smetrov Posted November 9, 2013 Share Posted November 9, 2013 Now I have finished celebrating, I can be honest about that game. We were god-awful. As bad as we have been in any game in the last year. Nothing but hoofing for 75 minutes. Abject stuff. Cardiff are one of the worst PL teams I've ever seen and we struggled to beat them. Yes Kozak nearly scored early second half and Benteke could have done better a few times but it was a terrible performance. A moment of magic won us the game. I dont why we have regressed in terms of the football we play but its awful to watch. Excellent result though so we're happy but the underlying problems are plentiful and getting worse. I kind of agree - but that formation does, I believe give us something to build on - Steady Defence, Tonev wide, and Kozak as a battering ram. I beleive that has more mileage than Gabby, Weimann, Benteke - in that narrow formation. The problem was tonev whipped in two good crosses in the first half that needed someone running to the near post, the anticipation was non existent when it comes to attacking crosses Crosses going in - but no one being on the end of them is progress in my book !!!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Morpheus Posted November 9, 2013 Share Posted November 9, 2013 Take three points all day long but the performance was dreadful. Eh missing several important players Cardiff created absolutely nothing at all. If anyone was going to win it was going to be Villa, and that's what happened. So you want to contradict my point by stating it was a good performance? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Morpheus Posted November 9, 2013 Share Posted November 9, 2013 Take three points all day long but the performance was dreadful. You're very melodramatic. But right. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Philosopher Posted November 9, 2013 Share Posted November 9, 2013 Bacuna really fooled the GK with this one. I don't know if it's his body shape when approaching the ball but it caused the GK to move to his right. MOTM for making the difference today. It had so much bend and dip I personally think it just completely flummoxed him! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Philosopher Posted November 9, 2013 Share Posted November 9, 2013 Now I have finished celebrating, I can be honest about that game. We were god-awful. As bad as we have been in any game in the last year. Nothing but hoofing for 75 minutes. Abject stuff. Cardiff are one of the worst PL teams I've ever seen and we struggled to beat them. Yes Kozak nearly scored early second half and Benteke could have done better a few times but it was a terrible performance. A moment of magic won us the game. I dont why we have regressed in terms of the football we play but its awful to watch. Excellent result though so we're happy but the underlying problems are plentiful and getting worse. Personally the tactics were hardley surprising when you consider who we had up top! Thought we defended well and shut them out well. Going forward and in terms of keeping possesion you are completely right, but our style of play was right for the players on the pitch. Workman like midfield massive strike force, the only option is hit it long really! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AvfcTheObsession Posted November 9, 2013 Share Posted November 9, 2013 Poor first half, Cardiff came for a draw and for a long while it looked like they might get it. Lambert moving Bacuna forward was a smart move and he showed desire with that one two and run leading to the free kick which was something special. Ratings: Guzan 7 commanded area Vlaar 7 solid Clark 6 sliced the ball on occasions wasting possession Baker 6 did ok Bacuna 8 MOM see above Tonev 6 was an outlet but crosses were wasteful KEA 5 poor Sylla 6 harried Cardiff high up the pitch Westwood 6 tried forward thinking passes, didnt always come off Benteke 6 often crowded out, touch is coming back but needs a goal Kozak 7 came close with header and got reward for aerial threat caused with a goal Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
8pints Posted November 9, 2013 Share Posted November 9, 2013 Still in Holte suite celebrating the win. To be honest it was a crap game between two crap teams until that free kick. Nice to see us beat this type of team though :-) I saw you schmoozing the door men with your T-Shirt on you big suck-up Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robbie09 Posted November 9, 2013 Share Posted November 9, 2013 The booing at HT wound me up so much, our home crowd are a disgrace at times. Agree. I'd rather those that booed at half time when it was 0-0 stayed at home. Hardly surprising the players look edgy at times. Cardiff came to us on the back of a derby win with pretty much a fully fit squad whereas we had 5 key players unavailable. Bacuna MOTM although Vlaar, Clark and Sylla were good. Can't understand the criticism of Sylla given that he's had limited game time. Both he and Benteke looked rusty so hopefully the 90 mins will do them both good. Couldn't see the point of Bowery coming on. He's not a natural striker as he had a chance to pull the trigger when on goal, hesitated and passed instead. That's not the instinct of a natural striker. Wold've preferred Helenius to get a few more minutes as I feel he's a much better prospect at this level. It's great to get 3 points but ironic that the performance against Everton was better but yielded nil points. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The_Steve Posted November 9, 2013 Share Posted November 9, 2013 Bacuna really fooled the GK with this one. I don't know if it's his body shape when approaching the ball but it caused the GK to move to his right. MOTM for making the difference today. It had so much bend and dip I personally think it just completely flummoxed him! Phenomenal technique, it swerved and dipped a lot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post srsmithusa Posted November 9, 2013 Popular Post Share Posted November 9, 2013 Less than 4 hours after a win. Villa talk has been full of complaints about home form: Home win Villa talk has been full of complaints about lack of goals: Scored 2 Villa talk has been full of complaints about leaking goals: Clean sheet Villa talk has been full of complaints about poor quality in our summer signings: two of them score Less than 4 hours later and posters are complaining about our dismal performance. Strangely, I find it both baffling and predictable. 