Match Threads Aston Villa Vs Spurs

[davidmatzdorf]

What Graeme Souness actually said:

I think [Tottenham] got away with it. If someone was to see the result tomorrow and hadn't watched the game they'd think 'well, that was a stroll for them.' But they got away with it in the first half. They rode their luck.

The stats... if you ignore the important one, the goals, you'd think Villa had won that game. This is a resilient Tottenham, you saw it when they went to Man City, they got the goals and looked dangerous on the break as they did in the second half today.

They're better organised, playing with more fire, they've got Romero at the back and Dier, solid players, the goalie's been called in to do his bit. I think for Villa, they must be shaking their heads thinking 'what more can we do to win the game?'

They created chances, not half-chances, real chances. They were aggressive, they dominated play after the first 5 minutes, and they must be thinking 'what else do we need to do to win a game of football?'

Hard to argue with much of that, once you can read it, without having it filtered through Souness' dour, negative tone of voice. That's often the case with him. He says things that are perfectly accurate, even complimentary, and makes them sound like complaints and criticism.

 

[Matrix]

I'd be embarrassed to call myself a footballer if I commited some of the tackles I saw today and I'd be embarrssed to call myself a referee if I'd lost control of a match so soon after kick off. Had a great view today, could properly see how shit some of the Villa players were, Douglas Luiz especially, he wasn't even any good at trying to be a donkey, he kept missing when he was swinging wildly at our players.

He took a few wild swings, I couldn’t believe it that it went without being addressed by the ref.
The ref was a shambles. He set the tone of that first half. They had an audacity to book PEH for something silly.

 

[Mr Pink]

What Graeme Souness actually said:



Hard to argue with much of that, once you can read it, without having it filtered through Souness' dour, negative tone of voice. That's often the case with him. He says things that are perfectly accurate, even complimentary, and makes them sound like complaints and criticism.

But we didn't get away with anything.

We have more clinical forwards, and are simply a more devastating attacking side.

And Souness implies had they scored they would of won the game.

He's no idea how we would of reacted and how the pattern of the game would of developed.

It's not like they battered us with gilt edged chances either. Hugo had some great moments but a lot of those efforts (reflected in the stats) I'd expect a keeper of his class to save.

On another day they probably do score, but who's to say that wouldn't of sparked a strong reaction from us and we go on to win 4-1 anyway.

I just don't agree with the 'we got away with it' mantra he's spouting.

 

[kthwlsn]

I wouldn't get too excited about our recent run if we have any ambition of challenging City and Pool, yeah he's got a lot more out of this team, but he's had 3 good additions that have made a massive impact and probably at least needs 3 more at a minimum if were going to challenge, squad looks ok for top 4 challenge but not good enough for trophies

3 good additions does not an overhaul make. And I disagree with your last point. I'm not saying they shouldn't or won't add to the squad and improve it. But I think this team, as currently constructed, is absolutely good enough to challenge for trophies.

We'll likely never know as I'm sure players will be brought in in the summer and we (SC overall, not you and I) will have other/new things to disagree about.

 

[riggi]

Spursy is FUCKING DEAD

Oh god.

 

[Dundalk_Spur]

I haven't read through the thread so it may have already been said, but have we seen that Conte has instilled a "Plan B" with the team??

First three goals came from long balls when passing through the press was not working. Just a random thought.

 

[Dundalk_Spur]

He took a few wild swings, I couldn’t believe it that it went without being addressed by the ref.
The ref was a shambles. He set the tone of that first half. They had an audacity to book PEH for something silly.

Two or three late challenges very early on led to the Cash out of control tackle that took Doherty out. Mings then did an identical tackle on Deki. Referee didn't even give fouls. Late then on Reggie when he came on. A two footed through the air challenge by Ramsey, he got the ball but was way out of control. Then PEH gets a yellow for a Villa player pretending he was pulled back. The referee was way out of his depth yesterday.

 

[spursfan77]

But we didn't get away with anything.

We have more clinical forwards, and are simply a more devastating attacking side.

