Aston Villa v Tottenham Match Thread - Sunday 16th Feb, 2pm

[CDX_EIRE]

Can't disagree @Bonker there is an element of his hands being tied and him tying his hands up himself. He has gone through too many phases of persisting with things that don't work.

Somehow we sit outside of the relegation zone. The fear for me is that the damage is done, it won't be the next 12 games that send us down it is the next 12 that decide whether we stay up.

 

[JuanPabloAngel]

Somehow we sit outside of the relegation zone. The fear for me is that the damage is done, it won't be the next 12 games that send us down it is the next 12 that decide whether we stay up.

 

[robbali]

John Terry didn’t buy them though did he, he has improved Hause, Mings and Konsa but 2 of them just aren’t good enough at this level.

I do think we should be far more of a threat from set pieces but are these players intelligent enough to follow complex instructions?

Hause strolls around like he’s walking to get paper in his slippers.

He can smash someone if his brain clicks but far too passive and cannot see danger or read the game.

You can see why wolves got rid.

 

[JuanPabloAngel]

I'm not sure Hause is as bad as some are claiming. I'm not saying he is Premier League quality (if he was, he would have been snapped up long ago or Dingles would have kept him).

But he's decent in the air and the tackle, and gets plenty of blocks in. His distribution, however, is woeful (among the worst I can ever recall) and time and again his giving the ball away in dangerous areas puts us in the shit.

That sort of thing is equally as negligent as Engels' non-clearance yesterday

 

[robbali]

My point is that it's a collective effort whereby you cannot just single out John Terry.

We could get Marco Baresi and Paulo Maldini in and it wouldn't make much of a difference.

Smith calls the shots on tactics and he sets up in a way that makes us vulnerable at the back. Terry didn't have a say in signings and it's clear that the likes of Engels and Targett were not good signings for the fees they commanded.

The whole back five is poor. Even mings has looked average in recent games. On top of that the midfield is weak, too easy to by pass. Plus they can't pass water. Never mind drinkwater.

 

[robbali]

Samatta was taken off because he was whacked. He's not yet fit enough to do 90 minutes. I'd have thought Drinkwater was a good fit for this game. If he wasn't then maybe DS has learnt something. Danny in theory has a good pass, good tackle and experience. He was pretty good at Leicester.

He was. But that was 4 years ago. And he's played more for us than chelsea and Burnley combined.

 

[danvilla2]

I'm not sure Hause is as bad as some are claiming. I'm not saying he is Premier League quality (if he was, he would have been snapped up long ago or Dingles would have kept him).

But he's decent in the air and the tackle, and gets plenty of blocks in. His distribution, however, is woeful (among the worst I can ever recall) and time and again his giving the ball away in dangerous areas puts us in the shit.

That sort of thing is equally as negligent as Engels' non-clearance yesterday

His distribution is literally 50:50 if it’s not sidewards, never know where the ball will end up. I’m watching in the stands nervous when he has the ball as it’ll end up in a random place or an aimless ball, how hard must that be for Jack or Samma playing with that.

 

[david-avfc]

John Terry didn’t buy them though did he, he has improved Hause, Mings and Konsa but 2 of them just aren’t good enough at this level.

I do think we should be far more of a threat from set pieces but are these players intelligent enough to follow complex instructions?

Hause strolls around like he’s walking to get paper in his slippers.

He can smash someone if his brain clicks but far too passive and cannot see danger or read the game.

Hause was only a squad player in the championship, the fact he’s been escalated to first choice highlights our issues and where it’s gone wrong.

Konsa clearly has good potential but 18 months ago he was playing in league 1! Far too young and inexperienced to be one of our first choice defenders.

It all goes back to our summer recruitment, too concerned about signing players who fit a certain profile (young, inexperienced, can be developed) not concerned enough about actually signing players we need to survive (experience, proven ability). Don’t know who pushed that agenda but whoever it was needs to be sacked because it was an error clear to everyone at the time and it’s only become more obvious

 

[david-avfc]

I'm not sure Hause is as bad as some are claiming. I'm not saying he is Premier League quality (if he was, he would have been snapped up long ago or Dingles would have kept him).

