Ratings and Reactions: Villa - Sunderland

[dont_do_it_doug.]

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.

Certainly not us I'd say. We're very hard to beat.

We probably won't win either mind.

[PieFacE]

Sanchez is a beast. Cleverley and Delph both poor. Delph is so overrated it's untrue. 

 

Grealish the only bit of class on the whole pitch today. Both teams were awful. 

[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.

better players like Grealish rather than Zoggy you mean?

I've seen nothing to suggest Grealish is better than nzog nor that he is even ready to play 45mins of football

[benireduk]

Problem we have is that we are expecting defenders to provide our width. They are defenders for a reason and do not possess the skills to cross a decent ball or beat a man. End result is minimal chances made and not many goals scored. Look at when we played United, similar system to ours, but they have Young & Valencia as full backs.

Let defenders defend, and drop Clev and Weimann for Grealish and Bacuna.

Sanchez was superb today bearing in mind we had 10 men for pretty much half the game. He doesn't need 2 other DM's beside him.

Pretty disappointing today overall. Thought we'd get a win

Oh and one more thing. If Benteke had attacked the Grealish cross that he rolled across the 6 yard box instead of standing on the edge of the box, we'd have won today. Christian stop behaving like a spoilt little s**t and get back to what you were doing before you were injured please

Edited December 28, 2014 by benireduk

[Spoony]

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!

I have a lot of criticisms of Lambert but for me this isn't really one of them. I'm okay with his unbreakable positivity in post-match interviews because being negative and criticising the players publicly never helps. If he has something negative to say to a player, which I'm sure he does from time to time because he's not an idiot and he is a professional football manager, I'd rather he kept it private.

 

They have a hard enough time from the fans. They need someone who will support them no matter what.

 

 

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?

I've seen nothing to suggest Grealish is better than nzog nor that he is even ready to play 45mins of football

 

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[rjw63]

Dreadful match by two dreadful teams.

 

Grealish proving that he should be starting matches but Lambert seems as clueless as ever.

Pretty much this.

 

Sanchez was very good, Guzan had little to do, centre backs were decent, full backs adequate.

 

Cleverley was absolute cack. Loses a tackle and just stands there. Send him back.

Didn't miss Delph when he went off, Mr Over Rated.

Zog tried but he knows he is coming off in every game.

Weimann tries hard but he's got no skill whatsoever.

Benteke...he's either world class or invisible. Today he was David mcCallum.

 

Grealish needs to be playing. He can beat a man, cross the ball, take corners. Play him Lambert you pillock.

[DCJonah]

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.

Same again would leave us on 42 points the exact same as host first season. Is that really acceptable? Zero progress in 3 seasons.

[rjw63]

 

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.

Same again would leave us on 42 points the exact same as host first season. Is that really acceptable? Zero progress in 3 seasons.

 

It's nowhere near acceptable, but better than relegation.

[The_Steve]

Grrr....

 

Weimann on the Delph red:"The ref said he thought it was a yellow but he got shout from 4th official saying it was a red."

 

https://twitter.com/tommymarlow/status/549261123405770752

[Harry]

Bizarre to be saying that we played better with 10 men but we did. I was too far away to see whether the Delph red was justified but he does have a panache for reckless tackles which usually earn him only yellow cards. I do wonder whether there was an element of payback from the referees union after the Gabby rescinded red. I suspect it was one of those calls that could go either way and it went the way of a red. 

 

Mindful of the fact we could lose both Vlaar and Delph next month I watched both players closely this afternoon. Before the match I would happily have lost Vlaar on the basis we have four decent centre backs and Delph is a must keep. Now I am not so sure. Vlaar was immense and having watched Delph whilst he was on the pitch I do wonder whether he is starting to believe his own propaganda. Yes he is very energetic and goes on these mazy attacking runs but the trouble is they all end up in blind alleys and with no end product. The fact that Liverpool might see him as a replacement for Gerrard is laughable. Added to that his still retains that reckless streak that probably cost us the extra two points today. Yes he is a good player (for us) but nothing special for a bigger club. That is not sour grapes based on the fact we might lose him more on the basis of a simple reality check.

