Ratings & Reactions: Villa v Leeds

[villa89]

One interesting point is how little impact our subs made when they came on. Not good.

[mattyvilla]

Annoyed that smith took so long to react to the fact Kodjia had left elmo 2v1 and had given up the ghost long before he was hauled off . Big factor in the defeat today

[Jimzk5]

An absolute shambles at the back, how many times Leeds run through us was embarrassing, Hutton always letting runners have so much space, elmo always backing off players running at him, Chester yards off his marker.i have some sympathy for bree cus he isn't a centre back and hasn't played in months but he needs to do better if he wants a career at villa. 

We need a proper centre half. If we had shaun teale playing today we wouldn't have lost

[punkiller1981]

Thought Leeds were slightly the better side but a draw wouldn’t have been a disservice to the overall performance although dropping a 2-0 lead is poor. The thing that’s annoyed me the most was Elmo, letting the lad walk into our box then walk past him and have a free shot (yes brew should have been on top of him to block the shot) awful defending. And that header in at the end wtf was that, how does a professional footballer make such bad decisions.

[hippo]

21 minutes ago, villa89 said:

One interesting point is how little impact our subs made when they came on. Not good.

Thought he got the subs wrong today 

Kjodia for Elghazi - was pretty much like for like - it didn't change the shape of the team at all. lack of width wasn't our major problem

Hogan for Bolasie - Truly baffling, take off one of our game changing players - for a player who consistently does nothing

Whelan for BB - this one was ok - thought whelan had a good game

The think that puzzled me was that Abraham looked totally whacked after 60 minutes - he could barely run - yet he stayed on for 90 minutes - I would have stuck Kjodia at CF on the hour - brought BB to tighten up in the middle

 

[pacbuddies]

1 hour ago, srsmithusa said:

They are farther along than we are.  It showed.   Bring on the window.  

Further along than we are! We were in the play off final last season and they didn't even make the grade ffs!

[TRO]

2 hours ago, villabromsgrove said:

Elmo getting the blame but what about Hutton? He never ever got close to his man in 90 minutes! He didn't intend to .... How can you give a man you're supposed to be marking 5 metres of space all game and stay on the pitch?

Our defence is shambolic and Smith, Terry and co need to get on top of it.

You are absolutely right....but they are not the only ones.....The tragedy is a few more need to be added to that list.

We are not touch tight enough with too many teams not just Leeds.

you cannot stand off players to the extent we do and expect to win anything.

We cannot defend and that extends to much further than the back 5....but that would be a start, to replace them....apart from McGinn the midfield are too passive too.

It needs a complete rebuild.

[TRO]

When you are sitting there watching the game and are 2-0 up, with a full house behind you,but realise you need another goal to be close to safe....something is drastically wrong.

Edited December 23, 2018 by TRO

[TRO]

2 hours ago, jim said:

We aren’t getting promoted this season.

I think that's a safe call, Jim.

[TRO]

2 hours ago, villalad21 said:

Leeds have a better team.

Football isn't a game only based on attacking players. Fully deserved loss

Oh and we are learning fast.

[JAMAICAN-VILLAN]

2 hours ago, dutchavfc1982 said:

sometimes we have to hold our hands up and say the better team won

This is true.

Howevever I could not say that given the fact that ia was not OUR "best team" on the pitch today.

Better team on the day though, certainly.

[JAMAICAN-VILLAN]

18 minutes ago, pacbuddies said:

Further along than we are! We were in the play off final last season and they didn't even make the grade ffs!

It seems you totally missed his point.

[TRO]

2 hours ago, Jareth said:

Bree's inexperience at CB and Elmo's ineptitude were directly to blame for 2 of their goals. The team as a whole couldn't retain the ball well enough from after about 30 mins in. They also had their injuries but they were very impressive so no complaints. January window vital. 

Its the case in many games.....we are no where near consistent enough, our tenacity wanes very quickly.

Not sure what the problem is....but its glaring obvious there is one.

when you 2-0 up and still nervous....there is an inherent issue.

Edited December 23, 2018 by TRO

[sir_gary_cahill]

2 hours ago, jjaacckk91 said:

Elmohammady single handedly cost us that game.

Couldn't deal with a kid on the wing, and by the end is so **** scared of him he sets someone else up. Prat. 

He’s class, that’s why (the kid on the wing)

[PaulC]

Leeds looked a really good side. Fair play to them, despite our fine start they were the better team.  We need at least two defenders and a holding midfield player. McGinn huffed and puffed but didn't show much composure or quality. I thought Bolasie was poor

[TRO]

2 hours ago, PaddytheVillan said:

The defence Bruce has left us with is to blame. Hutton is no left back and Elmo is no defender, he's cost us yet again. We miss Grealish and will be destroyed if we lose Tammy in Jan.

Leeds area several levels ahead of us and our best hope is to push for the play offs. We were lucky to go in 2-0 up and they should have had a penalty and wrapped it up. 

Chin up - we won't play many teams this good. 

but we have....and a similar story to all of them.

Forest,Stoke, Albion, Leeds.

even the Blues nearly got back in to it.

any team that chases the ball down with any vigour, we go to pieces.

[TRO]

2 hours ago, pacbuddies said:

Totally robbed. Where did 5 minutes injury time come from in the 2nd half. That game has potentially cost us automatic promotion. Even SHA are above us ffs!

This team in its present form was never going to get Automatic promotion.

[WakefieldVillan]

Disappointing result after being 2-0 up and never easy to take (thankfully I netted £650 for backing Leeds at 2-0) which as slightly softened the blow.

I think if we're honest they were the better side, although we have attacking players that can produce real class moments, they are further into Bielsa's tenure and that showed today, they also weren't missing a player of Jack's ability.

I said pre-match we would miss him, he draws fouls, keeps possession and we are a different proposition with him playing.

Losing Tuanzebe was (is) a big blow, Bree just doesn't look up to it currently (though not an easy game for him to come into), Hutton was poor (lucky not to concede a penalty) and I think that is the worst performance I have seen from Elmo in a Villa shirt. Defensively we are just all over the place at times. 

Not sure Smith made the right substitutions today, having said that, the ones that came on were poor, in particular El Ghazi and Hogan.

I think that is us done for automatics but I still feel we can go up through the play offs, just need 2 or maybe 3 additions to that bleeding defence! 

[foreveryoung]

10 minutes ago, PaulC said:

Leeds looked a really good side. Fair play to them, despite our fine start they were the better team.  We need at least two defenders and a holding midfield player. McGinn huffed and puffed but didn't show much composure or quality. I thought Bolasie was poor

???????????

Both the players you mention put a shift in, defence was the problem. Grealish is a big loss, even if it's just to draw the fouls and slow the game, we needed him today.

[TRO]

2 hours ago, Lerner's Driver said:

 

Architects of our own demise.

A real shame that we allowed them to get back in it, whereas the first half was reasonably equal in terms of threat.

Given the lack of Grealish and a horribly make shift defence, we did well to compete. Leeds are a very decent side.

Said in the week, a loss wouldn't be the end of the world and it won't. We are about to take on some lesser teams now, so should start climbing.

 

I thought the signs were there at 2-0 up....and that's the real tragedy for me....that's the bit that is worrying....Teams get much closer to us than we do to them, they pull us around and grapple....and we do not....its passes up on the initiative.

We can't last 90 minutes....we came out in the second half and pressed them high....it lasted 10 minutes.

we have too many players that are not good enough in too many aspects....its not just the back 5, but it is in the main.

We allow teams to GET AT US too easily and it results in poorly conceded goals.