Ratings & Reactions: Villa v Swansea FAC

[hippo]

1 hour ago, The Fun Factory said:

Questions-

What does John Terry actually do at Bodymoor? As so far our defence has actually regressed since cabbagegate.

Did any Villa player today actually cared about the result? Apart from McGinn of course

Talking of super john why did he play the full 90 when he has looked cream crackered for about 2 weeks?

Why did Smith not do at least  2 subs at half time and give them all a bollocking? At 1-0 we got away with it in the first half. Had we showed any fight in the second then we might have turned it around.

Why is Smith so stubborn in his set up? Why not go 4-4-2 earlier and bring Davis on?

Is Scott Hogan a professional footballer? Close the door on your way out son. Useless.

We have conceded at least 2 goals in the last 6 home games. Does the coaching team have any ideas to stop this please?

Why play Hutton in the middle and not Bree who has been decent in his position. Poor Alan- having a shocker at the moment.

I am 35. Will I ever see Villa win the FA Cup in my lifetime?

I am glad Ipswich had a Lambert cup special as this team does not deserve a winter jollys at the end of January.

Huge, huge, amount of work needed to be even top 6 material. Depressed.

Oh- can anyone explain the attendance figure? How can it be 30,500 when the upper trinity was filled?

 

 

I have heard that Terry is only at BMH 2 days on average. A lot of time is spent working with players coming back from injury.

I have never viewed JT'S role at villa has having a long life span - think he will get a managers position before the start of next season - assuming he completes his badges.

Really don't know why Revan didn't get some game time today. 

 

 

[Robtaylor200]

Went today with the lad

It was one for the ticket history so I can get to Wembley again if we make the play offs

That's all I have to say about it 

[sne]

WdFAfc 

[weedman]

37 minutes ago, Robtaylor200 said:

Went today with the lad

It was one for the ticket history so I can get to Wembley again if we make the play offs

That's all I have to say about it 

I did this with my Mrs, only the 2nd time I've managed to get her along and last time was a 0-3 against bloody Wigan. I've decided she's cursed 

[TRO]

2 hours ago, wilko154 said:

Answers

What does John Terry actually do at Bodymoor? As so far our defence has actually regressed since cabbagegate.

Pretty harsh when you look at what he has to work with. We again only had one fit centre back today...

 

Did any Villa player today actually cared about the result? Apart from McGinn of course

It didn't look like it.

 

Talking of super john why did he play the full 90 when he has looked cream crackered for about 2 weeks?

Smith said it was worth playing him as he is one booking away from a 2 game suspension, he can then have two weeks off.

 

Why did Smith not do at least  2 subs at half time and give them all a bollocking? At 1-0 we got away with it in the first half. Had we showed any fight in the second then we might have turned it around.

Agreed, Kodjia and Lansbury should have come on at halftime.

 

Why is Smith so stubborn in his set up? Why not go 4-4-2 earlier and bring Davis on?

Hindsight.

 

Is Scott Hogan a professional footballer? Close the door on your way out son. Useless.

Agreed.

 

We have conceded at least 2 goals in the last 6 home games. Does the coaching team have any ideas to stop this please?

All about sorting the defence out in January.

 

Why play Hutton in the middle and not Bree who has been decent in his position. Poor Alan- having a shocker at the moment.

Momentum for Bree at right back, he was poor today though.

 

I am 35. Will I ever see Villa win the FA Cup in my lifetime?

No.

 

Oh- can anyone explain the attendance figure? How can it be 30,500 when the upper trinity was filled?

There were 11,500 empty seats. A lot of season ticket holders didn't turn up.

I was one.

 but lots didn't know...particularly if they didn't look at the App....anyway, it give them a rest from conceding.

Edited January 5, 2019 by TRO

[wilko154]

10 minutes ago, TRO said:

I was one.

 but lots didn't know...particularly if they didn't look at the App....anyway, it give them a rest from conceding.

Can't blame anyone who didn't turn up to be honest, we hardly set the world alight in the cup competition's. Wish I had stayed at home myself 

[14K_away]

I simply don't get it, 1) I personally saw lots of effort from all of our players last night , none of whom can be even close to being considered `bad` players (not sure about Hogan and yes Wheelan is  yesteryear~) but combined, we were close to useless, not from a lack of effort not from a lack of individual skills, but as a team... nada, utter shite.

I don't pretend to have the answer but our team, as per here and the team played for QPR should, on paper kick the seven shades out of anyone else in this league, there has to be something else, seems little point fingering DS or SB or even RG, even when the team we want get's played... we still get nothing.

