Ratings & Reactions: Villa v Swansea FAC

[HanoiVillan]

Thesis: that performance was actually worse than any performance I can remember under Bruce. 

[TRO]

36 minutes ago, chips'ngravy said:

Whilst I agree with your sentiments on collective responsibility, so many of the goals we concede come from individual errors. Players just not being in the right position. El Ghazi let Dyer walk in front of him through on goal for the second and the third was such a mess it's hard to pin on one individual. Although when you look at it you see Hutton flying in, which at first seems like a valiant effort but then you wonder why he's over on the left when he's playing right-back.

It all seems extremely disorganized. As someone mentioned in the match thread, Smith doesn't have a great record in producing defensively resolute sides, and whilst I'm not panicking yet, it is concerning. Even moreso when you think we have Terry on board.

I agree wholeheartedly.....what I meant by collectively is the errors come from midfield too, not just the back 5.

[briny_ear]

5 minutes ago, HanoiVillan said:

Thesis: that performance was actually worse than any performance I can remember under Bruce. 

BRUCE OUT!!

Oh...

[Harry]

The worst I have seen us play since our relegation season. The team was outplayed and outsmarted by a bang average Swansea who pretty much controlled the game for 75% of the time. The defence was woeful with Bree being by far the worst, constantly out of position and caught out. Hutton at CB...really? I actually felt sorry for Hogan, he ran the channels but never got a chance save for that early shot. Lansbury looking decent was the only bright spot. Personally I would have rather we played a whole second string side. Until he brought on Kodja, Lansbury and Davies the tactics and formation looked little short of inept. 

Edited January 5, 2019 by Harry

[TRO]

10 minutes ago, HanoiVillan said:

Thesis: that performance was actually worse than any performance I can remember under Bruce. 

Now,Now ... be positive.

I can talk, didn't go today and it was free for ST holders....could see it coming.....and I don't think it matters who the opposition is.

 

Edited January 5, 2019 by TRO

[briny_ear]

28 minutes ago, dutchavfc1982 said:

lets get this into perspective this was a makeshift side . Bree can not cross a ball , Hutton can not fill in for Chester, O'Hare is not where near Grealish standard. Hogan, I always want to do well, but He just doesn't cut it . El Ghazi again is hit and miss I am so gad this was  a cup match as they didn't seem bothered at all I am not reading too much into the result TBH. 

I don't think it’s at all fanciful that this team might be called on to start a league game given a couple of injuries/suspensions.

So I think we should maybe read a bit more into it.

[HanoiVillan]

1 minute ago, TRO said:

Now,Now ... be positive.

 

About what? I've been to two games in a week, and seen precious little to be positive about. 

[TRO]

How can you beat Derby and Boro away, so comprehensively and then resort to this.

The disparity between a good Villa performance and a bad one is a chasm.

 

[TRO]

1 minute ago, HanoiVillan said:

About what? I've been to two games in a week, and seen precious little to be positive about. 

I am just kidding....you couldn't possibly be more angry than me....its shocking.

This has been coming....and I don't think its over yet.

[hippo]

4 minutes ago, TRO said:

How can you beat Derby and Boro away, so comprehensively and then resort to this.

The disparity between a good Villa performance and a bad one is a chasm.

 

I will probably get flamed to hell for this. but the players dont look on board to me. Swansea walked through our defence had a shot on goal which should never be allowed to happen....no mini inquest, no players shouting at each other, they just turned and trudged away.

[HanoiVillan]

2 minutes ago, hippo said:

I will probably get flamed to hell for this. but the players dont look on board to me. Swansea walked through our defence had a shot on goal which should never be allowed to happen....no mini inquest, no players shouting at each other, they just turned and trudged away.

I definitely think that absolutely nobody apart from McGinn (and apparently Lansbury - I'd left before then) even tried to seem bothered. 

[PompeyVillan]

1 minute ago, HanoiVillan said:

I definitely think that absolutely nobody apart from McGinn (and apparently Lansbury - I'd left before then) even tried to seem bothered. 

I've just watched Smith Facebook post game. He actually said "... I am annoyed with the players... I won't brush this under the carpet, I want answers from players as to why we got certain performances". 

He mentioned that Villa fans love McGinn because he plays every game like it is his last, and that he said this to the players. 

