored from open play since September.
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The rot set in from the Palace cup game onwards
Except that we had won 4 out 6 in all competitions before yesterday.
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It’s up there with the sort of goals my old Sunday side would let in.
Was part of the confusion, they thought EMI was going to deal with it?
His starting position was too low again for a ball over the top. Far from the first time lately. But Konsa had more than enough time to deal with that situation. Watkins or Duran will have to perform like peak Ronaldo or Messi for the rest of the season to make up for goals being conceded in such a manner.
It looked like EMI was coming then ran backwards, the camera angle does not pick it up but , live it looked like what happened.
He has been a lot more hesitant off the line of late. He used to play that sweeper keeper role to perfection. If we play a high defensive line with likes of Carlos and Torres who can't turn, then Martinez needs to be starting from the edge of his box.
None of that excuses Konsa in particular for that goal, nor the other two centre backs to a degree. But it just points to a lack of cohesion throughout the team .
Agree.
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There is next to zero leadership along that backline , none of them are vocal or organise . That's what Mings adds along with some much needed aerial dominance and physicality .
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Watkins or Duran will have to perform like peak Ronaldo or Messi for the rest of the season to make up for goals being conceded in such a manner.
Not really, goals can be conceded through mistakes like that by any team. Watkins needs to do his job. He hasn't scored from open play since September.
He scored from open play against Palace. In our last 10 league games we've conceded 2 or more in 7 of them. The attack isn't perfect but it's not the main reason we're struggling to win.
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No 1, no, No 0 priority in this window has to be a quality right back. And not just to cover for when Cash is unavailable, but to give him real competition for the place. If Ned and Lamarde are too raw right now to cover the position then we need someone who isn't because at the moment we are getting killed down our right
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I think Konsa overall has done ok when he's gone to right back but he was poor again Brighton. If you watch their first goal again, he doesn't even realise there is a player running in behind him until it's too late. Either give Ned a run or bring in decent cover for Cash.
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To be honest I’m not sure Emi’s been at his best for a little while. He makes a few sensational saves, which are remarkable, but he’s been quite hesitant and ponderous as well. Might be a symptom of the wider defensive malaise but it’s not helping.
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Onana should have been on earlier, and I think we would have won the game, but it’s worth noting he did really poorly when he was on. Not sure what was going on but it was like his boots were on the wrong feet.
I remarked on that to my mate, he looked like he'd never played before and was useless with and without the ball. Was he properly prepared to come on? It didnt look like it.
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Digne has been one of our better players this season, makes no sense dropping him for Maatsen who has looked very hit and miss .
If only Maatsen was like Luke young and could play as a RB
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To be honest I’m not sure Emi’s been at his best for a little while. He makes a few sensational saves, which are remarkable, but he’s been quite hesitant and ponderous as well. Might be a symptom of the wider defensive malaise but it’s not helping.
He has a hand injury that's being managed. So he's prob not doing much of the contact stuff in training.
Prob doesn't help when it comes to organisation and set up etc.
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View from Brighton fan and another away fan really complimentary on the ground.
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Or the defence that can't defend a simple long ball put pressure on the attack, which still did their job by putting us 2-1 up with 10 to go. Your attack scoring twice at home to a side that hadn't won in 6 isn't the failure.
Quite - and it’s not just the “defence”, although that first goal was entirely Konsa, it’s the whole defensive system.
It is the defence though. We scored 2 goals so the attack did its job and had the defence just done the basics we would have won. Time and time again this season we have gifted teams goals, we are easy to score against. The pressure on our attack is huge, because of our defence they have to score 2 goals to give us hope of getting a draw.
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Or the defence that can't defend a simple long ball put pressure on the attack, which still did their job by putting us 2-1 up with 10 to go. Your attack scoring twice at home to a side that hadn't won in 6 isn't the failure.
Quite - and it’s not just the “defence”, although that first goal was entirely Konsa, it’s the whole defensive system.
It is the defence though. We scored 2 goals so the attack did its job and had the defence just done the basics we would have won. Time and time again this season we have gifted teams goals, we are easy to score against. The pressure on our attack is huge, because of our defence they have to score 2 goals to give us hope of getting a draw.
Just to be clear I’m not saying it’s not the defence, I’m saying they’re failing as part of the wider defensive system.
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Or the defence that can't defend a simple long ball put pressure on the attack, which still did their job by putting us 2-1 up with 10 to go. Your attack scoring twice at home to a side that hadn't won in 6 isn't the failure.
Quite - and it’s not just the “defence”, although that first goal was entirely Konsa, it’s the whole defensive system.
It is the defence though. We scored 2 goals so the attack did its job and had the defence just done the basics we would have won. Time and time again this season we have gifted teams goals, we are easy to score against. The pressure on our attack is huge, because of our defence they have to score 2 goals to give us hope of getting a draw.
Just to be clear I’m not saying it’s not the defence, I’m saying they’re failing as part of the wider defensive system.
Indeed, there have been many chances gifted to the opposition from sloppy passing in very good positions.
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Or the defence that can't defend a simple long ball put pressure on the attack, which still did their job by putting us 2-1 up with 10 to go. Your attack scoring twice at home to a side that hadn't won in 6 isn't the failure.
Quite - and it’s not just the “defence”, although that first goal was entirely Konsa, it’s the whole defensive system.
It is the defence though. We scored 2 goals so the attack did its job and had the defence just done the basics we would have won. Time and time again this season we have gifted teams goals, we are easy to score against. The pressure on our attack is huge, because of our defence they have to score 2 goals to give us hope of getting a draw.
Just to be clear I’m not saying it’s not the defence, I’m saying they’re failing as part of the wider defensive system.
Indeed, there have been many chances gifted to the opposition from sloppy passing in very good positions.
I think this has been our biggest problem. The best defence in the world will struggle if they are caught out of position by teammates giving the ball away.