KentVillan

53 minutes ago, GeordieVillan said:

That clearance was a howler, but I think we should remember that he’s generally played a decent part this season in a team that is going to finish 4th/5th.

This season was also his return from a pretty major injury, and our back 4 has changed a lot all season because of injuries etc.

I wouldn’t be too upset if he moved on this summer, but I also think if he stays then he’s a decent squad player and we might struggle to do better than him as a backup. 

Pau / Mings (assuming he comes back strong) / Konsa / Carlos and one more should be enough to cover to centreback places next season. Depending on the quality of the “one more”, Carlos may be 5th choice, and I think if he ends up being our 5th choice then we are in pretty good shape!

Feel like replying to most of the threads in this forum with words to this effect. Memories are very short on here sometimes.

He’s played enough games this season in a top 4 side that he must be doing something right.

I do agree with others that on the eye test it often looks like there’s limited brain power going into some of those decisions, and his physique often seems to have more cosmetic than practical value.

But Emery wouldn’t keep starting him if he was as bad as some on here are claiming. I think he’s pretty solid for a 3rd choice CB at this stage in our development.

The problem position is RB not CB.

9 hours ago, Lichfield Dean said:

Not been mentioned much tonight, but I think he had a bit of an impact when he came on and in retrospect I think he should have been given much more time. We needed a big strong guy to help deal with Chelsea's physicality and speed and he would have been a really helpful target up front.

Completely agree, I think Chelsea’s defence were enjoying the lack of real threat on the break, and he would have been a threat if we’d brought him on earlier

1 hour ago, OutByEaster? said:

The system and the passing let Ollie down last night - not the other way around.

 

He had a poor game individually too IMO, it wasn’t one or the other

28 minutes ago, Pinebro said:

Unpopular opinion, but apart from the pen I Thought he had a really good game.

I agree, the pen was a shocker and sadly you cannot make mistakes like that as a right back at this stage in his career. It was such a simple decision to not dive in there, most top flight right backs aren’t giving away that pen there, the thought just wouldn’t cross their mind to do what he did.

But he was pretty good the rest of the game, and his long throws were useful for setting Watkins, Bailey and Diaby free.

Don’t think that was a foul on Diaby tbh. If it was, it was so minor & debateable that VAR were right to go with on field decision. Players need to be tougher there, and Cash needed to be smarter

Can’t believe* how easy Cash made it for him to win the pen. We could all see it coming from a mile off

* obviously I can unfortunately

Shame as he’s been quite good otherwise

1 hour ago, osmark86 said:

Not sure if shared yet, but love Lee's commentary on this one haha:

 

Felt every single emotion watching that one. Brilliant!

Was anyone else cackling at Emi making all those kids cry 

Testament to his progression too that when he came on I didn’t think “oh this is a last roll of the dice” but was actually expecting him to cause them problems.

There were a couple of moments where I thought he showed great calmness and discipline, and I thought the yellow was completely undeserved

Thought he completely changed the game tbh, what a player he has become 

This ref is an idiot, bad manner with the players, desperate to get cards out, aggressive, overreacts to everything.

He’s going to lose control of this game 100%

21 hours ago, DJBOB said:

I think it’s no surprise that Unai has turned to Morgan (and Zaniolo) despite his youth and out of possession learning. 
 
In January, teams started figuring out they could press us early into mistakes because we had no out ball. Diaby and Bailey were not consistent enough back to goal. Tielemans is better facing forward and not under the isolated pressure out left or out top. Watkins was often isolated and McGinn was not a constant duel winner up the pitch. 
 
So by turning to Morgan and Zaniolo, we now had much more physicality and ball carrying to drag us up the pitch against the press. 

Very smart post. Could call them “hold up wingers” - Grealish offered a bit of that too.

I like Rogers a lot, he just seems to have settled straight in with no dramas.

