Ratings & Reactions: Villa v Leeds

[TRO]

Just now, OutByEaster? said:

I'm trying to find the right way to put this as we're both watching the same replay.

You're wrong.

 

 

sorry, you are.

James was sandwiched between Mings and Buendia who was steaming in....and still got the ball in net.

The deflection was the ball coming down vertically and Mings was underneath it.

I'm not sure what you are watching, but its clear to me.

[Marka Ragnos]

Feels like a nightmare, this one. 
Truly. Deeply. Madly bad bad bad. 

 Find myself really struggling to accept what I witnessed today as I tuned in on Peacock from the USA. I loved listening to the home crowd singing and chanting. It seemed like a fun match, with lots of action and goals, and yes, I wanted us to win, but let's make it exciting -- sure, I could go along with that.

But then ... it all grew very grim indeed.

All the injuries in the match -- added to the ones we began with -- just felt like a broken nuclear fission reactor had unexpectedly gone beyond critical mass and was beginning to "melt down." I half expected the whole of the Midlands to become the next Chernobyl Death Zone. It felt like a really messed up situation suddenly, out of nowhere, spiralling out of control in plain sight. Our bench is that thin? Why is our defense suddenly a catastrophe? One second, Mings is scrambling and pulling off a heroic save, the next he looks completely out-played. But it was injuries that really worry me now. Damn. We were falling apart.

Please, tell me this didn't really happen. I think we were lucky to get the point in the end.

I'm so tired of trying to defend Ollie in my mind. I don't want to admit to myself what I know to be true. I don't mean to be cruel, but I don't think he's ever quite been Premier League material. He's a wonderful Championship tricky wizard on the ball, but not good enough. We need someone better. Could it be more obvious?   
 

 

Edited February 10, 2022 by Marka Ragnos

[TomC]

2 hours ago, Wurzel said:

I wonder if Arsenal offered £40 million for Watkins if we would decline. Not sure if Ings has a future at the club either, so I wouldn't be surprised to see both gone in the summer and a bigger name coming in.

Nah. If we bring in a bigger name, we'll sell one, but not both. We need cover. Besides, just because Ings and Watkins can't play together doesn't mean that we couldn't run a two-striker system with some other combination.

 

1 hour ago, Joshie2000 said:

For me people are always blaming Mings, but a lot of his errors are down to Konsa acting like a statue,  

With Konsa sitting next game, Chambers is going to get a chance. I'm not expecting him to be great, but he'll be motivated to try to force his way into the team.

 

[Demitri_C]

Massively disappointing result. Leeds were there for the taking without their best two players and we blew it.  Honestly what have we been doing the last two weeks? As we look defensively worse than before.

Mings is shite. Sorry but he is. A complete liability today. Never gonna be a top player for me at this level as he makes such poor mistakes.Leeds fans were winding him up all night and he just could not turn it around. Konsa was awful too. His worst game at villa.

Watkins sorry but has to be dropped.  His forms been awful and looks like a one season wonder.

Ings needs to start against newcastle. 

Thought the midfield did ok but as you we can all see a massive gap in midfield  again. We are not getting europe this year. Not quite good enough. Whats overly frustrating is this team has cost millions and they  cant do the basic things right.

[VillaParkAvenue]

2 hours ago, TomC said:

Nah. If we bring in a bigger name, we'll sell one, but not both. We need cover. Besides, just because Ings and Watkins can't play together doesn't mean that we couldn't run a two-striker system with some other combination.

Ings has played in a duo most of his career so could easily do it again, if he has the right partner. Watkins is still fresh as a striker and has never played together with anyone on top, (except for a few poor games with Ings that is)

[punkiller1981]

6 hours ago, OutByEaster? said:

I've just been watching the replay - the deflection goes over Mings head and he has to back up a few yards to challenge for it - he's then got James (and the ball) behind him and because he's backing in, he isn't in a great position to jump, the ball drops straight in front of James and he barely has to move, just jump and head it.

 

He is a giant centre back he has to clear everything out there. Get his head in the ball smash James and buendia out of the way and command the situation 

[skell]

7 hours ago, Wurzel said:

The reality is that in the Summer we need at least one quality central defender and a defensive midfielder to progress. It seems that the owners are serious about going for Europe and there are too many mid to lower Prem players at the club. That will probably mean some out goings. I wonder if Arsenal offered £40 million for Watkins if we would decline. Not sure if Ings has a future at the club either, so I wouldn't be surprised to see both gone in the summer and a bigger name coming in. If Utd offered £50 million for McGinn I think that would be difficult to turn down, and Luiz's future must be in question. I know this post sounds very damning but I sense that the owners are no longer going to tolerate mediocre, and with Newcastle looking like they are going to stay up they cannot wait to see if things improve with some of these players. I have a feeling it will be a very big summer both with incomings and outgoings.

I was thinking about who we could sell to raise funds  and on the list is targett, trex, el ghazi, luiz, ings it Watkins, davis. 90 million there at least. We wont miss them if we get a striker and DM 

[remotevillan]

Depressing and frustrating in the end. Coutinho and Ramsey both deserved better. A match winning turn from both of them. Defensively disappointing. Rio Ferdinand called it a collapse in the BT studio and hes not wrong. Reminded me of the latter parts of 'that' game against Wolves where every time the opposition attacked there was a panic and a sense of inevitability that goals would fly in against us. Ollie not the same as last year. Would like to see Ings get more of a chance. But positives are that Coutinho is still in his prime. Did not expect to replace Grealish so soon but we may well have. 