And Souness implies had they scored they would of won the game.

He's no idea how we would of reacted and how the pattern of the game would of developed.

It's not like they battered us with gilt edged chances either. Hugo had some great moments but a lot of those efforts (reflected in the stats) I'd expect a keeper of his class to save.

On another day they probably do score, but who's to say that wouldn't of sparked a strong reaction from us and we go on to win 4-1 anyway.

I just don't agree with the 'we got away with it' mantra he's spouting.

The last time I checked a football match lasts 90 minutes plus injury time. Over that period we deserved to win. There was no “getting away with it”. It was 4 nil. It’s as far From that as possible. They had a period in the first half for 25 minutes when we repeatedly gave the ball away and badly cleared the ball which let them attack at will. It was brought upon ourselves. But apart from that we were in control of the game. We would have been in control for the whole thing had the ref got his cards out for the villa players and gave them deserved bookings.

 

[Mr Pink]

The last time I checked a football match lasts 90 minutes plus injury time. Over that period we deserved to win. There was no “getting away with it”. It was 4 nil. It’s as far From that as possible. They had a period in the first half for 25 minutes when we repeatedly gave the ball away and badly cleared the ball which let them attack at will. It was brought upon ourselves. But apart from that we were in control of the game. We would have been in control for the whole thing had the ref got his cards out for the villa players and gave them deserved bookings.

Yep, agree mate.

Putting the ball in the back of the net is the hardest thing in football. We did it four times to their none...

Yeah we got away with it...lol

 

[spursfan77]

Yep, agree mate.

Putting the ball in the back of the net is the hardest thing in football. We did it four times to their none...

Yeah we got away with it...lol

I hope we get away with it like that every game for the rest of the season and next then! ?

 

[Aphex]

Yep, agree mate.

Putting the ball in the back of the net is the hardest thing in football. We did it four times to their none...

Yeah we got away with it...lol

Spot on. Also, why according to Sourness is the first half more important than the second? We were clearly the superior side in the second half, and scored three without reply. Yes Villa dominated the first half, but we still scored one and they didn't. No idea how that constitutes getting away with it.

I do think though that a lot of the things he says is borne out of perfection. He basically wants to see a side dominate 90 minutes like Liverpool and City do, otherwise it's not good enough.

 

[Mr Pink]

Spot on. Also, why according to Sourness is the first half more important than the second? We were clearly the superior side in the second half, and scored three without reply. Yes Villa dominated the first half, but we still scored one and they didn't. No idea how that constitutes getting away with it.

I do think though that a lot of the things he says is borne out of perfection. He basically wants to see a side dominate 90 minutes like Liverpool and City do, otherwise it's not good enough.

He's impling had they scored in that period of dominance they would of gone on to win the game.

He's no clue how it would of panned out.

But exactly mate, it was like the second half didn't happen.

He looked a bit pissed off.

 

[dvdhopeful]

@dvdhopeful

View attachment 108997

To be fair, she actually said she wanted Spurs to win as Villa have nothing to play for. However, as the fourth went in she said, 'This is starting to annoy me now', so I just nodded and smiled.....

 

[worcestersauce]

I haven't read through the thread so it may have already been said, but have we seen that Conte has instilled a "Plan B" with the team??

First three goals came from long balls when passing through the press was not working. Just a random thought.

Absolutely, the message for the second half was to stop fucking about with it at the back so the Villa press had nothing to press.

 

[EQP]

Anyone else see when we scored our 4th goal, our 3 CBs just stayed on the halfway line and hugged each other.

Really seems like a unified squad at the moment and Romero, Kulu and Bentancur have come in and really given the environment a refreshing boost.

Edit: found it on a Villa fans match day blog as I’m sad and literally type Tottenham into YouTube and watch everything. ?

To all the body language experts on here, who initiated the hug?

 

[Styopa]

Some of Souness's remarks irritated me last night but really what I think he meant (and he even qualified it) is that we were fortunate that Villa didn't score against us in the first half not that we got away with it in terms of winning the match.

