Ratings & Reactions: Wolves v Villa

[Herman22]

The XG was 1.62 : 1.91. That doesn’t seem consistent with most reports of the game! 

[TRO]

11 hours ago, tomav84 said:

Most of us could probably name next Saturdays team now and it 100% will include mcginn and Ramsey who were poor today 

Can't blame carney for not wanting to sign when there's no way into this side 

That cm enforcer is so badly needed. Really lightweight in the middle today. Sanson the best player but you can't have 2/3 midfielders underperforming and expect to win football matches 

I think you make a fair point.....I love JJ but he's off it , right now.

John McGinn has shown very clearly, he doesn't have the attributes to play the role, he is asked to play......I think SG is caught between a rock and a hard place here, because he has him in for his character, I am not sure we can keep running with poor performances from him, though.

The midfield is clearly an issue, that isn't going away, no matter, what permutation, we come up with...its a conundrum.

Edited April 3, 2022 by TRO

[TRO]

12 hours ago, foreveryoung said:

Mentality is a big issue, agreed. I never see the team annoyed that they have lost a game. They walked off today like it ment nothing. Gerrard needs to grow some big balls and drop players when they don't perform. To many players know they will be on the team sheet, poor game or not.

To be fair though, when you have a striker as poor as Watkin's has been lately, that's going to be 50% of the problem.

The other 50% is the sloppy goals we give away, from unforced errors...without them, we would have won 0-1.....The misses then get written off as one of those things.

The first thing a football team needs to do, is learn how to win 1-0.....and then add goals for entertainment value and confidence.

Edited April 3, 2022 by TRO

[thunderball]

16 hours ago, TheMelvillan said:

I don't see £300k PW difference between coutinho and buendia

 

Drastic over reaction. He is an easy target because of who he is and what he is paid but Coutinho has been one of our stand out performers since he arrived. Put him in an Arsenal, West Ham or Man City team and he would be right up there, it’s what’s around him that make him look ineffective on occasions. I also think we should be playing Buendia as well FWIW.

I think the reality is Mings, Konsa, McGinn, Luiz are not good enough, and whilst hot and cold, I think Watkins should be putting more away for a first choice forward. None are terrible but inconsistent, and 5 or 6 out of 10 too often. The problem is we have 4 or 5 of them in the same team at once. It’s meh.

Edited April 3, 2022 by thunderball

[skell]

13 minutes ago, TRO said:

The other 50% is the sloppy goals we give away, from unforced errors...without them, we would have won 0-1.....The misses then get written off as one of those things.

The first thing a football team needs to do, is learn how to win 1-0.....and then add goals for entertainment value and confidence.

This is a huge part. We compete well then give away a ridiculous goal. The other teams then sit back, we make an error and they hit us.on the break. Midfield stability so important and I can only see a transfer window sorting that

[TRO]

21 minutes ago, skell said:

This is a huge part. We compete well then give away a ridiculous goal. The other teams then sit back, we make an error and they hit us. on the break. Midfield stability so important and I can only see a transfer window sorting that

I said when to my watching partner (Mrs) They go 1-0 up now and they will see the game out on that, and they did, until we made another error, but fair play to them for forcing it....It was like a boxing match, just being out pointed....They did all the mundane stuff, better than us.

To be fair to Ollie, he did force an error on to their goalkeeper.....and that's what we didn't do enough of.

[Villadevon]

Another comedy of errors, when will it end?

 

[Zatman]

3 hours ago, Herman22 said:

The XG was 1.62 : 1.91. That doesn’t seem consistent with most reports of the game! 

The penalty is 0.77 I think 

[Lochheads twin]

18 hours ago, Demitri_C said:

Can someone tell me why there was not at leaat another 2 minutes added????

Wolves were fighting our players for at least 2 minutes of injury time

I get the feeling the ref had had enough and just wanted to get away from any more confrontation. Was not right but sort of understandable if you were the guy in the middle.

[Adman]

Shambles.  Still don't know our best starting 11 and formation.  

[Lochheads twin]

Well our unbeaten run in April comes to an abrupt end! 

