Ratings & Reactions: Villa v Brentford

[sidcow]

18 hours ago, This Could Be Rotterdam said:

2 points dropped. Needed fresh legs in the middle from 65 minutes. Mcginn looked tired but udnerstamdable considering. 

The ref was a disgrace! 

Sorry, I don't understand what you're saying there

[pacbuddies]

7 minutes ago, limpid said:

Nearly as "apocolyptic" as you not being able to post old news?

All news posted in the match thread is old news if it's about the match. People's in game reactions you see. Anyway back on topic.

[briny_ear]

18 minutes ago, pacbuddies said:

Five minutes of reactions posted in the match thread. Yes, I can see how that could prove apocolyptic. Best leave it as it is then.

Of all the wacky things people find to argue about on Villatalk, the timing of the closing of the match thread is one of the most, er, wacky. 

[pacbuddies]

7 minutes ago, briny_ear said:

Of all the wacky things people find to argue about on Villatalk, the timing of the closing of the match thread is one of the most, er, wacky. 

We aren't arguing just debating.  

[BleedClaretAndBlue]

3 game ban for Moppy. 

[KevinRichardsonsMoustache]

31 minutes ago, BleedClaretAndBlue said:

3 game ban for Moppy. 

I appreciate that the EFL is probably limited by the way it has written its rules, but this is just a joke. This is beyond violent conduct. 

 

How much does McGinn earn a week? What if that stamp would have ended his career? How much money could that stamp have been worth?

 

I know it’s a bit of a hackneyed argument but kids are watching this stuff. We think we celebrate great skilful platers but we actually protect unprofessional thugs. You can’t defend this. RDL got the same length of ban for Antwerp for flipping off the referee. Bad but not likely to end the ref’s career. 

 

Having read so much about Brentford’s ‘ethos’, I’d expect them to condemn his behaviour.

[briny_ear]

2 hours ago, BleedClaretAndBlue said:

3 game ban for Moppy. 

Well well and Dean “Ronne Kray” Smith clearly failed with his threat to go after Jedi in revenge.

Someone more level-headed at Brentford must have stepped in & told Maupay to accept the charge and keep his head down.

I agree with @KevinRichardsonsMoustache - this was a malicious, reckless, potentially career-ending assault on McGinn and it should not be treated as a regular red card offence.

[Hibsfan]

Hi folks,  

Watched last nights game and thought I’d pass on a few impartial observations of the game,  won’t bother with the voting though as not really my place to do so.

I’ll start with the biggest negative,  thought the ref was very poor.  Not just the stamp but the whole game I thought he missed loads,  he was clearly over weight as well,  not sure how the authorities expect someone like that to keep up with professional footballers?

in terms of the game itself,  your keeper had a couple of good saves but overall gave me the shits a bit,  thought he should have done better with the second goal,  he stays bigger and stronger he keeps that out.

The boy Jelinak (think that’s his name) never looked comfortable at all at the back,  believe he’s meant to be a midfielder?  That makes sense.

I’ll admit to never particularly liking Alan Hutton but I’m amazed he’s a regular at left back,  he seems quite popular on here but I’d be surprised if you don’t need better as the season progresses.

Your midfield looks good and I like Grealish, he seems a bit greedy though,  suppose that comes with the territory with that kind of player but I suspect as his career progresses that may be what he needs to iron out a bit.

The final third there seems to be a bit quality lacking,  don’t mean that in an offensive way, just all seemed a bit raw up there.  For all the possession you didn’t seem to create that much.  Hopefully your two new wingers help with that.

Anyway,  that’s my thoughts on what I saw.  Appreciate it’s just one game though so I may be talking pish.

[thunderball]

18 minutes ago, Hibsfan said:

Hi folks,  

Watched last nights game and thought I’d pass on a few impartial observations of the game,  won’t bother with the voting though as not really my place to do so.

I’ll start with the biggest negative,  thought the ref was very poor.  Not just the stamp but the whole game I thought he missed loads,  he was clearly over weight as well,  not sure how the authorities expect someone like that to keep up with professional footballers?

in terms of the game itself,  your keeper had a couple of good saves but overall gave me the shits a bit,  thought he should have done better with the second goal,  he stays bigger and stronger he keeps that out.

The boy Jelinak (think that’s his name) never looked comfortable at all at the back,  believe he’s meant to be a midfielder?  That makes sense.

