Ratings & Reactions: Villa v Sunderland

[PompeyVillan]

You can't win them all in style, especially in the Championship. Wolves had a similar game against Reading, a bit of quality but not exceptional and ground out a result. 

I'm more than happy with that. We escaped the dreaded new manager bounce. Sunderland are woeful, I feel for their fans, a good bunch. We looked dangerous at times, they looked toothless despite all of the possession. 

A decent nights work by my reckoning. We don't look like a 4th in the league team, but we're scrapping away every game and that horrid hopeless feeling is slowing being forgotten. 

[AVTuco]

8 minutes ago, lexicon said:

Snodgrass MoTM for me. One of the only people to make things happen and came away with 2 assists (I think). 

Me too. He works hard, and also effectively assisted both our goals on Saturday.

[peterms]

1 minute ago, fightoffyour said:

Training?

Yes, I see the fault in my argument.  Sorry. 

[villa89]

7 minutes ago, Spoony said:

This is said game after game and yet game after game we win.

We don't though. Sheffield Wednesday deservedly beat us at villa Park. We also draw alot of games against poor opposition that we should be good enough to win. 

[Grasshopper]

11 minutes ago, TheAuthority said:

I want to add that I thought that was the best refereeing performance I've seen in this league. Probably the best I've seen in a long while. He just let the game play and didn't want to be the center of attention. Very rare these days.

I rated him average because I didnt notice him.

Maybe that means he did a great job

[osmark86]

1 minute ago, villa89 said:

We don't though. Sheffield Wednesday deservedly beat us at villa Park. We also draw alot of games against poor opposition that we should be good enough to win. 

good point, we don't win them all.

really though, these are pretty happy times considering the last couple of years. minus the fact where we currently reside as a team ofc. still though.

[sheepyvillian]

15 minutes ago, CosmicVillan said:

This is what winning teams do..they win ugly

I think Pep would take serious issue with that statement . 

[imavillan]

15 minutes ago, Demitri_C said:

Made it hard for ourselves but was comfortable 

adomah motm, if we play like that against Ipswich we will lose. Much better for Saturday 

Demitri_C aka Mystic Meg

How do you know that? Every match is different. Saturdays game will be different to Tuesdays.

 

[brummybloke]

Struggled through that one. Training needs to be physio and rest for the first 11 now for Saturday.

Ran out of energy early on and didn't look like scoring although we obviously did... twice.

 

Johnstone at fault for their goal he was completely out of position but a win keeps us moving upwards so got to be chuffed with that 

[poitier]

Got away with a shocking performance tonight, nice points though.

[Grasshopper]

5 minutes ago, imavillan said:

Demitri_C aka Mystic Meg

How do you know that? Every match is different. Saturdays game will be different to Tuesdays.

 

if you need the logic behind that explaining,I‘m sorry, I can‘t help you.

play the same XI and they‘ll be even more tired

play as bad or worse than tonight and Ipswich will have to be even more sh*yte than S‘land were.

[Vive_La_Villa]

It wasn't pretty and we made hard work of it. But we got the 3 points! 

We seem to getting a Knack of grinding out results when not playing well. That was another good example of it. They say it's the sign of a good team but we will need to raise our game against better opposition or will get beat.  I think we'll do that. 

Samba my man of the motd. Won everything. I actually thought promotion was over when Terry got injured so delighted to see two solid performances from the big man. Well done to him and Bruce for taking him on.

[Demitri_C]

To play that poor and win is a good sign, I think we would have lost that last year. But damn why do we have to make it so hard in ourselves ffs

[Demitri_C]

14 minutes ago, imavillan said:

Demitri_C aka Mystic Meg

How do you know that? Every match is different. Saturdays game will be different to Tuesdays.

 

Because Sunderland are woeful, we won't get lucky like that again against a decent Ipswich team. Need I remind you they were the first team to beat us at villa park last season??

you seem to be doing your own mystic meg in your own post 

Edited November 21, 2017 by Demitri_C

[Stockport_Villain]

Happy with the win but ne needs to freshen it up on Sat. Looked very tired the last 20 mins.

