Ratings & Reactions: Villa v Southampton

[SuperTed]

6 minutes ago, gwi1890 said:

Regardless of being poor we were undone by 3 set pieces 

I get what you’re saying but surely this is studied beforehand? Ward-Prowse is very prolific from set pieces. 5 foot 10 McGinn marking 6 foot 6 Vestergaard for the first. Surely this is basics? 

[Herman22]

6 minutes ago, striker said:

Why does it take a half time bollocking and the opposition to take their foot off the gas for the Villa players to show intensity?

Awful first half performance and if Southampton hadn't played the second half in third gear then it would have been an embarrassment.

Villa still can't play two halves of football consistently well enough which is a repeat of last season. If this continues much longer then Smith's position will come under scrutiny.

What about Liverpool? I'm pretty sure that was a good 90mins! 

[The_Steve]

The manner of conceding is concerning, too many cheap free kicks and again, the midfield got overrun. Too slow to start the game. But it even out in periods of play. For me, these silly mistakes are self-inflicted. The offside was offside but the officials missed a foul throw in the buildup to the first goal. But zonal marking does not work. The second half fight back is encouraging and something that we lacked against Leeds, there, we just capitulated. Big goals for big players. We have a stinking record against a strong Southampton team. The penalty will give Ollie a lot of confidence. The manner of conceding is one of frustration, but I took heart in the fight back at 4-0 down. 

[commander]

Just now, TRO said:

does this team get really driven in training? they look like lard arses in comparison....Danny Ings running around at 0-3 up closing down and looking to get his foot in, just like LEEDS did.....9 days to prepare for this?

YES! And who can forget the piture of Leeds 7 vs 4 of us at 3:0 up in the last nminute. THey wanted it a hell of a lot more than us.

I understand that teams are better and have better plaers than us - but we can't show such a complete lack of effort AGAIN

[MaVilla]

its one of those, if you had offered me the points we have now at the start of the season i would have snapped ur hand off.

However, 7 goals conceded in 2 games just isnt good enough, i support Smith and wish him the best, but by the same token we cant use the "team isnt good enough" excuse this season we have spent 200m+ on this team over the last 2 seasons, this team shouldnt be conceding 7 goals in 2 games (as a general rule).

As i say, i support Smith, and in isolation im happy with our points tally this season, but there are no excuses this season for not at least being mid table.

[thunderball]

We all have a view, I just think that your fate in this division can be about fine margins and you create your own luck - were Watford better or worse than us last season?

We conceded 3 last week and 4 today, at home too. Thats not good. We need to double down on the defensive side and look to how we play offensively. We spent £33m on a forward, and £19m on bench warmer. We need to look to exploit our offensive players, thats down to the Management. We have very good players, comfortably good enough at this level, but if you dont do the basics well, or carry a threat it counts for nothing it will be another tough season. Leeds show what good coaching, a system and desire can do for good players, Man City were the same at an even higher level, and [old] Burnley similar but different again. We need to play to our strengths.

[Zhan_Zhuang]

Nothing flatters us, you cannot change the scoreline.

People overreact far too much here...

First half we started to get into the game but then they scored, it happens and it is hard to recover from that against a good team.

We played much better second half and again Trezeguet played really well and was unlucky not to have a couple of goals.

Grealish again was quality.

We need some cohesion, Luiz was exasperated numerous occasions first half with a lack of movement ahead of him but we addressed that second half.

Glad Watkins scored the penalty but I'm a little worried about our style of play around him, accommodating Barkley seems to have taken away something from our link with Watkins. Maybe?

[Sulberto21]

I prefer man to man. However it's much more taxing physically. 

[gwi1890]

2 minutes ago, SuperTed said:

I get what you’re saying but surely this is studied beforehand? Ward-Prowse is very prolific from set pieces. 5 foot 10 McGinn marking 6 foot 6 Vestergaard for the first. Surely this is basics? 

