roonst83

Massive three points given our very poor start to the season. Utterly horrible  game but we were easily the better team. Saints we’re woeful. Worst I’ve seen them. They posed no threat to our goal. Coutinho looked class and sharp and was his best game since United at home. Best McGinn’s played for us for ages too. He’s very limited, especially on the ball, but in a scrappy game this suited him and he put himself about for 90mins. He was long overdue due that. 

Thought we looked very solid defensively all game I felt and first clean sheet of the season. All four defenders did well. 

Watkins worked hard but as always offers no real threat in goal. He’s better used wider I think but he didn’t have much help in the forward areas. Ashley Young was solid again and our two CB’s did well. 

Lots of lumping it up top and our players seemed clueless a lot of the time on the ball. I would like to see us use and keep the ball much better but ultimate result was all that mattered tonight. Lots to improve still but massive three points.

Bailey looked really poor again. Im just not convinced he’s good enough to start for us most of the time. He’s too weak, has very poor decision making and can’t seem to get past his man. He was awful on the ball last night too and lost possession so much. 

It looks like Gerrard has gone back to keeping things simple in the same way he did in his first batch of games. It’s not pretty but it makes us harder to beat and I think that’s probably his limit as a coach (at present). Our central midfield is still an issue. Luiz should be starting  with Boo Boo - although looks like we’ll be losing the latter for a period of time. Typical. 

So, it was a vital three points for us but an utterly forgettable game. I’m confident we can play better so better to be the team that takes three points in such a poor game so we can hopefully move forwards. Winning is a good feeling and we need to try make that into a habit. Whether Gerrard can achieve that I’m not so sure but we needed that win tonight desperately and it adds more value to the point we gained against City. 

8 hours ago, wedge said:

Presuming Bednarek can't feature against his parent club?

Correct. 

The City result was big for us but I do wonder if, tactically, it's much easier or straight forward for Gerrard to prime the players to sit back and try counter. Obviously the opposition is world class but the nature of defending for your lives and picking them off if you're still in the game, could be argued, is easier to set up. Leicester poses a conundrum for Gerrard as he'll have to weigh up how much we "go for it" by bringing in more creative players, against nullifying the opposition as we did well last week. I wouldn't be surprised to see a similar set up to how we started against City but bring in Countinho/Buendia earlier in the second half if it's still tight. 

4 minutes ago, Made In Aston said:

Was waiting for this. The guy can finish no question. But I stand by the fact he’s too weak and I never see him beat a man.

Lovely finish tonight. 

Just now, daft said:

What?

See above image from Twitter.

This has all the feelings of that dreaded day a couple of seasons ago when Danny Drinkwater made his horror show debut. The whole club seems to be lacking confidence and belief ion themselves, from the manager and channeled through the players. And we've got such a weak mentality at the moment too. I'm expecting a battering to be honest. Haarland will just destroy us. 

I usually have more faith in a better performance playing these at home rather than away. But this isn't the case this weekend. At best I'm hopeful of a decent performance to build some degree of confidence, but it all feels like it's gone too far right now and until we lose the manager I can't see anything improving. 

3 hours ago, Demitri_C said:

This is so wrong. He looks a massive threat just not played properly in a system thats not getting the best out of him.

If poch rodgers or potter has him in their team you see a meaning bailey

I hope so mate. But he doesn't seem to be able to take a player on which worries me as a winger. Hopefully a better coach can bring the best out of him as we were all so excited when he arrived. 

Looks more interested. But really doesn’t look equipped to ever cause a threat in this league. 

There’s just absolutely zero signs of improvement. 

At least we’ll have something to play for during Spring. 

Flattering scoreline. Should’ve been dead and buried by half time. 

We lack any belief in ourselves, both throughout the game but especially when we score. Such a weak mentality and that’s driven by the head coach. 

Forget the transfer deadline day. We need a new manager way more than we need a new player

9 minutes ago, birdman said:

His flaws are far outweighed by what he brings to the club. Someone to look up to and listen to. He's just a better captain and I'm not sure McGinn is having the same impact.

Agree that he's the most naturally suited captain. The decision to remove him as captain was completely unnecessary as smacked of Gerrard wanting to put his own stamp on things without any sound reason. The captaincy wasn't broken so didn't need fixing. 

Without wanting to speak for all, I felt the general consensus about Mings was a lot of fans felt we could do with better to achieve our ambitions of pushing for Europe, but most would also agree that the current set up/team is stronger with him in it.

