Dear All, we are still 2nd; let us enjoy this moment. We are disappointed we have not closed the gap on Chelsea. Heavens, that is so nice to write that statement!!
Just remember folks some of those players out there have played 3 games in the last 10 days. It was almost odds on that villa would bring in the team bus and rely on breakaways. For some reason our cutting edge has got a bit blunt. So we need to get to the bottom of that quickly. Still one point is better than nowt!!
The problem with starting Long, Mane, Tadic and Pelle is it restricts Clyne, Bertrand and Schneiderlin. 4-3-3 is a much more fluid and dynamic formation. I hope we see it again against City. Drop Mane. Play Long on the right and Tadic on the left.
Ace subbing again, who would have called that one? It just broke the Villa concentration and we scored before they got organised.
Apart from choking on my crayfish sandwich as we conceded an impure goal (heaven forbid Brendan), happy with the result.
Not writing him off after one match at all. I said so far, not 1 match. I also appreciate that nearly everyone else has a different opinion to me but what I have seen so far is a player that does some very brief good things but lots of falling over easily and chasing around the pitch getting busy with not much end product. Long is pretty similar to hat. has the odd good moment. There isn't much alternative in that position though I suppose and it is early days for both of them.
Koeman says we lacked our usual freshness and qualities in the final third, but overall he will take a point from that game. please log in to view this image
Relieved with the point, and one poor mistake has stopped us from winning, so we can't be too disheartened. Not too sure why we played with two holding midfield players, and our play wasn't quick enough which meant we couldn't catch Villa in transition, meaning they could set up deep and narrow. Crossing was also poor; can't count the number of times we failed to beat the first man. However, i'm confident our next 3 games have the potential for us to take a fair number of points.
We got back into old habits...against a side that is getting behind the ball, you need to move quickly before they can organize behind the ball. Too often we didn't do that; much passing in midfield ensued while Villa got back. The cutback for the goal and Clyne's reaction was very nice to see; seem to have been more than a few situations where the ball has ended up wandering through the penalty area (or getting partially cleared) in recent weeks without there being someone hanging around the edge of the box to capitalize.
