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Absolutely bonkers game of football. Southampton had their own goal of the month competition + a free header off a set piece, and #avfc created enough to win it despite that. Showed tremendous character not to chuck the towel in. But having said that...
I said after Fulham that we’d struggle if we were that open. I said against Leeds that if we got dragged into an open game, we’d get beat. And same today. #avfc seem to have forgotten their limitations. Playing open, expansive football is not good for us.
We make poor decisions 1 v 1 (hence all the set pieces) and have players who thrive playing close together. As soon as we become stretched we are rash & isolated. What we don’t lack is the quality to create opportunities. We are much much better keeping compact. #avfc
What we are, as we saw against Liverpool is a much improved counter attacking side. Against Leeds & Southampton at home, and to a lesser extent Fulham away, we think the onus is on us to go & win it. We allow ourselves to become open early & we get punished. #avfc
It’s illustrated best by the fact that whenever we concede a goal, we become more ragged. We go chasing a game we don’t need to chase, and we give ourselves too much to do. Keep it sensible at 0-1 and we’ve got the players to win it, as we saw at Leicester. #avfc
There’s an issue of balance in midfield, a tactical issue of being what I’d call too ‘chaotic’ and probably a small element of believing our own hype. We’re a good side. We’ve got players who can hurt teams. We need to be a responsible one more often now too. #avfc
Conversely - I think we are quite well suited to playing Arsenal away if we retain our discipline. Don’t need big changes. Just need to be bloody sensible. Hopefully late fightback has raised confidence a bit. And still two points up to 47. Need to see some maturity now. #avfc