WTF is it? I do not know, but I think it might come down to coaching IQ, what I do know is that when we take free kicks, unless its close enough to whip into the box, it gets back-passed or taken quickly to no utility whatsoever... throw ins ? , best to just throw it straight to the opposition... never a thought of a long one or rarely a quick one, with Hogan up top why not  keep it on the ground ?  when we have people in position then play it, it don't decide now is a good time for a bit of triangular ball keeping or those back passing keeping possession pointless exercises (especially since Wheelan/Elmo or the Beard id gonna muff that up at least 3 times a game) etc etc etc

go on WTF is it, we should be flying ???

[Eastie]

14 hours 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.

No leaders on the pitch - need a hard nasty type on the pitch who can organise and get players doing their job - I know Chester didn’t play but he is not captain material either -of the current squad I’d make mcginn skipper but we need players with heart and fight - this bunch roll over far too easily and are just happy to pick up their wages - the deside and  passion is lacking from too many .

we are missing the Sean teale kind who puts his body on the line for the team - Bruce was too soft a manager and hopefully smith will be tougher - time to crack that whip - shape up or ship them out 

Edited January 6, 2019 by Eastie

[Eastie]

10 hours ago, wilko154 said:

Can't blame anyone who didn't turn up to be honest, we hardly set the world alight in the cup competition's. Wish I had stayed at home myself 

Problem is most of the players didn’t seem to turn up either

[TRO]

7 hours ago, 14K_away said:

I simply don't get it, 1) I personally saw lots of effort from all of our players last night , none of whom can be even close to being considered `bad` players (not sure about Hogan and yes Wheelan is  yesteryear~) but combined, we were close to useless, not from a lack of effort not from a lack of individual skills, but as a team... nada, utter shite.

I don't pretend to have the answer but our team, as per here and the team played for QPR should, on paper kick the seven shades out of anyone else in this league, there has to be something else, seems little point fingering DS or SB or even RG, even when the team we want get's played... we still get nothing.

WTF is it? I do not know, but I think it might come down to coaching IQ, what I do know is that when we take free kicks, unless its close enough to whip into the box, it gets back-passed or taken quickly to no utility whatsoever... throw ins ? , best to just throw it straight to the opposition... never a thought of a long one or rarely a quick one, with Hogan up top why not  keep it on the ground ?  when we have people in position then play it, it don't decide now is a good time for a bit of triangular ball keeping or those back passing keeping possession pointless exercises (especially since Wheelan/Elmo or the Beard id gonna muff that up at least 3 times a game) etc etc etc

go on WTF is it, we should be flying ???

We all wish we knew.

For me, they clearly are not showing the intensity of other teams.i don't see the combative nature of other teams in ours.

I suspect we have too many players of the same type passive and only interested in working when they have the ball.

I disagree, with your view on effort, they look like they are not fit to me, when they may well be, but that,s the effect it gives me.

something is very, very wrong.

I worry that we will buy players this window, that won't necessarily fix it.

[TRO]

2 hours ago, Eastie said:

No leaders on the pitch - need a hard nasty type on the pitch who can organise and get players doing their job - I know Chester didn’t play but he is not captain material either -of the current squad I’d make mcginn skipper but we need players with heart and fight - this bunch roll over far too easily and are just happy to pick up their wages - the deside and  passion is lacking from too many .

we are missing the Sean teale kind who puts his body on the line for the team - Bruce was too soft a manager and hopefully smith will be tougher - time to crack that whip - shape up or ship them out 

I absolutely agree....Bruce was too easy on them and that surprises me....Dean i have no idea, but i suspect similar.....its needs a task master to drive them like biesla does in training and send the message through that workrate is a pre requisite.

[TRO]

Talent wothout application is worthless.

we are paying big wages for talent and the application is absent.

We are simply wasting our money.

it has to change if we plan to go anywhere.

[Brumstopdogs]

Looking for some positives:

a)  We have a new GK.

b)  Taylor & Lansbury have come back from injury - both got some valuable playing time.

c)  Hourihane, Bolasie & Chester all were rested (Kodjia also played less than a half)

d)  We can now concentrate on the league with no distractions.

e)  We have the January transfer window to strengthen the squad (those that don't want to be here can go).

f)  Things aren't as bad as these days when even getting a corner was an achievement!

 

[Herman22]

19 hours ago, chips'ngravy said:

Yep, ref was a tw*t. Books Fer in the 92nd when it should've been for tackle on Taylor. 

Same thing we've seen all season with treatment of Grealish. Finally get booked in stoppage time after hacking him all game. Total bullsh*t

I’m afraid that’s the nature of refs. They don’t want to book people early as it may lead to a tough decision later on. 

Just like the QPR keeper last week, he wasted time on every break in play from about 25mins on. The ref books him in the 94th min. If he had done it after HT it may have stopped him doing it throughout the game. 

