Ratings & Reactions: Sheff Utd v Villa

[Harry]

7 minutes ago, Newry_Villan said:

Poor all round from everyone. I see Smith out posts on Facebook ffs. 

That's FB for you  I exited all the Villa groups I was in a few months ago as I got sick of the extreme views and the abuse if you had a different opinion to the pack.

[Talldarkandransome]

9 minutes ago, Newry_Villan said:

Poor all round from everyone. I see Smith out posts on Facebook ffs. 

Facebook is full of idiots

[TRO]

8 minutes ago, BleedClaretAndBlue said:

Poor showing. Deflated. Maybe when we drop into the bottom 3 later tonight it will give the players the sense of urgency we need to get a few results in the next few weeks. Smith needs to stop persisting with players/tactics that dont work. Failed badly today and even when we had the lifeline of the spot kick, the one man you can normally rely on hits the bar like he did in the summer.

Do you honestly feel, we have those kind of players, who would think that?....I think you could count them on a camels foot.

[VillaFaninLondon]

16 minutes ago, foreveryoung said:

It's the manager, he don't put up with any shit. That team is rubbish on paper, but they all do a job, the little flicks for the goals today, we looked at them like they were Barcelona. 

Yep, Sheffield are made up of players that have played the majority of their careers in League 1 or the Championship and are 5th. We've spent a lot of money on players that are supposed to be good enough for this level and will most likely be 18th later today. This tells me our manager just doesn't know how to get the best out of them.

[nick76]

The thing I’m worried about is when McGinn has a bad game our midfield is non-existent (I’m assuming Jack is upfront) whatever combination we have.  We know our problems upfront but I’m now starting to worry about our midfield.

[foreveryoung]

4 minutes ago, TRO said:

I think that contract was a thank you for promotion in the main.

No one should really be saying that.....but that fearful trait we have all seen in the past, where the same problems in our play is there every game.....in other words what are we working on?, or is he getting no response from them?

That will ultimately, allied to constantly losing unseat him.

 

 

I believe this. No team will hold on to a manager if they keep losing winnable games. 

[TRO]

22 minutes ago, holteend1982 said:

Shocking performance today, cant belive we conceded straight after half time yet again. We are still not getting the basics right and our passing is like something from the lower leagues. Even the games we have won we had given plenty of chances for the opposition to score with sloppy 5 Yard passes. Next 3 league games are massive, need at least 6 points imo and hope some results go in our favour. Still optimistic we can stay up but past few weeks been unacceptable. 

Hallelujah!!!

and that is the single most worrying thing......what the **** are they doing at Bodymoor.......because, I swear lately from game to game, I see no difference in improvement

something stinks.

Edited December 14, 2019 by TRO

[Paul33]

Smith has been making it clear all week that he wants Villa to be "tougher to beat" and, in fairness, for sixty odd minutes we looked exactly that. The problem was that once Blades scored, we were not structured in any way to fight back.

The midfield was largely missing today which meant no simple outlet passes for the defenders looking to play football and no support for the forwards on the few occasions they latched onto long balls.

Something is wrong with McGinn - don't know what but his engine is broken and that is worrying. Is it physical or is it mental ? Has something got into his head ? He looks all wrong at the moment. Grealish is our most influential player and - particularly right now - needs to play in the middle of the park, not out on the flanks where he spends most of the game as a spectator. 

Must not put out a weak team against Liverpool U10s in midweek. Go out, score goals, smash them to pieces and build some confidence before next weekend. Defeat to the scouse kids will destroy our confidence even more !

[screwdriver]

Mings maybe a bit shakey in his defending however we missed his influence today.

House was solid ( I gave him motm) but you could tell the players didn't have the same beleif without mings.,

I've not seen Grealish so ineffective for a long time. Is he back on the bottle? strangly enough I watched george best interviewed by wogan this morning when I wokje up. it was on my reccommended vids.

Mings is an influential player even when he plays poor

[BleedClaretAndBlue]

2 minutes ago, TRO said:

Do you honestly feel, we have those kind of players, who would think that?....I think you could count them on a camels foot.

It doesnt look like it at the moment, no. Which is concerning given all the spiel we were given about identifying the “right characters” before making signings. I would say McGinn, Heaton, Engels, Mings, Heaton and Jack would show the fight needed. Most are badly out of form which is a huge problem.

[Five Ken McNaughts]

I'm still not sure who exactly we were fending off with this contract. Who was bashing down the door to poach the manager of the team in 16th? Why the sudden need to tie Deano down (a lifelong Villa fan, already in his dream job)? Four years? It's a strange one.

