Good morning
Much better and well done to all them for getting their acts together. The game itself was extremely watchable and it was to our credit as this looked like the Aston Villa that McLeish fielded, a token striker and 10 men behind the ball.
The tactical shape was pretty much spot on and I think we’re slowly but surely growing into and developing a tempo that both suits and can be sustained. One prominent factor was our ability to pinch the ball off the Villan’s toes. Postionally we used the width of the pitch more and it showed.
Some kindly souls thought I was overly beating Brad up last week and so here’s a thought for you. Yes, Lloris did boot the ball up the field but he did it a lot less. The net result was a passing accuracy rate of 67% opposed to Brad’s 18%. I know it’s boring, but if you give the ball away you’re a liability, you’re not a benefit.
Okay, let’s fly through the individual performances and see what we saw.
One iffy throw out but I thought he looked brand new. Lively coming off his line on a couple of occasions and a good punch out. All this Brad’s lost his place stuff in the media needs to be sniggered at. We paid good money for this lad. Brad’s 141.Get over it.
On her way to the city, Dorothy meets Kyle Walker, a Tin Man, and a Cowardly Lion , who lament that they lack respectively a brain, a heart, and courage. Time to make a definite separation in people’s minds between ‘athlete’ and ‘footballer’. If Levy is cute we can flog him to some schmucks who haven’t clocked the fact he can’t defend. 53% of Villa’s attacking moves were down the left wing. You work it out.
Won 5 headers, won 2 off-sides and generally ran the back line show like a good’un. The influence of Billy must not be glossed over. What happens when Kaboul returns? Difficult decisions are the burden of rank.
This is very out of character for me. This ‘kids’ coming through always have some glaring deficiency that seemingly only nasty old me can see. You know, until they’re loaned out and disappear into the ether. But Caulker is a cut above. Thoughtful and technically mature he really could become quite some player. A 92% pass accuracy rate.
Almost embarrassingly busy. It’s ‘interesting’ to consider the difference between his forward runs and those of Benny’s. Add to this that we don’t appear to suffer from the ‘all hands on deck’ routine that normally follows one of Benny’s forays.
He was pretty exceptional out there. The midfield was packed. It was messy. But he genuinely did a job on the Villans; add to this a pass accuracy rate of 90% and you’re looking at an indispensable player.
He had one of his best games in the shirt yet. Head up, he was looking and elegantly achieving wherever he went. Every time he got the ball he did something useful with it. Few footballers can be accused of that. The only player to match the passing accuracy rate of Caulker.
Really frustrating performance. Yes a goal and I’m not being dismissive, but his runs seem to increasingly achieve little. Most of his attempted crosses also fall into the same category of indifference. He’s been called up for England and I really wish he’d decline and focus on the Lilywhite.
He’s going to be one of those guys who occasionally comes good but is unlikely to set the world alight for us. A really excellent vanilla ice cream.
Much more involved and I swear I came away from the game thinking he’d really made an effort defensively. Fortunate not to get booked for the dive. We’ll be discussing that in depth on the next blog a little later.
Exasperating. His shots were so off target it was painful. The Caulker ‘goal’ was a mental blast from 3 yards out that was heading towards a hamburger stall before it was deflected. 6 shots and the one on target was weaker than a blind kitten in a tumble dryer.
Really mixed it up and that puts the Midget Gem back into a file marked ‘Impact Sub Only.’ He opened up channels and caused havoc drawing markers and doing something with the ball analysts are referring to as passing to team mates.I’d like to see him play with Siggy ‘in the hole’ behind him instead of Dempsey. Creatively that appeals. Lots.
The boss got a good performance out them and if you squint your eyes we’re quite frequently playing push and run. He needs to be sharper with his substitutions. I thought Dempsey and Defoe both looked time expired by the half time whistle.
A few gifs for @sharoconnor …
Just watching the game again. Lennon and Bale often suffer from a similar disorder. All the speed in the world but they often choose poor options and fail to deliver quality ball to our attacking players.
yay we won. Lets point out the few negatives.
I just had a quick check of the Pure Filth Football League. Very poor from Chicken Badge Heroes! The leader of BIOYC should apply to the FA to work in football management immediately
Hahahaha. Does it show I haven’t looked at it?
he picked andy carroll….pure genius!
There is plenty to nit-pick from the performance but the evidence is there for long stretches of the game: the AVB system is starting to take root. Not perfectly, not all the time, but you can see it starting to work. Very very encouraged here.
I agree HH, this in mid-season form, with Ade and Siggurdsson developing a partnership. Dempsey can push Lennon – it would be nice to have a less dramatic, but more stable presence on the right.
And when Kaboul comes back, how tempting would it be to try playing him at RB? Maybe give Walker a look at right winger too. But a back line of Kaboul-Gallas-Caulker-Vert….that would be formidable. Caulker is really something.
