Ratings & Reactions: Villa v Hull

[Rugeley Villa]

There will always be expectation at Villa, especially in this league. 

[sheepyvillian]

Please,  please, stop playing the same under performing players. We need players with the hunger and desire to fight for every minute of the game and not drop their heads when luck deserts them. Time for us to show some mettle because it's all to easy disappearing. 

[briny_ear]

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.

Instant success???

It’s been 10 years since we had our last short burst of competitive football in the premier league and around 20 years since we regularly expected to do well in that tier. 

And yet 30,000-ish fans regularly turn out to watch our first team play shite football at Villa Park and 2-4,000 regularly travel away. 

I don’t think that signifies impatience - quite the opposite. I’m unclear from what standpoint you are criticising Villa fans for wanting something better than we have now?

[S-Platt]

I don't condone the booing but it did give the players a kick up the arse!  First 10 we looked lively then they get a foothold and we kept giving them the ball or just hoofing it out of play under no pressure.  Find ourselves 2-0 down and the crowd boo another aimless kick out for a throw in.  From that point on we looked like we cared and got back into it.  2-2 is a fair result and I hope they take some confidence from that to the next games.

[Nigel]

3 hours ago, OutByEaster? said:

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.

 

 

Its getting back to the days of liking your write ups better than the actual games obe!

[Darth Villa]

I think we're looking at a team who have realised that most of them don't have a future at the club, given our new focus on youth and  developing players (Lambert Mk2, I hope not!).  That combined with losing Jack and Axel to injury plus other sides figuring out our weaknesses (we have no stomach for a fight and our midfield and fullbacks are shite) has culminated in what we witnessed in the first half today.

We need to be fitter, work harder and emulate the efforts of McGinn & Abraham - we need to ditch the show pony (Bolasie), the journeymen (BB and Whelan) and the downright weak (Hourihane) to see a change and I trust Smith is working on that as it is still very early days.  We just need to be patient and allow for the necessary transition to happen..

Edited January 19, 2019 by Darth Villa

[TRO]

4 hours ago, VillanousOne said:

confidence looks low, the second half looked the like the real us under Dean Smith.

Bolasie, Adomah and Thor were utterly terrible. Green looked positive.

How can confidence be switched on and off so easily......from a first half of total rubbish to a second half of commendable tempo and urgency......what a joke of a contrast.

I don't buy it.

Edited January 19, 2019 by TRO

[TRO]

3 hours ago, OutByEaster? said:

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.

 

 

I agree with most of that as i normally do from you.

as for the Bjarnason bit.....I 'll leave that bit out.

[SirSteveUK]

4 hours ago, Junxs said:

Seriously? You've come to that decision in 3 months when the transfer window hasn't even really got going yet.. you think you can change the whole philosophy of a club in just 3 months with little no change in playing staff?

I despair 

So do I

[ciggiesnbeer]

1 hour ago, briny_ear said:

Instant success???

It’s been 10 years since we had our last short burst of competitive football in the premier league and around 20 years since we regularly expected to do well in that tier. 

And yet 30,000-ish fans regularly turn out to watch our first team play shite football at Villa Park and 2-4,000 regularly travel away. 

I don’t think that signifies impatience - quite the opposite.

No kidding. As well as your points, just look at the money we have spent in the Championship alone. Fans should expect better, so should the owner(s). 

 

 

[PompeyVillan]

7 minutes ago, ciggiesnbeer said:

No kidding. As well as your points, just look at the money we have spent in the Championship alone. Fans should expect better, so should the owner(s). 

 

 

There should also be an acceptance of the squad limitations that Smith is working with. Yes, we deserve better, but we shouldn't expect better, because it will only lead to disappointment. It's not realistic to expect this squad, minus Grealish and Tuenzebe to do anything exciting in this league. 

We're so lacking in quality in the middle of the park, it's scary. Hourihane's stats are really good, that's enough to keep him in the team but I don't think his overall contribution is quite good enough. McGinn works hard enough to get away with the add bit of over excitement and nativity on the ball. Bjarnason is an absolute donkey, Lansbury is always injured and Whelan and Jedinak need sending to the glue factory. 

Ideally, we need players pushing McGinn and Hourihane but at the moment they're both a shoe-in because a lack of squad quality. 

I'm not sure what to make of the defence, my feeling is that Chester and Elphick at the back should be safe enough but we concede too many chances and definitely too many goals. 

I don't think we're all that good without Grealish. If we lose Abraham we're well and truly in trouble. 

