Ratings and Reactions: Newcastle 1-0 Villa

[Avflife]

 

The 2 poor subs is just papering over the cracks....Westwood &bertrand were clearly carrying knocks, so I understood the fact he had to use subs.

The big problem is....and has been for some considerable time is that we have a soft underbelly....and no manager has really addressed it.

Newcastle for me today was shocking, but nevertheless I expected us to get beat....unlucky, forget it, poor play.

The amount of ricochets that went to them was laughable, our positioning and movement off the ball looks like the team has never seen a coach.

We seem to wince our way through every physical encounter and this has an effect on the outcome of the ball....no intelligent running upfront that compliments the decent approach play.....it's all become so predictable.

This lot is a ----ing mess, and going absolutely nowhere.

I noticed that as well. Nearly everytime the ball deflected off someone or one of our players tackled and the ball would always go to a Newcastle player.  Even for the goal, De Jong has a shot that deflects off Baker and ends up with Remy scoring.  Its obviously not the reason we lost but it was strange.

 

Lambert isn't going to escape that embarrassing performance without my 'two cent'. Loaning out Gardner was criminal and not bringing on Clark for Bertrand was even worst, we lost that game, like many this season, due to PL's inept tactical knowledge and constant poor substitutes. 

[RimmyJimmer]

I was at the game. First half we were the best team by a mile, not just when we had a dominant spell. Our midfield was compact, our forwards were direct, and we should really have scored. I was sat with the Newcastle fans and they all felt Weimann was our most dangerous player, I have to say his movement was pretty good. More than anything else, we mixed our play up quite alot, plenty of short passing and not afraid to be direct when we needed to be.

Second half was a totally different game. Pardew clearly told his players to get in our faces and we had no answer. I can't remember having a spell of any pressure in the second half, and there was only one team going to win it.

Overall we probably deserved a point, but its a really demoralising defeat, and with Norwich winning, we are now in big trouble. Our saving grace may be that Norwich have 4 tough games at the end of the season, so if they are not clear of the bottom, then I think they will finish 18th.

2 final observations -

1) After the goal, Guzan seemed to come out and have a real go at Delph, I'm not sure why?

2) Benteke walked off at the end without shaking hands with anyone or acknowledging the Villa fans. This may have just been because he was pissed off, but he was straight down the tunnel.

This is a bit more of a 'balanced' view

[RimmyJimmer]

The 2 poor subs is just papering over the cracks....Westwood &bertrand were clearly carrying knocks, so I understood the fact he had to use subs.

The big problem is....and has been for some considerable time is that we have a soft underbelly....and no manager has really addressed it.

Newcastle for me today was shocking, but nevertheless I expected us to get beat....unlucky, forget it, poor play.

The amount of ricochets that went to them was laughable, our positioning and movement off the ball looks like the team has never seen a coach.

We seem to wince our way through every physical encounter and this has an effect on the outcome of the ball....no intelligent running upfront that compliments the decent approach play.....it's all become so predictable.

This lot is a ----ing mess, and going absolutely nowhere.

I noticed that as well. Nearly everytime the ball deflected off someone or one of our players tackled and the ball would always go to a Newcastle player. Even for the goal, De Jong has a shot that deflects off Baker and ends up with Remy scoring. Its obviously not the reason we lost but it was strange.

Lambert isn't going to escape that embarrassing performance without my 'two cent'. Loaning out Gardner was criminal and not bringing on Clark for Bertrand was even worst, we lost that game, like many this season, due to PL's inept tactical knowledge and constant poor substitutes.

How is loaning out gardner criminal? It's going to take him the best part of 12 months for him to get up to speed. To throw him into the team now would be criminal. A few poor performances and our 'fans' would start ripping into him.

[chappy]

We didn't really have a massive guilt edge chance.

Yeah I feel really bad about that!

[dakid007]

We are simply too easy to play against and having 3 ineffective strikers on pitch at same time is poor

[Villastine]

We are simply not very good at football.

 

Our players’ ability, our tactics and our style of play are horrendous.

 

What is the point of Villa? I no longer remember if there ever was one.

[Raver50032]

Pffffftttt.... <shrug>

 

My wife cooked lasagne for us all yesterday and we had a lovely lunch as a result, topped off by a fine raspberry pavlova dessert. That set us up nicely for the family crowding round the TV to watch the mighty Villa in 3D. It looked great and I can fully understand using that technology on the Sky 5 only. I don't really fancy watching Villa get stuffed in 3D any more.

 

So, special effects aside, it was painful to watch at times, particularly 2nd half. Hey ho... Rough with the smooth... rough with the rought with the rough... etc. Their goal was coming for some time it has to be said and I smiled ironically when they finally netted in injury time.

 

Man of the match - **** it... it was you guys, you band of merry folk who paid your money, took your choice and sang your hearts out for the claret and blue so far away from home. Hat off to you all. Hope you had a safe journey back - you deserved that much. The toon were silenced in the first half and we could hear you loud and clear...

 

(and no, we ain't posh, despite a 3D TV, dinner was served on a lap tray, Royle Family stylee).

 

My old chap simply tut-tutted... his limited experience of the Villa this season has come from my description of what I have seen at home and from what he has seen on TV. And even he believes 'It'll get worse before it gets better at Villa. They just have that look about them...' That's what I am dreading right now. What if we haven't hit rock bottom yet?

[Shillzz]

We played well at times during the game, but got beaten by a side who were marginally better than us, crammed with players we could only dream of being able to afford. It wasn't a disgraceful performance by any means, though we have well and truly been dragged into a relegation scrap.

[Electric Avenue]

I think people are under estimating how poor we were 2nd half .

[Shillzz]

I think people are under estimating how poor we were 2nd half .

 

Yet at the same time, few people ever give Westwood any form of credit. There was certainly a strong link between Westwood's involvement and our performance yesterday.

[Electric Avenue]

There was Shilzz but I think we may have deteriorated after the break regardless. How many games this season have we been Jekyll and Hyde in each 45 Min half ? I often wonder what gets said at HT

[BleedClaretAndBlue]

I was screaming at the TV when we had our only real chance of notching in the 2nd half when Benteke pinched the ball and delayed that pass to the quickest player on the pitch to put him in only to completely mess it up. So careless and frustrating, its unreal how poor he's been since that injury at Norwich. I baught the home strip with his name on at the start of the season and have worn it about twice complete waste of £70

[MONCABA]

I think people are under estimating how poor we were 2nd half .

We are are a 45 minute team. Poor in either the 1st or 2nd half of games. Even in the games we've won, we've looked a bit ropey in either half.