Lotus

The fact we brought in 2 young athletic defenders makes me think the club have been thinking about an evolution of the defence for a while. I would think Tonali will turn out to be an important player. He’s new to it all and unfortunately, we’re a little dysfunctional atm but I’ve no doubt we’ll sort it out. We’ve had rough patches before and come through them. Would be delighted if we see Hall next game. Sad to say it seems Targett has lost his mojo. What ever happened seems to have really set him back. Like the lad a lot, seems a good egg. Shame for him but this seems to have been going on a while.

It’s clearly a tricky balance. I think our pressing system would be even better if we could evolve it so players press from the position they’re in regardless if it’s their normal position. So if our attack is more fluid, positionally and someone finds themselves at RWF, then press in the same way Almiron would and cut off the same lanes he would. However, if we’re not going to press, like the way we sat off Brighton at times, we have to compress the space because we were awful, porous and we didn’t adjust at all. Was really rather perplexing.

I think: Pope, keep it very simple. Burn will struggle badly as a CB with the way we play. Tactically, the mid 3 of Bruno, Sandro and JL is not good enough. It’s like having 3 permanent 8s. Any of them can hold the 6 position if they find themselves there situationally but they must then play it with discipline. And none of them are acting as 10s when finding themselves there situationally either. It’s making us rather staid in an area we should be strongest. We are far, far too static in attack. When our midfielders or passing defenders have the ball there is no where near enough movement from the attacking wide players especially. We look very ‘set’ in formation. it seems to me like the wide players are very conscious of their roles without the ball. I think we often try and progress the ball into the last 3rd by running it, not clever incisive passing. Our running off the ball compared Brighton was was extremely poor.

Brighton have set up waaaay better than us today. From about the 3rd minute on you could see we were going to struggle.

I’m just trying to imagine if it was us. It’s easy to say we’d act differently but you never know. To my astonishment he was found to have no case to answer. I take that to mean there’s a whole lot of context that somehow is sufficient to mitigate what appeared to me to be a horrible incident. And yet the CPS had nothing to go on. Just to remind us all, as has been pointed out here, you don’t need to ‘victims’ testimony to make this stick. There had to be a further important information that meant it wasn’t what it appeared to be to us. Tbh, I would rather that was so as well. Better that than the idea of a man treating his long term girlfriend and mother of his child with such contempt. So, the club are privy to information we are not. On that basis, how can we say how they’ve acted and be accurate in our assessment? I think a lot of us have a very critical view just because it’s Man U and badly we’ve done against them in all competitions and how insufferable most, but not all, of their fans are. Possibly it prejudices our position on the event.

Surely Man U just followed protocol? As legally advised. Not sure I would label them that. Incredibly powerful club with a massive fan base and a history of success I’m deeply jealous of, yes…… More morally debased than any other multinational enterprise? Would need way more facts than I’ve read so far to conclusively say yes to that tbh.

Reckon Dortmund come last in our group. Anyone seen their 1st 2 games of the season? Woeful. They may pick up some form but I think they’ve got too many problems in their team right now. Both FBs are below par and the CM position is quite weak now. They’ve got issues.

Would rather him than Burn for Brighton if Botman is out.

Only watched the 2nd half of their game against WHam but Brighton were atrocious defensively. Like, joke stuff. If that’s the limit of their CBs ability we’ll have them. If it was a bad day at the office and they can coached out of that it’ll be a very different proposition. We certainly have the quality to take the points. Will depend on how well the players respond I guess.

Kind of surprised looking back that we didn’t end up playing a 4 2 3 1 . There was space for a 10 to receive and turn with the ball. I suppose it could’ve been Gordon in there with Barnes coming on for JL. Or JL as a deep forward making late runs with Isak drifting and pulling their CBs out of position and laying it off for someone to whip a ball in. All sorts of options you can reflect on after the game. We were just to slow with the ball and our front 3 were far too static.

We were incredibly slow with the ball and barely switched the ball from one side to the other, something you should always do against 10 men. Do that at pace and they’ll tire and you’ll get an overload. I’m convinced that’s what Eddie wanted because that’s what any manger would’ve wanted. It’s just that our players, pretty much collectively played completely within themselves. Perhaps on some subconscious level the players think they’ve ‘arrived’. With any luck Sunday’s result will disavow them of that notion.

Last season we had 1 win in our opening 7 Premier League games. Let’s take a f**king beat here and calm down. Maybe we take a while to get going. It’s not how you start a season it’s how you finish it that counts.

Think Maxi would’ve constantly slowed the attack down the way he often did thereby allowing the opposition to get 2 men to him. If HB had squared that ball all would’ve been well. Very fine margins. He’s got some improving to do but I think we all knew that.

No. He was too far away for an intercept. I think he stepped up thinking to play him offside but he timing and awareness were well short. He wasn’t tested much at LB as Salah moved centre but when he was run at, he needed help every time. I haven’t really seen him at CB for us apart from today. Hopefully he’s normally much better at it cause his afternoon he was pub level. Love the bloke and he’s doing his best but…… Well, we signed Hall so the club also see him as an upgrade position waiting to happen.

Reckon Eddie will really get into them in training this week. Not sure you can blame if the players slow the play down that much. That was a real lack of killer instinct from key players. Eddie will get working. He just has that determination and the players believe in him.

We were very poor after the red card. So slow and predictable with the ball. we only really progressed the ball by running with it not by incisive passing. Such a lack of adventure. So sloppy, pedestrian, and uninspiring in the top 3rd. I think we will sharpen up. Just with sheer bloody minded hard work. Bruno and Burn hugely culpable for their 2nd.

Is there any direct evidence to imply what the club has said is false? I saw and heard what everyone else heard and thought it abhorrent. However, if there is a broader context I’m not aware of and the police, the CPS and the lawyers representing him, her and her club are aware of it and the basis of allthe facts have come to this decision….Maybe they’re right?

Because of what happened to a Jacob Murphy, seemingly nowhere near the 1st team and barely getting a look in, everyone and their dog hoping he gets offloaded, only for him to show and prove his value after a period training and application……I’m quite happy to see Targett stay and work hard to become a competitive member of the squad again. If the management want to keep him, I think they’ve got a track record of being proved right.

Trying a rabona from at 1-0 down…. Wnb.

Pope…..

His lack or urgency when they didn't have the ball was at times astonishing to me. But I've conditioned by Eddie to expect, at the very least, effort. You can be off the boil but the least you can do is run around with intensity and purpose.

Also, fwiw, Bruno is my favourite player but he did in fact have a mediocre game. Lacked sharpness with the ball. I'm not worried. In fact, I'm relieved we can score 5, could've been 8 with him not having a great influence. For the Watkins steal, I just think someone should've given him the 'man on' call. Was about the only time a Villa forward player bothered their arse to do something defensively...

From Villa’s perspective of course the Cash miss. I think for Watkins, Schar applies enough physical pressure that he doesn’t get the connection he wants so I’ll put that down to good defending. Watkins did literally sit Botman down in the 2nd half. Maybe should’ve done better for the effort on goal. They had a couple of headed opportunities too. Not as close as JL’s header but they did beat us to the ball.

They were both better and worse than the score line suggests ?

Maybe they’re just lacking fitness and sharpness from a less than optimal pre season. They were very open.