Ratings & Reactions: Villa v Wolves

[nick76]

5 minutes ago, tomav84 said:

couple of brilliant performances followed up by a couple of shit ones. sounds like a mid table team to me, which the majority expected us to be come end of the season.

today **** hurts...it really does. they're the only thing that remotely resembles a rival in this league and they've done us from 2 down.

buendia signalled to come off, so there were zero complaints around me in the stands when one of our best players of the season so far took his place. not one. he was the logical choice. most didn't expect luiz to start, so it was no surprise when marv was bought on to sure things up and give luiz a rest. again, it was a logical change. hindsight is a wonderful thing regarding subs but ultimately shite performances from the 3 centre backs cost us 3 points today. tuanzebe had an absolute shocker, should've been 1-0 down at HT because of a hospital pass. what hause did to get dropped i'll never know. i hope we're not back to feeling obliged to field loan players though.

funny though the usual comments about how smith is suddenly not good enough for where we want to go have started again. the guy that won 10 on the bounce to get us up. stuffed teams like liverpool and arsenal. beat utd. turned no less than 6 players into internationals for top international sides since he was appointed, one of which he turned into a 100m player.

smith's still the man...i don't think we'll see this formation much when bailey and traore are fit anyway. people saying drop the 532...the alternative was el ghazi back on the pitch as we had no other wingers. and no one wants that.

This!

[maqroll]

3 minutes ago, tomav84 said:

couple of brilliant performances followed up by a couple of shit ones. sounds like a mid table team to me, which the majority expected us to be come end of the season.

today **** hurts...it really does. they're the only thing that remotely resembles a rival in this league and they've done us from 2 down.

buendia signalled to come off, so there were zero complaints around me in the stands when one of our best players of the season so far took his place. not one. he was the logical choice. most didn't expect luiz to start, so it was no surprise when marv was bought on to sure things up and give luiz a rest. again, it was a logical change. hindsight is a wonderful thing regarding subs but ultimately shite performances from the 3 centre backs cost us 3 points today. tuanzebe had an absolute shocker, should've been 1-0 down at HT because of a hospital pass. what hause did to get dropped i'll never know. i hope we're not back to feeling obliged to field loan players though.

funny though the usual comments about how smith is suddenly not good enough for where we want to go have started again. the guy that won 10 on the bounce to get us up. stuffed teams like liverpool and arsenal. beat utd. turned no less than 6 players into internationals for top international sides since he was appointed, one of which he turned into a 100m player.

smith's still the man...i don't think we'll see this formation much when bailey and traore are fit anyway. people saying drop the 532...the alternative was el ghazi back on the pitch as we had no other wingers. and no one wants that.

El Ghazi, that player who has the best goals:minutes played ratio on the team? 

[tomav84]

1 minute ago, foreveryoung said:

Or you could ask yourself, why we beat a top 4 team convincingly and cannot see off Wolves after a 2 goal lead with 10 minutes to go.

because we're a mid table team and that's what mid table teams do best. they're inconsistent

we've had to change from a tactic whereby we gave the ball to 1 player any chance we get, and also adjust to a new formation. one of the key players we brought in has been injured most of the season. there were always going to be bumps in the road this season

as i said above most fans expected us to finish somewhere between 9th-12th and we're on course for that.

[TRO]

4 hours ago, Sulberto21 said:

I think moving forward we must have players on the post from set plays. I really hate conceding back post goals.

they nearly always are.

[tomav84]

Just now, maqroll said:

El Ghazi, that player who has the best goals:minutes played ratio on the team? 

yep him. who aside from a few pens and tap ins is utterly hopeless. in my opinion anyway.

[TRO]

4 hours ago, AVFCDAN said:

Impressive from Dean today, subs are most definitely his weakness in terms of who to bring on and when and today he made them a lot earlier than normal and threw the game in the process.

Long term we can’t play Ings and Watkins together, it’s throwing the balance of the team off.

