Ratings & Reactions: Villa v Chelsea

[ozvillafan]

I found myself yelling at the TV after about 3 minutes. It didn't let up till the 95th minute and I woke up my wife and kids at 3am.

Now that I've calmed down a bit, there are 3 main things that define why relegation is likely:

Passive

We are completely passive. No pressure on the ball carrier at any stage, with most of our team giving them a good 3 metre gap while they "jockeyed". That just allows them to pick their pass/cross/shot. In comparison, our players were given no peace every time they gained possession. If they were good enough to beat a man, they were mercilessly fouled.

This was a game we had to win, but Chelsea looked the hungrier. By the time Chelsea hit the lead we had less than 10% possession in the 2nd half. So exactly what are we gaining by giving them the ball and watching?

 

Formation

There's nothing wrong with 4-3-3. What is wrong is when I can draw an imaginary parallel line 2 metres either side of the D and it contains all our outfield players bar Davis. This was our most common format: 1 long line of "defenders" in a nice holding pattern. That's not a formation - that's fear. At best it gives us no way to play out when/if we get possession. At worst it means our midfielders are getting in the way of our defenders - a perfect example being Hourihane marking Giroud in the box for their second.

 

Zero Protection

Jack is our greatest (and probably only) creative outlet. If you took all the times he touched the ball yesterday, I'd wager than more than half of them resulted in him being fouled. Opposition teams know that they cannot afford to give him room, but the referees do nothing to protect him. If this doesn't change we are boned.

Case in point: Konsa received a yellow for supposed time wasting 1 minute out from half time. Chelsea players, and Kante in particular, continually and cynically fouled Grealish - yet it took till the 93rd minute for the ref to pull out the yellow.

 

Conclusion

I like Smith. I really do. He promised that we would go out and "try to win every game". That is not what I am seeing.

Instead, I am seeing a team so bereft of ideas, confidence and fight that relegation looks a certainty. We can still escape if we get lucky, but a good manager never relies on that. I think his time is short and if our football continues this way, perhaps that is for the best.

[sheepyvillian]

4 hours ago, TRO said:

I don't know who is, but this team has a soft underbelly and that comes from the manager Imo

"Teams mirror their manager" Deans own words.

I see many things I am unhappy with in our play and irrespective of the personel or the formations, it remains the same, and it has done all season.

As much as I want this manager to succeed, there is nothing I can gainsay about your post.  It really was painful viewing today,  I don't get how we can be so inept with and without the ball. Why when we get a throw-in do we look panicked and clueless. Where is that determination to be first ? We are a team hoping it will happen, instead of a team making it happen. 

When you see defenders ball watching and others chasing shadows it really Is disheartening to watch. I'm not sure the manager can salvage the situation especially on today's performance. 

What happened to the Dean Smith who was at Brentford ? I get the expectation levels, but the football we're serving up is not something you would normally associate with this manager. I just don't get it.

Edited June 22, 2020 by sheepyvillian

[cbr600rr]

load of rubbish, start to finish, 

villa under smith can still not do the basics in a game of football, -closing down-solid shape-pass & move.

we go up, we go down, until a good manager sorts the basics right ,you will see the same dross on the pitch

[Lerner's Driver]

11 hours ago, TRO said:

We look like a team ready to go back to our rightful place, The championship.

That is a championship team.

The sharp closing down of these top teams, we just can't cope with.....We can't create any momentum, we are not allowed to.

Agreed, you can see Villa thinking when they have the ball. We were more instinctive and looked like we may still push on earlier in the season when there was less at stake, but too many mistakes and losses makes a team fragile, so they slow down because they are thinking more. Smith's shite about being unlucky doesn't wash either because for all our first half defensive resilience, you can't invite pressure for the whole match against a superior opponent as concentration will drop eventually while the brain is a muscle that also gets tired. We are not talented enough individually, Smith is struggling to set the team up to get results and all round, we are not a coherent outfit. 

[Amsterdam_Neil_D]

1 hour ago, cbr600rr said:

closing down-solid shape-pass & move.

We make the teams we play look like the best thing since sliced bread but they are not really in 3rd gear in reality.

Very poor yesterday.  As someone said (tony I think),  we are going to struggle to get any points at the moment where a draw really is a win for this team and the quality it has in the league we are in.

It was a bit men and boys yesterday,  we were miles off what was required.   

 

 

[AVTuco]

11 hours ago, Davkaus said:

A new captain was needed a long time ago. The captain of our club shouldn't be a petulant manchild.

He's the best player at the club, no doubt. But he's no captain.

I'm not against some else being a captain, but I'm against taking captaincy off of Jack now. It would probably deflate him further. Unless, of course, it's what he himself wants.

If there was anyone else half-capable, that player would be showing something without the band.

Mings is supposed to be a leader. Seems to me he's good at pointing and shouting at others, but has he ever risen to the occasion? Doesn't feel like a winner type to me. We're leaking goals left and right.

