Ratings & Reactions: Bournemouth v Villa

[sne]

1 minute ago, daft said:

They scored from two SERIOUS defensive lapses on our part, and due to the fact we had absolutely no movement in their half and couldn't stretch their compact defense at all. 

That 30 crosses and 2 through balls is damning.

They let us have the ball as long as it was in the areas they wanted. Our defenders passing it around in harmless areas and allowing us to cross the ball was always going to be a situation where they liked their chances against us. 3 CB's + Billing and whatever vs Ings, Coutinho, Bailey.

They won the tactical game without even having to play a good game. We are embarrassingly predictable.

[daft]

1 minute ago, sne said:

That 30 crosses and 2 through balls is damning.

They let us have the ball as long as it was in the areas they wanted. Our defenders passing it around in harmless areas and allowing us to cross the ball was always going to be a situation where they liked their chances against us. 3 CB's + Billing and whatever vs Ings, Coutinho, Bailey.

They won the tactical game without even having to play a good game. We are embarrassingly predictable.

They were frequently 8-5 in the final third, and we had no runners dragging their defenders out of position at all. 

I all our crosses came from desperation rather than instruction.

[sne]

Aerial won stat was 16-16.

The they are taller excuse doesn't hold up.

[romavillan]

1 hour ago, JAMAICAN-VILLAN said:

Welp.

It's a new day and i'm still sore.

Sometimes rewatching the match, or highlights can make you think " You know what, we weren't actually too bad "

But i fear trying this with yesterdays game would just piss me off more.

I'm not watching that shit again.

It's all the more frustrating because we all knew that a line had to be drawn under the poor performances last season. New season, new start, Beale gone Critchley in, all the off the pitch stuff being so polished and seemingly taking big steps forward. Then on the pitch it looked like Bruceball again, like they'd all just met in the car park before the game. Hopefully it was some collective stage fright, first day nerves or whatever and all that hard work they've been doing will actually result in them not looking like a bunch of strangers just told to pull their socks up and run about a bit.

[briny_ear]

Well that performance certainly tested my resolve to remain calm whatever the outcome.

Of particular concern was the shambolic defending for the two goals. How you can have quite so many defenders in the box and yet leave so much space for unmarked forwards is a thing of wonder.

Lack of penetration up front was the other main issue but I feel I know that one better.

OK, so that was the first match of the season and the first time this squad has played in a competitive match together. So let’s hope they learned some lessons about what it takes to compete at that level and that there will be a big improvement against Everton. 

There really does need to be a big improvement against Everton.

Let’s hope everyone at the club, at every level and in the many coaching roles we seem to have accumulated, is very clear about that.

[Blasterpocket68]

2 hours ago, rodders0223 said:

It's not that though is it. How many of us sat last season and watched this exact blueprint of football played out repeatedly?

Managers salary has gone up. Season tickets have gone up. Wage bill has gone up.

The football has been the worst since Bruce.

He wasn’t my choice of manager , but we (really hate to quote this ) give him time . Half a season and 90 minutes into a new season not matter how disappointing the performance is isn’t enough time . If after 5 game mark performance and results don’t change the pressure will be on the board. 
 

[Brumstopdogs]

24 minutes ago, sne said:

Aerial won stat was 16-16.

The they are taller excuse doesn't hold up.

Watching the match height seemed to be one issue. Organisation, bravery and leadership were some of the others.

[sne]

Just now, Brumstopdogs said:

Watching the match height seemed to be one issue. Organisation, bravery and leadership were some of the others.

...Game plan, lack of pace... 

[TRO]

2 hours ago, StanBalaban said:

First day anomalies happy. I don't expect Fulham to go toe-to-toe with Liverpool this season, just like Burnley didn't push-on by beating Chelsea. Hell, Tony Moon scored a 3rd against Arsenal on the opening day, so they can be a poor indicator of what's to come.

 

Yesterday was alarming however. We looked really poor, devoid of ideas, strategy, shape, leaving us unable to create anything. In addition to being poorly setup, individual players looked like they forgot how to play football - lacking touch, passing and fight.

 

Gerrard knew that Bournemouth were stacked with tall players, yet left our tallest and most physically imposing CB on the bench. I'd probably go as far as suggesting their goals wouldn't have happened had Mings been on the pitch.

 

That doesn't mean we'd have won though, as we never looked like scoring. Poorly delivered crosses into the box seemed to be our only plan - dealt easily by Bournemouth's defenders. They kept us compact, and we didn't have any route through them. No overloads, no through balls, no change of pace once we had the ball under control, there was nothing.

 

On the plus side, Kamara looked quality and Carlos was largely solid. That's about it though. JJ and McGinn don't play well together in this "system". We know that Coutinho is a far better player than he's shown, but he's been in hugely inconsistent form, and yesterday was rubbish. Luiz came on for Kamara, when I think he and Bouba would be better playing together.

 

There were signs that Bailey and Cash can form an understanding, but that leaves us lopsided. In fact, Bailey started more centrally and could be useful there , or cutting in from the flanks to assist a striker, or have the pace to latch on to a through ball. Of which, Buendia needs to start in place of Phil for the next game. Traore and Samson could have been useful options on the bench too.

I fully expect more players in through the door, so I don't think Gerrard is going anywhere just yet, but Everton and Palace will tell us a lot more about what we can expect from this season. He's heaped a huge amount of unnecessary pressure on himself after that shitshow. You'd hope that one of our thousand coaches can see just how disjointed we are and put it right.

