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We barely got in there because they barely got out of there.
People have to get into their heads that a game of football lasts 90 mins.
When you are playing against a team who are setup to do one thing - defend and counter when they win the ball back - the way to frustrate them is to not give them the ball and wear them down physically and mentally.
We did that vs Palace as can be seen by the result.
We were excellent in that second half against Palace. Almost as excellent as you could be against a low block team. Three goals, post hit, probably could have been more. Anyone who can't see that is just being a moaning cunt for the sake of it really.
Weird.
Second half
Yep, excellent stuff.
So many times against these low block teams, we lack aggression, lack in our speed of play and almost feels like we try and score the perfect goal instead of just taking shots.
Palace first half was just that. Second half though we were aggressive, we were quicker and created much much more.
Palace didn't play any differently, they had even more right to sit back when they went ahead. We simply had too much because we were excellent. Unlike against Wolves for example when we were actually poor
Unfortunately some fans will not be happy, regardless. We could have scored those 3 goals in the first half. And had a goalless second half and the same people would have complained that we didn't take it to the team more.
That really isn't what happened. We had PLENTY of opportunities to speed up the play and get at them, but we flat out refused to do it.
Palace didn't even have to defend well to stop us. We let them get into their shape and we didn't bother trying to do anything about it.
Youre being so hyperbolic. We did bother, we just were not successful in drawing them out and finding/making space.
No, I'm no having it. We took 20 passes to do what 2 or 3 would have done better. And we did it fucking relentlessly until we went 1 down and changed it.
The only highlight of the entire first half was a bounce that sent Werner through. The rest of it was like watching a training game where they'd been told to practice passing and not to score.
If our game plan is to wear teams out by passing around them for an hour, I'm not happy with it. At all. That's boring and likely to end up with losses we didn't expect.
It’s not the first time this season either
Failing to do something doesn't mean you weren't trying to do it.
(For reference; think all the effort you expend and yet still end up chatting bollocks 90% of the time....)
You're talking about the performance, I'm talking about the defensive setup
They setup the same way when they defend in literally every match, that's how Emery plays and that's how he's always played his entire managerial career, he's not going to change his tactics for us because he's never done that before.
What are you on about mate - We had already created numerous chances in the second half before they scored.
To be fair, every single team. (Inc the four above us) have struggled to break down teams who low block this season. Every single one of them. Because that's football and sometimes things don't go your way.
Most of the games we've either dropped points or lost this season haven't been against teams who tend to drop deep and counter. Which tells me we tend to do okay against them because we ultimately create enough chances.
Fair enough.
Then tbh I'm expecting a better performance from them. They'll press the shit out of us, which we know as a team we don't like and theyll overload our wings because we're useless at defending them.
I said before I'd be amazed if we won and I don't think a draw will ultimately be good enough for top four. I think both Villa and Emery have our humber. So my expectations heading into this one are low anyway.
The reason why their strikers don't press is because they want to get Watkins and Bailey/Diaby on the counter attack so they're passive and they use their high line to keep the oppo away from their goal, it's worked pretty much all season apart from teams who have players that can pick out long passes and runners:
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sJkNN7qOzDE&ab_channel=SkySportsPremierLeague
Every team has an Achilles heel, that is theirs and we have the tools to exploit it.
I reckon Villa are a really good match for us personally.
Werner,Sonny and Johnson can give any of their back 4 a few yards and still beat them for pace. There’s no excuse being offside against such a high line. Even Udogie,Porro and Sarr making runs from deeper will destroy them. A straight run from deeper and a diagonal pass should get you in behind. It’s what you do once you get there and how good the opposition are at recovering. We have the best in VDV at recovering and we will get away with it more than most that play that way.
When Chelsea played us when we were down to 9 men it was embarrassingly bad how many times they got caught offside.
You’d be amazed if we won at Villa? I honestly don’t understand that
Far from it. Was just as bad against West Ham, Wolves, Sheffield United, and I'm sure others.
We had 2 shots in 45 minutes. 1 on target.
We had 1 more shot than Palace despite the fact we didn't let them have the ball.
Let that sink in. I'm not even talking shots on target. Shots at all.
This is not because Palace formed some impenetrable barrier around their goal, and were blocking shots and chances with bravely and desire.
Oh no. They saw we got the ball and casually managed to jog back into formation and watch our 46th pass end up back with Vicario.
Go and watch it again. Watch he whole match, not the highlights. We showed absolutely no desire to get at them for at least an hour.
I agree. We found a way to win the game but it’s not good enough for some. We can’t just go out and walk over teams and create loads of chances and win easily every week.
"Amazed" isn't the word I'd use; but be well aware that Emre will realise that this is the biggest game of their season. Unless they choke this will be a fucking tough game.