Ratings and Reactions: Villa v Preston

[Harry]

1 hour ago, PieFacE said:

Deserved that for terrible management if our strikers.  

Agreed - net effect was we had a raw kid on the bench as our only option.

[TRO]

1 hour ago, briny_ear said:

Interesting. What we need to find out is who was managing us in the first half (clearly can't have been Bruce by your account, because he is shit) and make them manager for the whole 90 minutes.

Ha ha

He had them on the coupon for a draw.

Edited January 21, 2017 by TRO

[chappy]

Great performance first half. Should've put them to bed but classic Villa can't string two halves together. That agrealish break just after half time should've been 3-0, not sure what he was thinking and it petered out. Then we let them back in it.

The difference Lansbury made to our midfield was huge to me. Looked class in the first half, we even had someone finding space at throw ins! Once he went off at 2-2 we were back to Amavi being relied on to start all our attacks.

Gabby played well I thought, good pressing. Having said that I wouldn't have him starting if we had other options! Bringing Davis on when he did was bizarre, we had a throw in in a good position with 4 mins to go and their defence stretched. Made the sub which allowed them to find their defensive shape again.

Grealish was frustrating today, looked like he thought the game was won at 2-0. Nice to see Adomah get a couple of goals. Green worked hard with little end product. Westwood benefitted from having a proper midfielder alongside him, Lansbury/Hourihane should be the future in midfield for us. Confident with the two of them plus Kodjia and Ayew back that we will improve. 

Should never have allowed Preston back into this game and it further hampered our slim play off hopes. Definite two points dropped today.

[TRO]

1 hour ago, trevor said:

Poor management of striker situation for something that was known well in advance.

Either a massive misjudgement to think Gabby could do the job, or the decision has been made to throw the towel in on chasing this season hard already.

Problem is will Kodja be at Villa next season?

Is your beef, we should have scored 3 or more and that 2 wasn't enough to win a game?

[TRO]

2 minutes ago, chappy said:

Great performance first half. Should've put them to bed but classic Villa can't string two halves together. That agrealish break just after half time should've been 3-0, not sure what he was thinking and it petered out. Then we let them back in it.

The difference Lansbury made to our midfield was huge to me. Looked class in the first half, we even had someone finding space at throw ins! Once he went off at 2-2 we were back to Amavi being relied on to start all our attacks.

Gabby played well I thought, good pressing. Having said that I wouldn't have him starting if we had other options! Bringing Davis on when he did was bizarre, we had a throw in in a good position with 4 mins to go and their defence stretched. Made the sub which allowed them to find their defensive shape again.

Grealish was frustrating today, looked like he thought the game was won at 2-0. Nice to see Adomah get a couple of goals. Green worked hard with little end product. Westwood benefitted from having a proper midfielder alongside him, Lansbury/Hourihane should be the future in midfield for us. Confident with the two of them plus Kodjia and Ayew back that we will improve. 

Should never have allowed Preston back into this game and it further hampered our slim play off hopes. Definite two points dropped today.

The Grealish comment is at the centre of my issue and I don't suspect it is just him either.

[jackbauer24]

Johnson - 7 - Did what he could, but both goals came because they had far too much space

Amavi - 4 - Really bad game today, I'm a fan of his but today he was appalling in attack and defence

Chester - 7 - Solid as usual, he's already got POTS for me.

Baker - 6 - Great to have him back, strongest defensive partnership we currently have 

Hutton - 6 - Amazing first 15 mibs, took on, and beat, nearly the entire PNE team! But then bang average again after that!

Green - 6 - Worked really hard, had some good moments but his lack of experience showed frequently.

Grealish - 3 - Offers nothing. At all. Weak defensively and poor passing, should have put Gabby/ Green in when 3 on 1.

Lansbury - 7 - Solid start, few great pieces of play then a few parts where he showed lack of match fitness

Westwood - 7 - He gets slated way too much but today, first half, he was fantastic. Second half, whole team was overun.

Adomah - 7 - Stole his first goal! Good penalty and more consistent display today.

Gabby - 5 - Works hard, should have had a goal but just lacks any clinical edge.

