Ratings & Reactions: Villa v Southampton

[AntrimBlack]

30 minutes ago, KenjiOgiwara said:

Let the overreactions commence. 

Were you happy with that performance? I think negative reactions are to be expected.

[It's Your Round]

One thing that really annoys me (and there are many that I can’t be bothered to type out) is how much space we give to teams. We stand off and stand off, giving up territory on the pitch way too easily. When Southampton received the ball today, they had all the time in the world to control the ball and pick a pass. On a few occasions they miss-controlled it and there were no Villa players anywhere near them to nick it back. Where’s the intensity? Where’s the effort to make a difference? 
 

[AntrimBlack]

29 minutes ago, jim said:

Oh climb down off your high horse.
 

If we had some fight, a will to win I wouldn’t be so negative but there clearly isn’t a plan. 
 

You keep banging on about this project, well what is it? We are getting progressively worse with no sign of improving.

We get relegated and we will lose the majority of the first team, then what? We won’t be able to spend due to ffp. 

That no longer seems like the problem I thought it would be.

[MotoMkali]

3 minutes ago, It's Your Round said:

One thing that really annoys me (and there are many that I can’t be bothered to type out) is how much space we give to teams. We stand off and stand off, giving up territory on the pitch way too easily. When Southampton received the ball today, they had all the time in the world to control the ball and pick a pass. On a few occasions they miss-controlled it and there were no Villa players anywhere near them to nick it back. Where’s the intensity? Where’s the effort to make a difference? 
 

We press but we play so deep that once the players has chased they are so far out of position it becomes child's play to unlock the defence. 

[Flynnchin84]

On the way back from the game, I don’t post often however thought I’d share my thoughts.

First half was arguably our worst half of football we have had in years. No identity and absolutely no game plan. The players were flat, didn’t look arsed. 

Completely forgot Hourihane was on the pitch, didn’t offer anything and didn’t look like he wanted the ball. Our right side was abysmal, AEG and Fred looked like they hadn’t ever played with each other. The atmosphere before the game was flat. 
 

Kodjia needs to start over Wesley on Thursday, I think Jack needs to go back into the middle, and Douglas is a CDM, not a CM.

The worst thing is, Southampton weren’t even that good today, and we were absolutely slaughtered. On another day that could’ve been 5 or 6-0. 
 

[AntrimBlack]

23 minutes ago, ferguson1 said:

Sod it, this football club is not going to ruin my Christmas.  Tonight, i’m annoyed, fed up etc. However, I have two beautiful, healthy and very excited young children that are waiting for Santa to arrive.  That is priceless and this certainly isn’t.

Tough to take right now, but don’t dwell on this result folks, it’s just not worth it. Enjoy the festivities and family time.  

You have your priorities completely right. 

[AntrimBlack]

24 minutes ago, Awol said:

No issues with Heaton.

 
Players good enough for this level but not delivering consistently: 

Grealish - McGinn - Mings - Engels - Targett

Players who may be good enough but not delivering consistently:

Luiz - Guilbert - Hourihane

The rest are simply not PL level players, including our entire front three. 

On Smith I just don’t know. Desperately want him to succeed, but if he wasn’t Villa in his heart I’d probably want him gone at this stage. No tactical flexibility, not decisive when change is clearly needed, and the team is terrible, terrible at doing the basics right, from poor defending to zero attacking threat and everything in between. 

So much money spent on dross last summer I reckon our chief scout needs hoofing too. 

It’s a mess and I don’t see how they turn it around at the moment. 

 

Agree with all that.

[AVTuco]

If we can hang onto the players we have now, we'll do well in the Championship next year.

[villalad21]

Hard to believe they lost 0-9 to Leicester

[VillaCas]

2 minutes ago, AVTuco said:

If we can hang onto the players we have now, we'll do well in the Championship next year.

We won’t 

[DaveAV1]

19 minutes ago, AntrimBlack said:

You could count in El Ghazi, Wesley, Taylor, El Mohamady, Hause to that list.

If I was an owner, I would be looking at the performance of the scouts and management, having spent all that money.

Agreed. We seem to have got an idea of buying for future profit. Ok there are some merits to that, we live in a commercial world, but that can’t be the driving force and I’m not saying it is, but we must be more flexible. Under this system we wouldn’t have bought Peter Withe for example. 

On top of that we have to look at the quality of the players signed. If for instance we had signed Maupay instead of Wesley and Benrahma instead of Trez, we may have paid a little more overall, but I’m pretty sure we would be a much better team and both of those players value would be considerably higher than the two we did buy. 

Dean has to shoulder some of the responsibility for recent performances, but he isn’t to blame for all our woes and none of us know how involved he was with recruitment. Do we trust the recruitment team? It’s easy to sack the manager, but we need to look at the whole picture before we jump to obvious conclusions. 

[KentVillan]

Something I noticed from our entire front 6 today was that little frustrated hop skip and jump when they lose the ball. It's like they spend a few seconds replaying it in their heads before they think about getting back into shape.

It's little things like that that give the opposition space.

We have to play with a more compact defensive shape, and it has to start from the moment we lose possession. That means everyone sprinting back into position.

[Talldarkandransome]

I'm quite a level headed person but that was shite. 

No fight, no passion but plenty of throwing arms in the air whinging. I love my club but God they are testing my patience at the moment. 

I want Smith and his staff to succeed so much but currently I cant see that happening. Maybe I'm wrong and i hope i am.

Merry Christmas

Andy

[sne]

13 minutes ago, villalad21 said:

Hard to believe they lost 0-9 to Leicester

Not really, Leicester are great and Southampton didn't need to be particularly good today to beat us.

If anything I'm surprised we didn't lose even heavier to Leicester.

[smg]

38 minutes ago, Davkaus said:

How many of their players would you want to sign?

Thats the problem no one is deemed good enough for the mighty Villa. Just look around the premier league and European leagues at the moment to see how many ex players are playing in teams that are achieving far more than us. But were  all deemed to be shit by the Villa pundits on here.

[Bunnski]

How has the ref got a majority voting him as average on that poll? Not blaming him for us losing but he did my head in

[DaveAV1]

48 minutes ago, ferguson1 said:

Sod it, this football club is not going to ruin my Christmas.  Tonight, i’m annoyed, fed up etc. However, I have two beautiful, healthy and very excited young children that are waiting for Santa to arrive.  That is priceless and this certainly isn’t.

Tough to take right now, but don’t dwell on this result folks, it’s just not worth it. Enjoy the festivities and family time.  

Thanks for nudging me back to reality. Our lovely daughter is almost at excitement explosion point and that is all that matters in reality. Have a very lovely Christmas which I’m sure you will! 

[sidcow]

[nick76]

Absolutely disgusted.

Dont mind losing but the manner, I’m furious.  Didn’t even start the game until we were 3-0 down.  No ideas whatsoever.
 

I know there are a lot of knockers of Wes but he just got the ball lumped up to him so many times and none of them easy so I’m not blaming him.  This was a total team and management disgrace.

Just furious.

A game that meant so much and that’s the performance they give us.

[ferguson1]

33 minutes ago, DaveAV1 said:

Thanks for nudging me back to reality. Our lovely daughter is almost at excitement explosion point and that is all that matters in reality. Have a very lovely Christmas which I’m sure you will! 

Cheers mate and you’re very welcome . Don’t get me wrong i’m very disappointed and concerned by the events of today, but there are just far important things in our lives to think about than our current shambles of a team.

Perhaps Santa will bring us all a present on Boxing Day?

Edited December 21, 2019 by ferguson1