Ratings & Reactions: Villa v Burnley

[Adam2003]

33 minutes ago, Zatman said:

Havent seen it clearly but apparently we scored from a foul throw by Cash 

Yeah def foul throw, although quite a bit before the goal - ie far enough back that VAR felt it shouldn’t be relevant. 

[the_eristic]

1 hour ago, Adam2003 said:

Yeah def foul throw, although quite a bit before the goal - ie far enough back that VAR felt it shouldn’t be relevant. 

I cannot recall ever seeing a foul throw called in top level football, and I probably see at least one perpetrated per match. Someone scored right after one this season, Leeds maybe?

[chips'ngravy]

2 hours ago, TomC said:

I saw the replay. Very obvious. We got away with one.

 

Evened it up given their goal came from a player who shouldn't have been on the pitch.

[villa4europe]

4 hours ago, Zatman said:

Havent seen it clearly but apparently we scored from a foul throw by Cash 

yeah ball boy threw it up to him and he took it quickly, so quickly that he one foot was still on the pitch and im pretty sure raised rather than on the ground

a shit throwing motion is one thing but that kind of throw is really hard for the ref to spot

but as burnley fans say "premier league, corrupt as ****"

[punkiller1981]

I found it a strange game it had a very end of season feel to it from us where we dominated the ball for large parts but the urgency to go after the win seemed lacking a little bit. Also I found it odd because I hate Leeds and want them to go down so I went into the game wanting us to maybe not win but as soon as the game kicks off that’s gone and I’m desperate for the win.
Difficult to pick to much out really. I thought mings and chambers looked good and they block from mings was incredible although the guy shouldn’t have gave him a chance to block. The full backs ads looking decent and overall we looked very comfortable.

a note as well for nick pope, the guy had a terrific game but that save from Bert was world class

[rjw63]

Just saw the highlights. 

Pope should have had a drug test! 

[thunderball]

11 hours ago, foreveryoung said:

So we would be 11th tonight had we beat Burnley, an considering the season, that ain't too bad. We should have beat Burnley too, as we dominated most of the game as I saw it.  But there were 2 huge factors we didn't get the win, an one is definitely not because Gerrard is shite.

1, Burnley fighting for there lives to stay in the Premier league

2. Pope was world class tonight and kept out 3 with top top saves.

On another day as they say..............

 

Without a forensic statistical analysis, of those in the bottom half of the table, since Gerrard joined (7 Nov) only Newcastle have done slightly better than us. No fireworks but we have been better than most in that area (including Palace and Brentford who finish above us).  Gerrard has improved us. 

We have to do much better next season, but this has been a disrupted season: managers, injuries/availability and the Grealish & Ings transitions. I am confident we will be much better.

Edit: added handy table of post Gerrard table I've just seen

Edited May 20, 2022 by thunderball

[thunderball]

8 hours ago, sidcow said:

Christ on a bike. If ever a match totally summed up an entire season, that was it. 

Totally dominating, only denied three great goals and a victory by a keeper having a worldie as they park the bus and clog us and the ball in their usual Wimbledon style?

No, mostly poor sums up our season, but this wasn’t it.

[OutByEaster?]

Some of our play was excellent, and I thought Douglas Luis was outstanding, particularly in the first half. We dominated possession throughout and we constantly and consistently got the ball into dangerous areas - into the corners, around the box and across it. The first half of this game was a talented ten year old fighting a three hundred pound asthmatic man in a mobility scooter - we threw a million harmless punches and then got caught by a lazy but potent slap.

Our problem is particularly pronounced - we're very often the better of the two sides and very rarely the winner.

I think they see that, I think they'll fix that and I think there are signs n our patterns of play that we're improving, even though results haven't caught up with us yet.

A frustrating season, particularly at home, that I think we can in part put down to growing pains.

And while Leeds would be funnier, I won't be sorry to see the back of these if they go - Barnes's elbow on Mings could have left him in the hospital and it wasn't the only one he threw - nor was it out of character for this side over the last couple of years - they're an unpleasant experience and surprisingly poorly supported, they wouldn't be missed. 

