Ratings & Reactions: Villa v West Ham

[Pitman_Pod]

Poor day at the office but not the end of the world.

I like seeing Barkley on the ball going forward; I think some of his link up play with Jack is filthily good at times, defensively though he's such a non entity and a complete passenger which I don't think we can afford to carry. Rightly or wrongly I always think he plays for himself and not the team, something I also thought Jack was guilty of last night messing about constantly trying to get one over Coufal when a simple ball was on... Jack lost that duel but Coufal had the constant support of one or two other Spam players teaming up with him and I found it frustrating that our other players didn't utilise the extra space created.

I was chuffed when we brought Barkley in on loan as he's such a talented player and at the time I thought he was above our level but too often he goes missing in games and personally I'd like to see us revert back to Jack in the middle, Anwar on the left and Bertie on the right. I thought we played some good stuff with those three when Barkley was out with his hamstring.

[cb_82]

We still not having Declan Rice in our side?

Played with his slippers on last night......... energy, tactical control of the midfield, positional sense...........

 

Need to take off the claret and blue glasses at times, top player and from what i can see a top lad to 

[eholm]

38 minutes ago, villalad21 said:

Looked like a 4-4-2 to me. All game.

Maybe but not by design. Pretty sure we will see a more solid 2 and a 1 vs Arsenal. Possibly Sanson replacing RB to be a proper no 8. With Barkley naturally a more advanced 8 and often playing as a 10, it can leave is light in CM especially with a lack of a proper, dominant no 6. 

[villa89]

1 hour ago, villalad21 said:

You say that but even Nakamba has shown he can do a job and a pretty damn decent one. Sanson can play as well. Trez as well.

We have players who can do a job outside the 11. It's a squad game. It's there to use it.

Neither Nakamaba or Trez are any where near good enough IMO. I haven't seen enough of Sanson. 

[VillaFaninLondon]

8 hours ago, TRO said:

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.

They harried and hassled us all game. At HT I thought there has to be a response from us but it just continued in the 2nd half before the inevitable happened and they scored and then we just gave up.

 

Lingard was so bad at Man U, he hadn't played a single minute of PL football this season and had a grand total of 1 league goal in the last 2 seasons, yet turns up there and scores 2 goals on his debut.

 

Overall no one is denying the season has been positive, 32 points from 20 games is good, especially when we just about stayed up last season, but my concern is our form at the moment is really poor.

 

In 2021, we have played 6 league games, won 2 and lost 4. 6 points from 6, that's relegation form. OK, two were against Man U and Man C, but Burnley, Newcastle, Southampton and W'Ham are all winnable games and we only won twice: once against a completely out of form Newcastle and once in a very fortunate win against Southampton where the decisions went for us.

 

Whether it's COVID, too many games in quick succession, who knows. The manager continues to not use the squad properly and yet when people point this out they get told to support the team, it's ridiculous. 

 

My plan is to avoid discussion of the team for a while. My hope is they can find some consistency over the coming months and stop losing games we shouldn't. So many players are below par for us at the moment especially in midfield (Barkley, McGinn, Luiz, even Martinez who was at fault for 2 of the goals yesterday) and when you have too many players not performing then you just ain't gonna win football matches.

[TRO]

29 minutes ago, VillaFaninLondon said:

They harried and hassled us all game. At HT I thought there has to be a response from us but it just continued in the 2nd half before the inevitable happened and they scored and then we just gave up.

 

Lingard was so bad at Man U, he hadn't played a single minute of PL football this season and had a grand total of 1 league goal in the last 2 seasons, yet turns up there and scores 2 goals on his debut.

 

Overall no one is denying the season has been positive, 32 points from 20 games is good, especially when we just about stayed up last season, but my concern is our form at the moment is really poor.

 

In 2021, we have played 6 league games, won 2 and lost 4. 6 points from 6, that's relegation form. OK, two were against Man U and Man C, but Burnley, Newcastle, Southampton and W'Ham are all winnable games and we only won twice: once against a completely out of form Newcastle and once in a very fortunate win against Southampton where the decisions went for us.

