Ratings and Reactions: Villa v Newcastle

[matrim]

The 2 worst decisions from the ref today were

 

• Gayle (I think) was offside for one of their best chances (after elphick did a poor headed clearance). The only villa players in front of him were Gollini and Elphick who was off the pitch.
• Shelevy was very lucky to finish the game. He could have had a straight red for that tackle on Westwood and then with about 5 minutes to go took down Kodjia and should have had a second yellow.

[Supervillan78]

Just got back from Villa Park. We were dire for about 65mins and conceded another comical goal, then we battered them for the last half hour and IMO we were unlucky not to get all 3pts against the 12 men of Newcastle.

RDM's sub's changed the game, Tsh and Gestede have to start.

Bacuna and Westwood are gash and should never play for us again.

Kodjia is class, Ayew can be class when he wants to. Amavi, Tsh, Gestede Gollini all had a good game.

Jedinak and Elphic were disappointing today however I've no doubt they'll improve.

Edited September 25, 2016 by Supervillan78

[briny_ear]

2 hours ago, Davkaus said:

I disagree entirely. The faintest contact, and he was already on his way down. The booking was deserved IMO.

Definitely.

[Chewie]

51 minutes ago, briny_ear said:

Definitely.

The worst thing about his diving was that had he stayed on his feet he could have either; 1) Got the shot off, 2) ran on into Shelvey who is always good for bringing you down in the box for a penalty. So completely deserved the yellow card for the sheer stupidity of his decision to go down from nothing. 

[The Fun Factory]

The first half was garbage. RDM got his tactics all wrong and Newcaste should have won it in the first 45.

Elphick looked very slow today. I have seen Jedinak live 3 times now and have not been impressed at all. I hope he will improve or he is looking like this season's Lescott signing.

Jedinak and Westwood as the midfield pairing is not going to work. They are not mobile enough. Tish needs to start next game.

The last 20 was a decent effort to get back into it as  Newcastle did a Villa in throwing away a lead.

Its a point gained today but we need some wins to the board asap.

[thunderball]

10 hours ago, pacbuddies said:

To me on tv it looked a definite penalty.

Undecided on the penalty, but to me it was no way a booking, I thought there was clearly contact, but "shoulder to shoulder". 

[thunderball]

8 hours ago, Supervillan78 said:

Just got back from Villa Park. We were dire for about 75mins and conceded another comical goal, then we battered them for the last half hour and IMO we were unlucky not to get all 3pts against the 12 men of Newcastle.

RDM's sub's changed the game, Tsh and Gestede have to start.

Bacuna and Westwood are gash and should never play for us again.

Kodjia is class, Ayew can be class when he wants to. Amavi, Tsh, Gestede Gollini all had a good game.

Jedinak and Elphic were disappointing today however I've no doubt they'll improve.

I agree entirely. Hopefully RDM realises exactly this, we are far better going forward than defending so set up offensively (4 at the back, especially at home), our bad luck will change soon enough.

i thought the Amavi we all knew emerged later in the game, this is a good sign. Still can't see how we fit Ayew, McC, Kodjia and Gestede in though, for me, for all Ayews talent he needs to contribute more so he's the fall guy - for a couple of games at least. He would be interesting bringing off the bench for opposition?

Edited September 25, 2016 by thunderball

[Woodytom]

12 hours ago, Sam3773 said:

If we can do that all game every game, we are going up.

But we can't. 

[BigAl]

11 hours ago, OutByEaster? said:

I was sat behind it and it looked like at most he got a tiny bit of contact out of the defender before he went down. I don't think the contact had anything to do with the fall but....I've seen no replays. On first look I thought the ref had it right, did TV show otherwise?

 

No penalty was a blatant dive ref got it right .

[BigAl]

Formation was all wrong in the first half it gave toon a extra body in the middle and shelvey bossed the game for them,3 at the back doesn't suit the players we have firstly you need pace at the back to play that way something we don't have and secondly you need your back 3 and holding midfielders to be comfortable on the ball again something we don't have .We looked a different team with 3 in the middle in the 2nd half the changes worked ,thought Kodjia was excellent and we looked a decent team 2nd half .Newcastle are the best team in the champ and they should have been 3/4 up in first half but we deserved a point in the end and it was great for the team to finally should a bit of character to come back it could be the turning point in our season .

[Kingman]

[NeilS]

11 hours ago, matrim said:

The 2 worst decisions from the ref today were

 

• Gayle (I think) was offside for one of their best chances (after elphick did a poor headed clearance). The only villa players in front of him were Gollini and Elphick who was off the pitch.

I haven't seen any highlights of this decision so I may be getting this wrong, but Elphick being off of the pitch doesn't mean he is not counted when an offside decision is being made, so if he is still goal side of the attacker along with the goalkeeper then it is not offside.