Who else could you even think of? McGinn? Elmo has been captaining in cup games, but isn't a starter. 

The rest of our players are mentally powder-puff or too inexperienced, or from abroad, or whatever.

Let's face it, there are no winners in the team. 

[AVTuco]

10 hours ago, TRO said:

It happens to most of them, especially in the last 15 years or so.

Its a combination imo

We need a high profile coach, with the funds to dictate his own destiny.

Yes, I agree. Someone who takes full responsibility and is able to carry it, no matter what.

[AVTuco]

8 hours ago, smg said:

Not on here it’s not 

No, because here people discuss what they see as it is. And they vent when things are as poorly as they are. Out there at the stadium, in the game, it's a different thing. Just as it should be.

[villalad21]

4 hours ago, sheepyvillian said:

  It really was painful viewing today

Dean himself said he was proud of the performance.

[The Fun Factory]

5 hours ago, ozvillafan said:

I found myself yelling at the TV after about 3 minutes.

I do that when watching the One Show.

[danceoftheshamen]

10 hours ago, smg said:

Go and follow another team then this one is clearly not for yoU

 

Do one SMG,

All you do is come on here after defeats and pick out posts from anyone who was angry at the performance and tell them to "go support someone else then" Great input.

Doesn't take a rocket scientist to realise posts like mine are driven by how much i care about this club. If all you can do is come on here and attack fellow fans for stating their opinion on another abject performance then i have nothing else to say to you.

[danceoftheshamen]

10 hours ago, sheepyvillian said:

You ever heard of the phrase, " through thick and thin " ?

Yes i have heard it many times through my 45+ years of support and i have seen many "thin" times and poor Villa teams, a select few "thick times" and several levels of width inbetween... this is one of the worst i have witnessed sadly.

[TRO]

6 hours ago, sheepyvillian said:

As much as I want this manager to succeed, there is nothing I can gainsay about your post.  It really was painful viewing today,  I don't get how we can be so inept with and without the ball. Why when we get a throw-in do we look panicked and clueless. Where is that determination to be first ? We are a team hoping it will happen, instead of a team making it happen. 

When you see defenders ball watching and others chasing shadows it really Is disheartening to watch. I'm not sure the manager can salvage the situation especially on today's performance. 

What happened to the Dean Smith who was at Brentford ? I get the expectation levels, but the football we're serving up is not something you would normally associate with this manager. I just don't get it.

Something behind the scenes is not right sheepy......John Terry's expression tells a story on its own.

All your comments are right and have been for some time.imo

This team just doesn't compete.....and I too don't see him recovering this situation.

[TRO]

6 hours ago, ozvillafan said:

I found myself yelling at the TV after about 3 minutes. It didn't let up till the 95th minute and I woke up my wife and kids at 3am.

Now that I've calmed down a bit, there are 3 main things that define why relegation is likely:

Passive

We are completely passive. No pressure on the ball carrier at any stage, with most of our team giving them a good 3 metre gap while they "jockeyed". That just allows them to pick their pass/cross/shot. In comparison, our players were given no peace every time they gained possession. If they were good enough to beat a man, they were mercilessly fouled.

This was a game we had to win, but Chelsea looked the hungrier. By the time Chelsea hit the lead we had less than 10% possession in the 2nd half. So exactly what are we gaining by giving them the ball and watching?

 

Formation

There's nothing wrong with 4-3-3. What is wrong is when I can draw an imaginary parallel line 2 metres either side of the D and it contains all our outfield players bar Davis. This was our most common format: 1 long line of "defenders" in a nice holding pattern. That's not a formation - that's fear. At best it gives us no way to play out when/if we get possession. At worst it means our midfielders are getting in the way of our defenders - a perfect example being Hourihane marking Giroud in the box for their second.

 

Zero Protection

Jack is our greatest (and probably only) creative outlet. If you took all the times he touched the ball yesterday, I'd wager than more than half of them resulted in him being fouled. Opposition teams know that they cannot afford to give him room, but the referees do nothing to protect him. If this doesn't change we are boned.

Case in point: Konsa received a yellow for supposed time wasting 1 minute out from half time. Chelsea players, and Kante in particular, continually and cynically fouled Grealish - yet it took till the 93rd minute for the ref to pull out the yellow.

 

Conclusion

I like Smith. I really do. He promised that we would go out and "try to win every game". That is not what I am seeing.

Instead, I am seeing a team so bereft of ideas, confidence and fight that relegation looks a certainty. We can still escape if we get lucky, but a good manager never relies on that. I think his time is short and if our football continues this way, perhaps that is for the best.

So when do we do likewise and foul their best player?

bunch of pussies.

