Ratings & Reactions: Newcastle v Villa

[danceoftheshamen]

Where do you start with that tonight? It has all been said above to be honest so i won't repeat it but i will add i actually thought Traore looked in a different frame of mind tonight and was a big loss as he had the skills to get through them i feel. No surprise they "took him out" by over aggressively barging him into the wooden advertising hoarding. It looked as though he cracked a rib to me & if you look their player is smurking as he turns away from the offence.... which surprise surprise went without even a word from the "homey" ref. If i were a player tonight he would have his card marked for the next time we face them as that was quite a vicious and deliberate shoulder barge which has resulted in what appears quite a serious injury. Typical bruce "we're crap so bully them" style. I now understand what he meant when he used to say "so long as we put wor boots on". I didn't realise he meant Bovver boots however as Newcastle were clearly out to bully us tonight as we witnessed all game with Joelinton on Mings. 

So with Traore lost, No Grealish, Watkins nowhere near the pace of this game (also getting some rough treatment from their defenders), Trez his usual League one standard (at best) and Elghazi his usual huff & puff but with no end product and a quite bizarre ability to turn any chance no matter how golden into a perfect pass to the opposition keeper, it was no wonder we struggled in their half.

As for midfeild, McGinn clearly is struggling to reach the level of quality required for a European push, although tries to make an impact (amidst the switch off moments which often cost us). Barkley is not the answer clearly. I thought Luiz played better tonight and the fullbacks defended ok but again were so so wasteful in the opposition half. 

I wondered what they (barcodes) had "been working on all week" as mentioned pre-game, it was clearly the dark arts of aggressive football. You could see they were right in our faces especially Joelinton / Mings & their defenders / our front players. I actually thought we stood up to it ok in patches but Mings & Watkins did not handle it well... In Mings's case a bit of inside knowledge from Mr Bruce maybe?

Season is clearly just a waiting game now. If we can get to 50 points i think that'll do and maybe blood some kids in the process as we clearly need changes next season... We clearly cannot lose Grealish just yet either!

 

 

 

[Lerner's Driver]

4 hours ago, TRO said:

we haven't got sufficient control of the football, in too many games to be considered for Europe, we are far too easily closed down and subsequently can't get any rhythm in to our game.....its no wonder, we find scoring hard to come by.

Tonight was a bad one, but its been par for the course, lately.

Couldn't agree more. 

[tinker]

When we have possession  our movement  is terrible,  no one finds any space. We are clearly  lacking in confidence.Throw ins are a joke, with no one moving into space, they become a 50/50 situation.

Edited March 13, 2021 by tinker

[AVTuco]

9 hours ago, SuperTed said:

Surprised this hasn’t got more likes.

 

Mid table squad is too optimistic.

[AVTuco]

The worst moment of the game was the time wasting we tried in the end. That's an embarrassing tactic, which is only to be used in a cup final or something like that. Not in a meaningless regular season game against a terrible opponent which sits at the bottom end of the table. I'm glad McGinn blew it royally and we lost our precious three points against Newcastle. Complete disgrace.

[chappy]

Didn’t post last night as I wanted to switch off from it. Terrible performance. There’s no way we shouldn’t be seeing that out, no matter how undeserved a win it would’ve been.

Voted Konsa MOTM. 
 

I think it’s clear that the Covid outbreak has affected us pretty badly. Only one game in the next 3 weeks so hopefully a bit of a rest and recuperation. Luiz and Martinez won’t be flying across the world either which is good. Hopefully McGinn won’t play 3 games for Scotland.

[VillaFaninLondon]

7 hours ago, TRO said:

It eventually drags you down, persistence and your will to win, drags you through games when the team is playing poor, but eventually, it gets you and I think it got to him tonight.

Personally, I think he has done too much running, in too many games, he shouldn't have to do that much if the team is functioning properly, but its not.

as a team, we can't seem to get away from our markers, its like we have lead boots on.....we don't really have the quality on the ball to negate being closed down, we are not press resistant, it just spoils our passages of play and we become scrappy and untidy and end up scrambling for everything.....The top teams just pass the life out of you, we do not have that quality, so we get caught between a rock and a hard place.

We have not got the quality ( except for Jack) to negate the press.....but equally, we havn't got the muscle or the physicality, to impose that side of the game.....IMO we are caught a bit in no mans land....we are neither one thing or the other.

