Dave J Posted December 23, 2018 Share Posted December 23, 2018 18 minutes ago, kurtsimonw said: 1 win in 5, 12 goals conceded, terrible second half displays, throwing points away for fun. It's not good enough. I was hoping Smith's nativity would disappear after a few of these, but it seems not. Hopefully he starts to learn how to close games out before its too. Auto promotion is now good, could be playoffs before long at this rate too. We're so open and easy to run at its embarrassing. But oh well, we get the odd score draw now! Auto was always a long shot - play offs were always going to be the realistic option. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post M_Afro Posted December 23, 2018 Popular Post Share Posted December 23, 2018 29 minutes ago, kurtsimonw said: 1 win in 5, 12 goals conceded, terrible second half displays, throwing points away for fun. It's not good enough. I was hoping Smith's nativity would disappear after a few of these, but it seems not. Hopefully he starts to learn how to close games out before its too. Auto promotion is now good, could be playoffs before long at this rate too. We're so open and easy to run at its embarrassing. But oh well, we get the odd score draw now! Have a word with yourself mate. If you cannot see the improvement then you do not understand football. We have played some really tough games and you could make an argument for us winning all of them. You cannot blame the manager for poor luck and mistakes. Patience is what we need. For the first time in a generation we appear to have an intelligent coaching staff and an intelligent board. Do not underestimate the importance of that. Unfortunately we don’t yet have an intelligent team but that will come. Watching Villa these past few weeks has, at times, been an absolute joy. Work still to do? Of course but surely you can see that for the first time in years we are on an upward trajectory. Stick with it and enjoy the ride. 10 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VillanousOne Posted December 23, 2018 Share Posted December 23, 2018 (edited) 2 hours ago, holteend1982 said: They was always going to have more possession, starting Whelan was the correct choice and he had a good game. We lost because our back 4 that started aren't good enough, so many times they were out of position or giving the ball away Our defence were awful, but aside from McGinn our midfield offered nothing, they didn't press high enough, Whelan gave his all but composure and possession weren't included, sometimes he was like a headless chicken, same with Connor. Whelan was not the correct choice in my opinion but I can't fault Dean for making it. Edited December 23, 2018 by VillanousOne Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Dave J Posted December 23, 2018 Popular Post Share Posted December 23, 2018 37 minutes ago, AVTuco said: Today was the first time I felt Dean was a bystander in the game. He didn't influence it at all, and made wrong substitutes. Hopefully it's a one-off. To be fair - sometimes we have to accept that the opposition are better than you - it's cheap talk to say he should have closed the game out. you kinda need to be in control of a game to be able to close it out. We probably didn't deserve to be 2-0 anyway. A bitter pill to swallow but I still believe Deano will deliver play off's for us. 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AVTuco Posted December 23, 2018 VT Supporter Share Posted December 23, 2018 9 minutes ago, Dave J said: To be fair - sometimes we have to accept that the opposition are better than you - it's cheap talk to say he should have closed the game out. you kinda need to be in control of a game to be able to close it out. We probably didn't deserve to be 2-0 anyway. A bitter pill to swallow but I still believe Deano will deliver play off's for us. We didn't deserve to be 2-0, and we didn't deserve anything from that match. In some weird way I think a loss was better than another 2-2. Expectations were lowered by everyone. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AvfcRigo82 Posted December 23, 2018 Share Posted December 23, 2018 9 minutes ago, AVTuco said: We didn't deserve to be 2-0, and we didn't deserve anything from that match. In some weird way I think a loss was better than another 2-2. Expectations were lowered by everyone. We deserved our 2-0 lead and we we're frustrated in getting a 3rd before HT. What happened 2nd half is just unbelievable. We should hsve walked away with all 3 points. I think after today and considering the injuries we now have, any pressure of Automatic promotion can be forgot and just realistically focus on winning the play off place. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave-R Posted December 23, 2018 Share Posted December 23, 2018 (edited) 3 hours ago, QldVilla said: I think the run of games over the last 6 weeks has caught up with the team. We looked tired as a squad last game and looked it again today. We also aren't the same team without Grealish, having someone to hold up the ball and allow the attacking players to get into position. Now that we are getting injuries, it's showing we don't have the quality of depth we thought we had. Will be interesting to see who is brought in in January, we not only need the well publicised defenders but another ball playing central midfielder, someone who sits a little deeper, urgently to go on with it. Yes as much as I hate to say it, playing the same players leaves a team fatigued, its happened to us and we can't carry