[TRO]

in that first 30 minutes before the crucial introduction of Gestede &Tshibola which changed the game.....we gave them far more time on the ball than they afforded us....There were times our marking was poor and we gave them the freedom of the park.

We still have a stand off problem and we looked noticeably lightweight as a team.

The last 30 minutes was a transformation.

while there were clear positives.....The same old problems are still in evidence.

We are clearly a Jekyll & hyde team and it depends on what part you want to comment on.

Edited September 25, 2016 by TRO

[dont_do_it_doug.]

Quite surprised at the insanely negative reactions. I've not been on VT much this week, maybe you've whipped yourselves up into a bit of an RDM out frenzy and I've not noticed. 

No, the first half wasn't good enough. We were clueless and Newcastle barely had to play well to have had opportunities to kill the game off. However the second half performance was excellent, the last 20 in particular. So, the proof of the pudding will be in whether he has learned from this failed 3-5-2 experiment. Sack that off, go back to doing what you were doing well right up until Brentford and you have my full support. 

Scoring a late goal will do wonders for our confidence too. 

[dont_do_it_doug.]

3 hours ago, Woodytom said:

But we can't. 

Well we've got to try. 

[TRO]

36 minutes ago, dont_do_it_doug. said:

 We were clueless and Newcastle barely had to play well to have had opportunities to kill the game off.

That is STILL the main concern for me.

Edited September 25, 2016 by TRO

[OutByEaster?]

I think the Gestede substitution is a bit of a red herring.

The whole game changed on the decision to bring Tshibola on at half time. Tshibola was good in the second half, don't get me wrong - but there was a huge benefit in allowing the immobile Jedinak and Westwood to play more naturally, in giving us more of the ball and in enabling us to play like a football team the added body in there changed everything. The only way we can address the individual weakness of our midfield is to play three of them. It's the only lesson worth learning from this game. 

If McCormack and Grealish are both available for the next one, it'll be interesting to see if De Matteo has the good sense to learn what was a pretty straightforward lesson or whether we'll go back to 4-2-4 (or god help us the mess of a formation that started this one) and lose any semblance of control of games.

 

[TRO]

44 minutes ago, OutByEaster? said:

I think the Gestede substitution is a bit of a red herring.

The whole game changed on the decision to bring Tshibola on at half time. Tshibola was good in the second half, don't get me wrong - but there was a huge benefit in allowing the immobile Jedinak and Westwood to play more naturally, in giving us more of the ball and in enabling us to play like a football team the added body in there changed everything. The only way we can address the individual weakness of our midfield is to play three of them. It's the only lesson worth learning from this game. 

If McCormack and Grealish are both available for the next one, it'll be interesting to see if De Matteo has the good sense to learn what was a pretty straightforward lesson or whether we'll go back to 4-2-4 (or god help us the mess of a formation that started this one) and lose any semblance of control of games.

 

Fair comment, I agree

....but the muscle/presence of Gestede unsettled them and gave confidence to us also.

ps what about Kevin Nolan as an a short terms addition to the squad.

[striker]

Speaking of lessons learnt. Noted the lack of closing down the shooter particularly in the first half. Newcastle were given far too much time to get their shots off. If I had been Gollini I'd have been ripping the defence to pieces for that. Not nearly enough pressure on the player with the ball all over the pitch from the Villa in the first half and that needs to improve if Villa are to start a winning streak.

One other point I wish to make is that Rafa evidently told Gayle to pair up with Elphick. Rafa identified Elphick as a weakness and now other Championship managers will do the same. Elphick was terribly exposed yesterday and that will happen more often now.

Four at the back with Chester and the impressive Baker at it's centre will benefit the Villa more.

Edited September 25, 2016 by striker

[TRO]

24 minutes ago, striker said:

Speaking of lessons learnt. Noted the lack of closing down the shooter particularly in the first half. Newcastle were given far too much time to get their shots off. If I had been Gollini I'd have been ripping the defence to pieces for that. Not nearly enough pressure on the player with the ball all over the pitch from the Villa in the first half and that needs to improve if Villa are to start a winning streak.

One other point I wish to make is that Rafa evidently told Gayle to pair up with Elphick. Rafa identified Elphick as a weakness and now other Championship managers will do the same. Elphick was terribly exposed yesterday and that will happen more often now.

Four at the back with Chester and the impressive Baker at it's centre will benefit the Villa more.

Bang on ........and its criminal

It should not need supporters alone to recognise that.....It was schoolboy football at times.....He needs to fix it quick.

They do not work hard enough off the ball in organising themselves to snuff out the opposition....One midfielder picks up no one, watched him yesterday, might as well as had a season ticket in his shorts.

If Jedinak & Tshibola are going to be missing for periods i.e injury......We need another midfielder quick.

Kevin Nolan maybe?

Ps When they do eventually go in to a tackle they look ill prepared/ uncomfortable/ and lightweight/ there is no apparent appetite for it.....He needs to work on this at BMH.

Edited September 25, 2016 by TRO