Buendia doesn’t look anywhere near a club record signing player at the moment.

Konsa, Cash and McGinn all good today and that’s about it. Ings did what he gets paid to do so that was fine as well.

these things happen in football unfortunately, even the great Man U crumbled in their game but why our defence just looked so nervous I have no idea.

• what balance?
• I do.

Edited October 16, 2021 by TRO

[TRO]

4 hours ago, NurembergVillan said:

At half-time I said in the match thread that Dean Smith could win us the match by making some tweaks.  One minute before Buendia came off it looked like he'd done exactly that.

But just as his change to have us push further up had got us 2 goals in front, so his change to bring on the inexperienced Ramsey for the industrious Buendia ultimately cost us the match.

I understand Dougie needing to come off, but in replacing our two ball players it meant we had nobody in midfield with a calm head or who would pick out a run.

Our threat nullified by our own changes, Wolves were free to run at us without fear.

Naive in the last minute from Ramsey, but the naivety began with Smith the minute Ramsey came onto the field.

most teams do, run at us.

you interestingly refer to our " 2 ball players " and you are right.....so who are the ball winners?....who are our players equipped to stop the opposition running at us?....who have the natural nose for it?

and you are right about Ramsey, too.

Edited October 16, 2021 by TRO

[TRO]

8 hours ago, stewiek2 said:

Never rated Tuanzebe when he was on loan. I feel for Emi. Had sod all to do yet picks the ball out the net 3 times. Wrong subs. Wrong tactics. The balance of the team is so wrong. He hasn't a clue how to set us up. Smith's beginning to look out of his depth.

That was shocking. We wobbled after going ahead both times. We never looked convincing and the balance of the side is so so wrong. Konsa is our one class defender. The other two can do one as far as I'm concerned.

No Conviction in our play, today....generally.

Edited October 17, 2021 by TRO

[DCJonah]

17 minutes ago, tomav84 said:

because we're a mid table team and that's what mid table teams do best. they're inconsistent

we've had to change from a tactic whereby we gave the ball to 1 player any chance we get, and also adjust to a new formation. one of the key players we brought in has been injured most of the season. there were always going to be bumps in the road this season

as i said above most fans expected us to finish somewhere between 9th-12th and we're on course for that.

It's like some have never watched the sport before. 

[ozvillafan]

I think the last 10 minutes was a microcosm of the rest of the game.

We simply do not want the ball. We press and harry to get it back, then try some one-touch stuff immediately on an iffy pass - we seem to relentlessly want to push the ball forward even when it's a very low percentage play. I get that we want to transition quickly, but you simply cannot do that on every play.

This continued in the last 10 when all we needed to do was show some composure in possession for 10 minutes to see out the game.

Still not a fan of 3 at the back. Your "extra man" is a central defender and there is too much reliance on fullbacks to create. It leaves Ings and Watkins living off scraps and exposes how poor Mings, Konsa and Tuanzebe are on the ball under any pressure.

[TRO]

4 hours ago, AVTuco said:

I didn't think any of Smith's subs were wrong at the time he made them. I don't blame him for the meltdown.

I don't blame any individual players either. They were to blame together, as a group. All of them. They were all shit.

One fell swoop eh!!!

[villaglint]

A sickening result but how most describe that as a poor performance from Smith is beyond me. We were bar far the better team for 80mins against a strong side (who I thought we made look poor for the most part). All the subs were enforced and made sense to me. We let it go through lack of nous in important moments, defensive errors and a bit of bad luck. Don’t see how Smith is responsible for any of that. 
 

People are angry, I definitely get that. 

[TRO]

2 minutes ago, ozvillafan said:

I think the last 10 minutes was a microcosm of the rest of the game.

We simply do not want the ball. We press and harry to get it back, then try some one-touch stuff immediately on an iffy pass - we seem to relentlessly want to push the ball forward even when it's a very low percentage play. I get that we want to transition quickly, but you simply cannot do that on every play.

