Ratings & Reactions: Villa v Middlesbrough

[alreadyexists]

39 minutes ago, villaglint said:

Few thoughts after last nights game. 

1 - statistics. Traore has been getting some phenomenal match ratings on Whoscored this season. Far higher than any other player and on a pretty consistent basis. He's obviously chipped in with a few goals/assists too. Prior to the game I was really worried about how we could stop him. That proved to be ill founded because while he is at times unstoppable in a one on one his end product is as poor as ever. One of the dumbest footballers I've ever seen. After contributing naff all on Sat he got 8.4 and last night 7.6. It's an algorithm which rewards things like successful dribbles and doesn't have any kind of human eyes watching the game. Statistics are a giant waste of time. 

2 - character. I know @Michael118 is really fond of the relegation side but if he stopped watching the blues and took in some Villa games he'd know that that side had the poorest attitude and lowest levels of character of any Villa side in the last 30yrs at least. In fact I'd say it's the poorest of any side I've seen, maybe on par with the Sunderland side which followed us and kept on diving down through the leagues. When Tony came in and enacted the buy all the captains strategy it was an obvious way to try and address our biggest problem. This year we topped it off by bringing in probably the best of all the captains. Boy has that paid off. Two of the highest level professional performances you will see. Switched on, committed from minute 1-180, canny, keeping the ball when we needed to, pushing the game to get winner when needed. Yes even a bit of luck too. It was as perfect a second half as a nail bitter could have been. Amazing to see such a street wise Villa just over a year after we regularly folded at the first sign of pressure. 

3 - tactics. A lot has been made of Bruce's tactical nous and failure to react to games. I've seen it plenty of times and I think especially going forward if plan A hasn't worked he struggles to come up with a plan B. That being said this guy knows football at the other end of the pitch very very well. In such a big game against a team with several talented players it is incredible how few chances they had in 180 mins. For me that is all down to the manager and how he has drilled this team in the year and a half he's been here. Bravo sir. 

4 - chances. Yes Fulham are a decent side but if Derby can nearly beat them then we absolutely can. Every time we've had a big game this year this side has brought their A game and delivered. Yes they've got some decent players but they don't have Jack Grealish. I fully expect him to show Tom Cairney as he did to Rubén Neves that he's the best player in this division. So excited to see that. Cannot wait! 

Excellent comment sir.

I would add that Derby did beat Fulham over 90mins, as did a god awful Blues side when they were under pressure. We have to beat them over 90mins at Wembley, they won’t get a second bite of the cherry like against Derby.

[bannedfromHandV]

Masterful performance, best atmosphere for years, great result and Boro couldn't have complained much if we'd won the game 2-0 last night.

In 180 minutes of football, we really did not look like conceding a goal, their keeper being the only factor in it finishing as close as it did.

First half we got too deep, much the same as we did second half of first leg, SB addressed that and got the team higher up, second half we were excellent.

Can't wait for the final.

[lapal_fan]

@hogso Cherish this moment pal.   

Edited May 16, 2018 by lapal_fan

[Kingman]

1 hour ago, limpid said:

They'd bring the cherry pickers out with people underneath? I can't see it.

Was Retractable im told mate but it failed so they never released it.

[Dante_Lockhart]

[limpid]

2 minutes ago, Kingman said:

Was Retractable im told mate but it failed so they never released it.

We installed a load of heavy duty  winches for a one time crowd initiative? I guess it's possible, but who told you this?

[Kingman]

I'm not about to name, names but that what I was told, There will communication from the club as lot of people asking 

[Stevo985]

21 minutes ago, lapal_fan said:

@hogso Cherish this moment pal.   

Stick to Rocket League you nerd!

[John]

12 hours ago, ferguson1 said:

Don't think I've ever celebrated a 0-0 

I did at Anderlecht in 82. 

[lapal_fan]

Just now, Stevo985 said:

Stick to Rocket League you nerd!

I saw you an'all. 

In your black clothes, and a distinct lack of social grace, tagging along with your cooler friends.

Shave the back of your neck, neck beardy weirdy! 

[alreadyexists]

23 minutes ago, lapal_fan said:

@hogso Cherish this moment pal.   

Good try @hogso and those are some lovely red trousers! 

[hogso]

1 hour ago, lapal_fan said:

@hogso Cherish this moment pal.   

Haha, nice one

[BOF]

What was he trying to do ?

[Stevo985]

1 hour ago, lapal_fan said:

I saw you an'all. 

In your black clothes, and a distinct lack of social grace, tagging along with your cooler friends.

Shave the back of your neck, neck beardy weirdy! 

I wasn't wearing black and I don't have any friends

[VILLAMARV]

 

[Stevo985]

4 hours ago, terrytini said:

3 people thought Bruces performance last night was Poor or Very Poor.

It's mostly the usual suspects who give these votes every game (you can see who voted). You can usually ignore them.

[Stevo985]

My summary of the game is that we were excellent.

Backs to the walls at time but we defended superbly and I can't remember Boro having any proper chances until Downing's free kick.

We struggled to get forward at times, but we still created far more chances, and better ones, than our opponents. 

I thought we did exactly what we needed to do on the night. We'll need to find a bit more going forward against Fulham, but I think we can step up an extra gear.

 

Shout out to the fans last night who were incredible. Around 55-60 minutes I thought a really strange thing happened. Almost like the whole crowd thought "we need to get us over the line here" and suddenly it felt like everyone in the Holte End was cheering and chanting and going mad. 
The atmosphere was good before that but that last half an hour was unreal.

[terrytini]

1 hour ago, Stevo985 said:

My summary of the game is that we were excellent.

 

Shout out to the fans last night who were incredible. Around 55-60 minutes I thought a really strange thing happened. Almost like the whole crowd thought "we need to get us over the line here" and suddenly it felt like everyone in the Holte End was cheering and chanting and going mad. 
The atmosphere was good before that but that last half an hour was unreal.

Agree 100% the whole Post But in particula4 this last bit. It was indeed unreal, both in its spine tingling volume but even more so in the way it just erupted, spontaneously, all over the place ( even the Trinity and Ellis).

The closest thing I’ve experienced to it was on those few occasions it’s been near the seasons end and important news of goals from other games has filtered through, sending a bolt of excitement or noise through the crowd........but it really was nothing like that, it was electric, sustained, and almighty powerful. Very very special.

[Stevo985]

The only thing that disappointed me was the pitch invasion. Not because I don’t agree with it or anything, but I would have loved to belt out Don’t Look Back in Anger and have the players celebrating in front of the Holte after that. 

Its a shame we and they were denied that. 

[Demitri_C]

7 minutes ago, Stevo985 said:

The only thing that disappointed me was the pitch invasion. Not because I don’t agree with it or anything, but I would have loved to belt out Don’t Look Back in Anger and have the players celebrating in front of the Holte after that. 

Its a shame we and they were denied that. 

Agree we were robbed of it. Really irritating 

I'm not a fan of pulis bit i will give him credit he didn't wings about the Johnstone incident much but said cant argue as we finished 4th. I don't actually mind boro to be honest. Their fans were pleasant. Wish they well for the future.