Aston Villa (H) - Post-Match Thread

[jimharri]

@GoatersLeftShin and @Dodge

If you can't/won't put each other on ignore, please take your disagreement to pms.

 

[Oystercatcher28]

Cos hes a winner. wears massive shorts cos his balls are so big. Hes probably shit at penalties but he was stepping up for it.

Almost thought they were new Ballotelli chant lyrics

 

[Millwallawayveteran1988]

Thought we were much better first half and in control of the game from the start to finish of that half. Second half, not so good and very sloppy in the last 15 mins.

 

[Dodge]

@GoatersLeftShin and @Dodge

If you can't/won't put each other on ignore, please take your disagreement to pms.

Christ, that escalated quickly.

 

[Constantine]

Ederson, 7 - performance was a big relief today

Walker, 8 - another relief
Dias, 8 - thank god he's fit again
Rodri, 10 - covered every inch of grass and scored
Laporte, 7 - another one I'm happy to see returning

Gundogan, 8 - proper box to box stuff today
Bernardo, 7 - covered a lot of ground, bit unlucky for Villa's goal
De Bruyne, 9 - nice to have you back, Kevin

Mahrez, 6 - was in and out the game, took his penalty well
Haaland, 8 - just get the ball to him and watch him cause chaos
Grealish, 9 - deserved one of those amazing crosses to be finished off

Mahrez worst player? lol, he was involved in all three goals, even the second one. Some people ... smh

 

[eyalluvitt]

No wonder Akanji is known as 'cheap hotel' by the players due to the lack of clean sheets. He gave them three big chances in 20 minutes, woeful

 

[Vic]

did anyone see the flock of parakeets in the first half? Must have been forty of them

Parakeets? More of them than sparrows.

Now a pelican on the Platt Lane roof, that's something.

 

[Metal Biker]

Akanji really is the £16m defender he is.

Doesn't get touch tight, Pep screaming at him repeatedly to do so.

Can't win shit in the air and positionally weak.

The drop off is huge which is a shame, because he looked composed on the ball when he first arrived.

Walker has defo peaked and, dare I say it, losing a bit of pace.

De Bruyne continues to frustrate and be careless, while Mahrez played for himself.

Decent first half from Bernie, Gundo and Rodders, and job done by then.

A second half to forget, such was the boredom.

Fair summary; i'm mostly disaapointed about the second half drop off because I wanted City to send a message to the coonts that everyone is now on notice.

 

[Toney’s bookie]

We play two out of the three of Dias, Laporte and Stones at CB for the rest of the season and we win the league. The step up in quality is huge. That's not to slag off Ake and Akanji but they are backup level, not first choice. We gain so much offensively with our first choice CBs.

 

[CPPSC]

I was really nervous about this game with the ridiculous number of changes in defence again. I genuinely cannot understand why we constantly play different combinations of defenders in the defence. It's no surprise we've a very soft underbelly when the players don't know if they will be playing, where they will be playing or who they will be playing next to. It's all very well being a bit of a smart arse against Villa, but try that against Arsenal, Real and PSG and they will rip us a new one. It has to stop as it's going to cost us something this season.

This might be a bit negative, but it's narked me today that game. It's probably more a combination of things over the last few months but even though we won 3-1 it papered over cracks for me.

Anyway, it was a real game of two halves that.

The best thing in the 1st half was getting the early goal. Without that I suspect we'd have reverted to the left-to-right-and-back-again passing we've been doing the last few months. Once that goal was scored by Rodri, the game changed. I thought Rodri was immense today - powerful, great passing and just ran the show. Gundogan showed some top class touches too and really showed his class throughout the game. I felt sorry for Bernardo as he was playing as some "left sided, right sided defensive attacking holding defender midfielder" and at times was all over the show.

Second half we came out looking uninterested and lacking passion - not for the first time this season. Did we really think Villa would come out and sit back and take it? It was another "first attack, goal" as well - when will we learn this suckerpunch?! They were unlucky and if another had gone in, we'd have crumbled I suspect. We also had a good few chances but why let them even have a sniff? Get the game killed off!!

I am a HUGE Haaland fan. Simply put, he's the best striker I've ever seen. However, something is seriously off with him. Unless he scores a hat-trick it's starting to feel like he's a waste of a shirt at times as we give him so little service. Why buy the best striker on the planet and give him nothing to attack?

The decision to let Mahrez take the penalty was FUCKING CRETINOUS. Haaland hasn't missed one, so give him the ball. Mahrez has missed plenty so why is he anywhere near it? It was a scandalous decision that made the team look clueless. The Captain should get the fucking ball and give it to Haaland, simple as that. It's these kind of stupid decisions which are creeping in (eg playing 18 year old, right footed Lewis as a left sided inverted full back FFS) which do my head in. Keep it simple.

I also didn't understand the substitutions. Why rest Grealish when he's in a bit of form? He can't be tired? Same with Haaland - has he ever finished a game? Why rest him when we don't pass to him?

Anyway, sorry to gripe but it's been building really and whilst I could write this if we'd lost 1-3 it feels better doing it after a routine win.

Ok Haaland waste of a shirt apart from his superb assist. He had a niggle and received treatment on touchline before penalty- maybe he said over to you Riyhad as seemed to be the case . Obviously the reason for no show in 2nd half.
Greaslish rested to give Foden much needed minutes.
Apart from that not too much wrong.