Ratings and Reactions: Villa v Leeds

[TRO]

2 hours ago, dont_do_it_doug. said:

If last night was a fight Leeds would have scraped it on points, however both fighters would have been applauded out of the ring. 

We're going toe to toe with these teams now and it's great to see a Villa side fighting to the death. As time goes on we will win more than we lose to those teams around us and if we can continue to put the lower half teams to bed, were on to a winner. 

It wasn't a vintage performance but it was a battling one and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

spot on....but I think they would have more than scraped it......I thought we was completely outpointed.

I hope there is a plan to fix this, because our rise will soon plateau out, if we don't.

staying with Boxing.....I thought they had far more ring craft than us...... we just have a punch.

hoping the introduction of some midfielders fix this.

Edited December 30, 2016 by TRO

[TheStagMan]

13 hours ago, DonRevieTheKing said:

Very close game. Periods in the first half where we could consider ourselves lucky not to be behind. Your failure to capitalise and the brilliance of Pontus Jansson kept it 0-0. Different story in the second. Lot more impetus and more adventure to our play and had a goal to show for it- was then your turn to benefit from piece of good fortune when Jansson cracked the bar. We should have really added to to our lead but you came back- very strong options from the bench like McCormack who livened things up for you. Clear penalty to be honest. Cooper was naive at best- our second choice centre back who's a big step down from our first choice. In terms of how the teams compared- a lot of your players namely Ayew looked as though they'd rather be anywhere else. What's noticeable is the lack of team spirit compared to our lot who fist pump and high five with every block made and every corner won. On the balance of play, although it was close the fact we had more clear cut opportunities and were more threatening in our period of dominance, we probably deserved to win. 

Pretty fair summary there mate. A big part of our issue is the mindset of our players - still reeling from last season's debacle and the poor start to this season. There does not seem to be enough trust between them (although it is getting better slowly) and hence the players who (think they) are better try to do things themselves, and generally fail, or are trying to cover other players weaknesses.

We need three things:

1. A midfield ;-)

2. Confidence (although versus where we were, that is coming)

3. A team that plays to each other's strengths - to achieve this we need players with some actual strengths and a stable first team. We have been chopping and changing every game. I hope this is because Bruce has been assessing his options before wading into the transfer market. Hopefully post Jan we will see a more stable team and start to see better, more flowing football.

[Hoof hearted]

A lot of Ayew bashing in this thread, not sure why. His tracking back was first class and makes our midfields faults glaringly obvious, tracking back and defending shouldn't (just) be his job if the central midfielders were doing their jobs properly.

[sheepyvillian]

The football on offer at the moment is dreadful , okay the manager has managed to galvanise the team , but so he should , is'nt that what he's paid to do . It will be very interesting to see the reaction of  certain individuals should results start to go against us . 

Beware of the fickle .

[TheStagMan]

6 hours ago, briny_ear said:

Whereas under his predecessor we were playing lovely, creative flowing football and storming up the Championship easily defeating all our opponents. 

Or his predecessor, or his predecessor, or his predecessor

[TRO]

11 hours ago, USA_Villa said:

Unfortunately, this is what we signed up for when we were all lauding and requesting Steve Bruce. Average performances, not performing as a team and scraping a point or a win here and there. We certainly don't look a cohesive team. The whole team is built on nullifying the opposition, when was the last time we broke a team down other than individual efforts. 

On a side note: Ayew is the  laziest player in the world, Kadija needs to learn that he can't do it all om his own. Bacuna would struggle to get in to any other championship team and Hutton is a Sunday League player at best. And Amavi got exposed so many times today.

I didn't expect a great deal from Bruce but I have even less confidence in him after seeing the last few performances.

 

His record since he came with a disjointed incomplete squad is bordering on miraculous.

I agree on:

• No cohesive team
• not performing as a team

however i have reservations about built for nullifying the opposition, because we are not doing that.....I thought we started closing down high up the pitch in the early exchanges and looked positive.....but as the game progressed they were winning all the second balls and they were hunting in pairs as opposed to our lone wolf offering.....In ringcraft ( boxing term) they gave us a lesson  and at Elland Rd too, just the same, it elevated them in to the game and they had by this time the upper hand. they came out on top in one on one duels ( except for Jedinaks heading) and they grew.

The goal... just did what goals do, added to their renewed confidence gained from winning the play. 

SB has instilled a fight to the end, but without the aerial power of Gestede I think we would have lost.

There is much to put right, but the results have been way beyond my expectation with the disjointed squad we have.....Midfield needs serious surgery and the front line needs to have players who link and have a mixture of skills.

We will just have to see what he does.

I can't think of many managers who would have got the results he has in such a short space of time.

Edited December 30, 2016 by TRO

[TRO]

21 minutes ago, TheStagMan said:

Pretty fair summary there mate. A big part of our issue is the mindset of our players - still reeling from last season's debacle and the poor start to this season. There does not seem to be enough trust between them (although it is getting better slowly) and hence the players who (think they) are better try to do things themselves, and generally fail, or are trying to cover other players weaknesses.