But he's decent in the air and the tackle, and gets plenty of blocks in. His distribution, however, is woeful (among the worst I can ever recall) and time and again his giving the ball away in dangerous areas puts us in the shit.

That sort of thing is equally as negligent as Engels' non-clearance yesterday

He’s good enough to be in our squad but he’s not good enough to start 10 games in a row in the premier league

 

[mike_field]

https://astonvilla.vitalfootball.co...villas-motm-after-disappointing-spurs-defeat/

 

[CDX_EIRE]

It all goes back to our summer recruitment, too concerned about signing players who fit a certain profile (young, inexperienced, can be developed) not concerned enough about actually signing players we need to survive (experience, proven ability). Don’t know who pushed that agenda but whoever it was needs to be sacked because it was an error clear to everyone at the time and it’s only become more obvious

This 1,000%

We were limited and hamstrung by FFP but we also purposely tied a hand behind our backs with the recruitment effort. There was a concerted effort to do what they did and I agree with Mike in that I do think they aimed no higher than 17th and it really shows. Too many for the future, not enough for the here and now. The quest for value for money looks as stubborn as some of tactics.

If we pull off staying up it'll be through spades of luck, even greater levels of catastrophic failure at other clubs as well as the heroic performances by Jack.

 

[Silhillvilla]

The summer recruitment and indeed this season has been a shambles. Stressful to watch and thoroughly unenjoyable.
The carabao cup is a massive red herring with a mauling at Wembley awaiting to further crush team morale , confidence and spirit.
We need a win Saturday but probability suggests another haphazard error strewn performance to come.

 

[sirdennis]

The summer recruitment and indeed this season has been a shambles. Stressful to watch and thoroughly unenjoyable.
The carabao cup is a massive red herring with a mauling at Wembley awaiting to further crush team morale , confidence and spirit.
We need a win Saturday but probability suggests another haphazard error strewn performance to come.

You will have to stop this positivity Silhill.

 

[Platypus]

Hause was a snip at £3m. Amazing value. Not good enough at this level of course, but we could've whacked another £50m on the huge tab we already had. Experience and proven ability cost a fortune in the PL so we're effectively gambling on 6 new starters to blend in when most teams are gambling on maybe half that number tops. A year ahead of schedule looks like this.

 

[wittonite]

The summer recruitment and indeed this season has been a shambles. Stressful to watch and thoroughly unenjoyable.
The carabao cup is a massive red herring with a mauling at Wembley awaiting to further crush team morale , confidence and spirit.
We need a win Saturday but probability suggests another haphazard error strewn performance to come.

My biggest fear with regard to Saturday is that we never look combatative at the best of times and with a Wembley final the week after quit a few of our lot will have one eye on that game and Southampton will turn us over without breaking sweat.

 

[Fulford]

Thought the analysis was OK; it was risky, DS decided to take the risk. I have a feeling that a "safer" strategy would have played into Spurs hands. We missed Mings.

"Very poor spuds team"? Come off it. They're not at their best but they're doing quite nicely under Jose.

They were poor yesterday and were there for the taking. Unfortunately we pressed the self destruct button and effectively gave them the game.

 

[Silhillvilla]

My biggest fear with regard to Saturday is that we never look combatative at the best of times and with a Wembley final the week after quit a few of our lot will have one eye on that game and Southampton will turn us over without breaking sweat.

Yep. We can't defend so I can see Ings and Redmond having a field day. Looking forward to the weekend down there , not particularly the game but I need to be there.

 

[Melon Donkey]

Pretty sure Redmond is injured.

 

[Bonker]

It all goes back to our summer recruitment, too concerned about signing players who fit a certain profile (young, inexperienced, can be developed) not concerned enough about actually signing players we need to survive (experience, proven ability). Don’t know who pushed that agenda but whoever it was needs to be sacked because it was an error clear to everyone at the time and it’s only become more obvious

Yes, it was obvious as we approached Xmas but having now paid half for Samatta at 27 compared to what we paid for Wesley at 22 it's been put into even starker contrast.

 

[wittonite]

Yep. We can't defend so I can see Ings and Redmond having a field day. Looking forward to the weekend down there , not particularly the game but I need to be there.

Enjoy it Silhill. I just hope they dont have anyone with the pace they had back in 2015 to exploit our high line like they did with a 6-1 mullering.