Other Games - 2026 FIFA Men’s World Cup Edition (+ warm-up matches): Villa-watch

[ChicagoLion]

Weird. Clever people have told me for ages that Southgate was the problem, and that a Proper Manager who made Proper Substitutions at the Proper Time was the missing piece of the puzzle.

That still seems to be valid TBF, just put Tuchel at the helm. That was an absolutely shocking example of how not to manage a game. When you’re sat at home being utterly bewildered by the subs, I think everyone knew what was going to happen.

Yes, it was so obvious, he said ok Argentina come and attack us and it was pretty obvwhat was going to happen within minutes, we had no way out. Totally idiotic

[Chris Harte]

Having witnessed Micah Richards' Villa career, I never, ever want to hear him conducting a post mortem on a disappointing loss.

I can cope with Richards. If it was Joleon Lescott I'd be putting my boot through the wife's new shinny 75 inch 4K TV.

[Brazilian Villain]

Horrible way to lose, commiserations guys

Yeah, that's going to sting for a long time, especially when it was largely self-inflicted.

I've plenty of friends who are England fans. I'll leave them be after that one.

[pauliewalnuts]

That was all about mentality.

They have it in spades, man for man we are better, as a team we are better in terms of talent, but mentality makes the difference.

We opted to spend the last half hour defending, they refused to believe they were beaten.

Same old story with England, ultimately, we have a loser mentality.

[PaulWinch again]

The most frustrating thing is that we could have won that game if we tried. Most of us would have expected us to lose against Spain anyway but that was on.

It’s just so basic - if you want to put defenders behind the ball with a minute or two to go that’s a reasonable game. 30+ mins against a team with the greatest ever player, those are low percentage odds.

[ChicagoLion]

That was all about mentality.

They have it in spades, man for man we are better, as a team we are better in terms of talent, but mentality makes the difference.

We opted to spend the last half hour defending, they refused to believe they were beaten.

Same old story with England, ultimately, we have a loser mentality.

If the Manager surrenders then it was inevitable. If we had continued to play as we were up until we scored , fair enough.But we didn’t, he went siege mentality and we paid the price.

[VILLA MOLE]

12% possession after the England goal says it all really.  We were never great defensively through out the tournament other than Mexico , but they aint Mexico

[Monty]

I've come to the conclusion that we really, really are spoiled by Unai Emery and his game management.

[SamTheMouse]

Weird. Clever people have told me for ages that Southgate was the problem, and that a Proper Manager who made Proper Substitutions at the Proper Time was the missing piece of the puzzle.

Well it’s not necessarily wrong. Tuchel just lost his mind on this one.

It quite clearly is wrong, as the next person that they were so excited about being different and better has done exactly the same thing to reach more or less the same result.

Exactly. Tuchel has the same problem Southgate had, namely that he sends the message to his team that they aren't good enough and so the only way to win is to play like a non-league team defending a one-goal lead against a Premier League side.

He completely bottled it.

[CT Villan]

It wasnt just the sitting back, we became so ridiculously narrow with 5 at the back - allowing Messi (of all people) and others to pick their crosses - beyond inept by TT. And 5 at the back with nobody marking is a new one on me.

[Chris Harte]

Tuchel, post game - "We were too passive after our goal"

YOU CAUSED THAT YOU FUCKING KNOB!!!

[Dave]

Weird. Clever people have told me for ages that Southgate was the problem, and that a Proper Manager who made Proper Substitutions at the Proper Time was the missing piece of the puzzle.

That still seems to be valid TBF, just put Tuchel at the helm. That was an absolutely shocking example of how not to manage a game. When you’re sat at home being utterly bewildered by the subs, I think everyone knew what was going to happen.

Maybe when England have hoovered through another four managers who all do the same thing, the penny might drop that maybe when they were getting really angry at the one who actually did really well with the tools at his disposal - they were being a bit silly.

[enigma]

Tuchel, post game - "We were too passive after our goal"

YOU CAUSED THAT YOU FUCKING KNOB!!!

yep. That angered me

[tomd2103]

Weird. Clever people have told me for ages that Southgate was the problem, and that a Proper Manager who made Proper Substitutions at the Proper Time was the missing piece of the puzzle.

That still seems to be valid TBF, just put Tuchel at the helm. That was an absolutely shocking example of how not to manage a game. When you’re sat at home being utterly bewildered by the subs, I think everyone knew what was going to happen.

Yes, it was so obvious, he said ok Argentina come and attack us and it was pretty obvwhat was going to happen within minutes, we had no way out. Totally idiotic

Along with allowing their top class players, incliding one of the best players to have ever played the game, acres of space nust outside the penalty area.

[PaulWinch again]

Go on Spain