The next two games will decide how long Gerrard stays in the job. The one good thing is that, whenever he does leave, we'll have an excellent squad of players, some of whom would not be here without him.

Let's see who can actually get a tune out of them!

 

 

 

 

They still might not be here without him....thats the trade -off.

its too early yet.......He can't be happy with that, and we just have to see what the reaction is/brings....one way or another, that will not be allowed to continue....its what we do about it now.

I feel, I know a big part of the problem, but folk have their own opinions, we are all just speculating.

 

Edited August 7, 2022 by TRO

[TRO]

2 hours ago, macandally said:

Out of likes but this is bang on.  We have the right to question whether this bloke actually knows what he is doing, or whether Beale was the brains behind Gerrard

I think winning games is a pretty good barometer of whether a manager knows what he's doing or not.....even Klopp was struggling with a buoyant Fulham, yesterday, despite all his riches in talent.

Michael Beale ( bless him) has presided over the same amount of defeats as SG did, bar one......So I would be surprised if he was the so called brains behind that, as some suspect.

We are all smarting after that, but there is too much BS spinning around right now.

In my humble opinion, very few fans factored in the achilles heel we have and that Bournemouth was the prime antithesis of what we are.

In the rebuild, we need to factor in players, who can help us deal with these kind of teams....hell bent on bullying us out of the game.

[daft]

3 minutes ago, TRO said:

I think winning games is a pretty good barometer of whether a manager knows what he's doing or not.....even Klopp was struggling with a buoyant Fulham, yesterday, despite all his riches in talent.

Michael Beale ( bless him) has presided over the same amount of defeats as SG did, bar one......So I would be surprised if he was the so called brains behind that, as some suspect.

We are all smarting after that, but there is too much BS spinning around right now.

In my humble opinion, very few fans factored in the achilles heel we have and that Bournemouth was the prime antithesis of what we are.

In the rebuild, we need to factor in players, who can help us deal with these kind of teams....hell bent on bullying us out of the game.

Good summary. They did defend with great structure, and they used our lack of movement very cleverly.

[Tomaszk]

47 minutes ago, TRO said:

We are all smarting after that, but there is too much BS spinning around right now.

You're telling me.

47 minutes ago, TRO said:

In my humble opinion, very few fans factored in the achilles heel we have and that Bournemouth was the prime antithesis of what we are.

In the rebuild, we need to factor in players, who can help us deal with these kind of teams....hell bent on bullying us out of the game.

Bournemouth will get relegated.

They are not bullies. They are not a side that's difficult to beat and this season will show that. Their manager said they weren't ready for the season.

"The rebuild"?! It's happened. Gerrard has signed four £20m+ players each earning £5m a year. We won't be shifting them. They are here to stay. Let's hope Gerrard can do something he's very rarely done and make them look like a football team.

[Zatman]

I have to say I have never been sold on Digne and still not convinced especially bringing jewellery on to the pitch

Thats a guy that doesnt care, it's like not wearing shinpads

[Vive_La_Villa]

2 minutes ago, Zatman said:

I have to say I have never been sold on Digne and still not convinced especially bringing jewellery on to the pitch

Thats a guy that doesnt care, it's like not wearing shinpads

What was he wearing ?

[RichW]

I really need to stop feeling confident before a game, it’s just standard Villa to play like dross when they are favourites to win a football game. 
 

Was disappointing to go behind so early but even then I wasn’t too concerned. I thought we had good options on the bench to come on and change the game if we needed too but the team just didn’t up. We didn’t create anything, it was all shots from distance blazed well over and the amount of crosses that were put into the box that were really poor was conceding. Ings and Watkins are not well known for their aerial ability so I was confused with the game plan. 
 

Bournemouth, like Watford last season, will still struggle but Aston Villa are very good at making other teams look good. It’s really annoying. 
 

This could be a one-off, we could go and beat Everton and then Palace and this will be forgotten about but I’m not confident on that. If there are more performances like that over the next few games I don’t think the owners will take long to pull the trigger, I think Smith had a lot more credit in the bank which is why they waited last season but the squad is good enough for a top half finish. Gerrard has no excuses. 

[Brumstopdogs]

 

[MakemineVanilla]

Bournemouth seem to have modelled their team and style of play on Burnley, with Kieffer Moore playing the Chris Wood role, which used to cause Villa the same sort of problems.

Making his top-flight debut at 29 and scoring, must have been a dream come true for the big galute.

Villa kept them busy but didn't really cause them many problems.

Villa weren't terrible but they don't look capable of getting anywhere near the top-half, and Gerrard looked like he knew it, by the final whistle.

 

 

 

 

[sne]

13 minutes ago, Brumstopdogs said:

 

Yeah the McGinn receiving the ball facing the opponents goal only for him to turn to face our goal instead, stick his a** out and pass it back to Kamara was a interesting strategy from our captain. 

[Rightdm00]

46 minutes ago, Brumstopdogs said:

 

The nightmare continues. Midfield just scattered to the winds. Kamara is a 3rd CB and McGinnis and Ramsey are isolated to either flank. He's learned nothing and persists with a broken, never going to work at prem level system. 

 

[NurembergVillan]

15 hours ago, romavillan said:

to go into the first game of the season and have enormous gaps between players

This is the one for me. It's no wonder our passing stats were so bad - somehow we managed to isolate every single player. It was bizarre.

When Gerrard arrived he talked about getting the players closer together and it was visible for the first couple of months.  Since then we seem to be reliant on Hollywood balls and defensive mistakes.