on without resting our main players. Fatigued and our team which has many players we could do with being rid of because they just are not cutting it. I would say sort the defence out, then midfield, but I would like another option to Tammy as well as I feel our strikers are not consistently scoring. I do agree with you we need another Jack Grealish for when Jack Grealish is injured, another Mcginn as well would be super. I think Smith will be bringing some fresh faces in and plenty will go, I don't think Our defence will be the same as it is now, think they are done, Tuanzebe I think will be the only one staying. Elmo, Chester, Taylor, bree, hutton, jedinak, moreira out deffo, followed by possible sales of adomah, Whelan, hogan, bunn basically a fire sale is needed at villa as I see only grealish,Mcginn, Tammy, Lovre, Nyland, Bolasie, ghazi, hourihane, RHM, lansbury, Whelan and possibly kodjia and bjarnason staying, it's not alot really to keep. Also would like to see o'hare, mckirdy, revan, hayes be given some first team time and bring the youth in more. I feel our answer my lie with some of the youngsters, not just in winning games but bringing more energy into what is a fatigued team at the moment, it's showing. SO much to do and so little time to do it in, sure Dean will make the rite choices. Edited December 23, 2018 by Dave-R Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave J Posted December 23, 2018 Share Posted December 23, 2018 13 minutes ago, AVTuco said: We didn't deserve to be 2-0, and we didn't deserve anything from that match. In some weird way I think a loss was better than another 2-2. Expectations were lowered by everyone. Fair comment - this loss might well be a blessing in disguise. We should all now just focus on securing a play off position. With Smith at the helm I would be happy to go toe to toe with any one else in the play off's. They are a lottery and I think Smith would be smart enough to navigate a two game semi and final. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave J Posted December 23, 2018 Share Posted December 23, 2018 7 minutes ago, AvfcRigo82 said: We deserved our 2-0 lead and we we're frustrated in getting a 3rd before HT. What happened 2nd half is just unbelievable. We should hsve walked away with all 3 points. I think after today and considering the injuries we now have, any pressure of Automatic promotion can be forgot and just realistically focus on winning the play off place. I agree that the pressure of automatic is now gone - but did we really deserve to be 2-0 I'm not so sure tbh Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VillaChris Posted December 23, 2018 Share Posted December 23, 2018 11 minutes ago, AvfcRigo82 said: We deserved our 2-0 lead and we we're frustrated in getting a 3rd before HT. What happened 2nd half is just unbelievable. We should hsve walked away with all 3 points. I think after today and considering the injuries we now have, any pressure of Automatic promotion can be forgot and just realistically focus on winning the play off place. Even in the first half Leeds should've scored at least one. Kilch was in but hit a poor shot at Nyland. Hernandez hit a FK just wide of the post which I thought was in and Allioski curled one just wide. We had a good first 20 minutes but I thought we were second best rest of first half and was hoping DS would do something at half time. We did have a good spell just after half time, now the Kodjia miss looks very costly. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AvfcRigo82 Posted December 23, 2018 Share Posted December 23, 2018 9 minutes ago, Dave J said: I agree that the pressure of automatic is now gone - but did we really deserve to be 2-0 I'm not so sure tbh The first 20 minutes we did and it's a shame we never kicked on and killed the game off like it needed. We knew today was going to be tough and fair play, we gave it a go. The ref and his useless officials also had a very poor game. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave-R Posted December 23, 2018 Share Posted December 23, 2018 1 minute ago, Dave J said: Fair comment - this loss might well be a blessing in disguise. We should all now just focus on securing a play off position. With Smith at the helm I would be happy to go toe to toe with any one else in the play off's. They are a lottery and I think Smith would be smart enough to navigate a two game semi and final. As much as some people would like us to go up this season, I would much prefer another season in the championship. Our team is far from ready and if we cant put in a good performance every games were certainly not ready for the big time. Our performaces have to be solid, consistent, back to back, no question in who deserves the win kind of team, we are no where near ready. As much as Smith has dramatically increased our performances, changed our style for the better, I think even Smith could see it, was in his face that he can't fully rely on our players to go out and do the business. We shouldn't have to rely on just grealish, it showed today that we missed him, we need to be able to rely on every player in the team and it is obvious certain players are undoing that hard work. Leeds looked ace to be fair, like they are ready for the premiere, they made us look bad, they shouldnt of been given the chance to bring it back level let alone win the game. Even while they were out playing us, no way in hell if we were ready for the premiere can we go letting in three goals and losing the game, we will be straight back down. Many reasons as to why (as much as I'd hate to say it) we need another season or two in the championship. Look how long some of these championship teams have been here. They are ready because they put in the work, well oiled, well drilled and now they are looking the part, and it's largely due to patience in finding that formulae for a winning team/club. