Roberto Di Matteo

[hippo]

48 minutes ago, Morley_crosses_to_Withe said:

It'll be one massive **** up of Tony's for his first managerial appointment to last less than a few months into the season. 

I think the f*** up - was appointing him in the first place. I am sensing that Tony, having got more involved in the football side,  is beginning to realise this. I think Tony is the type of guy - to acknowledge his mistake and deal with it quickly.

To early ? - sure. - plenty of time to turn it around - I don't think RDM will, which is why the sooner the better for me.    

Edited September 12, 2016 by hippo

[Guest av1]

I've said it before, but Kevin Nolan is without a club. Could be a shrewd signing to help out the midfield. 

[jimcohen]

I feel like he has been quite unlucky this season, we have hit the post or bar about 6 times by my count and had a lot good chances not go in that on other days, would have won us the game. A bit of luck and we could be sitting pretty on 12 points now. So for me, he is ok. but obviously this cannot go on for much longer if we are to have serious hopes of an automatic spot this year, which for me we have to be going for. But for me, he doesn't show enough from the bench tactically. The 4-1-3-2 we ended up playing yesterday with Westwood sitting deep behind Jack, Ayew and McScore floating behind Rudy and Kodja was bold, but ultimately effective, but then never sorted once we led. 

it showed to me his fear in loosing another game, thats a formation for a cup game or the last game of a season! So he is obviously under it results wise, which is good. But then didnt react to it working and changing back by bring on someone else to actually play CM and not end the game with 4 strikers on the pitch when we just needed to defend. Did you see McScores attempts to defend the second goal we let in. Cant really blame him, but you got to hope an actual CM would have done better there. 

We had 16 mins left when we went 2-1 up, plenty of time to make the change that was so obviously needed. If Jedinak was not fit, then why was he on th ebench. If he is on the bench, then is he not the perfect person to bring on for McScore in the 75th minute. The crowds claps, we sure up the middle for the last 15 and we go home happy. Or even Amavi on for jack to play left mid?

[dont_do_it_doug.]

Fantastic performance from him yesterday. He cannot be held accountable for us not winning a game in which we have 27 shots to 2.

The change was an excellent bit of in game management. 

I've been extremely impressed with RDM so far despite being an early cynic. His biggest challenge is surely to keep their heads up. Bar, post, saved, blocked, deflected... The frustration must be palpable. 

[Demitri_C]

3 hours ago, villarocker said:

All that is needed is cover in front of the back four. Gardner AND Westwood are incapable of that and both cannot play together in the same midfield. For me personally, RDM's biggest challenge now is to find a way of protecting the back four in the event that we find ourselves unable to field either Tshibola or Jedinak in future games. Who else do we have available to us that can play in front of the back four and stay disciplined enough to hold that position throughout a game?

Look at the two goals we conceded yesterday. Both scored by Forest midfielders with Westwood unable to win the ball on both occasions. Now, I am not saying that Westwood is to blame full stop but, he was the one who could have done something to prevent the goals but was not able to. It's that position on the park that needs addressing and then we will see a winning Villa team.

The only person I can think of is Bacuna. Id rather have bacuna at cm than bloody gardner. That guy is a waste of space. 

[hippo]

4 minutes ago, dont_do_it_doug. said:

Fantastic performance from him yesterday. He cannot be held accountable for us not winning a game in which we have 27 shots to 2.

The change was an excellent bit of in game management. 

I've been extremely impressed with RDM so far despite being an early cynic. His biggest challenge is surely to keep their heads up. Bar, post, saved, blocked, deflected... The frustration must be palpable. 

As the manager he is accountable for results though. 1 win in 7 isn't good enough.

We've pretty much got 3 20 goal a season strikes in the team - at this level. If those 20 goal a season strikers can do it elsewhere but not at villa - you have to start asking why. RDM is responsible and accountable for the playing side - rightly or wrongly the buck stops with him. 

[VillaCas]

I am feeling really down about the Villa but to give a little perpective my mate is a Forest fan and watches them home and away - He texted me this morning "you'll piss this league, I've not seen Forest battered like that for years, its nice for us to get more luck than Leicester for once. Our Keeper kept us in the game. You must feel like you were mugged. You and newcastle will take the two automatic positions"  Hope he's right!

[dont_do_it_doug.]

1 minute ago, hippo said:

As the manager he is accountable for results though. 1 win in 7 isn't good enough.

