Well, we didn’t totally embarrass ourselves, but that was frankly rubbish wasn’t it?
The first half, I couldn’t understand what we were trying to do, as it seemed we were trying to play for a draw, which wouldn’t have suited us at all.
I think both sides created one chance each, which says it all, as we parked the bus and it made for incredibly tedious watching.
It seems both managers thought the same and the second half was totally different and the pace was immediately stepped up, meaning we had much more of what I was expecting in a cup tie.
The trouble is, as soon as the pace moved up a gear, so our deficiencies showed and Spurs were always more likely to score.
You don’t need me to tell you we lack creativity and I’m afraid Grealish, who should be having the same sort of laugh he has on his nights out at this level, doesn’t do enough for me. Perhaps I’m being unfair there, but we know he has more skill in his little finger than most Championship players. We just too rarely see it in my opinion.
I’m being critical, but you really have to remember that Spurs made nine changes for this game. Yes, Nine.
This was basically their second string and I’m afraid I find that very worrying, as they were easily the better side overall.
That said, there were plus points.
Tshibola worked hard and surely demonstrated that he’s way better than Westwood or Gardner as it stands.
And Johnstone looks way better in goal than any other option we have.
I immediately felt he positions himself better, not that I’m any expert when it comes to goal-keeping.
Once Spurs got the inevitable goal, Bruce bought Green and Davies on, which seems to demonstrate that he’s willing to look at the kids and that’s surely a good thing.
But the reality is the opposition were mostly at the same level, so it’s not a real test.
Baker seemed to twist his back or something, which is a concern, as we can’t afford to have him out.
I don’t know, perhaps you’ll think I’m being far too negative in my assessment.
But I can’t get away from their nine changes, where we played our strongest side.
Any incoming players can’t arrive fast enough, I’d say.
Comments
155 responses to “Spurs 2 – 0 Villa; Good and bad”
The latest on Lansbury (according to the Mail – I must stop reading this stuff)
No response expected from Forrest before take over completed and new owners then expected to appoint Rowett manager who is a big fan of Lansbury and may block his move. Apparently Lansbury is keen to move to Villa and will not sign a new contract so may not move until the summer when his contract expires.
Whichever way you look at this it’s likely to run to the end of the transfer window so no hope he’ll be playing Saturday.
@H60
God this is worse than Peyton Place!
(NB for younger readers this was a famous soap opera that went on for many, many years and each episode felt like it lasted the same)
LOL
Forest want to keep him simple as til the end of the season, bs excuses are coming out now. I’d say look elsewhere now I’m not holding my breath on this one
Ps reminds me of modric at spuds they came out with every excuse in the book to delay the transfer which first time around were successful
Pss it’s taken 2 weeks to come up with that bollox as if the takeover will be done in the next couple of weeks crap
I can see lansbury putting in a transfer request next
Personally I think this is pretty much out of any manager’s hands.
Lansbury has got his heart set on the Villa and he’s apparently already cleared his locker and said his goodbyes.
Can Forest afford to let £3 mill go?
And even if they try and block him, he can hand in a request or just go on strike.
Badger his contract is up in the summer so he can talk to clubs and sign a pre contract agreement 6 months out. It would be lunacy to keep him at Forest under those circumstances – yet in football ……..
badger
so its ok for lansbury to hold club to ransom ,but rhm tries to get right deal for himself he is a money grabber etc
Where in all the reports does it say Lansbury is holding the club to ransom. I read that he wanted to leave Forest for a new opportunity before any bids came in. Also comparing a 26 year old experienced pro at the end of a four year contract to a 19 year old apprentice who has yet to prove himself is a little like comparing apples with pears.
As far as I’m concerned Murphy can do what he likes, it’s his career – fwiw my view is simply if he doesn’t want to sign for terms offered then he can leave.
Jvillan, I wouldn’t look at it th a way, if you gain skills in your job, and the opportunity came to you that you could earn more, would you refuse that chance? You have to be a exceptionally person to say no, he been asked to move on and would be stupid to say no.
JVillan,
We don’t know what’s been offered, but it’s apparently the highest for anyone at his level.
And I did say it might be more about playing time than money.
As for Lansbury, it’s different, as we’ve seen what he can do and offering him £40k a week is probably literally doubling his dough. Can you blame him for wanting to go?
RHM is a good prospect, but that’s all and the vast majority of our best prospects never make it to the top level, do they?
I couldn’t give a toss if he stays or goes, tbh.
badger
man utd did same with pogba looked what happened,as for forest lad its dragging on and its not like he is stand out player in this league, we tried that with ross and look how that has fared out
and if you are young lad at villa or a target for villa,would you sign or resign when man in charge prefers a 14stone has been up front
I don’t know what you want me to say mate.
I don’t think RHM is as good as the stance his agent has taken and at the end of the day, you either think Bruce’s stance is right or wrong.
I don’t understand why Gabby gets in first either.
His record for a very long time is abysmal.
But given our midfield, do you really think RHM will be better?
None of our strikers, Kodjia apart can score and just maybe Bruce doesn’t want him going on a run of not scoring?
I think the kids coming on against Spurs was a blatant message; sign the bloody contract and you’ll get your chance, as and when I see fit (with the empasis on the “I”).
You can compare who you like, but my opinion says he’s a kid and simply not good enough to try and dominate the gaffer.
If he thinks he can do better, let him go I say, as his stance will undermine the manager.
And I suspect that’s been a lot of our problem over recent years.
Bruce won’t stand for any big bollocks behaviour or be held to ransom and fair play to him, as it’s just what we need.
