Ratings & Reactions: Villa v Hull

[leighavfc]

The boggies game killed us in terms of momentum and confidence, since then we have been leaking goals all over the place and playing badly.

These 3 games v Wigan, Hull and Ipswich were our chance to turn round a poor xmas. We have 1 point from 6 so far... not good enough for abybody hoping to get up. Hull are now above us! Far too early to be judging Smith though imo.

If we want to go up then we really need to improve and quickly. Plenty still to play for yet and we have Sheff Utd, Albion, Derby, Boro and Norwich to come to VP so we still have chances to gain on teams above us currently. 

 

[briny_ear]

Thank heavens we kept Tammy.

[Supervillan78]

Played OK second half IMO. Showed good character to come back against an in-form side. Defence is still an issue, desperately need another (quality) CB and LB. Miss Axel and Jack.

Edited January 19, 2019 by Supervillan78

[Junxs]

6 minutes ago, jim said:

Yes.

He has done nothing in his career to suggest he has the ability to take this club forwards. He is an average championship manager and  we will become an average team under his stewardship. 

Thats because he's been at small clubs getting them punching above their weights all his career. On top of that he had to deal with his best players constantly being sold, and both times he got poached to a bigger club it was from a playoff position so he was kind of robbed of his potential successes.

It's no point debating it further though because you are being completely irrational to be writing a manager off after just 3 months without even a chance to bring some players in.

 

[Vive_La_Villa]

First half was poor. Players are terrified. Crowd getting on their backs makes it even worse. Second half much better by players and fans responded. 

We are still crap and playoffs unlikely. But it was much better to see second half. 

[Stevo985]

Not great, but a good result after being 2-0 down.

We have big problems.

[villatillidie1980]

Another disappointing Saturday. It’s so frustrating at the moment. I keep hoping that these poor results might be the catalyst to bring in one or two players, who knows....

**i know there’s more to signing players than the last result **

[OutByEaster?]

It was a strange one that, it's never good to concede two and draw at home, but coming back from 2-0 down and looking the more likely to win against the form team in the division can't be too bad. Sort of satisfactory in a slightly unsatisfied way.

I thought we started like a team that were trying really hard to be organised and to work hard and to cover for each other and be sensible and hard to break down and all that other stuff we haven't been in our last two. We were doing that okay at that for a bit and the game was a bit tepid as a result, then two centre halves with getting on for a thousand senior appearances between them somehow couldn't deal with a straight long ball down the middle of the park and we were one down. That rattled us a bit and Hull fashioned a reasonable second goal. 

It took the drop ball situation to fire us up a bit. I understand why the ref gave the drop ball, and neither team had any advantage when he did - Hull decided this meant we needed to kick it back to them and we argued that wasn't the case - however at the end of that process, Hourihane was very clear that he wanted to contest the drop ball, and that he was going to contest the drop ball, he was even calling a Hull player over to do just that - it's Hull's decision not to contest it and they needn't then go moaning like a bunch of tarts and starting fights because they'd decided not to. 

Anyway's, it helped our players stop thinking a bit and just play and Chester added to a half that had already included a couple of clangers and an incredible goal line clearance by putting our first effort on target in just over two and a half hours into the back of the net. From then on, we were the better side.

In the second half, I thought we huffed and puffed and I really thought we'd go on to win - if you give the best striker in the division two goes at it, he'll score. He did.

I thought the subs were good - the two fresh wingers made a difference - Bolasie had a ten minute spell of pure muck and looked like he couldn't wait to go off and have a word with himself and Adomah hasn't had too much football and was tiring. The Kodjia one I wondered about initially, but I'm coming around to thinking it might have been excellent on the part of the manager - with no midfielder on the bench we needed some energy in the middle of the park and Kodjia in a free role encourages opposition midfielders to drop deep.

I thought McGinn was good in his workrate as usual, but made a few poor decisions and needs to think a little more and shoot a little less, he's an absolute ball of energy though and it showed particularly late on when he picked up the entirety of the midfield work. Hutton had a very good second half but ran out of steam with twenty to go, the centre halves looked both calm and steady and ready to make a mistake at any moment. Taylor got better the longer it went on, he made a crunch tackle on about seventy minutes and got a roar from the crowd, it seemed to help him along. Hourihane for me needs to really up his game, he does a lot of things well, but he's just so passive - on a day where there was no shortage of effort or fight from our players, he stood out as the oh-so-casual one. Green came on and gave the ball away twice, but settled into a threat down the left - a pity he fluffed his moment at the end. 

