Ratings & Reactions: Leeds v Villa

[onmeedson]

Now we are back to the basic's and looking a decent outfit, good to see Nakamba, Ramsey doing well which gave us that engine in midfield and gave the back four protection. Playing out from the back has been put back in the cupboard and the clean sheets have started to happen, Dean is looking a composed manager these days and making some tough decisions and found a way to play without Jack .

[Tomaszk]

4 hours ago, villalad21 said:

The win had everything to do with Gabby not tweeting s*** before the game

Aw, still upset?

[barry'sboots]

12 hours ago, villalad21 said:

Maybe Suso did not do so bad after all?

Just took some time

This always happens with us.  We bring in good young players from overseas where we see potential and expect them to be superstars from day 1 when they are coming into a dysfunctional team set up in a strange (to them) country/environment.  This happened with O'Reilly as well.  He brought in Amavi, Geuye, Ayew and Veretout who were all adjudged to have been failures but have gone on to have good careers at a level above where we were at the time.  I still think a central midfield of Geuye (sitting) and Veretout (8) with Jack in front would have kept us up but we persisted with Sanchez and Westwood and trying to play Gueye as Delph had previously!!

The new players this year have been lucky that they have come into a more stable environment - a settled team that had performed well post Lockdown 1.

[barry'sboots]

12 hours ago, PaulC said:

I dont think luiz will get his place back any time soon. Nakamba has that position to loose now!

I think it should be horses for courses.  I think Luiz looks better when we play teams that want to play and are open whereas Nakambe is more suited to playing against high energy teams like Leeds that look to swarm all over you.  Equally, they could play together with Luiz taking a more advanced position.

[TheStagMan]

2 hours ago, Kiwivillan said:

I've seen another clip of it. Really bad

Fake! That grass looks far better than what is on their pitch.

[chappy]

Worse pitch than Chennai and Ahmedabad combined.

What a brilliant win, the perfect away performance. Big props to Smith for the changes. Ramsey really showed just how poor Barkley has been recently (I would say lacking match fitness rather than lazy but that is how it has come across). Nakamba was my MOTM and I still wouldn’t necessarily play him in the next game vs Sheff United, how great is it to have options!

Watkins is so good, he occupies 4 defenders with his movement. Anwar had one of those games that we wish he could replicate more often, he’s such a great player when on form, long may it last especially while Jack’s out. The only Villa player that found it tricky was Traore, who I had gambled on as triple captain for the FPL double gameweek to try and boost my rank... hope he is back at it midweek! Don’t think the pitch helped his style of play. Glad we don’t have to play on there again, I’d be worried about injuries if I was a Leeds fan.

Defence were all excellent. I was worried about Elmo against Raphinha but thought he marshalled him very well. Monsa/Kings brilliant. Matty Targett must be one of the league’s most improved players this season - he has worked very hard to bring the defensive side of his game up over the last 8 months or so, love to see the nasty side of him too! He was lucky not to see a second yellow but so was Klich for them. Emi Martinez is one of our best signings in years, such a calming influence.

Happy today!

[OutByEaster?]

Just looking at the Roberts vs. Targett moment again and it's Hinchcliffe who makes it strange with his commentary.

Targett grabs Roberts and gets (correctly) booked for delaying the game, but then Roberts swings his left leg and his left arm at Targett, he misses with the arm but kicks Targett on his calf, from which Targett goes down. Hinchcliffe doesn't notice the kick so starts asking "Why has Targett gone down there?" and suggests he's dived to get Roberts into trouble.

Ultimately I think the ref has got it right, I don't think Roberts deserves a red, even though he has kicked out at his man, and swung an arm at him, I think it's borderline but yellow was okay - but what's really a pity is that Targett comes out of it with an accusation of foul play caused almost entirely by a co-commentator who seems incapable of seeing what's in front of him.

Hinchcliffe is an idiot. There is no dive and no simulation - he's up pretty quickly and there's no attempt to make things look worse than they are, in fact, the only Villa player talking to the referee is McGinn who is asking about a penalty shout from a moment before. To somehow put this in the same category as Llorente's antics earlier in the game is ridiculous.

 

 

[sheepyvillian]

When did we start a Patrick Bamford thread ?

