Ratings and Reactions: Villa - Sunderland

[Villanun]

Criticised in the early parts of the season for lack of passing and lack possession , criticised now for too much passing and too much possession

Nonsense.

 

Criticised in the early parts of the season, and for the last two years, for Guzan continuously booting the ball out of play, resulting in us coming under pressure again, or booting the ball straight to Benteke when he was being marked out of the game, resulting in him being tackled and us coming under pressure again.

 

Criticised now NOT for having too much possession, but for having lots of possession and doing nothing with it. We're not pulling players out of position, we're not prodding and probing for weak points, we're just recycling the ball in midfield with no end product.

 

I believe this weird idea that sometimes it's okay to hoof the ball and sometimes it's better to pass it around, and that the players themselves should be intelligent enough to know when those times are. I also believe that until we get a more creative midfielder, and until our attackers stop standing still next to defenders, neither of those approaches are going to bear much fruit.

[briny_ear]

Really enjoyed watching Grealish play today. Didn't enjoy anything else about the game.

Please can we sell Benteke for loads of dosh in January and buy some players who want to work for the team.

Think we missed Gabby badly today.

[Hanky]

Pathetic first half. Once again we looked better with 10 men. Same old formation at home that hasn't worked in two years. Grealish gets to the byline three times in five minutes and looks more threatening than Weimann has in his last 6 games. Frustrating is not the word. Sanchez was top quality though.

[AntrimBlack]

Criticised in the early parts of the season for lack of passing and lack possession , criticised now for too much passing and too much possession

 

Is that the best you can do?

You, I am sure, know very well that the criticism is about being unable to do anything with the possession.

The `new' possession game is clearly the way forward and everyone welcomes the change.

[Rob182]

Criticised in the early parts of the season for lack of passing and lack possession , criticised now for too much passing and too much possession

No-one has criticised too much passing or possession Richard. Before your post, there were only two posts about the possession football, both saying that it's good but we need to create more.

[VillanousOne]

 

Criticised in the early parts of the season for lack of passing and lack possession , criticised now for too much passing and too much possession

 

Is that the best you can do?

You, I am sure, know very well that the criticism is about being unable to do anything with the possession.

The `new' possession game is clearly the way forward and everyone welcomes the change.

 

we could have 24 hours worth of 100% possession and still not score

[AntrimBlack]

Sanchez was fantastic. Grealish and Bacuna must surely start next match. Cleverly and Nzogbia are pointless.

A fan of Weimann, but he was rubbish today and should be replaced. Agbonlahor is not much better, should perhaps be bringing on Robinson instead of either in a sub role at least at first. Benteke was also very poor. Too good to drop, but not sure he got involved enough today.

 

Cannot really complain about that red card, but at least got a point. Defence was good and held out well, though Sunderland are pretty poor in their final third.

 

21 points now and halfway through, same again required second half of the season. Boring but acceptable, hoping for better things. Always stupidly optimistic.

[GasGasGas]

Sanchez is fast becoming our best player, even above Benteke.

 

Now I understand why Tom Cleverley was so pilloried by Man Utd fans. If he's absolutely useless even for us, there's no chance of him doing anything at Man Utd. Let me guess, he was played by David Moyes for the most of last season? That would explain why they were so abject then.

 

No surprise that for two games in a row, the moment he went off we became much better attacking wise.

 

Weimann doesn't even resemble a footballer. Everything he does seems to have no sense or thought to it and is just random and anyhow.

 

You know that if any other team made that Delph challenge, it would never be a red card. If it was done on an Aston Villa player, there would not even be a card.

[foreveryoung]

Criticised in the early parts of the season for lack of passing and lack possession , criticised now for too much passing and too much possession

Everyone was saying we rarely get red cards, we now have 4 and people are complaining????? 

 

Richard, Richard, Richard, sometimes you try much to hard to protect your guy!!! Don't wind people up, its blatently obvious what us fans are worried about, lack of goals with this possession system, is a huuuge problem!!

[OutByEaster?]

Sanchez excellent, Vlaar, Hutton, Cissokho and Cleverley good, Grealish very good when he came on. Benteke hopeless, Delph brainless. 

 

We need to find a way to start scoring goals - the worse the team we play, the more we have to attack and the worse we look, Blackpool will be fun.

[westholmevillan]

Criticised in the early parts of the season for lack of passing and lack possession , criticised now for too much passing and too much possession

 

I think there's plenty in favour of this new approach. It does require a bit of creativity in the team and curses that Joe Cole is injured (but hardly surprising); I much prefer the frustration of not being able to score over letting the opposition have the ball and inviting them to try and score.

 

Lambert took a pretty big gamble in the 67th minute making an attacking change bringing in Grealish for Cleverley and I'm glad it didn't backfire.

 

Benteke was quite disappointing today but I guess this is the problem when the ref allows the opposition defenders to use him as a mannequin to drape their shirts on.

Agree with most of that but dont think bringing Grealish on was a gamble. It was a very sensible sub IMO. We needed someone who could hold the ball up and show composure. Its easy just to hoof the ball away when you have only 10 men and your tired. Grealish worried the shit out of the Sunderland players and kept it in their final 3rd with his composure..... More of the same from Jack please!

[turnbull]

Never a sending off

 

Sanchez, not long before the press start talking him out of VP.

 

Agree that Bacuna and Grealish HAVE to start the next game.

 

Really don't see the point of Cleverly and Weimann in Villa shirts.

[David-Copenhagen]

Sanchez absolute quality. Bacuna and Grealish need to start next game.

 

Sums it up really.......

[The Fun Factory]

If we beat Palace and Blackpool this is a acceptable Christmas period. Just need to score some goals- the defence is fine.

[nick76]

Why I put myself through Lambert's post match I'll never know. Just back from the game and thought surely he can't say he was pleased again and there he was saying he was pleased.....muppet has to go!

[cbr600rr]

Not sure the balance in midfield is right, Sanchez knows his role, I don't know what zig zog is supposed to do, clev is not effective with why-man is clueless , not one clear cut chance,Hutton did well in 1st half with his cross to why-man who opted to piss around with it instead of hitting the ball in the net ffs

[ChrisVillan]

Nevermind, goalfest coming up on Thursday.

 

If you were the new Crystal Palace Manager, who would you want to play to buy time to steady the ship?

 

Sunderland. And we couldn't beat them.

[villa_shere]

Lambert has no reason not to be pleased, we are playing the way he wants and are dominating opposition. He is probably more frustrated than anyone how we don't have the quality to hit the net. Same system and better players would get you a good return.

[nick76]

Lambert has no reason not to be pleased, we are playing the way he wants and are dominating opposition. He is probably more frustrated than anyone how we don't have the quality to hit the net. Same system and better players would get you a good return.

better players like Grealish rather than Zoggy you mean?

[dnmacf]

I don't know if I feel the result would have been different even with Delph. I think we were the superior side but ultimately we didn't score so cannot claim we deserved to win. If anything, they went closer in hitting the post. 

 

There were encouraging signs though. Our defence is impressive (even more so with 10 men) and Sanchez is really assisting the central defensive pairing's efforts. Grealish looks like he has goals in him as well and must be in line for a start soon enough. I hope it's against Palace but perhaps he prefers coming on later for now. 

Also good attendance given the opposition. I hope it remains as high for Palace.