I thought two stood out for us, firstly Bjarnason who I thought showed great energy, great tenacity and drive in picking up the ball and brining it forward and in getting into the corners with good runs beyond Bolasie. He's often criticised and he's a limited player, but I thought he had a very good seventy-five minutes.

The second one won't be a surprise - Tammy Abraham is a class act - he's the best striker in the division; he's got an eye for goal, he's very, very good at holding up the ball, he can play wide, he does his defensive work and if you give him a chance he'll give you a goal. Almost more impressive than all that is his attitude. Tammy is twenty-one years old and he's the leader of this team - he gave Bolasie an absolute earful in the first half for not closing down a man, he gave rollockings, pep-talks and instruction out for ninety minutes and he ran more than any player out there. Two minutes after his goal he was clearing up in defence next to our corner flag. His persistence today deserved better reward.

I though Hull looked erm...okay. They counter reasonably well, they look like they know their roles. I know they've won six on the trot before today, but I didn't see anything that wowed me. Also, their Polish winger is a gaping one.

I'll take it, y'know, it's a point for a team on a bad run against a team on a very good run. I'm also hopeful that the forty minute mark in this line represents something of a meridian to our form, we felt more like Villa in the second half and if we carry that through to next Saturday and Ipswich, then we might just start to pick up a bit of momentum. 

Onwards.

 

 

[smg]

Why do people expect instant success just because we are a ‘big club?’ we are not. At the moment we are a mid table championship team with the potential to move on. Instant success is not possible it has to be developed and too many Villa fans are not prepared to wait and are constantly looking for the next option hoping it will be better. Perhaps it would be better for some to go and watch another team for a few seasons and come back when the hard work has been done and the Villa are the finished article.

[OutByEaster?]

There's a thing we're doing at the moment - our only real means of transitioning from defence into forward areas is McGinn's arse - so we're often left with our centrebacks having lots of touches on the ball looking for ways out.

Centrebacks are not naturally known for their creative ability and it's not an accusation that's levelled often at either Chester or Elphick - so the job they're doing isn't easy or natural.

I don't think it helps one bit booing them while they're on the ball like we did towards the end of the first half. It was a crap bit of supporting, it put pressure on those two to find a quick solution with the ball that simply wasn't on or was beyond their abilities, and having caused a situation where Chester ended up trying a long ball which went straight out of play, we booed him more. as if that would make things better. We were our own worst enemy today at times and the support was disappointing.

 

[screwdriver]

The first 10mins was decent. fast out of the blocks nice tempo. Then once they started to have a few half chances Villa reverted to type.

Hourihane was selected as a deep lying playmaker however he never made himself available to the centre halves by moving into space. he got short balls from the centre halves gave them a short ball back and then pointed to where he wanted them to lump it

Elphick apart from being skinned for the 2nd had a really good game. He;s comfortable on the ball, brave and won his fair share in the air. and a zidane like pirouette was straightout of the the McGinn text book.

The keeper is another bad buy from Youtube. Hull could of won it in injury time when they passed it in front of him and he let it roll.

Rated SMith very poor due to his a) again like for like subs and b)delegation to the fans for bringing on Green. There was no way Green was going to come on until the fans started chanting his name. green had a decent impact but sky'd his big chance into the stars.

Incidently hourihane was correct to contest the drop ball. It shouldn't have been a drop ball.  however it was interesting to see when he was getting accosted by 3 hull players no Villa shirt went to his help apart from McGinn. This is an absolute disgrace. At 5 a side footy we are not at all best mates but if one of us gets started on the rest of the team get involved within seconds. it was like they were happy to see conner **** up.

 

2-2 a good point in the end.

[Rugeley Villa]

Bad result, and a truly dog shit first half. I nearly left at HT, but got a goal back before the whistle which saved us the game. Second half much better, but overall poor again. No chance of going up now, so we need to sort out who’s staying and who’s going. No chance of going down either, so send back or get rid of the big earners who won’t be here next season, and start learning to play without the big names who will be leaving us next season. It’s a shit way to look at it, but we need to realise, we are going to be a completely different team next season in terms of who’s playing now, and who will be playing next season. Thought Green played very well when he came on, so that’s a plus. Looks like we’ve got another shit keeper. 

[Rugeley Villa]

1 hour ago, Vive_La_Villa said:

First half was poor. Players are terrified. Crowd getting on their backs makes it even worse. Second half much better by players and fans responded. 

We are still crap and playoffs unlikely. But it was much better to see second half. 

I thought the fans and team were awful first half. Second half we rallied behind them. It takes two to tango as they say. 

