Aston Villa vs Spurs post match embarrassment

[Clampy]

Did he go defensive or did he do it so Torres plays like a sweeper knowing they didn't have an out and out striker? Saying playing a back five was defensive is lazy?

[Brazilian Villain]

Just a little issue of WHU away on 17th as well. McGinn misses WH, Wolves and Man City games and will not return till mid April.

Hmm, suspended for our game on March 17th. Coincidence, given his fondness for Dublin trips? I think not!

[Beard82]

A few thoughts, for what they're worth

• Firstly hugely disappointing result
• I think we do need to check ourselves slightly, we have a lot of injuries and I think someone like Mings would have helped massively and maybe given us more options.  I also think we have missed Emi's energy and tenacity.  Particularly given his cover in Zanillio has been awful.   Diaby and tielemans also seem to have failed the bar of being better than what we had already.  Tielemans was a free and I can see the quality in Dibay but I just don't know if hes up to this league
• It sounds like Unai got it wrong today - but he doesn't have many options, compared to Spurs who seem to have recovered from their injury problems.  I am assuming this is the result of Sky and the Media combined praying for them
• McGinn dropped a massive bollock by getting sent off - combined with Ramseys and Kamara's injuries were now super light in midfield and that's going to hurt us
• A lot still to play for, both us and Spurs have some difficult games coming up, and there will be more twists and turns.  5th may also get us into Champions League
• I fucking hate spurs

[Flamingo Lane]

People have said Watkins looked tired, though it looked to me that he was struggling under the  impact of that early challenge on him, which looked serious at the time.

[Small Rodent]

I’m worried that we are flat track bullies at the moment with a couple of statistical outlier games vs top opposition.

Considering squad and injuries that’s not too bad a thing.

Man Utd got 4th last year being the same but without the injuries.

Onwards we go.

[LeonW]

The way we set up I can see the logic too and it worked in the first half with Spurs creating absolutely nothing and us getting some transitional moments and set pieces that we didn’t make the most of. But it was a risky set up in that if spurs scored first, it was going to be very difficult for us to turn it round as we’d be playing directly into their hands. It looked as though we were ultimately happy for a draw with the starting line up, which to be honest, i’d have taken before the game. But the manner of the collapse and lack of discipline was very alarming and quite honestly will only fuel feelings of imposter syndrome. Spurs were 5 points behind us before this game. We shouldn’t be losing 4-0 at home to them. Completely unacceptable. It also shows a psychological weakness which has been something of a concern for me. The 3 home games against Newcastle, Man Utd and now Spurs were all games i’d consider pressure games. And we’ve lost all 3 and in the case of Newcastle and Spurs, appallingly. We’ve over achieved this season and it would a major achievement to get champions league football. But unfortunately, I can see Villa being Villa again. It’s the bloody hope that kills you.

[PaulWinch again]

I’m worried that we are flat track bullies at the moment with a couple of statistical outlier games vs top opposition.

Considering squad and injuries that’s not too bad a thing.

Man Utd got 4th last year being the same but without the injuries.

Onwards we go.

We look like that at the minute, but even against the weak sides we have horrendous dips in performance. We nearly let a 3 goal lead slip against Forest and we nearly failed to win after being 2-0 up against Luton. Now we showed some quality to dig ourselves out of those, but the ease at which we concede goals is a real problem. It means we really have an easy day at the office and that takes it out of us. The defensive play needs to be much better.

[Demitri_C]

I dont think it worked at all first half unless your aiming for a point.  What kind of gameplan is it to not have any shots or look like you are not really that interested in having a go at their back four.

Spurs are at thwir worst when you press them and put pressure on their back four.  Yet for some bizarre reason unai decided not to play that way and instead let spurs play whoch is the worst thing you can do.

Sorry unai but that was abysmal tactics today

[BC Villain]

I'm baffled at our habit of starting the second half of games like we've curled up in tbe corner of the dressing room and had a kip for 15 minutes.

We gotta away with it against Forest and (just) against Luton.

[Meanwood Villa]

A few thoughts, for what they're worth

• I fucking hate spurs

A lot of good points Beard82 but this, this is the one.

[RamboandBruno]

Two full seasons for a £50m player? Jesus, I hope not.

Bailey might not of cost as much, but is a prime example of the need for patience. As is Luiz to a lesser extent, McGinn has been written off wtc etc.

Bailey came into a relegation threatened team and played for Smith and Gerrard. We’ll never achieve anything if we always have to wait two years for a player to come good.

I don’t remember Bailey raising his game to the same level as most other players under Unai last year.
But I think your right lets write Diaby off.

[Bent Neilsens Screamer]

I’m sorry but it was disappointing to see us turning towards Zaniolo to get us back in the game. It would have been better sticking Duran up top with Watkins and putting Diaby or Bailey on the left. Zaniolo offers very little.

I don’t think the 3 at the back sends the right signals out but can see he was trying to match up with their attackers. Only problem with this is that it can turn into 5 at the back which is generally what happened, Digne never got forward at all, I thought Cash did offer an out ball quite a bit in the first half but he often lacks quality.

They exploited the gaps but the way we gave up towards the end was poor. Still all to play for so I’m not giving up just yet.

UTV

[Risso]

We can’t afford two years of him being this shit.

[LeonW]

Two full seasons for a £50m player? Jesus, I hope not.

Bailey might not of cost as much, but is a prime example of the need for patience. As is Luiz to a lesser extent, McGinn has been written off wtc etc.

Bailey came into a relegation threatened team and played for Smith and Gerrard. We’ll never achieve anything if we always have to wait two years for a player to come good.

I don’t remember Bailey raising his game to the same level as most other players under Unai last year.
But I think your right lets write Diaby off.

I think some of the frustrations are that unlike clubs like Man City, Liverpool, that can afford to wait for players to blossom, for us to spend close to £50m and a club record, we don’t really have that same luxury which my come fruition this season if we don’t get champions league football and have to sell our most consistent and best players.

[Bobby Boy]

We set up in a manner that showed fear which surprised me. Even though the first half was pretty even it was noticeable how many times the ball ended up back with Emi. We must have passed it back to him 40-50 times during the game.

Spurs pressed us hard and we always seemed to be under pressure. We lacked coherence throughout but to be 2-0 down so soon into the second half when Spurs hadn’t really done much was a killer.

We’ve tended to come back well after a setback so hopefully Ajax on Thursday will be a different story.