Tottenham Hotspur v Aston Villa Post-Match Thread

[midnite]

There's a frustration for me in that AM keeps making comments like he won't tolerate certain performances. And his comments last night about not retaining the ball and calamity defending... He can't say much else can he? The stats say it all.

But after all that, he still goes and picks the same bunch of over paid and underwhelming players that have done nothing to justify their constant team selection when by the looks of it we have some really talented youngsters. Show the seniors that no one is bigger than the club, no one is above not being dropped when the performances are below par.

"A bad day at the office"? I don't think so. It is too consistent to be that. If that was a bunch of staff on the real world, they'd of been performance managed out or made redundant and long time ago. 

[TimTheVillain]

"We started well in both halves - we went right at Spurs and had a couple of chances," said boss Alex McLeish.

Christ Alex, just say we were rubbish and we'll at least respect the fact that you saw how wrong last night was.

[OzVilla]

turning points -

MON - Signing of Harewood

Houllier - Liverpool love in

A Mcliesh - Away at Spurs

we saw the future of football under AM last night, i've been hoping with better players that he had at Blues he might be a bit more positive, but it was all blown away for me last night

 that was the nightmare sinario all in one match, i  cant even be bothered to call for his head as i know it would be totaly futile.

MON's turning point was the signing of Heskey.  The most damaging individual signing to the balance of a Villa side since Tony Cascarino.

Agree with everything else though.

[Chico Hamilton III]

Absolute fucking rubbish last night. Took a non-Villa supporting mate to the match and he didn't realise Bent was on the pitch until the second half.

I honestly thought we'd lose 5 or 6 nil

[Risso]

I'm as dismayed as everyone, but the anger on here seems to be in regards to the performance/team selection and not the result, so it's hardly the usual H&V over-reaction at a loss.

To me, the Hutton thing just sent the wrong message out to both our team and theirs.  It said "Spurs will attack and we'll be defending", so is it any surprise that's what happened?  The annoying thing is that this was a measure to negate Bale, yet VDV is their main threat, so if we're going to play a defender in midfield then why not Clark?

The manager got it tactically wrong, as he did against WBA, so lets hope for a similar response that what we saw after that at Sunderland and home to Norwich.

Spot on John.  I can accept being beaten, and in fact expected as much away at Spurs.  The team selection and the actual performance spoke volumes though.

[OzVilla]

There's a frustration for me in that AM keeps making comments like he won't tolerate certain performances. And his comments last night about not retaining the ball and calamity defending... He can't say much else can he? The stats say it all.

But after all that, he still goes and picks the same bunch of over paid and underwhelming players that have done nothing to justify their constant team selection when by the looks of it we have some really talented youngsters. Show the seniors that no one is bigger than the club, no one is above not being dropped when the performances are below par.

"A bad day at the office"? I don't think so. It is too consistent to be that. If that was a bunch of staff on the real world, they'd of been performance managed out or made redundant and long time ago. 

Far be it from me to concoct some Ellis style interference story from RL but this was a problem that MON and GH suffered from too. 

Maybe RL has briefed him, look we spent XXX on such and such so let's see him on the Park (Beye accepted) - either that or we've just had 3 monumentaly blinkered and stubborn Managers.

[Greg N'Ash]

i think he's come to the same conclusion that Houllier did - the squad is not good enough to compete at places like spurs so lets not get beaten out of sight. Not much of a gameplan i grant you, but really the guys on bench don't fill you with optimism and have been slagged off on here to high heaven when they've started. Even without the daft team selection most of us thought we'd get beat heavily beforehand. you can't expect to asset strip the squad for 12 months and expect much better really

[ktvillan]

McLeish reverted to type, his intention was clearly damage limitation, mostly by sticking two on Bale, which failed miserably.  I think he found the white flag Houllier used at Man City in the Cup and Anfield last season. To me it's a sure sign of a poor manager when he sends a team out not to lose rather than to try to win.  It hardly ever works, so you may as well just have a good go.   Much as I despise MON, I can only think of a couple of occasions (the boxing day defeat at Arsenal and the 0-5 at Liverpool) where the team looked like it had no fight, desire or belief. 

Our starting midfield four consisted of a non-scoring centre forward, a youngster who started out as a defender (Centre back?), a right back who makes a headless chicken look like Einstein,  and Petrov who rarely passes fowards.  I'm surprised we managed even one shot on target.  From Young and Downing on the flanks to Heskey and Hutton.  Bent must be wondering why he bothers.

I'm afraid Collins is showing that he is not a good enough CB.  His positioning is awful and he loses his man so often it's embarrassing.

McLeish, you will be forgiven for much if you at least have a go.  Otherwise fuck off.

[midnite]

You might be right OzVilla. I wonder if it's the same with Capello at times with always insisting on lampard and Gerard.

But surely the fact we do have players like baye on such high wages and can't come close to the squad shows it's not Lerner or Faulkner sticking their noses in. I think more so with MON he was blinkered and stubborn. In AM I just don't think he has the bottle or the awareness to know what to do.

[garyshawsknee]

"We started well in both halves - we went right at Spurs and had a couple of chances," said boss Alex McLeish.

Christ Alex, just say we were rubbish and we'll at least respect the fact that you saw how wrong last night was.

Did he actually say that? What about Tottenhams 12 chances in-between Alex ?

[andyh]

Mind, Redknapp made me laugh claiming they could win the league after playing us. Obviously still being wheened off the painkillers

I'd rather hear my manager talking up the team and telling everyone how proud and excited he is by them, rather than the piss poor pile of shite we have to deal with.

[Greg N'Ash]

Mind, Redknapp made me laugh claiming they could win the league after playing us. Obviously still being wheened off the painkillers

I'd rather hear my manager talking up the team and telling everyone how proud and excited he is by them, rather than the piss poor pile of shite we have to deal with.

Yeah but it looks more sensible when you've beaten someone half decent. Like AM predicting CL qualification after we'd beaten Wigan

[pav]

Would anyone take houllier back , at least better standard of football.

[pav]

Would anyone take houllier back , at least better standard of football.

or should I say "style of football "

[Risso]

Would anyone take houllier back , at least better standard of football.

No.  There's nothing much to choose between Houllier and McLeish when it comes to being crap.  And I don't agree that the style of play was better under Houllier.  He was just lucky to at least have Young and Downing in the side.