We find ourselves 3 pts off the Goons, who have been playing far better overall. The opponent quality excuse cannot be used as we have played two of our top 4 rivals. If they are playing at the top of their game at the moment, then it augurs well if/when the current squad finally clicks into place.
Both goals: [video=dailymotion;x1679ac]http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1679ac_%CE%B1%CF%83%CF%84%CE%BF%CE%BD%CF%84%CE%BF %CF%84%CE%B5%CE%BD%CE%B1%CE%BC-ourmatch-net_lifestyle[/video] Lovely finish wasn't it, RDBD?
"Lovely finish wasn't it, RDBD?" It was. As a Spurs supporter you expect our strikers in goal droughts to display the full 'Torres' when the rare chance comes. Today makes me more comfortable that given the service, Soldado will deliver his on his end of the deal.
I think lovely finish is an understatement. That was an exquisite finish. Not that I'm putting it on par, but it had a touch of the goal that Arsenal scored yesterday. Quick movement of passing along with the calm finish, great team goal.
"I think lovely finish is an understatement." It looks better from behind the goal, because you can see he sent the GK the wrong way as well.
Not sure what to make of the game, to be honest. First half was awful and second was much improved, although still not great. I was hoping that we'd show that the West Ham result was an anomaly but I don't think that really happened as the same inability to move the ball forward without losing it was evident again in the first half and a couple of other things annoyed me, which I'll get to. On the plus side, Soldado's goal was excellent to see. We don't often enough seem to score against the run of play and it was perfectly timed as after our great start to the half Villa immediately looked a threat with Benteke coming on. Lovely finish too. If only we'd done that against West Ham. I thought Walker put in a very mature performance in the second half too, he recognised the danger signs and picked his moments to get forward and always made an impact when he did whilst putting in some quality defensive work too. Dawson was very good in the second half too and Townsend took full advantage of the increase in space he was afforded. On the negative side, we had too many midfielders dropping ridiculously deep to get the ball in the first half leaving Soldado totally isolated. It made things all too easy for them and allowed Luna, Delph AND Agbonlahor to handle Townsend which was very effective. That whole first half was a shambles so I'll leave it at that or I'll be typing all night. In the second half we typified a problem that has become increasingly noticeable with our current crop of players and that's the lack of a killer instinct. We just seem to take our foot off the gas when it comes to attacking which I think is really important that AVB addresses this as it will help us in the long term with getting goals earlier on. We wouldn't have really deserved a 3/4-0 if you looked at the whole match but the chances were definitely there, you look at Chelsea and Arsenal yesterday and whilst they hadn't been thrashing the other side they took full advantage of the opposition chasing the game and tiring, resulting in a 4 goal haul.
Yes ! and I suppose thats why Spurs have such an outstanding goal difference in the Premiership. Look, I'm not going to sit here and banter the merits of one, or maybe two good passes made by an individual during one game. My opinion, to date, is based on what I've seem of him since January last season., which I omit is not a lot (in terms of game time). He may well develop into a superstar of the Premiership., its just that at the moment, I don't see it. Also remember that I'm not claiming to be the best scout in the business. With my team-player hat on , I hope I'm wrong.
Holtby could be a top player but since he arrived apart from his cameo against Norwich he has only been able to perform against lowly opposition, does that make him a player of such quality? No, but you can understand why he isn't widely rated. if great players need a chance to adapt and play each week, then players like Holtby need that even more. Holtby probably needs to play each week, he won't get that with us and if he's serious about developinug he should move. If he's happy looking like a superstar against tibilisi and having the odd game in the league then that's fine for us as he can still play a part yet at his age he needs more game time. Remember last year Arsenal fans booed Ramsey, now he's their best player. The main difference is Arsenal have a small squad and Wenger will allow players time to find their game. With us Holtby simply won't have that time and ultimately that's why I doubt we will see his full potential.
By no means did we move forward at speed as we did in Modric/Harry days. But I thought we went from absolutely ponderous to medium slow, and the result was our attackers having something other than a fully parked bus to get through, which in turn led to the first goals from open play from Soldado and Townsend. So a good effort IMO from AVB in making an intelligent adjustment to a fairly successful strategy. I thought Holtby's dummy was brilliant (especially the way he knocked Soldado down, making it a kind of double dummy), as was his cutback to Paulinho for Soldado's goal. He's created goals like no one else on the team. I continue to be very impressed with Soldado, Paulinho and Walker. Sandro was good, all things considered, and Dembele was good when he came on. Swapping them for this game sped up our attack, I thought, as Dembele may have more to do with our slow build up than anyone. However, we looked awful to begin with, very shaky defensively. Jan did not look happy to be playing fb, but I don't care as he improved and ended, permanently I hope, our playing an inside-footed fullback and winger together. Had Villa showed any ability at set pieces, and had we taken an early chance against West Ham, results could easily have been swapped. Still, I feel better about us in general and AVB in particular, and hope he keeps rewarding players who play well with PL starts, and keeps shaking things up after bad results. We should improve our patchy stretches as players get more used to each other.