[chappy]

The first ten minutes were bright. Then we looked like we decided we’d played some great stuff at Wigan and wanted to continue in that vein. Kalinic could’ve done better for the first goal and the second seemed inevitable from the moment they gained possession for the build up.

It looked for all the world like it was going to be another defeat to nil on the bounce so well done to Hourihane for a peach of a cross and well done to Chester for bullying their defender for the header. Bit of spice with that dead ball too, props to Conor for that.

We came out like a different team second half and this is why I’ve voted good for DS, something he said at ht resonated and also his subs were as good today as they were awful last week.

We completely bossed the second half and should have won really but from 0-2 you take a point against a side who’ve won 6 in a row.

MOTM- Tammy Abraham. What a player. He’s only 21 but he’s the most vocal player out there- doesn’t put up with any half-arsed play from any teammate and leads by example. So happy he stayed. What a career he has ahead of him.

Im also running out of words for how much I love McGinn. In a season where we may have the top scorer in the league hevslready looks to have seen up POTY. His attitude and work rate fortunately are that of three men, which we’ve needed lately.

This brings me on to the rest of the team. Too many off days that are becoming too regular. I like BB and want him to do well but it didn’t work for him today - think Lamsbury would be a better bet in that position. CH seems to be the curent scapegoat of choice and he wasn’t great until our goal, thought he had a good game from that point on though.

Chester made a great clearance and Elphick was pretty solid. Disappointed by the full backs - attacks tend to die when it’s up to Taylor to put the cross in. Adomah and Bolasie had really bad games today and the subs were the right move.

Shame Green couldn’t cap a lively cameo with a goal in front of the Holte. Enjoyed Kodjia’s performance too but up in K6 you’d think we’d brought on a pub team player based on some of the hate he was getting.

1 point from 6 on our ‘easy run’. Must do better but if we take that second half momentum into Ipswich next week we should get the win we need. Also after a shocking festive run personally (Stoke, Leeds, Swansea cup, Wigan and today), I’m not going next week so no doubt we’ll win comfortably.

Ps. It’s painful how much we miss Jack, hope he’s back sooner rather than later

[Vive_La_Villa]

18 minutes ago, Rugeley Villa said:

I thought the fans and team were awful first half. Second half we rallied behind them. It takes two to tango as they say. 

Agree. It wasn’t a dig at the fans. It just doesn’t help. 

[tinker]

If the midfield , bar MC Ginn , decide to not follow runners , stand off players, play out of position , don't find space , hide behind opposition players and generally play shit then the defence is gonna come under pressure. 

Play Davies behind Tommy and drop Bolahsi , he's showboating when we need a team player to work back . Couldn't believe DS started him and left Greene on the bench tbh. 

We have to give Smith time but he's not beyond criticism and ,Greene, IMO should have started that game . Form wise and physiologically he would have given us all a lift . UTV 

[The Fun Factory]

Team which cannot defend but score goals draw 2-2 at home. Meh.

Couldn't get excited even with the come back, yet another 2 points dropped at home. 

Defensive is a total joke and we cannot give having to make miraculous comebacks to get any points at all.

Need to start to plan for 19/20. We are a nailed on mid table side for now.

Feel very flat and uninspired about Villa at the moment tbh.

[ciggiesnbeer]

I reckon we will stay up.

[turvontour]

1 hour ago, smg said:

Why do people expect instant success just because we are a ‘big club?’ we are not. At the moment we are a mid table championship team with the potential to move on. Instant success is not possible it has to be developed and too many Villa fans are not prepared to wait and are constantly looking for the next option hoping it will be better. Perhaps it would be better for some to go and watch another team for a few seasons and come back when the hard work has been done and the Villa are the finished article.

We are a big club and we finished 4th last season. We should be a top championship team, based on players, spend, last season finish etc.

Its not a huge amount to expect.

You dont change your expectation of the club to where you currently are in the league.

[Rugeley Villa]

10 minutes ago, The Fun Factory said:

Team which cannot defend but score goals draw 2-2 at home. Meh.

Couldn't get excited even with the come back, yet another 2 points dropped at home. 

Defensive is a total joke and we cannot give having to make miraculous comebacks to get any points at all.

Need to start to plan for 19/20. We are a nailed on mid table side for now.

Feel very flat and uninspired about Villa at the moment tbh.

This exactly. Feels like a loss tbf. Good comeback, but a draw is no good to us, and there was nothing there today which told me we have an outside chance of play offs. I noticed today how flat it is around the place again. We need to try and not make things harder for Smith. It won’t have felt pressure like he has here already.