Ratings & Reactions: Watford v Villa

[DaveAV1]

26 minutes ago, QldVilla said:

I’m going to put it down to a post-Grealish reaction, everybody was happy for him, but forgot they had to start to turn up and do it. Surprise…

I think that’s pretty close to the truth, possibly not so much the happy bit, but no real animosity either. That’s for us fans to deal with.
 

How ever any of us feel, the truth is that he’s an exceptional player and we have basically built a team round him over the last three years or so. No matter how well we recruit and adapt it’s a big change.
 

I think the club realised our weakness was an over reliance on one player and we’re trying to address it. However he wouldn’t wait and so we’re in a position of changing more players than we’d have hoped to now.  Either way it is what it is, once again we will need some patience, but I don’t think NSWE or the rest of the people who run the club will allow the project to be derailed long term. 

[Stratvillan]

29 minutes ago, supermon said:

Why when we win should we give credit to Deano? If it was a one off display then fine but it isn't, been like this since end of last season

I agree, but when we win its down to the amazing players, when we lose its deano. 

Smith can't control every element of a match, some players bottled it today.

Targett, Nakamba, el Ghazi.

Goal 1 poor to concede

Goal 2 unlucky

Goal 3 - just a good goal. 

Fwiw I think he played the team most of us would have, with the exception of traorefor el ghazi. 

[Awol]

1 hour ago, zab6359 said:

Wow people are voting McGinn MOTM!!!!!!

Thanks for reminding me, I’ll do that now.

[QldVilla]

Smith has talked a lot about leadership the last few days, but those leaders didn’t take the hint and take the reins today.

Im hoping this is a wake up call for the players, we’ve had a disjointed pre-season, they need to work hard on the pitch this week and turn it around against Newcastle.

[tomav84]

Positives

Mcginn

Marv

Bailey

Traore

Ramsey 

Possibly won't see el ghazi in a villa shirt again 

Deeney didn't score 

Negatives 

The defence 

Young

Buendia 

[Vive_La_Villa]

3 minutes ago, Stratvillan said:

I agree, but when we win its down to the amazing players, when we lose its deano. 

Smith can't control every element of a match, some players bottled it today.

Targett, Nakamba, el Ghazi.

Goal 1 poor to concede

Goal 2 unlucky

Goal 3 - just a good goal. 

Fwiw I think he played the team most of us would have, with the exception of traorefor el ghazi. 

I do think he should have sorted our left side out sooner. It was a matter of time before they got the second. The third was a killer blow.

[thunderball]

Final thoughts from me, and reason to be positive: we had decent options from the bench that affected the game and very good players missing, and Smith made substitutions in plenty of time, including a half time hooking of Targett which was bold but needed. Thought Young was a very good deputy, he will figure more than I thought this season. That’s progress.

[foreveryoung]

Personally we played like we didn't have much of a pre season. An for me I don' think we did. A week in a hotel chatting with Grealsih like we were off duty down the park, an a open training season or 2 at Bodymoor. I really don't think we did much graft, looked way off the pace today.

[RicRic]

14 minutes ago, avfc1982am said:

So TRO was wrong then and Targett just had an off day then...Yeah, I accept that.

Wouldnt even call it off day we just wasn’t prepared for the onslaught in that area thats all, but @TRO wasn’t wrong his athleticism isn’t great but thats not to say he isn’t good 

[maqroll]

I thought we actually played some snappy football for the first 10 minutes. Once they scored, we lacked the spirit to compete at their work rate. 

[maqroll]

24 minutes ago, Vive_La_Villa said:

Are people now talking about all of Targetts faults as a defender now after one game back?   Wtf is going on today?

Doom and gloomer convention 

[foreveryoung]

3 minutes ago, KentVillan said:

Ffs

What an absolutely insane attitude. We give him THREE games to introduce Ings, Bailey, Buendia, Young, and perhaps another CM, get them all to gel.