For me there's usually a divide between those that see him as a calamity waiting to happen and those that see him a a strong leader. For me, the two aren't mutually exclusive. He is both of these things. He makes calamitous mistakes and loses focus, but leads up well from the back and can also play great.

We go again. Sadly. 

The saddest thing about today was the sheer inevitably about it. 

4 minutes ago, MakemineVanilla said:

His reputation and early form raised expectations, and that is the main problem.

Disappointment brings out the churl in all of us.

He is one of the few players who can retain possession, which is very important for the team, but his end-product has been disappointing, which stays in the memory longer than the good stuff he does.

His passing has been patchy, his long-range shooting has been frustating at best, and as seen against Bolton, his free-kicks have been poor.

Obviously a technically gifted player but has yet to find the spark we hoped would be reignited in a less pressurised environment away from Barcelona.

While he is seen as Villa's main creative source, teams will crowd him out, and so other players will need to step up, in that department.

 

Agree with this. Spot on with this summary.

21 hours ago, VillaParkAvenue said:

Checked some West Ham forums, Moyes isn’t exactly loved right now.

”If he carries on playing the same way,there is not a chance in hell.
Dosen't he realise,we have been found out the way we have been playing.It's not like we try and have a go?We just sit back and wait and try and hit Antonio and Bowen or try and get a set piece.There is nothing else to our game.I watched the 2 other games today.Newcastle gave it a real go today against City.What a brilliant game to watch.Throughly enjoyable.Leeds took it to Chelsea and demolished them.Us v City,the biggest bore I have seen for a while.City playing like they were having a kick about with the young kids at the club.That was embaressing,when you watched how Newcastle played especially.No wonder there is no conifedence in the team?
IF Moyes carries with this negativity,nevermind not getting results,he needs to leave.Put Warburton in charge till Christmas.”

”Have to say one of the worst and inept displays from this football club and I’ve seen some **** shit over the years.
Zouma plays like a patient with **** club feet 
Soucek is a total embarrassment on the **** pitch
Fabianski too **** old
Antonio two bob
Bowen **** woeful 
Rice seems disinterested never thought I’d say that 
Lanzini what a **** joke he is
Fornals runs around a bit but does the square root of **** all.
Cresswell needs replacing pronto 
Coufal needs replacing got his feet under the table for decent money now don’t give a ****
Give the new fellas a bit more time but I can see them getting pissed off big time the way this clown keeps playing the same **** way week after week so predictable it’s **** embarrassing.
We will be in deep shit in the next month or so.
You can’t even make excuses for the words removed
**** dogshit.”

My real fear here is that I’m not sure Gerrard will have “found out” the way they’ve been playing and be able to capitalise on it. 

Whereas we’ve shown we’re easily found out by the likes of Bournemouth who comfortably beat us. Moyes must be licking his lips at the prospect of facing us to turn their fortunes around. 

Enjoyed watching that. Poor first half but it was a competitive opening 45 mins. Our gulf in class showed second half but credit to Bolton for pushing us. Just how a cup tie should be. We were much improved after the break and took complete control. 

Thought McGinn was a weak spot for us. Just seems very imbalanced with him in the middle for us. Like having Kamara and Luiz in the middle as it provides more protection for the defence without the ball and should allow for some freedom and roaming for the #8 with the ball. We’re still light in terms of strength in the middle of the park but I liked how we matched their effort and we weren’t out fought as we were in our other two away fixtures this season. 

In the next round of the cup and ran out convincing so content with that. Game probably makes zero difference on what will be a typically very tough game on Sunday but enjoyed it tonight and pleased we gave the travelling support, and us back home, something to cheer. 

Arsenal will utterly ruin us. 

Result was completely expected. The Everton game papered over the cracks. Only annoyance is getting our hopes up after taking the lead. 

No cohesion. No game plan. No idea. No togetherness. No team spirit. No chance.

Have absolutely zero faith we have the right coach to progress us. 

Always looks decent to me, no idea why he hasn't featured much (other than injuries).

I feel Palace would punish us more than Everton did the other day given the opportunities they had. We need them to come right at us and not sit back as we find it too hard to break teams down if they sit back. Palace, I don't think, will sit back.

57 minutes ago, JAMAICAN-VILLAN said:

Our games are usually very competitive, did we beat them twice last season or was it a win and a draw?

Won away and drew at home at the end of the season.