Ratings & Reactions: Sheff Utd v Villa

[turvontour]

25 minutes ago, The_Steve said:

Can't wait for Sheffield United to be relegated - got away with a penalty and should have ended the game with 9 men, all that talk of Sheffield 'steel' papers over a turgid team.

We simply cannot break teams down who sit deep like that.

Abject is the word today.

We had enough chances to win. Didn't take them.

Konsa was so unlucky not to score.

Those things arent Sheff U fault, it's down to the officials. It's like hating us and wanting us relegated because of the goal line technology issue. They will go down anyway.

[Demitri_C]

I demand changes on the weekend. Dont wanna see elmo ramsey or mcginn in the side.

For me kesler, luiz and Barkley (as crap as barkley was he did nore than ramsey did)

[QldVilla]

It just reinforces how far away this team is from a top 6 finish.

[The Fun Factory]

1 minute ago, Herman22 said:

Please tell me Cash and Jack are back for the next game! 

Yes they will be back.

Disclaimer- that might be lies.

[Stratvillan]

7 minutes ago, hippo said:

To many players in the starting 11 tonight, have 1 good game in 5. El Ghazi, Traroe, Ramsey, Nakamba -throw in a duff performance from both full backs, and you can see we are up against up.

This is spot on . The thing about top players is the consistency. Weve the players below that.

Emi, konsa, mings, jack,ollie - are on their game 8 or 9 /10 games. The rest tonight are too inconsistent. 

We didnt play awfully, just lacked the quality. 

[CVByrne]

2 minutes ago, BOF said:

And they were down to ten men

It's so typical Villa. You gotta laugh 

[Lerner's Driver]

2 minutes ago, BOF said:

And they were down to ten men

I genuinely lost any real hope at that point. Villa are good for puncturing any optimism by refusing to take advantage. It's who we are.

[darrenm]

Calmed down a bit now so looking at it a bit more objectively.

Martinez - spectator

Elmo - I like the shape he brings and normally top notch deep crosses but it's entirely his error switching off at the back post. Again. And his crosses were awful. 

Konsa - calm and assured

Mings - calm and assured

Targett - tried hard but couldn't unpick them down the left

McGinn - too desperate to make something happen. It's not his fault he's trying to play through 11 players in banks of 4 but a few long range shots could have been turned back inside and slotted through as passes etc. Reverted to pumping balls in because there was nothing else on

Ramsey - really ineffective. I'm still not seeing anything impressive

Nakamba - very tidy and did exactly what he's supposed to until he went off. Probably a little too safe in passing though

El Ghazi - such a frustrating player. So wasteful with almost everything he does

Traore - still very skilful but couldn't break through

Watkins - crowded out the middle

Sanson - half asleep

Barkley - looked up for it but unable to do anything against a packed area

Davis - battering ram which could have worked and was probably the right sub but not enough time

Once we conceded that daft goal it was always going be difficult because you can't break organised, committed teams who pack the area. It's not just us. You can't take chances with through balls because you're wary of the break. So you have to cross it and in those circumstances your crossing has to be spot on. Ours wasn't tonight.

The only other thing you can do is run through them but again, unless you have Jack Grealish, you can't risk the break.

[StefanAVFC]

3 minutes ago, Demitri_C said:

I demand changes on the weekend. 

I'll let Smith know of your demands. 

[Spoony]

5 minutes ago, Demitri_C said:

I demand changes on the weekend. Dont wanna see elmo ramsey or mcginn in the side.

For me kesler, luiz and Barkley (as crap as barkley was he did nore than ramsey did)

Everyone and his mum wanted Ramsey in for Barkley. Elmo was perfectly decent last game. McGinn should be dropped, but for who exactly?

I have absolutely no problem with the selection but it does show how far we still need to go to get a quality all-round squad. 

[striker]

Lazy, lazy performance by Villa which demonstrated the need in the summer for at least 4 better quality players and I include a replacement for Watkins in that. He isn’t a striker. He would be better as a winger but I still don’t feel he has the quality to succeed there either.

Elmo is finished at this level and will rightly be given his marching orders in the summer along with one or two more.

Villa also have a real issue in midfield where there is willing runners but no one with the quality needed to break teams down. 
 

McGinn since his last injury hasn’t been half the player he was even if played in a more withdrawn position. If the right offer came in the summer Villa should let him go.

Think it’s time now to replace those that got Villa promoted for better quality in the summer which will cost a lot but it is needed.

