Ratings & Reactions: Villa v West Ham

[jim]

Last seasons level of shite.

Players were clearly tired, far too many sloppy passes and lack of energy.

Not rotating starting to take its toll. 

[Herman22]

3 minutes ago, Keyblade said:

Yeah, he gets shit for not being Man United quality but he's always been knocking on the door. West Ham challenging for a European spot is about his level. Completely showed up Barkley today.

Don't disagree with you on Barkley. He was terrible tonight. 

Still think Lingard is dog shit. More interested in dancing than playing football. 

[It's Your Round]

Well I can tell you one thing I won’t be doing tomorrow and that’s reading the West Ham forum. No way, feck that!

[AVTuco]

West Ham was very good, and their number 5 was by far MotM.

Ollie was good and scored a nice goal. Mings good. Others were poor, special mentions to Emi and McGinn. Barkley disappointing again.

Trez and AEG are really useless players.

[OutByEaster?]

We were poor from the opening minute to the last one.

We couldn't figure them out, we were completely outthought and that sapped all the energy out of our performance.

Individually Barkley put in a shift to be ashamed of, lazy and half arsed off the ball and criminally careless with it, how he had the front to look angry about being replaced is beyond me.

McGinn and Luiz were flat, Grealish very well defended, El Ghazi never got into it or looked like getting into it, Traore was better. The back four were decent enough, I thought Mings had a really good game with Antonio - but it makes no difference when there's no effort from half of the midfield to cover runners. Martinez had a poor day by his own standards but I'll give him a pass.

Watkins was my man of the match for us, he worked harder than the midfield three and deserved his goal.

I don't think we can play Traore, Grealish and Barkley together - that puts too much pressure on Luiz and McGinn - if we're going to play Traore over Trezeguet then Barkley needs to start games from the bench. We need more energy in the middle and someone who can chase a runner.

West Ham were better than I thought they'd be, organised and defensively minded, yes, but there's also some good quality throughout the team and with Lingard and Antonio a threat up front. The two Czech fellas they've got are excellent, someone on their scouting team deserves a biscuit. I think they'll be harder to dislodge in the table than people imagine.

Moyes came up with a plan we couldn't deal with and we didn't react to it - we've got to be much better than this if we have any ambitions for this season.

As things stands, this was the performance of a team that finishes 12th or 13th, which in some ways shouldn't be a disappointment, but I know we can do more.

 

[hippo]

Just now, JAMAICAN-VILLAN said:

People keep saying this.

But marking Grealish out doesn't explain players not being able to control or pass a ball to their own team mate. Not passing it to the opposition etc.

Usually when this happens another player steps up to the plate ....but early season heroes , Traroe, El Ghazi, seem to have their moments in the sun.

[romavillan]

Never seen a Moyes side play so well. We were well off it, nowhere near like how we played them off the park at their place. Same result tough!

Can't blame it all on tiredness but there were some knackered looking moments. Glad Sanson got some time on the pitch, looked smart, was always in space and passed it well. Need to see him some more but first impressions are he could be alright. 

Should have moved Grealish central at half time, put some stress on their shape, keeping him where they were doubling up on full backs just made their plan work. Mistakes for their second and third goals which we haven't been making this season so disappointing I spose in that regard.

18 points clear of the relegation zone though, so we're overperforming quite nicely this year. Next year we'll be able to compete on wages and we won't be so short on depth. Need to regroup for Arsenal.
 

[MotoMkali]

1 minute ago, hippo said:

Does he get more assists from the centre ? ( I m sure he doesn't - but haven't checked)...

 

Grealish hasn't scored in the centre in the prem but he has gotten like 7 assists in 16 games compared to 9 in 38. I think his goals will come if he plays in the centre. Clearly the rest of the team plays better with him there as well. What with all those extra assists. 

[Stratvillan]

1 minute ago, Michelsen said:

Well, that was crap. Not as angry about this one as I was about Burnley, but certainly deflated and a bit puzzled. It was just so far, far, faaaar below the (very high) standards we’ve set for ourselves, you just don’t expect such a mediocre, lacklustre performance from this Villa team anymore. Passing was sloppy, tracking was sloppy, we didn’t really find our shape. We just looked like we were collectively all out of sorts. West Ham played well, and pretty much succeeded at everything they tried. Fair play to them. We wasted most of our good chances trying backheel dummy passes when better, easier options were on. We’re usually quite direct and assertive in our play, today we looked far too cute on the ball and almost hesitant in our decision making. Sometimes, as a fan, you have to throw your hands up and say ‘we’re better than this, but sometimes you have a bad day and this was one of them’. Maybe the energy levels, tension levels, whatever weren’t right. I don’t know. We’ll be back on form again soon, I’m sure. 

Good balanced post. A voice of sanity in what I'll imagine will be a sea of crazy.

[Harry]

Sadly this was DS being outsmarted by a much more experienced PL manager who had done his homework. (much as I dont rate Moyes).

Schoolboy error to persist with the same tired players who luckily won at the weekend albeit I accept we should have won the Burnley game.

We need to rotate players and have the likes of Barclay available to bring on and not expect them to tear up trees every game. Hving those sort of players on the bench is a Plan B.

