Pau Torres

[SoccerHQ]

Shocking for the goal. Just soiled himself when he saw Outtara was right there and dived in to try and get it back to Emi, couldn't so basically gave the CF a clear run at goal.

Pau was important to us the first season but is becoming more of a liability every week. I'd try and move him on in the January window.

[Somniloquism]

On slow-mo Mings was standing just in our half pointing and appearing to shout to Torres to drop back into our half. When the ball was launched from the keeper, the one who ran forward to knock it on was straddling the halfway line but was onside due to Mings being inside our half from where he was shouting to drop back but didn't step forward. If Torres has dropped back he might have still had the half yard to actually get the ball to Cash or back to the keeper, if Mings had stepped forward the attacker might have just been offside as although the attackers feet was in the half, his body and head seemed to be over the line by an inch or so.

After that Mings took himself out of the game by striding forward when he was getting no where near the header and Torres made a good covering run but had lack of actual pace and no trust in his right foot to get the ball when he did his dive in but went with his left which just continued it in the strikers path. Both of them dropped serious bollocks for the goal.

[PaulWinch again]

Yup, I’m not for drawing big conclusions on individual players from the first two games for the reasons I’ve mentioned on other threads. But if I were drawing a conclusion about the centre-halves from yesterday it wouldn’t be either/or, it’d be neither are good enough.

[SoccerHQ]

Yup, I’m not for drawing big conclusions on individual players from the first two games for the reasons I’ve mentioned on other threads. But if I were drawing a conclusion about the centre-halves from yesterday it wouldn’t be either/or, it’d be neither are good enough.

Mings is fine next to Konsa, I thought he was solid v Newcastle and had some good games last year which was not a given after being out for 18 months with career threatening injury.

Should he be starting every week? Probably not but you can probably say that for half the team currently.

So keep Mings as cover and starter against physical CFs and sell Pau at some point in next 12 months to get in a younger and more athletic LCB.

Ozcan was supposed to be that type but we've already loaned him out to Anderlecht with a possible option to buy.

[Monty]

I just find it a bit interesting that we get suckered by a ball over the top in exactly the same moment we've become a team incapable of scoring. Not defending the defenders yesterday, but we don't press up front, we have no structure in midfield, we don't make teams afraid and pinned back, and we let the ball bounce in the middle of the pitch as a matter of course.

The defence has an issue, but the issue comes from everywhere. We've fundamentally set something up wrong.

[VillaTim]

Mings is solid with Konsa as the stats prove.
Torres is just an absolute liability soft "defender" strikers must love playing against him .
I too would shift him on in Jan if we can't move him this week .

[john e]

Mings is solid with Konsa as the stats prove.
Torres is just an absolute liability soft "defender" strikers must love playing against him .
I too would shift him on in Jan if we can't move him this week .

Would you Tim, really
You never mentioned it

[VillaTim]

To be fair Torres was only playing because Konsa was out , I think Emery has started to realise the problem , and yesterday will have further cemented that in his mind .

[john e]

To be fair Torres was only playing because Konsa was out , I think Emery has started to realise the problem , and yesterday will have further cemented that in his mind .

Konsa was out for doing exactly the same thing as Torres did yesterday, losing his man and not being fast enough to catch him up, both were at fault terrible defending

[PeterWithesShin]

For all it feels we're dodgy defensively in our last 6 league games we've kept 4 clean sheets and conceded 3. The bigger issue is we've lost our mojo going forward. We look quite a dull side in possession.

[Olneythelonely]

To be fair Torres was only playing because Konsa was out , I think Emery has started to realise the problem , and yesterday will have further cemented that in his mind .

Konsa was out for doing exactly the same thing as Torres did yesterday, losing his man and not being fast enough to catch him up, both were at fault terrible defending

There’s no way Tim has the mental capacity to understand that.

[RamboandBruno]

Mings is solid with Konsa as the stats prove.
Torres is just an absolute liability soft "defender" strikers must love playing against him .
I too would shift him on in Jan if we can't move him this week .

I wish we could move you on.

[VillaTim]

Diffrerence being of cause, Konsa had the pace to catch Gordon whereas Torres wasn't at the races

[eamonn]

Yeah, let's sell him at the bottom of his value at the last minute for no profit and no time to replace him when we're already one or two defenders short.

Sure but if was at the top of his value, there'd be no need to sell!

He should not be getting bullied after 3 pre-seasons at Villa. Ample time to learn the nous of the game here and to bulk-up if necessary, fuelled by his Sunday afternoon paellas on Instagram with Rick Stein.

[RamboandBruno]

Diffrerence being of cause, Konsa had the pace to catch Gordon whereas Torres wasn't at the races

He didnt catch him, he grabbed his shoulder from behind and pulled him back. I think I am entering a parallel dimension here.