We've pretty much got 3 20 goal a season strikes in the team - at this level. If those 20 goal a season strikers can do it elsewhere but not at villa - you have to start asking why. RDM is responsible and accountable for the playing side - rightly or wrongly the buck stops with him. 

Too black and white for me I'm afraid. Results wise the sample is too small, it's way too early. 

1 win in 6 won't be good enough no, but I assert that could easily become 6 in 12, 10 in 18 and so on with how we are playing, which is what I am judging him on at this stage. 

He's got them playing football, he's got them confident. The results will come.

[Zatman]

we played the last 15 minutes or so leading 2-1 with a 1 man midfield. Manager has to be held accountable for making the wrong subs especially when they strolled through midfield for the equaliser

not the 1st time in opening weeks we have dropped points from good positions in last 5 minutes so he needs to get his act together on that

[hippo]

3 minutes ago, dont_do_it_doug. said:

Too black and white for me I'm afraid. Results wise the sample is too small, it's way too early. 

1 win in 6 won't be good enough no, but I assert that could easily become 6 in 12, 10 in 18 and so on with how we are playing, which is what I am judging him on at this stage. 

He's got them playing football, he's got them confident. The results will come.

I don't see "It could be 6 in 12" cutting it with Dr Tony to be honest.

Of course he will get more time - and there will be those saying he needs more time in April, May of next year ! 

Personally I think he has been given a massive transfer kitty, free reign over who stay and goes, his own choice of coaching staff, a full pre season - quite simply he has to deliver and deliver pretty sharpish. Personally I don't think he will - buy lets be quite clear there can be no mitigating circumstances  over the next few weeks. 

 

 

 

[DCJonah]

16 minutes ago, hippo said:

As the manager he is accountable for results though. 1 win in 7 isn't good enough.

We've pretty much got 3 20 goal a season strikes in the team - at this level. If those 20 goal a season strikers can do it elsewhere but not at villa - you have to start asking why. RDM is responsible and accountable for the playing side - rightly or wrongly the buck stops with him. 

Those 3 strikers.

1 made his debut yesterday. 

1 has 2 goals in 6 games. 

1 has 3 goals in 5 games. 

Bit early to hold that against RDM. It looks like all 3 will do well here this year. 

[NIVillan]

FFS we need to build a team.  So far we have bought the players and they need to play together.

We had a big clearout and incoming of new players.

If that is how they play when they are getting used to each other I cant wait until they start understanding where each other makes their runs etc.

The Two clearouts I can remember is Taylor MK 1 and we started in much the same way, and under Atkinson and again we didnt look great until Feb March Time.

 

[StefanAVFC]

I genuinely don't understand the thought process of calling players shit, or for manager's heads so early.

Like, is it a psychological thing, so if you're correct, you can look good?

It's been 6 games. I've been concerned about certain things but we've clearly been the better team in every game and the things we've not succeeding with, will come in time as the squad gets to know each other more. I don't think I've ever seen a team bring in so many 1st team players and start winning every game immediately.

I don't know why we, as fans, have to be so impatient and impulsive. It's baffling, it really is.

[hippo]

9 minutes ago, NIVillan said:

FFS we need to build a team.  So far we have bought the players and they need to play together.

We had a big clearout and incoming of new players.

If that is how they play when they are getting used to each other I cant wait until they start understanding where each other makes their runs etc.

The Two clearouts I can remember is Taylor MK 1 and we started in much the same way, and under Atkinson and again we didnt look great until Feb March Time.

 

I remember both those clearouts - I could be wrong but I don't remember us this poor results wise after 6/7 games ? - in addition those managers had more proven track records than RDM.

As I say - he has to have and will get more time. I'm just saying I don't think we will amount to much under RDM - 

[NIVillan]

7 minutes ago, hippo said:

I remember both those clearouts - I could be wrong but I don't remember us this poor results wise after 6/7 games ? - in addition those managers had more proven track records than RDM.

As I say - he has to have and will get more time. I'm just saying I don't think we will amount to much under RDM - 

We had a horrible start under Taylor, same amount of points after 5 games and included a loss to the knuckle draggers.  Won one then lost next so Taylor currently ahead.  We had David Norton and Steve Sims in defense arrggh!

Atkinson.  We started off OK then got stuffed 4-0 by leeds in a TV Game.  I also remember around Dec/ Jan we could bloody score.  I was living in the states by then and getting updates via Sports Argus and Evening Mail reports being sent over.  Just seemed to drift.