My worry about Villa having watched the last few performances is that the players may already have one foot on the beach. It is up to the manager to correct that.

[AntrimBlack]

Well, that was very Aston Villa.

We were not expecting to be top 10 this season, so that is good, also not fighting relegation, so that is good.

But really, we should not be that bad against that quite poor opponent.

Martinez, Konza, Mings, Watkins all excellent; the rest - rubbish. We need to spend big on some genuine quality players.

We can live with this oft repeated abysmal performance at the moment, but not if we want to compete further up the table.

You cannot rely on breakaway goals, especially if you don't have Grealish, and the constant easily cleared high balls into the box are frankly embarrassing.

Hopefully a couple more good windows will ensure that we never see that sort of performance again.

 

[Lerner's Driver]

1 minute ago, darrenm said:

Calmed down a bit now so looking at it a bit more objectively.

Martinez - spectator

Elmo - I like the shape he brings and normally top notch deep crosses but it's entirely his error switching off at the back post. Again. And his crosses were awful. 

Konsa - calm and assured

Mings - calm and assured

Targett - tried hard but couldn't unpick them down the left

McGinn - too desperate to make something happen. It's not his fault he's trying to play through 11 players in banks of 4 but a few long range shots could have been turned back inside and slotted through as passes etc. Reverted to pumping balls in because there was nothing else on

Ramsey - really ineffective. I'm still not seeing anything impressive

Nakamba - very tidy and did exactly what he's supposed to until he went off. Probably a little too safe in passing though

El Ghazi - such a frustrating player. So wasteful with almost everything he does

Traore - still very skilful but couldn't break through

Watkins - crowded out the middle

Sanson - half asleep

Barkley - looked up for it but unable to do anything against a packed area

Davis - battering ram which could have worked and was probably the right sub but not enough time

Once we conceded that daft goal it was always going be difficult because you can't break organised, committed teams who pack the area. It's not just us. You can't take chances with through balls because you're wary of the break. So you have to cross it and in those circumstances your crossing has to be spot on. Ours wasn't tonight.

The only other thing you can do is run through them but again, unless you have Jack Grealish, you can't risk the break.

You are right, it's just not us, but why?

Our failure to do it is so predictable it's boring to see the exact thing you were dreading, playing out exactly as you had imagined.

[CVByrne]

6 minutes ago, QldVilla said:

It just reinforces how far away this team is from a top 6 finish.

Totally, Burnley, Brighton, Sheffield United - 1 win, 2 draws, 3 defeats 

[Villaphan04]

Almost the exact same as the first game we played vs them, except the red was before they were down to 10. We controlled and dominated everything but only won off a set piece. 

[Teale's 'tache]

[The Fun Factory]

Should have not sent Hourihane on loan at least he can do a few decent set pieces from the bench when we are in the shite?  Then used the Sanson money to buy/loan another forward. If  Watkins gets injured we are in big trouble.

Sanson might do well for us but basically we bought him because he was good value, not that we actually need him this season. Not sure if that was a amazing idea in hindsight.

[villa89]

4 minutes ago, AntrimBlack said:

We were not expecting to be top 10 this season, so that is good, also not fighting relegation, so that is good. We need to spend big on some genuine quality players.

We can live with this oft repeated abysmal performance at the moment, but not if we want to compete further up the table.

Excellent summary there. Says it all. We are a side who will be inconsistent and if we want to be more consistent then we need to buy much better players. 

[bose]

So devoid of creativity in the second half. We can't just try and cross and cross and cross.

Change it up. Have Traore or even Davis up front, take Watkins off (absolutely knackered) and try something new. Stretch the pitch and play through them not hit and hope.

Very frustrating performance. 

 

[Awol]

Aimless performance. Little creativity, faff-all penetration, almost no movement off the ball when we did get into the final third and a strong 2019/20 vibe across the team. 

Konsa and Mings were good, Emi got hung out to dry by Elmo for the goal, but otherwise fine. The rest really weren’t up to much tonight. 

Positives: Luiz will be back in next game, Elmo has now surely done enough for Kessler to get a start, and I think Sanson will be fine if he can play from the off and grow into a match instead of being thrown on with little time to go and the rhythm of the match already established. 

Without Jack we struggle, unfortunately. Europe is gone now, but hopefully we’ll have a big summer and come back prepared for a real assault on the top 6. 

If we can hang on to a top-half finish that’s still great progress. UTV.