22 minutes ago, tonyh29 said:

like a lot of players , some opposition team  seem to suit their style of play better than others 

(Carlos is probably still trying to figure out how to explain to his wife why he came home with another man in his pocket last night , but Carlos has struggled against other types of forward )

 

Doug is the same , he seems to play with such a  laid back style that when it doesn't work he can look like a liability , but when it does work he is the engine room that keeps a lot of what we do ticking  .. we will need him on Thursday more than Yuri i think 

Spot on, and on top of that Luiz has been playing a lot of minutes week in week out so maybe not that surprising that slightly fresher legs coming into his position has helped.

9 minutes ago, Pinebro said:

How well he manages the squad is just night and day different from how we capitulated under MON

He's just world class

Yeah this is the thing that has impressed me so much this season. Last season it was the tactics and coaching, but this it’s been remarkable the way he’s handled injuries and suspensions. We have a proper injury crisis, competing on two fronts, and the dent in our form has been relatively small.

24 minutes ago, jayEm said:

I don't want to take anything away from him because he's absolutely brilliant, but his goal today takes a deflection of Smith-Rowe, right? He goes for a chip of sorts but it's the touch off the top of ESR's boot that loops it up over the keeper yeah? Might have gone in anyway but it's not quite the sublime chip I initially thought it was

Again, not trying to detract from him, he forces the goal either way and he's been sensational this season. Beautiful player.

I was struggling to work out what the original trajectory was. On one angle it looked like it would have gone in anyway. The deflection did make it look particularly clinical though 

23 minutes ago, PieFacE said:

Feel like we're going to get battered today. Something like 5-1. 

Same  

Newcastle have a ridiculously easy run-in except for a game against Man Utd. Could see them picking up near enough max points and causing us and Spurs problems.

56 minutes ago, Delphinho123 said:

Overrated 

We need a face palm reaction 

14 minutes ago, MrBlack said:

He absolutely was trying to get the ball back.  He thought he could win it and if he didn't then the game was going to end in a draw.

That foul was not a booking anyway. The ref ignored Ajer for 97 minutes despite committing more fouls and more cynical ones than that one from Luiz.

And he needed a rest anyway. He's been off the boil for a few games so I don't think he'll be especially missed compared with when he was on top form, and it may give him chance to get back to that form.  He'll still be playing 90 minutes a week anyway because of the Europa conference games, so this isn't the disaster it could have been, and he'll probably learn from this that picking up some of the more stupid bookings he did earlier in the season will come back to bite him. 

Think it probably was a booking technically, but agree with the rest of your post... refs are inconsistent, and Dougie definitely needs a break.

18 minutes ago, david-avfc said:

No one is questioning his ability or how good he has been for us... but that yellow card, 10 seconds of the allocated stoppage time left to play and he leaves his foot in like that... it's beyond moronic. Perhaps Emery should have subbed him (especially as he got away with one a few minutes earlier) but the player shouldn't be that stupid, especially that late in the game what was he hoping to achieve such a careless foul that late on

I don't think he was deliberately leaving his foot in. I think he was genuinely trying to win the ball back and get 3 pts. It's on Emery really to make the call there - that feels like a managerial mistake to me. But the sides above us would have a ready-made replacement on the bench, and we don't really.

While we're beating up on him, something I just spotted...

Dougie has the most Villa Premier League appearances (171) of any player in the current squad, ahead of McGinn (163). And he's second on overall Villa appearances, as McGinn has a Championship season, and Mings surprisingly has fewer Villa apps despite the extra season.

And he's still only 25. Think we underrate his contribution sometimes. He has a very tough job to do in the middle there with Kamara out.

Got no problem with what he said, nor his performance, but wonder if it was the wisest thing to throw that out in public.

Firstly, even though he says he's referring to himself as part of the team, he's clearly having a dig at players other than him who let Brentford back in the game. Wonder how well that will be received in the dressing room.

Secondly, it's being spun way out of proportion with what he said, which was more a comment on the specific game. BBC reporting it as if he's said the club/team in general has no bottle.

Oh well. Quality player, and likeable too, has probably earnt the right to say stuff like this.

1 minute ago, timbaughan said:

Bottled it yet again, will finish 6th at best

All 3 teams fighting for 4th / 5th are bottle jobs, so let's not overreact. Will be a few more twists and turns to come.