He seems angry with a lack of effort and application. 

[TRO]

11 minutes ago, hippo said:

I will probably get flamed to hell for this. but the players dont look on board to me. Swansea walked through our defence had a shot on goal which should never be allowed to happen....no mini inquest, no players shouting at each other, they just turned and trudged away.

why care?.....say what you feel.

[MaVilla]

36 minutes ago, HanoiVillan said:

Thesis: that performance was actually worse than any performance I can remember under Bruce. 

I will initially respond by saying, yes, its clear a fair few of our players arent good enough.

but.....lets not all lose our s***, with our A team we beat Swansea 1-0 twice, close fought games, Swansea were a premiership side last year.

In this game, Swansea put out their A team, we effectively used a B team, Taylor first game back, Hutton at CB?, O'Hare/Whelan in midfield, Hogan up front, Kodjia on the wing (not Bolasie), im not sure how anyone expected us to win that match, we effectively had no more than 5 or 6 actual first teamers in that lineup. (A team).

Also, i think people need to be more considered, so many were screaming for O'Hare to get a chance, he did, and now a lot of people are slating him, ever wonder why we cant develop our own players?, i think we need to take a step back and remember that was one of only a few first team starts for him, he likely needs  a loan to develop, with a view to integrating him more next season via the subs bench maybe.

Our form has suffered since losing Grealish & Axel, probably two of our key players so far this season, its also no mystery as to why El Ghazi and Bolasie havent performed as well recently, i think its because there is now no-one in our midfield 3 who draw opposition players to them like Grealish did, freeing up space for the like of Bolasie and El Ghazi to find space and cause trouble.

Axel was also very good for us, he had pace to recover and cover a lot of the issues of people playing behind us, and he was also very good at bringing the ball out of defence and tying up their midfielders, along with grealish, giving more space to our wide players and the rest of the team, i dont think we should underestimate how critical Axel and Grealish were to our performances, and it mind help us to understand why we are struggling a little without them.

We need a strong Jan transfer window, and probably a strong closed season for transfers, because a good number of our players are just not good, it is going to take time i think for DS to sort this mess out, and losing two of our best players this season, who were critical to the way we played, has certainly impacted on our performances, i think our best hope is to spend the rest of this season trying to fix the issues, and supporting DS and the team without losing our s***, with a view to coming out all gins blazing next season, once DS has properly put his stamp on the team. (hopefully)

Edited January 5, 2019 by MaVilla

[TRO]

6 minutes ago, PompeyVillan said:

I've just watched Smith Facebook post game. He actually said "... I am annoyed with the players... I won't brush this under the carpet, I want answers from players as to why we got certain performances". 

He mentioned that Villa fans love McGinn because he plays every game like it is his last, and that he said this to the players. 

He seems angry with a lack of effort and application. 

and so am I and I have been since the Albion game.

[hippo]

1 minute ago, TRO said:

why care?.....say what you feel.

OK - I have followed Villa since the early 1970's - when I started work in 1980 I brought my first season ticket and apart from a couple of years of ill health I have had one ever since. I can honestly say that apart from the Remi Garde Era I have never felt so despondent and bleak about our future as I do now. 

At best promotion looks at least 3 seasons away.

There you go.....said it.

 

[wilko154]

Team were poor today, we didn't play as a collective, the defence were all over the shop and the players that were brought in didn't do a job.

Now on to the fans... some of the fans in the Holte End today were pathetic and embarrassing. On Kalinic's back in his first game, a goalkeeper let down by an extremely poor defensive unit in front of him. Booing as O'Hare was substituted for Kodjia in a clear move to change to 4-4-2 whilst 2-0 down. Complaining and getting on the players backs when the ball goes back to the defence to build the play back up again. And 10,000 leaving with 10 minutes to go.

Putting this game into perspective it was a free hit with a chance to give a few players a go. Granted the makeshift defence didn't work. O'Hare isn't yet good enough to play as a number 8 in midfield, he needs a loan to League 2 to get himself ready for the step up. Hogan isn't the player he was at Brentford and won't work for Villa.

A number of players weren't good enough and I'm sure Smith will be letting them know about that. 

Positives today - Kalinic looks like a commanding keeper, Lansbury looked to be back to the player we signed pinging passes around, Davis held the ball well and looked a handful.

A week to sort it out now against Wigan.