 

Whether it's COVID, too many games in quick succession, who knows. The manager continues to not use the squad properly and yet when people point this out they get told to support the team, it's ridiculous. 

 

My plan is to avoid discussion of the team for a while. My hope is they can find some consistency over the coming months and stop losing games we shouldn't. So many players are below par for us at the moment especially in midfield (Barkley, McGinn, Luiz, even Martinez who was at fault for 2 of the goals yesterday) and when you have too many players not performing then you just ain't gonna win football matches.

They are not the first team to do that, and get purchase on a game.

Martinez, was at Fault....but he has been magnificent, if we play like that, trust me, we will ruin another good goal keeper.....he was left exposed through lily livered, defending further up the pitch.

Why avoid discussion, its clear, we have issues, they were there, against Southampton and we won.....its not a forum, for just commenting on positive results, we should be grown up enough to discuss our short comings too, especially, in a season where, we are relatively free of the threat of relegation, but as you say, relegation form, right now.

The worry for me is, I don't see too many players in our squad who have that mischievous trait of getting after players and winning the ball......

Apart from Jack with his sublime skills, I don't see too many of our players who can worry the opposition, in any way.

Edited February 4, 2021 by TRO

[TRO]

Some of the voting on Man of the match has tickled me....Some of them must have their family voting.

[TRO]

1 hour ago, Pitman_Pod said:

Poor day at the office but not the end of the world.

I like seeing Barkley on the ball going forward; I think some of his link up play with Jack is filthily good at times, defensively though he's such a non entity and a complete passenger which I don't think we can afford to carry. Rightly or wrongly I always think he plays for himself and not the team, something I also thought Jack was guilty of last night messing about constantly trying to get one over Coufal when a simple ball was on... Jack lost that duel but Coufal had the constant support of one or two other Spam players teaming up with him and I found it frustrating that our other players didn't utilise the extra space created.

I was chuffed when we brought Barkley in on loan as he's such a talented player and at the time I thought he was above our level but too often he goes missing in games and personally I'd like to see us revert back to Jack in the middle, Anwar on the left and Bertie on the right. I thought we played some good stuff with those three when Barkley was out with his hamstring.

Barkley and Jack are not the problems.....its the players, who should be giving them the platform to play, who are not doing their jobs.

You always have to have an element of defensive skill in any forward player, but that was not their fault last night.....I have seen Barkley play better, don't get me wrong......but we need to look at the players who should be competing for the ball.

Take an example..... 2 of their goals originated from Ollie losing duels, but we had ample time and space to have corrected that, and recovered the situation, we just retreated and failed to pick anyone up....We are Barking up the wrong tree.

Its the players whose job it should be to contain the oppostion, that are floundering...... we are quite capable of playing well up front, if they have the platform to play off.

Edited February 4, 2021 by TRO

[Kingman]

18 minutes ago, TRO said:

Some of the voting on Man of the match has tickled me....Some of them must have their family voting.

I was scratching my head with the keeper vote

[Teale's 'tache]

Credit to West Ham, they look a good outfit and played much better with the ball than I was expecting.

We never got going and looked very tired, can't complain at the end result.

The midfield balance just wasn't there, Smith said we were playing with a 6 and two 8's, I didn't see that, It was more of a 6 an 8 and a 10. Barkley simply has to be more disciplined and work back more for that formation to work, if he doesn't then he has to play bloody spectacular going forwards which he didn't. You can get away with it against some teams, the ones that aren't interested in having much of the ball, but you quickly get overrun by the rest.

The second I looked at the West Ham team sheet my first thought was move Jack to the right, makes them have to rethink their strategy straight away, there's no point playing two right backs to mark El Ghazi. I don't know if we just presumed Jack is good enough to deal with it or what, but we should of been swapping the wide players throughout the game to keep them guessing.

Disappointing performance, but they happen, the main concern is how tired we looked, it's not surprising after the Covid outbreak and then so many games in a short space of time,  but we need to keep the ball better give ourselves a chance.

Fair play to Smith, he's not happy, he knows he's got it wrong this time and he's big enough to admit it.

[Raver50032]

I said to myself on 15 minutes,

'we're not winning this...'