I’ll admit to never particularly liking Alan Hutton but I’m amazed he’s a regular at left back,  he seems quite popular on here but I’d be surprised if you don’t need better as the season progresses.

Your midfield looks good and I like Grealish, he seems a bit greedy though,  suppose that comes with the territory with that kind of player but I suspect as his career progresses that may be what he needs to iron out a bit.

The final third there seems to be a bit quality lacking,  don’t mean that in an offensive way, just all seemed a bit raw up there.  For all the possession you didn’t seem to create that much.  Hopefully your two new wingers help with that.

Anyway,  that’s my thoughts on what I saw.  Appreciate it’s just one game though so I may be talking pish.

So in summary, lacking in all areas - spot on sir! You are lucky to have watched one of our better performances.

Our RHS is a bit stodgy, and Kodjia is only just finding his feet after a long lay off. ‘Jelinak’ is indeed usually a decent midfielder and certainly not a centreback, but Bruce likes to spring a surprise nearly every match, let’s hope he surprises us by playing Elphick there next time. Hutton has earned our affection, he doesn’t stop trying and has seen off many pretenders to his fullback crown. He is actually last man standing from the unloved McLeish project.

McGinn looks the perfect midfield partner for Grealish. He clearly has tenacity, energy, a decent shot and is technically very good, a real decent addition, he is going to be very popular here.

Good luck with your campaign, Hibs are now my “Scottish team” as you guys have some class

Edited August 23, 2018 by thunderball

[mottaloo]

1 minute ago, thunderball said:

 

McGinn looks the perfect midfield partner for Grealish. He clearly has tenacity, energy, a decent shot and is technically very good, a real decent addition, he is going to be very popular here.

 

Doesn't he just !? The kid has a magical left foot and in particular, the one incident in the second half where he won back the ball near their box showed the effort the lad will go to. The tackle was very Sid Cowans in his pomp !

[sidcow]

11 hours ago, limpid said:

And then we have five minutes of reactions in the match thread from people who aren't watching a stream. Perha;s you could ask them to remove their delay - especially if they are advertising it as "live".

No, I'll continue to close it as close to the end of the match as I can. Sorry.

For what it's worth I agree there should be a few minutes grace for people not watching/listening with a delay.  Also I was in the middle of responding to a point the other day but was locked out of posting it. 

I know I can move it to the post match thread but it felt like a "current" thing to me. 

It's your site and your decision but I also don't see any harm in a slight delay. 

Edited August 23, 2018 by sidcow

[Skills]

17 hours ago, AJ said:

Smith saying if we look for a retrospective red card for Maupay, then they will claim one for Jedi, claiming that Jedi smacked Maupay in the back of the head after fouling him.

Sorry, Mister Smith, that is no defence. Your piece of shit deliberately stamped on our player, and after fouling another of our players, he ( allegedly) gets a smack in the head which he deserves.

Neal Maupay, he is a good player, but he is scum. He is the Suarez of the Championship.

even more reason to go ahead for one on Maupay!

[Skills]

12 hours ago, briny_ear said:

Yes, I noticed that here.

OK, Mr Smith, just to let you know it doesn't work like that. Villa won't be "looking for a retrospective" on anything. The FA will review the match in the context of the referee's report and will take retrospective action on Maupay if they think the TV evidence shows this was a red-card offence. Steve was just voicing the hope they will look at the incident. If Brentford go to the FA asking for a review of Jedinak's behaviour, they should by all rights be told politely to **** off.

So, Mr Smith, I think we saw a truth about your team last night. When being outplayed they have no answer but thuggery and violence. And Maupay proves to be the biggest thug of all. I hope he gets a proper punishment for his reckless and extremely dangerous behaviour last night.

I also hope these who have constantly been idolising Dean Smith on here and promoting him as a candidate to replace Steve will button it for a while. I wouldn't want someone whose response to pressure is to imitate a small time West London crook as our manager any time soon.

agree with your the fist part but I have to disagree with you on Mr Smith.  He outcoached Bruce in the second half after seeing his team dominated in the first.  He made the right substitutions, brought in Yennaris for Mceachran who was sitting to deep and they pushed us in the second half. I wasn't a Dean Smith fan as I thought it was the whole moneyball system and not the coaching, but credit where its due, he coached well against us 

[Harry]

On 22/08/2018 at 22:59, OutByEaster? said:

Strange again, lots of promising stuff, some less so.

