Tottenham Hotspur v Aston Villa Post-Match Thread

[usav]

I've seen far worse in my time, but struggle to think of too many games where from the second we put in the team sheet we seemed to have made little effort to win the game.

Well, he made a tactical move that you could say didn't work because we lost, or you could just say we lost because we are not as good as them.    I don't think it was a negative formation.   When the teamsheet came out a lot of people suspected 5-3-2 (including Redknapp) - it wasn't - and in fairness to Hutton he was pretty advanced up the pitch  in his right-side role.

However, I would have preferred we go there and give it a real good go.   I have nothing against Heskey, but that role is not right for him, most people can see that.   Zog should have played and although Jenas couldn't play last night, he should definitely feature in the next game.

[JUAN PABLO]

Just been driving home , my mate had TS on .   The amount of people saying that is the worse Villa side they have ever seen .     thank you Randy   

[D.boy]

To set the side up to go out and defend from the off is all well and good but not when you have Laurel and Hardy and the Chuckle Brothers in defence and a midfield of Lenny Henry and Tim Vine.

[Rancid custard]

as soon as I saw the line up my heart sank, we were crying out for a link between defence and attack, would Hutton and Heskey on the wings be an outlet for that... That was one of the most gutless selections I think I've ever seen, defend for 90 minutes and hope to nick a goal, I think not.

[Broughty-Villian]

that display reminded me of why I was against AM being appointed as manager:

Aston Villa 5 - 1 Bloose. An abject display from his team, in a local derby and a game they had to win to stand any chance of staying up.

[barrysleftfoot]

  I think taking everything into account, yes it was the worst performance i have ever witnessed.

  We have Englands C/F in our team at the moment, another potential England striker in the team, Eires CH and Goalie, Scotlands FB, and Englands back up FB.The supposed quality of our players now is far advanced on the quality of player under McN, and Turner for example.Gabby is a far better player than Penrice, as is Hutton over Comyn.I expected more yday, i did'nt expect much in the late 80s, as paulie said it was gutless, and that combined with the quality of player we have is why ydaya was the worst.

[Nastylee]

  I think taking everything into account, yes it was the worst performance i have ever witnessed.

Worse than our trip to Anfield last season?

[SoccerHQ]

For giving up the game before it's even been played, last night dosen't come anywhere near Man. City away last season imo.

Made worse by Houllier pretty much admitting it afterwards.

[Compass]

  I think taking everything into account, yes it was the worst performance i have ever witnessed.

Worse than our trip to Anfield last season?

Absolutely. If you remember correctly we had quite a few injured players. Liverpool weren't as dominated as Spurs last night as well. I think the problem with that match was more to do with Houllier's infamous antics, which I though everyone overreacted. GT waved to us when he was managing another team so I didn't see the problem Houllier doing the same for Liverpool.

Oh, and has anyone seen McLeish's recent press interview? He blames the players for their defensive mistakes. Nothing about how they were set up. Nothing about how we never had a chance. Nope, he basically blamed them and won't own up that he is in fact just rubbish. But no doubt he'll still keep picking the same players who make the mistakes because he spouts alot of BS.

[john e]

  I have to say, after watching Villa for 40 years that was the most pathetic  Villa display i have ever had the misfortune to witness.

Seriously? I wouldn't put it anywhere near the top twenty.

i accept that you would have seen far more Villa games than me, but i think it does make my top 20, just because it had everything we all warned against before he came and more,

i mean come on Dave,   Hutton and Heskey in a midfield role, its just unbelievable really, like you i've seen some crap down the years but that last night was right up there with the worst of it for me

[Boz]

We're 4 points off 17th place and 7 points to next team above us with a series of games coming up, most of which we will lose if we continue like last night.

I thought four weeks ago we'd be floating above the relegation zone and it's looking like it, our main hope is there are three teams worse than us, but I suspect at least one of them will have more fight than the Villa.

The way we're set up, Bent will want to be away, as he sees his England squad place being threatened and who could blame him. AM has until Christmas I reckon, and if we are in the bottom three or just above it, Randy will have him out the door I hope. I just couldn't believe they gave him a long contract. They should have offered him a rolling one year at a fair wage with bonuses based on league position, but once again they will have to pay significant money to get rid of him and his sidekicks. Randy or whoever advises him couldn't run a teashop never mind a multi million pound football club.

[gervilla]

Paid out to O'Neill.
Paid out to Houllier.
Paid out to blues to get AM in.
Randy aint gonna pay out again so AM won't be sacked.
We are stuck with him .

[Flamingo Lane]

It was truly abject.  Though, by way of perspective, we have not a single player who would make the Spurs best starting XI and probably only two who would be good enough to warm their bench.  And I don't think that can be laid at our present manager's door.

[Villanation]

It was truly abject.  Though, by way of perspective, we have not a single player who would make the Spurs best starting XI and probably only two who would be good enough to warm their bench.  And I don't think that can be laid at our present manager's door.

I couldn't agree with that, we have players that could step up a level and respond to that challenge, convinced of that, I would consider Bent would challenge for a place in the current Spurs side, convinced Gabby could, Bannan is already on the hit list  of some top clubs, Given is now proving himself fit which was his only drawback which would put him in contention for most sides again.

Problem is our better players like Bent have gone to sleep, playing as we are the man gets no service and if he takes 1 in 3 to convert that pretty much means he's hardly ever going to get of the mark for Villa, Gabby is being stifled slowly but surely, yes he's started the season well and he's scored some decent goals and he's trying but can you imagine a Gabriel Agbonlahor fronting a team like the spuds or playing with players like Bale that can actually pass a ball and get it to the player its meant for, playing for a side that want to get forward with pace.

Fact is we have a manager that hasn't a clue, you could have made the excuse with what he had to work with at Blues, that can't be made at Villa, we are churning out the same kind of results as Blues did last year because we are playing the same way.

[caster troy]

We need an inspirational manager who our average players and promising youngsters will run through brick walls for, not Mcleish who just tells them to hide behind the wall.