Ratings & Reactions: Villa v Everton

[JAMAICAN-VILLAN]

3 hours ago, Marka Ragnos said:

I don't think they're all that dire, but they're another sports-washing site of a brand with blood on their owners' and erstwhile financial backer's hands. I feel bad for the locals, but there is so little to love about that club any more. Usmanov's been sanctioned for good reaons.

They actually gave Chelsea a good game last week.

[Adam2003]

32 minutes ago, IrishVilla10 said:

There’s genuine cause for concern over the last 10 months, it extended into preseason, the Mings issue and then Bournemouth. A win today doesn’t make it disappear 

Agreed, I would like nothing more than Gerrard to be a storming success from here but I’m not getting carried away by beating the team that will probably finish bottom of the league this year - we beat Norwich and Burnley in the last 12 games of last season as well, but just beating the worst in the division won’t quite cut it.

Really hoping it can be a springboard though and we are all laughing at this thread in May…

[Vive_La_Villa]

All I can say is referee is a pure joke. How he could blow the whistle at 98 minutes is beyond me. Everton had a few more attacks in them yet to get the equaliser.  Complete joke. 

[Shomin Geki]

Really not the kind of game that should be giving us a volley of mini heart attacks, especially having gone two to the good.  We so nearly threw it all away against the total dreariness of Alex Iwobi FC, a side who have something doomed about them already.  Whether that's doomed to a purgatorial mediocrity or something much worse remains to be seen.  And how good a performance this was rests very much on just how dreadful this Everton side really are.  They seemed quite rancid.  But we came away from a potential (mouldy, half-eaten) banana skin with a win, which should give our confidence a little shot in the arm.  The far greater shot in the arm was the little dose of, shall we say, Argentinian marching powder, that changed our game as it was drifting into flavourless mush.  The kind of hit even the studied indifference of Mister Steven Gerrard would find it hard to ignore.

Still, worries will be carried over to next week.  Villa's game was still largely aimless and turgid.  Until Buendia woke us up we rarely seemed at all dangerous, the numbed atmosphere quite telling.  The clap-o-meter reception at Villa park barely surpassed 'golf applause' for much of the game, the final whistle bringing relief not merriment.  Gerrard will have to do a lot more to bring the promise of a roar about the chests of expectant Villans.

As ever, today's player ratings first off (and the season's average in this little space afterwards.)  I feel like I'm being quite generous this week, as much as I felt bad at the miserly marks I assigned against Bournemouth.  It's crazy how close we came to tossing away the easiest of three points.

MARTINEZ 7 (7) Did what he had to go, got his body in the way during chaotic moments, and still looks imperious when the ball sails high into the box.  Is a slightly nervy flappiness creeping into his game?  Those hands of steel no longer look totally impervious to the odd wobble.

MINGS 7 (7) Stomped about early on as if he had a point to prove.  His argy-bargy display of typical bouncer-ish territoriality was quite welcome after last week's frailties.  Never the most graceful player, perpetually burbling towards a brain fart, the generous 7 here is largely due to the late game-saving tackle he really shouldn't have had to make.

CARLOS 6 (6) What has seemed so assured and natural today showed a slight hint of the insouciant, aimless or casual.  Hard to give him an unequivocally positive rating considering just how poor the Everton goal was.  But he's clearly the Business and I'll lose little sleep over the odd teething issue.

CASH 8 (7) The Cash of old was vital today, giving a typical 'he'll sleep tonight' performance that was equally swashbuckling and tenacious in both halves.  Final product is still an issue but today's relentless positivity and positive relentlessness gave us an obvious edge.

DIGNE 6 (5.5) The resounding image so far of Digne's Villa career is of a slightly sheepish long-distance thumbs up as he reflects upon another fruitless foray towards the opposing corner of the pitch.  Gained a sense of purpose, not totally fulfilled, when the heartthrob Buendia came on.

KAMARA 7 (6.5) You'll see far less combative, composed and dogged performances from players parachuted into the likes of the seemingly endless quagmire of Villa's Central Midfield Problem (CMP).  He's everywhere, intelligent, reads the game like he's in the middle of a meaty novel, and one suspects has demanding standards for himself.  That he'll almost certainly live up to.

McGINN 5 (4.5) If your workhorse is not particularly fast or strong, and displays little in the way of endurance or stamina, what precisely does your work horse do?  The Arse Pivot glory days seem a distant memory.

RAMSAY 7 (5.5) Although he wasn't in the game for significant periods, he brought much of the performance of Cash, dogged, tireless and surging, into our progressive phases.  Equally invaluable today, there is little that raises the hairs on one's arm as much as a long-legged Ramsay canter upfield.

