Ratings & Reactions: Villa v Wolves

[Xela]

17 minutes ago, Mark_1989 said:

Don’t think he asked to come off - I think it was the opposite, I thought he was implying he felt good to stay on! Could be wrong but I thought he was signalling to stay on.

Minute he came off we had no one to get the ball to the forwards

 

[villalad21]

1 minute ago, Davkaus said:

Cheaper than Buendia wasn't he? Interesting.

With all due respect to Buendia, Ings is a much bigger profile and name.

[TomC]

I haven’t watched the whole match, and I’m not going to judge overall performance from highlights. However, looking at fault for the goals…

Their first goal was nicely worked. Our defense pulled up and left three men behind them, apparently safely offside. The ball out to Podence on the wing appeared to catch us by surprise. Targett should have been marking Podence but was nowhere near him; I think that he gets most of the blame. (I have been really disappointed by Targett this year.) Credit to Mings, if you watch in slow motion, he was the first to sense the threat and reversed direction to cover. The ball was just perfectly passed (one touch!) a half-step beyond Mings and Saiss made no mistake. I can’t blame Mings. Blame the push-up tactic (why try a trap that close to goal?) and Targett. And credit Wolves for good play.

Their second goal was the worst of the three and there’s plenty of blame to go around. Targett gets a large chunk of the blame again. At least he was with his mark this time, but he reacted slower to the pass than Marcal did, which is why Marcal beat him to the ball. Similarly, Tuanzebe was with Coady but reacted slower, allowing Coady beat him to the ball. Mings gets a little blame too; he simply assumed that Tuanzebe had Coady marked and pulled up his run when he might have been in position to cut out the cross if he had kept running.

The third was a deflection (off Targett?!) and just plain unlucky. That said, McGinn’s goal was deflected, too, so the luck ran both ways and you can’t rue your luck.

Again, I’m looking at a small representation of the game, but given the way Targett has played this year and the way he looked in the small sample that I saw today, you either have to start Bailey in his place if he’s ready and if you’re staying 3-5-2, or you have to give Young another chance if you revert to a back 4 or if Bailey isn’t ready.

Very disappointing considering that we would have been 2 points out of a Champions League spot if we had held on. I’m assuming that Liverpool, Man City, and Chelsea are locks for the CL, but with Man U looking ordinary, the fourth spot is up for grabs with a closely clustered group of teams in range. Unfortunately, it looks like we’re headed for mid-table.

 

[Aston_Villan4]

5 minutes ago, Xela said:

 

Would love to see the response to this from the “Deans subs cost us” crowd.

Edited October 16, 2021 by Aston_Villan4

[DaveAV1]

I’ve noticed that people in general seemed to think that we will probably be about mid table this season, which isn’t unreasonable. However then many of the same people have an absolute meltdown every time we lose. Ok today’s game was a major disappointment but surely as a current mid table team, losing games is hardly surprising? 

[mattyvilla]

Been mentioned before but as a fanbase we don't offer a huge amount of support at home games , even at 2-0 it was a very flat atmosphere . We really need to try and drive the team on a lot more

[Mantis]

1 minute ago, DaveAV1 said:

I’ve noticed that people in general seemed to think that we will probably be about mid table this season, which isn’t unreasonable. However then many of the same people have an absolute meltdown every time we lose. Ok today’s game was a major disappointment but surely as a current mid table team, losing games is hardly surprising? 

Can't speak for anyone else but if we'd have lost this game in the normal fashion I wouldn't be as downcast. To throw it away like we did today shows a severe mental weakness that I thought we'd stamped out.

[MaVilla]

5 minutes ago, hippo said:

Well today luiz was knackered and we only had Nkamba to bring on his place ?

Recruitment hasn't been bad - but let's be honest the squad we had isn't troubling the top 6. We only got 11th with a once a in generation player in top form. 11th and below is realistic this season IMO.

yeah, cant deny the squad isnt top 6 material, for sure.

[Peter Griffin]

10 minutes ago, VillaChris said:

In a way it's a bit like where we were in the promotion season. It was 10 games in and when we sacked Steve Bruce we were only 2-3 points off 6th IIRC and no doubt under him we'd have strung together an unbeaten run. Yet everyone could hear the crowd turning and ultimately it turned out to be the right decision.

Harder but not impossible to do that at prem level as other clubs have shown in recent times. Just don't want us to get into mentality of just being grateful to finish 11th-12th every season. We do have some good players at the club and world didn't end when you know who went to Man. City as some of the results this season have already shown.

