Ratings & Reactions: Villa v Leicester

[Sulberto21]

3 minutes ago, OutByEaster? said:

I think Barnes is behind Grealish and Rashford - which is a pretty tough place to be - a pity for him as he's a really good player.

I'd play him on the left, Grealish in the middle (instead of pecker nose's son) and Rashford/ Sterling on the right. Maddison in an number 8 role with any defensive donkey doing the donkey work. Rice maybe? 

4 -2-3-1.

[mottaloo]

41 minutes ago, pacbuddies said:

Barkley is on a 'Must Play if Shit' contract!

I remember Peter Schmeichel had a "if fit he starts" clause in his contract with us. I wonder if Barkley/chelski put a similar one in....i can't think back to when Smith didn't pick him

I could be wrong as i often am

[foreveryoung]

Unsure why we have slackened off really, do the players not want a taste of European football. We have been poor now for 5+ games, you would think the team would want to push on, I can only think it's down to fatigue, Smith not utilising subs more does not help our cause.

[gurru991]

17 minutes ago, Sulberto21 said:

Southgate is an idiot. Barnes Grealish Maddison should be starting for England. 

I agree 100%

[bielesibub]

2 minutes ago, mottaloo said:

I remember Peter Schmeichel had a "if fit he starts" clause in his contract with us. I wonder if Barkley/chelski put a similar one in....i can't think back to when Smith didn't pick him

I could be wrong as i often am

Shame theres not an "if he can be bothered" clause... back into my box

[gurru991]

8 minutes ago, OutByEaster? said:

I think Barnes is behind Grealish and Rashford - which is a pretty tough place to be - a pity for him as he's a really good player.

Probably showing my ignorance here but is Rashford really that good !

He is lazy off the ball & just blasts the ball at goal when he gets in. Very little finesse. 

I wouldn't trade Barnes for Rashford straight up.

[tonyh29]

after the first 30 that looked like we’d have to see Vardy’s smug face as he smashed 2 or 3 past us and we took a pasting ... on the positive we dug in and even gave them a few scares towards the end ... I guess you don’t need to be a football manager to see that it was after Smith bought on Ramsey and Sanson that we started to impose ... there is perhaps a clue there for future starting line ups ... though I fully expect to see Barkley start next match .

my initial thought was Martinez was at fault for both goals , but maybe that’s harsh for the Maddison one , I’d need to see it again ... Mings had a tidy game as did Targett .. Everyone else was kinda “meh”... Barkley wasn’t even good enough to be classed as Meh, he should go back to Chelsea , I think his sulks and strops  are detrimental to the team now ... Ramsey is our future and should start over Barkley from now on.

We made Barnes look like Messi today , he’s not that good is he ?

 

[Davkaus]

The Maddison goal was a great hit right in to the bottom corner, I think it's very harsh to put that on Martinez.

[Zhan_Zhuang]

Ramsey needs to start games, he has the energy we require. My MOTM as he showed more than Barkley in his twenty minutes from the bench.

Our midfield let us down again.

Second-half we were much better but we should make some changes to the midfield, we have two passengers in there every game and we give the opposition the incentive. This happens every game now and we are far too passive in midfield.

 

[sheepyvillian]

The lack of urgency to our play sometimes is really worrying. 

[sheepyvillian]

33 minutes ago, gurru991 said:

Probably showing my ignorance here but is Rashford really that good !

He is lazy off the ball & just blasts the ball at goal when he gets in. Very little finesse. 

I wouldn't trade Barnes for Rashford straight up.

That's quite the objective opinion. 

[Five Ken McNaughts]

34 minutes ago, mottaloo said:

I remember Peter Schmeichel had a "if fit he starts" clause in his contract with us.

I definitely preferred Peter Schmeichel to his ungracious bully of a son. Not sure how it isn’t a yellow card to appeal for a non-existent offside while kneeling on the goalscorer. Not having that at all. Nasty piece of work.

[OLDVILLAIN]

I do not understand fans defending barkley

there is a reason he was sidelined at chelsea,his workrate was poor and the showboat flicks and stuff dont work when you cant do the basics.

He is Unfit and lazy for me and not willing to track back or to bust a gut to get a tackle in.

The kid ramsey deserves a place above him by a million miles...

Kicking water bottles last week and then walking around the sidelines today like a petulant child after being subbed just tells me all i wanted to know about him.

I remember when he played for everton...he was very good back then but he is clearly not the same player and not one we need in the side,especially when it disrupts the midfield.