COUTINHO 4 (3.5) An indispensable part of The Magician's successful performance is the mastery of angles.  What the audience can see and cannot see.  Watching Coutinho, lost in a babble of impotent flicks, is like looking at the magician from all the worst angles all the time.  No hat, no rabbit, no magic.

WATKINS 6 (5) Harsh, I know, for a dude who ended the game with two assists, but he's still playing like he has a small army of uppity crabs in his boots.  A litany of fumbles, dead end meandering and poor decisions, but ends up with two crucial interventions.  Funny old game, eh?

INGS 7 (6.5) Like the toughest dog in the yard who's face is greying, belly sagging, limbs aching, but can still whack a bite on you if you let him.  Ings in his pomp could of got an easy hat-trick today, but he was deadly when it mattered.  Straight for the jugular.

BUENDIA 7 (6) Really didn't actually do a great deal, but boy did we leap into life when he came on!  Suddenly there was movement and angles and intent and threat.  The clunky blade of Villa's second half attack got miraculously lighter and deadlier when Buendia leaped into action.  Gerrard SURELY cannot have noticed this.  Must start the next game.  And the next.

OTHER SUBS N/A

CHAMBERS 7 (7) Sweet little Chambers gets his own little 7 for the other totally, ridiculously unnecessary game-saving challenge at the close.  Good boy.

[Zatman]

Truth is we were shit, they were shit.

We had 2 moments of magic to win the game but we were really bad

[Zatman]

I am sorry we won but that was crap. Coutinho is a passenger and we played better when he came off

[Anything11]

3 posts in a row dude? Log off and go touch some grass you are cooked

[Tomaszk]

Need a @Zatman and @Vive_La_Villa TLC match here 

[chappy]

Great to be back at VP! Before some reflections on the match, just a little word for the poor bar staff in the Holte Suite at half time - only 4 people on the bar where there are usually 10+ - in my mind it seemed pretty obvious that they were understaffed due to the train strike… unfortunately they were getting a lot of abuse for slow service (the service was slow but they were swamped and shouting at them wasn’t going to make it any quicker, disappointed in some fellow fans there).

Quite enjoyed walking to and from town to the game, probably won’t make a habit of it but it wasn’t too bad. Planned to go via the Barton’s Arms on the way, great as ever, and chances upon the excellently named Sacks of Potatoes on the way back. 3rd time in 4 seasons my Everton supporting mate has made the trip down (last two with me as I unfortunately couldn’t make the Wesley game), his recent VP record reads P3 L3 F1 A7 - always a pleasure meeting him after the game 

Kamara was our best player, absolutely everywhere and did the simple things well (mopping up) and looked to pass progressively too.

McGinn much better in the second half. Ramsey better in the first and wilted a bit. Coutinho was barely noticeable whereas when Buendia came on for him the difference was night and day - suddenly we looked so much more potent in possession, he was popping up everywhere and looking threatening, great for him to get a goal.

Watkins was slightly frustrating but came away with two assists. Desperately short on confidence, I reckon a goal would do wonders for him. Nice finish by Ings for his goal and an all round decent performance.

Mings was fantastic. Dealt with everything very calmly and seemed to thrive on the crowd getting behind him post captaincy-gate. Carlos solid and dependable. Cash was good at times but looked goosed after about 20 minutes in the heat. Digne had an average game capped by the OG. Martinez did well at the end to catch a few crosses.

Great win, much deserved for the first 86 minutes. Then they scored straight from the kick off at 2-0 and we collectively shat ourselves. Looked really ragged at the end. McGinn trying to get instructions from the bench instead of focusing on what was going on on the pitch was a bit embarrassing. The worst bit was Gerrard surrounded by about ten back room staff all flapping as we were making our subs on 90 mins, looked like a circus on the touchline. Don’t want to see Austin McPhee and his pad of paper again!! We look terrible from set pieces defensively and that is his job!

Really happy with the win though!

 

 

[the_eristic]

Lil' Emi MOTM. Overall, squad looked much more motivated and energetic, working to get to balls first and tackling well, which was good to see. Much improved performance from JJ in particular. Still fairly aimless tactically with limited movement, though, and lost what organization we had when put under real pressure in the second half, which was exacerbated by subs being left too late. Reinforce the midfield and fullbacks with 20 to go or even when Emi scores and we see that out more comfortably. Having only Doug for the midfield on the bench (and not even using him) is a worry. Also, Ollie needs to gamble more on back post runs when Digne is on the ball, you can tell he's used to crossing deeper to the likes of Calvert-Lewin, while we seem to have nobody in the area every time.

