Ratings & Reactions: Villa v Chelsea

[MWARLEY2]

We atarted off ok without being great. I thought Chelsea were really poor until the goal and then just got better while we got worse. Eye of the needle passing from many of our midfielders and number 10s that were never going to reach their destination.

Beaten by the better team that brought on a 99 million bully but not totally outclassed.

But its another top 3 side. If we can bounce back and beat another top 3 side then its all good. 

You saw the limitations of our xmas tree today against the best . But we can do damage against the other 16 . 

 

[HanoiVillan]

Just now, foreveryoung said:

They were missing Kante, one of the best midfielders in world football, Ziyech, Werner, Kavez, Havertz, Chalobah, Chillwell, Silva also came off.

Like I said, you won't get a better chance. we were crap second half, no ideas and they were 60% good, only Lukaku 75% fit being the difference.

Well they weren't missing Kante, who started, nor Ziyech, who was on the bench, and they were able to bring on Lukaku and Christensen to replace Chalobah and Silva. If we'd made the equivalent changes, we'd have been bringing on Tuanzebe and Keinan Davis. They obviously have a massively better squad than we do, and we have clearly had documented issues with covid.

[Aston_Villan4]

2 minutes ago, IrishVilla10 said:

Lukakus scored 4 in the league in 12, two against us. He may be a 90 million striker and one of the best, but he’s not been setting the league on fire since he arrived. He’s not Salah or Ronaldo 

[IrishVilla10]

1 minute ago, Aston_Villan4 said:

Do you think that was a lack of Gerrard being on the sidelines or do you think we were always going to be playing that way?

To be honest I’m not sure. I felt our changes were really late too so it’s hard to call how much change was going to be made by Beale and Mcallister 

[nick76]

1 minute ago, foreveryoung said:

They were missing Kante, one of the best midfielders in world football, Ziyech, Werner, Kavez, Havertz, Chalobah, Chillwell, Silva also came off.

Like I said, you won't get a better chance. we were crap second half, no ideas and they were 60% good, only Lukaku 75% fit being the difference.

to be fair they are European champions, one of the best teams in Europe, you expect their second team to be exceptional as well how much they have spent over the years.  Even though Kante and Chalobah played today the others didnt but the team they put out was still quality and then bringing on Lukaku we tried but we just couldnt handle them in the end.

[jim]

11 minutes ago, nick76 said:

what a load of rubbish!

Terrible form in 2021. 7 defeats from 11 and lost 5 on the spin.

It was a mess.

[sheepyvillian]

What a terrible performance. Gave it to them gift- wrapped, which is apt really, considering the time of year. 

When Mings is like that, it's painful to watch. Just like Targetts crossing. Only Jacobs, for me, come away from that with any credit. 

Edited December 26, 2021 by sheepyvillian

[Davkaus]

I'd be very surprised if Gerrard wasn't in constant realtime comms with McAllister and making the decisions

[foreveryoung]

4 minutes ago, striker said:

Villa with their present squad are not good enough to challenge for Europe yet!

Luiz, Sanson, Ramsey, Buendia and Target need replaced with better quality. I’d also add that Mings for his physicality simply isn’t dominant enough so eventually he will also need replaced.

For me Ings was a poor signing from the point of view that it’s simply not working with Watkins. You either play one or other but not both as it leaves the team unbalanced.

Gerrard will see all of the above and I’m looking forward to his signings in the next two windows which I’m in no doubt will improve Villa through the middle and also at the back.

 

No disrespect mate, but if your picking out those players, you may as well change the whole team. I mean how good are Ings and Watkinsl, Konsa, Cash?

[osmark86]

3 minutes ago, Aston_Villan4 said:

Missing Kante? Didn’t he come off at the 63rd minute?

yes he did XD

[PaulC]

Hard to pick a man of the match. all a much of a muchness. Good first half, poor second. 

[flashingqwerty]

2 minutes ago, osmark86 said:

yes. sometimes it's that simple. he made all the difference for them today.