And we didn't. We were completely outplayed and out-thought. And the result has been coming I think - a proper wake up and take stock moment considering out current situation in the league. I sense a bit of a 'bad run' forming, which can and does happen to most teams in a season to different degrees. 

There seemed to be lethargy in our play... at times, some players appeared 'lazy,' - though that could actually be too harsh a word. I don't think anyone out there deliberately went onto the pitch to rob their wages for the week. But the spark and commitment at times wasn't there. Difficult to put my finger on it. I felt some of our flicks and back-heel moments were a bit overly 'fancy-dan' at times. Smelled a bit like trying to be billy-big-bollocks but actually looking a little dumb at times. 

Arsenal next - and that won't be easy and I predict they will be up for revenge. I can see our 'bad run' extending for a few weeks more. 

We deserved to lose last night... can't deny that. A reality check for a lot of our people, and fans (judging by some of the reactions doing the rounds). We finish the 2020-21 season bottom of the claret and blue mini-league; unless you count Palace as well, who are technically kit stealers originally if I recall my history correctly. 

Up the Villa always... get back on the horse and ride on. 

[TRO]

12 minutes ago, Kingman said:

I was scratching my head with the keeper vote

I was scratching my head with a few, inc the midfielders.

[TRO]

38 minutes ago, Raver50032 said:

I said to myself on 15 minutes,

'we're not winning this...'

And we didn't. We were completely outplayed and out-thought. And the result has been coming I think - a proper wake up and take stock moment considering out current situation in the league. I sense a bit of a 'bad run' forming, which can and does happen to most teams in a season to different degrees. 

There seemed to be lethargy in our play... at times, some players appeared 'lazy,' - though that could actually be too harsh a word. I don't think anyone out there deliberately went onto the pitch to rob their wages for the week. But the spark and commitment at times wasn't there. Difficult to put my finger on it. I felt some of our flicks and back-heel moments were a bit overly 'fancy-dan' at times. Smelled a bit like trying to be billy-big-bollocks but actually looking a little dumb at times. 

Arsenal next - and that won't be easy and I predict they will be up for revenge. I can see our 'bad run' extending for a few weeks more. 

We deserved to lose last night... can't deny that. A reality check for a lot of our people, and fans (judging by some of the reactions doing the rounds). We finish the 2020-21 season bottom of the claret and blue mini-league; unless you count Palace as well, who are technically kit stealers originally if I recall my history correctly. 

Up the Villa always... get back on the horse and ride on. 

I was thinking that, before the game....

My Feelings moving forward are this in terms of team selection :

Defence....more or less picks itself or select Hause for certain games, where ther is aerial threat.

                                   Martinez

               Cash      Konsa     Mings     Targett

Midfield....I don't see right now, who wins the ball or makes it difficult for opposing teams...who tracks runners and challenges?

                                ?               ?

The Offensive 4

                                           Barkley

                  Traore/Trez      Ollie     Jack

 

When all Fit, I see that as our strongest team.

 

 

 

Edited February 4, 2021 by TRO

[striker]

57 minutes ago, Teale's 'tache said:

Credit to West Ham, they look a good outfit and played much better with the ball than I was expecting.

We never got going and looked very tired, can't complain at the end result.

The midfield balance just wasn't there, Smith said we were playing with a 6 and two 8's, I didn't see that, It was more of a 6 an 8 and a 10. Barkley simply has to be more disciplined and work back more for that formation to work, if he doesn't then he has to play bloody spectacular going forwards which he didn't. You can get away with it against some teams, the ones that aren't interested in having much of the ball, but you quickly get overrun by the rest.

The second I looked at the West Ham team sheet my first thought was move Jack to the right, makes them have to rethink their strategy straight away, there's no point playing two right backs to mark El Ghazi. I don't know if we just presumed Jack is good enough to deal with it or what, but we should of been swapping the wide players throughout the game to keep them guessing.

Disappointing performance, but they happen, the main concern is how tired we looked, it's not surprising after the Covid outbreak and then so many games in a short space of time,  but we need to keep the ball better give ourselves a chance.

