Villarreal impress Harry
 

Source: Official Site

Harry Redknapp was full of praise for Villarreal after the Spanish side's impressive display and 4-1 friendly win at the Lane on Thursday night.

The La Liga side snapped straight into their passing game and had already gone close twice before ex-United striker Giuseppe Rossi buried two carbon-copy chances into the bottom corner for a 2-0 lead just after the half-hour.

To the lads' credit, we hit back in the second half and after our best spell of pressure in the match, pulled a goal back when Peter Crouch released Giovani to finish confidently.

Crouch and Kyle Walker also had chances and Niko Kranjcar had a goal disallowed as the comeback looked on midway through the half.

However, Rossi's hat-trick goal, a shot wickedly deflected off Vedran Corluka and beyond David Button, took the wind out of our sails in the 70th minute.

Villarreal took control again and missed chances before substitute Ruben converted the fourth from close range with five minutes remaining.

"They were good, weren't they?" said Harry. "I thought they were excellent, a really good side that played good football.

"They were sharp, bright and lively and I was very impressed with them.

"It just shows how hard it will be when we get into Europe.

"They finished seventh in the Spanish League last season. I've seen a bit of them recently but they were outstanding.

"They passed and moved and that's how they play the game, the kids play like it, they all play like it and that's perhaps how we should all be playing the game. They were very, very good, very impressive."

The Spanish have got the game sussed, sure they wont win every game but they will win most playing that possession football. When you look at England and english sides (barring the Gooners probs) they are so kick and rush, when we (the English) get the ball at the back it has to be in their penalty box in 5 seconds or less.

We got a lesson and so have many more sides, if we cant match them we have to be imaculate at the back and have a good outlet up the field, or lucky lol (Switzerland v Spain style).

It pains me to say it but Wenger has taken a typical English side and made them, what i would say, the closest to a Spanish style side there is in England, I wonder if Harry would be able to do the same. Dont get me wrong here, i love what he's doing and understand he knows the English way very well but i wonder if he could get us to that level eventually.

i was very impressed by them too - they played at a real pace for a friendly - and were just too much for us

They obviously misunderstood the term 'friendly' and next time the ground rules have to be made clearer.
A draw is acceptable, giving us the run around is not.

I hope Harry and the boys watched and learned. Thay barely hit a single long ball or a high cross all evening and kept the ball as if it was theirs.

I see no reason why this style of play cannot be effective in the Premiership and of all English teams we have the tradition and the players to adapt to it.

Whilst losing is never nice, so long as we learn from the manner of the defeat we will have gained somthing from that friendly. If we hadn't woken up to the fact that in the Champions League, if we come up against decent Spanish sides and we are not savvy enough to deal with it they will give us the real run around and punish us with their possession type football. (An early warning is a a good reminder).

If we do progress to the group phases (and here's hoping), I also hope HR keeps a copy of today's game and pulls it out and shows our lot what we are likely to come up against and has a plan on how we will deal with it for real.