 

[Frobisher]

There are a couple of players who are building a career in the game - McGinn and Abraham - while the rest are at the height of what they'll achieve for the rest of their careers and it shows. Ignoring quality, the hunger isn't there. In the concourse before the game I was watching the Wolves-Leicester game and there looked a near certain goal for Wolves until Madison came steaming from nowhere to block the chance; our midfield just don't seem to have that commitment.

[bannedfromHandV]

Garbage. 

Chester was woeful, his passing was appalling and his body language in the first half was worrying. 

Taylor the same, though I actually saw him put in a winning, aggressive tackle today, for the first time in 2+ years. 

Hourihane was terrible, kodjia was awful in his short spell on the pitch....don't even know where to start with Bjarnason. 

Bolasie was ineffective and adomah his usual anonymous self. Elphick actually did pretty well I thought, only him McGinn and Abraham come out of today with any credit. 

There was a lot of frustration at the ground today, we don't move forward enough, even when there are clear opportunities to do so. It's frightening how much we miss Grealish in terms of his linking play through the midfield. 

Starting to feel familiar all over again this....... 

[sne]

[The Fun Factory]

For me I took no positives today. The performance was garbage first half, the second was ok. I am getting a feeling some of these senior players have given up listening to the manager already.

I expect a huge player turnover in the summer. Whether that will result in us going up the table and getting promotion one day who knows.

[OutByEaster?]

4 hours ago, sheepyvillian said:

Please,  please, stop playing the same under performing players. We need players with the hunger and desire to fight for every minute of the game and not drop their heads when luck deserts them.

A few people have mentioned this in this thread - that we need to stop playing some of these players - I think it's worth remembering that the midfield we had unavailable today is arguably better than the midfield that played. Would you prefer Grealish, Lansbury and Whelan or McGinn, Hourihane and Bjarnason? 

The problem we have at the moment is that we're playing a TINA midfield - we didn't have a midfielder on the bench today, the manager doesn't seem keen on Jake Doyle-Hayes and we don't have anyone else fit. McGinn, Hourihane and Bjarnason will almost definitely all start our next game - the only real potential change is if we bring in Whelan. 

We have options elsewhere in Bree, Hause, Green and El Ghazi - but those are about the only positions where there's any doubt on selection. It's hard right now to drop the under-performers.

 

 

 

 

[tinker]

5 minutes ago, OutByEaster? said:

A few people have mentioned this in this thread - that we need to stop playing some of these players - I think it's worth remembering that the midfield we had unavailable today is arguably better than the midfield that played. Would you prefer Grealish, Lansbury and Whelan or McGinn, Hourihane and Bjarnason? 

The problem we have at the moment is that we're playing a TINA midfield - we didn't have a midfielder on the bench today, the manager doesn't seem keen on Jake Doyle-Hayes and we don't have anyone else fit. McGinn, Hourihane and Bjarnason will almost definitely all start our next game - the only real potential change is if we bring in Whelan. 

We have options elsewhere in Bree, Hause, Green and El Ghazi - but those are about the only positions where there's any doubt on selection. It's hard right now to drop the under-performers.

 

 

 

 

Swap Bjarnason and Hourihane's positions , .leave Bree in and get Greene on the pitch to replace Billy Big bollox Bolahsi. 

Certain players are not responding to the challenge , this needs to be addressed.

[robby b]

Today I was happy to see Green back partly because he reminded me of Baron Greenback  (from Danger Mouse. And his pet caterpillar Nero).

Edited January 20, 2019 by robby b

[Robtaylor200]

13 hours 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. 

I have always said. Give me something to cheer about, something to sing about and I will cheer and sing. I have been a Villa fan for a long long time. I dont expect a lot. A few shots at goal, a couple of runs and some effort. But play as they did in the first half no effort, no passion nothing, after some fans have travelled over a hundred miles and spent hard earned money to watch them . I will boo until the cows come home. We gee them up at the start then its up to the team to wow the crowd and not the other way around

[Rugeley Villa]

2 minutes ago, Robtaylor200 said:

I have always said. Give me something to cheer about, something to sing about and I will cheer and sing. I have been a Villa fan for a long long time. I dont expect a lot. A few shots at goal, a couple of runs and some effort. But play as they did in the first half no effort, no passion nothing, after some fans have travelled over a hundred miles and spent hard earned money to watch them . I will boo until the cows come home. We gee them up at the start then its up to the team to wow the crowd and not the other way around

I see your point and it weren’t a dig at the crowd. It was cold, and we were playing hull . Then it was the same old shite. Fans are acting like customers now, because we get treated like customers. The fans were fans in the second half and we rallied behind the team. I guess that proves your point though, as we were much better second half.