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave-R Posted December 23, 2018 Share Posted December 23, 2018 12 minutes ago, Dave J said: I agree that the pressure of automatic is now gone - but did we really deserve to be 2-0 I'm not so sure tbh Deserve 2-0, id say yes because the work was pit into those goals. In my eyes it were defensive blunders that cost us and it cost us big, so yeah in the end our defence is what made us look like we deserved to lose the game. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
briny_ear Posted December 23, 2018 Share Posted December 23, 2018 37 minutes ago, AVTuco said: We didn't deserve to be 2-0, and we didn't deserve anything from that match. In some weird way I think a loss was better than another 2-2. Expectations were lowered by everyone. This strange concept of “deserving” to be 2-0 up. We scored two excellent goals; they failed to score any. That’s all you need to do to “deserve” a lead. What happened next was where we lost the right to the lead. I really think we should have been more focused on preserving the win. Smith quite rightly set us up to attack at the start of the second half- we really needed a third goal - but having failed to get it we should have concentrated on stifling the Leeds game. On reflection I think that’s a game lost through slightly naive tactics 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post srsmithusa Posted December 23, 2018 Popular Post Share Posted December 23, 2018 4 hours ago, briny_ear said: That makes little sense. If it’s Bruce’s team, them surely he still takes credit for all the good things as well as the bad? The logic of what you're saying is that Dean Smith has no influence on the team at all. It’s Bruce’s team - everything is down to Bruce. So the brilliant two goals as well as the defensive lapses 2nd half. All from Steve Bruce’s team - nowt to do with Dean Smith? Have you checked with him that he is happy to be portrayed as having so little influence on events? Nonsense. If you can’t see that Smith has taken a very poor Bruce roster and greatly improved it, then I don’t know what sport you are watching. 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaveAV1 Posted December 23, 2018 Share Posted December 23, 2018 16 minutes ago, briny_ear said: This strange concept of “deserving” to be 2-0 up. We scored two excellent goals; they failed to score any. That’s all you need to do to “deserve” a lead. What happened next was where we lost the right to the lead. I really think we should have been more focused on preserving the win. Smith quite rightly set us up to attack at the start of the second half- we really needed a third goal - but having failed to get it we should have concentrated on stifling the Leeds game. On reflection I think that’s a game lost through slightly naive tactics Whilst I largely agree with the above, I’m not so sure it was naive tactics as much as not really having many options with the paucity of our defensive capabilities. I would hope we can change some of that in January, although I’m not sure wholesale changes at this point in the season are possible, no matter how attractive on paper that may seems. If we do manage to make effective changes to the squad and still go gung-ho when in similar situations as today then I’d be a little more questioning. Progressive attacking football is of course what I think most of us would like, but there will be times when we will need to close games out more effectively. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
villalad21 Posted December 23, 2018 Share Posted December 23, 2018 I just take my hat off to Leeds. Yes it was poor defending, but even with better defenders that would still be a very tough game. They are a quality side, i haven't seen any team press us so aggressive as they did making us do mistakes all the time. What a coach Bielsa is, Leeds are very lucky to have him. Sometimes you just have to accept that we lost to a better team and that's exactly what happened. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stevo985 Posted December 23, 2018 VT Supporter Share Posted December 23, 2018 56 minutes ago, AvfcRigo82 said: The ref and his useless officials also had a very poor game. Yeah they did. Leeds had two clear penalties denied and a debatable third. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave J Posted December 23, 2018 Share Posted December 23, 2018 4 minutes ago, Stevo985 said: Yeah they did. Leeds had two clear penalties denied and a debatable third. You are not right most of the time - today makes a change and your not far off. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
villalad21 Posted December 23, 2018 Share Posted December 23, 2018 (edited) Also didn't like how bitter he sounded in the interview. Blaming the ref, which had poor decisions for both teams and questioning Leeds celebration. You got to show more class than that, losing is a part of football. Get over it, learn from it and improve for the next game. Being bitter just give the opposition the chance to banter you Edited December 23, 2018 by villalad21 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts