Ratings & Reactions: Villa v Wolves

[TRO]

3 hours ago, Skruff said:

Didn't watch the match. But my general impression is that our pressing has been poor for as long as Smith has been here. I'm yet to see that we press organised as a unit thru a whole match.  There's usually one to three players pressing, but it's unsynchronized, so they don't lock off the passion options quick enough. At the same time the rest of the team are way too slow to cover the ground/players in the space that opens up It's like we're trying play with a deep block  at the same time as the front players are pressing. It doesn't seem like the players are instructed or trained on where and how to initiate press. Feels like they waste energy chasing shadows. 

 

 

Well observed, its been with us for some time.....we need a manager, who recognises the importance of the press and is able to get players who can do it for him.

[ciggiesnbeer]

Our manager isnt good enough for this league. No improvement over the season or since the last game. 

[TRO]

4 hours ago, flashingqwerty said:

The thing is Wolves were poor.

It just so happens, we were worse.

Firstly they just negated any threat we tried to muster, did enough to win the game and just went back to denying us anything, to contain the game.....a typically professional, smash and grab, by a team proficient at not losing.....In contrast, we looked baffled to create anything, by being stifled on the ball.

Wolves, just did enough to win.....we just went through the motions.

this team or ours, just mirrors the managers persona.....lacks aggression and assertiveness.

 

[Five Ken McNaughts]

9 hours ago, TRO said:

Sadly, it was over some time ago......"hope" is the only currency we are dealing in.

“Hope”... “What if”... “Just imagine”... Pretty much all I hear myself saying pre-match these days. I pump myself up with podcasters from the UK, Ireland, America, Canada, then watch a bunch of players go out there like playing for Villa is just one massive inconvenience to whatever else they had planned today. Are they aware of how many people around the world are counting on them to CARE? Absolutely sick of the spineless lot of them.

And, if I can add one further gripe, can we please replace our branding gurus with someone who understands that the club’s colours are CLARET & BLUE??? We are playing in a stadium bedecked in banners that are... what is it?... maroon and bluish-white? Meanwhile the fans’ flags are hidden beneath the TV gantry. Genius!

Edited June 28, 2020 by Five Ken McNaughts

[TRO]

3 hours ago, thunderball said:

We can’t improve or progress under Smith. If we have to spend, let it be on a decent manager.

There is enough talent in our squad to be mid table. We have no system, defensively we have improved but we are really terrible going forward, and it’s not our forwards fault, the system is terrible. We also have insufficient attacking options, even with Wesley back, we need variety and speed/directness. 

I think it is a combination of players being too samey, so we can't affect significant change.

I think that he is hamstrung by that and has chopped and changed so much, everyone has lost belief in him.....He is lost on how to find a win......we will just sleep walk through the next 6 games.

I have seen this scenario before with other managers and so has other posters on here.

Edited June 27, 2020 by TRO

[villalad21]

32 minutes ago, ciggiesnbeer said:

Our manager isnt good enough for this league. No improvement over the season or since the last game. 

And they'll keep sticking with him.

I honestly have got no clue what the board sees in Dean Smith i don't see.

Tactically limited. One trick pony. Reactive instead of proactive.

[TRO]

4 hours ago, flashingqwerty said:

I saw a stat today that Villa lose possession from 70 percent of their throws.

I suppose this is because our players have inferior physical attributes too amd not because of poor movement?

Literally every time we have a throw in it looks like there are 11 statues in villa shirts on the pitch we move so little.  Thats easily coachable, even league 2 sides to better than that against top tier sides.

Player ability may be a part of our problem, but my opinion is that its not, but the coaching is far more to blame for basic stuff like that.

But we lose too many aerial balls too.....that is just a lack of aggression in the main....that can surely be worked on.

[WakefieldVillan]

1 hour ago, TRO said:

I expected us to close down with the same tenacity as they did......I have expected that all season and I have not seen it.

Their defensive capability in midfield of winning most headers and denying us the oxygen to breathe, by stifleing our touch, to start attacks.....it eventually drains the belief out of you......we were once again outpointed, using boxing terms......we have stopped the knock downs, but our ring craft, is just not there....so we just hang in there, creating nothing.

We have drifted in to this gradually and it has got incrementally worse.....we have just not got the nous to reverse it.

This is a management team who have lost the belief of the players and vice versa.

I agree with all this

Don't get me wrong I wasn't stating that this was a good performance or that we shouldn't be doing better, it's evident for all to see that we can and should be performing better than we are.

