Pau Torres

[Somniloquism]

Defence has been a hell of a lot better this season so far. Initially it was put down to only playing ''weaker'' teams but we've played Tottenham and Man City back to back and kept clean sheets. Emery's defensive tightening is paying dividends and now we just need to be a little more expansive going forwards.

Might want to check that again, although not so much on Pau for the goal we did concede. It could be worse, someone was blaming Martinez the other day.

[rob_bridge]

Excellent today. We’re so much better now he’s back to his best. Also dispels the stuff that he can’t defend.

Those criticisms last season really irritated me given how exceptional we were with him at the back the previous year.

To be fair it was about 90% dim tim.

Has Tim gone? I lose track.

[London Villan]

They just gave him so much time to play today too.

[aj2k77]

Defence has been a hell of a lot better this season so far. Initially it was put down to only playing ''weaker'' teams but we've played Tottenham and Man City back to back and kept clean sheets. Emery's defensive tightening is paying dividends and now we just need to be a little more expansive going forwards.

Might want to check that again, although not so much on Pau for the goal we did concede. It could be worse, someone was blaming Martinez the other day.

It was scored too early to count.

[PaulWinch again]

He is playing like he did in his first season here - he does that and he’s one of the best around.

[Steve67]

Great clearance, had a great game next to Konsa today.  Keep it up!

[itbrvilla]

He is playing like he did in his first season here - he does that and he’s one of the best around.

I wonder if he was carrying a knock last season as he looked off it for most of it.

[Clampy]

There was a passage of play yesterday in the first half where the ball came to him in the box and he was suddenly under pressure from a couple of their players but instead of booting the ball away like some players would have, he managed a first time pass to one of our players and set up another attack. It was superb

[john e]

The defensive relationship between Pau and Konsa seems to be solid and they seem to be getting the best out of each other
Pau is more solid in defending and his passing through the lines is absolutely key to us
But also Konsa is having a great season seems more progressive and composed on the ball and I can’t help feel he’s feeding of Toress for that

I’ve probably been Konsa’s biggest critic on here but I reckon he’s been our player of the season so far

[chrisw1]

I'm sure I know exactly the passage of play you are describing Clampy.  To pick that pass out when under so much pressure was incredible.  He was fantastic yesterday.

edit - the one I am thinking of is at 26 seconds on this video.  Looks like he has to just hoof it, but checks himself and plays a slide rule pass.

https://x.com/astonvilla___/status/1982616151583858924

As an aside, Konsa is superb too.

[Monty]

One problem is to treat the stuff he does with the ball as a kind of nice optional extra, rather than the foundation of our entire style in attack and in defence. A guy who passes as well as he does changes the way teams shape up to attack you, which changes how you defend, usually into something he's better at than he is at one-v-ones with Mateta - namely, anyone else noticed how since he's come back our offside trap works again?

Subtle game this, sometimes, small things can have big repercussions on the rest of the game.

[OCD]

Not sure where the right place is to put this but some of our close play, particularly playing out from the back, under pressure against a Guardiola team's high press was sublime.

[AV82EC]

Not sure where the right place is to put this but some of our close play, particularly playing out from the back, under pressure against a Guardiola team's high press was sublime.

Wasn’t it just I couldn’t believe how calm and composed we looked. Hopefully we can do the same against the next 3 teams we play who all do that.

[Rudy Can't Fail]

The defensive relationship between Pau and Konsa seems to be solid and they seem to be getting the best out of each other
Pau is more solid in defending and his passing through the lines is absolutely key to us
But also Konsa is having a great season seems more progressive and composed on the ball and I can’t help feel he’s feeding of Toress for that

I’ve probably been Konsa’s biggest critic on here but I reckon he’s been our player of the season so far

If you ignore McGinn then no contest. Majestic yesterday which goes to show he's still improving. Let that be his new benchmark.