Yes it was naive to give the free kicks away to begin with, and the fact that they got one disallowed at the 2 min mark should have rang some alarm bells, we don’t give those free kicks away we get a result, Ings scoring at some point was inevitable 

[Sulberto21]

2 minutes ago, thunderball said:

We all have a view, I just think that your fate in this division can be about fine margins and you create your own luck - were Watford better or worse than us last season?

We conceded 3 last week and 4 today, at home too. Thats not good. We need to double down on the defensive side and look to how we play offensively. We spent £33m on a forward, and £19m on bench warmer. We need to look to exploit our offensive players, thats down to the Management. We have very good players, comfortably good enough at this level, but if you dont do the basics well, or carry a threat it counts for nothing it will be another tough season. Leeds show what good coaching, a system and desire can do for good players, Man City were the same at an even higher level, and [old] Burnley similar but different again. We need to play to our strengths.

That I'm definitely not happy about. Last week we conceded 26 shots. Today only 9. So an improvement of sorts.

[TRO]

2 minutes ago, Sulberto21 said:

One thing Bielsa said after the Leeds game which was interesting "our group has been together longer so they know their roles instinctively." 

Our group however has had a massive overhaul in the last 3 seasons. Southampton and Leeds are along with Liverscum the most energetic teams in the league. Leeds play man to man and Southampton are gegenpressing like liverscum. 

We're gonna be inconsistent until the players are truly used to each other.

Trezeguet has to start though his legs are important.

Leeds and Southampton have new players too.....We know what these teams do, but we don't do it, we are not trained to do it, and are left wanting.

There was nothing wrong with the new players against Liverpool or Leicester....its just excuses.......this team are no where near fit enough for Gegenpressing or for the physical battle......we are stand off champions.

Liverpool came unstuck, because they relaxed the press and we had the space to play......give us that and we can play.

Its quite obvious now how to play Villa.....we are so wide open its embarrassing.

[darrenm]

Anyone saying we shouldn't be giving those free kicks away, what do you think Douglas should have done when Walcott (I think) was running past to the edge of the area? Let him past? People would be up in arms if he had.

Then should Cash be leaving a ball to go straight through to Walcott through on goal? Or should he be taking the foul?

You have to give fouls away sometimes. The balance of probability is that you'll be able to defend it easier than a player through on goal. Unfortunately sometimes really good players score free kicks.

[The_Steve]

1 minute ago, Sulberto21 said:

That I'm definitely not happy about. Last week we conceded 26 shots. Today only 9. So an improvement of sorts.

Two goals from set pieces too. Mistakes yes, but each game carries their own narratives. 

[Nigel]

3 minutes ago, momo said:

Players gave away the set pieces because Southampton was all over Villa.

Ill disagree with this! 

The first one Target didnt even touch the attacker, and the second one Walcott dives.  They were looking for them!

One shot on target from open play doesnt suggest they were 'all over' us!

They dominated possession but so did Liverpool!

 

 

[pacbuddies]

2 minutes ago, darrenm said:

Anyone saying we shouldn't be giving those free kicks away, what do you think Douglas should have done when Walcott (I think) was running past to the edge of the area? Let him past? People would be up in arms if he had.

Then should Cash be leaving a ball to go straight through to Walcott through on goal? Or should he be taking the foul?

You have to give fouls away sometimes. The balance of probability is that you'll be able to defend it easier than a player through on goal. Unfortunately sometimes really good players score free kicks.

Maybe be smarter at marking and not be put in those positions in the first place!

Edited November 1, 2020 by pacbuddies

[TRO]

2 minutes ago, Sulberto21 said:

That I'm definitely not happy about. Last week we conceded 26 shots. Today only 9. So an improvement of sorts.

We were beaten to the ball all over the pitch.....they closed us down and in reponse we just stood off.....when we did get close, we are so clumsy like Luiz was in his first give away free kick that Ward Prowse scored from.

We are the ideal team to get your game back on track, we was defensively awful in the last 2 games.

Not happy with that offering at all.

[Philosopher]

Didn't vote in the match poll as Villa didn't have a man of the match for me. They were collectively terrible until we scored our first. Then collectively decent. 

Plus Ward-Prowse's free kicks were sensational. They they alone easily got him MOM.

