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*** OMT Tottenham Hotspur v Aston Villa FC ***

Nexus1967 said:
Me too I thought Ange had lost the plot. Shows what I know. He works with the players everyday so he must know better than us armchair managers. It helped that when we equalised so early in the 2nd half Emery sent on more attack minded players to chase a winner
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My instant reaction was "WTF is he doing?" because Son was on fire just before he came off. But when I actually thought about it, I knew it had to be fitness related. That's the problem with us armchair fans, we don't really have the knowledge to consider those things.
 
paxtonwolf said:
Probably need Davies and Dragusin fully fit for Ipswich next week, may need to cobble together a CB pairing for Thursday night
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I'm betting the Galatasaray game will feature a ton of kids. We've got the luxury being 3 from 3. That being said, Davies and Radu probably both play. Not as taxing being a CB, especially the way they play.
 
Bullet said:
Ange said he was always going to take Son off at 55 because the last time he came back from injury he got re-injured at 60 minutes

I love that, we must protect and rotate players

Solanke must be rested next, nobody can keep doing what he is doing. Others need to step up

Just look at this
View attachment 17946
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As I said, we wanted it more and the numbers back it up
 
alekaras said:
I'm betting the Galatasaray game will feature a ton of kids. We've got the luxury being 3 from 3. That being said, Davies and Radu probably both play. Not as taxing being a CB, especially the way they play.
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So, Radu and Davies to start at CB. Based on our Europa eligible squad, it looks like the only available sub for either would be Gray if Romero is kept out. Unless one of our defensively responsible mids drops back. Really feel the absence of Spence for such a situation. He could take up a fullback role and allow Udogie to take a CB spot if needed.
 
I think the fact that Son was so annoyed at coming off shows he's recovering well from any injury. Was playing well at that point and obviously felt good to continue. Shame for Richarlison again though
 
Excellent win. Very good performance in the second half. Decent in the first half too. I think some people underestimate how difficult it is to break down a well drilled Emery team that sits back. A lot of hard working, tough players in that team too and a good team.

Loved how well we dealt with how stop start the game got in the second half. The kind of situation where they could regroup and we could easily have lost momentum, but we just kept going.

Lovely stuff.
 
alekaras said:
I'm betting the Galatasaray game will feature a ton of kids. We've got the luxury being 3 from 3. That being said, Davies and Radu probably both play. Not as taxing being a CB, especially the way they play.
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Absolutely immense effort in this game and the City game. Palace game was definitely a struggle game, but still a lot of effort put in. Agree with you that some of these players probably need a break against Galatasaray.
 
Muttley said:
I hope Ange keeps rotating the 3 midfielders. Bentancur got the 90 mins during the week. Sarr got the 90 mins today. We need all 3 combo's to get their understandings developed and then we'll have a great platform to build around. It gives us so much consistency as a team.
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Absolutely. Finding several good solutions. Not only fresh legs on the bench, but players to bring on who are slotting right in when they come on. Real competition for places. Great to see.
Lilbaz said:
Top 8 in the el means we don't have to play a 2 game qualifier for the knockout stages (at a stage in the season where tiredness is a big factor). I'd rather we secure that then we rest players. Not take anything for granted.
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We've rotated fairly heavily so far in the EL. Did that mean we took things for granted before?

I think we're seeing benefits of that rotation in our games now. Squad players have a decent level of match fitness and can come on and do a good job. Players able to work really hard multiple games in a row because they haven't been overplayed so far. For me we have to keep up the rotation.

Right now I think quite a few of Solanke, Johnson, Kulusevski, Udogie and perhaps also Son (just back from injury) simply can't be expected to start two more games in quick succession before the international break. It's asking for trouble, both performance levels dropping and risk of (further) injuries.
 
A fabulous "watch the game over and over" performance. There's some real steel and belief starting to form in that team. This week's shift has been to do with faith in Dragusin and laterly Davies to play within our system. Previously when we have had to play second string players at the back we have looked nervy and off colour. In midweek and esterday was just business as usual, both starting/playing without VDV and then Romero going off.

