Ratings and Reactions: Villa v West Brom

[tinker]

No fight in the midfield , we need to change it , play one up front and make a fight of a game, Grealish and Sinclair need to be dropped to enable us to flood the midfield. 

Everyone who went could see we never won any 50/50 balls and the 2nd ball was picked up by Albion everytime. Westwood's great at short passes  but never seems to win any type of tackle. 

Sherwood sets us up to win or lose which is ok but when the formation isn't working in the first twenty minutes you know it's not going to work full stop. Change the shape or change the players ffs.

Fair game to Pullis , he beat us before we even kicked a ball and we couldn't respond full stop. He didn't need to change Albion's formation throughout the hole game to counteract any of our sub's. 

We must have the poorest home record out of any team in any of the divisions over the last few seasons , its a miracle any fans turn up let alone sing ..........here we go again UTV

[AVTuco]

For me, Guzan to blame for the goal, also his distribution was even worse than normal, and he either does not communicate with the defenders or they just ignore him.

Gabby, also dreadful, I think he has just forgotten how to play football, cannot  hold the ball up, seems completely blind to where either his own team are positioned or where the ball is going. I don't think he beat a single player, unbelievable that he stayed on the pitch when Sinclair was taken off.

Gestede, wasn't great but as we spent the whole of the first half punting high balls up to Sinclair and Gabby only for them to bounce right back into midfield, his presence was needed and I think had Sinclair stayed on and Gabby gone off we might actually have got a half decent pairing that could play off each other. Desperately needs more game time and is a better option than Gabby.

Sanchez was the man of the match for me, the only steel in our midfield (we really missed Gana today).

Amavi had his worst game for us, but to be fair to him he made some half decent interceptions and he was left very exposed. Still overall looks a good signing.

Gil, was good but tired and was less effective in the second half....needs to work on his fitness.

Westwood, was ok, but needs to play with stronger midfielders.

Veretout needs to get up to speed and needs more game time, nothing special from this lad so far, but we have to give him time.

Richards and Lescott look woefully slow and we will be run ragged if we play that defensive pair against the top sides, we need Okore back and on form quickly !

all the rest were a bit Meh

 

I had high hopes for this season, but Tim has made some serious tactical errors in the last two games, today we were over run in midfield and should have switched to 433 or 451 to try and get an extra body in there. The overall play today was the worst We have seen this season, where is the fast passing game we saw in the previous home games, why are we now playing high balls up front when we don't have anyone on the pitch that can hold the ball up or even win a header ? I still think we will be ok, but this time last season we had 10 points, we currently have 4 so a couple of wins are now desperately needed.

 

 

 

Guzan was absolutely not at fault for their goal. It was very nicely deflected by Berahino. Amavi messed up again though, leading up to the goal.

[dukes]

It looked like an easy enough save to make to me

[imavillan]

45/50 million spent and its the same old shite in a different bucket.

now 13/8 second favourites for the drop....says it all

[Arj Guy]

45/50 million spent and its the same old shite in a different bucket.

now 13/8 second favourites for the drop....says it all

Unfortunately the net spend tells the full story. Dunno why people are suprised

[villa4europe]

I've never seen it at VP before, hope the word removed and his tart in the sky lounge taunting the villa fans at full time got strong armed out and thrown face first on to the pavement

[foreveryoung]

So poor today, seemed to be all over the place. Pulis subs in injury time just proved how shit that team is. Sherwood just seems to have no idea, an what the frack does Wilkins do. He seems to be wasted on the wage bill as much as gabby is.

[supernova26]

Why are people moaning about attendance figures? Does anyone actually believe that we deserve to be hitting around 40,000 every home match when our home form has been abysmal for years and continues to be abysmal? Anything over 30,000 to watch a game when the likelihood is pretty high that we won't win is bloody marvellous in my opinion. Villa's home form over the last 5 years deserves Championship attendance at best and the prices being charged at the moment are an absolute rip off. I wouldn't pay in soiled bog paper to watch Villa.

Yep, fair play to anyone who still bothers to go, but I'm not going to feel bad about saving £40+ every week and doing something that isn't fully depressing. 

Not many teams could still maintain 30,000+ attendances with home form like that.  Remember Liverpool fans disappearing under Hodgson? We're still a big club alright. But dear me that record is beyond compare. 

[dAVe80]

As George Harrison said, it's gonna take time, a whole lot of precious time. I'm aware we're a working progress. The trouble is, we might not have time and we don't seem to have progressed at that much. I'm not getting carried away yet, but that was awful today. You've got to show us something Tim, or the questions will start getting louder. 

[Harry]

So poor today, seemed to be all over the place. Pulis subs in injury time just proved how shit that team is. Sherwood just seems to have no idea, an what the frack does Wilkins do. He seems to be wasted on the wage bill as much as gabby is.

That is so true, seemingly we yet again have employed a manager who has no Plan B and worse still I am starting to doubt he has a Plan A either. Hit and hope or tap it around in midfield are not tactics and is ever so reminiscent of Lambert.

[dAVe80]

So poor today, seemed to be all over the place. Pulis subs in injury time just proved how shit that team is. Sherwood just seems to have no idea, an what the frack does Wilkins do. He seems to be wasted on the wage bill as much as gabby is.

Teach Westwood and Sanchez how to pass sideways?

[Mantis]

Having the piss taken out of us on twitter by West Bromwich official account, when will the nightmare end?

Of all the things Villa/football-related, West Brom's twitter account is probably at the very bottom of things worth caring about.

