Ratings & Reactions: Villa v Man City

[The_Steve]

Ahahahahahahahahaha. You what mate? 
 

 

 

[Eidolon]

Less said about the first half the better, I think a bit of the fear and hesitancy that The G Man had seemed to have dispelled maybe crept back in a bit until Ollie’s goal. Second half very encouraging and overall I think we take as much away from this as we could realistically expect to at this point in time.

Side note, what a bunch of classless rocket polishers they have on Blue Moon (I like to get a sense of how the opposition rated us, just lurk though) completely irrelevant without ludicrous oil money and most likely to be wearing black and white in 3-5 years time. 

Also moved on from former players and outside of that I don’t think a late late sub warrants naming or special mention.

[TomC]

3 minutes ago, OutByEaster? said:

I think it took us far too long to realise that our centre halves and keeper weren't good enough to play through the City press and I thought we blew a coverage somewhere for the second goal leaving us without any bodies in the middle - which isn't to take away from a wonderful strike from Silva.

This is a good point. I generally liked the way that we tried to play through the press calmly, but some of our most nervous moments were when Konsa, Mings, and Emi started playing the ball among each other while pinned back against our own goal line. When you're the last line, you can't get pinned back like that.

 

 

[Eidolon]

6 minutes ago, The_Steve said:

Ahahahahahahahahaha. You what mate? 
 

 

 

As he’s not the brightest boy going around it’s entirely likely he misunderstood why the crowd were singing VTID at him and took it as a show of support? Either that or he doesn’t write his own social media posts

Edited December 2, 2021 by Eidolon
Clarity

[The_Steve]

 

Biggest contribution to the game was crying 

[Nigel]

3 minutes ago, Eidolon said:

As he’s not the brightest boy going around it’s entirely likely he misunderstood why the crowd were singing VTID at him and took it as a show of support? Either that or he doesn’t write his own social media posts

Thats exactly what I thought....he'd assume it was for him!

Also the standing ovation given to the players at the end....you can guarantee he thought that was for him too.

You have to giggle

[The Fun Factory]

Can't fault the effort and organisation.  Best atmosphere of the season. Kept the game interesting in the second half but ultimately a utterly predictable defeat. 

Bailey and Buendia worry me. At present not a well 60 million well spend on a sick note and a lightweight.

Glad that's all over for anohter year and onto Sunday. UTV.

[TRO]

14 hours ago, Jono62 said:

Won the second half. Hate how City always foul when you are trying to create an attack, but it's something the top teams do.

Happy to see Chuk and Sanson come on.

We'll beat them next time.

Also, to add that I thought Mike Dean was decent tonight.

The level of their fouling surprised me, and getting away with it, suprised me even more.....in some instances, they was just playing the man, not the ball, I thought that was stamped out in the modern game.....The crazy gang would have been proud of some of them, challenges.

Rodrigo on Targett was assault, not a challenge, the fact he got away with is staggering....or simply Bias....some of the tackles on Watkins, was simply playing the man......Dean was as bad as Salisbury for me, in different ways.

 

Edited December 2, 2021 by TRO

[Davkaus]

There were three or four occasions where players were literally just grappling and Mike Dean ignored it

[TomC]

2 minutes ago, Davkaus said:

There were three or four occasions where players were literally just grappling and Mike Dean ignored it

But he was consistent. We got away with some of the same stuff. Furthermore, it's not just Dean. All the refs seem more lenient this year.

 

[TRO]

53 minutes ago, Vive_La_Villa said:

I think you are clueless as the later are European Champions and top of the league. 

The 3 are very good sides.....but I have to say, tonight, I was surprised by Man City's physicality, which was brutal at times and playing the man, not the ball.....they should have received more bookings than they did.

[Wezbid]

13 minutes ago, TRO said:

The 3 are very good sides.....but I have to say, tonight, I was surprised by Man City's physicality, which was brutal at times and playing the man, not the ball.....they should have received more bookings than they did.

They do it all the time without possession. Relentless with what seem like cheap free-kicks but break up play.

The refs don't seem to give many cards because they are just small trips and shoves and the players take it in turns to do them so it's more difficult to keep on top of repeat offenders.

They are a bit smaller than the taking one for the team challenges but have the exact same effect. It says a lot about good they are with it when card happy Mike Dean isn't posting them out like Moonpig dot com. 

[Wainy316]

That was about as enjoyable as a defeat can get.

A shame we couldn’t find the equaliser.  The place would’ve absolutely exploded!

[ciggiesnbeer]

1 hour ago, The_Steve said:

Ahahahahahahahahaha. You what mate? 
 

 

 

 

[turvontour]

I dont really have a lot of judgement when we play man city, but I think the players gave it their all.

I kind of feel sorry for their travelling fans because their hardcore probably dont want them to win every game.

Although the fact that they rival Liverpool and Man U may alter that somewhat.

[Rds1983]

5 hours ago, Wezbid said:

They do it all the time without possession. Relentless with what seem like cheap free-kicks but break up play.

The refs don't seem to give many cards because they are just small trips and shoves and the players take it in turns to do them so it's more difficult to keep on top of repeat offenders.

They are a bit smaller than the taking one for the team challenges but have the exact same effect. It says a lot about good they are with it when card happy Mike Dean isn't posting them out like Moonpig dot com. 

They've been doing and getting away with tactical fouls for years. Exactly as you say, whenever they lose possession, they take it in turns to make a small foul to break up play and stop/slow the counter. Doesn't get cards as looks small and is cycled between players, isn't a threat from the set piece as usually way too far out. Very cynical side. 

[sne]

8 minutes ago, Rds1983 said:

They've been doing and getting away with tactical fouls for years. Exactly as you say, whenever they lose possession, they take it in turns to make a small foul to break up play and stop/slow the counter. Doesn't get cards as looks small and is cycled between players, isn't a threat from the set piece as usually way too far out. Very cynical side. 

Barca under Pep was exactly the same. Bayern too but not as flagrant or as much.

It's very much how Pep teams play, always has been.

[ozvillafan]

24 minutes ago, Rds1983 said:

They've been doing and getting away with tactical fouls for years. Exactly as you say, whenever they lose possession, they take it in turns to make a small foul to break up play and stop/slow the counter. Doesn't get cards as looks small and is cycled between players, isn't a threat from the set piece as usually way too far out. Very cynical side. 

Looking at the stats tonight, Citeh had 12 fouls called, we had 8.....

... but they also had 66% possesion. They are hugely cynical and they get away with it - even for card happy Mike Dean.

The foul that saw Matt Targett have to leave the pitch is a great example. Wasn't even called.

[John]

Nice to see SG clearly not happy about losing, even to this lot after the game. He's a winner and in time he will have us winning more often than not. He was so right about us giving them too much respect in the first half and he made sure that we gave them more of a game in the second half. We can learn a lot from this defeat. 

[punkiller1981]

7 hours ago, Joshie2000 said:

1st half was terrible and as the gaffer said we stood off them and gave them to much respect, and if and when baileys back he needs to be told to pass, buendia was in and it was a simple pass to make, also 1st half ollie had 2 chances to take the fullback on and just dallied and looked lost, he needs to stay in the middle for me. 

 

2nd half what a turn around totally different team and mentality and great strike by ollie and he played more down the middle and that helped. 

My biggest gripe would be passing out from back, we struggle to do it at the best of times and tonight we were playing the best possession team and pressing team and it could of been embarrassing, thank god they just launched goal kicks 2nd half 

UTV 

I don’t know what the stats are but other than the marez free kick towards the end did city have a shot on target second half? I don’t remember them doing much at all which I think was credit to us because they didn’t take the foot of the gas.