None of us can be sure what would have happened if Villa had equalised or gone ahead although I like to think there would have been a reaction from us. We may have gone on to outscore them much like we did in the second half anyway, although it may have been a very different game. I think that second goal was a real hammer blow to them because psychologically it was a long way back from there especially after the amount of work they put in the first half and the missed chances.

From Gerrard's perspective (which is the perspective I think Souness was looking at it from) he will have been incredibly frustrated that his team did not make their spell of dominance pay, especially given the chances they had. Gerrard will think to himself that he got his team playing well in that first half going toe to toe with a top 6 team but he will also know that in the Premier League, especially against quality opposition, you need to score when you are in the ascendancy. We took our chances and Villa didn't. That is where our quality really showed. Many a time we have been less than clinical despite dominating a match and paid a price for it.

The clinical nature of the way we defeated Villa last night was a joy to behold and Conte himself emphasised this ruthlessness in his post match interview. In fact I would argue this is much more important than being seen to dominate or control the match.

 

[faymantaray]

But we didn't get away with anything.

We have more clinical forwards, and are simply a more devastating attacking side.

And Souness implies had they scored they would of won the game.

He's no idea how we would of reacted and how the pattern of the game would of developed.

It's not like they battered us with gilt edged chances either. Hugo had some great moments but a lot of those efforts (reflected in the stats) I'd expect a keeper of his class to save.

On another day they probably do score, but who's to say that wouldn't of sparked a strong reaction from us and we go on to win 4-1 anyway.

I just don't agree with the 'we got away with it' mantra he's spouting.

Agreed, I cannot believe that people still spout 'should have been 4 or 5 nil up' or similar statements. If a team scores a chance, the entire texture of the game changes, and not just in terms of mentality. It starts with the fact that a kick off follows a goal and as such the ensuing play would, objectively speaking, develop differently.

Souness and Villa can take their amazing first half and fuck off.

 

[Nice One Cyril]

I think it's easier to just watch the game, ignore the build up and the halftime chit-chat and don't watch the aftermatch crap. Pundits spout the same old crap week in week out. I started 'ignoring Ne ville and that cheat Savage'... now my aftermatch opinion is gleaned from SC.

 

[Timberwolf]

But we didn't get away with anything.

We have more clinical forwards, and are simply a more devastating attacking side.

And Souness implies had they scored they would of won the game.

He's no idea how we would of reacted and how the pattern of the game would of developed.

It's not like they battered us with gilt edged chances either. Hugo had some great moments but a lot of those efforts (reflected in the stats) I'd expect a keeper of his class to save.

On another day they probably do score, but who's to say that wouldn't of sparked a strong reaction from us and we go on to win 4-1 anyway.

I just don't agree with the 'we got away with it' mantra he's spouting.

I think he's right tbh.

Sure, it's Villa's fault for missing all those chances, but when you allow a team to create that many decent chances against you, you have to count yourself lucky that none of them go in. If Ings is in slightly better form we'd be 2 or 3-1 down at half time. It was completely out of our control.

If we were making heroic last ditch blocks and preventing all the chances then that's good on our part - but that often wasn't the case. On at least 3 occasions we were saved by terrible finishing. Relying on terrible finishing from the opposition isn't the sign of a team in control - it requires luck.

It's essentially the opposite of the United game where we were the better team but were undone by incredible, clinical finishing. I think we were unlucky that day as 9 times out of 10 Ronaldo doesn't do that (as is clear if you've watched much of him this season - he's regularly shit).

 

[CoopsieDeadpool]

I think it's easier to just watch the game, ignore the build up and the halftime chit-chat and don't watch the aftermatch crap. Pundits spout the same old crap week in week out. I started 'ignoring Ne ville and that cheat Savage'... now my aftermatch opinion is gleaned from SC.

Absolutely spot on.

It's not for me to tell others what to do. But people seem to get so agitated about what opposition fans say, or what a certain pundit said on Sky Sports etc.

Don't watch it. Don't pay attention to whatever some nobody ex coke head has to say about a club he's now envious of.

Enjoy your fucking football club. Its going places!