I just think we came up against a very well drilled side today that was also physically fitter and stronger. 

There is obviously going to be concerns from the manager and our players when we find ourselves in the vulnerable position that we are and the form we are in. 

The bottom line when all said and done is we would all have accepted a 17th place finish at the end of the season. We are joint 17th on GD with 6 games to go so still in with a fight but I think some of our fans think we should be fighting for Europe! 

[TRO]

5 hours ago, WakefieldVillan said:

I agree with all this

Don't get me wrong I wasn't stating that this was a good performance or that we shouldn't be doing better, it's evident for all to see that we can and should be performing better than we are.

I just think we came up against a very well drilled side today that was also physically fitter and stronger. 

There is obviously going to be concerns from the manager and our players when we find ourselves in the vulnerable position that we are and the form we are in. 

The bottom line when all said and done is we would all have accepted a 17th place finish at the end of the season. We are joint 17th on GD with 6 games to go so still in with a fight but I think some of our fans think we should be fighting for Europe! 

I think your last line, is unfair, no one thinks that.

we knew going up that most teams were better than us.....We also knew that, when we entered the European cup in '82......but we defied it, through work rate, application and self belief.....our players were not necessarily better than theirs, individually, but collectively, we were a team that ground stuff out, we negated opposing teams threats......that comes from the training ground and coaching direction....it comes from organisation and method.

It is clear, we have come up short and the writing has been on the wall for some time....the tell tale signs have been there.

folk can grapple with the reasons why....but in my experience, it comes back to the manager....directly or indirectly, he has to take the responsibility.....if he has issues above he needs the balls to challenge them.

Edited June 27, 2020 by TRO

[VillaFaninLondon]

2 hours ago, Sulberto21 said:

NRC and Sidwell were bought to get us higher up. Heskey is the one who we shouldn't have signed. 

Sidwell and NRC weren’t good enough either tbh. But yeah heskey was bought when we were at the time well ahead of Arsenal and well on for a top 4 spot so that transfer was obviously the most baffling.

[MikeAVFC]

Barring a change of manager, we are 100% done for. I say this as a fan who wanted Smith last season and was delighted when he got the job. However, it's so clear he's out of his depth. That's literally the only hope now. Wolves are a good side, but we literally did not want to know today. Insipid, didn't lay a glove on them and schooled by a WWFC team in first gear. . The guy has run out of ideas, it's clear he's lost the players. My question to the board would be this - do they believe Dean the answer long term, whether we stay up or not? Purslow has said many times in the press in the last 12 months that he's part of the long term future bla bla bla. If the answer is no to that question, then the answer is simple. Get rid now and at least give us some sort of a fighting chance, a short term stop gap till the end of the season then review the long term solution again. However, regardless of what happens with Smith, this squad needs an overhaul yet again. A horrifically unbalanced mess that Smith and co have put together. 

 

Edited June 27, 2020 by MikeAVFC

[villalad21]

7 hours ago, VillaFaninLondon said:

Very apt comment on bbc sport - "Dean Smith is just not good enough"

Reasonable comment to make.

[WakefieldVillan]

2 hours ago, TRO said:

I think your last line, is unfair, no one thinks that.

we knew going up that most teams were better than us.....We also knew that, when we entered the European cup in '82......but we defied it, through work rate, application and self belief.....our players were not necessarily better than theirs, individually, but collectively, we were a team that ground stuff out, we negated opposing teams threats......that comes from the training ground and coaching direction....it comes from organisation and method.

It is clear, we have come up short and the writing has been on the wall for some time....the tell tale signs have been there.

folk can grapple with the reasons why....but in my experience, it comes back to the manager....directly or indirectly, he has to take the responsibility.....if he has issues above he needs the balls to challenge them.

Sorry the comment was a bit tongue in cheek. It was aimed at the facebook/twitter comments as opposed to fans on here. 

We were always going to lose a lot more games than we were going to win, I think some fans think we have a right to win every game cos we are ASTON VILLA.

But you're right, things need to improve, will be sad to see us drop down a division and have to re-build again - though I think were in a better position as a club all round I still want us competing with the elite.

