Aston Villa (H) - Post-Match Thread

[kaz7]

He was starting to have a go at Neville who started to look sheepish when the presenter said quickly we better finish there.

That is a surprise

 

[Citizen Mike]

First half showed the boys can still perform as needed, so theres no excuses from here on in they have to go out and deliver, they get beat trying then so be it thats football.

Foden worries me though, something clearly not right, fingers crossed he can find a bit of form.

He just needs games

 

[r.soleofsalford]

This is an Aston Villa vlog from the game, you can skip most of it, but he captured our goals really well from his position in the gods in the away fans section.

The Villa fans chants were everything we knew they'd be.

It`s nice to see their smacked arses when we score.

 

[JewelZee]

Would have taken 3-1 before kickoff but at half time I thought we would really do them and score six. Great to see Ruben and Laporte back - if we can consistently get our best team out I think we will win the league.

City till I die

I could be wrong but read somewhere that including yesterday City have earned 46 of a maximum 51 points when Dias and Laporte play together. 15-1-1 over 17 matches...

 

[Inter Me Nan]

This is an Aston Villa vlog from the game, you can skip most of it, but he captured our goals really well from his position in the gods in the away fans section.

The Villa fans chants were everything we knew they'd be.

Don't like Grealish do they the small time cunts!

 

[ChicagoBlue]

Foden worries me though, something clearly not right, fingers crossed he can find a bit of form.

He’s become a bit one dimensional hugging the left touchline. Pep is in danger of turning him into a Sterling or Sané on the left wing…provide the relief valve for the full back or midfielder, but then give it right back to them.

Have always felt Foden’s best position is left midfield, but even when coming on as a sub, others are putting in a stronger shift. He should be able to play flat out for 30 minutes, but looks a little slow and possibly stifled/shackled by the demands of Pep or the position.

Bernie and Rodri did a very good job of playing 4th defender, up until Rodri trusted Bernie too much, and Bernie lost the ball with Rodri not having dropped back filled the middle on the back line.

CBs had spread to create the space for the out ball, but when he dribbled into a tackle and lost it, Rodri wasn’t playing last man and Watkins was being played on by the wide CBs. Not either of their better moments in the game, but beyond that glaring error, I thought those two literally bossed the game and the 3-2-2-3 allowed us to boss the middle of the field, with KDB and Gundo able to slot into those attacking midfielder/inside right & left channels.

With our wingers sliding up and down the line to add numbers to the area of play (wherever the ball is!), we are constantly able to overload teams with this formation.

The problem, of course, is that opposition teams with their own wide players expose the middle of our back line to runners and opposition overloads.

It’s hard to see beyond a 4-4-2 against The Arse, with a midfield of Rodri & Bernie shielding the back 4, while KDB & Gundo play the creative role for Haaland and ??? further forward.

 

[Username Required]

I could be wrong but read somewhere that including yesterday City have earned 46 of a maximum 51 points when Dias and Laporte play together. 15-1-1 over 17 matches...

It was a tweet from OPTA Joe and you remember correctly.

 

[Bluemart]

Thought he played well, but has definitely lost some potency with his killer pass or cross.

He played better but far too many wayward passes

 

[Tangled up in blue.]

I still have this feeling that it's Champions League or bust for the manager and players and club this season,
Silky, as it looks like we are just doing enough in the league to get a top 4 place, and it's game management by pep,
We want all the best players fit and fully charged up for when it comes around in a couple of weeks,

you could see it yesterday when we had 4 or 5 players starting that have been out over the last couple of months.
That first half, we just had far too much for Villa and the game was won, pep puts them back in the box and turns to just holding and passing it around and controlled the 2nd half,

The question is now can we still win the Premier League if we really want it ? The Arsenal game in midweek is Key,
We can go there fully take them apart and win the game and go top ? But then we have to defend the top spot for the rest of the season and play the main team every week and juggle the team in the FA Cup and Champions League,

if you offered pep and city Champions League title right now, they would bite your hand off, even if we finished 5th or 6th in the league and Arsenal won the title everybody would be happy,

SO BIG BIG game up next for all the reasons I have just quoted, we will see before and after the result what we have up our sleeves, 16 Premier League games, then a possible 7 Champions League games, 3 FA, cup games,

So I make it around 26 games if we want it all, Yes we have the squad of players good enough to do, if the game management has worked and pep has been protecting them, so we have legs in the run

Premier league every time for me

 

[Tangled up in blue.]

I am with you, that second half performance was not game management it was just laziness by the whole team.

If they keep doing that we will win sod all.

If they do that against the tarquins they'll punish us