Aston Villa (A) | PL | Post Match Thread

[Stiff Little Wingers]

You cant when this was obvious from day 1. Love Haaland but him and Alvarez on together ...as starters up top..

it was obvious from day 1..Alvarez and Haaland on together...top 8 forward line ill give you that but makes the team no better than a top 8 side

I agree it's not working but Kane isn't coming

 

[JewelZee]

Without KDB, non of our players have either the vision, or the will, to kill a high defensive line with passes behind through to Haaland.

Drive's me mad, because Haaland is the perfect striker to play against a high defensive line. We've played against a few lately, and the lack of service into him is a joke. He's making the runs along the line but the pass never comes, I'd be fuming if I was him

It really is inexplicable...

 

[cucumberman]

Gvardiol! Nunes! Kovacic!

Us being treble winners last season do not desire that we are holier than thou.

Every each game is a performance. It’s better to perform and losing, then to do passive passes at the back for a damp squib strategy.

We lost the calm and collected Gundogan
We lost the free will Mahrez (despite him missing a penalty early stage)
We have an unfit creative and impossible passes de Bruyne
We lost an Option B decision Palmer

The new method we do is robotic predictable passes.

 

[JewelZee]

We should have pulled out all the stops to retain Gundo and gave Walker a gold watch and a framed photo of the treble winners...

Stones was trying to be Rodri. Akanji was trying to be Stones and failing, again. Walker was failing to be Akanji. Gvardiol was failing to be Ake.

Rico and Alvarez impersonating City's vaunted 8s. Foden at his worst position, wide left. Bernardo isolated with Walker and Rico providing him with no one to play off of. Haaland getting ZERO service.

How the fuck did we not get blown off the pitch?

How about Grealish and Doku either side of Haaland, Foden and Bernardo in front of Rodri, and Ake, Dias, Stones, and Akanji left to right in the back?

With all the injuries and suspensions Pep has had a hard time putting together anything remotely consistent but he needs to get back to basics ASAP starting Sunday at Luton.

 

[Eric Hitchmough]

Quote from Pep last night: “We said something at half-time and it was much better, the team had another dynamic but we didn’t find the players to make the assist, the cross, the pass.”

I can remember a decent 5 minutes after the restart but wouldn’t describe it as “much better”.

And not only could we not pass, we couldn’t fucking tackle or shoot either.

 

[Keeper!]

Not long in from coming back from vile park, has anyone ever had a bad day at work? Just asking and I WILL tell you now we WILL WIN the league, quick dust down and we go Luton and batter them, our blue people yes we will be there loud and proud and off to Belgrade Back to back trebles, I reckon. Gonna have to go Saudi week after to let everyone know what we've always known THE BEST TEAM IN THE LAND AND ALL THE WORLD

Luton will be like world war 3, a very, very tough game.

I hope Pep prepares us for that war, if our heads aren't right we could suffer again.

 

[Keeper!]

We should have pulled out all the stops to retain Gundo and gave Walker a gold watch and a framed photo of the treble winners...

Stones was trying to be Rodri. Akanji was trying to be Stones and failing, again. Walker was failing to be Akanji. Gvardiol was failing to be Ake.

Rico and Alvarez impersonating City's vaunted 8s. Foden at his worst position, wide left. Bernardo isolated with Walker and Rico providing him with no one to play off of. Haaland getting ZERO service.

How the fuck did we not get blown off the pitch?

How about Grealish and Doku either side of Haaland, Foden and Bernardo in front of Rodri, and Ake, Dias, Stones, and Akanji left to right in the back?

With all the injuries and suspensions Pep has had a hard time putting together anything remotely consistent but he needs to get back to basics ASAP starting Sunday at Luton.

Gundo WANTED TO LEAVE, end of the debate.

Move on, things change, players come and go.

 

[Wanchope n me Dickov]

Decent team Villa tbf. Just shows how shit Gerrard is as a manager.

I can see them Turning Arsenal over too.

Luton away - I was there last time we played and drew 1-1. Good times

 

[JewelZee]

Gundo WANTED TO LEAVE, end of the debate.

Move on, things change, players come and go.

Fuck off you wobbly, whiney ****...

 

[Eric Hitchmough]

I can see them Turning Arsenal over too.

I can see them being 1-0 up until Arsenal are awarded their obligatory 37 minutes of added time.

 

[Keeper!]

Fuck off you wobbly, whiney ****...

you want to keep a 32 year old player that wants out and who recently married a lady that publicly hated the city she lived in?

He wanted to leave, he gave outstanding service, the club did the right thing.

 

[northstandgiveusasong]

Here's my take on things having been there to witness what we all know was a shambolic performance. Ederson was superb, Diaz played really well and Bernardo at least tried, as for the rest....hmm.

Villa are a quality side and to think they put their 'A' game out there, they were brilliant. As for us, I'll leave it there.

Their fans were so loud (I wish the Ethiad was like that). We were loud too as always but that's what we always have been doing away from home no matter what.

Villa played their 'A' game, City played their "Z' game for want of a saying...an absolute crock of shite...2 shots on target as opposed to Villa's 22, however 1-0 is not a bad scoreline considering...