[TRO]

3 minutes ago, nick76 said:

The thing I’m worried about is when McGinn has a bad game our midfield is non-existent (I’m assuming Jack is upfront) whatever combination we have.  We know our problems upfront but I’m now starting to worry about our midfield.

not trying to be clever.....I have worried about it for some time.

and the 2 summer signings do not fill me with joy either

[VillaFaninLondon]

14 minutes ago, The Fun Factory said:

Apart from promoting Villa and winning 10 on the spin. Apart from that. 

10 in a row in the Championship yeah. Leicester City of all clubs have just won 8 or 9 in the PL. Yes our recent histories have been very different but that's not the point. Celebrating a record number of wins in the second tier is not the same because the standard of teams is much lower. He did well to get us up given where we were but again we had a very strong squad that wasn't performing - it was always going to be competitive once the handbrake was taken off. 

 

I like DS as a man and for being Villa through and through, but we can't have sentiment here. He's nowhere near the level of someone like Nuno who has coped with the transition to the PL. He looks like he is struggling with this level of football and giving him a 4 year contract was far too premature.

[Talldarkandransome]

I think a few players need dropping and if they think they are too big to drop then they ain't right for Villa. McGinn has been awful for a good while now and there's a couple of others who need a kick up the backside.

 

[OutByEaster?]

4 minutes ago, Talldarkandransome said:

I think a few players need dropping and if they think they are too big to drop then they ain't right for Villa. McGinn has been awful for a good while now and there's a couple of others who need a kick up the backside.

I'd agree, but I don't think we have enough depth to do that.

 

[Stockport_Villain]

11 minutes ago, Paul33 said:

Smith has been making it clear all week that he wants Villa to be "tougher to beat" and, in fairness, for sixty odd minutes we looked exactly that. The problem was that once Blades scored, we were not structured in any way to fight back.

The midfield was largely missing today which meant no simple outlet passes for the defenders looking to play football and no support for the forwards on the few occasions they latched onto long balls.

Something is wrong with McGinn - don't know what but his engine is broken and that is worrying. Is it physical or is it mental ? Has something got into his head ? He looks all wrong at the moment. Grealish is our most influential player and - particularly right now - needs to play in the middle of the park, not out on the flanks where he spends most of the game as a spectator. 

Must not put out a weak team against Liverpool U10s in midweek. Go out, score goals, smash them to pieces and build some confidence before next weekend. Defeat to the scouse kids will destroy our confidence even more !

This is a lost of what I saw. McGinn needs a rest and I would start with a midfield of Tres, Grealish and El Ghazi in front of Nakamba and Luiz in the next game.

[TRO]

I think, if you watch Sheff Utd play and analyse what they do well, irrespective of their modest fee's for their players......and then you watch us, for me there is a stark reminder of what we do wrong and they do right.

Dean has to take a hard long look at what he is doing and re think it.

You cannot come up in to this league and immediately play like Liverpool or Leicester.....we are not good enough to do it....but turning up with 4-3-3 we think we can.

We can't grind out results and scrap through a game.....our offensive game can be good at times, but its not good enough alone to see us through this league.....you have to be able to defend.

I don't think Dean has paid enough attention to this crucial trait...in the front 6......our midfield 3 and the forwards have no idea how to implement a defensive side to their game.....they are lightweight and open.....far too many players in the squad are like that, so he can't change it.

The biggest worry for me going in to January is......do they recognise it?

We are changing players and its making no difference......too samey.

Edited December 14, 2019 by TRO

[DaveAV1]

26 minutes ago, jdguitar said:

The decision to give Smith a new four-year contract when we were only lingering just above the relegation zone seems a premature one in hindsight - don't get me wrong, I'm not saying I'd be considering a change in manager at this stage, but when we keep falling off in the second half of games, it's difficult to see us finishing outside the bottom three unless Smith changes things up (which he seems reluctant to do).

Perhaps they thought that a new contract would give him support and the confidence to continue to believe in his style of play? I would imagine it came with a fair few clauses and targets. From what I’ve heard about the owners I doubt it would have been done with any sentimentality or without consideration of all the risks involved. 

[Talldarkandransome]

6 minutes ago, OutByEaster? said:

I'd agree, but I don't think we have enough depth to do that.

 

Possibly not, but some of em appear to think they have made it already

[OxfordVillan]

We’re bang in trouble. All of a sudden we’ve reached a point where I don’t envisage us being able to win ANY game. Watford aside, every other team is picking up unexpected points in the games where we have consistently got nothing. I don’t see where the goals for us are coming from on a consistent basis, and we always look like conceding, a toxic combination. We’ve repeated mistakes game after game, and we are now looking shorn of confidence. Something has to change quite quickly.