Ratings & Reactions: Villa v Norwich

[Marka Ragnos]

I know it can be hard to accept some unfiltered sunlight, but I'm going to go ahead and let the brightness in this weekend. What a nice way to go into May ... I may even let myself go a bit and entertain a flicker of hope for Europe in 2023. #UTV!

Edited April 30, 2022 by Marka Ragnos

[KentVillan]

Was a really poor game, against a side not good enough for this division. Hard to know what to take away from it.

We (again) looked better in attack with two strikers and one ten. A fairly competent performance from our defence, although it’s not as if Norwich didn’t have any chances.

Coutinho doesn’t look interested. Ings and Buendia both good when they came on.

Iroegbunam still a work in progress. I liked his willingness to get stuck in… good physicality for his age, but think Luiz is a much better all round player at this stage.

[maqroll]

Pretty murky stuff on the whole, first half in particular. 

Bailey is Traore 2.0. There is clearly a serviceable player there, but he appears to be a bit dainty. We need battlers. Not sure if he's cut out for the rough and tumble Premier League. His injury almost looked exaggerated.

Buendia is a live wire, and fun to watch. I want to have fun watching him. 

Important two points, another clean sheet, both strikers with goals. 

But the overall performance level would have been exploited by better sides.

 

[The_Steve]

You can only beat what’s in front of you - a controlled comfortable game in the end. A win is still a win and will do Ings and Ollie a world of good to get on the scoresheet. Great to see Chambers back and so happy for young Tim. 

[The_Steve]

20 minutes ago, AV82 said:

A tale of two halves. Hopefully now Gerrard will pick Buendia and Ings instead of his mates Bailey/Coutinho.

Enjoy the win eh 

[stewiek2]

18 minutes ago, rjw63 said:

I wouldn't give a stinky shit how "crap" we were if we won 2-0 every week.

Is that you George Graham?

[briny_ear]

22 minutes ago, Don_Simon said:

If that goal hadn't gone in before half time, it would have been vicious from the fans. The Holte was bubbling away for a seriously negative reaction. 

You almost sound a bit disappointed we scored. 

Anyway, glad the Holte End were frustrated in their desire to be pointlessly hostile and negative

Edited April 30, 2022 by briny_ear

[Spoony]

43 minutes ago, jim said:

21 shots but we don’t create anything

Emphasis on “clear cut”. Regardless of chances we rarely actually look threatening. 

[Demitri_C]

Wasnt pretty but cant argue ona  clean sheet and three points. Ings changed the game so a good sub from gerrard there. 

Lets get some momentum going

 

[briny_ear]

A satisfactory result against a side who frankly don’t take much beating.

Two very good goals - Bailey unlucky not to get an excellent strike as well.

Further confirmation for me that somewhere in there is an effective attacking line that contains both Watkins and Ings. Not sure why it is proving so hard to bring it together.

Good to see a creditable start for Tim Iroegbunam.

Not quite sure why we picked up so many bookings.

30 points from 22 games for Gerrard now. He has done the first bit of his job to pull us away from threat of relegation. He still has a bit of distance to travel to make us any sort of contenders.

[ciggiesnbeer]

Well I am happy  2 nil and it probably should have been more. Bailey's crossbar hit was a good sign at least.

Delighted to see Watkins and Ings playing again together and both scoring.

I saw lots of positives in a disjointed performance but that had something to do with Norwich who kept pushing.
 

Its all sunshine and rainbows for me. Safe and with a few more games to go while looking forward to an exciting summer window. 

Good luck Deano.

[Phil Silvers]

50 minutes ago, NoelVilla said:

Would

[robby b]

The magic 40 points with five games left still... at least that's a much better scenario than the same stage of our first season back in the PL.

[sparrow1988]

56 minutes ago, NoelVilla said:

This gif is brilliantly made I have to say. Impossible to tell where it ends and starts over.

[Tomaszk]

Not much good, but everyone knew that any way.

Suppose we'll just have to see if we can buy good enough players to make us better.

[Spoony]

It’s just so, so dull

[Spoony]

7 minutes ago, robby b said:

The magic 40 points with five games left still... at least that's a much better scenario than the same stage of our first season back in the PL.

Says a lot for a team that cost hundreds of millions to construct. 

[AV82]

21 minutes ago, The_Steve said:

Enjoy the win eh 

Problem is we won’t win often playing like that. It’s fair criticism against 20th placed Norwich.

[IrishVilla10]

How many games have we controlled since November? We rarely dominate possession. I don’t think we have any intensity at all. We let Norwich pass it around us when we gave them the ball back time and time again. Does Gerrard not see that?

[OutByEaster?]

We were untidy and laboured, but never for a single moment looked like we weren't going to win that game. A little sharper and there would have been more goals.

Midfield worked hard, Iroegbunam had a decent debut and I thought McGinn had a good game, Ramsey was alright and I though Luiz added something when he came on.

Mings was good, Chambers did okay, Digne was alright, Cash was okay but a little off his best, Watkins was busy but hit-and-miss, both figuratively and literally and Ings was the same but a bit smarter.

Overall, no one stood out, we weren't outstanding, but we were the better team and would have scored more on another day - this isn't one that will live long in the memory.

Or at least not for anyone that isn't Dean Smith; applauded off the Norwich team bus, welcomed to the dugout to a chorus of Deano's  and then given a round of applause right at the very end, after he'd shaken the hands of all of his old Villa players as they left the pitch, that he warmly returned. The send off he deserved, without in any way being a slight on the current manager. He also revealed that he must be a regular Villatalk reader when he took off Rashica for a fella called Rowe - he can collect the fish puns trophy at the front office.

We've got work to do, we're unfinished, unpolished and occasionally a bit frustrating, but there are good players here and we might have the type of squad that suddenly clicks into a team for no good reason at all - hopefully sooner rather than later.

Finally adding a second home win of 2022 - that'll do.

Oh, and the ref was terrible, started badly and got worse as he lost confidence in himself.