[onmeedson]

We have a team of snowflakes.

[TRO]

21 hours ago, OutByEaster? said:

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.

 

 

 

I agree with that in parts and other parts I don't.

you can get your tactics right....but if the players don't put it in....its pointless, it's only half a job.

I didn't see this game, so I will not dig my heels in, but this has been with us for c 6 games or so....nothing to do with a weakened side, it was evident with a full team in past games.

We play with a passive enthusiasm and we concede the initiative at the drop of a hat....There is only McGinn that is anything close to a player that wants to win and seize the ball.

Off the ball , we are woeful.......we give space away, like they do confetti at a wedding....its sinful.

There are traits right now that were the same under Bruce, not style or technical abilities a shortage of a willingness to physically get in to the game an make a mark and disrupt any intentions the opposition has.

They look like a bunch of primma donnas

McGinn cannot do it all on is own and they are expecting him to.

We invite teams in to a game by the sheer approach we take and when they take a grip we flounder.

I am not going to Blame Dean Smith, like I was reluctant to blame Steve Bruce for some of it.

Dean is clearly at a loss, like we are as to why most of them dish up garbage like they are....He said he will ask some of them on Monday, why that is....Bruce had a similar problem IMO

This lot need a ******* rocket up their ****s....

No more Mr Nice guy Dean..like Bruce did.

.....Give them the Warnock treatment.

[villa89]

Probably not a popular opinion but I'm glad we lost. The faster we got out of the FA cup the better. We will have a fight on our hands to get into and win the playoffs so the less superfluous cup games the better.  

[Raver50032]

2 hours ago, villa89 said:

Probably not a popular opinion but I'm glad we lost. The faster we got out of the FA cup the better. We will have a fight on our hands to get into and win the playoffs so the less superfluous cup games the better.  

I'm kind of in the same boat as you here in that essentially, I'm not overly deflated about being out of the FA Cup considering we are a Championship side. That said, the 3-0 scoreline is a proper spanking on paper. It's the kind of result that can knock any kind of positivity and momentum we may have been feeling as a club, fanbase or playing staff. Having just about got through our 'hard fixtures' with a very positive way of playing/results to match, all of a sudden, our form has tailed off with the run of 'winnables.' Okay, we aren't losing many, but our wins have trailed off big time and isn't good enough for getting into the playoffs.

It can't all be down to Grealish and Tuanzebe. If it is, then we have no right to be chasing promotion at all. There has to be another way or we are built on sand. We flatter ourselves and believe our own hype if that is the case.

I shrugged at the prospect of defeat when the first goal went in... I wasn't bothered. But crikey, to get spanked 3-0 in your own backyard in that manner is an indictment. Will be a big couple of games for Smith and the team to put that to bed and do better and get ourselves back on the way to positivity. Right now, I don't know what to think.

[TRO]

On 05/01/2019 at 18:39, wilko154 said:

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.

There is always a danger with any poster over stating the situation and I think you maybe too.

look we all want to be positive.....but our eyes don't lie.

Its not just a FA cup game, that we failed to do the basics in, its been poor since the Albion Game..

We have won 1 in 5......furthermore yeilding the initiative in a game far too easily.

Sure, there are mitigating circumstances, like Jack being out and Axel's loss....but players can't put their form on hold waiting for their return, or failing to execute basic requirements.

Personally, I am not fingering the manager......I just think outside of our best players, the rest are very questionable to expect promotion with.

[TRO]

2 hours ago, Raver50032 said:

I'm kind of in the same boat as you here in that essentially, I'm not overly deflated about being out of the FA Cup considering we are a Championship side. That said, the 3-0 scoreline is a proper spanking on paper. It's the kind of result that can knock any kind of positivity and momentum we may have been feeling as a club, fanbase or playing staff. Having just about got through our 'hard fixtures' with a very positive way of playing/results to match, all of a sudden, our form has tailed off with the run of 'winnables.' Okay, we aren't losing many, but our wins have trailed off big time and isn't good enough for getting into the playoffs.

It can't all be down to Grealish and Tuanzebe. If it is, then we have no right to be chasing promotion at all. There has to be another way or we are built on sand. We flatter ourselves and believe our own hype if that is the case.

I shrugged at the prospect of defeat when the first goal went in... I wasn't bothered. But crikey, to get spanked 3-0 in your own backyard in that manner is an indictment. Will be a big couple of games for Smith and the team to put that to bed and do better and get ourselves back on the way to positivity. Right now, I don't know what to think.

Good resume, if i may say.

i think we are built on sand.I think we do flatter ourselves and believe our own hype.I think we look at our best players and assume the whole team is of the same quality....its not....and when are out, it exposes it.

 A handful of players have been giving us joy.....the rest are dining out on them.