I had a family thing straight after the match, so late to this party.
I think the formation is probably the same help and hindrance it has always been since prime Nuno. Yes we look more secure in most defensive situations, but takes a creative player off the pitch when we have the ball. The way Villa played against us is more in keeping with how others will do at home than Man City, sit off and ask us to break them down. That's where I think we miss a more traditional 9 to play off and takes Cunha's strengths away as he needs to come from deeper in those games. We created little in that starting 343 other than relying on Neto's brilliance. Trying to pass out from the back using Sa, Toti and to a lesser degree Dawson isn't going to be productive and will cause more harm than good. Toti in particular isn't capable of a pass that's more than 5 yards and looks uncomfortable every time the ball is at his feet. Teams will notice that and look to take advantage.
Sasa is an interesting one, one lovely ball for Neto's miss and a couple of other nice lays offs, an awful shank when he should be hitting the target as an absolute minimum and to me looked like he's running in treacle. Having seen so little of him pre injury I'm not sure whether that's just what he is ot whether it's fitness related.
I'd have taken Fabio off and put Doyle on when Lemina was sent off, yes it's harsh on him, but it would have been the correct call tactically imo. We got through that last 10 mins by luck, it could have been managed better.
I said it about Luton the other night, but conceding after scoring is amateurish, particularly when it's not as a result of particularly good play. Don't know whether Lemina just let Torres go, or whether he thought he was passing him on to Semedo, but it was awful from one or other of them, more likely the former and self inflicted
