Ratings & Reactions: Villa v West Ham

[stegzy]

I think we look Completely shattered at the moment which is understandable after the Covid stuff, West Ham looked a lot better than I expected. Well done to Moyes as the two right back formation really worked.

I think Barkley was really poor and gave it away , changing it from our attack to there’s, far too many times. Other than that I thought Jack did well ( although not up to the standards we expect etc 9/10) and our only other really good performer was Mings, who I gave MOTM. Shame that Emi had his first poor match for us, although he made a few saves (they were all straight at him) he could have done better with 2.

Hopefully we have enough in the tank to beat Arsenal (with there shite keeper) at the weekend and then have our first break of a few days to re-energise.

[smg]

9 minutes ago, villalad21 said:

It was never sustainable the way we've been playing as of late. 

This is the reason why some folks were not happy after Southampton despite winning. 

Something isn't right with the team and i think the main issue is Barkley 

I rarely agree with you but your last comment is spot on.

[The Fun Factory]

Ah I see the season's scapegoat has moved from Mings to Barkley. I wonder where it will go next?

[TRO]

They were simply too strong for us.....and it has been the case in earlier games, too.

We are a good side at times, but West Ham highlight our weaknesses and it should be there for all to see....we have to address these issues, if we have any ambition.

The thing for me is, teams bring players in ,who cause us problems, players we would turn our nose up at......I think we need to broaden our horizons, as talent alone, does not always win games.

I hope in the summer, we can bring in players, who are not so easily relieved of the ball.

[QldVilla]

This has been in the writing for the last  two games. You can’t play Saturday, Wednesday for 3 weeks and not catch up when you don’t rotate the squad.

They looked lethargic and everything was poor from that. We’ll be susceptible to Arse as well because the players don’t have the time to recover.

GPS, heart rate monitors etc don’t tell you everything, sometimes the manager has to use his feel for the squad and that players need to rest.

[stegzy]

13 minutes ago, Vive_La_Villa said:

I said after the Southampton game we need to solider through the next 2 and then it’s pretty much a game a week for quite a while.  8 games in 18 days is crazy. 

I agree, its ridiculous to expect a team that couldn’t even train until 2 days before the first of those 8 games (and several of those players suffered with COVID, which is known to result in fatigue,) to perform to their normal level.

[Lerner's Driver]

We lacked the courage to progress that we have seen previously and credit to West Ham for denying us that, but It's not good enough. They did to us what we were doing to other teams earlier in the season.

[stegzy]

17 minutes ago, PaulC said:

Might need to rethink the midfield. 

I think in games like that, where you can see we’re losing the midfield battle, we need to move Barkley back into a 433 like we played last season.

[stegzy]

19 minutes ago, JAMAICAN-VILLAN said:

I think people fail to realise that most of the time Watkins is trying to both control the ball AND fight off a defender trying to ragdoll and pull him down him at the same time. Alot of the time he is almost falling backwards trying to control the pass.

He is all the way UP TOP.

Still doesn't excuse them being able to gallivant through our whole team afterwards though.

Respect for the word gallivant, haven’t heard that in a while.

[Jimzk5]

I listened on the radio as I was at work, it sounded dreadful from us, but at the end of the game the bloke doing comms finished with 2 "stats" if you can call them that

Villa have lost 16 out of 18 games played in February in the last few years 

Jesse lingard has scored more goals playing for teams on loan than he has for his club.

Written in the stars tonight 

[ciggiesnbeer]

Dean Smith looking at his mistakes. 

yup we lost but how nice it is to have a manager who can see and admit when he made mistakes. Onward!

[TRO]

46 minutes ago, VillaFaninLondon said:

Can't believe they (Spam) have mugged us off twice this season. 

 

When we played them at their place we absolutely outplayed them and somehow got nothing.

 

Tonight we just allowed them to run the game and allowed a player who I've always thought was distinctly average (Lingard) look like prime Messi. It's just what we do it seems.