Bruce - Poor subs today. He's got zero choices in attack but Grealish should have been pulled off first and Adomah left on. Also hard to justify losing a 2-0 lead at home.

[HanoiVillan]

1 hour ago, Stevo985 said:

I assume people have voted the ref as average because he generously gave us a penalty which, from where I was sat, looked a great tackle. 

 

He was **** horrendous

It was an excellent tackle, and I'm disappointed not to have the opportunity to vote for him for man of the match. He certainly did more to help us than several of our players, and arguably all. 

Pathetic performance (from the referee I mean)

Edited January 21, 2017 by HanoiVillan

[OutByEaster?]

I'm at a loss to quite explain it. 

That first half was the best 45 minutes I've seen us play this season - Preston didn't have a shot, we scored twice (albeit one of those a dodgy penalty) and could have had more - individually, Hutton was superb, Gabby was 2010, Adomah looked very good and Langsbury was just what we needed, we looked smooth, confident, controlled and a threat - 2-0 didn't flatter us.

Then in the second half, we just sort of dropped a notch or Preston lifted it a notch, or both, I'm not sure - they scored from our free kick and then from a poorly defended header, but we still looked the more likely winner of the game, Lundsbury tired and it affected us, Adomah disappeared, they got their tails up, but I still think on the balance of play we were ever so slightly the better side in the second half.

We've been unlucky today, or at least under normal circumstances you'd say we'd been unlucky, we certainly didn't have any luck in the second half, from breakaways that were a foot away from being perfect final balls to the failure of the referee to send Preston's right back off for the most yellow card foul in the whole game - I think Johnstone made one save in 90 minutes - I can't remember them having more chances than they scored with.

It's frustrating, very frustrating and it's not random, it's a pattern - what's promising is that 90 minutes of Landbury and the return of Ayew and Kodjia mean we'll improve - the arrival of Hourihane would mean I wouldn't write off the playoffs yet.

We went on a little run when Bruce arrived and toward the end of it a few people suggested that it was about time we gave someone a tonking - I wasn't convinced at the time, I thought we were riding our luck a little - I'm a little more convinced now, I think today we've started to look more like a balanced football team than at any point in Bruce's tenure - today there were signs of a future - but there's still that bloody great big signature sign of the present in our inability to maintain, composure, control and effort over 90 minutes. 

I don't know whether to feel good or bad. I don't think we're improving, but I think we're showing signs that we might.

Johnstone - 6 - did most things reasonably and his kicking is good - I'm not sure on his responsibility for the second goal and I'd like to see a replay. I'm not 100% convinced on crosses, but he looks a solid enough keeper.

Hutton - 7 - brilliant in the first half, the Scottish Cafu made a couple of appearances, he tackled, he was always available and importantly he didn't do that passing to them thing he occasionally gets involved in - he wasn't quite so effective in the second half but he had a good game.

Chester - 7 - had to battle really hard against that big brute they had up front; and did.

Baker - 7- calm, composed, not injured - all the things we didn't realise he could do six months ago.

Amavi - 6 - Still giving the ball away a little too often, but he was bright and energetic and didn't give Robinson much of a look in - he'll benefit from a better left sided midfielder.

Now - I'm looking at those marks and thinking, that makes it seem like we defended well, but we've conceded two goals - maybe I've gone mad. The weird thing is that other than the two goals, I thought we did - the goals were out of context with the game. Maybe I have gone mad. I'm still a little baffled at today.

Adomah - 7 - he's all industry, he dribbles over defenders, not around them and he'd happily chase a pigeon by the looks of him - in the first half that meant he got two goals and won a slightly dubious (and by that I mean very dubious) penalty - in the seance half it meant he ran into cul-de-sacs and lost the ball too often. 

Lansbury - 7 for his performance - 10 for being a proper midfielder - in the first half, Lansbury popped up looking for the ball in parts of the pitch that Villa midfielders haven't visited for months - he was getting ahead of the forwards, making runs into the corners, arriving in the box - you know in the film 2001 when the black slab gives the monkeys the evolutionary lift and they realise they can use bones as tools? That's how different to our other midfielders he is - he's doing things outside of their conception - he's doing things that normal midfielders do. He played pretty well too.

