There are two images that sum up my own frustrations from the game: firstly, watching our players running into each other in attack - often occupying the same space, or passing into a space where no-one existed. Secondly, passing the ball sideways in our own half with what felt like a listless lack of urgency or idea.
If I reflect on the game a little more now the emotion has subsided, I think that the latter issue got worse as the former became more apparent. Therefore both can be resolved, as I am of the firm conviction that the players in our attack simply hadn't had enough time together to make the 'poetry in motion' sparkle. Instead of late period Byronic, we were more Monday morning McGonagall with a severe hangover.
The sideways passing comes from that lack of confidence and the refuge of 'possession'. In attack, we gave the ball up too easily because the players weren't sure who would be where or when. On song, we take risks, many of which come off. Tentative, we develop too slowly, yet still give up the ball and have to recover for the inevitable counter. Repetition of this stokes fear, and this is the Chimp that Dr Peters strives to remove from players' minds. I think we ought to try and be more swashbuckling rather than less, more positive and confident, when faced with an obdurate team - but that has its down falls too, as we saw against Chelsea last year.
I actually thought we played pretty well defensively. The corners were a problem, of course - Senderos particularly was left unmarked many a time, and it was baffling that no-one on the pitch seemed to take charge of that till the second half. But in open play, we were strong, capable and good at intercepting just as at Spurs. This unit too, is new and will take time to settle into its strengths.
The game reminded me of nothing so much as the opening few games of last season. Still learning, still trying to gel, still trying to understand a system and where one's colleagues would turn up and what they would try. Villa played to their game plan and did so very well. However, we were inches away from scoring a couple of times in the first half and mere millimetres from Phillipe's effort in the second half.
The truth is, everyone learns far more from failure than they do from success. We are a learning organisation, with a lot of new players - too many, in that game, for us to be able to recover from a stupid first goal. It happens. We were very good against Spurs, and pretty much everyone, including the boss, had a bit of an off-game on Saturday. There is however, lots and lots to learn from and Ludogorets to play shortly after.
Brendan is a young manager faced with impossible expectations, and he will always be the kind of manager that will try things. Keeping Sterling on the bench was probably the right decision (we really don't want to break him as well) and we have something of an injury crisis for the most experienced of our team, which meant the newbie quotient was too high. I'm not sure what else Brendan could have done in the circumstances. Lambert did him once again, and he will have to work out a way to stop that - but had our first choice team been available, or had this game come in the second half of the season when our squad is fully integrated to the system, I think Villa would have left badly crushed.
I saw lots of good signs in the game as well - Markovic had some good ideas, but you could see he was trying to think what he should be doing rather than knowing instinctively where his team-mates would be and thinking what he could be doing. Phillipe seems to be forcing things rather than letting the game flow, again because he had a brick wall in front and no-one dragging it around and out of position. Lallana was doing well but would have done better, I think, in the middle. As noted earlier, I think the defence did well overall, but the full backs both started getting into the frustrated crossing mentality (perhaps more used in their previously clubs?) and the centre backs into keep-ball.
I'll be fascinated to see how we learn from this and step on again.