I see no reason why he can't compete with Eriksen for the starting number 10 role and get enough games. It's the same all over the pitch, Capoue, when he's back, should be competing with Paulinho. Lamela with Townsend/Lennon. Defoe with Soldado. Sandro with Dembele. Arsenal might be used as an example but Wenger played Ramsey out of position a lot and his small squad is not something that's replicated at the best sides in the World. Bayern have incredible depth, so do Real, so do Barca, it's increasingly becoming a squad game with so many competitions and so much at stake. For me, what AVB's doing well is being fair to players. It's not easy to manage with only Europa League and League Cup games for those down the pecking order to play in but he's placed the carrot there for them. They know if they play well they will get a chance in the Premier League and if they do well there they will get more Premier League games. When the FA Cup gets going and the Europa League gets interesting it should help keep players happy when they're just playing cup games. It's not easy without CL football or any particularly competitive games in the cup so I like the way AVB's gone about it so far. Time will tell but if Arsenal don't add another 4/5 players to their squad in January and they stay in the CL then I expect the tiredness and injuries will catch up with them. I'm sure they don't think it will happen and neither did we with Redknapp but it happed twice in a row and nearly happened in our CL qualifying season too. It makes me laugh when they point to having a ridiculous amount of injuries this season but who have they actually had injured? Chamberlain, Podolski, Arteta, Vermaelen(?), Walcott and Cazorla, I think. If they're honest, out of them only the last 2 are really relevent and would be getting a lot of gametime. We've Lennon and Rose who are very relevent to us and if we're counting those that are less likely to have played then add Capoue, Chadli, Kaboul, Adebayor and Sandro. Pretty much the same but the only injury that has really has hit us is Rose as that's the one weak area of our squad.
One other point I keep forgetting to bring up. How good was Delph?! He gets better everytime I see him and I thought he was outstanding today, a darkhorse for the World Cup squad surely.
YV, you're post is more about squad use in general which I'm not in disagreement with. Yet certain players won't have enough time playing games to perform. Look at rose, he went on loan to Sunderland. Townsend to QPR, both players needed that continuous playing time. Thiago left Barca as he needed games. (sorry bad example with thiago as he is injured, forgot about him) if these three players stayed, played the odd cup game or league game then they wouldn't be at their current level. Holtby is part of our squad and a good player but I don't believe he will ever get 5 games or more in a row this season playing in his best position and that means for his own personal development he can't fulfil his potential.
Agree about Delph. As for Holtby, I don't know how we can drop him if he keeps creating more goals than anyone else.
Can't argue with that. The way I always looked at it is that our youngsters need half a season to a season of regular Premier League football before they're ready to compete for a place in our squad. Maybe you're right and they need regular football to maintain that level. Livermore's one that bucks that idea and yours too, he took to PL football well under 'Arry without going on loan to a PL club first or playing particularly regularly and then spent a season only getting a few minutes at the end of games as a lucky charm, gets loaned out to Hull and picked up where he left off under 'Arry. Potential's a difficult thing to judge so it's tough to say whether anyone can reach their potential without playing regularly from a certain age but my guess is that it's one of a myriad of factors.
I watched the game and was left baffled as to how Villa had beaten City in their last home game. Spurs looked workmanlike - which is probably a good thing. A solid base is a step forward. Townsend was the most threatening player, Soldado took his chance well and Paulinho looks strong in midfield - if not your typical Brazilian. This team of hard grafters looks more likely to perform consistently over a prolonged period than 'Arry's team of talents.
All the top teams have large squads, players know this and expect it. Some will suffer others will thrive we have seen many examples at Chelsea for example, Cole, Wright-Phillips, Duff, but that's the game. We are now looking to advance in the cups to provide games for the squad whereas before we were not able to cope. This is the gamble Levy has taken and this team needs top four to survive intact. Second half was a big improvement and hopefully we should start to see the potential of this squad develop as the season progresses. Just looking at our bench today shows how very different our position is from last season.
2013.10.20 - Aston Villa vs Tottenham (720p).mkv (1.14 GB) https://mega.co.nz/#!GJcE3b5K!BveJfQHCj9v1zCJtGxf-SjTQAa5C7ci-nuzVOmBoMBw
the first half was dire from Spurs, really sloppy. But we didn't give up many, if any, chances. Goal improved us and the moves started coming out in the lead up to half time. 2nd half was better, but far from stellar. Won by 2 goals, from open play, and one to our new striker, so i won't complain too much though
