Ratings & Reactions: Villa v West Ham

[HanoiVillan]

3 minutes ago, Stockport_Villain said:

Fine lines. He will get better and is a good player. Onwards and upwards.

Absolutely, he's a real prospect. I don't even think he was bad - probably our second or third best player - but he got brutally punished for his mistakes tonight.

[eholm]

It is a bit apparent that we do struggle against teams who press us consistently. Our default when we lose the midfield possession is for Mings to look for the long Hollywood ball far too often. Yes, Ollie is good at holding the ball up but he is t gonna pluck too many sky high balls out of the air all the time. 

I think fatigue played a part but we need to develop the ability to have a different approach in-game if we cannot beat the opposition press. 

It will come in time as our players and manager gain more PL experience. Good times ahead so let’s keep our perspective and enjoy the ride. 

[VillaFaninLondon]

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.

[MaVilla]

omg watching "JLingz's" celebrations.....i hate the guy so much....what a tool.

[hippo]

1 minute ago, Mic09 said:

It was 2 Watkins poor controls that led to 2 goals.

For that reason, I don't understand how you can vote him MOTM.

True - but when the opposition run the the length of the pitch and score ...it's a team failure.

We panicked at 0-1 ...and too gung ho at 1-2.

[KentVillan]

Poor.

Moyes set up well.

Thought starting AEG was a strange decision. He's a bit of a flat track bully, and this wasn't a flat track. Traore would probably have done a better job creating things against a packed defence.

Watkins has got a lot of MOTM votes here, but I think 2 of their goals came from heavy touches by him turning the ball over? He had a decent game, good shot against the post and well-taken goal, but I worry a bit about his touch.

A few of our players look slightly overweight. Not massively so, but could maybe do with losing a couple of kilos.

Fatigue definitely starting to kick in - could see us going on a bad run of games now. We need fresh legs. Hopefully Sanson can provide that. I also thought Trez looked bright when he came on, and may have earned a start.

[JAMAICAN-VILLAN]

1 minute ago, Lerner's Driver said:

I couldn't care less, it's the truth. Probably not anyone's fault, as such. Rome wasn't built in a day, blah. We have come a long way and half way IS still progress, but we've not capitalised on our unexpected progress... we are throwing that away, why? Covid is feasible, but feels like an excuse. West Ham are a better team than us right now. Fact. More desire, more skill, more composed, more fluent, more clinical. Well played West Ham.

I feel like this has been the story of my Villa life, that's why its so upsetting.

[It's Your Round]

3 minutes ago, Kiwivillan said:

2 steps forward, 2 steps back

So that’s what Lingard’s dance move’s called! 

[kiltorken]

Hate being critical of Martinez who's been immense this season but he was very poor for goal 2 and 3 and suspect for the first, didn't cover himself in glory against Burnley too. 

Barkley was awful, really disappointed in how poor he was again. Nothing positive to say about that display. 

Fair play to West ham they completely out worked us tonight, very similar to the Burnley second half i thought. 

[Lerner's Driver]

2 minutes ago, JAMAICAN-VILLAN said:

I feel like this has been the story of my Villa life, that's why its so upsetting.

It's disappointing because it NEVER goes away. Just accept it. 

[WakefieldVillan]

5 minutes ago, Mic09 said:

It was 2 Watkins poor controls that led to 2 goals.

For that reason, I don't understand how you can vote him MOTM.

I think it says as much about the rest of the team as it does Ollie, but I know what you're saying. He worked tirelessly and got a goal, unlucky with the one off the post too. Up against two bruising centre halves he never gave in. The mistakes for the goals he needs to do better though.

Thought Mings was the only other one that did ok.

[Villaphan04]

just remember, Everton lost to Newcastle the other day. These games happen in the PL -- we aren't at the level of Man City yet, we can't be expecting to win every match. We will have off days 

[AVTuco]

2 minutes ago, hippo said:

True - but when the opposition run the the length of the pitch and score ...it's a team failure.

We panicked at 0-1 ...and too gung ho at 1-2.

Yes, this thinking that whoever lost the ball last is at fault for a goal is not always very bright. 

[Villa 59]

Both Barkley and McGinn should be benched for Saturday. Sanson and Ramsey in midfield and Traore on the Right.

[PaulC]

11 minutes ago, Stockport_Villain said:

Don’t get the Watkins man of the match. Great goal but on 2 occasions he lost the ball up front and both resulted in goals against. Area for development. We looked flat from the start and although he put El Ghazi in think we’ve been caught by the lack of subs previously and games catching up with players. As long as we learn fine but hope we don’t make these mistakes again.

Probably all the running he has to do he's so knackered. He was our best player by a distance in my opinion. 

[BOF]

Saw it after 10 minutes. We were second to everything. We are knackered. We need to start rotating or our season will peter out. 

[stegzy]

16 minutes ago, OutByEaster? said:

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.

 

I completely agree With all of that but I am hoping it’s a case of fatigue after the Covid situation. You could see from the second half before the Southampton match we looked out on our feet. Luckily after Arsenal we have a one week break. 

[Villa 59]

1 minute ago, PaulC said:

Probably all the running he has to do he's so knackered. He was our best player by a distance in my opinion. 

I thought Watkins played really well with very little support.

[hippo]

5th game in 15 days ? - is that correct ? 

[Sulberto21]

We need to learn to do the 'take one for the team foul'. Fernandinho is the master at it. Oh well move on. Don't get too hung up on it. Just a tough period for a lot of inexperienced footballers.