The manager makes the decisions, as it’s his head on the block and any player who doesn’t like it can just do one, imo.
me i thought kids coming on v spurs was just a bluff,game was over at that stage,probably over before we started with line up, as for gabby crazy
on rhm i know nothing about him apart from his couple run outs for 1st team and compared to bruce 1 st choice gabby he looked like messi
and i just making point utd made mistakes with young lads too
this transfer window looks like a lerner one linked with everyone and fail,we need midfielders before wolves another loss i think playoffs will be out
Not just Lerner; we have a history of signing very few players in January since the modern transfer window was started.
I prefer to wait another 20 days before passing judgement.
we are in a position now if we don t get play offs it could be years in this league unless the doc has more wealth than he knows what to do with
still heap players on big wages to cover gabby richards westwood bacuna kozak to cover,clubs coming down will have bigger parachute payment, other clubs can be bought with little debt and better squads
Other clubs?
The prospective Forest owner is going to buy a majority (not outright) holding for £50 mill, I believe.
Please rattle off the clubs that have better prospects than the Villa.
Are you thinking of Hull?
They’re in a death spiral because they let Bruce go, imo and aren’t as big as us.
Leeds might be one, but even then, I don’t believe they’re as big as the Villa.
Anyway, I’m not seeing your point.
What do you want the club to do?
Go balls out and spend even more stupid money, to get us promoted at whatever cost and ignore that it might not work, which means Xia is skint and has to sell to some conning cheapskate?
We need to walk before we can run.
And Xia Bruce slowing the decline is a very good reason to stick with them.
It’s the papers that are linking us mate, although there might be odd ones where player, agent or club are putting it out there.
Xia has said we’re working on 7-8 targets, with the hope of getting 3-4.
There’s not much ambiguity there and my money says we will get at least 3.
Is that enough?
Probably not, but you can only do so much and it seems plain Bruce isn’t going to be bent over and buy at any price.
Agreed, we need mids asap.
But I’m not getting into the Wolves game yet, as I’ll have nothing to write in the preview 🙂
none of them are as big as us but then again we will only be quarter of the way through the 90 m wage bill fox left, along with new boys that have failed so bad elphik ross,,how much is doc worth more than groups bought blues and wolves ,hull willhave cleared most bruce buys and maybe the owner will pump money in,
and another year in this league where are new fans going to come from,not with nice football bruce is providing
We got him lads, booking a medical, beat Derby to having him.
Bill where did you read this????
Aston Villa have bid accepted for Championship ace: Medical now expected
ASTON VILLA’S £3million offer for Henri Lansbury has been accepted by Nottingham Forest.
You can’t level what Fox did at Xia!
Did you think Elphick or RM were bad buys when we bought them?
If you did, you’re in a very small minority, I’d say.
Look, at the end of the day, we’ve all got 20-20 hindsight; you better than most.
The simple fact is, it seems the fall has been arrested.
I’m sure we’re all agreed we aren’t turning it around as quick as we’d like, but that’s how it is.
How many were predicting that if we didn’t improve, we had every chance of going straight down again?
As for the footy, I couldn’t care less in this league. Getting results is the priority and us just being here is only going to lose us fans.
We have to be pragmatic and concentrate on getting up asap.
At least we seem to be agreed on that point 🙂
With that, I’m off for a while, as I have other stuff to do.
I’ll probably look in later.
Bill, ta for letting us know.
I always knew it was in the bag, myself.
It wouldn’t surprise me if Bruce said do the deal or I’ll pull it.
He’ll play against the Wolves, I’d bet.
Lansbury should be a decent buy – but then same applied to Elphick and RM…
Anyway, glad he’s coming in; we need a bit of creativity as well as steel in midfield.
Should be, agreed.
He adds both.
Regardless, I’d suggest at that money the odds are in our favour.
Seems Forest fans think he’s marmite.
Great news but I feel sorry for JV – his castle is beginning to crumble 🙂
I’m sure JV has our interests at heart Hitch.
It’s just that we have different ways of looking at things.
badger
on summer signings hadn t heard of most of them,first time heard elphik was when he had signed he has been fantastic not, on ross when play 6 defenders not much point playing ross
and gabby still playing
i also never put fox and doc on same level,but who gave 4 year deal to gary gardner
After the last 5 years I can’t blame any Villa fan for being completely cynical; however, so far Xia & Co appear to have been mostly true to their words – albeit with the occasional ‘gaffe’ – although I put that down to the Doc being as much a ‘fan’ as a new owner.
[Oh, and as far as I know, he hasn’t done anything stupid like having himself tattoed with the club badge yet…]
HItchens, i’m surprised you are able to read any of JV’s posts from up there on your high horse mate.
I think you need to lay off the rum, i seem to remember you taking umbrage at comments directed at you a while back, now you seem to be doing the same to to others, the equivalent of the bullied becoming the bully.
Let’s move on to the Lansbury thing, eh?
Fwiw, I’m not seeing any bullying; just differences of opinion about how we achieve the same objective.
I’m confident both are holding their own povs and posting them with respect for each other 🙂
It will be interesting to see if JV thinks this is a decent signing or not, though.
Guest there is a big difference between personal insults and a bit of banter. I try hard not to call people names but disagreeing with someone’s posts is perfectly legitimate. My comment was meant humourously hence the smiley – or did you miss that?
If JV wants to take a completely negative and critical stance about everything then any poster is entitled to respond. For the record I think JV makes some valid points and am on the record for saying so and tbf he’s dropped a lot of the unnecessary invective.
In the meantime I’ll hold on tight 🙂
Hitch, you get a 10 from Bill.