Official Villa post match reaction thread. {merged - trial}

[Marvin]

Re: Difference between a team....

which CAN win the title, and a team which WILL win the title.

Up until just a couple of years ago, and including the victory at OT under Sven, we were accused of raising our game when it mattered, and not having much ambition when it didn't.

Today, and for the next year, 5 years, 10 years...however the Sheikh is incharge and we are successful, teams WILL be us from those years we were unambitious. Today Villa didn't prove they can beat us, they proved we are the team to beat. United will go to those places and win, a fact backed up by their trophy cabinet, same goes for Chelsea.

Its a learning curve. I was pissed off with the result, but not the performance. Dominant in possession, dominant in passes, attacks.. we just need that next level now where we do what Man United do and WIN at those places. It will happen, too.

Don't mean to be pedantic, but neither United or Chelsea won at Villa Park this season. Our away record is better than both of theirs.

Even in defeat you can see the progress. Villa paid us a back-handed compliment by defending brilliantly for an hour at home. When teams do that it isn't easy to break them down. We've done that on occasion to a few top 4 teams in seasons gone past. I was hoping that Villa would take the game too us, but they had numbers behind the ball for almost the entire game

Good Luck to Villa. You have to give credit to your opponents when they play well, and they did today.

 

[lancs blue]

I thought we were poor all over the park in the first half today, gave away possession far too easily. Second half we should have made the dominance count but credit to Villa they defended well and closed us down very quickly in midfield.

Does Hart have a bit of a blind spot with shots coming across his body from his right? The goal today was similar to the one at Stoke in that he didn't get a firm enough hand on the shot, disappointing from England's No.1. Kolarov's defending is a worry, once a player goes past him he seems to be taken out of the game completely.

 

[cleavers]

Kolarov's defending is a worry, once a player goes past him he seems to be taken out of the game completely.

I thought he was our best player, defended well for me, and got forward well.

 

[Bl0od]

Re: Dzeko & Barry Today

Dzeko is absolutely superb, holds the ball up better than tevez imo, left the defenders for dead at times.

first touch, control and awareness is just class, gonna be a really big player for us.

Barry - i didn't wanna barry playing today, today showed why, we've learnt a lesson today, never ever play barry at villa park, bottled it just like last season, he was shocking.

wouldn't play him at Brum either, he was exactly the same there, quality player but shouldn't feature in either brum or villa away, waste of a player on the pitch tonight, was like playing with 10 men.

totally agree!

 

[lancs blue]

Kolarov's defending is a worry, once a player goes past him he seems to be taken out of the game completely.

I thought he was our best player, defended well for me, and got forward well.

He certainly did well going forward but I remain to be convinced about his defending, I'll have a look at the recording and see if it looks better 2nd time around.

 

[Bill]

was i at the wrong game? villa were lucky, very lucky and when they was'nt being lucky the rag ref stepped in to help them out.
we were slightly below par, kolo had a poor game but we still plenty to win it.

roll on next game cos i'm fucking buzzing that we are a top top side.

 

[Motty]

As far as our performance goes today, I didn't think we were too bad. Had a lot of the ball, passed it well, got forward a lot but the problem was we tried too hard to walk it in and took too many touches, which, especially when a side are as strong defensively as Villa were today, you cannot afford to do. Very annoying that we only had two shots on target, we simply HAVE to do better than that. Johnson in particular could have got something out of the game for us when he came on, had lots of the ball and chances to create things, sadly it didn't quite come off for him. I thought Dzeko did all right, one of our better players, and we should have tried to get the ball to him more, looked quite good when on the ball and that he might make something happen.

As for Villa, as I said, defensively they dug in and made themselves very difficult to break down, they had a unity about them which would be hard for any team to play against. The goal was a silly one to give away, but thats what Bent is all about, he's a poacher and they are the type of goals he will score. Although apart from the goal I didn't think Bent did an awful lot. Would be interesting to see if Villa can keep that sort of performance up against Wigan, or whether they just raised their game because we were the opposition and they really needed a win.

Slightly annoyed it's the FA Cup next week, because it means we've got to wait more than a week to have a chance to bounce back from this and I find it much better when we can bounce back straight away. This result isn't a disaster, far from it, just puts more pressure on the Birmingham game, which is something we could have done without because that will undoubtedly be tough.

Just like to say, the way 'Don't worry about a thing' was sung for such a long period of time was great, well done lads :) .

 

[LoveCity]

If we can figure out how to attack persistently and with consistent tempo and incision, teams will fall to us more and more. I hate to say it but the way the scum do it, they attack, attack, attack until teams just cave under pressure but at the same time (just like us and unlike Spurs), know how to tighten up and keep goals out.

 

[Helmet Cole]

Lucky to get a point at Highbury, unlucky not to get one today but it balances out. It's not that long since there were as many divisions as there are now places between us and the league title and it will come.

 

[ultimateharold]

Should Clark have gone?

I thought on another day, we'd have got a point at least today, but his first on Tevez, although early in the game, was, in my eyes, a yellow.

His second, therefore, would have meant he's off.

Anyhow, 2 defeats in ages is hardly the disaster many are making out.