It is the result of everything though isn't it. Our small time tinpot neighbours can take the piss on an international medium and we deserve it.

I honestly couldn't give a shit. The Tweet itself is incredibly small time. Amongst all the shit at this poisoned, rotten club, I just can't find myself caring one bit about West Brom's Twitter account.

[foreveryoung]

Having the piss taken out of us on twitter by West Bromwich official account, when will the nightmare end?

Of all the things Villa/football-related, West Brom's twitter account is probably at the very bottom of things worth caring about.

It is the result of everything though isn't it. Our small time tinpot neighbours can take the piss on an international medium and we deserve it.

I honestly couldn't give a shit. The Tweet itself is incredibly small time. Amongst all the shit at this poisoned, rotten club, I just can't find myself caring one bit about West Brom's Twitter account.

Thats nothing, wait till we lose against Bloose and no longer be able to laugh and call them small time. Its my last game this season if we can't manage a win against the 'unwashed'

[GasGasGas]

Also just got back, it really was abysmal. Amavi, Richards and Gil aside, the rest of the outfield weren't fit to wear the shirt today. 

I'm dreading going Tuesday now as there was no fight in our team, they won most of the first balls and every second ball. I thought the team selection was poor, persisting with Sanchez (he was dreadful on the ball) and Westwood (bullied, backwards and even Darren Fletcher ran past him). Sinclair either does nothing and scores or unfortunately like today, just the nothing part. 

Hutton tried to get forward but his final ball was awful. Lescott was also pretty poor in possession, aimlessly thumping it towards Gabby first half who has his usual uninspiring game. 

Because they dominated the ball in the midfield, we were always on the back foot, hardly had any spells of serious pressure and were constantly outfought. The passing was atrocious at times, giving me a very unfortunate Paul Lambert flash-back. The movement up top was terrible too, with only Gil trying to make something happen. I was really disappointed and frustrated by Grealish too. He was sloppy, had no urgency, never committed to making something happen and he seems to be exhausted after 70 minutes. 

Gestede barely wins any flick ons, his dominating aerial ability certainly seems a myth at the moment. 

I hope Sherwood says we were crap. The lack of battle and effort is no acceptable, especially given the opposition.

Tuesday is an even bigger game now. It needs to be the catalyst to kick start our season. Lose that and there won't be much faith left.     

Amavi was dreadful 

At least he tried to make something happen, running at their players. I admit he wasn't amazing but he at least had a go and took some responsibility on the ball. 

Make what happen? Cost us goals by getting robbed of the ball just outside our own penalty area? Again?

I'm far from impressed by him and surprised that not many are coming down hard on him as they do with Sanchez for example, given the number of times he gives away the ball leading directly to goals.

[GeordieVillan]

This is the first game I havn't seen this season, so I can't really give any ratings. However, in terms of a reaction, I think this caps off a very poor start to the season, and I am now quite worried. Our first 6 games were actually quite kind of paper, and we have totally fluffed our lines. We now have a very difficult set of fixtures, where conceivably we might not pick up a single point.

Even more worryingly, I actually empathise with Sherwood as his options seem quite limited. We lack a striker (or strikers) to build our team around, so the only thing we can do is hope for goals from midfield. To do this, we have to play at least 3 of Sinclair, Gil, Grealish and Adama - which based on the last 3 games leaves us very light and very easily overrun. Prior to this, with 3 central midfielders, we seemed to lack a spark of creativity and we didn't look like scoring from anywhere.

My view now is that we have to go 3 at the back and hope this reinvigorates the team through wing backs. I would play Amavi and Adama as wing backs (yes, Adama). The reason for this is that we know that Amavi is attacking and pretty good at it from left back, but from right back I just don't think Hutton offers enough going forward, and Bacuna has been terrible so far.

I would then have Gana plus Westwood/Sanchez/Veretout/Gardner in midfield. We cannot persist with Sanchez and Westwood as a pair, they are like schoolgirls playing the Japanese Rugby Team. We then need to play both Grealish and Gil as no.10s supporting one of Gabby / Gestede / Sinclair / Ayew. Slim pickings up front right now.

I know it sounds crazy but its genuinely what I would do, starting on Tuesday.

[Neil]

The "bus" that had twice as many shots on target as us today.

On today's performance I thought I was looking at relegation candidates in baggies.  We happened to be even worse.

[osmark86]

I think WBA will be down there in the scrap along with us based on today's show. We seriously need to start improving soon or I'll be a bit more worried. Can't say I'm too concerned just yet as I figured this would be our form in the beginning of the season with all the new faces. But no more Tim, no mas!

[villa4europe]

Twice as many shots and much better football IMO

There's only one team that can described as playing aimless long balls today and it wasn't the one dressed as carrier bags

[thunderball]

Just watched "extended highlights" and didn't think it was dreadful, but it was disappointing. 

 

On on the plus side, we still have injuries so a few to come back, and we have been competitive in every match so far this season and it's only early. Defence looks more reassuring and Ghana will come back soon, as will Adama.

 

negatives - still struggling for goals and Ayew isn't going to score from sitting on the bench, from there he won't acclimatise either. Probably are still short of another winger. Sherwood keeps subbing our highest goal scorer, and persists with Gabby the lost cause.

 

finally, how long until Sherwood discovers our best goal scorer is Kozak!

[Hev]

MOTD showed we shd have had a penalty as his feet were inside the area. Also they were surprised that the advantage was not given when Richards had ball in net.