RANT over

 

[danceoftheshamen]

Although i didn't actually guess at the score for todays game i spoke to my daughter about it yesterday and said "with Cash out & Elmo in we'll go back to the age old conceding 2 goals per game thing which is a practically a certainty with Elmo playing and always was even in the Championship when he was a regular" I also said that "since the Covid thing we were only averaging a single goal per game and with those two factors in play we need to expect a lot of 1-2 defeats until Cash gets back in the team"...... Lo & behold we lose by that exact scoreline.

So if Elmo is playing for the next month i think we only need to complete the blanks in the following predictions to know how many points we'll end up with.

Leeds 2 Villa ?

Sheff Utd 2 Villa ?

Villa ? Wolves 2

Newcastle 2 Villa ?

 

[TRO]

57 minutes ago, tonyh29 said:

after the first 30 that looked like we’d have to see Vardy’s smug face as he smashed 2 or 3 past us and we took a pasting ... on the positive we dug in and even gave them a few scares towards the end ... I guess you don’t need to be a football manager to see that it was after Smith bought on Ramsey and Sanson that we started to impose ... there is perhaps a clue there for future starting line ups ... though I fully expect to see Barkley start next match .

my initial thought was Martinez was at fault for both goals , but maybe that’s harsh for the Maddison one , I’d need to see it again ... Mings had a tidy game as did Targett .. Everyone else was kinda “meh”... Barkley wasn’t even good enough to be classed as Meh, he should go back to Chelsea , I think his sulks and strops  are detrimental to the team now ... Ramsey is our future and should start over Barkley from now on.

We made Barnes look like Messi today , he’s not that good is he ?

 

yep

[TRO]

2 hours ago, Sulberto21 said:

I actually think Barkley played a bit better today. But I love Ramsey. I love the way he was telling players where to move when to move etc. He looked so comfortable on the ball. Same with Sanson.

In the second half we looked better because Douglas Luiz didn't move from the number 6 position. He also improved as a result. Alex Scott picked up on it and I've been saying this for a while. 

Harvey Barnes is the winger we need. 

Alex Scott said the midfield is non existent after the first half....she was right.

but Douglas Luiz and Barkley still got one vote for MOTM on VT...McGinn got none, thank the lord.

[tomav84]

2 hours ago, M_Afro said:

Not having a go at all but I just don’t buy this. How often do we have to be crap to get a reaction. We have had plenty of wake up points recently but the rubbish keeps coming. If we start the same team against Leeds, it will happen again. The manager, who of course has been brilliant for us, still needs to start earning his corn. Doing the same thing and expecting different results is not what we need right now!

i don't disagree at all. just looking for positives. of course, ideally we shouldn't be in a position where a 'reaction' is needed for the 2nd half

[Sulberto21]

1 minute ago, TRO said:

Alex Scott said the midfield is non existent after the first half....she was right.

but Douglas Luiz and Barkley still got one vote for MOTM on VT...McGinn got none, thank the lord.

Luiz improved in the second half because he didn't move from the CDM role. Mcginn is too slow in possession to play as a DM. He's better as a box to box player. Barkley unfortunately isn't putting in the running off the ball to be effective.

[briny_ear]

1 hour ago, tonyh29 said:

after the first 30 that looked like we’d have to see Vardy’s smug face as he smashed 2 or 3 past us and we took a pasting ... on the positive we dug in and even gave them a few scares towards the end ... I guess you don’t need to be a football manager to see that it was after Smith bought on Ramsey and Sanson that we started to impose ... there is perhaps a clue there for future starting line ups ... though I fully expect to see Barkley start next match .

my initial thought was Martinez was at fault for both goals , but maybe that’s harsh for the Maddison one , I’d need to see it again ... Mings had a tidy game as did Targett .. Everyone else was kinda “meh”... Barkley wasn’t even good enough to be classed as Meh, he should go back to Chelsea , I think his sulks and strops  are detrimental to the team now ... Ramsey is our future and should start over Barkley from now on.

We made Barnes look like Messi today , he’s not that good is he ?

 

He’s pretty good, though obviously not a Messi.

I wouldn’t say no if he came into our squad.

We had no plan to deal with him - generally I would say not having plans to deal with dangerous players is a common flaw of this team.

[thunderball]

I think Dean will rethink this now. I really want to see Sanson given 90 and Ramsey looks ready to impress, looked totally at ease in this midfield battle and very busy. Those two add energy. For me, Luiz, McGinn and Barkley need to improve, they haven’t contributed enough quality and/or energy to warrant being untouchable. I don’t think we have anything to lose now, let’s prepare for next season.

Edited February 21, 2021 by thunderball