Ratings & Reactions: Play Off Final v Fulham

[NoelVilla]

16 minutes ago, maqroll said:

Gutted. We played some really good football for about 20 minutes there. Didn't show up for the first half. Fulham are a  good side. What can you say about Jack Grealish. We will win the league next year guys. UTV

If Jack stays maybe. If Bruce stays no way.

[AXD]

time for green, o’hare and RHM to play a lot more next season. Mostly we need to buy a new CB to replace JT and a new Gk if johnstone won’t extend his loan. Not sure if all the other players will leave 

Edited May 26, 2018 by AXD

[R.Bear]

Really not that gutted. Not sure if its because I'm in my 30s, hasnt sunk in yet or because its not the be all and end all.

After the FA Cup final I was a mess.

[hogso]

Just think, in another dimension (I would've suggested the one @lapal_faninhabits, but I guess not given his post match reaction) that Jack run would have resulted in a goal, and then we will have gone on to win. 

Unfortunately we reside in this shitty ass dimension. 

Not currently optimistic about the future. 

[A'Villan]

11 minutes ago, Juju said:

You know what, knowing as little about football as I do, I'm going to have a bit fat disagree with most here.

Reality check - we were playing a team who were on paper, a team who should have been promoted automatically. They weren't some dead end team. They were our peers. Any game was going to be, if both teams played well, tight and edgy.

Over the 90 minutes, we played better football than Fulham. It's just regrettable that a lapse in concentration cost us. There's was a good goal, we shouldnt begrudge them that. They were fractionally better in and around the box, and yes, that's important. But I thought Fulham looked fat, slow, and their league position flatters them. Unless they spend big, they're coming straight back down. Neutrals in the pub I was drinking in, all agreed, but we just couldn't do anything right in front of their goal. Most of the second half, the game was compressed into their half. What was so badly wrong there?

Nor or can I  criticise the subs particularly. If one had scored, you'd be praising Bruce as a genius.  We hadn't scored in the prior 70 mins, and on a big pitch, on a hot day, its not a bad thing to make a couple of late subs to shake things up a bit, any game is a lottery by that point. They were, arguably attacking subs as well.

Frankly we owned the second half, and the first was tight, with their goal making the difference. They played defensively, forcing a team to rely on counter attacking football to actually pass it about, which frankly we did.

Disappointed, but there's not many in the team I'd identify as failing to try. Adomah had a lot of the ball, and any player who does is going to be noticed when he slips or trips occasionally. Jack dived about a bit, but that Bestesque oement when we almost danced it into the goal was lovely to watch. We had the pressure we just didnt create enough really good chances. And thats as much about Fulham, a team who frankly were way better than us in our last meeting, as it is about us.

Disappointed, but not displeased with the performance, just the result. Anyone who expects a beautiful game when so much is at stake is a fool.

 

Agree with some of and enjoyed reading your post.

What I will disagree with is the first half and a team being able to play effectively, or a 'beautiful game' as you say.

Fulham had decent build up play as a collective in the first half, aided by hesitant and almost reluctant efforts from us.

Edit: And that's what shits me most about todays result, regardless of how fine margins were over a total of 90 minutes, we let Fulham walk us first half, that goal was coming, brilliance by Sessegnon or not. It was their effort as a collective that troubled us. Had we put in a 90 minute shift, I'd be a little less disappointed.

Edited May 26, 2018 by A'Villan

[Awol]

Hard to say how much that performance will cost us long term. But it was woeful. Gutted. 

[srsmithusa]

In the first half Albert played like a 5th defender while snodderd presses high.  Albert was right next to Brice the whole time.  Never a “push the f up from our manager”. Clearly he wanted at least one wing players no like another center half.  Second half.  Albert pushed up.  Who would have thought that would be better?   Anyone with a clue about tactics.  

[fifamad]

17 minutes ago, Juju said:

Over the 90 minutes, we played better football than Fulham. It's just regrettable that a lapse in concentration cost us. There's was a good goal, we shouldnt begrudge them that. They were fractionally better in and around the box, and yes, that's important. But I thought Fulham looked fat, slow, and their league position flatters them. 

 

Are you serious? 

[villabromsgrove]

I saw an interesting interview recently with a Fulham player. He said the reason why they started badly when Jokanovic became manager was because his coaching was complicated and detailed and it took time to put into practice. After about eight to ten games they started to understand the patterns that he was insisting they play and the rest is history.

The first 45 minutes of today's game demonstrated that a bunch of exciting young lads with an attacking system can outplay talented and more experienced players who are totally shackled by a defensive dinosaur of a manager.

I was delighted with the second half reaction by our players, but the fact that we still lost even against ten men is a clear indication that the Villa system of playing football should be dead and buried.

Steve Bruce has to go, along with Colin Calderwood, Steve Clemence and the rest of our massively outdated coaching team.

Wyness, Round and Bruce have become a trio of outdated cronies, looking after each other because the future of their jobs depends on sticking together. Dr T has to do what he should have done two seasons ago and employ a forward thinking head coach and a CEO who actually understands football, instead of a guy whose experience is based in catering contracts and re leasing training grounds.

