Aston Villa Women

[WallisFrizz]

9 minutes ago, useless said:

Results were always likely to be mixed, anyone who thought we were suddenly going to start winning most games just because we had a good start was serioulsy setting themselves up for disappointment, us losing games, and sometimes losing two or three games in a row was always going to happen, the main thing is to make sure we improve overall on last season.

 

We actually played quite well. Dominated, just didn’t make the most of chances. I can only remember Everton having a couple of shots on goal and they scored one. They need to keep their heads up, they’ve still made brilliant progress.

[useless]

To be fair they've been playing well since the start of the year, last season we just couldn't turn our dominance and good play in most games into goals, so many games we were the better team but still lost, from January onwards I think I read somewhere that we were one of the best possession teams and had one of the highest expected goals ratio in the league, the main difference between then and the first games of this season have been Daly and Dali, so no surprise when they go a few games without goals we struggle for results again.

Also worth remembering that we're missing two of our main strikers, Simone Magill and Emily Gielnik through injury, as well as our only senior DM Ruesha LIttlejohn so have been playing Rachel Corsie a central defender in midfield, Hannah Hampton has also missed the last two defeats

Another factor might the Bescot Stadium, for whatever reason our form there is woeful, first two League wins came at Villa Park and away to Leicester, was always a concern that when we returned to the Walsall ground we would struggle again, an interesting stat from last season is that we had the fifth best away form in the WSL, only Arsenal, Chelsea, Man City, and Man Utd took more points away from home, and United only one more point than us.

Hopefully the results at the Bescot will come, games being played at Villa Park when possible will be a big help to us, club's aim is to finish top eight and I think we've got a good chance of that.

[useless]

Next league game is Chelsea, so unfortunately that's more than likely going to be our third straight defeat, but after that we have Liverpool away and Reading at home, those two games should give us a chance to start gaining points again, also neither game is at Bescot Stadium, which should help us given our very poor form there.

Before those games also play Everton in the FA WSL Cup, win that and would give us an excellent chance of qualifying for the knockout stages, something I wouldn't have thought possible before the season started, but beating Man Utd has given us a chance.

[useless]

Daly came off injured at the weekend and isn't involved tonight, I hope she isn't out for too long, Hampton also not in the squad again, I was hoping she was back as the club listed the injured players yesterday but didn't mention Hampton. Our two best players out isn't good, hopefully back soon. Made a few changes for tonight, not seen Everton line-up but probably going to be a very tough game, we're obviously using this tournament more for giving others game time as we did last season, when we play the championship clubs will probably bring in a few youngsters like Evie Rabjohn and Izzy Goodwin.

[useless]

Lost the game on penalties, so finishing top of the group is no longer in our hands, but we still might have a chance of qualify if we can finish second but would have to do it as one of the best two second placed teams from the six groups.

Edit: Man Utd have somehow managed to lose on penalties to Durham, not sure of the permations of that, waiting for the tables to be updated but might give us a better chance of qualifying.

 

[useless]

Both the BBC and google seem to have the WSL League Cup Group standings wrong, google have updated everyting else but have us down as being on two points, whereas as it should be three, two for beating United on penalties and then one tonight for drawing with Everton in normal time, they also have Durham on five points where as it should be four points as they've won both their games on penalites, they've got United down as having one point, but should be two, a point for drawing with us over ninety minutes and then again today with Durham

The BBC have ours and Sheffield United's points totals right but the others in our group wrong.

Unless I'm missing something, I'm pretty sure it's one point for a draw in normal time, two points for a penalty win, and three points for a win in normal time.

In other news our U21s beat Leicester 5-3- today, that's a couple of good results they've had now, twelve goals in the last two league games, but form will probably be up and down as lost a lot of players to loans and the first team, but as with the boys probably more about development than individual results.

[useless]

Group tables have been corrected now, as it stands we're on three points so the most points we can get is nine, which is doable as our last two group games are against Championship sides, if we achieve that then United can't catch us as best they can do now is eight points, Everton can beat nine points, but to do so they need to beat both Championship sides and then beat United either in normal time or on penalties.

So essentially if we and Everton both win our games against Durham and Sheffield United, then who finishes top would come down to the Man Utd v Everton game, we'd need Man Utd to win, which normally could probably be pretty much counted on, but United have lost to both us and Durham in this competition already on penalties, last night probably played a weakened team and could do that against Everton.

It perhaps should be pointed out that us beating Durham and Sheffield United might not be so straightforward either, as there's a chance that we too in those games could use them to give game time to some of the academy and squad players, which is what we did last season in this competition when we were the only WSL team in our group, and we ended up finishing bottom, will depend on how we approach the games, play full strenght and we should win both comfortably, play half an academy team and that would probably even things up.

Edited October 27, 2022 by useless

[useless]

Academy team have drawn, Man Utd in the first round of their version of the FA Youth Cup. That doesn't bother me in of itself, we might even have a chance of winning, just annoying how all our teams across the board seem to be constantly drawn against the better teams in early rounds of the knock out competitions, really hope our teams get better draws in the FA Cup and Youth Cup, and the women's FA Cup for that matter.

