RR Ratings and Reactions: Villa - Man Utd

[dont_do_it_doug.]

I don't remember the penalty shout either. Was it on Richards perhaps? Because it looked innocuous from admittedly 100 yards away he seemed to protest on his own.

[gharperr]

I watched the game but was drunk and cant really remember much of it. Guessing its not worth rewatching?

[Shillzz]

We were missing the link between midfield and the forwards. Fortunately, we have 3 players waiting to come in who should address this issue. So let's panic not. Our forwards were all far too similar, essentially they were just 3 outlets to run after long balls.

[R.Bear]

By any criteria, failing to beat a team at home in 20 attempts (not including cup ties) is absolutely disgusting and shameful. Our record against these clearings in the woods is a major black mark in the clubs recent history.

[VILLAMARV]

 

Aside from Westwood and a promising start from Gana I think we look really weak.

 

I don't know. As others have said, our three trickiest players were all out today. It's fairly likely that our three biggest chances of unlocking a defence this season are going to be Grealish, Gil and Traore.

 

On the other hand our midfield held its own today overall I thought. Add some creativity from that trio and we'll be winning games.

 

I get that Grealish, Gil, Traore et al will be more creative I just don't think they'll be playing instead of Westwood/Gana/Veretout/Sanchez. I think we'll see them out wide in the front 3 or as no 10's behind a 2 as part of more of a diamond. I think the back 4 and the 3 across the middle are here to stay. As such the middle 3 looks our weakest link to me at the moment, early in the season as it is. Man Utd are a well organised team sure, but plenty of teams are going to come to Villa Park and pack the midfield. People saying it's the link between defence and attack we were missing last night, well thats the midfield and we need a bit more if we're going to break teams down and make VP a fortress again imo.

[switters]

I don't remember the penalty shout either. Was it on Richards perhaps? Because it looked innocuous from admittedly 100 yards away he seemed to protest on his own.

 

yeah Darmian on Richards - clearly had arm around his neck as ball was coming in which prevented Richards getting proper header and no intention whatsoever of competing to win the ball fairly. very cynical, very much a penalty but the kind that few refs give, especially against Man Utd

[tinker]

No creativity or movement from the forwards, a midfielder can't make passes to a static front line. When we get Grealish back it may change.

Thought Sanchez made a difference when he came on , broke play up well and his distribution was simple and to both sides. Westwood was playing in what I see as Sanchez's best position, Westwwod doesn't seem to be able to play in a more creative role.

Overall not that bad, only two games in with a team thats been assembled over the summer, UTV

[alreadyexists]

I think there are more positives to take out of yesterday than negatives. We're building a team and that takes time, and against Man Utd, who won the league two years ago, and just spent £235m over the summer, we did well. Not just ok but well I think. They barely had a sniff of goal, except their one chance, which unfortunately went in but another day it might not have. They didn't play great, but I think we should give ourselves more credit for nullifying their attack and breaking up their midfield play well. Westwood and Gana were great for us in mid (although Gana did wane a little before the end of both halves; fitness?).

The penalty shout was a penalty as others have said, but it's the kind where you'd get two or three a game sometimes if refs have them. So they rarely do, but I think round the neck is justifiable for a penalty.

A draw would've been fairer, but that's the way it goes.

[Bunnski]

Don't understand why Kozak didn't come on for Ayew or Gabby and we could of launched it upto him and Gestede for the last 10 minutes as that would of been a better approach than what we had offered in the second half after an encouraging opening 15 minutes.

[OutByEaster?]

I watched the game but was drunk and cant really remember much of it. Guessing its not worth rewatching?

 

Maybe get drunk first, then watch it again.

[olivevilla]

What pleases me is that our performances are only going to get better as they get used to each other.

1 thing stood out from that game: Ayew is too much like Gabby in playstyle and ability. They occupy the same sort of areas on the pitch, highlighted perfectly by a beautiful Amavi "whipped in" cross .....

... and both ran to the near post. I'd like to see one or the other in the side, not both. And that "one" should be Ayew.

Was thinking this exactly. Completely agree.

[Rugeley Villa]

I thought for most part we were shit.

[danceoftheshamen]

Ok here's how i saw it from the Trinity Rd stand (I always think the game looks different from the sides as it does from the two ends   )

 

Firstly we were playing against a not fully up to speed Man u side but you could tell they were a little more gelled together than we were, especially 1st half no doubt as they still had the spine of the team intact from the last few seasons hence more of a cohesive understanding running through their side.... So i expected that and actually did rather better than i was expecting in all honesty.

 

Secondly regards to the Referee... I shan't say too much here, although this is an area of football which i think needs seriously investigating. It's happened yet again has it not?! Home against Man U, blatant penatly not given for an arm around the neck of a player and the official looking straight at it... Result....No penalty. It happens year in year out folks and i find it highly suspicious that it's still happening. The amount of games we have lost against this lot because of decisions exactly like this should set the alarm bells ringing but instead it just gets swept under the carpet.....Well it's happened again....1 win in 40 games against them here is fishy and this is often the reason why!..... enough said!

 

As for the display,

i was impressed with Richards, Amavi, Sanchez when he came on & Clark. Those were our best four for me.

 

Some good some bad were Guzan, Gana, Bacuna, Westwood, Sinclair

 

Poor were:

Gabby (His only contribution was the fact Man U had to cater for his threat..which they did very comfortably)

Ayew (Headless chicken with no actual threat of either scoring or setting anything up)

Gestede (Was basically nullified by Smalling, yes he was playing on the limits of the law but then Man U players can do that due to the bias of the officials can they not!)