The Ange machine is starting to motor, Villa won't get turned over like that too many times under Emery.
 
SkipRat said:
We were the better side, had most of the possession etc etc

Doesn't mean we played well, like I said, we was slow and ponderous, not creating enough, both wingers refusing to take on their men, aimless and pointless crosses into the box. Defence, midfield, and forwards not linking up well.

Villa were awful and we still struggled to break them down first half, and they still went in 1-0 up half time.
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How were Villa awful?

They came to do the Emery thing for a game like this. Sit back, defend well and try to hurt us on the break or from a set piece. They're really good at that and for me looked really good at that in that first half too. We made them work hard, we probed and tried.

For sure we could have been better. For sure there are still flaws and weaknesses in our side. But Villa are good in these situations. There's a reason why they play like this in these games, they're really tough to break down.
 
braineclipse said:
How were Villa awful?

They came to do the Emery thing for a game like this. Sit back, defend well and try to hurt us on the break or from a set piece. They're really good at that and for me looked really good at that in that first half too. We made them work hard, we probed and tried.

For sure we could have been better. For sure there are still flaws and weaknesses in our side. But Villa are good in these situations. There's a reason why they play like this in these games, they're really tough to break down.
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If the narrative people want to pursue is on the negative side, then the performance of the opposition will always be "awful".

You beat what's in front of you, every game, and yesterday we did that and did it well.
 
Seen a few people mentioning the ref yesterday. I actually thought he (inadvertently) did us a favour.

Don't get me wrong, he was tinkle poor in the first half then just after half time he made two shocking decisions which massively riled the crowd and boosted the atmosphere. I think the players were tinkled off too as they immediately upped the intensity which led to the goal and we never looked back.

So, thanks ref!
 
Yeah, good team from Ange (Bentancur and Sarr in were the changes i was looking for) and good game management with the subs- which he again got spot on. Really overran them in the 2nd half and made them look very average and they're a good team make no mistake.
 
Surfless said:
If the narrative people want to pursue is on the negative side, then the performance of the opposition will always be "awful".

You beat what's in front of you, every game, and yesterday we did that and did it well.
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You can make teams look bad via your own performance. Villa looked ragged in the second half and they were - but that's because some of our one-touch passing and movement was incredible. I'm sorry, but Solanke's first goal - they were well set defensively and there were no gaps. Kulu got that ball in such a tight space and the ball was perfect and Solanke's run was perfect and even then their keeper read it and came out and was almost on top of him when he received the ball - he would likely have blocked any normal atempted finish or grabbed any half-arsed attempt at a chip - Solanke's finish was wonderful and gave him no chance - I really can't see what Villa or any other team realistically could have done differently - we were just excellent.
 
braineclipse said:
Absolutely. Finding several good solutions. Not only fresh legs on the bench, but players to bring on who are slotting right in when they come on. Real competition for places. Great to see.

We've rotated fairly heavily so far in the EL. Did that mean we took things for granted before?

I think we're seeing benefits of that rotation in our games now. Squad players have a decent level of match fitness and can come on and do a good job. Players able to work really hard multiple games in a row because they haven't been overplayed so far. For me we have to keep up the rotation.

Right now I think quite a few of Solanke, Johnson, Kulusevski, Udogie and perhaps also Son (just back from injury) simply can't be expected to start two more games in quick succession before the international break. It's asking for trouble, both performance levels dropping and risk of (further) injuries.
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I've no problem with rotating. Who do you rotate dragusin with though? (He was the one people wanted rested).
 
braineclipse said:
How were Villa awful?

They came to do the Emery thing for a game like this. Sit back, defend well and try to hurt us on the break or from a set piece. They're really good at that and for me looked really good at that in that first half too. We made them work hard, we probed and tried.

For sure we could have been better. For sure there are still flaws and weaknesses in our side. But Villa are good in these situations. There's a reason why they play like this in these games, they're really tough to break down.
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Even Emery admitted we were the better team, rather than saying they had an off day.
 
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