Ratings & Reactions: Villa v Everton

[Tomaszk]

16 minutes ago, Zhan_Zhuang said:

A point or more against Palace and I'll be happy.

A decent performance and I'll be happy.

4 points from Bournemouth, Everton and Palace won't get us the top half Gerrard is after.

[ROTTERDAM1982]

Get a good striker and we would have won by 3 or 4 today.

Bit fed up of this Buendia is better than Coutinho tbh, i'm glad we have them both, and we have a sub who can make an impact when he comes on.

[KangarooVillan]

- Still doubts Gerrard can coach - too many players still encroaching on each other in that 1st half when we were on top which is a concern and a direct measure of managerial organisation

- Mings is still our best defender

- Carlos is an upgrade on Konsa

- Buendia must start over Coutinho

- Ings is our best striker and needs continuity in starts

[Thug]

6 minutes ago, daft said:

How do you know?

Because Coutinho got injured, and he brought Buendia on - and Buendia wasn’t already waiting to come on.

 

Obviously

[Thug]

2 minutes ago, ROTTERDAM1982 said:

Get a good striker and we would have won by 3 or 4 today.

Bit fed up of this Buendia is better than Coutinho tbh, i'm glad we have them both, and we have a sub who can make an impact when he comes on.

Which is what Coutinho should be doing.

[Mantis]

3 minutes ago, Tomaszk said:

A decent performance and I'll be happy.

4 points from Bournemouth, Everton and Palace won't get us the top half Gerrard is after.

The problem isn't so much our points haul from these sorts of games (under Gerrard we've done ok in that regard), it's getting points off the top 8, which we've been woeful at.

[tinker]

20 minutes ago, Made In Aston said:

This is the problem with some football fans... Its all very short term and reactionary. If he doesn't do anything one week he should be sold and if he gets an assist then he is beyond reproach.

The fact is that Watkins limitations are there every week regardless of whether he happens to get an assist or not. Elghazi had a good return for goals and assists a couple of seasons back but no one wants him in the team.

I'm not saying Watkins is a bad player, but in this system he is causing more problems than solutions. It's hindering our ability to create chances over the long term. 

Absolute drivel, without him playing we would not have won today, he had a few chances that he missed or were saved but that's football  another day he would have scored and not assisted.

He ran the pitch for ,90 minutes in 40 degree heat. 

 

[daft]

Just now, Thug said:

Because Coutinho got injured, and he brought Buendia on - and Buendia wasn’t already waiting to come on.

 

Obviously

Errr, he had been warming up for a bit already?

 

[Tommo_b]

5 minutes ago, Tomaszk said:

A decent performance and I'll be happy.

4 points from Bournemouth, Everton and Palace won't get us the top half Gerrard is after.

What will 6 points get us?

[brummybloke]

Digne has been poor in both games so fat this season, I mean really poor. Not including the OG which he tried to clear but had little chance with. His passing and movement has been shocking so far.

Big phil again very little to show for the minutes on the pitch.

 

Everyone else put in a shift

 

Except konsa who again looks more shakey than Michael j fox.

 

 

Good win and only 37 more points to get 

[Thug]

3 minutes ago, daft said:

Errr, he had been warming up for a bit already?

 

He was warming up to come on at 83 minutes

[choffer]

Glad of the points but my goodness, that is a poor Everton team. Onana looked dangerous but apart from that they were awful. 

[Jas10]

Crucial 3 points, hope this spurs us on and we can improve because I’m still not convinced or encouraged by our displays. We have a lot of weaknesses and continue to look like a basket case from corners (McPhee out!).

We really need to control possession better, wouldn’t have been under so much pressure near the end there had we had that composure and ability on the ball… a proper player to give Kamara a hand will help us so much.

I want to believe that Buendia has finally convinced SG to start him now, that would really give me encouragement… what a player and Kamara too…

[KangarooVillan]

1 minute ago, brummybloke said:

Except konsa who again looks more shakey than Michael j fox.

Konsa’s form needs to go back to the future

[Junxs]

32 minutes ago, Steero113 said:

Assists.

Two assists. 

Criticize him in the next game if he does nothing sure.

But not today. 

He got two assists. 

You can get 2 assists and still play shit, why is that so difficult to accept?

[ROTTERDAM1982]

Digne's final ball into the box is generally very good, better than Cash's.

A good striker today and we win by 3 or 4

[allani]

I thought we played pretty well today.  We were in pretty much complete control in the first half - although we were a bit guilty of pass, pass, pass, pass to McGinn, he tries something high risk and gives the ball away and repeat.  The only issue was that I thought we were too static up front and not giving the midfielders any real options to slide in a killer ball (hence the high possession but few chances).  That said - the press to win the ball, quick pass from McGinn and Ollie actually looking up to deliver the assist for the first goal was first rate.  I thought we were unlucky not to go in 2-0 when Couts couldn't quite get on the end of the ball from JJ.  I was getting frustrated with Ollie (he would have had two simple chances if he could actually read the game and make runs to where the ball is likely to go rather than waiting to see where it does go) but he made up for it with an excellent assist for the second (so he's matched last season's assists in one match!!).  Hard to knock a man with two assists but hopefully he will gain some confidence from that and kick on.  Ings almost returned the perfect assist to him - they looked more like a partnership today rather than two players playing as centre forwards.

Not quite sure how we made it look so panicky at the death.

Definitely room for improvement but I thought Kamara looked superb and very calm on the ball.  JJ was so much better today.  I thought Mings looked pretty assured at the back - apart from the awful missed header that almost gifted Everton a goal.  Need to work on defending corners though - can't believe how many balls we failed to deal with.

PS - Controversial but I thought Couts was really good until he went off injured.  Emi2 came on and buzzed around and was probably unlucky not to get an assist to add to his goal.  But (assuming Couts is fit) I would probably start Couts next match and then bring on Emi2 with 30-35 minutes to go.  Nothing wrong with being a super-sub.

[macandally]

37 minutes ago, Made In Aston said:

The assists are papering the cracks.  It doesn't change the fact he can be a liability and stifles attacking play. Like Coutinho can do a few moments of magic but makes us a worse team most of the time. 

The outlet, otherwise we have no ability to turn a defence.

[briny_ear]

Much better than last week but we need to sort out the panicky defending. How many new defenders do we need to buy before it gets better?

Very clear that Buendia earned a start for next match.

Emi Martinez was man of the match for me because without his saves at the end all our attacking endeavours would have come to nought!

[JAMAICAN-VILLAN]

3 minutes ago, Jas10 said:

Crucial 3 points, hope this spurs us on and we can improve because I’m still not convinced or encouraged by our displays. We have a lot of weaknesses and continue to look like a basket case from corners (McPhee out!).

We really need to control possession better, wouldn’t have been under so much pressure near the end there had we had that composure and ability on the ball… a proper player to give Kamara a hand will help us so much.

I want to believe that Buendia has finally convinced SG to start him now, that would really give me encouragement… what a player and Kamara too…

Today I was wondering if we need a new set piece coach as well to be honest.