Mauricio Pochettino's Post-Match Reaction - Aston Villa

I would have agreed, but it's since been revealed Fonte had a knock.

 

Then why decide to change tactic from having Hooiveld and put Yoshida in? Pochettino obviously has confidence in Hooiveld as he has been his go to man so far ahead of Yoshida yet this time he decides differently.

Yoshida's positioning and ball watching last night cost us dearly and even though you can talk about match fitness that has nothing to do with why a defender just keeps backing off a player for the third. Yes a worldy goal but if Yoshida had actually tried to get closer it would not have been such an invite to shoot.

 

Hooiveld is probably injured as well.

 

The backing off wasn't pretty but the wide open spaces that left two players running at him from the half way line weren't great either. Probably not one off the training ground.

 

I see it like this;

Hooiveld is Lovrens back-up (left-sided)
Yoshida is Fontes back-up (right-sided)

 

I think you're amongst the vast majority there.

 

Sometimes negative, defensive anti-football wins the game. Fair enough to Villa. Feels like a complete sucker punch though.

 

If he's fit enough for the bench & then to come on for 30mins, IMHO he was fit enough to start.

The risk to making any "knock" worse is exactly the same whether he starts the game or comes on as a sub. He had Chambers there as a straight swap, but went 3 at the back, although Shaw didn't really push up far enough anyway.... in fact Fonte did more attacking damage down the right!

 

At the beginning of the season what worried me was the size of our squad which isn't big enough for us to effectively challenge for the top half of the table! Let's hope the youngsters are up to the task

 

We know from past experience that you need a mixture of experience and youth.

 

His mum.

 

I thought most of those were clearances