 

Edited September 12, 2016 by NIVillan

[JAMAICAN-VILLAN]

37 minutes ago, VillaCas said:

I am feeling really down about the Villa but to give a little perpective my mate is a Forest fan and watches them home and away - He texted me this morning "you'll piss this league, I've not seen Forest battered like that for years, its nice for us to get more luck than Leicester for once. Our Keeper kept us in the game. You must feel like you were mugged. You and newcastle will take the two automatic positions"  Hope he's right!

Similarly to how Huddersfield, the current leaders were being battered by us until the inevitable cock up.

I know it is easy to look at the negatives as we are extremely anxious about not being promoted.

However I think people say this eerily resembles last season are totally wide of the mark.

It must be easy to forget just how deplorable we were!

[PaulC]

48 minutes ago, dont_do_it_doug. said:

Fantastic performance from him yesterday. He cannot be held accountable for us not winning a game in which we have 27 shots to 2.

The change was an excellent bit of in game management. 

I've been extremely impressed with RDM so far despite being an early cynic. His biggest challenge is surely to keep their heads up. Bar, post, saved, blocked, deflected... The frustration must be palpable. 

I agree with you and we are not getting any luck, but its all about game management to me. It was the right thing to do to go for it when we were 1-0 down but after taking the lead, to just leave just westwood in midfield  was poor game management. I dont believe they would have scored that goal if we had brought Jedinak on to sure uo the midfield. 

[Tommo_b]

1 hour ago, hippo said:

I think the f*** up - was appointing him in the first place. I am sensing that Tony, having got more involved in the football side,  is beginning to realise this. I think Tony is the type of guy - to acknowledge his mistake and deal with it quickly.

To early ? - sure. - plenty of time to turn it around - I don't think RDM will, which is why the sooner the better for me.    

Madness, he's IMO a very good manager. You don't get to manage Chelsea even on a caretaker basis without having something about you.

[Mantis]

20 minutes ago, StefanAVFC said:

I genuinely don't understand the thought process of calling players shit, or for manager's heads so early.

Like, is it a psychological thing, so if you're correct, you can look good?

It's been 6 games. I've been concerned about certain things but we've clearly been the better team in every game and the things we've not succeeding with, will come in time as the squad gets to know each other more. I don't think I've ever seen a team bring in so many 1st team players and start winning every game immediately.

I don't know why we, as fans, have to be so impatient and impulsive. It's baffling, it really is.

I think that's exactly what it is. It's pretty clear that some take relish in predicting doom and then patting themselves on the back very publicly if it happens.

[bannedfromHandV]

I know it's a results game these days but can we not have a little added perspective?

Comments about RDM being sacked should be laughable.

Sheff Weds - didn't deserve to lose, a draw would have been fair and save for a goalkeeping mistake fairly late on it's what the result would have been

Luton - gave last chances to a number of players who haven't been seen since, I'd rather we didn't lose to Luton obviously but I'd rather we find out that the likes of Okore, Hutton, Richards etc aren't/weren't up to scratch in a league cup game. It shouldn't be forgotten that we also did hit the bar twice and the post.

Rotherham - good performance, good result

Huddersfield - could/should have been out of sight before they came back into the game around the 65th minute onward, first half we played well by all accounts but were poor for the last third of the game however, again, had it not been for a goalkeeping error late on we'd have won

Derby - good away performance, more than deserved the win, hit the bar and the post (seems a theme this season already) plus had one cleared off the line, never really looked like losing the game

Bristol City - from the limited commentary I managed to find it seemed we played them off the park first half and again, should have been 2+ goals clear, second half we fell apart after they scored, something we're used to seeing from Villa. It was a bad result.

Nottingham Forest - battered them pretty much from start to end, caught on the counter twice with them scoring from the only two shots they had on target all match. Again, we hit the post and the bar and you could argue their keeper cleared one off the line (first half).

 

Now I do believe that you make your own luck in football, but you cannot argue that we haven't been incredibly unlucky so far. The performances, chances created etc have generally been very good and alongside the fact that we've change the entire starting XI pretty much I find that quite impressive.

 

We will start winning and when we do, I fancy that we'll be very very hard to stop. We have a ridiculous amount of attacking options, just need the back line to gel now and we'll be fine for at least 2nd place, in my opinion.

 

Think anyone panicking needs to chill the F out, including Xia. I've been a huge fan of his since his arrival but this is where he needs to show some restraint and look at the bigger picture.