Spurs v Villa Post Match Thread.

[Somniloquism]

Random thoughts:
- Re substitutions, it has appeared to me that UE seems to have decided before the game, almost, who will be replaced by whom and at what time. Taking Ramsey off seemed weird: was he struggling with a niggle? Duran for Rogers didn't make sense given that the MF was so under pressure.

Rogers was injured wasn't he from the Romero assault? He might not have gone off straight away and thought he could run it off, but went down again just before the sub. Not sure who else on the bench could have been sent on instead. I suppose Kamara could have come on then instead, although Watkins could also have dropped back a bit as well.  Although Duran going on without Romero being there should have bullied the defence, we just forgot to play them in.

[mrfuse]

One significant concern I have is that when Morgan Rogers is substituted, we tend to lose some of his driving force, despite the fact that he still has areas to improve. It’s clear that Emery is focused on developing the partnership between Watkins and Duran, and he’s acknowledged that this is a work in progress. However, I’m beginning to question whether this partnership has the potential to succeed based on their current performances. Additionally, I feel that deploying McGinn out wide on the right disrupts our overall balance.

[Drummond]

I sometimes wonder if Ramsey could play more centrally, to replace Rogers. He can certainly drive forward and retains possession pretty well too.

[caster troy]

Form seems to the be the root cause of our issues, McGinn, Bailey and Watkins just aren't at the levels we saw in our peak 2023 run. When we are crap going forward it defeats the purpose of having Pau Torres as a progressive centre back, and when you combine that with Tielemans and Onana being less capable at shielding than Luiz and Kamara you start shipping more goals too.

[darren woolley]

Not a good week for us culminating in yesterdays performance.

[Villan82]

This result stings. Hate this result. Bring back the all conquering side of 12 months ago!

[London Villan]

We aren't balanced up front at the moment. Rogers and JJ do a similar job of running with the ball, but the pace we had with Bailey and Diaby missing - which stretched the opposition and gives Watkins more space to play in, is missing.

Then at the back we just can't get the balance right - with Kamara's return let's hope that returns.

[PaulWinch again]

I think Romero’s challenge should be a red. It goes beyond “cynical” for me because it’s actively dangerous to challenge like that.

[Chris Smith]

Random thoughts:
- Re left back, I was thinking about this after seeing Moreno's performance for Forest on Saturday. The Maatsen purchase does look a little strange in the context of PSR and the Digne-Moreno situation.
- Re substitutions, it has appeared to me that UE seems to have decided before the game, almost, who will be replaced by whom and at what time. Taking Ramsey off seemed weird: was he struggling with a niggle? Duran for Rogers didn't make sense given that the MF was so under pressure.
- I'm a big fan of Nedeljkovic: on Wednesday he looked defensively very sound and also seemed to find good pockets of space. If Cash has an injury issue, I'd be giving the boy some more gametime rather than losing Konsa's pace and game-reading skills at CB.
- I've said before: I don't get why Bailey and Philogene are so reluctant to get to the byline and put the ball in or pull it back for an oncoming midfielder. Is this playing to instructions or a confidence thing? Weird stuff. Right now, the front three has to be the three which started yesterday.
- No Buendia again: UE doesn't seem to trust him.
- The comments above about the season to date: we seem to have sacrificed defensive surety for a more risky, swashbuckling approach of quick passing triangles interspersed with long balls into the channels. Neither is working that well and piles more pressure on the defence. Now that Kamara is fit, I would - like others - like to see him start with Onana and Tielemans.

I think a lot of that can be put down to managing the squad with two other big games coming up this week.

I thought we were good in the first half but conceded sloppily straight after the break. Injuries then disrupted us and although the score line was a bit harsh Spurs deserved the win.

[dicedlam]

I think the problem was more we couldnt keep the fucking ball.  Last year we were great at taking the sting out of games by keeping the ball - but we struggle to do that without luiz and kamara.

I dont think some realise what luiz bought to this side. Id take him back in a heart beat

He was shit after Xmas until the end of the season. Fuck him. He wanted out, let him carry on getting splinters on his arse at Juve.

Harsh. Very harsh. Why so harsh to him man? You are speculating that he wanted out. Think we had no choice due to FFP. What about the first half of the season? Or the 4+ years before that ? Why you only basing it in 2-3 months of his villa career?

For a lot of spells in his career with us, Luiz wasn't trusted by either Dean Smith or Gerrard (to a certain extent) in having the discipline to play the defensive mid role in the team and found himself spending quite a few games on the bench. It was only when Kamara came along that he had an upturn in form and was trusted to play in the side without having to play the main defensive midfied role.
Was it by any chance that his form seemed to tail off after Kamara got his bad injury?
Luiz reverted to type from then on for most of that second half of the season.
 
It was also known that Villa had been offering him a new deal. However, it seemed he was not interested. This I'm sure was one of the main decisions by the management to let him go, thereby easing the FFP issue that we had at the time.

For me, Luiz was no great loss and I much preferred that it was he who was sacrificed for FFP rather than either Ramsey or Watkins.

 

[PaulWinch again]

Luiz was a huge loss, in terms of what he brought at his best. The tail end of Unai’s first season and the first half of last he was exceptional and brought control to the midfield that we don’t have now. Him and Kamara complemented each other perfectly. Following Kamara’s injury and his loss of form we just haven’t recovered that control and in that time our defensive play has really suffered.

Clearly he’s not here anymore, but with Kamara’s return we need to work out how the midfield can give us control again.

[VillaTim]

I think Romero’s challenge should be a red. It goes beyond “cynical” for me because it’s actively dangerous to challenge like that.

Ripped his own boot open doing at and also cracked his own foot, idiotic thug . Same as the short fella at ManUre .
How Bentancur escaped a booking for the foul on Ramsey i will never know

[Stinkin_Thinkin]

We lost the physical battle. Tottenhams hatchet men Romario and Bentancur make a massive difference for them.  You want big lads like Onana to get stuck in on them but he went missing for most part.  Spurs were regularly smashing us in midfield on breakaways.  Tag team. There was one moment where Watkins wriggled away his man (who had tried to flatten him) only to be smashed by someone else!
McGinn was idiotic for the spurs goal, he waves Cash away to follow the overlapping full back but that just created a gap for Son to thread the cross. He should of lunged in or something. That cross was superb it had so much pace and whip it had goal written all over it. I thought Son was on the way down his last couple of season, but he still has that moment of terror in his boots.

[Rico]

Tottenham reminded very much of Chelsea last season by closing us down very rapidly and stopping our midfield from gaining any form of control and as a result turning possession over and putting our defence under undue pressure, which in the first half we were able to handle, but clearly in the second half the defence didn't exactly cover itself with glory. The miss from Watkins proved very costly.

[Rigadon]

I'd say that we lost the physical battle only because the referee forgot he had a yellow card in his pocket and it took 3 violent and dangerous lunges before he found it.  They weren't physical, they were dirty bastards throughout the game.  And yet their fans continue to bore on about Matt Cash - just one more reason to despise them. 

I'm annoyed about the result and will be for a while, but like Newcastle last season, we didn't deserve the 4-1. If Watkins scores the relatively straightforward ones first half and we win that game comfortably.  And hopefully no season ending injuries from yesterday, albeit it could've been different had Bentancur / Remero had their way.