 

 

[chappy]

8 hours ago, lapal_fan said:

We're beating Watford twice away from being 8th..

We're in transition from one thing, to another.

Make or break for Steve G next year, but he has got to get us performing in those tough winter months.

Also if we’d held that lead against Wolves at VP, there wouldn’t be a gap between the sides for us to mind. Fine margins in mid table.

[Dante_Lockhart]

Another goalkeeper putting in his performance of the season against us.

[Louis]

Correct me if I'm wrong but that was a very flat game.

[The_Steve]

6 hours ago, Adam2003 said:

Yeah def foul throw, although quite a bit before the goal - ie far enough back that VAR felt it shouldn’t be relevant. 

Yep, it’s a different transition of play. 

[The_Steve]

Another day we win that 6-1 or more. For a dead rubber game it was good to see some experimentation. 

[Louis]

I was expecting no more than at least 38k. Surprised there was 40k inside on a Thursday night considering the fact we're playing for nothing now.

[El Segundo]

I’m not enjoying watching Gerrard’s Villa that much.  For me there is a lack of intensity and tempo, a lack of movement off the ball, and players too often isolated with few options but to pass it backwards or sideways.  I said similar after the Palace game where we managed to pass it back to Martinez after starting out on the left of Palace’s area.  It seems to be keeping possession for the sake of keeping possession, rather than to actually achieve anything with it.  I guess I’m a bit old school but to me it’s exasperating, frustrating and just a bit boring.  Maybe that’s where we miss Grealish most.

The lack of width is painfully obvious sometimes.  Several occasions where a defender or midfielder got the ball out wide in our half and absolutely no-one ahead of them to play it forward to.   

First half, for all our possession, we created very little in terms of clear chances.  A lot better second half but Pope had a bit of a blinder, and unlike Lloris, not all the shots were more or less straight at him.  I still don’t know how he got to Traore’s header.

Whatever the stats are my perception is that Gerrard has not improved us or moved us forward.  14^th place is garbage compared to where we were when he joined and after adding a couple of big players.  Admittedly it’s from a lower base but Howe improved Newcastle significantly, to the extent where they will now finish above us – that does not reflect well on Gerrard and his team at all. His focus seems to have been less on improving what he has, like Howe has done,  and more on identifying what he needs to implement his way of playing next season.  I think he could and should have done both.  

I honestly don’t think we would have done any worse had we kept Smith.  Seems to me Purslow was set on getting his mate in at the first opportunity, and 5 defeats on the bounce gave him that opportunity. 

I think if Gerrard wasn’t such a big name a lot more people would be very doubtful of him.  Yes most of our defeats are by the odd goal and you could say, in that respect, we are close to being a good side in that respect.  But small margins are often the most difficult to make up and I’m not sure I see enough potential there for us to do it sufficiently to challenge top 8.  I guess we’ll find out next season.

[rodders0223]

2 hours ago, rjw63 said:

Just saw the highlights. 

Pope should have had a drug test! 

For making one great save and a load of saves you'd expect him to make?

[thunderball]

2 hours ago, thunderball said:

Without a forensic statistical analysis, of those in the bottom half of the table, since Gerrard joined (7 Nov) only Newcastle have done slightly better than us. No fireworks but we have been better than most in that area (including Palace and Brentford who finish above us).  Gerrard has improved us. 

We have to do much better next season, but this has been a disrupted season: managers, injuries/availability and the Grealish & Ings transitions. I am confident we will be much better.

Edit: added handy table of post Gerrard table I've just seen

[MakemineVanilla]

9 minutes ago, rodders0223 said:

For making one great save and a load of saves you'd expect him to make?

Villa had 22 shots and only 9 were on target, which suggests that Villa's lousy shooting had more to do with it.

Cash's habit of trying to beat the goalkeeper at his near-post is wasteful and annoying.

Finishing 14th can't really be considered much of an achievement by any stretch of the imagination.

[rjw63]

32 minutes ago, rodders0223 said:

For making one great save and a load of saves you'd expect him to make?

Hey, the highlights made it look amazing, andit was 5.45am, give us a break ffs