Holmes_and_Watson

Oh look. We press and get a chance. Wasted it, but looked much better for a moment.

noone picking up the danger. Thee was a good ball avaialbe for AA to run onto and get away. So, obviously we don;t bother doing that.

And that's it. 10 mins. >sigh<

We;re making some strong challenges. This season, the refs should be letting a lot of them stand. Hopefully Arsenal lose their composure a bit, falling over. Missing that defensive midfielder again. Noone stopping them from deep.

Lyanco wastes a good move by having a go. We may not get loads of chances, so that deserved a rollicking. Then AA doesn;t make a run, where a striker with some confidence would always make.

Really good recoveries from Aribo there. He does really well in challenges.

Somehow Villa managing to take the lead without the tactical genius of Steve G 🙂

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4-4-2 says the commentator - Lyanco at right back.

When life gives you lemons ... ... use them alongside the large glasses of tequila or gin you can have, to take away the pain of watching the team. 🙂 (I had a back up when life gives you lemons, take 11 of them and call them a Southampton side, but it might be taken as a bit harsh)

Crash

2 Arsenal own goals and Adams.

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Redmond came off the bench at half time, as Besiktas chased, and got, an equaliser against Trabzonspor.

No. The post could also be read as politicians, clinical mismanagement and corrupt policing held to account. Not pleasant reading the details, but a lot better than any number of other countries have got. If the Conservative Party vote Boris back in, following their own rules, then they will be judged at the next democratically held election, just as they were with him in the last one.

I thought I felt strongly about this topic, but turned out to be a second hand emotion. 🙂

Little podium being prepared outside Villa Park? 🙂

That's quite a cavalier approach to the current situation. 🙂

A commentator in the last few minutes of the Villa game, said that in football, people want results yesterday and managers just don't get the time. Clearly not thinking of us, after our run of results. I think Brighton's approach with Potter has given some managers a longer shelf life.

... brings pitchfork and flaming torch for the ousting of least favourite message board member... oh, the football club board.... 🙂

Injury

Broadly speaking that was a RalphBall v2 success. Get an early lead, followed by progressive containment, constricting space, with Adams as an out. As the game progresses, look to capitalise on teams coming further forward, leaving wider gaps, while bringing on fresh legs for tired ones. So, that worked to Ralph's plan. Personally, I'm not a fan of dropping back as much. Even Bournemouth get more chances against us than anyone else. We're (and probably lots of teams who would try the same thing) will have some errors of judgement in there. Bazunu dropped one late on, Larios posted missing etc. We've all seen us struggle to then turn the game back into attack. It's also requiring players to show some different parts of their game. Some that they are not as strong in. JWP isn't a holding midfielder. He's not as effective that far back when trying to find outballs for the others. It's only late game, when there could be a lot of space (on the rare occassions we still have a lead) that he's more effective. I was hoping AMN would have a bit of everything in a versatile locker. But he's in the same boat, as not really being stand out in anything. Diallo looked better, but that was because he came in when Saints were looking for a break, and he could push forward to his strengths, against tiring opponents. Lavia looked good in the role, and we got rid of the best player we had before that, in Romeu. Both smart enough to cover that area, with some grit and skill. I can't fault the line up too much. It's probably what I expect. Not so much our best XI, that the first pahse of a game plan. It's Stu or Aribo, and Aribo, despite looking a bit of a lump is able to keep the ball. I get that Mo's there to win it back a bit more, and I like to think to give a fullback license to push up. We don't see much of that though, once we're in the lead. But it's those sorts of tireless perfomances that Ralph is looking for. Adams and Perraud worked incredibly hard in particular. As the game stretched, you could see AA getting more of a sniff. But that worked best when Ralph was forced to bring on Stu for KWP. Che, Aribo, Mo and AA for the first part of the game with Stu and either Edozie/ Djenepo coming on later on seems to be the standard plan. It would be nice if we had some better quality in there. Larios looked out of his depth when he came on. Out of position and done a few times too. But he's very young, and if we waited until we were safe in a match, he wouldn't see a minute. Lyanco made a difference when he was on, so Not the sort of set up I particualrly enjoy. I can't see a game where we don't make a human error or two. I can't see a game where we don;t get punished by more clinical opponents either. But I think tonight is broadly, exactly what Ralph is looking for.

Commentator said (I think) that this is the most efforts on goal B'Mouth have had this season. Just that only 1 has been on target. We're really inviting them to have a go on goal.

I'm impressed that Ralph has instilled the essence of desperate hoofing into the team. Tactical genius.