I think we have done marvellous to reach 41 points.....but I think we have gone backwards a bit lately.

I get what you're saying, but this is also on the manager too I'm afraid to say. Dean has been here for 2 and a half years now and we are still just lumping the ball upfield with no real pattern or style of play.

 

He spent £28m on Watkins and it seems he wants to frustrate him because Watkins is just feeding off long balls all the time. It's feckin infuriating and I hate all the claims we've been a joy to watch and given it a go this season because quite frankly in the last dozen games or so we've been so boring to watch.

 

Against a side like Newcastle who have almost half their first team out (and play long ball even when they have a fully fit team) we should be dominating that football, wearing them down, and making them chase the ball. But we didn't do that, we looked just as bad as them if not worse.

 

Our decision making in the two most important areas of the pitch is appalling: in our attacking third and our defensive third.

 

In our defensive third we make the wrong decisions time and time again which often leads to big chances against us and this is because Dean is telling them to play out all the time. Example - Barkley giving the ball away in his own half last night before they very nearly scored but hit the bar.

 

In the attacking third we also make the wrong decisions. Example - Watkins against Wolves when he should have shot instead of passing to Traore. Or last night when we had a break and could have scored a 2nd to kill the game, there were 2 men free on the left and instead Barkley (I think) gave it to Watkins on the right who had a man marking him and we didn't take the opportunity.

 

The top teams (in the main) do indeed pass the life out of you, but then look at Spurs: one of the reasons Mourinho is so unpopular there despite an upturn in recent form is because he's so negative despite having some phenomenal attacking players. Then look at a team like Brighton or even Fulham - they play better football than we do and they absolutely do not have better players than us. 

 

Yes, I do believe we still need better players to progress, we again need to invest, and I realise we aren't going to become a top team overnight, but there comes a time where it can't keep being about the players supposedly not being good enough and where you have to question the coaching and tactics.

 

Out of the bottom 6 teams, we've played Newcastle, Sheff U, Burnley and Brighton 8 times and won only 2 of them, which is a 25% win rate. The reason we didn't win 6 of those 8 games is not because those teams have better players than us, it's because they got the better of us tactically.

 

This season we've had some great wins against Leicester, Plop, Arse and Wolves, but how many disappointing results have we had - I could count around 7 or 8 games this season where the result has been disappointing (and in a lot of cases the performance too) and last night was yet another one of those occasions. 

 

If it's true that players are coming in late to training because they're playing computer games all night it shows that DS is failing to stamp his authority on the squad and they've become complacent - which is absolutely shocking if you ask me.

[Herman22]

I think it was one of those nights. So many poor performances from usually reliable players. Mings and Watkins stood out for me. 

I've said this before but Mings loses his head when a player just starts to try to physically dominate him. He spends the entire game trying to out muscle the opponent rather that getting on with the game. 

And Ollie was just off it last night. His hold up play (which has been brilliant all year) was miles off last night. He got the goal and he never stopped working so fair play to him for that. 

It's a game that I think we win if we have Jack and they win if they have StMax. One to forget! 

[Raver50032]

We've been playing 'poorly' for a good couple of months now. We're either still not fully over the Covid problems at all; we are actually a one man team after all (kind of disproven with poor performances before he was injured, and the win at Mighty Leeds) or, (conspiracy theory alert) the club have deliberately set out not to overachieve. 

"Rein it in lads... You've shown your potential now, but we're not quite ready to go full balls in for a European assault just yet..." 

I don't know... Something isn't right about all of this just now. The team will need a big blue pill each so that they are 'UP' for Spurs next weekend. At this time, I just cannot see where our next good performance, or even a win will come from. 

Konsa - actually a majestic 10/10 last night for me. Clear MotM by a country mile. 

Up the Villa, Smith in, etc - we're just in some sort of malaise at the moment. 

Edited March 13, 2021 by Raver50032

[VillaFaninLondon]

What worries me is if Jack leaves we would be in big trouble. Without him we would absolutely be hovering around the bottom 5 and we've been over-reliant on him for the third season in a row now.

 

There are some on other Villa forums saying he's not going to stick around this summer, I personally think that's overreacting bedwetting. For one I don't think many teams could afford to pay £100m+ which is the minimum it will take to buy him, and of the top clubs (certainly in England) they have priorities in other positions imo.

