We played well and on another day would have won...better teams than us will lose when playing well. Our strength earlier in the season was being able to play the same 11-13 players...they understand all about each other. No reason to think that our new defensive line up won't improve as they get match fit...just as the injured players come back in. We all knew this could happen...I was especially worried about losing Boruc or Lovren. Injuries have kicked in just as we hit the really hard bit of the season...a thing that was always likely. Losing to Villa was undoubtedly a blow, but these things happen....ask United and Liverpool who have both lost recently. Isn't it better to worry about losing our top 6 place rather than be worried about dropping into the bottom three...the good start protected us from that. The good thing to take from yesterday's game is that we still made chances and still had good possession...be more worrying if our game was completely falling apart. It wasn't. This is a blip that happens. The lads could do with a weekend away now, but sadly that doesn't happen in the EPL.
Maybe Gazza isn't to blame, but I'd fancy Boruc a lot more. Gazza seemed to give up in the one on one, Boruc is much more imposing (though obviously not easy to stop either way) and the second was pretty much straight to him - you need decent reactions to get strong enough hands in the way but I'd fancy Boruc to keep it out. Obviously nobody's stopping the third.
I'm just genuinely disappointed. It takes a lot for me to lose my positive outlook but last night I did. Not for the fact that we lost but in the manner that we weren't winning. The game should have been out of Villa's sight, but we played very pretty football in front of them for most of the time. I began to find it difficult to watch because I knew the big chances weren't being created and executed. I'll get over it, just like the team will. I should say a word for Villa. They rode their luck at times, but I thought they put in a very good performance, and were absolutely clinical. What was it, 3 attempts on target and 3 goals..?
Now that I can't disagree with. I couldn't put my finger on it but your description is just right. Vin
I'm not going to review the whole game but I want to look at the 3 players attracting the most comments; Gazzaniga, Yoshida and Cork and I will preface it by reminding everyone that for each of them it was, effectively, their first game of the season. Firstly, Gazzaniga. How anyone can judge him on last night's performance I don't know. He nearly pulled off a miraculous save for the second goal and had absolutely no chance with the third. Maybe, Boruc might have done better with the first but I thing he was trying to hedge his bets covering the shot and the potential lay-off. So, basically, there was not much more he could have done with any of the goals and practically nothing else on which to assess him. I'm not his greatest fan but he still deserves another chance. Yoshida is getting a lot of criticism, maybe some of it justified. What I saw though was not one but two centre backs playing poorly. I know that Lovren is off-limits regarding criticism, but I actually thought he was the poorer of the two, the third goal in particular was partly down to him backing off at the last moment allowing the space for the shot.. It was the first time they played together and it was obviously a steep learning curve for them both. Lets face it, Villa only had three shots and apart from that, even not playing well, the defence coped OK. And so to Cork. The first thing to say is that it is impossible to compare Cork to Wanyama if you are doing so on the basis that they are similar players. They are not. To use an analogy, Wanyama is a bull, in your face and scary. Cork is more of a mosquito, always buzzing around and even when you think you've brushed him off he's back nibbling. It was his ability to pressure people last year that allowed Schneiderlin to sit back and read what was happening thereby coming up with the crucial tackles and interceptions. In fact I would have thought that Cork was the ideal Pochettino player, always harrying, niggling and putting players under pressure. I thought he did pretty well last night and was the dominant midfielder when he came on. The one part of the game that there can be legitimate comparison between Wanyama and Cork is how many times they lost possession. Cork lost it a couple of times, one of which led to the goal, although to be fair he had won it in the first place and was still trying to secure it. Wanyama, well I gave up counting at 5, and it isn't just the misplaced passes, on two occasions it was just nipped off his toe when he wasn't aware of who was near him. Finally, it was never just Cork. It was Cork and Schneiderlin together that were so effective. I would like to see them given an opportunity to play together again.
I didn't feel he was at fault. Certainly no worse than any other keeper in the Prem, it's just that Artur is so damned good. I think 90% of Prem goalies would have conceded all three. It wasn't a lucky night. When Artur did his miracle save against RVP he later said "it just hit me" whereas last night nothing was going right so nothing was going to "just hit" Gazza. Vin
Oh yeah what was the formation when Clyne went off? Me and my brother spent 10 minutes trying to work it out. It made the game much more....open.
My son was at the match and he didn't feel that Gazza was to blame for the goals, so hope it doesn't hit his confidence as he will be playing on Saturday. The difference is that Boruc pulls off the odd miracle save which can make all the difference in a game. The problem was that too many players had to be changed at the same time. On the good side, perhaps they will all be back at the same time.
Difficult to fathom, I would have thought Chambers to right back was a better option, there was room down the right flank that could have been exploited (was once by Fonte) as their full back was sitting tight to the centre backs and leaving room to be used. What do I know, I am not even a good table top manager!
You have a right back on the bench and the right back goes off injured, so who do you bring on? A central defender allegedly carrying an injury. Interesting decision. Fantastic cross for the second goal though.
Seemed fairly obvious to me. Yoshida was not comfortable, so bringing Chambers on for Clyne wasn't going to cure that. Bringing Fonte on was an attempt to shore up the back, and Yoshida can play at RB, and is fairly quick. Chambers can also play in midfield [in fact, it's his favoured position] so, all-in-all, I could see the wisdom of Poch's decisions.
Fonte played on the right though, that's what I didn't get when Yoshida was struggling. It looked like 3-4-3 depending on where you want to say Shaw was playing.
That would have made sense if Maya had gone to right back but Fonte went there instead, anyway I thought Maya had a better second half once he got more mobile, he certainly won some important headers. Cannot fault Pochs logic at least he doesn't sit on his hands as the JWP move proved, the way Villa were playing meant that we were oversubscribed in the midfield area.