 

Benteke's frustration, which is lambasted by many posters, is fully justified. We create next to nothing and the service he gets is very poor and he is on the pitch to score goals. We still need a creative midfielder but can we find one within our budget. I also don't get the Cleverly hate, seemingly he has become the new Villa Talk pantomime villain following in the footsteps of Bennett, Hutton, etc. He works very hard and he tries to create. I would agree sometimes his passing is wayward but when it works it is very good.  I would definitely sign him in January on the basis we can add quality and depth to our midfield.

 

If I was picking out our poorest player it would be Weimann by a country mile. Yes he runs around a lot but his first touch is appalling and I just don't understand why he starts. Grealish who looks like his has a real threat about him should start instead, he finally convinced me today. Bacuna also is a very underrated player who works very hard and knows what do do with the ball.

 

As for Sanchez, absolute class and well on the way to being a Villa legend

[a m ole]

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.

Same again would leave us on 42 points the exact same as host first season. Is that really acceptable? Zero progress in 3 seasons.

wasn't it Mr O'Neill who said you have to spend a fortune just to stay where you are in this league? I think that is much truer today than 6 years ago, and considering we have hardly spent anything, yes I think that is acceptable despite not being an admirable acheivement.

[villianusa]

 

 

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.

Same again would leave us on 42 points the exact same as host first season. Is that really acceptable? Zero progress in 3 seasons.

wasn't it Mr O'Neill who said you have to spend a fortune just to stay where you are in this league? I think that is much truer today than 6 years ago, and considering we have hardly spent anything, yes I think that is acceptable despite not being an admirable acheivement.

 

He just wanted a reason to spend a fortune.

[DCJonah]

I think MON said that as part of a team challenging for top 4.

I think its pretty piss poor when you're down the bottom of the table.

[macandally]

Tired game played by two tired teams. We are neat and tidy but we have no plan B! Starting to resent this continued reliance on 4-3-3, with Gabby out today was crying out for a change of system but we stuck with the same old, same old.

We were controlling possession until the red, looked rocky for 10 minutes then sorted it out when Okore came on. We then got a head of steam and eventually the home support woke up, until then the crowd was as tired as the teams.

Grealish needs to be given 90 minutes against Blackpool to really go and show what he can do, was impressive today and Sunderland doubling up on him shows how wary they were. Delph, Sanchez and Cleverly did OK, Zog needs to be given license to roam and the back four again looked solid. Benteke not at his best and Wieman needs to pull the trigger, three times today he either cut back or took too long.

All in all, happy with a point given the circumstances and do not get the whinging again on here (based on when the streams WERE working! :-)

[TRO]

Its not possession football we ought to abandon....its the misuse of it that should be abandoned.

[TRO]

.....Delph was awful before he got sent off, players showing yo-yo form thats our problem.

[dnmacf]

Despite all this talk on 'possession football' we still didn't have the majority of possession at home today, just more than we have had previously this season

[Spray]

Our lowest goals scored in a season is 32 according to the oracle that is wikipedia. 1971 - 72

 

We need some 2nd half of the season to even get to that level. A potential further record for good old Paul.

 

Nope. that's fewest league goals conceded in a season.

 

Our fewest league goals scored in a season is 36. Can anyone see us scoring 26 more goals in the 19 remaining fixtures, I can't.

Another unwanted record is looking likely.

Edited December 29, 2014 by Spray

[coda]

Despite all this talk on 'possession football' we still didn't have the majority of possession at home today, just more than we have had previously this season

 

That'll be over 40 minutes with 10 men. First half we dominated possession.

[gilbertoAVFC]

Not quite sure how CNZ is getting defended here. He was utter shite for all bar five mins (around 40 min mark). Appreciate he has no confidence, but his movement was non-existent.

As was Benteke's, who blatantly wants to leave.

Vlaar class, Sanchez best midfield performance all season.

Grealish has got to be given more than 25 mins.

Weimann did literally nothing in the first half but worked hard second half.

Hutton only person giving any kind of option first half, which is a bit embarrassing as he is our right back.

 

I hate to say it, but I prefer us to just hoof it to Benteke from crosses than pass it around in midfield. We did well in the second half because we used our width and played to our strengths, but everything was so so narrow in the first half. We don't have the players to make an impact in the middle of the field, so please get it wide! Crying out for a winger and especially a CAM. If we got one I'd be very happy.

 

Also, Sunderland are utter gash.

Edited December 28, 2014 by gilbertoAVFC