This continued in the last 10 when all we needed to do was show some composure in possession for 10 minutes to see out the game.

Still not a fan of 3 at the back. Your "extra man" is a central defender and there is too much reliance on fullbacks to create. It leaves Ings and Watkins living off scraps and exposes how poor Mings, Konsa and Tuanzebe are on the ball under any pressure.

I think you have a point......We could have won that, and the things that were wrong was in the play.

Its hard to point out faults when you win.....but they are there.

2 of our biggest is......we can't keep the ball in most games, and we give it away cheaply.....that isn'y getting any better, no matter what formation or personnel we use.

Those 2 flaws in our game alone, are enough to struggle to win matches.

 

[est1874]

Smith is still the right manager for this club.

But he is naive as all hell sometimes and needs to mature quickly as a manager or this will keep happening.

It's not enough to identify poor game management as the main factor precipitating today's loss. You have to learn from it and evolve as a result. Sometimes I get the feeling that he doesn't / we don't.

Have to improve and keep improving or else we go backwards. No room for naivety in this league.

[Harry]

1 hour ago, smg said:

it would would appear that there is a growing feeling that our manager is not up to the job and plenty are willing to explain in detail why this is the case.. Would anyone like to suggest who is available to take over and move us towards the top 6. 

That normally leads to ridiculous ungettable suggestions or managers most people have never heard of.

[smg]

5 minutes ago, Harry said:

That normally leads to ridiculous ungettable suggestions or managers most people have never heard of.

I know , I was just interested to see the names that came up.

[Harry]

Just now, smg said:

I know , I was just interested to see the names that came up.

You and me both!

[kidlewis]

1 hour ago, villalad21 said:

6-0 loss to City

5-0 loss to Leicester 

Been some bad ones. This one feels the worst though. 

Neither were as poor as this 

[avfc456]

40 minutes ago, TRO said:

I think you have a point......We could have won that, and the things that were wrong was in the play.

Its hard to point out faults when you win.....but they are there.

2 of our biggest is......we can't keep the ball in most games, and we give it away cheaply.....that isn'y getting any better, no matter what formation or personnel we use.

Those 2 flaws in our game alone, are enough to struggle to win matches.

 

I can’t bold your paragraph but:

“2 of our biggest is......we can't keep the ball in most games, and we give it away cheaply.....that isn'y getting any better, no matter what formation or personnel we use.”

I feel like for years now, you, me, many many other fans have said exactly this, and yet it never seems to get any better, going back many years I can’t think of a time where we have looked after the ball well, looked comfortable in possession etc, the back 3 today in possession looking for a forward pass looked like rabbits in the headlights on numerous occasions, I feel the game we are trying to play we simply don’t have the personal to do so. 

 

[romavillan]

The players coming off the bench couldn't keep the levels we were playing at before they came on unfortunately. When Buendia came off we carried almost zero threat and with no Luiz Nakamba didn't manage to break up play or keep the ball much for us either. They just grew into the game in the holes they left. Still massive deflection cost us the consolation point. On 70 minutes we deserved the win. By the end a draw was probably fair. 

The other week we had an incredibly strong bench, not true this game. Can't be too hard on Ramsey as he's still young so won't be great every time he plays but we looked really out of sorts once Buendia and Luiz came off. Had Bailey and Troare been fit we might have been able to change shape instead of going like for like and been better placed to keep the ball. 

Disappointing result but at times we did play some very good football until the last 15 minutes of the game. Not easy to be objective but there you are. McGinn had a great game and the team as a whole looked great going forward till Cash, Buendia and Luiz went off. I imagine they will be getting a bollocking after Smith has gone over the way they fell apart. 

It'll be ups and downs this season, this was a bad down after having 3 points in the bag. I'd back us to play better when we've got everyone available and we have trained together without international break disruption.