Spurs 3 Aston Villa 1 post match thread.

[West Derby Villan]

Football is all about opinions. The ex pros summerising for SKY last night were very positive in their opinion of how Villa played and optimistic about our chances this season. The journalists  on The Sunday Supplement this morning were critical of us and felt we were very negative in our play and based on what they saw didn't think we would have a good season.

Saw that , comparing us with Norwich , but the difference was Norwich probably went for it being 4 0 down where we were 1 0 up , If norwich had been 1 0 up , of course they would have had 11 men behind the ball.       But blimey away from home against the chump league finalist with one player costing half of our 13 players we brought in , give us a break and theres only another 2 teams as good as Spurzzz

3-0 up and it might have been a different game .

That Neil Custis on Sunday Supplement is a bit of a git, he very rarely has a good thing to say about us (he's the sun journalist and a fan of Steve Bruce which explains it all)

[garyshawsknee]

Custis is a dour sod, always criticises, would take his opinion very lightly.

[Monty]

Not to mention that SJM after the game said that they sat back too much under the pressure. They didn't want to play like that, just sometimes games get out of your control - and s first game back in the top flight, with a team still gelling, away at one of the next and most relentless sides on earth is an acceptable game to get out of your control.

[Steve67]

We couldn't have picked a much harder game to make our comeback to the Premier League.  Spurs were very good and we will have to learn from the mistakes we made.  At least Dean was completely honest with his assessment of our performance and of Tottenham being the better side.  We live and learn and for the first time in many years, we have a management team who will analyse and correct the flaws in our game.  There were weak links yesterday and I expect him to deal with those too, when they review the game with the players. One game does not define our season and the journo's on the Sunday Supplement also have not a clue as to how things will pan out.  According to the table today, Chelsea will get relegated and Brighton are set for the Champions League. Go figure!

[brontebilly]

Haven't done a scores thing for a while, so here's mine:

Heaton - 8 - Organised things well, some very good saves and nothing much he could do for their goals.
Elmohamady - 6 - harsh introduction to life back in the top flight with an instant give away, but recovered after that.
Engels - 9 - one of the best debuts I've seen. Commanding, good relationship with Mings and Heaton, extremely promising
Mings - 9 - my Villa MOTM by a whisker - put his body on the line, and every other part as well - imperious.
Taylor - 7 - best defensive display from him in a while
Hourihane - 5 - the sort of display I expected from him, just didn't add very much at all in any area, and even his dead balls were poor
McGinn - 6.5 - good goal and a couple of nice passes, but then was overrun with the rest of them
Grealish - 5.5 - one nice run and good ball, but looked poor second half and bad mistake for their goal.
Trezeguet - 7 - most promising of the attacking players but needs to take his chances
El Ghazi - 5 - looked out of his depth and didn't track back nearly enough
Wesley - 5.5 - difficult introduction to the Premier League.  Put himself about a bit though, although looked a bit sulky at times.  Liked how he held one of their defenders off for the goal and another chance though.

Subs

Jota - 3 - difficult entry and not the sub I'd have made, but looked completely and utterly out of his depth.  Hardly touched the ball and when he did, gave it away mainly
Kodjia - 4 - minimal impact when he came on
Luiz - 6 - added energy and bite to the midfield, but too little too late, should have come on when Jota did and we may have held out.

Did Smith confirm afterwards why neither of our new full backs played yesterday? Elmo and Taylor have proven with other clubs that they aren't up to this level. Both were defensively ok yesterday but I can't help feeling that part of our problem with ball retention stemmed from our full back positions.

Think you are being kind with the Jota and Kodjia ratings. Woeful the pair of them. We really should have got rid of JK this summer.

[OCD]

Some of the analysis seems to forget that we were holding them until Eriksson was introduced. We were hugely under pressure but we had been keeping them at bay until then. Eriksson was able to dictate the play better and move us around more and get in. They also had some luck go their way, which can happen when you have as much of the ball as they did. On another day Mings blocks their first one, Jack doesn't give the ball away that deep and there's not pinball between the 2 centre backs.

This was always the hardest of our first few games. Now it's out of the way we can get on with our coaches correcting mistakes and getting players settled. Douglas Luiz for instance must have only had a few training sessions and will presumably be a major player for us.

[Ads]

Norwich should have been 7 down at half time. They looked absolute village at the back and Liverpool weren't out of 2nd gear.

[Dogtanian]

Proud of the lads today.  Not perfect, lessons to be learned, but then if any of these players were perfect then we'd have had to spent £1bn to get them all, so lets accept there's a learning curve and look forward to welcoming them onto the pitch at Villa Park next weekend.

I always remember what Graham Taylor used to say.  You can play as well as you like against the top teams, but you don't play them every week, it's the lesser sides and the teams around you that you have to beat if you want to get anywhere.  That's still true.  We can lose to all the 'big' six this season, but if we beat the likes of Newcastle, Bournemouth, Brighton, Norwich, Sheffield, Burnley, Southampton, etc. then we will be fine this season.

[Legion]

Rich, not necessarily big.

[john e]

Rich, not necessarily big.

Yeah but we’re rich now

[Keeno]

There's a lot of worrying about Jack giving the ball away late on, or about our physical deficit compared to them in general - but let's not forget that this Spurs side might just be the fittest, best pressing side in the world. In our first game in the Premier League, to hold them off and nearly get something from the game, looking quite good in the process? That's very positive. Let's wait to judge this side after ten games.

Totally agree with this. As Klopp has moved Liverpool away from the hard press slightly in recent years, Spurs are now the best bar none at it. That's one of the top 3 hardest games we'll play all season - and we did well. Onwards.

[PaulWinch again]

Custis is a dour sod, always criticises, would take his opinion very lightly.

Is he the one who is basically in love with Mourinho? He’s bloody dreadful.

[West Derby Villan]

Custis is a dour sod, always criticises, would take his opinion very lightly.

Is he the one who is basically in love with Mourinho? He’s bloody dreadful.

Oh yeah, in a creepy way

[Pat McMahon]

Custis is a dour sod, always criticises, would take his opinion very lightly.

Is he the one who is basically in love with Mourinho? He’s bloody dreadful.

Oh yeah, in a creepy way

IIRC he has a brother who is also a journo - Shaun Curtis?

Years ago one of the brothers had the temerity to ask a question of Ferguson at a press conference. Fergie piped up  “What are you doing here, you’re banned”, to which he replied, “No, not me, that’s my brother” (Neil / Shaun ). Fergie then piped up with “You’re banned too. There are too many effing Custis in this world”

[tomd2103]

I'm hoping the spine of Heaton, Engels, Mings, Douglas, Grealish and McGinn can really develop over the next few weeks, as I feel that will be an important core for us going forward.