Ratings and Reactions: Villa - Man Utd

[PaulC]

I think Lowton knew he had no chance in a footrace against Young, whenever he could he tried to be on him as soon as he got then ball, but when he couldn't get there in time he had no choice but to stay off him and wait for help - Weimann did that brilliantly in the first half, giving Young less options, but as the game went on United got better at isolating him. I don't think Lowton played badly, he was always going to struggle against a player that could beat him by a yard over five yards.

 

Also with Young, he's so tricky and can go inside or out. Hutton would have done better but Young would still have given him problems because he's arguably been Uniteds best player the last three games. 

[momo]

Young used to run circles around Evra and other top players for Villa. Teams used to double up on him. Give Lowton a break and stop this nonsense. Hutton would have struggled as well, maybe made a couple of rash challenges and be off. You never know what would have happened. Young had one good cross which led to a goal. Falcao got a free header. That's it. Great team effort, including Lowton. He is playing better than last year. You can see it.

[Raver50032]

Very happy with the way we approached the game considering the talent in the oppo. Nice to see some goal attempts too - the very late effort over the bar was especially close.

 

Guzan was strong - most of his takes were actually pretty standard and comfortable for him.

 

Benteke's goal was an orgasm to watch. Brilliant control and self-space-making.

 

Lowton gave Young far too much space all game, despite what the post above says. Pretty much all of his crosses made it nicely into the box, even though only one actually resulted in a goal. Snuffing out the ability to cross by sticking tight and forcing Young into a blind alley is the way for me. Not giving him acres of space and saying 'help yourself sir.' I do agree that ANY of our defenders could have had the same problem - I just don't see that giving Young so much space was the right thing to do. But then, I'm not a football manager, so meh.

 

The red card really was a scandal. It was like; for all the shit we give Phil Dowd for not sending off Vidic at Wembley nearly 5 years ago, all came rushing in to a total non-event incident resulting in a red card incident by Lee Mason. Some sort of nazistic karma in there somewhere? That card has to be appealed and rescinded for the good of the game. And Young... well I won't go there.

 

I see the United media fest (including United themselves) believe this was two points dropped and that we really were clinging on. That wasn't actually the case.

 

Very happy with the draw, but could have been more. Happy Christmas Villa (makes a change on the last few years to be saying that). Stil far too early to cry 'we've turned the corner, now watch us go...'

[Zatman]

given the circumstances probably best performance of season by all involved even Gabby as we didnt have to carry him anymore

[pooligan]

Was proud of the lads on Saturday .Worst referee decision involving us i have seen since that fat bastard Dowd cheated us at Wembley ,surprise surprise also against Utd. Still cant work out how a guy from Bolton,Greater Manchester can be appointed to referee a United match,cant recall Mariner being in charge of a Villa match