Tottenham Hotspur v Aston Villa Post-Match Thread

[Muscle-Dolphin]

Beaten by a team with better players, more depth and class finishing.
Its great the likes of General K telling us we need to give the kids a chance but they don't cope with the pressure of such games.
Another good game for the 2 O'Neill caste offs, Petrov did very well in the first half, then faded but he wasn't on his own. Can't see the point of Carew any more, not that I thought he was much use anyway apart from scoring against poor sides.
Houllier must be desperate with the lack of alternatives in midfield and attack, but then if he'd had 150 mill to spend like some he might have.
Generally not a bad performance, worth a draw, pity its 3 points dropped and its 9 months before he can sign anyone seriously. I don't see the youth stepping up, Albrighton faded again, Bannan did little, Ireland doesn't fit and will soon get fed up.
Why he played Dunne I'm not sure, he couldn't cope with their front line, his concentration wandered too many times again.
Perhaps in the 2 weeks before Chelsea visit he will have sorted more out, I wish him luck, the depth of the problem left by the previous manager was exposed for all to see, today. All that money spent and few no options.

I really hope that you're wrong wrt Ireland.  We need his creativity.

[PaulWinch again]

On one positive we do seem able to move the ball round better already, so in time I think we'll play some really good football. However once again I cannot understand how Dunne turned up after pre season is such poor shape, but the fact he is still that fat is unbelievable.

[Muscle-Dolphin]

On one positive we do seem able to move the ball round better already, so in time I think we'll play some really good football. However once again I cannot understand how Dunne turned up after pre season is such poor shape, but the fact he is still that fat is unbelievable.

It's almost like he never recovered from our preseason trip to Ireland.  I think that Houllier needs to find a way for Ireland to get involved.

[Monty]

I fear we've missed our chance with the defeats to Stoke and Newcastle and the draw against Bolton. Our next few games in the league are Chelsea (H), Sunderland (A), Blues (H) and Fulham (A). No "should-wins" until Blackpool at home on the 10th of November. Looks like it could be a long October, folks.

[Olneythelonely]

Beaten by a team with better players, more depth and class finishing.
Its great the likes of General K telling us we need to give the kids a chance but they don't cope with the pressure of such games.

Good job we only used one kid for 80 minutes and another for 10 then isn't it. Although, Gareth Bale is the same age as both of them.

Different players bloom at different ages. It depends on the position as well, and Bale is electric quick and a left-winger, two attributes which help him stand out at an earlier age.

So you wouldn't have played Albrighton then?

[Shrek]

I fear we've missed our chance with the defeats to Stoke and Newcastle and the draw against Bolton. Our next few games in the league are Chelsea (H), Sunderland (A), Blues (H) and Fulham (A). No "should-wins" until Blackpool at home on the 10th of November. Looks like it could be a long October, folks.

We should win all of them bar Chelsea!

[Monty]

Good job we only used one kid for 80 minutes and another for 10 then isn't it. Although, Gareth Bale is the same age as both of them.

Different players bloom at different ages. It depends on the position as well, and Bale is electric quick and a left-winger, two attributes which help him stand out at an earlier age.

So you wouldn't have played Albrighton then?

When did I say that? I'm defending our young players! I think we should give them as much chance as they need because they're very promising. It's just that Bale is standing out at a younger age, which while true might be a bit misleading as to overall promise.

I fear we've missed our chance with the defeats to Stoke and Newcastle and the draw against Bolton. Our next few games in the league are Chelsea (H), Sunderland (A), Blues (H) and Fulham (A). No "should-wins" until Blackpool at home on the 10th of November. Looks like it could be a long October, folks.

We should win all of them bar Chelsea!

Sunderland are so tight at their own ground, Blues is a derby and derbies are rarely "should-wins" and Fulham look strong at home again, although without Hodgson it's too early to tell if they still have the same resilience.

[Toronto Villa]

why are so many people throwing in the towel? We got beaten by a good side. Good sides beat good sides all the time. Our challenge is how we react from defeat. If anyone thinks Houllier was going to magically make us into the finished article is dellusional. It's going to take time and a couple of transfer windows at least. Keep yourselves together. It's a long season where a lot will change.

[barrysleftfoot]

  I think we are being a bit over-critical of Dunne on here today.

  Both goals come from Crouch dropping off Collins' shoulder, and heading the ball back, and VDV reacted like the quality player he is.Not sure Cuellar would have reacted any quicker.

  One aspect where Dunne is vastly superior to Cuellar is his passing, and some of his passing out of defence today was very good.Personally, i think if Heskey, or Gabby would have been on the pitch today for 90 mins, i don't think we would have lost.

[curiousorange]

I just despair of the way our defence didn't learn from the two goals. It wasn't the only pair of times Spurs tried that tactic but they still managed to score twice from it. And it was obvious Hutton couldn't deal with any forward threat so why didn't we attack him more? Trying to get any joy from Assou-Ekotto is pointless because all he does is fall over and buy free-kicks.

Carew is bloody pointless, Heskey was great and it's galling to see that we can't get two strikers playing in tandem that actually want to play together at any time (I know Carew replaced Heskey but the point remains we don't have a strikeforce, we have a player in form at any one time). So now we're stuck with Carew, Ash and Delfouneso, who's had hardly any football in the last six months and hasn't shown many signs of being the player that can fill the gap anyway).

It's not a crisis to lose to a good team away from home but the lack of invention and motivation in the second half was frightening.

[mr-villa]

Watched the match at home via web feed, a simple failure to mark Crouch twice at the far post and prevent the header coming back across the box cost us that match.  Dunne asleep on Van Der Vart for the first and Petrov ball watching and losing Van Der Vart for the second.  I watched Spurs in the CL midweek and thats all they did in that game too, looked for Crouch on the back stick all game.  Anyone watching that CL game (and I assume either GH or Gary Mac were there) should have known that the way to stop Spurs was to cut out the ball to Crouch or prevent him heading the ball at the back stick, its not rocket science.  Apart from those two situations I thought we coped well with the Spurs threat in particular nullifying Bale very well.  We needed to hold the lead at half time and the result may have been different.  Heskey having to go off was a game changer also as Carew was nowhere near as effective and hence neither was Young.  We move on to Chelsea at home and lets hope to keep the home form going.  Keep the faith.

[sfx412]

Beaten by a team with better players, more depth and class finishing.
Its great the likes of General K telling us we need to give the kids a chance but they don't cope with the pressure of such games.

Good job we only used one kid for 80 minutes and another for 10 then isn't it. Although, Gareth Bale is the same age as both of them.

Yes Bale is some player, but I'm surprised you hadn't realised he plays for Spurs not us and it was our youth I was talking about.

[ronshirt]

I think if Mon had never been our manager we'd have got a point today.

If he'd never even have existed we'd have got three points at least.

[Risso]

why are so many people throwing in the towel? We got beaten by a good side. Good sides beat good sides all the time. Our challenge is how we react from defeat. If anyone thinks Houllier was going to magically make us into the finished article is dellusional. It's going to take time and a couple of transfer windows at least. Keep yourselves together. It's a long season where a lot will change.

Why drop  Cuellar for Dunne though.  That was a stroke of absolute madness.

[NorthYvillan]

why are so many people throwing in the towel? We got beaten by a good side. Good sides beat good sides all the time. Our challenge is how we react from defeat. If anyone thinks Houllier was going to magically make us into the finished article is dellusional. It's going to take time and a couple of transfer windows at least. Keep yourselves together. It's a long season where a lot will change.

Bang on mate!!