[wilko154]

2 minutes ago, hippo said:

OK - I have followed Villa since the early 1970's - when I started work in 1980 I brought my first season ticket and apart from a couple of years of ill health I have had one ever since. I can honestly say that apart from the Remi Garde Era I have never felt so despondent and bleak about our future as I do now. 

At best promotion looks at least 3 seasons away.

There you go.....said it.

 

Give it a rest mate, we lost an FA Cup game with a weakened team not gone on a 10 game losing streak and entered the relegation zone.

Christ sake.

[hippo]

17 minutes ago, HanoiVillan said:

I definitely think that absolutely nobody apart from McGinn (and apparently Lansbury - I'd left before then) even tried to seem bothered. 

I couldn't fault O.hares effort  - sure he lost the ball once or twice - but I thought the application was there.

[OutByEaster?]

I'm sure there'll be a lot of talk about the performances of individual players, and there were one or two that weren't good enough today for sure, but for me this one's on the manager - we got the shape wrong, picked the wrong personnel for that shape and then compounded that by getting the substitutions wrong too.

Starting 4-4-1-1 meant a two man midfield of McGinn and Whelan against a three from Swansea - they were overrun and it meant we had no control of the game whatsoever. We struggled to stop them going through us and we had nothing coming through the middle. If we're playing 4-4-1-1 we need to get O'Hare into the game but with Hogan as the spearhead that just wasn't going to happen - if we'd started with Davis then we'd have had a chance of the ball sticking and us getting players around him - as it was, we gave them the middle of the park from their goalkeeper to our centrebacks. We were outnumbered and outgunned.

We still had a chance of trying to do something down the wings, where you'd think we had a bit more of a chance to outman them, but the pace of their wingers and the weird thing we have where our fullbacks cover our centrebacks and leave our winger to do the defending out wide meant that we struggled to get forward. Adomah couldn't outrun Routledge going forwards and neither fullback could do much with their wingers - tactically, they dominated in wide areas.

So, from the off - no chance of us getting anything together - weak up front - outnumbered in the middle and with our hands full down the flanks.

It desperately needed a change of shape. 

There were boos when O'Hare was the first man substituted, but our shape seemed to have been set up for his benefit and I thought he'd need to come off despite not doing badly himself. It was an ideal opportunity to bring on Lansbury or Bjarnason, match them up in midfield and get some ability to control things - instead we brought on Kodjia, and even more bafflingly we played him as the withdrawn striker and left Hogan to continue to do a job up front on his own that he's completely rubbish at.

The addition of Lansbury and particularly Davis gave us something in the game, but by then we'd given it up anyway and Swansea were happy enough to see us out. 

I thought Hutton did okay at centre back,  Bree did okay, El Ghazi and Adomah both did reasonably well and McGinn did the last thing we needed and worked his socks off, O'Hare's individual performance was reasonable too, a number of players were quite reasonably in isolation - but they were all fighting a losing battle against a bad plan.

The keeper made a rocky start to life in a Villa shirt, we'll hope to see better from him. Taylor struggled but was often overrun. Whelan looked slow, but then you'd expect his ageing legs to struggle in a two. 

A special place should be reserved for Hogan who proved that if Abraham goes, he won't be good enough be on our bench (if we can get a couple of defenders and midfielders in) - both Kodjia and Davis are miles ahead of him. Davis can hold the ball up and help us play and Kodjia has a threat - what Hogan does is beyond me - he's supposed to be a livewire playing off the last man, but he was slow of both foot and mind all afternoon and was comfortably outpaced over twenty yards on a number of occasions by both centrebacks. When he did get chances, he didn't finish them - he's awful.

Credit should go to Swansea who outworked us, out thought us and and out played us in just about every area - their wingers were excellent, their number 5 was faultless and they looked a much better organised side than we did. It sounded like they enjoyed the day out. Good luck to them in Monday's draw.

This was our worst performance in a year, easily our worst under Dean Smith and to a very large extent Smith's fault. Wrong shape, wrong selection, wrong plan. Our record in the FA Cup since we lost that final to Arsenal is an embarrassment to a club of our size, today's performance was a disgrace - it leaves us bereft of form and confidence and was entirely preventable with the players available - the manager now faces his first testing weeks - he hasn't helped himself one bit today.