We need three things:

1. A midfield ;-)

2. Confidence (although versus where we were, that is coming)

3. A team that plays to each other's strengths - to achieve this we need players with some actual strengths and a stable first team. We have been chopping and changing every game. I hope this is because Bruce has been assessing his options before wading into the transfer market. Hopefully post Jan we will see a more stable team and start to see better, more flowing football.

I think there is a fair bit of that at issue.

[Rugeley Villa]

27 minutes ago, TRO said:

spot on....but I think they would have more than scraped it......I thought we was completely outpointed.

I hope there is a plan to fix this, because our rise will soon plateau out, if we don't.

staying with Boxing.....I thought they had far more ring craft than us...... we just have a punch.

hoping the introduction of some midfielders fix this.

Rumours are circulating that we might be getting docked points.

[TRO]

1 minute ago, Rugeley Villa said:

Rumours are circulating that we might be getting docked points.

ha ha.... just my way of explaining my thoughts

[Rugeley Villa]

Just now, TRO said:

ha ha.... just my way of explaining my thoughts

No worries boss, it puts a smile on my face so keep that boxing lingo coming 

[TRO]

5 minutes ago, TRO said:

ha ha.... just my way of explaining my thoughts

Ps not sure what the general descriptive word in football is that equals "ringcraft"......." pitchcraft" don't sound right does it?

The art of closing down, winning duels/ keeping the ball/ using your backside/ scrapping.......collective word?

Other than goals.....its this stuff that eases you in to a dominant position.....and we are not doing it.

Edited December 30, 2016 by TRO

[dont_do_it_doug.]

No way were we completely outpointed last night. We created more chances, for one, rather than relying on individual errors. 

I noticed when I watched the game back that the Sky Sports team were quite biased towards Leeds. Maybe that is influencing some opinions. 

[sexbelowsound]

i must have been watching a different game because that was a majority draw, at worst a split decision. None of this unanimous decision bollocks.

Some are being far too critical.

[Rugeley Villa]

7 minutes ago, dont_do_it_doug. said:

No way were we completely outpointed last night. We created more chances, for one, rather than relying on individual errors. 

I noticed when I watched the game back that the Sky Sports team were quite biased towards Leeds. Maybe that is influencing some opinions. 

Leeds are the new Newcastle at the moment in this league. Flavour of the month.

[Rugeley Villa]

Just now, sexbelowsound said:

i must have been watching a different game because that was a majority draw, at worst a split decision. None of this unanimous decision bollocks.

Some are being far too critical.

This boxing talk is taking off 

[Hoof hearted]

19 minutes ago, Rugeley Villa said:

This boxing talk is taking off 

Yeah, because we took a right old bashing around the ring last night.

 

Giggity.

[Rugeley Villa]

Just now, Hoof hearted said:

Yeah, because we took a right old bashing around the ring last night.

 

Giggity.

We was playing dirty Leeds after all. 

[sidcow]

Headline in The telegraph describes the penalty as "controversial" as does the opening match summary in the report which then goes on to describe the penalty as being awarded for a clear handball. 

In what way is it therefor "controversial?"  The refereeing assistant flagged it immediately. There was nothing at all controversial about it whatsoever. 

Must have been written by a Leeds fan. 

[The Fun Factory]

Still not quite sure to make of yesterday. I thought it was a decent championship game. High in endeavour, low in quality. We started really well but failed to land a knock out blow. The game was fairly even until Leeds got a  goal against the run of play and we struggled for a good half of the second period. But we did well to come back into and get a point. Leeds would feel that they should have won it but it must be remembered that Kodjia also had a big chance at the end.

Plus points- unbeaten at home in 11, feel good factor back at Villa Park. Big crowd in again yesterday, good atmosphere. Leeds looked decent at a fraction of our outlay. Monk is making a reputation for himself. Chester is mint. We are finding ways to win or draw whilst not playing at our best. We are hanging in there and the January window is upon us thankfully.

Negative points- even though we did win 5 in a spin beforehand as soon as the goal went it the nerves went. We are still not playing with the swagger. Playing in fits and starts and we are still rather disjointed. We have some good players who are match winners but we are not consistently dominating matches.  We have spent 40 million in the summer and the team is still not balanced and is miles away from a Premier League side.  Jedinak was awful. If you are being kind you could say he can't hack 2 games in a week- or you could say he is rubbish and can't pass the ball.  We need a quality midfielder asap.

Overall we are a work in progress and need some intelligent signings in January to make the playoffs. Bring on Cardiff.

Edited December 30, 2016 by The Fun Factory

[sheepyvillian]

23 hours ago, Mantis said:

I'm sorry but that's rubbish. We're in the Championship FFS - we can't exactly be choosing and he is delivering results. You call it "luck" but that "luck" suddenly appeared as soon as he walked through the door.

Obviously things could be improved but give the guy a chance. It's not as if he's not getting points on the board.

Choosing What?  And as for rubbish , what on earth is that I 'm having to witness week in and week out .