Grealish was the same for us a lot of the times in the past wouldn't you agree?

Im sorry but I just can't agree that in a team sport involving 11 players on each team that 1 player having a good games constitutes a massive difference between the teams.  That's bonkers.

When Leicester won the league it was not because they were better than everyone else.  They had no superstar signings, no world class players (well maybe 1 or 2) but man for man they were far from the best team.

They worked hard for each other and out fought most of their opponents.

Today, there was very little between the sides man for man in terms of ability - except for Lukaku.  That doesn't makes Chelsea massively better than us, it makes us 1 player short of being as good as them.

Massive difference between those 2 statements

[osmark86]

3 minutes ago, HanoiVillan said:

Well they weren't missing Kante, who started, nor Ziyech, who was on the bench, and they were able to bring on Lukaku and Christensen to replace Chalobah and Silva. If we'd made the equivalent changes, we'd have been bringing on Tuanzebe and Keinan Davis. They obviously have a massively better squad than we do, and we have clearly had documented issues with covid.

you'd think that it was pretty clear that sometimes we just go against teams that have a lot more quality than we do..

[nick76]

1 minute ago, jim said:

Terrible form in 2021. 7 defeats from 11 and lost 5 on the spin.

It was a mess.

You think this club and squad were in a mess.  Yes we had a bad run, our form in 2021 had been awful but there is no way the club were in a mess, I just cant have that.  When you see clubs/squads in a mess and managers leave you can see it but when Gerrard came in, that squad wasnt in a mess, it was a excellent, young, quality, happy, balanced squad.  Yes they werent winning but a mess? dont make me laugh!  Our form has been really bad in 2021 but there is no reason to exaggerate.

[LondonVillian]

2 minutes ago, foreveryoung said:

No disrespect mate, but if your picking out those players, you may as well change the whole team. I mean how good are Ings and Watkinsl, Konsa, Cash?

Konsa is a top player 

[Davkaus]

1 minute ago, foreveryoung said:

No disrespect mate, but if your picking out those players, you may as well change the whole team. I mean how good are Ings and Watkinsl, Konsa, Cash?

Well, yeah. We won't, for reasons of finance and practicality, but who'd be upset if we replaced any of those next season? Martinez is the only player we ought to really be desperate to keep at any cost, IMO

[nick76]

5 minutes ago, IrishVilla10 said:

To be honest I’m not sure. I felt our changes were really late too so it’s hard to call how much change was going to be made by Beale and Mcallister 

Gerrard was in comms with them, so I'm guessing he made the call on changes

[IrishVilla10]

2 minutes ago, Davkaus said:

I'd be very surprised if Gerrard wasn't in constant realtime comms with McAllister and making the decisions

I was wondering about this. Normally our subs under Gerrard have been earlier, today felt like us last season when we left them too late to have any impact 

[foreveryoung]

6 minutes ago, Aston_Villan4 said:

Missing Kante? Didn’t he come off at the 63rd minute?

Did we take advantage of it, no.

[osmark86]

1 minute ago, flashingqwerty said:

Im sorry but I just can't agree that in a team sport involving 11 players on each team that 1 player having a good games constitutes a massive difference between the teams.  That's bonkers.

When Leicester won the league it was not because they were better than everyone else.  They had no superstar signings, no world class players (well maybe 1 or 2) but man for man they were far from the best team.

They worked hard for each other and out fought most of their opponents.

Today, there was very little between the sides man for man in terms of ability - except for Lukaku.  That doesn't makes Chelsea massively better than us, it makes us 1 player short of being as good as them.

Massive difference between those 2 statements

ok I'll rephrase.

10 players are doing well, but that last player isn't putting away any of the chances the rest of the team provides. So change that one player with another one that is firing on all cylinders. profit.

would you say that the one player change in the above scenario made a difference? the other players continued to perform, but the player subbed in outperformed the previous player and so made the differ....

 

...come on mate