[Brumstopdogs]

Very important win and much needed to get the season back on track.

For most of the game we looked fairly comfortable although we should expect when the opposition bring on a very talented  player that could cost them upto 40m EUR that he may well be capable of making a difference and cause us problems.

Buendia - what a star though!

Edited August 14, 2022 by Brumstopdogs

[RichW]

Nice to be coming on here after a win for a change hasn’t felt like been able to do so in recent times. 
 

Initially when the game finished I was happy with the win but felt like the performance was again not convincing enough but you have to take any win you can get in this league especially after the poor performance last week. Looking back at the game I think we did create quite a few good chances. Carlos could have done better with his header, Buendia off the line, Watkins had that one-on-one at the end so we could have scored more goals. 
 

Another quiet game for Coutinho, getting harder for Gerrard to justify starting him over Buendia. When Buendia came on I could understand how Gerrard is wanting the team to play, he was popping up everywhere and making things happen. Pretty sure he wasn’t on for long before he put a through ball to Ings on the right hand side. Hopefully he will get the chance to get more goals and assists this season.

After two games where we were expected to dominate possession, Palace away will be the first 50/50 game we have this season so be a good test, no doubt they will be going into it after conceding a few at Anfield 

 

 

[Zhan_Zhuang]

5 hours ago, Zatman said:

Truth is we were shit, they were shit.

We had 2 moments of magic to win the game but we were really bad

Sorry, but I disagree.

There were some very good performances from Kamara, Mings, Cash, Ings and Watkins was lively too (two assists).

Perhaps we should have killed them off, I was hoping for a three nil victory personally and at times it looked like we might score more.

However opposition teams are always going to have some threat, Onana looks like he could be a real good player and he therefore made a big difference to them when he came on.

[briny_ear]

6 hours ago, Zatman said:

Truth is we were shit, they were shit.

We had 2 moments of magic to win the game but we were really bad

Glad the win hasn’t disrupted the opportunities for relentless negativity about all things Villa then. 

[VillaFaninLondon]

I only watched the MOTD highlights but it didn't look like the win was in any way convincing. A better side than Everton would have probably won yesterday or at least got a draw given some of the chances we allowed them.

 

Gerrard buys himself more time but that's it. Fail to win more than one of the next five games and he'll be in trouble. We have to start beating the better teams and after yesterday's performance I am not convinced we will.

 

Mings needs to stay in the team, Buendia needs to play over Coutinho who looked again to have a poor game (he's worse since he signed permanently than we had him on loan despite Gerrard telling us he'd be better). Watkins-Ings I'm still not fond of but we do seem to win more when they both play. Carlos looks like he could be out for a while which is typically bad news for us.

 

Need to follow this up by beating Palace, I want to see some consistently good results if Gerrard wants to prove he's capable of taking this team forward.

[Sulberto21]

4 hours ago, Tomaszk said:

Need a @Zatman and @Vive_La_Villa TLC match here 

Boiler room brawl with Gerrard’s  future on the line. 

[rodders0223]

I can see why people are looking for the positives but truth is Everton spent near enough the entire game in their own third 

So the control of the game and passing aspect is overstaed 

Everton are absolute dog muck and still they had a goal disallowed scored one and perhaps should have nicked an equaliser 

We have match winners and decent decent forward players so have the firepower to nick this game but again wrong selection no real balance or fluidity. We don't seem to really be building anything. Slow and ponderous.

Oli and Ings worked really hard.

JJ was a benefit with his direct running and balance either side.

Kamara one of those players who just seems to have the knack of winning those 50/50s and block tackles and is Jonny on the spot.

Cash honest enough.

Aside from a few good individual performances we still don't actually look like a team. Tougher tests await.

We will beat the shite and look slow ponderous, inept and clueless against the rest as per last season. We don't play football.

[Anything11]

Just finished watching the whole game. We were in control for the most part aside from a few moments. McGinn looks to be improving and getting stuck in and JJ made a few good runs. The transition from counter-attacking team to possession based is happening however it takes time.

It is clear that Buendia needs to get a start - everything begins to flow with him on the field.

[JAMAICAN-VILLAN]

1 hour ago, briny_ear said:

Glad the win hasn’t disrupted the opportunities for relentless negativity about all things Villa then. 

Someone has actually gone through the trouble to do certain people a solid. 4 members and growing...

https://www.facebook.com/groups/1876993452631588/?ref=share

Edited August 14, 2022 by JAMAICAN-VILLAN

[CVByrne]

Two goals scored in transition. We've yet to break a team down with patient build up play.