Grealish - 6 - mixed bag again, a couple of slightly better passes and he'd have a couple of assists and we'd have three points - he was okay today, but in terms of how he plays, we'll always judge him on moments of magic.

Westwood - 6 - where Lansbury wandered into lots of different areas of the pitch, Westwood reworked his traditional role of playing in a small space in front of the defence, from where he's reasonably neat and tidy, but really limited. It's tricky, because without those limitations (and they are in his head) he'd be a better player, I think he's capable of being a better player - but I think he's now absolutely conditioned through criticism to trying the bare minimum outside his comfort zone. He'll never get better and we're helping him get comfortable with that.

Green - 6 - sort of Grealish on the wing, I'll huff and I'll puff and I'll do a couple of stopovers, but I probably won't blow anything down. In fairness, Grealish is a lot further along the line than Green and he did okay, probably the only Villa player that was better in the second half than in the first half.

Agbonlahor - 7 - A really good display of almost complete forward play - he ran the channels, he harried defenders, he held the ball up and brought others into play, he was a good target man and a threat to get in behind and he contributed to our goals and goalscoring threat. He still didn't quite give me the impression he'd get one himself though. This was his best performance in three years, if he can keep to this level, he's a perfectly adequate squad player and we can let McCormack go without to much worry.

Bacuna was Bacuna, Gardner was Gardner and Davis wasn't on long enough for me to figure out who he is.

I genuinely think we're not too far off - we had no one on the bench today that I though would change it or lift it, there was no one the crowd were clamouring for - add Kodjia, Ayew and Hourihane to this squad and we've a chance of beating teams.

It feels further away than ever. I think it might be nearer than it looks.

 

 

 

[Stevo985]

1 hour ago, VillanousOne said:

Watching the brief Sky highlights, Gabby did some decent things, the first goal was almost his. EDIT: Every other account says he was shocking

The two Preston goals were pathetic, the first all our players backed off and no one made even half a tackle, the second a completely unmarked header. We deserve to stay in this league.

Anyone who says Gabby was shocking today has an obvious agenda. It was his best game for about 4 years

[The Fun Factory]

Should have won that game- the second half was vintage RDM Villa. We can't play 2 decent halves to save our lives. After about 60 mins the players were knackered- why did Brucey not bring on Gardner or Tishbola to see the game out? 2 dropped points, play offs are a long, long, long, way off. 

On the plus side Gabby for once had a decent game and Lansbury and Green had a good 45 before fading. In which we all could see apart from our Manager. Strange.

[trevor]

1 hour ago, TRO said:

Is your beef, we should have scored 3 or more and that 2 wasn't enough to win a game?

Not really, I just think we should have scored more than 2 goals so far in January.

[TreeVillan]

I thought Gabby was fantastic today, deserves his place. 

[Dirk]

McCormack not in the side due to missing training? Are you joking?

[sidcow]

First half performance gave me great hope. 

Imagine that but with Hourihane instead of Westwood. Kodjia instead of Gabby AN OTHER instead of Gresford and Bree instead of Hutton and. Landsbury fitter. 

Less said about the second the better 

[TreeVillan]

32 minutes ago, Dirk said:

McCormack not in the side due to missing training? Are you joking?

Is this true?

[Dirk]

Just now, TreeVillan said:

Is this true?

Bruce said it in the interview, utter crap. Apparently no Fulham move too.

[Nigel]

Great write up again obe!

[BigAl]

Were a lot of positives today very good for 60 mins if Bree and Hourihane come in it is only stronger we can get wouldn't right off the playoffs just yet ,Lansbury did more in 78 mins than the rest of our midfielders have done all season .

[jackdaww]

i didnt see the game , so will watch the highlights later.

i am not against critisism , far from it , but some of these posts are way out.

reading the review in the lancashire evening post , bruces own comments , and another very sensible post by OUTBYEASTER , i think we may be turning the corner.

i still dont think we will make the playoffs , the first half season performance has left too much catching up to do  .

 

[Mantis]

Mixed feelings about this. First half we were absolutely rampant. I know it's only Preston but that was genuinely one of the best halves of football I've seen us play at VP in years. Second half was poor but not entirely unexpected - a strain of weakness has run through the club for years and once they got their first a second was inevitable.