Just didn't seem prepared to get stuck in and fight until it got to 4-1. 

Would've thought the disallowed goal at the start would have woken us up, but we got worse.

Dean Smith got this badly wrong.  Failed to get the lads properly up for the game, should have started Trezguet. Needs to have a word with Mcginn.

Jack started pressing at 4-1 and we started putting them under sustained pressure. Jack needs to do that from the start. Just because you're the most skilled player on the pitch doesn't mean you can coast.

McGinn had a stinker, lost count how many times he gave the ball away. He holds on to the ball too long and gets himself surrounded.

Too many longs balls first half. We are far more dangerous when we play out rather than hit long. We don't have even have a big man up top for freaks sake.

Mings always going bloody long pissed me off. But he did get our first goal, which woke us up.

Barkley is a good player, but for me he is being a bit overhyped. I don’t see him being good enough to start regularly for Chelsea or any other top six team. Has improved us though. 

We lack a quality set piece taker. We have the most fouled player in the league but no one to provide quality deadballs. Conor is on the bench but we are considerably worse in open play with him.

Traore shouldn't have started. We were always going to need Trezguet's work rate. Traore does seem to have quality though.

Konsa had his worst game for some time.

We MUST start our next match playing how we finished this one. With intensity. 

[pacbuddies]

3 minutes ago, Philosopher said:

Didn't vote in the match poll as Villa didn't have a man of the match for me. They were collectively terrible until we scored our first. Then collectively decent. 

Plus Ward-Prowse's free kicks were sensational. They they alone easily got him MOM.

Just didn't seem prepared to get stuck in and fight until it got to 4-1. 

Would've thought the disallowed goal at the start would have woken us up, but we got worse.

Dean Smith got this badly wrong.  Failed to get the lads properly up for the game, should have started Trezguet. Needs to have a word with Mcginn.

Jack started pressing at 4-1 and we started putting them under sustained pressure. Jack needs to do that from the start. Just because you're the most skilled player on the pitch doesn't mean you can coast.

McGinn had a stinker, lost count how many times he gave the ball away. He holds on to the ball too long and gets himself surrounded.

Too many longs balls first half. We are far more dangerous when we play out rather than hit long. We don't have even have a big man up top for freaks sake.

Mings always going bloody long pissed me off. But he did get our first goal, which woke us up.

Barkley is a good player, but for me he is being a bit overhyped. I don’t see him being good enough to start regularly for Chelsea or any other top six team. Has improved us though. 

We lack a quality set piece taker. We have the most fouled player in the league but no one to provide quality deadballs. Conor is on the bench but we are considerably worse in open play with him.

Traore shouldn't have started. We were always going to need Trezguet's work rate. Traore does seem to have quality though.

Konsa had his worst game for some time.

We MUST start our next match playing how we finished this one. With intensity. 

Conor would have been an improvement on McGinn and Barkley today!

[The_Steve]

7 minutes ago, Nigel said:

Ill disagree with this! 

The first one Target didnt even touch the attacker, and the second one Walcott dives.  They were looking for them!

One shot on target from open play doesnt suggest they were 'all over' us!

They dominated possession but so did Liverpool!

 

 

You can argue Luiz allows the free kick but Walcott throws himself to the floor. The referee needed better judgement. At best, in my opinion, the Targett challenge wasn’t a foul either. 

[TRO]

3 minutes ago, Nigel said:

Ill disagree with this! 

The first one Target didnt even touch the attacker, and the second one Walcott dives.  They were looking for them!

One shot on target from open play doesnt suggest they were 'all over' us!

They dominated possession but so did Liverpool!

 

 

Not with the same aggression or intensity.....it was a carbon copy of the Leeds game for me.

We were totally out pointed again.....second to most balls and closed down with conviction when we had it.....every time we got the ball, they came out the traps with a fierce close down, in contrast we just stood off, just craving for space.

Their first goal ....what was McGinn doing marking vestergard what a mis match, where is the ingame management...

Only when the game was lost and their energy lapsed did we start playing.......simply not good enough.