I am aligned with u on that. We cannot be complacent and accept being okay or mid table and I honestly don't believe NSWE or CP will. As regards replacing manager in the PL, it is more difficult. I always remember thinking how stupid Saints were when they sacked Aidkins and replaced him with the relatively unknown Pochettino and confidently predicting their relegation to the Championship 

[Follyfoot]

Ditch 5 3 2

Ditch Tuzanebe, Christ knows what Hause has done wrong but matters not in a back 4

Get Bertie and Bailey fit 

One of Ings or Watkins, not both

= someone is going to get smashed to bits 

[Cliffy Biro]

2 minutes ago, DaveAV1 said:

I’ve noticed that people in general seemed to think that we will probably be about mid table this season, which isn’t unreasonable. However then many of the same people have an absolute meltdown every time we lose. Ok today’s game was a major disappointment but surely as a current mid table team, losing games is hardly surprising? 

I think its more the worrying manor of the defeat more than just simply a defeat. Also not sure Purslow and the owners will be too keen to accept 12th after all the money spent tbf.

[MaVilla]

5 minutes ago, foreveryoung said:

Is the squad we have now, any worst than West ham or Leicester. I find it very hard in reality to see it is?

no i dont think it is, i think the only differences are:

1) we havent really seen Buendia, Bailey, Traore or Sanson play much at all, and never together for any length of time, and

2) What these teams have over us, if i had to find something, are players like Rice, Soucek, Ndidi etc, to create a strong midfield base.

[poitier]

7 minutes ago, TomC said:

Again, I’m looking at a small representation of the game, but given the way Targett has played this year and the way he looked in the small sample that I saw today, you either have to start Bailey in his place if he’s ready and if you’re staying 3-5-2, or you have to give Young another chance if you revert to a back 4 or if Bailey isn’t ready.

I thought that up until the last ten Targett did a pretty good job of stopping crosses coming in, he blocked quite a few attacks down that side.

[foreveryoung]

5 minutes ago, DaveAV1 said:

I’ve noticed that people in general seemed to think that we will probably be about mid table this season, which isn’t unreasonable. However then many of the same people have an absolute meltdown every time we lose. Ok today’s game was a major disappointment but surely as a current mid table team, losing games is hardly surprising? 

Losing to better teams yes. But Wolves are the teams we need to be beating to get midtable, we were obviously better than them.

[tinker]

Our inability to kill a game or at least slow the pace of it has cost us. We need to learn and quickly. Instead we let the game turn into a ping pong ball type  game with the ball bouncing around the pitch with no control at all and this allowed Wolves back into the game, the sensed our panic and started to play with purpose. 

Probably our worst game under Smith for me, we lost our composure  completely,  brings back memory's of Sherwood and the Leicester loss. Just hope the comparison ends there. UTV 

[Peter Griffin]

9 minutes ago, hippo said:

Well today luiz was knackered and we only had Nkamba to bring on his place ?

 

Sanson was on the bench

[VillaChris]

3 minutes ago, Peter Griffin said:

I am aligned with u on that. We cannot be complacent and accept being okay or mid table and I honestly don't believe NSWE or CP will. As regards replacing manager in the PL, it is more difficult. I always remember thinking how stupid Saints were when they sacked Aidkins and replaced him with the relatively unknown Pochettino and confidently predicting their relegation to the Championship 

Yeah I was one of them as Pochettino was completely unknown and not even proven as manager at that point.

We're more in Leicester stage. Stick with Puel or try to find our own Brendan Rodgers in coming months?

[tom_avfc]

10 minutes ago, foreveryoung said:

Is the squad we have now, any worst than West ham or Leicester. I find it very hard in reality to see it is?

I guess you could make the argument that our first eleven is close to theirs although in Leicester’s case I think even that is a stretch.

Neither of those clubs have subs benches made up of the likes of Nakamba and El Ghazi and a bunch of kids which is a pretty big difference too.

Edited October 16, 2021 by tom_avfc

[kidlewis]

Find me a worse loss under Dean Smith… I’ll wait 

[El Zen]

17 minutes ago, kidlewis said:

Find me a worse loss under Dean Smith… I’ll wait 

Can’t think of any, off the top of my head.

I’m really not sure 5-3-2 is the way to go. Getting Watkins and Ings to work together looks difficult.

Feeling kind of down about it all at the moment.