[rubberman]

Another 3 points.  Need to freshen things up on Saturday, but up to fourth by capitalising on other poor results is what we need to keep doing.

[GREAT_BEARD_OF_ZEUS]

We were just a bit less awful than they were... but i'll take it for the 3pts.  Sometimes when you play a poor team (and Sunderland arevery poor) you end up being dragged down to their level.  We did enough to win and looked comfortable until the last 10 or 15, even then it wasn't backs to wall, just a few anxious moments.

Ratings

Johnstone 6 - not much to do, but if I was to be critial, he should have palmed that shot out for a corner rather than leave it in for them to pick up and score from.

Hutton 7 - good showing, fully committed as always, got forward and created - sometimes through skill, sometimes through sheer will.

Chester 6 - Quiet night for him.  Didn't do much wrong though.

Samba 8 (MOM) - Not the prettiest and his first thought is pretty much always to hoof it, but he made some vital interceptions tonight.  That headed clearence from their free kick towards the end was superb.

Taylor 5 - Looked scared first half and wtf was he doing just giving up on a ball in their box???  Second half did better, but needs to step it up next game.

Snodgrass 8 - Becoming a very important player for us.  Set up the goal and should have scored another.  Love that he has the ability to bring the ball down, hold off a player and drive in field with the ball at his feet... often helps spread the play and create a chance.

Whelan 6 - I do appreciate what he does, but lacked movement tonight.  Made a well timed tackle in the box but looks tired, may be due a rest with Jedi now back.

Hourihane 7 - thought he was busy tonight, ball didn't quite fall for him on occasion but he didn't shy away from the it.

Adomah 7 - Another goal and a decent showing from Albert.  Glad he got taken off, we need him rested for Saturday.

Onomah 7 - Thought he did well.  Always supports the play and gives an option to whoever has the ball.  Held it up well and bagged himself another deflected effort.

Davis 4 - Shocker.  Looked exhausted before he even stepped on the pitch.  Clearly tried to up his energy levels in the second half but this was a bad display from him.

Subs

Jedi 6 - Sprayed some nice long passes across the pitch when he came on, then settled infront of the defence. 

Grealish 7 - Decent cameo.  Played some clever passes with Onomah, think those two will link up well.  Showed a bit of grit to with that tackle to keep the ball even though he was on the floor.

Elmo 6 - ran about for a couple of minutes.

[LakotaDakota]

13 minutes ago, Demitri_C said:

Because Sunderland are woeful, we won't get lucky like that again against a decent Ipswich team. Need I remind you they were the first team to beat us at villa park last season??

you seem to be doing your own mystic meg in your own post 

Ipswitch aren't axactly great. They won their first 4 games of the season but since then have been pretty shit & have lost 7 of the last 12 (including 4 defeats & a draw in the last 7).

They play Sheff Weds tomorrow & if they lose that will have taken 7 points from the last 8 games & have a days less recovery time than us.

Another home win on the way.

Edited November 21, 2017 by LakotaDakota

[markavfc40]

We made hard work of it tonight and were way too casual. Had more than a handful of players gotten out of second gear we could have won it comfortably as Sunderland are a very poor side.

It is another three points though and that is the bottom the line. Bring on Saturday and hopefully another three.

[sidcow]

Well we won and the march up the table continues BUT there is something inherently wrong about watching Villa in a midweek game under floodlights, we are near the top of the table and on a run but the crowd are almost silent and what noise there is, is grumbling and groaning about how the game is going. 

We should have put that lot away today, they were so so bad, yes we eventually got home via a deflected goal. A better team might well have punished our all round poor play. 

Time and time and time again we failed to deliver simple balls to our own players in good positions, either through simply not doing it or through poor/lazy delivery.  This means we are always hanging on instead of cruising to a big win.  And at times we become unstuck because of it. 

It will not take much to much for us to really push on, I am not sure if it's Bruce or the players but unless it improves we are always going to be hanging on or failing to get back when we've messed up. 

FRUSTRATING 

Edited November 21, 2017 by sidcow