[Lerner's Driver]

3 minutes ago, JAMAICAN-VILLAN said:

Upsetting performance.

In truth, we've been poor for at least 2 games now.

I don't mind losing, but not like that.

We were sloppy, very sloppy. Two passages of us being sloppy and gifting them back the ball directly led to us conceding.

Thank f*ck Keinan Davis wasn't brought on and made one of those miscontrols as everyone would have an instant scapegoat.

West Ham defended well and are a decent team, but no where as good as we made them look.

I don't think I've been this upset about a performance all season.

Traore made a difference, he has that little bit of extra skill which can create space, even when we are being pressed hard.

Jack seemed to be going deep.

Konsa was slow and hesitant.

Everything was just off.

Very strange performance.

 

I'm not sure it is strange. Seems pretty logical that if you play the same team twice a week relentlessly, they will eventually run out out of verve, spark and energy. We've had it. Just watch our very exciting early part to the season fizzle into nothing of consequence. It's the Villa way. Rarely ever quite enough.

[wilko154]

We lost to the better team tonight, both on the pitch and tactically outclassed. Defensively West Ham were solid and resilient; and marking Grealish out of the game kept us quiet.

Our midfield looks absolutely shattered at the moment, we're getting bypassed way too much. McGinn and Luiz just don't look the same since Covid, whether it's both of them or one of them letting the duo down I'm not sure. And Barkley just looks way off the pace, he slows play down too much, takes too much on and loses the ball when he could have offloaded it.

El Ghazi was poor first half, but then he rarely does well on the right wing as we've known for a while.

The slow reaction to tactically change has cost us tonight though. West Hams plan was clearly to double mark Grealish with two full backs on the right hand side; moving him to the right with El Ghazi on his favoured left was an option first half; and then moving Grealish centrally second half. We didn't change it until the 80th minute by which time it was too late.

Credit to West Ham, but losing it to two goals from a 28 year old man who calls himself J-Lingz and dances around like a child was sickening to see.

[Villa 59]

Smith won't be happy tonight. 

Thank goodness we have points on the board early this season. 

Hopefully Sanson for McGinn on Saturday

[ozvillafan]

Flat. Lacking energy. Tired. Ponderous. Slow.

Never made it to the second ball first. Struggled just to hold on to the football. Some truly horrible passing and touches from all tonight.

Still better than some of the displays we had last season and, with Emi on his game, could even have nicked a point though West Ham were deserved winners.

 

[Quofan]

Hate to say it as I've never really rated him, but I thought Moyes got the WHU tactics spot on tonight and Smith didn't. Saying that I thought the Villa team looked tired and Barkley and El Ghazi were awful while they were on. Not our best performance this season and I'd go as far as to say it was probably our worst. McGinn looks poor since the COVID outbreak as well.

[maqroll]

That's an embarrassing display on the whole. Did enough to hang in there for a while, but a total capitulation in the second half.

Emi's first bad game. I guess he's human after all. Perplexing errors, bad marking, bad tracking back, low energy.  We set the table for them by not playing with enough urgency and they could smell it.

Not sure why AEG got the start for this unless he's been amazing in training over the last two days. He deserved to be subbed off and at least Dean made that move early.

Credit to West Ham who looked really dangerous all night and easily deserved the 3 points. Benrahma wouldve been a nice addition, oh well.

Barkley and Luiz were poor. Luiz needs a rest, honestly. Let him recharge. Every game Barkley plays for us should be a tryout. IMO, he hasn't won the permanent move to Villa yet.

For Arsenal I'd like to see Jack back in the middle with Trez and Traore, Sanson in for Luiz. Give Barkley another start and if he's poor again, drop him and play Sanson there with Luiz back in at DM.

 

[hippo]

Just now, MotoMkali said:

Grealish hasn't scored in the centre in the prem but he has gotten like 7 assists in 16 games compared to 9 in 38. I think his goals will come if he plays in the centre. Clearly the rest of the team plays better with him there as well. What with all those extra assists. 

I'm not convinced. I prefer him wide.

[turvontour]

I mean the argument of tiredness does make sense based on the performances and results. Of our last 5 games, we have won the first halves an aggregate of 4-0. And lost the second halves 7-1 is it?

I said it in the match thread, I still dont understand how we are half way through the season and we seemingly have zero idea of who is supposed to take set pieces. We had 3 corners in 5 or 10 mins down in the doug ellis holte end corner second half, with a different taker of each one, Grealish, McGinn then Traore.

Every Burnley, Southampton and West Ham set piece I was worried watching, but we dont seem to be much of a threat ourselves.

[JAMAICAN-VILLAN]

Just now, Lerner's Driver said:

I'm not sure it is strange. Seems pretty logical that if you play the same team twice a week relentlessly, they will eventually run out out of verve, spark and energy. We've had it. Just watch our very exciting early part to the season fizzle into nothing of consequence. It's the Villa way. Rarely ever quite enough.

It's better not to comment on things like that. Or you'll most likely get slagged off for being a shite fan and reminded of how far we have come, placing in the table etc.

[smg]

12 minutes ago, flashingqwerty said:

The culmination of a manager who has no clue how to manage and rotate his squad.

Same again against Arsenal i expect and a similar bad performance and result

No clue how to manage ? Utter b******s