Ratings & Reactions: Villa v Chelsea

[TRO]

23 hours ago, sheepyvillian said:

Different song, same old dance. 

 

You just did...

[TRO]

23 hours ago, sheepyvillian said:

Different song, same old dance. 

You couldn't make it up.

You just did...

[sheepyvillian]

13 minutes ago, TRO said:

You just did...

Channeling that inner child again, TRO.

[pacbuddies]

A penalty for Liverpool and 2 penalties for Chelsea are the difference between 0 points and 2 points for us. Only Man City of the top 3 teams in the country have been able to beat us with goals from open play.

[TRO]

23 hours ago, The Fun Factory said:

Good first half. Them bringing on a £90 million striker and switching to four at the back changed the game. What heroics from Tuchel in having to bring on bench players to get the win. Its so hard for  a club like Chelsea what with their billionaire Russian owner and 500 players on loan. The more we lose to the top 6 the more I sometimes think they should just sod off and form their own league with their own rules. 

Ings and Watkins will never work and Ings was a massive panic buy. Our best players this season have been an academy player (Ramsey) and McGinn who cost £2.75 million. The 3 big signings have really not hit the ground yet.

 

Danny Ings has had a decent goal scoring record over his career.....A goal every 2.76 games.

Not great, but very decent.

Ollie has has a better record than Che Adams, who partnered Danny at Southampton, when he was recording a goal every 2.17 games, which is prolific.

Something is definately wrong, but not sure what it is......on paper Watkins & Ings should be potent.

Danny against Chelsea, was just chasing shadows, no where near fit, he was a complete passenger, as blunt as a bag of putty.....Its clearly not working, is right....but it should be.

I don't see, why 2 very good strikers can't work together.......so many have Withe & Shaw....Gray & Little.....Cole & Yorke.....Kane & Son

I think its very possible to get them firing.....but right now, they are not.

[TRO]

8 minutes ago, sheepyvillian said:

Channeling that inner child again, TRO.

Keeps me young Sheepy.

Happy New Year!!!

[sheepyvillian]

36 minutes ago, TRO said:

Keeps me young Sheepy.

Happy New Year!!!

Ditto. 

[Marka Ragnos]

2 hours ago, TRO said:

Danny Ings has had a decent goal scoring record over his career.....A goal every 2.76 games.

Not great, but very decent.

Ollie has has a better record than Che Adams, who partnered Danny at Southampton, when he was recording a goal every 2.17 games, which is prolific.

Something is definately wrong, but not sure what it is......on paper Watkins & Ings should be potent.

Danny against Chelsea, was just chasing shadows, no where near fit, he was a complete passenger, as blunt as a bag of putty.....Its clearly not working, is right....but it should be.

I don't see, why 2 very good strikers can't work together.......so many have Withe & Shaw....Gray & Little.....Cole & Yorke.....Kane & Son

I think its very possible to get them firing.....but right now, they are not.

I think this post does a good job of capturing the frustrations I feel about Ings and Watkins. Yes, it's a puzzle because "on paper" we should have two productive forwards. My only quibble is I'm just not persuaded either is quite at the level of forward we need, in the current PL, to take the next step in getting back to Europe as a club. The quality of football in the PL is easily the best in Europe now -- the best in the world. S'hampton never finished in the top 10 with even a red-hot Ings, and Watkins has never matched his Championship record with Brentford in the PL, unless I'm mistaken. It doesn't mean they're not fine footballers. But not fine enough for where we want to go. 

It feels like Villa are at a crossroads and need to decide what they want  to do.

Edited December 28, 2021 by Marka Ragnos

[OutByEaster?]

I think it's difficult with Ings and Watkins - when they play, they aren't two forwards, they're a forward and a midfielder - and that means that Watkins is worse because he's not great in that role, he's not a link player, which also means that Ings is worse, because one of his number tens doesn't link with him.

It's one or the other for me - with a proper number ten behind them next to Buendia.

 

 

[ciggiesnbeer]

I am perfectly happy with both of them. Both are proven both will play together better and better as time goes on. I am not worried at all about our attacking options across the front 3.

Its getting them the service I would like to see improved.

[QldVilla]

1 hour ago, Vive_La_Villa said:

This is absolute madness when you look at who the so called same issues resurfaced again. The top 3 teams are miles ahead of everyone so to judge us on those games regardless of manager is very unfair in my opinion.  I’ve seen the likes of Lambert and Bruce get the odd park the bus sneak a win against these teams in the past. Does that make them great managers?

Im judging us against the rest of the league and so far it’s 4 wins out of 4. If and when that doesn’t continue then you can talk about how nothing has changed. But at the moment it’s just crazy to say that.

Agree with what your saying, but we also got at those good teams last season when they are at 98%. Chelsea hadn't been in great form and were vulnerable on boxing day, we scored first, but let a goal in virtually straight away and lose the game from some poor defending in the second half.

It was quite obvious early in the second half that Chelsea had changed their tactics with the introduction of Lukaku and to get him one on one with Mings. Tuchel saw it.

We can accept its the Top 3 and don't deserve anything or take the opportunities when they arise and on boxing day thought we should have got something from the game.

[tinker]

6 hours ago, jim said:

Nothing has changed? We’ve won 4 out of 7 and our 3 losses were narrow defeats to the 3 best teams in the league.

We are far more organised and the style of play has improved. We lost 7 in 11 under Smith this season and looked completely rudderless. But yeah, nothing has changed.