9 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OutByEaster? Posted November 9, 2013 Moderator Share Posted November 9, 2013 I thought we were rubbish until Bacuna rescued it - he would have been MotM without the free kick too - and it took moving him into our midfield to bring any life to it. I guess I learned that if we were to mysteriously lose Gabby, Weimann, Luna and Delph for the rest of the season, we'd probably go down and that Cardiff won't be far off it either. Thankfully that lot should be back soon and we've battled to a win without them. I think the defence are looking better, Bacuna has been very solid, Vlaar is in his best form since he arrived and Clark and Baker appear to be maturing. Up front, Kozak looks a player who'll give you what he's got; time will tell whether that's enough. Benteke will be fine when we start playing a bit more football. Our midfield is a mess though, Bacuna was far and away our best midfielder and he was only there for fifteen minutes - KEA is probably our second best, which isn't saying much - I'm not convinced Westwood is a Premier league player and I'm not sure Sylla is either. With Delph in there we have something, but we could do with another one or two midfielders when we next get our money out. Tonev remains possibly the least effective player I've seen - I think he touched the ball two or three time in the first half and at least two of those were attempted shots - he improved in the second half, but he's still a long way away from being a first team player for me. Fair play to the manager, he got a win and a clean sheet out of a poor Villa side and he's made a good substitution to get us there - but this team needs players, some to come back from and injury and some new ones in the middle please. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
privateer Posted November 9, 2013 Share Posted November 9, 2013 Bacuna really fooled the GK with this one. I don't know if it's his body shape when approaching the ball but it caused the GK to move to his right. MOTM for making the difference today. It had so much bend and dip I personally think it just completely flummoxed him! Phenomenal technique, it swerved and dipped a lot. Absolutely right, look how low in the net it lands Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OutByEaster? Posted November 9, 2013 Moderator Share Posted November 9, 2013 It's great to get 3 points but ironic that the performance against Everton was better but yielded nil points. Oddly enough, our season has been like this - I think Chelsea might have been our best performance, we were poor against Man City, poor today and decent against Everton. In a way, I like this - you never quite know what you're going to get. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
villa89 Posted November 9, 2013 Share Posted November 9, 2013 (edited) Our midfield is a mess though, Bacuna was far and away our best midfielder and he was only there for fifteen minutes - KEA is probably our second best, which isn't saying much - I'm not convinced Westwood is a Premier league player and I'm not sure Sylla is either. With Delph in there we have something, but we could do with another one or two midfielders when we next get our money out. This. We really need two CM's to play alongside Delph. The current bunch are second rate really. Edited November 9, 2013 by villa89 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
praisedmambo Posted November 9, 2013 Share Posted November 9, 2013 Take three points all day long but the performance was dreadful. You're very melodramatic. But right. You did it again Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dodgyknees Posted November 9, 2013 Share Posted November 9, 2013 I thought we were rubbish until Bacuna rescued it - he would have been MotM without the free kick too - and it took moving him into our midfield to bring any life to it. I guess I learned that if we were to mysteriously lose Gabby, Weimann, Luna and Delph for the rest of the season, we'd probably go down and that Cardiff won't be far off it either. Thankfully that lot should be back soon and we've battled to a win without them. I think the defence are looking better, Bacuna has been very solid, Vlaar is in his best form since he arrived and Clark and Baker appear to be maturing. Up front, Kozak looks a player who'll give you what he's got; time will tell whether that's enough. Benteke will be fine when we start playing a bit more football. Our midfield is a mess though, Bacuna was far and away our best midfielder and he was only there for fifteen minutes - KEA is probably our second best, which isn't saying much - I'm not convinced Westwood is a Premier league player and I'm not sure Sylla is either. With Delph in there we have something, but we could do with another one or two midfielders when we next get our money out. Tonev remains possibly the least effective player I've seen - I think he touched the ball two or three time in the first half and at least two of those were attempted shots - he improved in the second half, but he's still a long way away from being a first team player for me. Fair play to the manager, he got a win and a clean sheet out of a poor Villa side and he's made a good substitution to get us there - but this team needs players, some to come back from and injury and some new ones in the middle please. Great post. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Panto_Villan Posted November 9, 2013 Share Posted November 9, 2013 (edited) I guess I learned that if we were to mysteriously lose Gabby, Weimann, Luna and Delph for the rest of the season, we'd probably go down and that Cardiff won't be far off it either. I didn't see the match today, unfortunately, but I popped into the thread to see what everyone was thinking also because I knew there would be a gif of Bacuna's free kick waiting for me. From the position of a Villa fan who didn't see the game, scoring two goals and keeping a clean sheet at home against a team 13th in the Premiership with the amount of injuries we have is a great result. However, I find posts like the above surprising (post simply picked because it was the most recent). Was it really so bad today that you think without those players coming back this team that just won the game is worse than Fulham, Sunderland and Crystal Palace? And that we're worse than Cardiff, despite being above them in the table and the players in question just beating Cardiff 2-0? I just find it amazing that we've reached the top half and people are moaning about how crap we are, whereas last season we were playing attacking football and nearly got relegated...and people were moaning about how crap we were. Either the results tell a story or they don't, right? You can't complain about results when we're losing, then disregard them when we're winning. Edited November 9, 2013 by Panto_Villan 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caddy Posted November 9, 2013 Share Posted November 9, 2013 Figures that I made a point of watching all the other stinkers over the last month but slept through this game, the first one I've missed in over a year. Luckily NBC Sports will show a replay eventually, but watching shoddy videos of goals on youtube will last me until then. God bless Leandro Bacuna Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Electric Avenue Posted November 9, 2013 Share Posted November 9, 2013 Just home from B6. I am well happ. Cardiff fans are words removed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
srsmithusa Posted November 9, 2013 Share Posted November 9, 2013 While Bacuna's free kick was brilliant, I thought it was strange that the keeper never really moved on it. Then my wife noted that with the yellow ball coming over and around the yellow wall, he probably never picked it up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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