 

Fuming that we've given Spam 6 points this season as while they played well tonight they really aren't that good and we should have done more in both games against them.

 

I hope we respond against Arse with a good performance and a positive result but for my own sanity I may avoid watching the game.

They didn't have to be that good, they were just offered too much space, we didn't work as a team without the ball, with any intensity, to stop or deny them.

we surrendered the initiative, and the rest is predictable.

when we did get the ball, it was too easy for them to relieve us of it.

it was very poor.

playing teams with a profile like West Ham, we become too predictable in what we do.

Edited February 3, 2021 by TRO

[est1874]

41 minutes ago, smg said:

Really ?

Thanks for the effort you put into this contribution. 

[Philosopher]

25 minutes ago, JAMAICAN-VILLAN said:

I think people fail to realise that most of the time Watkins is trying to both control the ball AND fight off a defender trying to ragdoll and pull him down him at the same time. Alot of the time he is almost falling backwards trying to control the pass.

He is all the way UP TOP.

Still doesn't excuse them being able to gallivant through our whole team afterwards though.

Not blaming him for the goals as such but better decision making we could have kept the ball in those circumstances. I thought the team and manager were guilty of many bad decisions, with Barkley chief offender.

[smg]

9 minutes ago, est1874 said:

Thanks for the effort you put into this contribution. 

It didn’t really merit anything else imo

[VillaChris]

45 minutes ago, turvontour said:

We've won 2 in the last 7, and were pretty lucky at Southampton to be fair. If that's onside it's 1 win in 7. Dont think people expect us to win all the time. The way we've lost to Burnley and West ham in the last week is a worry.

Concern for me also is these quickfire doubles we're conceding to Burnley and now West Ham. Both of them scored 2 goals in 3 or 4 min spells, and took the game away from us as a result. We absolutely need to stop doing this, just play it simple for 5 mins after conceding and not go gungho.

Winning 15 games would represent a good season and huge improvement from us.

That's still 23 games we don't win so it's inevitable you'll have runs like that.

Obviously don't want it stretching to 1 win in 11 or 12 games as then you're really sliding down the league as Wolves have done over last two months so that's the warning and you'd like to think we're better than that now but our next few games aren't easy at all.

[est1874]

9 minutes ago, smg said:

It didn’t really merit anything else imo

Thanks for playing, better luck next time 

[TRO]

44 minutes ago, Vive_La_Villa said:

I don’t think space was the issue. We just pretty much lost every single 50/50 all game. They bullied us. 

And its not the first time.....we have too many players without an instint to deny the opposition the ball....its squad imbalance.

watch the build up for their goals, despite, the losing the ball to Dawson and Soucek for 2 of them the space they had, not one of our players went near them....we just stood off....not winning individual duels.

its not a one off.

[TRO]

50 minutes ago, JAMAICAN-VILLAN said:

I think people fail to realise that most of the time Watkins is trying to both control the ball AND fight off a defender trying to ragdoll and pull him down him at the same time. Alot of the time he is almost falling backwards trying to control the pass.

He is all the way UP TOP.

Still doesn't excuse them being able to gallivant through our whole team afterwards though.

Watkins lost 2 crucial duels.....but there was plenty of pitch to put that right, midfield nowhere to be seen.

[turvontour]

30 minutes ago, Jimzk5 said:

I listened on the radio as I was at work, it sounded dreadful from us, but at the end of the game the bloke doing comms finished with 2 "stats" if you can call them that

Villa have lost 16 out of 18 games played in February in the last few years 

Jesse lingard has scored more goals playing for teams on loan than he has for his club.

Written in the stars tonight 

I heard that February stat earlier too, think it was on match tv build up but not sure. I mean apart from the fact that it doesnt have any bearing on anything, I can see that we drew 3 games in the feb before last, so it cant be correct. What an odd stat to make up. It's not even interesting.