 

I believe he'll give us at least one more season but we've got to start signing players to take the weight off him and still win us games when he's not available. That player was supposed to be Barkley but sadly that looks like it hasn't worked out and I can't see us buying him this summer. 

 

De Paul, Pulisic, someone of that calibre would really push us on and help in his absence, but it will take an awful lot of persuading to get someone of that ilk to come here and obviously big investment. I think it's necessary for us to move forwards though.

 

 

[VillaFaninLondon]

A lot of people have given Konsa motm last night and certainly from a defensive point of view he was very good. And I am a big fan of his.

 

But his passing (much like many others in our team) is where he's letting himself down and for England (and I believe he deserves a call up) he would need to keep the ball much better than he's doing for us. He gave the ball away cheaply several times last night.

[Lochheads twin]

Disappointing but not sure we deserved maximum points. Oh, how i would have loved to have been waking up above Liverpool this morning!

Jim Bowen sums it up for us 3-2-1. 3 winnable games, 2 points & only 1 goal. says it all. Not quite super, smashing, great!

Sanson needs to be starting in midfield. Hopefully we can begin to control the ball more. For a few weeks now Ollie has looked fatigued but we currently have no viable alternative.

With only one more game this month, we should get a chance to regroup, get Jack & Matty back and get ready for some tough games on the run in. We will then have an opportunity to assess where we are and what we need.

Onwards!

[Kingman]

Still **** fuming. Pathetic 

[onmeedson]

We are what we are, a midtable side, tired in need of a pick me up and down to the bare bone's. Hope Traore injury is not to bad and the lad make's a speedy recovery, Ollie is way to isolated and it would make a major difference if we could get a partner for him to play as a pair to take the load. The midfield has to many players of the same type and missing that general and leader that we need and only the transfer market will solve that. The belief has gone and we are looking a little desperate at the moment, could be a tough end to the season.

[Louis]

The main thing was we didn’t lose. Can’t wait for Capt. Jack to be back.

Fairly rubbish, just constantly giving the ball to them!

[Louis]

1 hour ago, VillaFaninLondon said:

What worries me is if Jack leaves we would be in big trouble. Without him we would absolutely be hovering around the bottom 5 and we've been over-reliant on him for the third season in a row now.

 

There are some on other Villa forums saying he's not going to stick around this summer, I personally think that's overreacting bedwetting. For one I don't think many teams could afford to pay £100m+ which is the minimum it will take to buy him, and of the top clubs (certainly in England) they have priorities in other positions imo.

 

I believe he'll give us at least one more season but we've got to start signing players to take the weight off him and still win us games when he's not available. That player was supposed to be Barkley but sadly that looks like it hasn't worked out and I can't see us buying him this summer. 

 

De Paul, Pulisic, someone of that calibre would really push us on and help in his absence, but it will take an awful lot of persuading to get someone of that ilk to come here and obviously big investment. I think it's necessary for us to move forwards though.

 

 

Yes we have been totally reliant on Grealish.

Likewise, we need to have a few stars not just rely on one person (Grealish) but I’m not sure we’ve got the money to afford them.

I’ve said before I thought Barkley and Grealish would be a good duo together. That has clearly not worked. I also think Barkley could have an attitude problem.

If we were relegated last season, Jack would’ve gone full stop. There was no way he would’ve played again in the Championship. We were lucky to have kept him when we were in the Championship a few seasons ago.

[PaulC]

Its just one to forget. we got a point. I think a draw was a fair result. Lets move onto the next game.  A point at Newcastle isnt a disaster 

[Louis]

Joelinton was giving Mings the right run around. Smith and the 3 Asst coaches need to pull the rabbit out of the hat, get good performances and hopefully results.

[Louis]

6 minutes ago, PaulC said:

Its just one to forget. we got a point. I think a draw was a fair result. Lets move onto the next game.  A point at Newcastle isnt a disaster 

Exactly! That was the main thing.

[VillaFaninLondon]

43 minutes ago, PaulC said:

Its just one to forget. we got a point. I think a draw was a fair result. Lets move onto the next game.  A point at Newcastle isnt a disaster 

Problem is we've said that far too many times this season after not winning against a weaker side.

 

At least we didn't lose is pretty much the only thing you can take out of it.