Ratings & Reactions: Spurs v Villa

[VillanousOne]

1 minute ago, Morley_crosses_to_Withe said:

Hard to say where we are as a team after that. The fact is the Premier League has a sub section of teams who will merely make up the numbers. We will be within that group of also rans who’ll be absolutely no where near the top six and even further from the top four. The depressing realism is that we’ll do well just to avoid getting spanked at places like Spurs, Man City, Anfield etc let alone get any points. 

 

All good teams have a midfield that you can play through the middle with, it's been years since we've had that. Grealish, Connor and McGinn is just not the right balance, they all individually have their skills and merits, Dean needs to sort that out as otherwise we will struggle to keep possession and teams will just mark our wide men and it will be game over.

[VillaFaninLondon]

I thought we were much more positive in the first half, not sure what happened second. We just couldn’t get the ball forward and create anything. But Engels and Mings were brilliant as well as Heaton.

 

Next game at home to Bournemouth is crucial. We need to get 3 points really. Spurs away is tough so we can forget this. Let’s see how we fare next week.

 

Grealish was disappointing and needs to learn quickly that this is a much tougher league with less time.

[HanoiVillan]

1 minute ago, villa89 said:

We weren't schooled, Norwich were schooled last night. We were just playing a team that's much better than us away from home and we can leave with some positives and some things to work on.

If we were playing Liverpool, not Spurs, we would have lost by a similar - or probably greater - margin to Norwich. 

[privateer]

Oh, and Rafael van der Vaart, your shoes are even shitter than your acshent. Buy black ones, you spashtic.

[andym]

Big difference was how much pace and power Spurs had in the middle compared to us with Ndombele and Sissokho - it took its toll on us 2nd half and opened up things for Erikssen and Kane.

Hopefully Luiz or Marvellous can provide the same sort of thing for us when they are up to speed

[thunderball]

4 minutes ago, sheepyvillian said:

If Jack doesn't lose possession, we come away with a point. Mings and Engels deserved better.

Rubbish

[CosmicVillan]

Bit of a reality check - Not sure if we have enough up front...defense stood up , midlfield got dominated...keeper is good

 

[Ingram85]

4 minutes ago, sexbelowsound said:

Some of the comments on the first page. Good god.

Proud of them all today. That's a strong base to go from.

We will be absolutely fine in this league and we'll give some of these teams a real shock. 

UTV

Let's have a season without us vs them amongst us all yeah? No one is slagging the club off, some just think we were poor at times. It doesn't mean they hate the club and want smith out or anything.

[Niall]

Did well for 70 mins. The defence was well organised and Mings and Engels were fantastic. Disappointed with Grealish, wake up, lad! You're back in the premiership. Hourihane did some good things, particularly first half and McGinn impressed. Trezeguet was ok for 50mins but faded badly, needs time. Jota too lightweight. 

[VillanousOne]

Just now, andym said:

Big difference was how much pace and power Spurs had in the middle compared to us with Ndombele and Sissokho - it took its toll on us 2nd half and opened up things for Erikssen and Kane.

Hopefully Luiz or Marvellous can provide the same sort of thing for us when they are up to speed

yeah we badly need one or both of them in the team, as we need to press further up the pitch and get closer, Spurs were just strolling through our midfield with absolute ease.

[HanoiVillan]

3 minutes ago, Davkaus said:

I'm shocked by the 'good performance' comments, honestly. We got ripped apart. Not surprising, there should have been no expectations we'd go toe to toe with that team, but how many golden opportunities did they have?

We shouldn't have been in that game at all, how it was still even with 5 minutes to go is beyond me. I thought Mings and Engels did really well. And it still wasn't enough to stop them having easily enough chances for that to realistically have been 6 or 7 on another day.

I'm not too worried, there are only another couple of teams that will outplay us like that, but in no way was that a solid performance, imo.

Exactly. I'm astonished that anyone would disagree. 

[Jimzk5]

My overall feeling is meh, as soon as spurs levelled the score I said in the match thread they would win

As debuts go Wesley was awful

Engels did well with mings and elmo and Taylor played ok

Learning curve for us

 

[CharlieAitken59]

Engels, Mings, Heaton and McGinn excellent........Grealish very poor, played like he was at Tranmere not Tottenham!

 

Need a reality check

 

Disappointed with DS second half tactics....needs to learn quickly? 2 points lost. Hourihane should never play in that crucial position again!

[bose]

A lot of angry and deluded reactions here.

Good first half but a poor second half against one of the best teams in Europe.

Anything other than a loss was always going to be a bonus.

[Made In Aston]

Wesley clearly isn't up to speed yet. I think Kienan should have started, as we really needed someone to hold the ball up. It's also a shame Nakamba isn't match fit because his tackling ability would have helped ease the pressure. 

The tactics were correct, but the players need to learn to pass the ball quicker, as they got caught in possession far too often. There were also too many wayward passes, which put added pressure on us. 

The main positives were the two CBs and GK. They defended very well against a top side and never looked flustered.

Hopefully we can iron out the issues before the next game. 

Edited August 10, 2019 by Made In Aston

[Tubby]

Bit disappointing that we parked the bus as a team and the front six weren't reliable enough to build forward.  The result wasn't reflective of the performance from the centre backs and Heaton.

That said, it was the first game of the season away to the champions league finalists, that's the standard of this league and now we know that we have to be more adventurous.  Forget this one and move onto to Bournemouth with the aim of getting three points at home.

Edited August 10, 2019 by Tubby

[Tomaszk]

Those full backs and Hourihane out the side and we can win matches. As in the Championship, Hourihane of no use unless we're dominating. Passenger.

Wesley, Kodjia and El Ghazi need to toughen up sharpish. People aren't going to give you the ball.

[nick76]

Always going to be hard against Spurs

We dwell on the ball too long and still think we are playing in the championship

Mings, Engels and Heaton were superstars

Deflated at the end but 3-1 was a fairer reflection of the game.

Going to be a hard season and we need to review this match and fix silly errors, dwelling on the ball and improve retaining the ball.

Might have been good playing spurs first and they showed the players how hard it’s going to be.  Our season isn’t going to be based on games away at the likes of Spurs, it’s the games like next week at home.

Onwards and upwards.

[a m ole]

VillaTalk hasn’t been so split for years.

Baptism of fire that, we’ll be fine.

[Kingman]

Opposite of the defence with the forwards from last season, 

I've seen milk turn quicker than Wesley and Koj the lazy words removed