Midfield still seems to be the puzzle we need to crack. We have some decent players, we just need to find the right combinations for the opposition we are faced with. For Wolves and Arsenal, teams who flood and dominate the centre of the pitch we were left short and chasing shadows. Hindsight says maybe we should have started Douglas, SJM & Sanson at the expense of maybe JJ who has no been at at his best recently. This may have given Coutinho a bit more of a platform to work from.

I have been opposed to the 5 sub rule but it may allow a Villa manager to be bolder with more timely substitutions when things ain't working. It was screaming out for a change yesterday but having already been forced into the Digne change, SG may have been a bit reticent in making another too early.

The pressure is now on to produce a good 90 minutes against Spuds. 

[foreveryoung]

2 hours ago, TRO said:

I said when to my watching partner (Mrs) They go 1-0 up now and they will see the game out on that, and they did, until we made another error, but fair play to them for forcing it....It was like a boxing match, just being out pointed....They did all the mundane stuff, better than us.

To be fair to Ollie, he did force an error on to their goalkeeper.....and that's what we didn't do enough of.

Watching that back, it was never a penalty. Where was the keeper supposed to go, Watkin's ran into him.

[david-avfc]

4 hours ago, Herman22 said:

The XG was 1.62 : 1.91. That doesn’t seem consistent with most reports of the game! 

Penalty + 2 one on one’s fluffed by Watkins (although the second did subsequently lead to the penalty)

 

If Watkins had missed that penalty my laptop would have been flying out the window in rage. I really hope Ings is given a run in the team starting from next week as Watkins all round play has been poor for a while and missing gilt edged chances cannot continue when we have a proven goal scorer on the bench

[sne]

The way we set up leaves massive gaps which any half decent team can exploit. A team with some pace up front and we are pretty much toast.

The midfield selection yesterday also had the added benefit (to our opponents) that we had little ability to control the pace or keep possession. 

[david-avfc]

48 minutes ago, Lochheads twin said:

Well our unbeaten run in April comes to an abrupt end! 

Midfield still seems to be the puzzle we need to crack. We have some decent players, we just need to find the right combinations for the opposition we are faced with. For Wolves and Arsenal, teams who flood and dominate the centre of the pitch we were left short and chasing shadows. Hindsight says maybe we should have started Douglas, SJM & Sanson at the expense of maybe JJ who has no been at at his best recently. This may have given Coutinho a bit more of a platform to work from.

I have been opposed to the 5 sub rule but it may allow a Villa manager to be bolder with more timely substitutions when things ain't working. It was screaming out for a change yesterday but having already been forced into the Digne change, SG may have been a bit reticent in making another too early.

The pressure is now on to produce a good 90 minutes against Spuds. 

Controversial opinion but Luiz is nowhere near as bad as a lot of fans make out, and the calamitous defence and midfield performance in that first half in his absence proves the point. We looked a different side when he was subbed on. He has to start every game as none of the others offer what provides, he’s one of those players who you don’t realise the job they do until they aren’t there.
 

If it was a fatigue issue following the international break then I’ll give Gerrard the benefit of the doubt but if it was a tactical decision to not play with a holding midfielder then Jesus wept that is poor management 

[AVTuco]

Nobody but me voted for Young as MotM. You guys know nothing about football.

[NoelVilla]

13 minutes ago, AVTuco said:

Nobody but me voted for Young as MotM. You guys know nothing about football.

I did.

[Robbie09]

It was a shit show yesterday, spat at from the 6 fingered toe rags sitting above us and then a broken down train completed a day of misery.

Losing Digne so early disrupted us, no width on the left and blunted us going forward. Watkins could’ve rescued at least a point yesterday regardless of whether we deserved it or not, Ings finishes at least one of those chances.

I’m saving judgement of SG until we have a proper CDM and a better back up left back.

Edited April 3, 2022 by Robbie09

[Herman22]

58 minutes ago, Robbie09 said:

I’m saving judgement of SG until we have a proper CDM and a better back up left back.

I agree with you to a point. But Ash has been poor all season at left back. I wonder would we be better off giving Chrisene some minutes? He wasn’t on the bench yesterday so it wasn’t really an option. 
 

I think the DM is key. Recruitment there needs to be right. 

[AVTuco]

1 hour ago, NoelVilla said:

I did.

True. But the the table says 1 ... I suppose it means 1 in addition to yourself. Makes sense ... not.