Unai Emery - our manager

[Clampy]

The subs may have come late but there wasnt a great deal to change. We carved them open quite a few times so you could argue it was best to stick with it. For me, there wasnt an obvious sub to make.

Buendia was having a shocker so should have been hooked for Coutinho. Cash for Young was also an obvious change just to get fresh legs in earlier.

Cash for Young, maybe but Buendia wasn't having a shocker either. Why be so melodromatic?

[brontebilly]

The subs may have come late but there wasnt a great deal to change. We carved them open quite a few times so you could argue it was best to stick with it. For me, there wasnt an obvious sub to make.

Buendia was having a shocker so should have been hooked for Coutinho. Cash for Young was also an obvious change just to get fresh legs in earlier.

Young had a good 2nd half. Coutinhio hasnt even had a good 5 minutes since last season

Agreed on Young but at same time, it's an obvious change after 70 mins or so to take off a 37 yr old. Cash by nature of his game would most likely have given us a lift. Agreed on Coutinho too but at same time Buendia wasn't going to be a loss the way he was playing. Making a triple sub at the 84th min was stable doors and horses stuff.

[Steve67]

Buendia had a poor game today.  Should have been taken off much earlier.  Nothing he tried came off.  One of those games.

[Steve67]

What was Emery's preferred formation with other clubs?  Was it 442?

[wittonwarrior]

Buendia had a poor game today.  Should have been taken off much earlier.  Nothing he tried came off.  One of those games.

He hangs onto the ball far too long.  I wish he didn't go down and fake injury so often

[Ad@m]

Buendia is much more effective down the middle than over on the left.

Whatever happens with Emery, it won't be dull.

In possession yesterday we had five up front. It obviously continued to how open we looked on the break but it also contributed to how many clear cut chances we had.

It sounds obvious but the difference yesterday was our shambolic defending and poor finishing. That game could've easily finished 3-0 to us on another day.

[john e]

Buendia had a poor game today.  Should have been taken off much earlier.  Nothing he tried came off.  One of those games.

I feel a bit weird reading the comments on here about Buendia because I thought he had a decent game
I know he gave the ball away, but for me, that’s because he was trying to be progressive and move the ball forward. Some of his passes were quite risky, but if they’d come off chances would be created and were last night from him.

Show me someone with 98% pass completion and I’ll show you a player who never takes a risk and plays the safe option all the time or Zinedine Zidane
Agree with his best position been through the middle though as others have said, he is definitely too slow to play wide

I just think there is a difference in losing the ball when trying to play a progressive ball forward and create danger and giving the ball away easily or sloppily when under no real pressure

I’ve not yet caught up with that game on the telly, so it might have come over differently and I might well have missed a lot of his mistakes, but I thought he was more influential than most last night
But in fairness I do seem to be in the minority reading the comments which is not unusual

[Ian.]

I’m with you John, I didn’t think he had a bad game at all. He was the most lively and productive player first half.

If anything first half we played half hearted as a team, it looked like we have had a month off, but we created decent chances, second half we looked far more awake and played much better as a team.

Another day we’d have scored some of those chances. We looked very vulnerable defending them, however they would have caused most teams problems. The best way to play them is to be as aggressive and attacking as you can with them as they can’t defend either.

[astonvilla82]

When teams press against us we are shit, but when we press against teams like yesterday we are shit at it, many times I could see their defence bring the ball out, especially when hitting over the top

[Nunkin1965]

If Martinez had played yesterday then we'd have beaten their press so much more than we did in the first half.

[tomd2103]

Buendia had a poor game today.  Should have been taken off much earlier.  Nothing he tried came off.  One of those games.

Was OK in the first half, but got progressively worse in the second and should have been hooked earlier.  It is probably due to the fact that we don't have any real wide options that he wasn't.

[gpbarr]

Buendia is much more effective down the middle than over on the left.

Whatever happens with Emery, it won't be dull.

In possession yesterday we had five up front. It obviously continued to how open we looked on the break but it also contributed to how many clear cut chances we had.

It sounds obvious but the difference yesterday was our shambolic defending and poor finishing. That game could've easily finished 3-0 to us on another day.

This is why I'm encouraged despite the defeat. There was clearly a good plan and it's a game of fine margins - I have no doubt that Emery will be asking the owners to fund major upgrades up front and particularly at center back, and we will start to see more consistent end product.

Spurs will not be easy either, but got a very strong feeling 2023 will be a good year for the Villa.

[andyh]

Buendia gives the ball away far too often. And it’s every game.
A top class number 10 doesn’t do that.

[OCD]

At half-time, I would have put Buendia through the middle and moved Bailey to the left.

[john e]

Managers seem to be obsessed with putting players like that in wide positions

Same with Grealish when we had him, he was shipped out to the left and he’s still there, but he is far better through the middle in a Luka Modrić type roll