I should start with a couple of apologies - Jonathon Kodjia is not dead. He looked stronger, livelier and a threat, it was his best performance in a long time. He's very much alive and deserved a couple of goals. Axel Tuanzebe - sorry Sir. This was easily Axel's best performance in a Villa shirt, particularly in the first half where he defended very well, used the ball intelligently and got forward, showing that he's got a very decent cross on him. I've upgraded him to youthfully inconsistent - a few more performances like this will get him upgraded again.

The concerns for me were in a couple of areas - we still look a little shaky at the back - we got away with Jedinak's undercooked header to the keeper today, but he seems to have one in him every game - which is a shame as he was otherwise excellent - indeed the defence looked much more solid - except for when they didn't - we have an 85 minute defence in a ninety minute game.

We fell off a cliff on about 65 minutes - whether that's fitness or mental tiredness or a lack of depth I don't know - but the legs went just after an hour - we need to find a way to fix that - that's a big worry.

Our wide men are also a little concern - Elmohamady is sort of competent without ever being a threat down one side - he's never going to try to take someone on or go on a Hutton-esque galavant - he's far too risk averse for that - he instead plays a sort of sensible wide midfield role and hopes someone else will come and get the ball off him. On the other side, Adomah is all out of form, his timing is a little off and he's struggling to make anything happen - Green if anything is worse, the snap has gone out of his game and he doesn't seem to have the edge he'll need to succeed - confidence will go a long way with both, but they aren't at the races at the moment.

That said, for 65 minutes we played the best football we've played all season - we moved the ball well, we moved off the ball well, we held it up, we took people on - Brentford are a football side but we completely out footballed them - this was not the Bruce-ball of legend. I thought we were excellent for much of that period. For the first twenty minutes of the second half in particular we were utterly dominant and should have put the game to bed... and then we spluttered and there only looked like one winner.

For them Maupay was a handful and a horrible little shit. Their first goal was both well worked and well finished and he showed good opportunism for the second. However, he seems to think he's big enough to celebrate in front of the Holte End and have a bit of a go and he also thinks he can fight fully grown men - for that and being a whopper in general I hope he's got very brittle hamstrings. I didn't see the stamp he's supposed to have made on McGinn and I'm unsurprised that the referee didn't either - he 's away with the fairies is Jon Moss - today was one of his better performances - I thought he was awful.

We have the talent to pull a goal out of anywhere though and we deserved an equaliser - it was a game we deserved to win handsomely for a bit and then a game we deserved a little luck in. I thought overall we were the better side 

What's most promising for me was the football we were able to play despite areas of weakness - McGinn and Grealish are the best attacking midfield in the Championship - and what's more, they compliment each other very well. Bruce has them rooming together on away trips and tonight I think we saw the start of an understanding that will suit us very well. They each create space for the other. I also think Whelan is a good sensible foil for their wit going forward. It's a very promising midfield.

What's really exciting is what we could become this season - If El Ghazi or Bolasie arrive with any form, we will be something of a force going forward. We looked like we could be today with wingers in no form at all - if one of those two arrives and is a real threat, we'll score bucketloads of goals. A midfield four with McGinn and Grealish and two wide threats could make this Villa side the most fun to watch in years - it could be sensational. I can see us in a couple of weeks letting in a couple of goals a game and scoring four or five - genuinely. If this clicks we're in for real entertainment, because that middle two are almost able to blow teams away on their own - almost - if these loans pay out, I think it's going to be all the fun.

Tonight was entertaining, and promising - ultimately you'd have to be a complete idiot to not be happy to snatch a point with a 95th minute equaliser. I thought we should have won it.

Draw your own conclusions.

 

 

 

 

I agree with pretty much all that. The collapse in our play coincided with Green coming on for Adomah. Whilst Adomah was struggling to get his crosses in he remained a threat. Green seemed to pose little or no threat and IMO was pretty poor, and he is a player that I rate. For me the game highlighted two problems: firstly our inability to convert possession and chances into goals and secondly how fragile our defence is. Yet agin we conceded two silly goals that came from nothing. To each a few posters we desperately need another CB, Jedinak is good in air but way too slow and I shudder to think how we would look if Chester was injured. Ideally a specialist LB would be good too.

Just a final word on Brentford. I saw no evidence of the 'footballing' side that is supposed to be what we aspire to be. They were the typical well drilled Championship side that make themselves difficult to beat. The fact we did not win by 2 or 3 clear goals says more about us than it does them. As for the ref we were treated to yet another masterclass in incompetence.