Heads up and off to Luton 2pm Sunday...

 

[northstandgiveusasong]

Looked light weight in midfield and generally devoid of any idea.

Fortunate it was only 1 nil in the end.

Fair play to Villa they started from the off on the front foot and did until the last minute.

What midfield?

 

[JewelZee]

you want to keep a 32 year old player that wants out and who recently married a lady that publicly hated the city she lived in?

He wanted to leave, he game outstanding service, the club did the right thing.

And they replaced him with who? Alvarez, Kovacic, Rico, you? The midfield 4 that won the treble was KDB, Gundo, Rodri, and Stones. Today it was Rico, Alvarez, Akanji, and Stones. If you let someone of his status leave you make damn sure you have a viable replacement if you want to maintain your level...

BTW, I could give two fucks about Gundo's wife...

 

[citymad]

Without KDB, non of our players have either the vision, or the will, to kill a high defensive line with passes behind through to Haaland.

Drive's me mad, because Haaland is the perfect striker to play against a high defensive line. We've played against a few lately, and the lack of service into him is a joke. He's making the runs along the line but the pass never comes, I'd be fuming if I was him

TBH you can see he's been frustrated for a while. The good news is he loves us but we can't afford to not play to his strengths for much longer. Madness that all we have is Kev who is brave or good enough to pass to him. I think Pep has to have some accountability for this problem. I reckon Foden or Bernie playing centrally in front of Rodri might work. Having said all that Haaland has had plenty of chances INSIDE the box in most of the important games this season including that header in the first half which he should have put away.

 

[Keeper!]

And they replaced him with who? Alvarez, Kovacic, Rico, you? The midfield 4 that won the treble was KDB, Gundo, Rodri, and Stones. Today it was Rico, Alvarez, Akanji, and Stones. If you let someone of his status leave you make damn sure you have a viable replacement if you want to maintain your level...

BTW, I could give two fucks about Gundo's wife...

That's another argument, Gundo told the club early in the season he wanted to leave, so ask Pep/Tixki why we replaced him with lesser players.

We put a lot of time into Bellingham, he chose Madrid, we made a weird attempt at Rice, he got his move to Arsenal, crazy price but he has fitted into that team seamlessly and improved them considerably.

Paqueta was a siltation taken out of our hands, the club seem reluctant to push the boat out , Grealish apart and it's starting to show in the depth of our squad and quality of our MF.

Far, far too much has been asked of Rodri for the last 3 seasons, he looks shattered and as seen, if injured/suspended we are royaly &ucked without him, that not acceptable at a top club.

 

[Great Kompany]

During the summer, when everyone was still high on the treble- there was a certain complacency within City.
Gündogan wanted to stay but was offered a deal very late.
Tried seducing Bellingham and failing and then not putting an extra effort for Rice - the poor chap would have run towards us if Pep made a few calls to him. In fact arsenal did their due diligence and raced ahead.

When all of this was happening there were two reasons for comfort:
1. Our third or 4th choice options are normally really good
2. The genius of Pep to make something out of nothing

The first reason is out of the window now and Baldie now has couple of months to do his magic which currently is not working.

I am okay with not winning anything but to now use the treble high to sign some top class players and instead going away last min for Nunes reeks of desperation. Treble are rarely won and to not use the opportunity to establish us further will be a great miss of this era imho.

Chelsea got Hazard after winning the CL.

 

[JewelZee]

That's another argument, Gundo told the club early in the season he wanted to leave, so ask Pep/Tixki why we replaced him with lesser players.

We put a lot of time into Bellingham, he chose Madrid, we made a weird attempt at Rice, he got his move to Arsenal, crazy price but he has fitted into that team seamlessly and improved them considerably.

Paqueta was a siltation taken out of our hands, the club seem reluctant to push the boat out , Grealish apart and it's starting to show in the depth of our squad and quality of our MF.

Far, far too much has been asked of Rodri for the last 3 seasons, he looks shattered and as seen, if injured/suspended we are royaly &ucked without him, that not acceptable at a top club.

Based on the way we went about replacing Gundogan tells me City greatly underestimated what his leaving would mean. Banking on getting Bellingham was a sucker's move. The Rice move was a charade and last time I checked Paqueta is playing week in and week out. So even if I go along with you that Gundo's time was up, not replacing him with a top talent is the worst thing we've done over the past 6 months, simple as...

 

[Keeper!]

Based on the way we went about replacing Gundogan tells me City greatly underestimated what his leaving would mean. Banking on getting Bellingham was a sucker's move. The Rice move was a charade and last time I checked Paqueta is playing week in and week out. So even if I go along with you that Gundo's time was up, not replacing him with a top talent is the worst thing we've done over the past 6 months, simple as...

100% but Paqueta would now be in our shirt if he did not have the betting charges over his head.

The loss of KDB was huge but have we been complacent with his situation, he's had numerous injuries and missed big chucks of the last 4 seasons and that was never going to improve.

 

[Stoned Rose]

we signed Kovacic who is exactly that

Kovacic couldn’t enforce the dinner queue in a primary school.