Good shouts all round. Turns out Bale wasn’t a left back. Same could be true of Walker at RB, and there is no weak link in that back line even though a Vertonghen and Kaboul Central defence partnership would be quite a prospect with adequate full backs.
Good point but I have a real issue with Walker when he attacks. Ever notice when he beats the man and could easily cut in from the right and poss pass or get a shot off…he always goes back so he can head towards the byline…and therefore has to beat his man AGAIN…its like his brain is telling him ‘YOU MUST MAKE THE BYLINE’…no, Walker…its not written in bloody stone! If you’ve beaten your man then talke advantage of it. Bloody frustrating!
He is swift but only with his feet.
Very good Harry.
Agree re Lloris
Walker you were a bit harsh but yes he is dumb
Gallas has been great,Kaboul has to grow more but has all the potential to do that
Caulker agreed
Vert agreed
Sandro MONSTER
Dembele think that he will be great
but thought he had an ok game
Lennon,thought he played well.Excellent goal.
Needs a real striker to work with
Dempsey think he can grow more into a VDV role
I think because we are attacking from the wings more he is ineffective.When we develop inside play more he will thrive more
Bale goes 100% when he came to Tottenham and for years gave 100% and kept on getting injured as a one stud up tackle would kill him in full flight.So maybe he found a way to pay them back.It has looked like it has helped his game because maybe defences think twice about touching him
Defoe.Has a lot of the style that Greaves had but is not smart enough to find space by himself and is marked out of game but tries to shoot his way out of it,missing a lot.In a situation with a billy legit striker I think Defoe would thrive playing off of him
Ade supreme presence.Can change tempo.But hasnt really been a threat around goal because he spends his time on the wing.Maybe works for the 4-3-3 well.But the box is always short of a physical striker
What about Sigg?????
I think he is very talented and we need to develop that inside game more.The threat again is generally coming from the wings but if we could get that box striker Sigg will look for the marker.
AVB I hope will learn as he goes along.We dont look THAT much different than we did under Harry.
Our defence definately looks better and more organized but our flow is not constant and we are missing options,like the inside game for one.
Still I prefer AVB because when its a thinking game it can be solved.
You keep saying we don’t have a ‘physical box striker’, but to what end? We didn’t buy one. I think we probably should have bought another striker too, but we didn’t, so no point in going on about how we are lacking one now.
I was pointing out the effect of us not having one on players like Sigg and the Wing game too.
But it is a fact. Someone mentioned yesterday that we didnt need one,that Ade works in the 4-3-3 very well and if thats the case we dont have room for one.
For me a lot of what the wingers do and the development of Sigg and Dempsey would find an advantage in a box striker.
Anyway your point is about policing my comments more than the point itself.Maybe you should go and get your own site and start editing.
Yeah, it was me who was saying that Ade works in the 4-3-3, in so far as he works better than Defoe. I didn’t say we couldn’t use a better striker, but there aren’t many positions we couldn’t theoretically improve on. I just don’t see the point in continually harping on about what Ade can’t or doesn’t do or isn’t like, when he can actually do quite a bit to improve us in my opinion.
If Defoe is going to play, it is in a 4-4-2 or not at all, if we have Ade fit of course (which he hasn’t been until now). But since AVB would probably sooner cut off his own testicles as play 4-4-2 then he should be looking to get Ade in the starting line-up and Defoe on the bench as soon as possible. Like in the next game.
Its not the position itself only that a striker will improve on,its the fact that wingers,backs,midfielders and many with pace are creating openings that are not being finished off enough because of that.Its not a player for the ‘position’ its the key to getting to the next level.
Nope, sorry, I’m lost… :dizzy2:
Too bad :devil:
Ok to clarify.With all the supply we have we need a striker who will go for goal.A box striker.
We dont have one that has any presence.Defoe needs space and the play off someone and Ade spends too much time being another supply player.
This all works well on the counter but not in situations with tight defences.
We do need a new striker that can play the box in lieu of that Ade would do but he has to be focused on shooting than running out of the box to pass
But we are going round in circles. We don’t have the striker you want us to have. We have Ade who is very effective at linking up the play and providing assists for the likes of Bale or the other midfielders, or indeed Defoe if he plays with him. And as his stats show, he can chip in with a good number of goals himself.
I actually don’t believe we are missing a humungous amount of chances. I don’t think we are creating enough and I think a large part of that is that we are using Defoe who’s hold up play and awareness of other players around him is non-existent.
Yes we are going in circles.
We are not creating enough because nobody is available once the supply pleyers come to the end of their wing run.Most of the time they just cut inside and shoot.There are no open men in forward positions. Ade runs out of the box.Defoe ia always covered (sometimes gets bounces)
And yet Ade scored 18 goals and created 11 more last year. Go figure!