You can't take games in isolation , as a whole we haven't changed. If we want to challenge the top 4 then we need improvement and I see it has certain error prone players need to be moved on.

Watch the game against Chelsea again, the second half was terrible and they was off form. We gave them more of a game with a considerable weakened side in September. 

[jim]

1 hour ago, tinker said:

You can't take games in isolation , as a whole we haven't changed. If we want to challenge the top 4 then we need improvement and I see it has certain error prone players need to be moved on.

Watch the game against Chelsea again, the second half was terrible and they was off form. We gave them more of a game with a considerable weakened side in September. 

Of course you can. You said nothing has changed since Smith when it clearly has and the results prove that.

Who has said anything about challenging the top 4 this season? Gerrard has been here 5 minutes give the bloke a chance. 

[Vive_La_Villa]

13 hours ago, QldVilla said:

Agree with what your saying, but we also got at those good teams last season when they are at 98%. Chelsea hadn't been in great form and were vulnerable on boxing day, we scored first, but let a goal in virtually straight away and lose the game from some poor defending in the second half.

It was quite obvious early in the second half that Chelsea had changed their tactics with the introduction of Lukaku and to get him one on one with Mings. Tuchel saw it.

We can accept its the Top 3 and don't deserve anything or take the opportunities when they arise and on boxing day thought we should have got something from the game.

I get that and understand the disappointment.  I’m disappointed too,

I just think it’s unfair to say nothing has changed from Smith to Gerrard following a defeat against Chelsea. If we fail to get results against all those teams below or around us or still keep showing the same mistakes against then sure, makes that statement. But not after a defeat against the champions of Europe.

[tinker]

8 hours ago, jim said:

Of course you can. You said nothing has changed since Smith when it clearly has and the results prove that.

Who has said anything about challenging the top 4 this season? Gerrard has been here 5 minutes give the bloke a chance. 

You can't, take our game against Chelsea in September, we drew 1-1 after 90 min with a weak team. It didn't mean we was good enough then and we're not now. 

Who said top 4 this season, it wasn't me? I'm not judging him, so don't be so defensive, I'm pointing areas I think he needs to improve. Just like we all do, doesn't matter who's the manager is. 

 

[jim]

24 minutes ago, tinker said:

You can't, take our game against Chelsea in September, we drew 1-1 after 90 min with a weak team. It didn't mean we was good enough then and we're not now. 

Who said top 4 this season, it wasn't me? I'm not judging him, so don't be so defensive, I'm pointing areas I think he needs to improve. Just like we all do, doesn't matter who's the manager is. 

 

That was a Carabao cup game for a start. As I said previously the stats speak for themselves we are better now than we were under Smith this season. 
 

Also:
 

10 hours ago, tinker said:

If we want to challenge the top 4 then we need improvement

[tinker]

10 hours ago, jim said:

1 hour ago, jim said:

That was a Carabao cup game for a start. As I said previously the stats speak for themselves we are better now than we were under Smith this 

1 hour ago, jim said:

That was a Carabao cup game for a start. As I said previously the stats speak for themselves we are better now than we were under Smith this season. 
 

Also:
 

 

Who has said anything about challenging the top 4 this season? Gerrard has been here 5 minutes give the bloke a chance. 

You can argue with yourself

[QldVilla]

6 hours ago, Vive_La_Villa said:

I get that and understand the disappointment.  I’m disappointed too,

I just think it’s unfair to say nothing has changed from Smith to Gerrard following a defeat against Chelsea. If we fail to get results against all those teams below or around us or still keep showing the same mistakes against then sure, makes that statement. But not after a defeat against the champions of Europe.

The players have reacted to Gerrard’s appointment, but it is far too early to say whether we will take the step forward under him, we will know a lot more in 12 months time. From what I have seen so far, hopefully it will be seen as an astute appointment long term.

IMO some of the player’s inadequacies have been exposed and although some can react for a few games, the standard cannot be maintained, that’s the job for the new manager to resolve.

We also beat the Champions of Europe about 10 days before they won that title. Titles are irrelevant, it’s what happens on the day that matters and the team let slip an opportunity.

[Vive_La_Villa]

48 minutes ago, QldVilla said:

The players have reacted to Gerrard’s appointment, but it is far too early to say whether we will take the step forward under him, we will know a lot more in 12 months time. From what I have seen so far, hopefully it will be seen as an astute appointment long term.

IMO some of the player’s inadequacies have been exposed and although some can react for a few games, the standard cannot be maintained, that’s the job for the new manager to resolve.

We also beat the Champions of Europe about 10 days before they won that title. Titles are irrelevant, it’s what happens on the day that matters and the team let slip an opportunity.

They are not irrelevant. I was pointing out the calibre of the opposition.  I will see us failing to beat the likes of Brentford, Newcastle, Burnley etc as missed opportunities. Not defeats to a very strong Chelsea team that brings on 150m+ worth of talent in the second half. 
 

Just my opinion. Fans can dwell on losing to Chelsea if they must. 

[villalad21]

5 minutes ago, Vive_La_Villa said:

They are not irrelevant. I was pointing out the calibre of the opposition.  I will see us failing to beat the likes of Brentford, Newcastle, Burnley etc as missed opportunities. Not defeats to a very strong Chelsea team that brings on 150m+ worth of talent in the second half. 
 

Just my opinion. Fans can dwell on losing to Chelsea if they must. 

This fantastic Chelsea team is in terrible form. Drawing to Brighton as we speak. 

It was poor.