[danceoftheshamen]

I was angry yesterday at what i saw from us in the first half, yes we got lucky and went in 1-0 but the tactic appeared to be park the bus and give them the ball. The amount of space their midfield had in our half was astonishing. I was pointing this out to my daughter all through the half. Each time their player had something like 10m around him with not even a Villa player in it and that was in front of our penalty box. So they could basically pick passes at will. We scored, Great, but it was so obvious that we would tire  (having also played a few days ago of course) and they would end up winning as more and more space would appear and with so much space eventually they would score a couple... and so it proved.

Having slept on it and calmed down this did remind me a little of Chelsea's tactics in the Champs league final they won which JT would be all too aware of having been involved personally. The difference was though how poor our passing is which meant we offered barely nothing on the counter and just kept giving the ball straight back.

Maybe the whole idea was to keep GD down, who knows but i just felt we gave them too much respect in that game. They are not Liverpool or Man City after all.

[nick76]

10 hours ago, TRO said:

I don't know who is, but this team has a soft underbelly and that comes from the manager Imo

"Teams mirror their manager" Deans own words.

I see many things I am unhappy with in our play and irrespective of the personel or the formations, it remains the same, and it has done all season.

Not disputing what you are saying I was just saying to those who are jumping for Terry to be given a chance in the top role when the thing he is good at is the one thing we are really bad at. Smith is the boss but the whole coaching team is at fault and Terry being one of senior coaching staff.  Smith’s responsibility and reflection of him but still Terry should hold some blame hence why throwing him in the top job I have reservations about.  To be honest I’m sticking with Smith anyway.

[ozvillafan]

21 minutes ago, TRO said:

So when do we do likewise and foul their best player?

bunch of pussies.

It's pretty straight forward, isn't it?

Watch Liverpool. Watch Man City. Heck - watch Watford. They get in your face and if you get past they foul you.

It's cynical. It's slowing the game down. It's Premier League.

We are simply not at their level. Boys vs Men, really

[nick76]

3 minutes ago, danceoftheshamen said:

I was angry yesterday at what i saw from us in the first half, yes we got lucky and went in 1-0 but the tactic appeared to be park the bus and give them the ball. The amount of space their midfield had in our half was astonishing. I was pointing this out to my daughter all through the half. Each time their player had something like 10m around him with not even a Villa player in it and that was in front of our penalty box. So they could basically pick passes at will. We scored, Great, but it was so obvious that we would tire  (having also played a few days ago of course) and they would end up winning as more and more space would appear and with so much space eventually they would score a couple... and so it proved.

Having slept on it and calmed down this did remind me a little of Chelsea's tactics in the Champs league final they won which JT would be all too aware of having been involved personally. The difference was though how poor our passing is which meant we offered barely nothing on the counter and just kept giving the ball straight back.

Maybe the whole idea was to keep GD down, who knows but i just felt we gave them too much respect in that game. They are not Liverpool or Man City after all.

I’ve had time to reflect on it as well. They had four shots on target, we had five despite their dominance.  We did park the bus and we did let them pass around at will in front of us but it was working.  Up until 60 mins they weren’t getting clear cut chances and we were 1-0 up.  Two minutes killed our game.....was it a surprise? No but looking back at the game our tactics were to park the bus and score against play.  In that sense we didn’t do too bad.  Two minutes of bad defending killed us but if Jota had score at the death it may have been a decent result. Symptomatic of our season though the “if only” comment.

[TRO]

15 minutes ago, danceoftheshamen said:

I was angry yesterday at what i saw from us in the first half, yes we got lucky and went in 1-0 but the tactic appeared to be park the bus and give them the ball. The amount of space their midfield had in our half was astonishing. I was pointing this out to my daughter all through the half. Each time their player had something like 10m around him with not even a Villa player in it and that was in front of our penalty box. So they could basically pick passes at will. We scored, Great, but it was so obvious that we would tire  (having also played a few days ago of course) and they would end up winning as more and more space would appear and with so much space eventually they would score a couple... and so it proved.

Having slept on it and calmed down this did remind me a little of Chelsea's tactics in the Champs league final they won which JT would be all too aware of having been involved personally. The difference was though how poor our passing is which meant we offered barely nothing on the counter and just kept giving the ball straight back.

Maybe the whole idea was to keep GD down, who knows but i just felt we gave them too much respect in that game. They are not Liverpool or Man City after all.

Its been like this for some time.

 One Tell tale sign is how often we lose out in midfield with aerial balls......this may seem incidential to some, but we lose territorial ground every time and then clamour to regain possession.

its puny.......and it has been prevalent all season.

this cannot go on unchecked.....but i don't see Dean changing this.

ps davis and Hause are the only ones who challenge  aerial balls with any conviction......maybe Samatta too, but not seen enough of him.

Edited June 22, 2020 by TRO

[TRO]

The next 8 games.....we will just sleep walk back to the championship, with a wimper......holding hands with Norwich along the way.

Edited June 22, 2020 by TRO