Fair play to Smith, he's not happy, he knows he's got it wrong this time and he's big enough to admit it.

Yep Smith not happy and rightly so although I was more worried about this game than the one against Southampton or the one to come against Arsenal for the Villa.

Moyes has bought and loaned better than Smith and it showed last night. West Ham are also more physical than Southampton or Arsenal which Villa have great difficulty in dealing with hence the defeat.

Villa are just too soft in the middle of the park and do not have a rugged CB to combat a more physical team. One of McGinn or Luiz should play, not both. For me McGinn has been poor since coming back from injury and still looks overweight so I’d like to see him replaced by Sanson or Marvelous.
 

The balance in midfield isn’t right so Smith needs to do something about it.

[villalad21]

It's alarming. And the worst thing is, this has been coming.

It's ok to lose football games, but we don't lose because West Ham are amazing. We lose because we can't keep the ball in our team. We gave the ball to them again and again and again.

We don't put in the 100 % effort required. A lot of games in the times to come. We look heavily fatigued. Can see us go on a bad run now.

[Sulberto21]

For me the space Lingard had is the problem with the current formation. We have to play with a central number 6. Luiz post lockdown was brilliant in that area where Lingard exposed us. Because we play with two CDM at the moment a hole appears on the turnover behind Mcginn and Luiz. 

I like Barkley and I'm happy he's here. But when he arrived he said he prefers the number 8 role.

When we have a stinker we have to make the other team stink too. And I think we'll smell the place out better with Luiz playing CDM on his own and Mcginn and Sanson can play the box to box role.

[TRO]

12 hours ago, QldVilla said:

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.

If that was the case and I heard Dean say he asks the players if they feel up to it?.....They also have sophisticated data monitoring equipment to help......why did we set up quite open.

Why did we not play and energy conserving game, of stay in a close block and catch them on the counter, like they did to us......We tried to use the whole pitch, chasing a goal and opening up spaces for them to exploit, when we lost the ball.

West Ham, was not a team to go gungho against, we should have started cautious and grew in to the game....closing down the space and playing miserly.

If we want to play like the equivalent of the Harlem Globetrotters, we have to learn to pay the price.

West Ham was well worth their Win.

[onmeedson]

Every now and then through a season you get taught a lesson, spam last night gave us a masterclass in how to set up a team. Most of their players are good all round pro's nothing spectacular, nothing amazing, just good athletes who know their role on a pitch and do exactly that. Old man dawson and Soucek bossed the game and show leadership at it's best in control and in charge. We did look battle weary but that is another test of character we have to achieve, the pro's break through those wall's and use that to dig deep and the souceks have it. Dean knows were the problem is but do we have that type of player in our squad, as they have always said you have to earn the right to play not just turn up. We have had a great season it's just the next step.

[Lochheads twin]

It's all been said but very disappointing none the less.

We looked tired - they looked physically stronger, they were better than we expected, take our chances, stop the mistakes, mark your man  etc etc.

Should we have Groundhog Day, what would happen in your take 2.

• Trez to replace AEG (always my preference)
• Marvellous or Morgan for SJM (fresh legs)
• Traore for Barkley. More of an all round threat and take advantage of space created by their double marking Jack
• Whisper in Emi's ear where the shots are going

We definitely need to make changes or improve dramatically against Arsenal who looked very slick against the Wolves. I may take a point now just to stop this poor sequence.

Onwards.

[robby b]

Dean Smith has been a great manager this season but last night I think he finally got something wrong: he only made one change to the starting line-up, when the lads were bound to be tired (possibly  close to exhausted even) and running out of steam after four games in such a short period of time. It was time to do some squad rotation, maybe four or five players. Elmo, Trez, Sanson, Nakamba and Davis could all have come in, for example, perhaps for Targett, Barkley, McGinn, Luis and Watkins, for example. Even Grealish could have been rested and come on for the last 20/30 minutes. What if our best player gets injured again from playing too much?

I just hope Dean Smith makes several changes to the starting 11 on Saturday or I see us getting thrashed, especially as Arsenal have 24 hours more rest than us (just as the Hammers did).

Edited February 4, 2021 by robby b