Still the build up is too slow. I'd like to see us speed things up, get Lennon on for Siggy on the right, townsend to the left and get at them.
Neville is spot on. There's not enough movement up front - we don't have any outlet. Villa are deliberately crowding the middle of the park, and we can't make any forward progress.
It's painfully slow from the back. The one time Dawson tried to speed it up, he kicked it straight into the stand. And now yet another crap kick from Lloris .
Either Paulinho or Sandro need to drive down the middle and commit people, then release the ball. That is what Modric used to do so well. Passing it around at the back will not hurt them. Dembele does this quite well sometimes, but his pass is too often a safe sideways one.
Not sure about that, if he runs around he will just end up running the chanels like Ade did last year. We need to build up the play better and get him better service rather than force a poacher to be an outlet. If anyone should be making themselves available it's Holtby.
I can't agree with that. Unless AVB changes something, Villa are just crowding us out. Maybe he needs two up front? At the moment, Villa are winning the tactical battle. We have the lion's share of the possession, but it's all in areas where there's no threat to Villa.
I'm not disagreeing about needing more upfront, I just don't think it should come from Soldado. If we were able to bring the ball forward through the middle better, we could be passing it to players running at goal, rather than expecting bobby to chase every odd ball. Kind of how Chelsea were, they had so many players in and around the box, which gave them lots of options. if we only play one way, looking for a perfect pass it will be really difficult. PS what a bellend throwing a flare at a lino. as if Spurs fans havn't been in the news enough of late. -edit- now we are getting in behind. this is what we need
I agree - what a tosser!..I mm sure we'll be hearing more about that. Now we're in front, it'll be interesting to see what Villa have in response. They will have to be more adventurous, that's for sure.
Someone will make a mountain out of a molehill regarding that firework for sure, not clever though, but at least it was only a flare and nothing that went bang.
Well that's the worst I've seen us play for a long time, utterly shocking ball retention. Our attacking improved once we went a goal up but still our defence is all over the place, Paulinho's having a bit of a 'mare and I'd like to see Dembele on sooner rather then later. Not sure why Neville's been criticising Soldado so much, he's had no one near him all game so when he does get the ball there's never support. Either get our wingers pushing up or Holtby needs to get really close to him. I know we're winning but we've been so **** it doesn't feel like it. On the plus side Townsend and Walker have worked well together.
It's a stupid thing to do, even just because it looked more like Villa's blue. Flare's are a bit dumb anyway and to throw it onto the pitch, hit a lino and put our club in the **** makes the guy a total dickhead. It's that kind of nonsense that will get us reduced away allocations.
That half was not a good advert for British football. Some of our imports must be wondering what the hell they've got themselves in to. Wet Sundays in Birmingham where you get one rushed touch then get barged and no-one can pass.
Another stuttering performance from Spurs we looked well off the pace. Verts was caught 3 times trying to clear !!! I suppose we will have to be patient as players get used to one another but it's all very frustrating.
Precisely. What makes it worse though is the beautiful football the goons are playing! Arsenal playing attractive football Spurs playing for 1-0's Who'da thunk it!