Can’t make it up. This is the sort of thing you expect from AFTV

Yeah, needs at least 3 seasons

[Paul33]

41 minutes ago, RicRic said:

I dont think @TRO was saying hes a bad defender by all means but he is right and he doesn’t have that BUT what he does have to make up for it is great timing and the ability to position himself well and that had painted over the cracks for where he came up against pacey forwards

Matt plays narrow so that he's always between winger and the danger zone which is fine against most wingers but on the rare occasions when he comes up against real speed merchants, like Sarr, it is a weakness because he's gifting the wide man possession and making him an easy out-ball for the opposition. What Ash did in the second half was stay much tighter on Sarr so that he was rarely a decent out-ball option for Watford and he hardly touched the ball as a result.

Targett and/or our coaching team should have realised during the first half that playing narrow against Sarr was suicidal and changed it but they didn't and nor did our new captain who was well placed to see what Targett was doing wrong but did nothing to organise his defensive unit !

Edited August 14, 2021 by Paul33

[supermon]

2 minutes ago, KentVillan said:

Ffs

What an absolutely insane attitude. We give him THREE games to introduce Ings, Bailey, Buendia, Young, and perhaps another CM, get them all to gel.

Can’t make it up. This is the sort of thing you expect from AFTV

You shouldn't get to spend that kind of money and return zero points out of 9 especially given the kinder start we have

 

[HKP90]

Just now, supermon said:

You shouldn't get to spend that kind of money and return zero points out of 9 especially given the kinder start we have

 

What kind of money? We’ve spent -10 million. 

[briny_ear]

1 hour ago, TheStagMan said:

Annnnnnd let the meltdown begin. 

 

Cue lots of calls from the usual suspects calling for Smith to be sacked.

Cue the panic about us being relegated this season. 

 

by all means be pissed off about the loss - I am. But the over-reaction in here tonight will be something to behold. 

 

One game in against a resolute and organised Watford. With a team that has had a massively disrupted pre-season and some players who have never played together before, some of our best players out injured or not back from the summer break yet, as well as one only arriving a couple of days ago.

Will take a few games for us to get up to speed. Sadly the bed-wetters will be in full chat by then. 

 

Oh yes, and cue the usual trolling from our resident Leeds fan.

Really, if the best you can contribute is to label anyone whose arguments you disagree with as “usual suspects” and “bed-wetters”, it would probably have been more productive for you to go out for a walk in the countryside or get on with folding up the ironing.

[maqroll]

1 minute ago, supermon said:

You shouldn't get to spend that kind of money and return zero points out of 9 especially given the kinder start we have

 

You're getting ahead of yourself. 

[il_serpente]

I think we missed Ollie as much as we missed Jack today.   People tend to underestimate the importance of balls to him in the channels as a means of getting up the field in transition.

I think one of the biggest problems with our FBs today was that if you're going to be way up the pitch you need to at least offer some offensive threat.   If you don't, the opposing wingers can stay high and be prepared to take off on the counter.   The problem is that much worse when the winger has the speed of Sarr.  Half the time they were already 5-10 yards ahead of the Mattys when they got the ball.  For 2 of  3 goals the FBs weren't even in the same time zone as the attacker coming in from the wing.

I look forward to when our new set piece coach gets around to working on throw-ins!

[Philosopher]

40 minutes ago, RicRic said:

Pretty much agree here, so if Buendia does not play that AM number 10 role then who does, id rather Bailey at RW thats where he causes real chaos and havoc, some might attack me for saying this but Chukwuemeka might be able to play that role now imo, i rate him highly and think he will mature quickly, we have too many RW’s so theres gonna be some sacrifice as to who plays at LW thats the problem 

Just play McGinn alongside Buendia as two 8's and put Nakamba or Luiz behind them. A left footer on the LCM and  right footer on the RCM. One all hustle and bustle the other carving the opposition up with incisive passing. They'd be more effective with a dominatant 6, but a nice balance. Then Ramsey and Sanson as back up. At 10 Buendia will struggle to get enough time on the ball. Jack made time for himself thanks to his imperious dribbling ability, Buendia doesn't have that. Playing slightly deeper or the right side of a 442 / 442 diamond is best for him I think.

 

[M_Afro]

Liverpool obviously didn’t read the script. Apparently it’s really difficult to go away to a newly promoted side on the first weekend of the season. Ha ha ha.