Ratings & Reactions: Villa v West Brom

[allani]

4 minutes ago, AXD said:

I get that people are nervous during a match, but the exaggeration is staggering. Smith out, player X is the worst footballer ever,...

we conceded a penalty and an own goal after a slip up.  We dominated possession, passes, chances,... So we’re unlucky not to win imo

Our keeper is comfortably man of the match and we're unlucky not to win.  I genuinely can't see how those two stack up... 

Edited April 25, 2021 by allani

[Davkaus]

4 minutes ago, The_Steve said:

SIR KEINAN

Kicking the ball, straight leg, boot off the ground, that's a red card for serious foul play these days isn't it

[OutByEaster?]

So little fluency, so little consistency, so little confidence, so many mistakes and still the better side.

You can see who we could be in the first ten minutes and the last ten minutes and in between you can see everything that's wrong with us.

There's a big job on to build a side that can consistently finish in the top half, we're half a dozen players away from being a good squad, but the occasional glimpses we get of what we could be are both promising and frustrating.

On the positive column, Martinez was brilliant again, he's as good as it gets, Targett seems to get better each week and I thought El Ghazi did well.

Luiz was decent and got forward better than of late and Barkley showed flashes of what he could be, McGinn had the worst first half I've ever seen him have and looks a distance from his best, he needs a rocket. Mings was decent enough and Konsa emphasised how good he's been this season by shocking us in having a bad game. Elmo was solid but could have gone home with a goal that we'd have been watching forever.

Watkins looks like he can't quite find the click that he had earlier in the year, I'm delighted for Davis with his goal, he gives you all he's got, a pity that Wesley's header didn't sneak in for the fairytale finish.

Traore for me is the worry - I'm sure you can make a great two minute YouTube video of his highlights, but that's all there is, I don't think he's good enough and I think if we can find a proper right winger with Jack back on the left everything is going to look so much easier. I think McGinn was really poor but can be shaken into better, but I think this is all Traore is.

We've had 24 efforts on goal and in another game we could have scored four or five, we were the better side, but we played badly for seventy minutes - individual errors in bunches - that needs changing.

I think the shape was fine, the plan got people into decent positions (and Targett into lots of very good positions) I think the players rather than the manager were the cause of our troubles - but it's on the manager to fix it, some of these need the hairdryer in the week, this isn't a moment for slapping backs, it's a moment for slapping faces and there are a few here who need reminding that playing for twenty minutes isn't good enough.

Referee was a laughable abomination.

 

 

[punkiller1981]

On the baggies second goal was I the only one wondering why mings backed off for so long and let the guy get 8 yards from goal before pressing him. I don’t see that goal as unlucky I see it as poor defending 

[barry'sboots]

4 minutes ago, AXD said:

I get that people are nervous during a match, but the exaggeration is staggering. Smith out, player X is the worst footballer ever,...

we conceded a penalty and an own goal after a slip up.  We dominated possession, passes, chances,... So we’re unlucky not to win imo

You watched a different game to me.

The fact that Emi won MOTM says a lot I think!!

[dcdedi]

5 minutes ago, StefanAVFC said:

Errrrrr

 

[M_Afro]

1 minute ago, punkiller1981 said:

On the baggies second goal was I the only one wondering why mings backed off for so long and let the guy get 8 yards from goal before pressing him. I don’t see that goal as unlucky I see it as poor defending 

Spot on. Poor from Mings

[VillaFaninLondon]

A point against a team in the bottom 3 isn't much to celebrate despite the late goal. 2 wins out of 10 for our manager now without Jack. Everyone harps back to our form pre-January but that's irrelevant. Our form since January is shocking.

 

I think he'll get next season, but I really feel we've hit a glass ceiling under Smith. I'd be very surprised if he could take us any further and we could actually go backwards next season which is what I'm worried about most of all.

Edited April 25, 2021 by VillaFaninLondon

[vreitti]

1 minute ago, foreveryoung said:

Mate, this is a team that's only won 5 games all season, it's not F&&& Man City!!!!

Isn't that the point though? We're not F&&& Man City either mate. Pretty F&&& far from it. 