We're going to lose our loan players and probably Grealish for big bucks. Let's get a manager who can get our young players like O'Hare, Green, Doyle Hayes and RHM playing 'Fulham' style football. The immediate future may be financially poorer, but the football can become something we can be proud of.

I would have loved a victory today, and I would have happily got p*ssed tonight, but in the long run we could benefit if Dr T makes the right decisions.

I've actually enjoyed being in the Championship league even if I've hated our negative and depressing version of the beautiful game. I'm already looking forward to next season as a new and rejuvenated Aston Villa take to the pitch.

I'm sorry we lost guys for very obvious financial reasons, but here's to the future. Cheers.

Ps: I'm still going to get p*ssed tonight!

[HanoiVillan]

30 minutes ago, sidcow said:

Well that's us screwed for the next 10 years then. 

I'm sure there were some Fulham fans who thought that when they went out of the playoffs last season 

[HanoiVillan]

I guess it's understandable, but there's some pretty big over reactions on here. Of course it's disappointing, and we're going to have to really cut our cloth it seems, but it's not the end of the world. We were the fourth best team in a league where the three best teams get promoted. Fulham deserved it, both today and over the course of the season. We need to do a little better next year. 

[Troglodyte]

It isn't the end of the world, and we weren't the better side, but I still do feel gutted about today.  It seems like a massive opportunity missed and essentially 46 games has come to nothing and it's going to take a lot to pick ourselves back up again.  I fear we'll lose Grealish who I enjoy watching more than perhaps any attacking Villa player I've seen in my lifetime.  I fear that Tony Xia - who clearly had grand plans that any fan can't help but get excited about - will either lose interest or have his hands tied in terms of pushing on with our improvement, although hopefully he's committed and that won't be the case.

No 'better fan' sentiment or anything of the sort intended, by the way - it's not like I travelled down for the game after all - but I genuinely just don't understand how anyone could just get over today's defeat so easily.  I feel totally deflated and concerned about how we'll move forward.

 

[lapal_fan]

Ahhh man it just feels like a HUGE missed opportunity.

 

[Demitri_C]

Those saying its not all bad. God you really need to look at the reality of the situation. Tonnes of loans. Aging squad and players like grealish will be sold.

This is bad very bad and you will see that next season

 We are ****.

But despite that is cash in on adomah guys been absolutely useless near enough the whole of 2018. He was at fault for the goal also he was all over the place at times. 

 

[GrassyNoel]

Our season summed up in 90 minutes. 

Current approach taken us about as far as it can go. Time for change. 

[AXD]

3 minutes ago, Demitri_C said:

Those saying its not all bad. God you really need to look at the reality of the situation. Tonnes of loans. Aging squad and players like grealish will be sold.

This is bad very bad and you will see that next season

 We are ****.

But despite that is cash in on adomah guys been absolutely useless near enough the whole of 2018. He was at fault for the goal also he was all over the place at times. 

 

I’m not too fussed about losing our loan players. Johnstone and snodgrass where key players, but a decent goalkeeper should be possible to find (gollini?) and I believe in green to come in as a starting winger next season. Grabban was brought because of the long term injury of Kodjia, who will have a full season again for us next year. Tuanzebe and onomah just blocked our own youth players.

biggest loss will be terry, that’s the most worrying position. And grealish isn’t gone yet. If we sell him, it’ll be for a lot of money which could be used wisely.

 

[Hanky]

We were shocking first half. Looked exactly the side Jokanovic described. Second half came out a lot better and looked like a football team. After that we made some really poor changes at the wrong times and it cost us any momentum at the end as we had about six playing up front and that has never worked for us. 

It was promotion or bust for us today. The way I’m feeling at the moment I wouldn’t be bothered about any of the attacking players being here at the start of next season(except Grealish). I’m sure that feeling will pass but some of them were shocking today. 

[CosmicVillan]

4 minutes ago, AXD said:

biggest loss will be terry, that’s the most worrying position..

 

But..Samba..?

[VillaChris]

15 minutes ago, Demitri_C said:

Those saying its not all bad. God you really need to look at the reality of the situation. Tonnes of loans. Aging squad and players like grealish will be sold.

This is bad very bad and you will see that next season

 We are ****.

But despite that is cash in on adomah guys been absolutely useless near enough the whole of 2018. He was at fault for the goal also he was all over the place at times. 

 

Worth remembering Fulham sold their best player to us two years ago and became a better all round team because of it.

If we lose a big player so be it. We will have to replace him but pretty much every football club has to sell key players and replace them.

At the end of it this much vaunted seen it done it experienced squad couldn't do the job today or indeed v QPR or Bolton after the Wolves game when second was a big possibility again.

No real thoughts on what next season will bring with so much up in the air but would like to think expectations would be a little less so we can hopefully surprise a few people.

[CosmicVillan]

You know it's a shame and I'm gutted and slightly the worse for drink but I feel this could be the making of us 

It means we can't buy our way out of the Championship and I am hopeful that some of the young talent we have will have to be relied upon instead of a bunch of players slightly past their sell by date.

Fair play to Bruce for turning around the rotten dressing room and filling it with leaders. It was almost enough..just a couple of goals short.