Ratings & Reactions: Everton v Villa

[briny_ear]

2 minutes ago, nepal_villan said:

Second half was the worst one we had since SG took over.  Watkins and Mings extra poor. McGinn missing.  Some good interplay between Buendia, Ramsey and Coutinho in the first half, but not much else to be excited about.  Still have a long way to go to be a dangerous side.

Thought the second half showed the defence at possibly its best this season. NB we kept a clean sheet under a lot of pressure. That wasn’t happening earlier in the season. 

[KangarooVillan]

Good result, decent gritty performance.

Still concerned that I haven’t seen us put together a full game performance this season.

Shattered Sanson wasn’t given an opportunity, feel like it would have done his confidence a world of good and his hold up play and possession in the middle of the park was exactly what we needed in the 2nd half.

[Eligius]

4 minutes ago, tinker said:

Struggled but a good performance to grind out a draw. Ref was dreadful , lost control of the game and allowed it to bubble up, not quite over but very close to it. 

Ming's, dear god he's committed but sometimes his head goes, late on he kept coming for headers and losing them, leaving us short at the back. 

Great result but we aren't playing very well , which beat playing well and losing. 

We won

[Delphinho123]

3 minutes ago, villalad21 said:

Thought we got away with one.

Everton deserved at least a draw on balance of play.

But I'll gladly take that.

Must have been an early one for you in San Fran..

[M_Afro]

That was a tough game for us. They were too physical, direct and pumped up. It was always going to be tough. We deserved a bit of luck. I reckon the bottle incident unsettled us and the thuggery of some of their play which the ref did nothing about. Take the points and move on. Banana skin well and truly avoided.

[thunderball]

We did well to grind that out. Everton were re-energised under Ferguson and fought for everything, much more heart in their performance, but we had more, we matched them and showed the only period of quality in a tight, competitive fixture. Still some sloppiness and things still not quite clicking. Thought Everton were OK and better than relegation fodder.

Maybe Watkins star is fading, unsure what Gerrard thinks, but not a huge amount to feed on today, but he didn’t help himself either. Mings wasn’t at his best and I would suggest is now playing for his career. 

I think I would rather have seen Coutinho coming on against tired legs early in the second half. 

Digne was nullified (or a difficult return so shortly after his switch), better will come from him.

I expect the improved Leeds to show up next just as Man Utd and Everton have done so far.

 

[ozvillafan]

3 minutes ago, tinker said:

Struggled but a good performance to grind out a draw.

[YLN]

Before Dean Smith took over we were midtable championship and looking like we could potentially end up staying there or worse. Our team was full of championship players that would not be guaranteed starters in other mid-table championship teams, and a couple of absolute mercenaries. Now we're top 10 in the premier league. Coutinho plays for us. And we're buying players for £30 million. And we beat Everton home and away this season. And Danny Ings is on the bench. It's mental how far we've come in a couple of years, and I sometimes forget to be grateful it didn't all pan out very differently.

[Vive_La_Villa]

3 minutes ago, villalad21 said:

Thought we got away with one.

Everton deserved at least a draw on balance of play.

But I'll gladly take that.

You expected us to lose before hand. Everton deserved a point in a Wimbledon’s style loads of effort and ball thrown in to the box at any chance kind of way.   

[The_Steve]

[briny_ear]

BTW football authorities, I am waiting-gov for a swift announcement of an enquiry into the bottle throwing. With a view to disciplinary action against the club.

[ThunderPower_14]

5 minutes ago, allani said:

Amazing how many free kicks Everton won by their centre forwards either not jumping for the ball or jumping at the Villa defender rather than the ball.  No idea how Mings got booked for being fouled.  Richarlison didn't even try to get off the ground - he's not looking at the ball at all - his only interest is to either foul Mings or make him miss the header.   Luiz was superb second half.  Won so many tackles.  Was everywhere.

Agree completely, I was screaming at the TV for Mings' card. He jumps straight up for a header and has Richarlison back straight into him while he's in mid air. If Richarlison did that in the NBA he'd be suspended. Disgusting refereeing.

It was like he went "Ooh, this is a physical game, I need to hand out some yellows to calm things down" but then just seemed to ignore that one team was doing all the kicking and handed them out evenly.

[OutByEaster?]

First half was even, second half was awful and we're lucky to come away with three points.

We're better than we played in the first half, let alone the second half.

The second half was absolute garbage, not only did we not pass the ball, we seemed to stop trying to pass the ball, turning into long ball cloggers and dropping deep to try to see the game out after about 55 minutes. There was loads of grit, loads of determination, but there were loads of very poor decisions and no composure, no bravery on the ball, no plan and no pattern. Poor.

I've been happier with our performances this season in games we've lost - don't get me wrong I'm delighted with the points, they're a massive three points that get us pointing in the right direction and moving up the table - it's a great paper result - but we're better than this, we're better managed, we have better players, we're better organised.

Emi Buendia comes out of the game with a lot of credit - he was busy, bright, brave and bold in possession, scored a cracking header and grafted non-stop. Cash was decent too, Ramsey did okay, individually there was no shortage of effort and we've ended up playing badly and winning.

I'll take it.

I want more.

 

[ozvillafan]

Gritty, dirty match from Everton, who dragged us down to their level somewhat.

Was sorry to see Gomez leave and Allan come on as the former is gash and the latter added even more grit.

Still - we stayed strong though that second half wasn't pretty.

Buendia MOTM. Special mention to the back 4 who did a lot to block efforts and deny Everton a sniff.

[Villaphan04]

 

 

[a m ole]

BT* doing a great job highlighting these poor Everton fans who deserve better, while a number of their fans hurled bottles and lighters at our players for absolutely no reason. Great passion.

Edited January 22, 2022 by a m ole

[Shirtman]

We rode our luck but we ground out this win. Says much about the character around the club.

Buendia had an excellent first half and Ramsey is getting better with every game. Cash was excellent throughout.

Very important 3 points.

[Ponky]

Their lad Gordon made a huge difference when he came on and really put us under the pump. Very impressive player, got a bit of Albrighton about him - and not just because of his massive beak. 

[briny_ear]

1 minute ago, The_Steve said:

Those socks freak me out for some reason I can’t define. 

Just me?

[BleedClaretAndBlue]

4 minutes ago, KangarooVillan said:

Shattered Sanson wasn’t given an opportunity

No wonder if he hasnt been sleeping