[Five Ken McNaughts]

Anwar El Ghazi waited 671 days to return to that penalty area and stick the ball in the Leeds net.

Love it!

 

[spineynorman]

I find it interesting when Leeds fans say we were "anti-football" and "defensive". Leeds thrashed us earlier in the season playing as they always do with fantastic energy and work rate and a high press, the approach which always causes us problems. To me that approach is designed to stop the opposition playing football and to get possession so the opposition is never going to be able to play free flowing football unless they can bypass it, which we have struggled to do. I expected the worst earlier in the season and we have been off the boil since the Burnley game so I wasn't exactly confident about last night (Pundits - it's the not the loss of Jack, crucial though that is, we have been struggling for a while). So I was pleasantly surprised when we started so brightly and the same when we defended so well that Leeds hardly created anything. I didn't think it helped them that they seemed to want to do everything at 100mph. So I was very impressed with the setup (Dean and team - take a bow) even if I prefer flowing silky skills football and by the disciplined play and particularly by El Ghazi, a confidence player (see McGinn's interview on that) who might have felt low after being dropped after a good run earlier in the season.   Somehow, someone, or more than one, have changed his mindset and, to me at least, he is beginning to look the part where I have always had doubts before. Nice touch by Bielsa to "acknowledge" him also.

OutByEaster? is spot on about Hinchcliffe. He's ok but he sometimes fails to engage his brain before he speaks or actually look atwat happened.

Oh and can someone explain to me how Llorente's actions were much different to Bamford's (other than being more comical)? (and other than the part of the body he claimed to have been mutilated by the "challenge").

[flashingqwerty]

7 hours ago, Kiwivillan said:

I've seen another clip of it. Really bad

Pretty sure that one is Drogba

[rjw63]

3 hours ago, spineynorman said:

.

OutByEaster? is spot on about Hinchcliffe. He's ok but he sometimes fails to engage his brain before he speaks or actually look atwat happened.

 

[spineynorman]

7 minutes ago, rjw63 said:

Freudian slip - and I was referring to Hinchcliffe !!

[rjw63]

4 minutes ago, spineynorman said:

Freudian slip - and I was referring to Hinchcliffe !!

I know

 

[The_Steve]

'Dean, is it fair to say that Villa are a one man team?'

Love to prove the doubters wrong again.

[Sam-AVFC]

5 hours ago, spineynorman said:

Oh and can someone explain to me how Llorente's actions were much different to Bamford's (other than being more comical)? (and other than the part of the body he claimed to have been mutilated by the "challenge").

One was exaggeration while the other was fabrication. Llorente looked a bit silly, but at least there was some contact. 

[mykeyb]

Hinchcliffe was inferring in the commentary that Watkins had a shot on goal which came to Amwar as a fluke. You can see Ollie look up and place the cross, how can he not see that.

[tyklip]

22 minutes ago, mykeyb said:

Hinchcliffe was inferring in the commentary that Watkins had a shot on goal which came to Amwar as a fluke. You can see Ollie look up and place the cross, how can he not see that.

I saw that was how it was described in a bunch of post-match write ups, but I never thought that when it happened. I haven't looked since, but a consensus seems to have formed around that conclulsion.

[fruitvilla]

OK. Here's my take:

Positives ... the defense played really well.  Mings MOTM for me.  Elmo did fine, as did Konsa and Targett. Targett's enthusiasm [euphemism] was great. 

The attack was OK; nice El Ghazi goal, Watkins assist. But not too much else. El Ghazi would have been my second choice. Traore I think gets too much stick, in my opinion. Tracked back nicely but had trouble going forward and finding a player to pass to when he was marked closely.

Midfield, I felt Villa still struggled a bit. Nakamba was solid, I don't quite get the MOTM hype, but that's me. I did not see the great "visionary" passes forward. But that could be as much the players around him not making the "visionary  runs". McGinn, I thought was OK, stronger than previous matches I have seen, but I got the sense he occasionally played his teammates into to trouble. 

Sanson ... an encouraging Cameo

Dean ...  well he was Dean (in a good way)

Not a great game, but not bad either.

Edited February 28, 2021 by fruitvilla

[useless]

I thought that was a really good tactical performance and a well deserved comfortable win.