[dcdedi]

Just now, barry'sboots said:

You watched a different game to me.

The fact that Emi won MOTM says a lot I think!!

Agree totally. 
 

and West Bum spent the second half behind the ball to try and hold on to their lead. A very poor performance on the whole (again)

[brummybloke]

The 2 weekest players bar mcginn come off and we look dangerous.

No surprises there then !

Traore should have been off after 45 minutes at best

Barkley should have been off after 45 minutes. Yes for him he played better but that's like saying dog dirt tastes nicer that cat shit.

Between mginn and barkley we literally lost or simply gave the ball back I would guess 15 to 20 times ? Maybe more ?

Utter shambles.

 

Barkley and traore on the same pitch ? Seriously ? I thought we had stopped this nonsense of having our two laziest players both starting.

 

Again very little surprise once the 2 slow mo merchants are no longer on the itch we have several good chances in a short space of time.

Very poor from deans to persist with lazy players who really do nothing but change our entire shape from an attacking team to a slomo passback weak team.

 

Well done Davis for getting that first goal, it had to happen at some point and having 2 aggressive players in the top half got us out of that mess in 10 minutes. We would have played all night and not scored again with traore and dross still on the pitch.

Mgginn ? Wtf has happened? In 5 months he's gone from a 15 to 25 million player to what we paid for him.

He's done a barkley, started great and gone to dog dirt.

Wes getting a few minutes was nice to see and a game of 2 halves for ezri, some great defending but directly at fault for their terrible penalty ( ours was soft too) and great control then a slip, mingsesque.

Target and emi the best we had today, not great against a poor team.

Worst I've seen us play for a while for 70 minutes, we were shocking with the amount of poor decisions poor passing and negative elmo type play thanks to traore.

 

[The_Steve]

2 minutes ago, OutByEaster? said:

Watkins looks like he can't quite find the click that he had earlier in the year, I'm delighted for Davis with his goal, he gives you all he's got, a pity that Wesley's header didn't sneak in for the fairytale finish.

I don't think Ollie is fully fit. His header to setup Keinan though deserves full credit. Poor guy was mandled the entire game and got little protection from the ref.

[tom_avfc]

15 minutes ago, villalad21 said:

If Grealish picked up a long term injury at the start of the season we'd be in serious trouble.

Should concern anyone.

I don’t know how many times people have to say it but if any team lost £100m plus of talent then they’d struggle. To put it on terms of today’s game you’d probably have to take out the entire Albion first eleven for them to be missing the same value of players as us just missing Jack.

[est1874]

7 minutes ago, Paddywhack said:

People talking about replacing smith? 

I’m avoiding the Dean Smith thread like the plague. Fickle.

I think you're looking for a different word. It's not fickle if the same people have been saying it for a long time.

FWIW I adore Dean Smith. I think he's a good manager. Unfortunately good is not going to be enough to take us where we want to get to as a club. 

There's no easy solution and I don't think there's an obvious candidate for who could take us on and take us further, but that doesn't mean that Dean is immune from criticism and just gets unwavering support when he makes daft decisions and/or his gameplans don't work.

I've said it before: he is a good, but very limited, manager.

[OutByEaster?]

3 minutes ago, dcdedi said:

 

Six of the teams on that table have spent more than us according to...(checks notes) that table.

 

[HanoiVillan]

3 minutes ago, dcdedi said:

 

That table quite literally proves that we haven't spent more money than every other team in Europe.

[Sulberto21]

Davis scored!!!!!!

Fook me I'm off for a lap of Walsall naked. Great to see Wesley come on late felt he had 5/10 minutes in him today. I thought Watkins looked lively once Davis came on.

We were slopp and for a long time have said McGinn isn't good enough for the top 12 of the Premier League.

[rjw63]

3 minutes ago, OutByEaster? said:

Referee was a laughable abomination.

 

 

Yet 5 people so far think he was good or very good.

what are they on?

 

[The_Steve]

5 minutes ago, dcdedi said:

 

[bojong]

So happy for Davis! I really believe there's a great player in there. Hopefully the goal lifts his confidence.