Ratings & Reactions: Villa v Norwich

[AVTuco]

4 minutes ago, Rightdm00 said:

Some of the players were so nervous.  Not a pretty win but hopefully it's the shot of confidence we need going forward. 

That is why a player like Elmo is so important. 

Heaton and Jack obviously, Conor did what he does.

BUT look what Elmo did before the goal. Konsa left the ball to Norwich already, but Elmo came in and threw Norwich player to the ground and took the ball. This is what started the attack to our goal, and what got Norwich bench so agitated.

[thunderball]

9 minutes ago, Sulberto21 said:

Brilliant brilliant defensive performance by the team. They showed fight and guts. Douglas Luiz was brilliant.  Grealish as ever the don. Credit to all of them. Especially Dean Smith he’s made the necessary tweaks and we won. It wasn’t pretty but we have to stay up. I don't care how it’s done.

I hope Smith learns, he needs to evolve a bit

[PaulC]

The cbs did ok and Heaton made two great saves but really Norwich had enough chances to have won the game in a canter. Luis made an amazing clearance off the line and they all put a shift in but Grealish the only player for us with any quality. Like he was playing. Different game to the rest. When you are that good you must get really frustrated

[Ponky]

Well the best team came second but we so desperately needed the win I don't care.

It took the only bit of real quality in the game to get us in front and we looked pretty confident for a while after that but the way we played in the last 10 minutes pretty threw all that away - it was almost criminal.

[KillieVillain]

Terrible again but massive massive win , would take the same performance and result against Watford!

[foreveryoung]

8 minutes ago, M_Afro said:

How exactly did he bottle it? 

You obviously didn't watch him. How much proof you want?

Don't go for headers

Pulls out of tackles

Stays back allowing other players to win the ball

I could go on,

 

[Xela]

YES!!!!!

[briny_ear]

We were outplayed for most of the match but fortunately we have Conor who knows where the back of the net is and they don’t. Heaton was excellent for us today.

We were also helped a bit by some bloke called Jordan Ayew sending West Ham down to defeat. I have this vague recollection that he used to be rubbish, but of course that was when he played for us.

Not sure Smith exerted much control over our performance today.

[The_Rev]

Grealish was immense. 

[Davkaus]

1 minute ago, The_Rev said:

Grealish was immense. 

He got us the goal, we were never scoring without him, but Heaton won us the points, IMO. Some real heroics from him today.

Everything goes through Jack though, he's literally our only option. 

[Mantis]

We were poor but a win's a win. Hopefully this is where we start to improve.

[Humanoid]

Some poor performances yet again from the usual players.  Nakamba being the worst, Wes a close second.  Konsa, Grealish, Heaton very good.  Great goal from Conner.  Poor Koj, sitting on the bench knowing he can play better than Wes.

[M_Afro]

15 minutes ago, VillaCas said:

We’ve got problem all over the pitch but Wesley really didn’t do ok. Running around a lot is not a substitute for threatening the goal - just not a Centre Forward. 

 

I disagree. Our play is all about our wide players delivering. All 4 of them were poor today. Wes ran the line ok but he was totally feeding off scraps.

[M_Afro]

9 minutes ago, foreveryoung said:

You obviously didn't watch him. How much proof you want?

Don't go for headers

Pulls out of tackles

Stays back allowing other players to win the ball

I could go on,

 

I didn’t see any of those things. Maybe you should watch it back. 

[AVTuco]

I'd definitely not start both Trez and AEG. Two up front would bring the best out of Wes, whatever that will be. Kodjia in for Trez. 

[punkiller1981]

Different class from jack as usual but also a nod to Hause I thought 2nd half he was excellent.

[LondonLax]

They say being able to win ugly is a sign of a great team, so...

[GodsBarkeep]

Given recent performances that's a great result against a rival.

Hoping we can start to build some confidence again, Watford is probably our best chance at continuing, but it won't be one for the feint of heart.

[HanoiVillan]

Grealish was incredible, just several levels above the rest of the team. Heaton was great at shot stopping again, though some of his clearances are dire. Konsa and Hause were just about good enough. Hourihane got a goal and didn't do much else, but he won us the game so you can't criticise him. And Luiz made a good block, and Elmo showed some strength and game management, even if his crossing was mostly terrible.

Those are the positives.

The negatives are everyone else and the manager. Targett was too narrow all game, and Aarons had the better of him every time they met. Nakamba was awful, constantly giving the ball away and putting us under pressure. His performance levels are becoming A Problem. El Ghazi missed two good chances and his crossing was dire, but I suppose at least he got into the penalty area. By contrast, Trezeguet was just awful; he didn't create anything, didn't get close to scoring, didn't put in good tackles or help his full back adequately, and gave the ball away a bunch of times. He's just not at the required level for this division. Wesley made one or two nice passes, but either he won't get in the penalty area or his manager won't allow him to, and whichever it is it's not working, and frankly I think it's the player, not the manager. However, it is up to the manager to pick and change the team, and again he didn't manage the game well; with another game in less than 48 hours, only one substitution had been made at the 75-minute mark.

All in all, this was a poor performance capped by some Grealish magic, a quality Hourihane finish, and a shot-stopping masterclass from Heaton. If we play like that on Saturday we'll go down to defeat against a Watford team with a bit of confidence.

[Chindie]

Heaton - 4 or 5 goal stopping saves? He's the only reason we've not lost that match. Excellent.

Targett - mostly anonymous.

Hause - excellent. Nothing flash, but just solid no nonsense defending.

Konsa - good again.

Elmo - ok. He's not a great player but he's ok. Still one of the better crossers in the squad, which is somewhat worrying.

Nakamba - hmm. He's kinda neither one thing or tother at the moment. He's not a Makelele or the cultured play maker. Just bustling about to no avail.

Luiz - faded badly, but decent enough otherwise and had that highlight reel block on the line.

Grealish - he's the only player we have that has the ability to create from nothing in him. And you can see it's pissing him off. Had a complete meltdown at one point. And you kinda can't blame him.

El Ghazi - should have scored, vanished for long periods and bizarrely nearly went off 30mins in. There's something about him, there's days where you can tell he's not up for it at all. I swear Grealish told him to get up when he went down looking to go off.

Trez - he works hard, and he wants to go forward, but he's kinda not there. I think there's a decent player (but no more) in him, but I reckon that's a next season thing. Right now he's just energy.

Wes - first half was the usual. Nobody near him, ball never getting to him, some bad positioning. The best thing he did that half was hold up and play in Elmo I think for a chance. Second half better, getting the ball and making smart passes, summed up by a link up with Trezeguet where he used his strength to hold off 2 defenders, go up the line and pass back to the edge of the box. But then gassed hard.

Hourihane - this is his kind of game, and his coming on got the goal and the best bit of play in the 90. But didn't really do a great deal else as we sat back. Which is why he's not a starter, without the ball he vanishes.

Jota - nothing to say really.

Lansbury - tried to put the ball into the carpark once.

Not a good performance that. The squad isn't good enough it's clear and confidence has gone. We seem unable to have some composite composure, nobody can go past their man beyond Grealish, and our set piece defending is horrifying. It's clear work still needs to be done. There's hints there - we've got a good crop of CBs, we have goals in us despite our flaws, a brilliant keeper, but we need players and we need to work on using the ball well desperately. And the sitting back... In the last 15 or became farcical, nobody wanted to attack. That's obscene.

But, we had to win this, and we did.