[skell]

6 hours ago, OutByEaster? said:

How people can look at the performances of McGinn and Luiz tonight and pick out Luiz as the weakness is beyond me.

I thought Luiz played pretty well, I'd give him a seven, he was one of our better players on the night.

I'd give McGinn a three, it's the worst game I've ever seen him have.

 

Luiz was awful as a DM. We need a monster in there . Hes not that player. If we change him for bissouma the problem is solved and we can look forward to europe

[mottaloo]

Mings needs to stop thinking he is a hybrid of Paul McGrath and Franz Beckenbauer with his casual, strolling around the box which has my nerves jangling. That's only my opinion of course.

That said, where was our midfield second half to help protect the defence ?

We need to put this right on saturday. Stop St Maximin and we should be at least half way there

[Wurzel]

7 hours ago, The Fun Factory said:

And yet more change. We go through so many players we hardly ever have a settled side for a couple of seasons. Either players leave or we change the manager, or both.

The one area of the team that hasn't been upgraded for the last three seasons is the defence so it is no coincidence that we have a soft underbelly. I'm not saying we get rid of Mings or Konsa, but we need a better defender than them to work with them, so one of those two becomes the backup.

[smg]

8 hours ago, hippo said:

Well he's just had 3 solid weeks with the players.....and we looked worse.

 

 

Ffs

[The Fun Factory]

Its a tad concerning after two weeks off we look even more disorganised at the back. What did they do at Bodymoor?

[The Fun Factory]

6 hours ago, Marka Ragnos said:

Feels like a nightmare, this one. 
Truly. Deeply. Madly bad bad bad. 

 Find myself really struggling to accept what I witnessed today as I tuned in on Peacock from the USA. I loved listening to the home crowd singing and chanting. It seemed like a fun match, with lots of action and goals, and yes, I wanted us to win, but let's make it exciting -- sure, I could go along with that.

But then ... it all grew very grim indeed.

All the injuries in the match -- added to the ones we began with -- just felt like a broken nuclear fission reactor had unexpectedly gone beyond critical mass and was beginning to "melt down." I half expected the whole of the Midlands to become the next Chernobyl Death Zone. It felt like a really messed up situation suddenly, out of nowhere, spiralling out of control in plain sight. Our bench is that thin? Why is our defense suddenly a catastrophe? One second, Mings is scrambling and pulling off a heroic save, the next he looks completely out-played. But it was injuries that really worry me now. Damn. We were falling apart.

Please, tell me this didn't really happen. I think we were lucky to get the point in the end.

I'm so tired of trying to defend Ollie in my mind. I don't want to admit to myself what I know to be true. I don't mean to be cruel, but I don't think he's ever quite been Premier League material. He's a wonderful Championship tricky wizard on the ball, but not good enough. We need someone better. Could it be more obvious?   
 

 

Oh come on. 3 years ago we were floundering around mid table in the championship. Its all gravy.

[RichW]

Hopefully in the summer the club sign a CB which makes you think who out of Konsa/Mings is going to be dropped as it seems they both know if fit they are both starting and getting too comfortable. I really like Mings but his just making frequent mistakes and it was silly for Konsa to get that second yellow so that's him out for 2 games. 

3-3 draw which feels like a loss. Apart from the 15 mins or so where scored 3 goals the performance was poor, Leeds looked like scoring every time they attacked and that was without Bamford and Phillips playing. Unfortunately can't get rid of the soft underbelly, the midfield was again over ran last night, Luiz and Mcginn were poor and we are going to see these inconsistent performances until the end of the season where the club need to finally sign a DM and a CB to give Mings/Konsa some serious competition. 

[Louis]

I think the defence needs sorting out before we head up to the grim and frozen North East on Sunday. Otherwise, it was a good game.

[NeilS]

It is very disappointing to throw away a 2 goal lead at any time, let alone when you are playing at home to an understrength opposition. Anyone who is still thinking we can qualify for Europe this season should forget it now, it isn't going to happpen with the players we have available. The defensive side of the team needs to improve drastically before we can even think about pushing for Europe, that is both in defence and in the defensive side of the midfield as well. We have conceded 35 goals against in 22 games, which is 1.6 goals conceded per game, that is not top half of the table stuff.

I do think Gerrard will make some more signings in the summer which will address this, as I think it is clear that some of the players (some fan favourites) are not consistant enough in quality to push us on to that next level that we all desire.

[Herman22]

9 hours ago, OutByEaster? said:

How people can look at the performances of McGinn and Luiz tonight and pick out Luiz as the weakness is beyond me.

I thought Luiz played pretty well, I'd give him a seven, he was one of our better players on the night.

I'd give McGinn a three, it's the worst game I've ever seen him have.

 

I think I’d say the exact opposite. Every time they broke through midfield Luiz was nowhere to be seen. McGinn was by no means good but Luiz did nothing at all. I still think DL is a decent player and if you take defensive responsibility away from him he could do a job. But we’re crying out for a good DM who can break up play. If Marv was playing last night we’d have won that game. 

[BOF]

We've already got 7 new goalscorers this season. We only had 4 last season.

[PaulC]

9 hours ago, TRO said:

didn't look like that to me.

play it back, he was alongside James.

yes I thought he should have been all over that. Mings was atrocious, imo accountable for all three goals. He was all over the place and thought he was Franz Beckanbaur with all the forward runs. stick to basic defending.