[TRO]

3 hours ago, MikeAVFC said:

Barring a change of manager, we are 100% done for. I say this as a fan who wanted Smith last season and was delighted when he got the job. However, it's so clear he's out of his depth. That's literally the only hope now. Wolves are a good side, but we literally did not want to know today. Insipid, didn't lay a glove on them and schooled by a WWFC team in first gear. . The guy has run out of ideas, it's clear he's lost the players. My question to the board would be this - do they believe Dean the answer long term, whether we stay up or not? Purslow has said many times in the press in the last 12 months that he's part of the long term future bla bla bla. If the answer is no to that question, then the answer is simple. Get rid now and at least give us some sort of a fighting chance, a short term stop gap till the end of the season then review the long term solution again. However, regardless of what happens with Smith, this squad needs an overhaul yet again. A horrifically unbalanced mess that Smith and co have put together. 

 

No manager has a long term future in football and it is foolish for a Director to suggest they have, Results dictate that.....There is no long term plan, a new manager has to create it.....all the hierarchy can realistically offer is an opportunity, Dean has been given that.

as an example....If Frank Lampard had a run of results that was out of kilter with Chelsea expectations, he would not make the long term, he has to create it by decisions along the way that strengthens the team, its like a snowball down a mountain, thats what all the successful managers do....the success is incremental and the improvement gradual and consistent, good decisions aid that.

We are done IMO and he has lost the players faith...and vice versa.

 

[TRO]

2 hours ago, WakefieldVillan said:

Sorry the comment was a bit tongue in cheek. It was aimed at the facebook/twitter comments as opposed to fans on here. 

We were always going to lose a lot more games than we were going to win, I think some fans think we have a right to win every game cos we are ASTON VILLA.

But you're right, things need to improve, will be sad to see us drop down a division and have to re-build again - though I think were in a better position as a club all round I still want us competing with the elite.

That was expected....There were no illusions, in my opinion, but there are tell tale signs that suggest, we haven't got it right.....I think we have followed a similar path to Fulham, inadvertently.

The biggest sin is no player improvement......We see first hand the improvement Nuno has made on Traore, thats improvement.....our players have got gradually worse......Wolves have gradually improved since they came up and it is easy to identify. look at Coady now twice the player under Nuno.

back to us........There are flaws in our play, like failure to win our share of headers, or poor strategy at throw ins.....these kind of things have carried on in the season unchecked, same every game, it would lead you to believe the players are just left to their own devices.

Some of Deans interviews and Podcasts have left me with a feeling of melancholy, no decisive statements or assertiveness, no passion or determination in his delivery , no fighting spirit.......just the comments of a nice decent bloke....I don't think its enough to rally a fighting spirit.

Edited June 27, 2020 by TRO

[Vive_La_Villa]

14 hours ago, Robtaylor200 said:

We are both older fans on here. I agree I have never seen such lack of interest by a Villa team. We have been crap before and relegated many times. But never gave up without a fight. Please get a manager, any manager, that will make them try. Can you imaging if this was Fergie's team 

Wow you must have a short memory. 

[Vincenzo]

Game plan was ok, execution by his players wasn’t 
Simple dead ball situations where there was no quality...that’s why we are were we are...lack of quality 

Considering the situation where our squad was after promotion, this was always going to be a really tough season

Too much inexperience in players and management but players not doing the basics at set peices must be infuriating for the manager and coaches

I would keep our manager and build again 

UTV
 

Edited June 28, 2020 by Vincenzo

[Robtaylor200]

3 hours ago, Vive_La_Villa said:

Wow you must have a short memory. 

Fair enough

[TRO]

4 hours ago, Vincenzo said:

Game plan was ok, execution by his players wasn’t 
Simple dead ball situations where there was no quality...that’s why we are were we are...lack of quality 

Considering the situation where our squad was after promotion, this was always going to be a really tough season

Too much inexperience in players and management but players not doing the basics at set peices must be infuriating for the manager and coaches

I would keep our manager and build again 

UTV
 

Let me make one point very clear.

it is the managers job to get a response from the players.

one of the fundamental things a football manager has to do, is to get a response from his players. As an example....Neil warnock is a past master at it.

You can be the best technical manager around, but if the players don't do what you ask, you are toast.....its part of the motivation and leadership qualities.

[Sulberto21]

17 hours ago, VillaFaninLondon said:

Sidwell and NRC weren’t good enough either tbh. But yeah heskey was bought when we were at the time well ahead of Arsenal and well on for a top 4 spot so that transfer was obviously the most baffling.

They were good enough for the purpose of getting us from midtable to European qualification places. It was the Champions League and subsequently sustained title challenges that they weren't good enough for. Things would have been very different now. Who knows what that would have translated to yesterday.  It all has a knock on effect. Decisions.