 

I thought Sinclair was actually causing a few problems for Utd when he got withdrawn and for me it should have been Gabby coming off not him especially with Gestede coming on i mean who's more likely to cross a ball in for Gestede? Gabby or Sinclair?

 

We need to cut out the silly errors too! I lost count of the times we had good situations developing only waste it with a really poor pass or decision. Westwood, Ayew, Gabby, Veretout & Gana were all guilty of this repeatedly... this will improve as we gel better though you would hope.

 

I was not disheartened though as we had hardly any of our creative players out there... Gil, Cole, Grealish & of course Traore now too so for me it was just the wrong time for us to play Utd (& the ref) & expect to get a result. 

 

Signing needed? We desperately need more threat up front, a main man so to speak. I do not think that player is at the club currently and we desperately need one if we are to rise up the table otherwise i do think we will struggle for goals.

[Ikantcpell]

We are building a team here and it takes time, man united is one of the best teams in the world and they hardly had a shot on target, i wasnt expecting to much of us atm, but i was pleased with what i saw.

 

10 games more and we are rolling.

Edited August 15, 2015 by Ikantcpell

[7392craig]

Aside from Westwood and a promising start from Gana I think we look really weak.

I don't know. As others have said, our three trickiest players were all out today. It's fairly likely that our three biggest chances of unlocking a defence this season are going to be Grealish, Gil and Traore.

On the other hand our midfield held its own today overall I thought. Add some creativity from that trio and we'll be winning games.

I get that Grealish, Gil, Traore et al will be more creative I just don't think they'll be playing instead of Westwood/Gana/Veretout/Sanchez. I think we'll see them out wide in the front 3 or as no 10's behind a 2 as part of more of a diamond. I think the back 4 and the 3 across the middle are here to stay. As such the middle 3 looks our weakest link to me at the moment, early in the season as it is. Man Utd are a well organised team sure, but plenty of teams are going to come to Villa Park and pack the midfield. People saying it's the link between defence and attack we were missing last night, well thats the midfield and we need a bit more if we're going to break teams down and make VP a fortress again imo.

I really think a midfield 5 is the way forward, especially with the way teams pack the midfield these days. I'm not gonna slag players like Ayew, Gabby or even to an extent Gestede, when they didn't even have scraps to feed off, nobody played any balls through from the midfield for the strikers. I know he's only a young lad but we really miss Grealish in the side, I really think the lad is the link to the strikers.

[villianusa]

Before the start of the season, it looked like the center of defense would be the problem, sadly it's the center of middle. 

 

The only one of the three who looks ready for the competition (which isn't surprising), was Westwood. I would rather we start with Cole or Sanchez over Veretout, and leave him to come on and make an impact as sub, until he is ready to start. Gana runs a lot, but at present, he isn't helping much going forward. I thought Westwood was MOTM yesterday, he has had a real solid start to the season. It's only two games in, so won't be only critical, as I feel the group will do well long term.

 

As people have mentioned, we are very low on creativity (as usual). Until Grealish and Gil return, I think I would give Cole a run (until he gets injured). Ayew is still very raw, and may take the most of time to get up to speed. Sinclair picked up in the second half, and I was very surprised he was subbed instead of Ayew.

 

Overall a decent performance, against one of the likely top 4.

[The Fun Factory]

I am not sure I can take too many positives  from last night. I have seen Villa play worse v yewunited, but this is a very average ManU side.  Ok we were reasonably organised but I can't take too much from a home match in which stats you look at we had either 0 or 1 shot on target the whole match. A better side would have scored against that lot, they gave Villa chances but on the night we didn't take them.

I guess the plus points its a another game for the team to gel, no one got injured and at least we have got the annual you never beat anything with kids nonsense out of the way in the first home game.

 

Also Friday Night+August Summer Holidays+M6 closed is not a great combo.

[Mantis]

By any criteria, failing to beat a team at home in 20 attempts (not including cup ties) is absolutely disgusting and shameful. Our record against these clearings in the woods is a major black mark in the clubs recent history.

It's especially galling when we beat other top teams semi-regularly. Although in fairness, I can't remember the last time we beat Arsenal, Spurs or Liverpool at home.

[Rob182]

I don't know how to feel about the people saying we were shit. It was a poor game overall, and both teams are clearly yet to 'click', but I don't think we were bad.

We limited Man Utd to very few clear chances, and though they were average, I thought we defended ruggedly.

The positives were there, for me. We had a lot of the ball, we tried a lot of quick, one-touch passing and did build a number of attacks down the centre and the wings. We had two main problems, that I could see.

The first was, to Van Gaal's credit, that after the first 15 minutes, he instructed their whole midfield to press us as far back as Guzan. That took the wind out of our sails that had earlier been flying at Man Utd, in my opinion.

The second issue, was that our front three attackers were constantly spread across the whole of the pitch, and attacks kept breaking down because we would slip the ball down one side, and the player receiving the ball was largely isolated. I think you can play a wider game like that when against a 'lesser' team, or a team who gives you space to pass the ball around the back, but not against Man Utd.

Overall, I thought we were somewhere between 'average' and 'good'. Taking into account the new players, the opposition, the penalty shout and the fact that we're missing Gil, Grealish and Traore, I'm not disappointed with the performance or result.

[Arj Guy]

Yep we haven't beated Arsenal at home in 17 years. Liverpool we beat a few years ago at home when sha went down. I think we beat Spurs at home once under O'Neil