Edited October 27, 2022 by useless

[smg]

We are becoming such victims, cup draws, referees,  var, perhaps why not just grow a pair and perform better more consistently . Going to be easy now with our new manager buying half of Spain so nothing to worry about.

[ender4]

51 minutes ago, useless said:

Academy team have drawn, Man Utd in the first round of their version of the FA Youth Cup. That doesn't bother me in of itself, we might even have a chance of winning, just annoying how all our teams across the board seem to be constantly drawn against the better teams in early rounds of the knock out competitions, really hope our teams get better draws in the FA Cup and Youth Cup, and the women's FA Cup for that matter.

Of course it has to be Man Utd in a cup match

[useless]

Last season
U18s draw Leicester in FA Youth Cup, Leicester were top of the table
Women Draw Chelsea in first game of FA Cup
Men draw Man Utd in first game of FA Cup
Men draw Chelsea in second game of League Cup
The season before last season
Draw Liverpool in first game of FA Cup and had to play not only an academy team but a weakend academy team
Women draw Man City in first game of FA Cup
This season so far
Men have drawn Man Utd in first game of League Cup
Women drawn in same group as Man Utd in WSL League Cup
Women's Academy team drawn against Man Utd in first game of FA Youth Cup

Big talk okay, but a little bit of luck needed as well for us to do well in competitions, same as any team to a degree, can't blame anyone for being fed up of our teams being constantly drawn against the best teams giving us the worst possible chance of progressing in .competitions

 

 

[useless]

The bottom two Reading and Leiceester play each other today, I think it's best for us if there's a winner in that game as that would mean no matter what happens in our game against Chelsea we would be guaranteed to maintan our six point advantage over the bottom placed team.

Shouldn't really be worried too much about relegation anyway, but better to maintain as much of a gap between us and the relegation place as possible just to be on the safe side.

Would be great to get a result today, but away to Chelsea not really too hopeful.

[useless]

Lost 3-1, result can be excused away to a team like Chelsea, but after three defeats in a row now we really could do with starting to pick up points again in the next two away to Liverpool and then at home to Reading.

The good news is that all other results went our way, Leicester lost so we maintain our six points advantage over them at the bottom of the table, Liverpool lost, Brigton lost (8-0), and then just above Everton lost, and chances are West Ham will also lose in the later kick-off.

We're only three points of fourth place, and despite recent results playing well.

[NeilS]

23 minutes ago, useless said:

Lost 3-1, result can be excused away to a team like Chelsea, but after three defeats in a row now we really could do with starting to pick up points again in the next two away to Liverpool and then at home to Reading.

The good news is that all other results went our way, Leicester lost so we maintain our six points advantage over them at the bottom of the table, Liverpool lost, Brigton lost (8-0), and then just above Everton lost, and chances are West Ham will also lose in the later kick-off.

We're only three points of fourth place, and despite recent results playing well.

I don’t think we should be worrying too much about relegation this year, but I do feel we are currently looking at a mid table finish at best. I think we still need a bit more quality in the team up front to support Daly in the goal scoring stakes before we are challenging the top teams regularly. A nice win or draw at Liverpool will cement our mid table position for the time being though.

A quick question for you Useless. Is Alisha Lehman a bit over rated? She doesn’t seem to contribute many goals or assists as you would expect.

[useless]

I don't watch all the women's games, so others will know better than me, but from what I saw last season although she wasn't great she was still our best attacker and would have had more assists if our other attackers were better finishers.

I don't know about overrated, but maybe a lot of people think of her as the main player because she's the player everyone knows, whereas there are other players that have done better than her, and now we've signed Dali and Daly it's probably fair to say she's no longer our best attacker.

For now still an important player for us though.

[NeilS]

18 minutes ago, useless said:

I don't watch all the women's games, so others will know better than me, but from what I saw last season although she wasn't great she was still our best attacker and would have had more assists if our other attackers were better finishers.

I don't know about overrated, but maybe a lot of people think of her as the main player because she's the player everyone knows, whereas there are other players that have done better than her, and now we've signed Dali and Daly it's probably fair to say she's no longer our best attacker.

For now still an important player for us though.

Ok thanks. I don’t see much other than highlights, and it’s hard to gauge from those. It looks like she has a good turn of pace and technique but I think I was expecting more end product from her to be honest. I think you are right though, in that Daly and Dali are the next step up in quality. We still need to keep adding quality of that level to the team to progress.

[useless]

I think that's why she only signed a one year deal, it seemed quite a few people thought at the time it was because of this potentially being Luiz's last season, but truth be the one year deal might be more of a mutal thing between her and the club as she's someone we might want to upgrade on in the coming transfer windows, we've also got youngstes and players returning from injury that could also threaten her place, so a one year deal made sense.

[est1874]

So what do we think happened with Hannah Hampton then?

[Tayls]

Two flukey wins to start the season and back to reality? Hard to see where another win could come from at the moment. Same for the men’s side really! Rotten mindsets at the club. 

Edited October 30, 2022 by Tayls

[Xela]

55 minutes ago, est1874 said:

So what do we think happened with Hannah Hampton then?

All sounds a bit odd doesn't it? Fit to play but the manager told her to stay away due to an 'incident' yesterday. She still turned up to watch the game.