Can't believe we lost that. Don't understand why you put Yoshida in when there is nothing wrong with Fonte. You need a solid defensive partnership particularly when you are forced to start a young goalkeeper. Also think bringing Vic off was a bad move. When he moved further back later in the second half Villas long balls weren't working. He has the physical and aerial presence that's needed there. Suddenly our defense is rattled and shaky with every punt up the park. Nothing wrong with our attacking play tonight. Two goals should have been enough and we could and should have had more. Just tactical and defensive frailties, effective counter attacking and fantastic finishing by Villa have meant a game that should have been a comfortable win is somehow a loss. Pochettino needs to hold his hands up for me here and take the blame.
Well apart from the mistake for their second goal I thought Cork was good. Controlled the midfield well when everyone else had failed to do so. It was just a bizarre game though. It was like watching the Adkins side again, except with no real attacking intent. We defended abysmally and played into Villa's hands too much. We had lots of possession but didn't do anything much with it, and had no tactical consistency. Lambert and Fonte playing on the right wing, four or five different central midfielders... I just can't really work out what the aim was. Man City next and then in-form Newcastle away and frankly with our injuries and apparent abandoning of the defensive play that has served us so well I can't help but fear it's going to be five defeats in a row at this rate.
Don't you have something better to do? Like talk to your own fans. Honestly, you really must have a desperately sad and lonely life to have to get your kicks by irritating people on another team's board.
That game could be replayed 100 times (with the same personnel) and we'd not lose it again. Freak result. That said, if it was refereed by the same man, I'd be in prison for murder.
Hate to say it, and it may be controversial as we had 20 shots to 6, and 9 on target to 3, but Villa thoroughly deserved that. They came with a plan, the very plan we knew they would come with, and they executed it perfectly. Meanwhile, we gambled time after time for tiny gains and by doing so gifted them each of their goals on a plate. I'll give that the last was a great finish also, but no effort to close the man down he could have taken another 10 or 15 yards if he'd wanted. Absolutely awful, and when I say that I mean the tactical naivety even more than the lack of execution. That's pretty much season over as we're not finishing top 4/5/6, and even with the naivety we're probably just too good to be relegated. Expect us to finish 9th-14th and Pochettino to be sacked (rightly!) before the season is out. Lat
There are going to be games where you dominate and still lose. This was one of them. Personally, I think we could do with another CB of Lovren's class. But otherwise there wasn't too much wrong with it. How often do you get beat 3-0 and your keeper has no real chance to affect the game? Gazza looked very good!
Had Ramirez been fit, would this have been a game that he'd have been useful in and could have made the difference?
I don't think that's necessarily the case at all. Poch confused me a bit today, but we've not suddenly become a poor team. Hopefully Nat Clyne's injury isn't bad. We have it in us still to beat City, despite the fact they've found their feet. Today was just bizarre all round - bizarre result, bizarre managerial decisions, bizarre all round. We just need to move on from that, and get our regular defence back.
Osvaldo has some nice touches but he hasn't of yet looked much of a goal threat, however I think that we can say that about most of our team currently.
I can't agree that Villa deserved it. Seriously, you can't possibly claim their intended strategy was to have three shots in the entire game? It was an effective smash and grab - but it was a lucky one too.
